Giant Paper Angel – Christmas Mantel Decor
I’ve watched creators making paper angel ornaments for a few years, and I wondered if the idea would scale. Could I make a giant paper angel using brown kraft paper? Spoiler alert. I could, and I did. Here she is in all of her glory. No word on if the heavens declare her amazing, but I do! For reference, our mantel is 7 feet across. The angel is just shy of 4 feet tall. As you can see, I couldn’t leave well enough alone with just the angel. Not me. My holiday fireplace decorating always escalates. (See here and here for evidence.) The paper angel looked lonely up there. She…
Happy List: #416
Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am delighted you are here. This week on the blog, I talked about nuts. That was a first. I had fun decorating with in-shell nuts this year and shared five ways you can decorate with nuts for the holidays. I also shared pictures of our 2025 Christmas tree. I’m calling it the blue and metallic tree for lack of a better name. It is full of handmade ornaments and clippings from our property. Thank you so much for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here with me. I hope you have fun and leave feeling inspired. It makes my…
Blue and Metallic Christmas Tree
Welcome! Come, join me in my living room. I’d love to show you my blue and metallic Christmas tree. It’s a little bit rustic, a little bit glam. We’ll call it an opposites attract situation. This year, pretty much all of the ornaments on the tree are handmade or semi-handmade, meaning I put my own spin on an existing ornament. Truth be told, it’s more fun for me to make Christmas ornaments than to decorate with the things I make. However, decorating a Christmas tree isn’t exactly a chore. This blue and metallic Christmas tree is decorated with all sorts of fun ornaments, most of which are reused from prior…
Five Ways to Decorate With Nuts for Christmas
Decorating for the holidays with natural ingredients is a hoot! This year, I have come up with five ways to decorate with nuts this Christmas. Three of these ideas are mine. Two are not. I consider the two ideas that are not mine to be crafts-in-waiting. There’s only so much time in a day. I can either buy something another maker has made if I really want it now, which is okay! Â I can also save the idea to make it another year. At my current rate of idea saving, I have enough crafts to keep me busy for the next 1,413 years, give or take a decade. Can you…
Happy List: #415
Ho, ho, ho! Happy December, and welcome to this week’s Happy list. I am delighted to see you here. This week on the blog, I shared how I decorated the Carriage House for Christmas. It’s a very rustic setting, and I should have taken a family picture in front of that mantel. I also shared how I decorated our dining room fireplace for Christmas. If you love fireplace decor, this was your week to read the blog as I published back-to-back fireplace posts. Thank you so much for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here with me. I hope you have fun and leave feeling inspired. It…
Nutcracker Holiday Mantel Decor
Fair warning. Your jaw may drop after viewing my Nutcracker holiday mantel decor. (There also may be a pun or two in this blog post.) You know I love a theme, so I chose nutcrackers as this year’s holiday decor theme for our dining room fireplace. This theme has been a long time coming, as I have been in possession of my mother’s nutcrackers for years. Decades, actually, but who’s counting? I don’t always decorate with the nutcrackers because they don’t match anything that I own. I also can’t seem to get rid of them for sentimental reasons. I’m sure you have your own version of this in your house.…
A Rustic Carriage House Christmas
It’s beginning to look like a rustic Carriage House Christmas! Or, as rustic as it can get with four faux Christmas trees. Just roll with it, folks. That’s what I do. Speaking of rolling with things, please go along with me for a minute as I set up this story. A year and a half ago, we repointed this fireplace in our Carriage House. I’d venture a guess that it had been covered for well over 100 years. Then we immediately covered it, so to speak, with a weight machine because we use this part of the Carriage House as a gym. Not too long after that, we went to…
Happy List: #414, Thanksgiving Edition
A Happy List on a Monday! I hope this doesn’t throw your week off, or if it does, it’s in a good way. I plan to take the rest of the week off from the blog for Thanksgiving, a delightful U.S. holiday, so I thought I’d squeeze in one last Happy List for November. Thank you so much for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here with me. I hope you have fun and leave feeling inspired. It makes my day to connect with you. If you want to reach out, please comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also direct message me…
Happy List: #413
Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It’s a great day to be inspired, and I’m glad you’re here. This week on the blog, I shared how I have our sunporch set up for the winter. I may be writing this week’s Happy List from the couch in the sunporch. It’s a great place to work! I also shared the recent updates I’ve made to our music room. It’s amazing how a few small tweaks change how a room feels. On social media, I shared a reel of the finished wall, a cozy view of our sunporch, and an idea you can use if you don’t have a fireplace to…
8 Decorating Ideas From A Music Room
Not everyone has a music room or plays an instrument, but most people enjoy music! It’s relatable, and there’s something for everyone. Kind of like my music room decor. This music room is chock-full of ideas you can riff on in your own home. Like an eighth note, which is played quite quickly, this blog post will be a quick read. Here are 8 decorating ideas from a music room that anyone can use anywhere in their home. Music Room Decor Ideas #1: Make a statement with something bold and unexpected. Do I have a piano harp – the guts of a piano – hanging on my wall? Why, yes.…
