Christmas Vignettes

I have such a crush on silver and gold together!

Someday, when I have loads of leisure time, tons of money, and my house is completely organized, I will have carefully selected one theme for my holiday decorating...and my whole house will be drenched with it.  Maybe it will be "Rustic White Christmas," or maybe "Merry Metallic Christmas," or maybe "Silver & Blue Sleighbells," or...well, the possibilities are endless.

My little painted rocking horse with some other cute stuff.

For now my holiday decorating runs the gamut from Swedish candelabras to mod tinsel to traditional greenery, and until I learn how to grow money on a tree that's A-OK with me.  I have found, however, that I cope much better with my rag-tag assortment of decorations by grouping like items into uniform vignettes.  Duh, Michelle.

Black & white with a touch of wine.

I used to feel overwhelmed by the variety of things.  These days I keep that feeling under control by organizing as I unpack the decorations.  I pile items that are alike in color, theme, or "feel" together on the dining room table and then go around making vignettes on every available surface of the house using the staged items.  It's kinda like my form of meditation.

Back to silver and gold.  Pretty sure this one's my favorite.

I have lots of fun doing it this way and it helps me cope with the motley crew occupying my Christmas boxes.

Gold, black and bronze in the upstairs hallway.

Love the shine and glitter in that old metal basket.

So, love what you have and have fun making your decorations play nice together.  Don't worry if your whole house isn't perfectly matched.  And if it is, invite me over!  I want to see it:)

~Michelle~

P.S. Lovin' the Linkys at Southern Hospitality!

Easy Last-Minute Advent Calendar

Yes, it might be the First of December, but it's not too late to create a Countdown to Christmas for your children.  I put mine together in about 20 minutes yesterday afternoon, and it couldn't be easier.  Here's what I came up with:

I used treat bags (and, because I ran out with four left to go, a few zip-locs with their zippers cut off, shhh!) and just taped them shut.  On the front I stuck on my cute embellished numbers.

Admittedly, these did take longer to make, but you wouldn't have to get fancy with this step. Beth Proudfoot made some adorable printable tags which you can find here.  Or print out numbers and let your children color them, that would be fun and cute!

A couple of candies in each bag, a basket embellished with ribbon, and voila!  We're countin' down to Christmas!

Now, I have an admission to make.  I started making these cute little tags for a different project.  Have you seen those muffin-tin Advent Calendars out there in bloggy land?  They are way cute, and here's what mine looked like:

Only problem was, my magnets didn't work.  They would stick, but not enough to hold candy in when I hung the thing up.  After way too much time trying to "make it work," (thanks, Tim Gunn) I realized I could just...let it go.  Do something else.  Lately my mantra for crafting has been: As Easy As Possible.  When something gets kinda hard or feeling forced, I just stop.  And the great thing is that it's still possible to salvage what I've done and come up with something easier, faster, and maybe almost as cute.  I wanted to share my little failed experiment with you so that the next time you hit a roadblock maybe you can remember: As Easy As Possible. And make something else work!