Deck the Halls

With the tree up, I still had (and still have) a lot of other space to decorate for Christmas.

I have been getting ideas for a while between pinterest and the blogs I follow.

We really had very limited Christmas decorations, since we only lived in a townhouse together for about two years and we had minimal decorations since we were renting. Now that we have our own house and I have such a desire for decorating, I have been very excited to start building our Christmas decoration collection.

I first went to Michael's last week to just get an idea of what they had and the prices of stuff. Even at 50%, nothing was especially jumping out at me. So I headed over to Target. I got quite a few things there. Then this weekend we stopped at Hobby Lobby to get some more stuff. While I still have a long ways to go, let's dive right in to what I have done!

Here is the fireplace. The garland is from Hobby Lobby. The green candles, ornaments, little sleigh and plate are from Target. The jars, vases and snowman snow globe I already had.

I really liked the garland I found! The colors go really well in the room and it fit the fireplace perfectly.

I also got the fake snow from Target that I used in the hurricane vases and mini mason jars. The plate was an unexpected purchase but it is adorable and says "Holiday memories warm even the coldest days." Super appropriate when the low last night was like -5.

In the middle I used my mini mason jars and made little Christmas scenes in them. I found the little ornaments at Hobby Lobby in the children's tree decorations section. After cutting off the string that made them ornaments, I glued them on a piece of styrofoam. Then I placed the styrofoam in the jars and covered it in snow.

 I paired the angel and the house.

 The bird and the snowman.

 The train and the teddy bear.

 The rocking horse and Santa.

Overall I think they turned out cute. I will probably add a little bit more to them next year, but not a bad start for a whole $1.50 for the ornaments and $2 for the giant bag of fake snow!

Then I had a $2.50 sleigh from the dollar section at the front of Target and the $2 (or $1) set of ornaments from Target too.

Ideally I want something tall to put on the right side to balance the hurricane glasses. I really liked this Santa bust I found at Hobby Lobby, but wasn't willing to dish out $35.

On to the living room. I decided to go with silver and blue. I think I need to find some Christmas picture frames to decorate with...

I went with $2 beaded garland that I initially thought of cutting to the desired length, but figured I could just make some art with it. The vases are just vases I have accumulated over the years from flowers for various events. They don't match, but they are close.

I also went with the $2 twisty sparkly thing (no idea what it is called). I did the opposite silver and blue for each side.

 Here is a clsoe up of the silver and blue ornaments in the middle along with the pine cones I had from my fall decor.

The living room needs a lot of work. Just not enough Christmas to it. This will not be happening this year, but I feel like I made a decent start!

Then in our bathroom, I found a red and green basket and used some candles I had and placed in the bathroom. I really like the idea of having a little bit of Christmas in every room.

Like I said, not a bad start! I can only go up from here! Somethings I do need, but still probably won't buy this year (at least until the after Christmas sales) include a wreath (I really don't want a "pine" wreath, so that makes things difficult. I had seen one at Target I liked, but when I went to buy decorations they were out of it :( ) and a centerpiece(s) for the dining room table.

Hopw you enjoyed our mini tour and maybe with some Christmas magic I will have more to show you by the time Christmas rolls around.