Best Holiday Decorations. Ever.

Two questions for you. One: Have you ever been to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville? And, Two: Have you ever been there at Christmas time?? Holy decorations!! Their decorations are so spectacular, they must make Martha Stewart look like a Scrooge!

The hubster had some business to do there right after Christmas, so I *had* to go with him (and by "had" I mean "jumped at the chance"). Nashville is so fun and I couldn't wait to get junkin/antiquing.

Now, look at the next picture and answer me this... Can you imagine how long it takes to put up over 2 million lights and decorations?? And I thought decorating my house was bad...

That's a lot of lights!

Everyone appears to be out looking at the light show...

...and listening to the charming Christmas music.

Watch out for the little lambs, I hear they bite!

But really, no disrespect intended. The GINORMOUS nativity scene truly is awe-inspiring.

And that's only the outside! Don't even get me started on the inside. If you are lucky enough to find your way around, you will find 3 atriums full of indoor decorated gardens.

Giant Christmas tress and wreaths hang overhead.

One of the lobbies even had a giant poinsettia tree... meow!

Cascading lights.

Magical hot air balloons.

Toys taking flight.

After my experience here, I thought I might like to live in such a grand place! On second thought, who am I kidding? Something about having to clean 2,881 rooms does not appeal to me. I'll settle for a vacation there anytime though.

Joy Banner

My Mom and I wanted to add some color to our Christmas decor so we went to the fabric store and came home with these.

We traced and cut out a pennant shape.

Then we made a stencil out of chipboard for the word "Joy". (Cricut Doodletype Font.)

We traced the stencil onto red burlap and cut out each of the letters.

We also cut out squares of regular burlap and sewed the letters on with a zig zag stitch.

We wanted to add a little tree to each side, so we attached that to the burlap too. (We freehanded the tree, didn't use the Cricut on this one.)

Time to lay out the banner and put it together.

We used bias tape to go across the top.

Here she is up on the Thanksgiving mantel. (I haven't decorated for Christmas yet- gasp!)

I'll be linking to these parties this week. Have a great one!

Merry Christmas to You!

Merry Christmas!!! There was no time to send Christmas cards this year (must have been crafting too much- oops), so I quickly made this picture up. Have a great day!

Bird Ornament

This past Thanksgiving, my Aunt had a great idea for a craft that the family could do to remember my Grandma. She gave each of us a bird ornament (the kind that clips on to the tree).

We removed the old tail feathers of the bird by gently pulling them out. Then we replaced them with feathers from an old hat my Grandma used to wear. We used glue to make them stick where the old feathers had been. I love how it turned out and it is an extra special way to remember Grandma at Christmas time this year.

PB Glitter Birds

PB had some adorable German Glitter Birds this year!

Source

Even though they weren't expensive, my Mom and I still decided we would try to make our own version. I warn you, this gets very messy. Like Kindergarten-hands-covered-in-glue-and-glitter messy. Very. Messy.

Find a package of white birds in the wedding section of JoAnn's or Michael's. (Don't forget to use a 40% off coupon!)

Use spray adhesive to coat the birds, (we left the clips on and all). Then sprinkle glitter all over them. Turn them and reapply glue and glitter a million times.

You might need to scrape the beak and eyes after they dry to clear away the glitter. Touch them up with a black permanent marker. Then you have an adorable bird for your Christmas tree or a PB inspired Apothecary Jar.

PB Christmas Apothecary Jar

I told you recently that I had one more Pottery Barn knock-off to show you. This one has a few components to it. First, you need to find an apothecary jar. I got mine at Michael's with a 50% off coupon. My mom found hers at JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon. We both got them for around $14. That already beats the PB priced version at $69.

This was our inspiration picture straight out of the PB manual, er, I mean catalogue.

Next, you need to glitter some birds. The "German Glitter Bird Vase Filler" at PB weren't really that outrageously priced, but the principle of the matter is you can't just order them when you can make them yourself. I will write a tutorial on how we made ours and try to get it up later this week.

Then you make the cute little "Paper Music Star Vase Filler." This is easier said than done. Permission granted to just buy the darn paper stars at PB, I mean seriously, mine did not turn out half as good, and my time was worth more. But my Mom and I had some awesome laughs at how our "Epic fails" turned out. And you know who was actually good at making these? The hubster! Yup, you heard me, he saw me doing some "origami" and he took one try and his turned out way better than mine! (There will be no tutorial on how to make the paper stars. I went to this website and tried my best. Best of luck to you there!)

Then you throw it all together and wish for the best. Now if only I had mad PB photographer skillz to know how to photograph my version with perfect light so that you could see perfectly into the glass jar.

I also added a cute white velvet ribbon bow to the top of mine.

The star shaped glitter ornaments with all the points on them are from Walmart. $1 each, so I figured it was worth it instead of making them.

Moral of the story is that this one might have been better off left to the professionals (aka PB), but I took a good try. Happy Holidays!

PS: If I feel like it, I am going to link to these parties, will you please join me?

Cranberry Vases

Every year my Mom puts out her beautiful Christmas decorations. One of my favorite decorations is probably one of the easiest to make. She buys a bag of cranberries and uses some of her glass vases that she has around the house.

She puts the cranberries in the vases and adds water, then tops it with a floating candle. A very simple, yet beautiful holiday decoration.

Christmas Tree with Vintage Buttons

My Mom has a GIANT collection of buttons! A lot of them are really cool vintage buttons. This year, we decided to make button Christmas trees.

We started with frames and painted them bright red. Then cut out scrapbook paper to use as the background. Place the buttons in the shape of the tree and the scrabble tiles for the base. They are so simple and cute!

I will be linking to these parties this week. Happy holidays!

Holiday Memo Board

Remember my memo boards that I've decided to re-do for each holiday and season? Well, here is my Christmas one!

PS: I made one of these for my Secret Santa at work and I also thought it would make an excellent teacher or neighbor gift! Go here for the tutorial.