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Thursday, December 10, 2009

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS AND CRAFTS

Here is what our Christmas festivites look like this year... we have decided not to put up a tree, which is very sad I know. (The picture you see is from last year as I like to remind myself of how beautiful it was.) We are going to be in Dallas this year for Christmas and then we are pretty much heading straight to Jacksonville after that for New Years so we thought that we would not get to enjoy it much anyway. Plus - all of the ornaments are still in my "china and other things I have no room for in Alabama" closet at my mom's house so we would not have much to put on it. We did put up a few decorations though and they are as follows...


1. Wreath and Candy-striper rug for the front door. The rug I got on clearance from Crate and Barrel after Christmas last year. I was very excited to finally be able to use for the the first time this year. Also, I decided to make a Christmas wreath after I found so much satisfaction in making my own Fall wreath. The girl across the hall and I have a secret battle going on who can put out decorations first - I definitely won with the fall wreath but for the Christmas one, she beat me to it.

2. Christmas serving dishes and Dish Towels in the kitchen. I got these wonderful serving dishes on clearance from Pier 1 after Christmas last year. I was so excited to have a place to display them this year. I can't wait to use them when we bring sweets to all of our upcoming Christmas parties very soon. I found these cute dish towels at target - the snowman one is perfect and looks as though it was made to go with the snowman serving dishes.


3. Christmas Place Settings and Candlesticks. The placemats I have had since our first Christmas together. I absolutely love them. I actually thought ahead and got 6 of them for when we have a larger table in the future. The reindeer bell napkin rings are from the clearance purchase from Pier 1 last year and I was o so excited to use these for the first time as well. The red candlesticks were only 50 cents for the pair from Hobby Lobby - you can't beat that. I mixed all of this with the dishes, chargers, napkins and candlestick holders that I already had.


4. The Willow Tree Nativity set. This is of course an absolute must. We would put this out if nothing else. Sadly we do not have a very good place to put it - so it sits kind of in between the kitchen and living room on the bar. At least it is visible from most places! I have been collecting the pieces for the past few years. I received the Jesus, Mary and Joseph starter kit as a wedding shower gift which I thought was a very neat idea. I love it!


5. Hand-made Christmas cards and Earrings. The annual Calico Corners employee Christmas Party is tomorrow night and everyone is exchanging gifts this year. I work with a bunch of very crafty women so I am guessing that they will be pulling all kinds of neat things out of their sleeves. I decided to try and make their gifts as well - this is what I came up with. I have several pairs of these earrings that I wear to work all the time and get compliments on from my co-workers. (Everyone from Jacksonville knows what I am talking about.) No one around here has seen them before so I decided to make my own. I hope they enjoy them!

That about wraps up all of the Christmas decorating and crafts that I have done so far this year. Hope you enjoyed the pics!

1 comment:

Rachel said...

I so deeply miss hobby lobby! Sigh! I love all the decorations and can't wait to hear what your co-workers think of their new earrings!