Life Beyond Christmas

Taking down Christmas decorations is always a little depressing. Another Christmas over, time to move on and get back to work. This year I decided to keep out a select few Christmas ornaments to re-purpose them until Valentines day. My tree boasted many pink and silver sparkly ornaments this year, so it wasn't hard to find some that fit the V-day theme.  These sprigs of pink and glittery berries (right) were stuck in my tree this year. My mom gave me this beautiful vase for Christmas and I wasn't sure what I'd put in there.... until I took down the berry sprigs. I also filled a hurricane with pink and silver ornaments (I tried to point the top of the ornament toward the inside so they looked more like balls than ornaments), and I hung a few snowflake ornaments from my bedroom chandelier. Lastly, I hung snowflake ornaments, hand crocheted by my grandmother, from the curtain rod in the living room. I love that snowflake decorations can be used all winter.

Are you re-using any deco this year?

Christmas Tree Hunt

I have been so excited to decorate our first house for Christmas I could not even wait until Thanksgiving was over. I started bringing things out that night! Only a few days later everything was done. It just makes me cheerful to see all the decorations, and our tree turned out quite whimsical if I do say so myself. Here are some highlights from the tree hunt, putting up the lights, and new & old ornaments.

I love that my dad and T.J. matched. :-)

We never pass up a family photo op!

When we got home we went to work decorating. T.J. and I made a few new ornaments this year using a technique I saw on Young House Love (click to see a tutorial) - but my sister informed me my niece painted ornaments this way in preschool, so it is no new thing. :-)

T.J. made one that turned out looking like the Earth.

 

I stuck in some of my leftover pinecones (above) from my Pinecone Hurricane project. Also, the pink ball in the middle is part of a set of vintage ornaments my sister and I found at a flea market early this fall. 

This crocheted  snowflakes above were made by my Grandma. 

They are so beautiful and unique. 

Goodness I love glitter. :-)

T.J. and I were very excited to finally have a house to put some lights on! Here T.J. is up in our tree.

He also lit up the three pine trees out by our corner.

And in case you didn't notice, Hems & Haws has a new Christmas look! I switched from yellow to red chevron and changed the background and text of the header. The background is actually a picture of our tree this year, complete with pom pom garland. What do you think of the changes? Or of the tree? It just makes me smile. :-)