Santa hat craft

Hey there! Have you checked out the Holiday Home Mantel Party at Layla’s yet? Some serious inspiration going on!! (You can see ours here.) Even if you don’t have a mantel, you’ll be sure to find some great ideas for your holiday decorating. :)

Late in the season last year I did a Christmas craft that I absolutely LOVE – I wanted to show it to you again in case you wanted to try it out yourself.

I had seen some Santa hats at Stein Mart one day, and just thought they were adorable!:

Killing me. So fun! But I knew I could recreate them myself for less cash, so that I did.

Now I think mine are actually cuter, if I do say so myself:

And making them was way cheaper than buying them – score!!

Since I made them so close to Christmas last year, I just threw them in a tray I had laying around. But this week I found the most adorable tray at Hob Lob and it is just perfect for my cutie hats:

It was only $5 on sale! SCORE again. :)

I filled in around them with some extra Dollar Tree ornaments:

Well hello there!:

HA!

My Santa hats are one of my very favorite Christmas decorations. Partly because I made them myself. Partly because they are stinkin’ cauute!:

I’ve heard that some of you have made them with your kids, students and with friends – I LOVE that!! Makes me so happy. :)

For all of the details of how I made these (they were SO simple), check out last year’s post here. If you’ve made them, I’d love to see pictures!

So are you done decorating? It takes me a few days…or maybe a week. :) But I’m trying to take my time and enjoy it, especially since the Bub loves Christmas decor as much as me this year. I have a partner in crime and I love it!

 

P.S. I can’t believe how much our family room has changed since the pictures in that Santa hat post last year – all because of a $100 Craigslist dresser. ;) Love.

 

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Handmade Pretties

I've been getting a ton of emails asking about our Christmas stockings from the Better Homes & Gardens shoot. 

They had the recycled sweater stockings made for us by Lara Newsom of Handmade Pretties and & I can't get over them!!!  (We have our ratty old sentimental ones that we love for Christmas morning but these beauties are hanging on the mantle :)

We also tied some of her felt ornaments on wrapped packages:

And they're hanging in our tree too:

The boys absolutely love the sweater balls she made...

They're under our tree right now and it's fun to see the boys go in and start playing with them.  It looks like presents waiting under the tree!!  Here they are:

{photo by Lara}

I know Lara is totally backed up before Christmas but if you can wait, it's so worth it!!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Let the magic begin! (The mantels.)

Well hello there!! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week! We had such a fantastic time, but there wasn’t much resting, shopping or decorating going on.

Just a lot of this:

And this:

And this!

And watching our sweet Bub experience many firsts – first subway ride, first musical, first trip on an airplane:

That’s him watching our plane pull up to the gate. Giddy. Adorable. :)

Since we’ve returned, I’ve finally done a bit of resting (cause NYC kicks my booty!), way too much shopping and some Christmas decorating. I started with the mantels to kick off our Holiday Home linky parties!:

The first one goes up Tuesday at noon over at Layla’s place. :)

I’ve discovered the perfect recipe for Christmas decor that I luuuurve. It’s so simple – greenery, red stuff and a few touches of nature. That’s it. I mix up those three and I’m one happy chick.

I’ve also discovered I love fluffy greenery so much it’s just sick. I need someone to stop me from adding and adding and fluffing and fluffing…big fat greenery makes me HAPPY. :)

My mantels haven’t changed much since last year, I just added a little more greenery (shocking) and some HomeGoods finds. The base started with some basic greenery I’ve had used for years. But it needed some poofing, so last year I found some fantastic greenery at Big Lots of all places, and I’m kind of obsessed with it. I got a few more this week:

I just snip it apart and stick it in here and there in the basic, cheap greenery. It works GREAT and makes it look so much more expensive! In my opinion full and fluffy equals expensive looking.

After that, it’s just more fluffing and adding – sticks:

Beady stuff, dollar store ornaments and pinecones:

And there. you. go. I would stuff a cat in there if it would stay, seriously. I just can’t stop. :)

A few weeks ago while shopping for my Mom Cave, I found an adorable (big! lighted!) reindeer for $20, so I paired him with my little red adorable reindeer I found at HomeGoods last year:

   

By the way, I saw that exact same large reindeer at Pier 1 for I think $60? It’s identical! Whoohoo!

My dollar store stars (from last year) hang from the ironwork, and it’s done:

Ugh, that fluffy garland just rocks my world. I love it!

Upstairs, I did almost exactly what I have in years past, but couldn’t resist a bit more fluff, of course.

Because I try to use what I have as much as possible in Christmas decor, I wanted to keep the current stuff up there, but the garland kept falling off around it. I picked up some Command Strips at True Value and laid a couple right on the top of the mantel:

I just hooked the greenery to it and it worked perfectly!

Here’s a shot of the difference some fluffing can do – on the left, I’ve started stuffing my Big Lots good stuff in. On the right, it’s just the basic garland:

Here it is again, with a bunch o’ stuff thrown in:

Again, I just add till it looks right – ornaments, pinecones, the cat, whatever!

A few years ago, I got some cheap wood letters from the craft store, painted them red and then hung them from ribbon. I hang them from my wallpaper art every year and it’s such a big impact for so cheap!

Instead of hot gluing them like usual, I picked up some tacks from True Value and used those to secure the ribbon to the backs of the canvases:

And that’s it!

I just love the bright red against the black!:

RED makes me SMILE. :)

Our bedroom mantel, transformed with some greenery and a few changes to what we already have:

YES, I know…the cord. It’s giving me hives. But I have two more trees to get up and ten more bins to empty, umkay? Priorities people. But OH YES, it will be covered…

The candles are fake, no worries. :)

And of course, I love them best at night:

Ahhhh…that’s the magic!! :) LOVE. Be sure to link up tomorrow at Layla’s. I can’t wait to see what you’ve created!

P.S. I think I said “fluff” 89 times. Or so.

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Convex Mirrors

{Mount Vernon Federal reproduction Convex Mirror by the Friedman Brothers  $3200}

I've had my eye out for a Federal-style convex mirror for a while...  Alone, they can be very serious pieces, often thought of as formal & symbolic.  Above, the 13 balls surrounding the mirror represents the 13 original colonies, and of course, the Eagle, chosen by our Founding Fathers, symbolizes the United States of America.  Originals and even good reproductions like the mirror above cost in the thousands.   In the 1940s and 1950s, a bunch of reproductions were made out of plastic and other cheaper materials and then painted gold.  I looooove the one below on liveauctioneers.com with a starting bid around $1200. 

In the photo below, Dorothy Draper used a massive ornate convex mirror for the Greenbrier Hotel:

{Dorothy Draper, the Greenbrier Hotel, photo via tilevera.com)

Below, Markham Roberts used a guilded Regency convex mirror above a fireplace in a new home that he worked hard to "age."  This story came out a few years ago and I really loved it because it showed how to add patina and a sense of history & permanence to a brand new home. 

{Markham Roberts in House Beautiful by Eric Piasecki}

...But as formal as Federal style convex mirrors can come across when used traditionally, they can also read modern & fresh when used unconventionally.  Below, Darryl Carter has a painted black convex mirror in his bedroom. 

{Darryl Carter's bedroom in Elle Decor Magazine}

I love Eddie & Jaithan's small white one below.  It's so unexpected and adds a bit of whimsy to the room:

{Eddie Ross in Lonny, photo via Matters of Style blog}

And how pretty and & glam is this mirror layered over mirrors below?

{also Eddie Ross!!}

A bit more versatile are plain convex mirrors as seen in the living room below.  The domed mirror itself is beautiful:

{JB Randall Powers in House Beautiful, photo by Luca Trovato}

Smaller ones can be added almost anywhere:

{image via decoroad}

If you look closely at many of them, you'll see the balls or starts inlaid in the frame reminiscent of the 13 original colonies.  Many of them have exactly 13.

{House Beautiful}

{image via Homeandgarden.com}

The convex mirror below lends a cool vibe to the room.  I love it when the mirror is old & spotted.

{Miles Redd in House Beautiful}

...And... -finally-  I found my very own vintage convex mirror when I was shopping at a thrift store in High Point with my friend Maria of Colour Me Happy.  I think it's one of the 40s or 50s reproductions and I might reguild it.  The mirror has been aged to perfection and it's complete with the 13 balls representing the original Colonies.  It was just the thing missing from above my nightstand:

{my bedroom.. photo by Helen Norman}

I'm always on the lookout for them and ebay has some pretty good deals.  That being said, there's nothing like an original & the beauty & history it posesses, so antique stores & sites selling mirrors in the thousands are also worth looking into if you have the budget.

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.