Merry Christmas!

Here’s my annual digital card!  I actually somehow managed to get out about 15-20 Christmas cards in the mail this year…so we are making progress!  I’ll be enjoying the next couple weeks with family, but I may pop in a time or two if I get the chance! 

Wishing you and your families peace and love this Holiday season!

Love, The Browns

The Stockings were Hung

FINALLY!

Since ickle Sammykins didn’t have a stocking, so I had to make him one.  Since I didn’t like my old ones I made ALL new ones!

I love the sweater stocking look, but feel like they definitely need a lining.  I’ve never done a lining before and the whole outside-inside-plus-a-cuff thing left me a little baffled until I found this great tutorial on Cluck Cluck Sew that helped me figure it out!  It was the first tutorial that actually made sense to me enough for me to figure it out.  I spent 2 days on the first stocking alone, and then only 1 1/2 days on the other three!!

They aren’t perfect, but I’m happy enough with how they turned out.
This was the mantle right after I finished sewing and ironing the last stocking…


It was lacking a little extra embellishment. 
I took this random stuff and made a cute little garland…

After:

I added tags to the stockings and also spray-painted the stocking clips gold.  I put a string of gold beads across the shelf.  I like it much better, but I may need even a little more something with my little garland.



I made these trees.  One is just covered in shiny marble pebbles, and the other was wrapped in yarn first and then I just put on a few pebbles for polka dots.   I found the deer at the thrift store, and the owls at Pier One last year.

Mantles are definitely not easy for me, but I like how it turned out this year.  Progress.
Christmas is getting closer!!

Decorating for Christmas--The Entertainment Center and a Pine Cone Topiary

I was really sick of all the stuff that was on these shelves...so I took it ALL off and started from scratch.  I should have taken a picture of my dining room table after that!!  DISASTER!

This is what I ended up with!

{you can click on the picture to zoom in larger- follow my printable instructions if you don't know how}

I got the star garland a long long time ago--like 6 or 7 years ago from Crate and Barrel.  It's one of my most favorite decorations!

Top left corner - 2 glittered cones on crystal candlesticks
Left middle - my crystal bowl {a wedding gift} filled with all the glass ornaments I can't put on the tree because of my crazy kids!
Bottom left - a wooden gingerbread man {home decor swap party}.  He has a friend, but I coudn't find a good place for him so I think I'll put him in the kitchen somewhere.
Top Middle section {left to right} a little crate container found in the dollar section of target filled with gold twine balls and pinecones that I got from a yard sale.  An empty Christmas tree jar {yardsale}, a Willow Tree angel, an 8x8 piece of wood art "Wisemen still seek him", A Santa that my mom gave to me and a little wreath from Hobby Lobby 2 years ago. 
Top Right - little tree from The Quilted Bear a few years ago.
Right Middle - Pinecone Topiary made by me {see below}
Bottom Right - a little old man smoking a pipe and holding a sheep.  My little brother bought if for me in Germany. 

The Pine cone Topiary:

So this topiary has been many different things--first it was a pretty spring flower topiary, then I made it into a Halloween flower topiary...and now it's permanently a pine-cone topiary because, unlike the flowers, I had to hot glue the pine cones onto the burlap covered ball instead of using pins.  I made a cute bow and painted the dowel and the pot white.  These were the snow-tipped pine cones I was going to make into a wreath.  I didn't have enough, but I barely had enough for this topiary!  I think it turned out really cute.  I wish I could make a duplicate but that would mean I need to find more pine cones...and that is so not happening this year.

If I could finish my darn stockings I could take a picture of my mantle...but that is proving to be quite a battle.  So next up I will probably try to take some good shots of our Christmas tree!  I LOVE our tree again this year.  A nice big fatty from Costco!  Look for those later this week.  I will probably squeeze a few cute pictures of Sam in here in the next few days!  He's turning into quite the character!  

New Christmas Wreaths

I had the best intentions of recreating this beautiful pinecone wreath from Women’s Day …

My plan was to use some snow-tipped pinecones I got at a yard sale a year ago and just make a fancier bow {like mine above}.  Well I knew I didn’t have enough pinecones…so I went on a hunt to find more.  But for some reason I could only find cinnamon scented ones.  None of my usual craft stores had just plain pinecones!  I was annoyed and I didn’t want to buy pinecones online or go looking for real ones {I wouldn’t even know where to look!}. 

So I just did the embellishment and kept the rest of the wreath plain.  It turned out to be really pretty, even though I think it may be a little side heavy looking.

What do you think?

 

I worked on it with a friend, and we made one for her too.  She didn’t mind the cinnamon scented pinecones, so she went ahead and made her with them.  We used white paint and lightly brushed it on.  Then we took spray adhesive and sprayed the pinecones down with it and dowsed the whole thing with white glitter!  Then I made her a pretty bow embellishment to go on it.  It did lose its oval-like shape, but it still turned out really pretty. 

New wreath for the door?  Done.  Now onto the rest of my list!