We Wish You A Merry Christmas! (Part One)

Oh hello! It's that magical time of year again! My favorite month of all, December! It's my birthday month and Christmas, my favorite holiday, so needless to say I'm just jolly! This time of year also means that it is time for my Christmas blog series.  Again, you will see this year's decorations at church, around the house, a quick wrapping post, and some very neat gift ideas (those will have to wait though since I have to give them so my readers that receive don't have a spoiled surprise!). Ooh! And I hope to get a post in about a fun new find that I want to put on the front porch! Merry Christmas and enjoy!!!

Starting off with decorations at my church, which features a Scandinavian theme. The theme is highly appropriate for a couple reasons, the first being that the church was founded by Scandinavians, the second being that we are hosting a few events this season that we wanted to give a Scandinavian feel, so rather than re-decorate, it was best to make it the whole theme! Many hands make things go so much faster, so a huge THANK YOU goes out to those that volunteered their time and energy! 

Everything is very simple and traditional; the color scheme is red and white with evergreens and burlap. I'll try to keep the descriptions to a minimum (I'll caption each picture like I did for the Thanksgiving post). Most of the decorations are easy to put together and I have a separate post for the felt banner.

The week prior to decorating is usually spent preparing. Lots of paper chain, and turning my burlap Thanksgiving table runners into squares! 

Picked up a dozen poinsettias from Costco for $60. Best price that I could find in town. They are used all over the building, but we have four that brighten up the altar.  On each side I used a clear cake stand to give dimension in height. 

Here is where the burlap squares came into play! I don't love the gold/silver foil that the poinsettias were wrapped in, so I trimmed the foil down so it could hide under the burlap and sheer red ribbon.

My aunt Kathy (she is so clever, and I like to think that craftiness runs in the family!) decorated the Advent wreath and table so beautifully.  More burlap and burlap ribbon to act as a table cloth. (Pardon the garbage, photos were taken while work was in progress!) :)

We use the same grape vine wreath each year and simply add our own greens and color to fit the theme.  This year Kathy added the greens and some red berry picks that I stole from my mom! Thanks mom! 

We have long and bare ledges that surround the piano areas in the sanctuary, but during Christmas they are filled with color and candles.  Kept them very simple this year. Cedar boughs, the usual faux candles (Costco has these for a decent price usually, and they are the best in situations like this!), and realistic but totally fake poinsettia blooms in red and white.

Rather than use a traditional tree topper in the form of a star or even a beautifully designed angel, we went a bit vintage! This angel is part of a very old wooden manger scene that has been at the church since LONG before I was born. She made the perfect topper for our Scandinavian Christmas tree.

I was having issues getting the entire 12 foot tree in the picture! But here is where part of the paper chain ended up!
Thanks to my dad and Dave for putting on the lights, climbing ladders, and getting that angel to stay put!

The ornaments were simple too! Pine cones with red ribbon and traditional straw ornaments with red thread to hold them together. I know Bev, Dave, and my dad did ornament hanging and they did a beautiful job!

Dave and Bev also helped hang lighted garland from the balcony rail and my mom created bows from red and white checked ribbon that I snagged from Costco a couple seasons ago. (Costco seems to be a theme here too...)

Rather than buy new, we reused the same pillar candles in glass that we had last year with the paper chains. The windows only feature the candles and wood cranberry beaded garland that I also stole from my mom! 

Kathy and Brittany took that vintage manger scene and put it to good use! Since the Christmas program needed a manger anyways, Kathy thought it was a good idea to leave it in place all season! I AGREE! I mean this is the true meaning of Christmas! Featuring real hay bales hauled in by Jeremy, Brittany and Larry. And you can see the poinsettias peeking through! 

In our coffee area and front entrance area there is a large blank wall so I thought I'd take advantage of that space and add some good Norwegian cheer! Check out the easy HOW-TO! 

Downstairs window wells feature more cedar, more poinsettias, and more imitation candles. And the center window features my little IKEA friend.  I also mixed and matched ribbon downstairs, red and white checked with the same sheer red from upstairs. Thanks to my grandma and Kitty for filling the windows with boughs!

Whole window! There are three windows total, all a variation of this concept.  

Somehow I failed to get a picture of the tree downstairs! Uff da! But I can tell you that it features a matching paper chain to the upstairs tree, little red apples, white Christmas balls, and traditional red candles! Thanks to the team of girls and ladies that put that tree together so beautifully!!!

Stay tuned for more festive ideas and creations! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Thanks Giving!

Well it's that time of year again! Time to be especially thankful. Not that it should be just one day! One should be thankful for many things every day! 

This year I am specifically thankful for my family, including my extended family members, and especially my grandma who we are celebrating this year at Thanksgiving!

My grandma's 75th birthday is today, one day before Thanksgiving, and so we are having a two in one party this year. This means that we have tables and chairs for 31 people in place at our house! Uff da! I'm so excited to have our extended family gathered together for two wonderful celebrations, but it's been a busy week here as we prepare! This blog is a compilation of the festive decorations that are ready for our fun!

My first decoration location was the giant upright piano in the dining room, the perfect place for a fall vignette. It is full of fall patterns and colors, as well as some fun decorating pieces. Check out the pictures below, captions give quick explanations of each piece.

Pulled a group of vintages books from my parent's and my own collection. They coordinate with the colors that are in my fall inspiration fabrics. The yellow and gray book is especially neat because it's the book my grandpa used to study Brazilian Portuguese when he became a missionary to Brazil. :)

The vintage green vase was left in my parent's house by the previous owners. The matching colored basket is from one of my favorite stores, my friends at Vintage Hardware! Ooh and so is the little berry basket! The eucalyptus is from JoAnn Fabrics.  The pumpkins come from The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island! 

Snagged these adorable over sized tiles from the harvest bazaar that is held at my school. Thanks to the wonderful Andrea Weaver for making these! They are the perfect message for Thanksgiving!

I'm totally in LOVE with my red canister! (It has a matching short and wide canister, 2 in 1!) This was a find a couple weeks ago from Ikea! My aunt gave me the three tiered baskets as a hand-me-down that she got from a friend. The chocolatey-charcoal color worked perfectly with my color scheme and held all my fall goodies (pumpkins, Indian corn, and pine cones) so snugly.

Not sure where this lovely little gem is from, it's just been in our house for as long as I can remember. :) But it works perfectly with my red canister and fall funk theme.

Final product at the piano! 

My fall fabrics that I have used all over the house! The chocolate fabric is on top of the piano. It is also featured as table runners and one table cloth. The orange check is also a table runner and cloth. And of course... burlap! It's my favorite.

My Aunt Kathy made these ADORABLE place cards for everyone! She used vintage print music, card stock tags, and stamps. The fabric ties are extra scrap from the fall fabric. Told you the fabric is everywhere! The tags turned out so amazingly! Thanks Aunt Kathy for your creativity and time!

Aunt Kathy was tasked with the job of making tags that will fit into pine cones as tag holders.  Now the house smells like eucalyptus and cinnamon pine cones. Oops!

Almost finalized look for the tables! Just need to put the flowers in the jar in the morning.  Centerpieces are simple, leaves that I pressed, and Ball jars with chocolate covered raffia. 

Picked up these beautiful flowers from Costco! They will end up in the Ball jars Thanksgiving morning! 

Now let's hope that our birthday/thanksgiving celebration goes smoothly tomorrow! 

Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving! Full of blessings, joy, and love! No matter where you are or what you have or have not, take a moment and find one positive for which you are thankful! 

PS: I'm thankful for all my blog readers! Thanks for making this a wonderful year! Stay tuned as the Christmas season approaches! I have decorating, gift making, and present wrapping in store for you!  

'Tis the Season (Part One)

This is the first of at least four blogs entries focusing on Christmas projects! The first blog is about a Christmas banner for church, the second features the overall decorating scheme for the church, the third will showcase a pallet sign, and lastly my Christmas wrapping theme for this year! And perhaps one or two more! Oh such a busy time of year! 

This one is about a simple and classy looking banner that my Aunt Kathy, Mom, and I created. The banner base was made of natural burlap and creamy colored thread.  My mom was the sewing superstar and took care of the hemming and stitching the top loop from which the banner would hang.  

I took on tracing 6 inch monogram letters on to vintage sheet music that I copied on to card stock. Then my Aunt Kathy and I cut out all the letters so they would be ready to attach to our newly minted banner.   

Vintage sheet music featuring Christmas carols! 

Using a straight edge and tape measure so we made sure to stay aligned, we laid out our letters! Then we used a caulking-like all-purpose adhesive to attach the letters to the burlap (fortunately for us, it dries clear!) We made sure all the edges had a small fringe to add detail to the banner. 

I promise we ironed the burlap, but of course, the picture below looks like we didn't do a thing! Oh brother! I promise it looks great in person! 'Tis the season for "Adoring Him!" 

Stay tuned for more Christmas Merry Making! Coming up next: Christmas decorations in the church!