Christmas Tree Keepsakes

It's time for a Christmas Tree Party over at Thrifty Decor Chic.  I am very happy to be able to show you all five of my trees!  That's right ladies I said five!  I am warning you this post will be picture heavy but I'll keep the commentary down, to keep it balanced for you.

 I am also joining Alphabet Thursday today too.  Since the letter this week is K, I'm also showing you a few of my favorite Keepsake ornaments.  It was really hard only photographing a few ornaments on each tree though, since every ornament carries a memory for me.  Some memories are merely about adding a new color or theme.  Others are much more precious such a one received from a gift, or a vacation, handmade, or from my childhood or the childhood of my children.  Therefore, every ornament to me is a keepsake no matter how big or small, expensive or thrifty.  I love them all!

Starting upstairs in our small loft, foyer area I have a small table top tree.

 

It's wrapped in plaid both on the top and bottom.

 It is decorated with red, green and blue balls and also displays more of my childrens ornaments.

In the kitchen I have my smallest tree.

This tree has a candy theme.

With a sugar coated candy garland and small plastic hard candy ornaments.

Small colorful glass balls, clear birds, bells, and tiny ornments too.

In the Den is our biggest tree.

It is a colorful mixture of years of ornaments.  I tried to add a few more candy themed ornaments to this tree this year too. 

I guess you can tell I love a tree that is loaded with memories, uhh, I mean ornaments!  When I was decorating this tree my husband said if I put one more ornament on, it was going to fall over.  LOL!

 I just love all these old elves.

I love birds too.

I especially adoe this one!

In my dining room is what I like to call the formal tree.  It is white, gold and silver.

This tree was started after my collection of Lenox ornaments began to grow.  I have collected them since the first year of my marriage, one a year.  Unfortunately some of them have broken over the years,  I still have the ones that are the most important to me of that collection.

This is the ornament that started our collection.

And last but not least.  My husbands tree.  This is the tree he decorates all by himself.

I happen to think he's a keepsake too!

Hope you enjoyed my tour of trees.

Happy Holidays!

Mary

 

Front Door Wreath Redo

I don't know about you but I hit a major energy slump yesterday.  I guess it was bound to happen eventually.  I'm up and Adam today though, much to do, so I hope I can recoup because even though I thought I was done decorating I realize I've got a few more things to work on. 

Yesterday I worked on redoing my wreath for the front door.  IDK!  I did finish the project, but I'm thinking it may get another redo LATER!  But for now this is what I came up with.

Here's the old wreath.  As you can see the bow had faded and the sparkly balls and golden Ivy had lost their luster.  So I pulled all of that off and started anew.

And here's the new!  I kept it pretty simple, using the new colors I liked this year.

New sparkly balls!

All items were from the Dollar tree and are plastic.

I only used one spool of ribbon on this bow and am thinking it is kinda wimpy.  But here's my dilemma, I have all burgundy bows on the railings outside and I'm not changing those this year.  I also have a burgundy poinsettia garland over the door.  It's older so I can change that out, but I'm kinda stuck as to what to do at this point?  What would you suggest?  Maybe look for another type of ribbon for the bow?  I still have the sparkly lime green netted ribbon?  Or something different that also has burgundy?

Help!!!

Let me show you one more redo.

Remember this little corner in my kitchen?  The basket is holding hot drink mixes.  Well, I changed it out a bit and moved it.

Here it is now over on the bar, by the other drinks of course!  Duh!

I added a little more variety, a different basket,  and one of my old Christmas mugs filled with candy canes to use as stirring sticks.

Much better!  Hot cocoa anyone?

I am joining Kim's Before and Better Party today.

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to hearing your advice.

Have a great day!

Mary

The indoor wreaths are finished!

I made it!  I didn't think I would, but I literally did!  Whew!  I'm pretty excited to be able to join the craft party today over at Centsational Girl for one of the Holiday Home linky parties.  Please be sure and visit this link for more wonderful and inspiring holiday decor projects.  I know you will not be disappointed because my blogging friends have all been very busy!

Busy is right!  I have been very busy myself and almost gave up on this project.  But after all the decorating was done and I had a little time to catch up on a few of your fabulous posts I was overcome with guilt.  Was I really going to let those items I had bought to do this project just sit there?  I was thinking maybe I will get it done later or maybe even not this year, it's not really that important. 

But with a deadline looming on the craft party and all my wonderful inspiring friends posting their beautiful projects I just couldn't let all the fun pass me by.  So I decided to get busy again.  Do you remember those four willow wreaths I bought at the dollar store?  No???... Well let me show you!

This is the way they looked when I purchased them for $1.00 each.

I decided they needed just a bit of Mocha glaze, not hard just tedious.

Especially when you have four of them that need glaze, front and back.

Sorry about the colorful carpet background but I got tired and moved down to the den to finish this project.  Here you can see the beginnings of my tulle bow.

I added a few more additional pieces and I was almost done.

Then a few more pieces, like some Rosemary and a candy cane and it was finished.

Then I hung them from the curtain rods inside.

Here's a close up of the bow.  I used the tulle ribbon again that I purchased this year from Hobby Lobby.  A few strips of fabric I have that mimics burlap, and another smaller striped red white and green ribbon.

On the top I added a candy cane that hangs in the middle from the tulle.

I just love the simplicity of this and of course the Rosemary smells divine.  I decided to add that after seeing Vanessa's beautiful Rosemary creations over at Southern in my Heart.

Finally, because I cannot photograph all four windows at once in this room you will just have to believe me when I say they are all done.  Whew again!  Here's the three that I could photograph together.  What do you think? 

 I really wanted a little something extra on these windows inside this year.   I am just so thrilled to have gotten this project completed after all.  I know it doesn't look like much on camera but in person, they really make quite a pretty picture.

Thanks for joining me and a very special thanks to all of you who posted your beautiful crafty Christmas projects early and inspired me to finish it off!  I really appreciate the nudge! 

Have a great day!

Mary