Creative Decorating Alternatives to a Fireplace Mantel

I've probably mentioned before (most likely in a Christmas-related post) that we don't have a fireplace in our house. Which makes me feel like I'm really missing out on mantel-decorating opportunities. That's right, I have mantel envy.  I would even go for an electric fireplace just to get that mantel. 

But until that happens, there is still hope for me and others who lack a fireplace. I've done some browsing and gathered these alternative decorating ideas for your inspiration. Some of them involve creating a faux fireplace, and others are unique ways to emulate that coveted mantel-esque focal point! Mantel wannabes, if you will. 

Want to go with the more "loose" aesthetic interpretation of a fireplace mantel?  Some common decor pieces you'll want to keep an eye out for include:

• Old doors
• Chunky shelves
• Architectural salvage pieces
• Old window frames
• Decorative wood corbels
• Shallow buffets/dressers/sideboards/console tables

{ image via indulgy.com }

Christmas in July (?!)

For me to be thinking of Christmas in July is practically unheard of. And actually being prepared enough to buy gifts this early?  Ha! (Although, have you heard about Amazon Prime Day on July 11?? This might be good incentive to get that Christmas shopping done early. But I digress…)

Despite my aversion to thinking about the winter holidays during summer, I’ve come to realize that “Christmas in July” is actually a pretty big thing. There are promotions and Instagram hashtags dedicated to it. I also found this website which attempts to explain the history of Christmas in July, if you feel like some extra reading. 

Christmas Decor Tour

In case you didn't know, Christmas is next week. (How is that possible??) In the spirit of the season, I thought I'd share a few photos of some of my favorite decorations. Typically I lean toward a traditional combo of red, green, and gold or silver (although I've noticed that bright colors like pink and turquoise have been making an appearance in Christmas decorations this year). 

I scored these silver sparkly faux branches on sale after Christmas last year. They're displayed in a nice glass vase filled with gold pine cones. Easy peasy and elegant.

DIY Holiday Decor: Tomato Cage Christmas Trees

Despite a hectic Thanksgiving holiday weekend that involved my husband having knee surgery and the care-taking that followed, I somehow managed to find time to decorate for Christmas. I put up the tree and brought out all the usual indoor decor (although some of it remained in the storage tubs because I'm running out of places to put things upstairs... yet another reason why I can't wait until the basement is finished). But I digress...

For the past four years of living in our house, we've never been much for decorating the outside for Christmas. No lights on the roof, no lighted Santa or reindeer in the yard. Just a wreath on the door (because that's easy and I'm lazy).

But a few months ago, I was totally inspired by this pin for a tomato cage Christmas tree... the seed had been planted (pun intended).

[ original source ]

Just turn a tomato cage upside down instead of staking it into the ground, and you have an instant Christmas tree structure. Genius! 

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub: DIY Sugar Scrub

This year, I was once again on a quest to give homemade gifts to my co-workers. (In case you weren't around last year, I had put together these gift baskets with some baked goodies and a crafty cinnamon stick candle.)

And now that I’ve discovered Pinterest, I’m not sure if it makes my quest easier (because there are so many great ideas out there) or harder (because there are TOO many great ideas to choose from!).

There was one gift idea in particular that I really wanted to try though: DIY sugar scrubs. I researched many different variations and recipes – all which sound amazing. I finally settled on this Coconut Sugar Scrub  that I found on Pinterest.

via A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

It consisted of two simple ingredients: granulated sugar and coconut oil. I decided to go with the Nutiva brand coconut oil, which is organic and unrefined (found at local health store - $7.99 for 15 oz.). This stuff is actually for cooking, but according to the label it can also be used for “luscious skincare and healthcare.”  Double duty - love it!

Based on a different recipe I had seen, I also decided to mix my plain granulated sugar with some raw sugar, also known as turbinado sugar (found at Walmart). It’s much coarser, and seemed to me like it would add nice texture and make a good exfoliant. (In my non-expert opinion, anyway.) So basically, you could eat this sugar scrub, although I'm not really sure I would want to.

With my three ingredients on hand, I mixed together 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 cup of turbinado sugar, and 1 cup of the coconut oil (for a total sugar-to-coconut ratio of 2:1). NOTE:  I had to warm the coconut oil a little in the microwave to soften it up so it would stir better (it’s a solid at room temperature).

Once it was all mixed together to a nice “scrubby” consistency, I of course had to try a little bit out. It actually felt pretty good rubbing it around my hands, and the amount of oil wasn’t too overbearing. I rinsed well with warm water, dried my hands, and I do think they felt nice and soft afterward (and yes, they smelled just like coconut).

I spooned the mixture into the little airtight jars I had bought from Hobby Lobby, then decorated the jars with ribbon and a gift tag (made by laminating squares of single-sheet Christmas paper from Hob Lob).

Another side note: I had some leftover sugar scrub that I saved for myself in a different jar. After a couple of days, it seemed to get a little dry and crumbly, but I think that's just because the coconut oil hardens up. The oil will still distribute itself once you start rubbing it in your hands.

Are you giving any homemade gifts this Christmas?

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Dare to DIY: Christmas Vases

I'm finally joining in one of Kim's Dare to DIY parties @ Newly Woodwards! This week, it's Dare to Deck the Halls... and I had the perfect project in mind.

So, ever since I joined Pinterest, I’ve been a pinning maniac. There are so many amazing DIY projects that I want to try, but I don’t even know where to start. Over the long Thanksgiving break, I was getting a little bored and decided I needed a Christmas project pick-me-up. So I turned to my Pinterest boards and this pin in particular:

via BadderHomesandGardens.com

Hot glue, a wine bottle, and spray paint? It seemed super-easy and super-cheap (read: right up my alley). So I headed to Hobby Lobby to get three glass “wine bottles” ($1.50 each at 50% off). Since I wanted to use my bottles as vases, I also bought some frosted Christmas berries (64 cents each at 50% off).

Then I started thinking that while I was there, I should probably look for a back-up plan in case my hot glue words didn’t look so…well, hot. In the sticker aisle, I found some glittery foam letters for $4.99 (full price). They’re actually called "Thickers" – clever, right?

American Crafts Thickers Glitter Foam Letter Stickers, Fancy Black 

Back at home, with glue gun in hand, I was ready to write some Christmas sentiments on these bottles (I chose Love, Peace, and Joy). I started with the word “Love” first.

Let's not sugar-coat things - it looked like it was written by a third-grader. (No offense to any third-graders out there.) My hand was obviously not steady enough to do this with the glue gun, and I’m really impressed with the one that looked so nice on Pinterest. I didn’t even bother trying the other two words. Accepting my failure, I turned immediately to the back-up stickers.

The glue letters peeled right off, and I proceeded to adhere the stickers to the bottles instead. Much better. I was actually kind of digging it just like this, but I wasn’t going to let myself off that easy. (And frankly, I was just really itching to paint something.)

At first I thought about doing each bottle in a different color, then decided to keep it simple (and cheaper) with all white, which would look nice with the red berries. Since I had never spray painted glass before, I decided to buy the Krylon Fusion, which is specifically for slick surfaces like plastic, glass, etc. (Krylon K02320000 Fusion For Plastic Aerosol Spray Paint, 12-Ounce, Gloss White). 

I put one of the bottles in a big cardboard box in the backyard, so I could spray all the way around it and try to keep the over-spray to a minimum (since I have been known to be a little careless with my spray paint in the past).

After a couple coats, I could tell that the white paint was not going to cover up the black stickers very well. Drat. I didn’t remember seeing any white stickers like this at Hobby Lobby, and I didn’t have the patience to paint 10 coats on each bottle just to try and make these stickers white.

Time for Plan B. (Or I guess Plan C by this point?) Since I did actually like the stickers as they were – black and glittery – I decided to just paint the entire bottle white and add the stickers afterward for a contrasting effect instead of a subtle effect.

Each bottle still needed about 3 coats of paint to get solid coverage, which was already stretching the limits of my patience. But finally they were all Satin White and wonderful!

Once the paint was almost dry, I put on the sticker letters. Loving it!

The final touch was to add a berry pick in each one. And here are my Christmas vases on top of the piano (aka my "mantle"):

Even though they didn’t turn out exactly like the ones I saw on Pinterest, I really like my version! It would also be cute to use other short words or phrases, such as
 - ‘tis the season
- deck the halls
- peace on earth

You could even package the bottles up all nice and give them as a gift set. Oh, the possibilities!

The overall cost of this project (bottles, berry picks, stickers, and paint) was about $15, but I still have leftover paint and stickers to use for something else. So, have you done any Christmas crafting yet?

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Tour de Christmas Decorations

For the handful of you that have actually found time to do a little bloggy reading over Christmas -- lucky you, because it's time to show off Christmas decorations! I don't really deck out our entire house (although I'd like to be able to, but I haven't acquired enough stuff). So here is my humble, here-and-there Christmas decor.

Nighttime view from the front porch: 

My drab-to-fab console table gives me even more space to decorate!

Tabletop tinsel trees I made last year

Pretty, glittery containers from Michael's, filled with potpourri (on our TV stand)

Our piano is decorated with some gold pine cones, Christmas cards, candle holders, and one of my cinnamon stick candles.

A fun jingle bell wreath (from Michael's), hung on our dining room mirror with ribbon

My DIY advent wreath/table centerpiece

We don't have many decorations on the outside of our house, but this year I decorated a cheap wreath and we hung it on the eave of our back porch. It's on the south side of the house, so it should be protected from the elements. And it's visible to people driving by the street next to our house, so now they have something nice to look at.

As you can see, our stocking holders are currently stocking-less. But don't worry, they will soon be adorned with some new personalized stockings my mother-in-law is making us for Christmas! I'm pretty excited to see them.

And last but certainly not least, our tree! (We do have presents under it now,

just not when I took these pictures.)

 Merry Christmas everyone!



Note to self: You are no Martha Stewart.

I was a baking maniac this weekend.

This year, I decided to put together some simple gift baskets with homemade goodies for my co-workers. I already had ideas for most of the goodies. Then, I stumbled upon this recipe for homemade marshmallows. How fun would that be along with some packets of hot cocoa mix?! It sounded easy enough, and I just had to invest about $4 in a candy thermometer from Walmart.

Without going into a lot of detail, let’s just say that this was not one of my brighter ideas. The mixture was so thick that I nearly burned out the motor of my electric hand mixer and got marshmallow goo sucked up in the holes where the mixer sticks go. (Admittedly, that was my fault because the recipe called for a stand mixer, which I don’t own.) The result was a big, white, sticky blob that--while it did have the texture of a marshmallow--was impossible to cut into chunks or shapes. And even when I did get a chunk off, I had to roll it in so much corn starch and powdered sugar that it didn’t even taste good. Needless to say, clean-up was not fun either. Big fat FAIL.

This experience was a humbling reminder that I am no Martha Stewart. Well, at least I can bake a mean loaf of bread. I made both banana (my mom’s tried-and-true recipe) and pumpkin, baked them in some mini loaf pans (Chicago Metallic brand from BB&B) that had been lightly greased and dusted with cinnamon/sugar, and they came out beautifully!

For chocolate-covered pretzels, I melted a 2.5 lb Ghirardelli Candy Making and Dipping Bar that I found at Sam’s Club for $6.98. It dries with a shiny, glossy, hard coat and tastes better than almond bark (in my opinion). I only dipped the pretzels halfway to stretch the chocolate longer, and it made a ton. I put these in little treat bags and tied with a ribbon.

 
Since I had already bought some hot cocoa to go with my failed homemade marshmallows, I still stuck a packet in each gift basket, sans marshmallows.

The last thing in each gift basket was a cinnamon stick candle, a project from a couple of weekends ago. All of this was nestled in green glittery wire baskets from Hobby Lobby (where else?). Then I tucked in one of our Christmas cards that were printed at Sam’s Club. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how my gift baskets turned out and I had fun putting everything together. Gift baskets like these are nice because they still take some thought and effort, but not a lot of money.

Hope everyone's ready for Christmas! I'll finally be sharing all my decorations later this week... and hopefully soon after that I'll be able to show off our newly painted bathroom!