You guys, I wish I had some good kitchen progress to share today.  But I don’t.  Told you the drawers would make the progress train come to a screeching halt.  I guess screeching halt isn’t quite correct because I have gotten both sides primed (can you say tedious, time-consuming, paint in the butt?) and I’ll work on painting this afternoon.

Just doesn’t seem post worthy now, does it?  Instead, you get to see our Christmas-ified entertainment center.  Here it is, complete with complimentary Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for your viewing pleasure.  Tangent, why is it that only Daisy has a sultry voice while the rest of the gang have annoying, high-pitched voices?

We carried the ‘Winter Wonderland’ theme from the tree over to the entertainment center, too with plenty of trees, a few feathers, and woodland critters.  See those little owls?  They’re made from toilet paper tubes.  I saw this cute idea for hanging owls on Pinterest to create our family, as owls.

The best part, they’re super easy to make and free!  Just fold the tops over, paint, then use a Sharpie marker to draw in details.  Vincent chose green for his owl and Everett requested yellow.  Done!

Randomly placed around the entertainment center you’ll see pine cones.  A few are plain, but using a little Elmer’s glue and glitter, others are covered in Christmas cheer.

Pine cones would be super easy to add to a tree, too, glittered or not.  Just wrap some green wire around the base and then around the tree branch.  Initially, this was my plan, but our tree already looked full.

Above the TP owls, we have another owl, a few feathers, and a ‘snow globe’.

Using an apothecary jar I already had, I made a snow globe.  More Epsom salt as snow, a bottle brush tree from the doll house section at HoLo, and a bird from our terrarium.

In the center, I’ve continued the silhouette ornament family tradition, this time in a fun turquoise color.  The reindeer candle holder was a dollar at Goodwill, the silver tree cost $7 at HoLo (after 50% off), and the brass owl was three bucks from a local thrift store.

For height, I wrapped a wire form from the Dollar Store in a blueish-green yarn and placed it on a small stump from our wood pile.  That thing has come in handy on several occasions.  I was going to use a styrofoam cone, but at $4.49 each, I ditched that idea.  When did styrofoam become so expensive?!? Luckily, the Dollar Store had my back with garland wrapped wire forms.

Wrapping the form was super easy, but I had to deal with the lack of a bottom.  So, I cut a circle from a pizza box and quickly wired it to the bottom.

Over to the right we have more bottle brush trees, pine cones, a 99 cent ceramic origami crane chopstick rest from World Market, and a framed reindeer silhouette.

The reindeer was super easy to make.  I made a silhouette in Photoshop, printed it on plain paper, cut it out, traced it to a sheet of glitter foam, cut that out and taped it to a sheet of card stock.  Here’s a template to make your own.

Another apothecary jar filled with sequin ball ornaments, a pine cone, and more trees, including one from Pier 1 last Christmas round out the entertainment center display.

And, our Christmas tree is finally ready for the grand reveal.

Vincent insisted on hanging his V on the bottom, even though it didn’t fit our theme.  And, here’s a glimpse of a few ornaments we’re sharing on Monday.

Like last year, we’ve hung our stockings from the plate rack.

We’ve got monograms again, too; ornaments from HoLo for $.50 each.

I planned to paint designs, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Maybe I’ll swap out the plain ribbon for something with more color.

We’re officially ready for Christmas.  How about you?  Are you ready?  What areas do you decorate?  Just a tree?  The mantle?  Or are you mantle-less like we are?

P.S.  We’re ready for 2012.  Are you?  Prepare with our new custom silhouette 11 inch by 14 inch wall calendar.

When 2013 rolls around, cut the silhouette design off to frame for years to come.