Christmas Mantel With Three Wreaths
Our Christmas mantel above our dining room fireplace is decorated with three wreaths this year. Three wreaths. Three wise men. Coincidence? Probably. Last year, I went a little wild and made a quadrillion (or so it felt like) paper snowflakes to decorate our Christmas tree and the Christmas mantel in the dining room. I loved that Christmas mantel and saved those paper snowflakes because they did take me binge-watching multiple seasons of Gilmore Girls to make. That’s not time wasted, but not time I can get back. However, this year, I wanted something greener and more natural for our Christmas mantel. What else says green and natural like faux wreaths and…
DIY Mini Silhouette Christmas Ornaments
If you love framed silhouettes, then you’ll love today’s ornament idea! Allow me to introduce you to the Mini Silhouette Christmas Ornaments. Aren’t they great? These ornaments come together quickly and can be as personal and nostalgic as you want them to be! Plus, they add a little bit of glam to your Christmas tree. Here’s how to make these Mini Silhouette Christmas Ornaments. Materials Needed To Make Mini Silhouette Christmas Ornaments: mini frames (25-pack / The frames are tiny – less than 2 inches square.) silhouettes to print out card stock (white or cream colored) hot glue ribbon (I used a 1/4-inch wide black grosgrain ribbon) clear tape, glue, or…
8 Inexpensive Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas
There are so many gorgeous Christmas tree ornaments in stores right now and then there’s my reality. I like to mix things up a little with my Christmas tree decorating every year because that’s fun for me. I do not have a big budget to do this, so I’ve needed to employ a whole host of inexpensive Christmas tree decorating ideas over the years. Here are some of my favorite inexpensive Christmas tree decorating ideas. I hope you’ll let me know some of yours too! Inexpensive Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas #1: Make Your Own Ribbon The ribbons hanging on the tree in the below picture are not actual ribbons. I made…
How To Make A Piano Hammer Christmas Tree
I made a Piano Hammer Christmas Tree. Never thought I’d type that sentence yet here we are. What are piano hammers and why do I have them? Glad you asked. The lovely sound a piano makes is the result of piano hammers striking the piano’s strings. When a pianist presses a piano key, the piano hammer connected to the key then strikes the strings making them vibrate and as a result, music plays. It is as simple and as complicated as that. I have 88 piano hammers because a few years ago we dismantled an old piano. The house we had purchased came with an upright piano. This would have…
A Poem for Thanksgiving
Many folks in the U.S. will be celebrating Thanksgiving later this week. Did you know many countries around the world have their own Thanksgiving or harvest festivals? Some of these holidays are due to American influence and others are rooted in a traditional celebration of that year’s harvest and/or its laborers. Whatever the reason we have for celebrating Thanksgiving, I can’t think of one downside to being thankful. I’ll be taking the rest of this week off the blog to spend time with my family. If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I hope you’ll be able to spend time with your loved ones too. In the meantime, here’s a…
In Praise of Pretty Advent Calendars
The holidays are rapidly approaching! If you celebrate Christmas, do you use an advent calendar? We do not have a pretty advent calendar that we reuse year after year. I usually buy the kids a chocolate advent calendar. At no other time during the year do they get to start their day with a piece of chocolate, so those advent calendars are a big hit. I do like the idea of having a pretty advent calendar that doubles as Christmas decor though. Here are some pretty advent calendars that made me stop in my tracks. I think we could DIY a couple of them! Tabletop Advent Calendar | Grandin Road…
Happy Halloween – How We Are Celebrating and 10 Jokes to Make You Groan
Happy Halloween! It felt weird to have a normal blog post on a Monday when it was Halloween, so we’re just keeping things light-hearted here today. Let’s talk about how we have been celebrating Halloween with older kids. Yes, I said have been. It’s no longer a one-day event in the good ol’ USA. We, as a culture, do not know the meaning of keeping it simple. We could benefit from chilling out a little, don’t you think? We took our youngest child to our town’s Trunk or Treat this weekend. He has pretty much aged out of dressing up and trick-or-treating, but he really likes candy. Can you blame…
Halloween Front Porch With Floating Witches’ Hats
It’s almost Halloween! This year I decided to hop on the bandwagon broomstick late and try out the trick with the floating witches’ hats for our Halloween front porch. Now I get what all the fuss is about! Floating witches’ hats skew more playful than gruesome which works for this ghoul gal. By the way, I almost didn’t write this blog post because the grammar is impossible to figure out. Technically, only one witch owns these hats. Me. So should I be saying witch’s hats? Or can I say I own multiple witch hats? Which witch hats are we talking about now? See how confusing it is? I chose to…
5 Fun Labor Day Facts
It’s Labor Day in the USA and many folks, including us, are enjoying a day off from school and work. Here are 5 fun Labor Day facts that I found interesting and I’m sure you will too! After all, who doesn’t love a little drama and glass-ceiling breaking with their history? On second thought, I think we could all use a break from any drama. How about we all try to get along? Folks 100 years from now will thank us. Here are the Labor Day facts I found interesting. Fun Labor Day Facts: The Founder of Labor Day Is In Dispute Two men, Peter J. McGuire and Matthew Maguire,…
Reflections On This 4th of July 2022
It’s the 4th of July, America. 2022 marks 246 years since the Declaration of Independence was ratified by the U.S. Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Our house did not exist in 1776, but we are pretty sure the original 2-room structure (our current dining room and office) existed in the 1780s. This means it is very likely that our house and its occupants witnessed history unfold when the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788 and went into effect in 1789. I’ve studied history and know what happened, but I wonder how it FELT to be alive then? Victory must have been bittersweet. Lives were lost in the war.…
