Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! I'm soo excited to be participating in this wonderful Christmas ! ://prettypetals.typepad.com/prettypetals/Visit here to check out all of the lovely blogs participating in this Christmas party
I've never done anything like this before so please bear with me if my pictures aren't up to snuff. I really tried very hard to show you how warm and inviting I try to make my home during the Holidays.

The Holidays are a very important time for me to make friends and family feel welcome. I love to entertain but, I have four kids who do a ton of extra curricular stuff (tumbling, piano, drums, dance, little league, soccer, cheer, newspaper, etc.) so needless to say, my house is always a mess. We basically use it as a place to stop by, change, eat, and run. Because of this I am always a little self conscious of my housekeeping. So, during the Holidays, I make a bigger effort to keep the house tidy and make it feel more inviting for family and friends to make up for the rest of the year. This is a wreath I recently reworked. It has always been a more traditional wreath with green, red, silver, etc. I absolutely love pink and vintage and just didn't have anything appropriate. Last year I didn't even hang the wreath. So, this year I took off all of the old ornaments, painted it light pink, sprinkled glitter all over it, and attached new ornaments. First, I scoured the flea market for vintage pink ornaments. I got only 6 full size ones, two ziplocks full of ligt blue and light pink really small ones (probably a garland in a past life), and one spray of reds that were already turning pink. Not enough for this wreath. So, I added new pink, white, silver, and clear irradescent ornaments. I even took a few of the plastic ugly ornaments from the old wreath and painted and glittered them (their the pink and silver glittered ones). I think it turned out fabulous. It is extremely difficult to photograph though. I tried 4 or 5 different times.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these candles. Boy were they easy to make. I went to the 99c store and got light pink tapers, then used modgepodge and a foam brush. I just painted the glue on lightly then sprinkled with Martha Stewart Glitter (any color you want) and poof!! Georgeous candles that perfectly match any decor. Everyone who seems them in person swoons.




Here is entire vingette. I think it looks alright in the picture but, at night when the lights are on on my little tree (the lights are pink) everything sparkles soo nicely. I don't think I could have been happier with the way it all turned out.














I adore snowmen!!
I did although have to tell my husband not to buy me anymore this year. There are 6 of us and our house is really small. I have pretty much run out of space (for now) When the kids get older, the more traditional decorations will be worn out (or I'll just say that they were) and I'll be able to decorate the entire house the way I want to. But, I can wait for that. I'd really rather have my kids home than the house decorated just for me.

I was really lucky this year. Our bookclub meeting was scheduled to be at my house this month. That meant I got to go all out. I made everyone do a gift exchange, I made a homemade chocolate chip cheesecake, I also made handmade chocolate truffles, and then put them into the cutest little gift bags as favors for all of the ladies. I lite the scented oil warmer that my bfff Jenny gave me, so the house smelled wonderful and I had Christmas music playing. I bought a bottle of wine but, the corkscrew broke. (oh well) It still turned out to be really fun !! When the ladies said that we don't normally do this stuff, I said "It's Christmas" if you can't go all out at Christmas, then when can you?
This has been soooooo much fun!! Thank you for inviting me.
P.S. If you are looking for the perfect movie to watch this season. I suggest YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU by Frank Cappra. You know the guy who made IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Jimmy Stewart is in it, and although it's not made during Christmas, it has such a lovely cast and such beautiful decor, and such a wonderful message.
Once again, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, I hope that all of your dreams come true.
Cari B