A Very Pinspired Christmas!

As you already know, I've been very excited about decorating for Christmas this year, but, while I'm quite crafty, I don't have much in the ideas department. And then Pinterest entered my life. So with the help of Pinterest I've got our halls fully decked, and today I'm going to take a break from my usual complaining about the lack of things that have been done to do a little bragging/showing off.

This was my first craft, and if I do say so myself, I blew my Pinspiration out of the water!

Left- Pinspiration, Right- mine!

It was so easy and cheap! I just used foam sheets, which I got at Michaels for 89 cents a sheet, and magnets with sticky backs, and POOF! Instant Christmas in the kitchen!


My next craft took a little bit more time, but it was also a cheap way to jazz up our kitchen. Just 4 spools of 99 cent Christmas ribbon from Joann's, plain computer paper, and left over glittery white foam from my snowman refrigerator's scarf...

Above- Pinspiration, Below- my take on it.

The best part (although I'm sure you can't see it in this pic) are the tree trunks. A while ago as a joke, I got Derek a pad of paper that had wood grain printed on it, and it ended up being perfect for the tree trunks!

Now we all know I can't fully get into any holiday's spirit without themed toes, and Pinterest was able to help me there too! And yes, that's thread on my toes!!!

Top Left- Pinspiration, Others- Me

 Quick note on that one, it's not as easy as it looks. I will NEVER do these again even though they're super cute.

This inspiration came from Target. I saw this Holiday Card Garland, and thought, "I can do that cheaper and waaaaay better!" Well I was wrong on the cheaper (although Target's was cheaper looking), but not by much, and now we have a super cute way to use our Christmas cards as decorations. PS- Where is your card? Did you get my new address?

Top Left- inspiration from Target, Others- Mine

This next one took some help from my co-workers, and my husband because I'm lactose intolerant!

Top Left- Pinspiration (which I actually found in an Oriental  Trading catalog long before I saw it on Pinterest, Others-US!

I saw this and just KNEW I had to do it, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to somehow make it into Derek, Lucy and I. So, I sent out an SOS via school email for milk jugs, and got them in no time, then Derek crafted some snazzy arms for us and legs for Lucy out of wood. They're probably my fav decoration!

Thanksgiving morning was busy! I was watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and stringing ornaments together with wire, while Derek was drilling holes into  the bottoms of the rest of my required ornaments!

Left- Pinspiration, Right- Mine

I absolutely LOVE this! Such a pretty way to decorate the window above our front door, and it can be seen from the inside and outside making it a 2-for-1 special!

Thanksgiving morning I also spent some time cleaning up what looked like a crime scene for the murder of a fairy (our sidewalk by the front door, and the grass all around it is STILL glittery btw).

Top Left- Pinspiration, Others- Mine

Originally I was going to try and stripe the big ones like a candy cane... but that didn't work out so well. Either way, I love that these add a little sparkle to the kitchen and really draw your eyes up. They were also super cheap: $2 foam 'trees' from Old Time Pottery and $3 each for the extra fine (translation: extra able to get onto every surface within a square mile) glitter at Michaels.

I had some ornaments left after making my arch decoration, so I decorated the passway between the kitchen and the dining room...

Top- Pinspiration (although I didn't use the rolls, Bottom- Mine

With the ORC Christmas party closely after Thanksgiving, I needed to come up with something creative for the white elephant gift exchange...

Left- Pinspiration, Right- mine (well, was mine until I gave it away)

Mine definately isn't as fancy, but it was still a hit! It ended up being won by one of our Japanese guests who snagged it from Amy...

 I also had to bake something festive for the party, so I made these cute reindeer cookies

Top- Pinspiration, Bottom- Mine nom nom nom

These were super easy and super delish. Derek doesn't like peanut butter cookies (I know, I'm embarrassed to say that), so I made some peanut butter (they're buried), and the rest as sugar cookies.

My next was by far my cheapest... unless you count time and labor as $$, in which case it cost a fortune!

Top Left- Pinspiration, Others- mine, although the pictures do them no justice

These snowflakes are quite fancy, and who knew fancy snowflakes were so complicated. I just figured fold a piece of paper up and cut, right?!? Wrong! There was a crazy 7 step folding process, and templates to make these bad boys, but the effect is well worth it!

Derek did his part this holiday season too, and our house finally got lit...

The Christmas tree is even up, and has presents ready for the giving!

The best project of this season, though, had no inspiration at all. Just a desire to somehow, without the time or the money to rip it out, make this pretty for Christmas...

(That's our realtor Erica btw) :)

So how do you make a hideous and useless built in entertainment system pretty you ask? With some bulletin board paper, some paint, some tissue paper, and some fire wood. Yup I said fire wood...

Yup, I turned it into a fireplace, and we like it so much, it just may stay that way for a while.