Merry Christmas.

For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given,
   and the government will be on his shoulders.
And He will be called
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

A trio of wreaths.

For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted a home with symmetrical windows where I could hang matching wreaths! Well this year, I finally have that! I wanted to go with a very traditional look and you can't get much more traditional that a simple green wreath and red bow! I didn't want to spend a lot of money and thanks for a great sale at Michael's...I didn't!  

I bought three artificial green wreaths for $3.50 each and 3 red bows for .99 cents each.   I fluffed the wreath, attached the bow and was done!! Simple and quick...that's my kind of project :-)

Try to ignore the massive leafy plants that appear to be taking over the house! There's still a little landscaping that need to be done :-)

But the total cost was just $13.50! Not too shabby!

The weather outside is frightful...

Oh who am I kidding?? I live in Southern California! The weather is hardly frightful...it's sunny and 61 degrees outside as I type this. Although in my defense, it has been pretty cold in the mornings and evenings... down into the 40's!! Brrr!

But I digress! Moving on to the point of this post...I finally decorated for Christmas! I am definitely a minimalist when it comes to Christmas decor but I love the little bits of extra sparkle and twinkling lights that make their way into my home this time of year!

I have a small four foot artificial Christmas tree that's decorated with mini disco balls...

Sparkly snowflakes...

And matte (and shiny) purple ornaments.

I also picked up a cute little tree skirt from Target that was perfect for my tree!

These little red trees adorn my dresser...

And my favorite owl sits watch.

I found this silver tree at Sears in the after Christmas clearance a few years ago! If I remember correctly, it was something like $2!

I found this bit of greenery at Kohl's in their after Christmas clearance (by far my favorite part of the after Christmas sales!) for a few dollars...

And I was happily surprised to find my white felt wreath that I made last year tucked away in my Christmas stuff! I was wondering if I had misplaced it or if it accidentally got packed away into storage when I moved! But it didn't! This was one of my first crafts which I blogged about it here.

This was definitely a time consuming wreath, but I think it was worth it!

This is my first Christmas in my new place and I didn't decorate with nearly all the things I use to decorate with! I have less space, therefore less decorations! Yay for simplicity!

But I am glad to finally check decorating off my list (I normally decorate the day after Christmas, but I was in Hawaii!) and just enjoy the rest of the month!

Merry Christmas!!

My new wreath.

After I posted my DIY pipe insulation wreath form failure, I received several comments from other DIY'ers who endured the same problem. And let me just say that I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who couldn't figure it out! I even got a few tips on how to prevent the buckling and keep the form round! If I ever try that again, I'll be sure to keep those in mind! Here's a reminder of what it looked like...yikes!

 Since I wanted a perfectly round wreath, I opted for a legit wreath form from Michael's - and it was less than $5 and there wasn't an ounce of frustration while dealing with it, so I'd say it's worth it!

 I was able to save my gray and purple rosettes from the aforementioned wreath and made about two dozen white ones opting for a very simple layout - white rosettes with a little cluster of gray and purple!

It felt a little plain at this point, so I took an "R" that I had laying around and hung it from the wreath using purple ribbon. Oh and I learned something new!! You can buy ribbon by the yard at Michael's! So simple, yet I had no idea! And it was something like .80 cents a yard and it's forever changed my ribbon buying habits :-)

Oooh...much better but the letter was off white in color and didn't pop as much as I would have liked against my white door... 

 So I dug around my spray paint collection and opted for a metallic silver. I think it gives it just the right amount of oomph and shine for the holidays!

 

 And I love the way it looks as I walk up to the door - perfectly round!

It's pretty at night, too!

Here's the breakdown...

Wreath form - $5

Letter R - already had

Felt - $4

Ribbon - $0.80

Spray paint - already had

The total cost of this project...$9.80! Not bad at all, considering the wreaths I've been eyeing at Target are upward of $40!