Seasonal & Holiday Decorating

Silhouette Ornaments

Published on December 8, 2010October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode14 Comments

For me, how I decorate for Christmas isn’t especially different from how I decorate the rest of the year. I still look for bargains, multi purpose items, and ways to add personal touches, usually involving more glitter than usual. So, when I decided to decorate our entertainment center, I knew I wanted to make some special ornaments as placeholders for our silhouette art.

So, I took a trip to Hobby Lobby where I found white ceramic ornaments. They were originally $1.00 each but 50% off. Following these same instructions to create the silhouettes, I sized our profiles to 2 inches.

Then, I centered the silhouettes on the ornaments.

Using a pencil, I lightly traced the silhouette.

To fill in the silhouettes, I used normal acrylic paints and a small paint brush to get the detail.

Ideally, I would have used a ceramic specific, heat set paint, but I couldn’t find any at Hobby Lobby. I did, however, find four cute ornament hooks ay Hobby Lobby for $4.00 each.

I had to alter how the ornaments hung, because the ribbon was threaded through the hole, making them hang sideways. To fix that, I added a small loop of wire, then a ribbon for hanging.

Fortunately, that solved the problem and they now hang beautifully on our entertainment center.

How many handmade ornaments do you have? If you’re like my mom, most are ones your kids have made in school. What is your favorite ornament and why? Did someone special give it to you? What meaning or significance does it have?

Pier-fect: Pier 1 Holiday Decorating

Published on December 7, 2010 by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pier 1 Imports. All opinions are 100% mine.

I should start off by saying that I was thrilled when I was contacted by Pier 1 to write a post about holiday decorating featuring items from their stores. I initially thought I would peruse the Pier 1 Website, pick out my favorite holiday items and that would be all. Later, I was informed I would receive a gift card to do a little shopping. Then, the bad news came; I wouldn’t be getting the $50.00 gift card after all. The good news? I would get a $100.00 gift card instead! Holy cow! Almost immediately, I decided to focus my holiday entertaining primarily on Christmas decorating.

My requirements: 1. Get the best deals possible. Hello, clearance! 2. Buy items that flow seamlessly from Christmas to year round decor. You know that I hate storing unnecessary stuff, so I tried to keep Christmas specific items to a minimum. 3. Try to get decorations for the most-visible-by-guests-areas: outside, living room, dining room and guest room. 4. Stick to my color scheme of silver, white, blue and green. With my goals in mind and gift card in hand, Everett and I took a little (2 hour) shopping trip to our local Pier 1. Before I show you what we returned home with, I’ll show you some items I loved that didn’t fit all requirements. First up, these cute owl and bird salt and pepper shakers. Cheap? Yes. Cute? Check, but my other requirements weren’t there. I also loved so many of the Pier 1 dishes and drinkware, like these beautiful silver stemware glasses. I don’t have much in the way of kitchen storage, nor do we do much fancy entertaining, so I took only a few items home with me from that department. If you didn’t know this already, Pier 1 has such a fantastic candle and candle holder selection. This angel tealight holder is beautiful, but doesn’t transition easily from Christmas to year-round. These ornament candle holders are really cute, but red wasn’t in my palette. I know I’m really picky, but are you ready to see what did make the cut? I’m sure you are, I won’t keep you waiting any longer. Yep, all of this for $101.98! Sa-weet! I decided to splurge on two items because they were perfect for Christmas, but also year round. Splurge number 1: this mercury glass pillar holder. It was $22.00, but it’s timeless and says, “Look at me. Here I am, love me.” You CARS fans should know that one. Splurge number 2: the beautiful silver leaf bird tray for $29.95 Ain’t she a beaut? (as the Australians would say). It spoke to me: “Take me home! I fit ALL of your requirements!” So, I listened. I love the generous size, bird design and the splash of silver. Perfect for Christmas and beyond. Here’s a breakdown of everything else I walked out of Pier 1 with:

6 metallic gold place mats for $.98 each

1 metallic silver charger for $4.00

1 glittered golden Christmas tree decoration for $4.95

1 small silver candle lantern $4.98

1 large silver candle lantern for $10.48

1 short glass pillar candle holder for $3.88

1 golden bird ornament for $4.95

1 nest ornament for $2.95

2 small leaf bowls for $.98 each

2 golden star ornaments for $1.00 each

4 jingle bell ornaments for $1.00 each

Now, let’s continue to the decorating, shall we. First, let’s visit our doorstep. My one-heck-of-a-deal clearance candle lanterns are accompanied by a few evergreen branches, faux snow (Epsom salt, a trick I learned from Better Homes and Gardens) filled drinking glasses turned tea lights. Yes, I know my candle lanterns are missing the candles. Forgive me. A silver ball ornament wreath, inspired by this one from Pier 1, hangs on our door to greet guests. Nothing says “Christmas” like silver glitter. We don’t have a mantle to decorate, so I treated our entertainment center as if it were. Here’s what it looked like BCD (Before Christmas Decorations): And here is our entertainment center now, decked out in glitz and glitter: The books, picture frames, magazine file, monogram ceramic balls (from a previous Pier 1 trip) and some candle holders stayed. To infuse Christmas cheer, more glass and silver candle holders, including the Pier 1 mercury glass pillar holder, were added along with glittered snowflakes, my Pier 1 glittered Christmas tree and silhouette ornaments. Don’t fret, I’ll provide more details in later posts. Along with our Christmas tree, decorating the entertainment center completed the holiday decorating in our living room. To decorate another guest visible room, our dining room, I hung our stockings from hooks hidden behind the quarter round moulding. The silver charger and golden star ornament turned napkin ring add some sparkle to our everyday dinnerware. The mercury glass candle holder, glittered Christmas tree and apothecary jar filled with monogram ceramic balls at the center of the table add height, texture, and Christmas cheer to the tablescape. This centerpiece arrangement is rounded out by the golden bird and nest, to add layers of height. Here’s another tablescape option I whipped up using assorted silver toned candle holders, my Pier 1 clearance gold metallic placemats and jingle bell ornaments as napkin rings. Two things that could make this setting better? Metallic gold salad plates, like these, to replace the blue ones and a few brass or gold candle holders to bring the gold throughout the arrangement. I kept the decorations in the guest room simple and functional with the pretty silver leaf tray topped with a few guest essentials and a special treat. A white IKEA planter contains travel-sized guest essentials such as toothpaste, soap, and a washcloth. A Christmas-y reindeer print in a silver frame and votive holder turned vase add sparkle without competing with the silver leaf pattern. Another faux snow filled candle and the Pier 1 small leaf dish filled with M&Ms round out the tray. The items are strategically placed to show off the most of the beautiful pattern possible. Want to know what else is on my Pier 1 wish list? Here are a few more of my favorites:

Silver Paper Star Lantern

White Snowflake Pillow

Short Gold Tumblers

Silver Mosaic Reindeer Decor

Green Bird Plate

Circles Citron Pillow

Ruffle Pillow

Oh, Deer

Published on December 3, 2010December 4, 2010 by Our Humble Abode3 Comments

Here’s a Christmas craft project that is great to get the kids involved in. To start, you’ll need a package of clothespins, all purpose glue, small oogly eyes, mini pom poms and thin ribbon.

To make the reindeer ornaments, start by gluing two clothespins together with a loop of ribbon between. These two clothespins make the legs.

Then, glue another clothespin to the front, turning it the opposite direction, making the head and antlers.

Apply a small dot of glue to the tip of the clothespin and place a red, brown or black pom pom. Glue two eyes at the curved area . Flip over and glue another white or brown pom pom tail on.

Allow everything to dry overnight and hang on the tree. Sorry, but I don’t have a photo of that last step, these are all gifts. Have you made any Christmas ornaments lately? What are your favorites? If you have pics, please leave them on our Facebook page for all to see.

Have a Ball

Published on December 2, 2010October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

Are you ready for another Christmas craft project? You are? Good, I’ve got just the craft for you, a Christmas ball ornament wreath. To start, you’ll need to acquire a roll of floral wire, a wire wreath form, tons of cheap plastic ball ornaments and a sheet or two of felt to match your color palette. It also helps to have a glue gun and plenty of glue sticks handy.

I got a large form from Hobby Lobby for $3.47 and nine packages of ornaments from Target’s dollar section. I chose all silver to keep it timeless and go with any color palette in the years to follow. Seriously, the best deal I’ve found. Get an assortment of sizes, too. I used 2 1/2 packages of the small (16 per pack), 5 of the medium (8 per pack) and 1 large with 4 per pack.

After you gather your supplies, start by cutting a piece of wire about two feet in length. For this part of the process, use only the two large sizes. String the wire through the top of the ornament. Wrap the wire around the wire form and twist the loose end to secure. Then, wrap the long end through another section of the wreath form, go back up and add another ball. Basically, you’ll make a zig zag pattern with the wire to connect the ornaments on a few long wires.

The zig zag will help keep the ornaments in place. They will still move around a little. This is where the glue gun comes in. Place a few little dots of hot glue where the ornaments meet and allow to dry. This step is most easily done in small sections. I don’t recommend waiting until you’ve attached all ornaments to glue.

Continue attaching the ornaments until you’ve covered the wreath form. You will have spots where the wreath form is still visible, just as I did with the pine cone wreath I recently made. If you have visible areas on the very inside or outside of the wreath, wire small ornaments in place, gluing to keep from moving.

Then, hot glue the smallest ornaments onto the larger ornaments to fill any areas you can see through those ornaments.

Again, continue until you’ve covered all areas. If you want to add a splash of color, you can add a bright bow, hang an ornament in the center of the wreath or choose a brightly colored ribbon to hang the wreath from. The possibilities are endless.

To prevent from scratching the surface the wreath will rest against, hot glue small pieces of felt to the back or the wreath form.

Hang on your door to add a ton of Christmas cheer and greet your guests.

Still looking for Christmas decorating ideas? Fret not, we’ll share another DIY idea tomorrow, but you can check out our Christmas tree in the mean time.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Published on November 30, 2010October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode15 Comments

That’s right, folks. I know it’s not December yet, but Christmas is right around the corner. Have you started decorating? I think most people decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving, and usually I do, too. But, this year, we’re running around like crazy people the week before, so I decided to decorate a few weeks ago. Yep, you read that right, weeks. What was the first Christmas thing to go up? The tree, of course!

This year’s color palette is silver, white, blue and green. Not very original, I know, but I bought ornaments at Target (love Target!) the day after Christmas last year. So, I’m working with what I’ve got. Every year, it’s Ben’s task to add the lights to the tree. We both prefer the plain white strands for a classic look. So, he lights the tree and I add the ornaments. This year, I had a little help from Vincent. Of course, most decorations are at the bottom two feet, but hey, it’s free help.

A white dove is perched atop our tree this year.

I have my eye on a beautiful Capiz star topper from, where else, Target. It’s currently priced at $20. Not bad, but it will be much better when it’s 50% off, dontcha think? Yeah, me too. What else is on my Christmas tree wish list? A cute tree skirt of some sort.

You see, we don’t have anything covering that ugly tree stand right now. I want something white or silver, but I haven’t seen anything I really like yet. I think I’ll buy some fabric and make a tree skirt at some point.

So, that’s what our Christmas tree looks like this year. What about your tree? Have you set it up yet? Do you have a color scheme or theme you’re sticking to or do you prefer to decorate with all of those mismatched, collected-over-time ornaments?