2013 Christmas Decor

Hello, Blog World!

Well, life happens and before you know it, you've been on a blogging hiatus for 2 months. BUT, I'm back and hopefully for good! I'm looking forward to sharing everything we've been up to lately too!

We are on day 4 of being iced in here in Texas and day 2 of no school due to the weather, so what better topic to choose for today, than our Christmas decor. 

Last year, after just purchasing our house, we didn't have the cash to spend on all of the decor we wanted but we did end up scoring an epic deal on a pre-lit Christmas tree!

We scored this Martha Stewart LED Pre-Lit Christmas Tree for $60 from Home Depot. Up at 4:30 AM and back in bed by 5:30 AM - It was a perfect Black Friday experience and our only major Christmas decoration last year.

This year our Christmas decor has expanded!

Our Christmas tree w/ clear lights...

...and multi! Thanks to my mom and step-dad for sending my childhood ornaments and supplying Chris with plenty of his own. :)

Lit garland and our 4 ft tree from our apartment days. 

 A few dining room Christmas touches...

...and a few in the kitchen!

Free Christmas Printable can be found here.

We had to relocate our tree to the office...you know, now that we have furniture in our living room...so I decided to really go all out with our fireplace this year. Our vases are filled with Dollar Tree ornaments and our stockings were hand made by me last year! I absolutely LOVE those felt stocking kits, they are A LOT of work but so much fun! The pre-lit topiaries were my late step-moms and I think they look amazing on our fireplace.

My sister (Bubbles & Icing) made us this GORGEOUS candy cane wreath this year. I'm in love with it and I hope she'll blog about it soon! It's the first wreath that's actually the appropriate size for our giant door.

My mom got me hooked on this scent from Bath and Body Works. I'm obsessed and it makes our house smell amazing...no allergy inducing real tree necessary.

Last but not least, my childhood miniature tree has been found, thanks to my Dad, and is now proudly displayed in my classroom.

Needless to say, from meager beginnings last year, our house has exploded with Christmas cheer this year!! 

Thanks to the weather, I was even able to get our Christmas cards addressed and mailed (USPS came on Friday despite the ice!). This is the earliest I have ever gotten them out! I'll blog about these amazing cards from Costco soon.

That's all for now! Glad to be back in the blogging world. :)

Laundry Room Makeover

Just stopping by today to share my quick laundry room makeover.

As you can see, it was a dark, dusty place to do laundry. 

It's a decent sized room but we didn't have a need for a 2nd fridge or freezer so the space across from the washer and dryer was wasted space. This got me thinking about what I could do to better utilize this space and that's when I decided to give the room a little makeover.

Here is what I used in my makeover:
*Benjamin Moore "Stem Green" Paint Tester - FREE!*
*Ikea Expedit - $39.99
*Ikea curtain panel (left over from our bedroom curtains) - FREE!
*Curtain Rod left over from old apartment - FREE!
*Shower Curtain Rod - $12
*Framed Laundry Printable - $7 (see my Affordable Wall Decor post)

*(We originally bought the Stem Green as an option for the game room but ended up going with another green color. I liked the color so much I knew I wanted to use it somewhere in the house. The tester is real paint and comes in eggshell so after testing out your wall color, you can actually use the testers for small areas. Yay, Benjamin Moore!)

Here is my new laundry room:

I now have a folding table (Ikea Expedit), a place to hang clothes and a little decor!

A few things I'd love to do to the laundry room later on:

*Tile the floor in that gorgeous dark faux wood tile you can see in the top right pic.
*Add the Stain Guide Printable
*Paint the cabinets white
*Change the light fixture from a dome to a chandelier ;)

Still plenty to do but it's definitely a brighter, happier, more efficiently used space now.

Affordable Wall Decor

Over the years we've collected some nice things to hang on our walls. In fact, we had our walls nicely decorated when we lived in our 750 square foot apartment. When we bought our house, we gained 2,000 extra square feet! This left us quite lacking in the wall decor department. 

While trying to find affordable decor for our house, I discovered free printables and I'm obsessed. I mean, they're FREE and perfect to mix with a photo gallery or hang on their own.

I spent hours on Pinterest checking out different websites and downloading free printables. Once I had them downloaded, I ordered my prints through Costco's Photo Center. An 8x10 print costs $1.49 and a 16x20 print costs $5.99. You really can't beat those prices. 

I bought my frames from Ikea. A nice 8x10 wood and glass frame is $4.99 and a 16x20 frame is $12.99, they come matted too. Each individual art piece never cost me over $20 and most were under $8. What's even more exciting is if I get tired of the decor, I can change it guilt free!

Here are some of my favorite free printables around our home:

Guest Room

Source: ModPrintables

Kitchen

Source: eighteen25

*I'll add these fun kitchen printables, in a smaller size, to this wall area later.

Guest Bathroom

Source: Raising Hope

Laundry 

Source: a Pop of Pretty

*I also want to add a framed stain guide print to our laundry room.

These are just a few of the printables I chose to use as decor in our house. The things you could do with them are endless - I'm thinking pantry organization, classroom, holidays...! Just search Pinterest for "free printables for the home" - you'll be amazed at what people are creating and sharing.