A Life In Review

This time of year can be really really, but it can also be one of great joy. Part of that joy for me is decorating. Over the years my budget for decorating has varied. Some years I was working with pennies and other years I had some wiggle room for fun. I decided to share some of my favorite DIY and budget Christmas decor moments and some of my more difficult one. As always, you don’t have to do anything extra during the holidays. You can just sit on the couch and enjoy each others company, but if you want to go all out, keep reading because I’ve got some ideas for you.

I will link what I can and direct you to the stores where I got the rest if links are not possible!

DIY Wall Hangings: This is a mix of one that I have made and my mom have made. You can get really inexpensive wooden hangings and canvases from both Walmart and Hobby Lobby and I promise you the $.58 project paint is fantastic. You don’t need anything fancy to do any of these.

Ribbon Cabinets: This is probably my least expensive and most popular Christmas decor in the whole house. All you need are some medium sized bows and the $5 rolls of red ribbon from Walmart. I just use packing take on the backside and call it a day.

Book Snowman: I found this on Pinterest years ago and had it saved in my phone until last year when I finally decided to go for it. You can use books that you already have, OR you can hit up some yard sales for random books in the right color. My library also does big book sales where I have found books for great prices to use for projects like these. The decorations on the snowman are construction paper and wrapping paper and I used scotch tape to adhere them to the books because I knew it wound’t hurt the books.

Present Arch – By far my prettiest and most difficult Christmas DIY project to date. This took me hours and hours of prep work and materials. I used an arch to support it and collected boxes over the span of a few months. The trouble was that it was basically a one year use, so I am not planning on doing this again, but it would be great if you had the storage to save it!

Mini Trees: You can literally get these anywhere. I have gotten them from Amazon, Hobby Lobby, Walmart and Job Lot (IYKYK). They are anywhere from $5 – $10 each any you can decorate them with any leftover decor that you have on hand or have the kids make some decorations for them. They go a long way in bringing together spaces that didn’t have Christmas decor before (the back of a toilet, a small vanity area, entry way, night stand, small apartment spaces). Tabletop Tree

Ribbon Trim: This is one thing that I am going to share with my social media followers this year. You already know that ribbon is pretty inexpensive, so I try to make it go a long way. another great way to use it is around doorways and mirrors. It brings a pop of color to your home. I like to do solid colors because I have so many other colors in my decor, but if this is all you do, go wild with ribbon designs. There are so many options out there (I had to find new ribbon for our tree this year and I was overwhelmed by the pattern options).

Garland: This is a great way to take up space. Garland can be made from scratch or you can get it for a really reasonable price. My favorite hack for hanging garland in doorways is pressure rods. You can get them from Walmart for $7 – $10 and they hold up really well. I spent two years trying to find a way to hang my heavy garland and finally saw this hack on Pinterest. You can see it below. You can also put command hooks on the cabinets if you want to add some around the tops.

Wall Stickers: This is a great way to take up space. I have a few walls where I made my own stickers and some walls (like the one pictured) where I bought them (linked here). I love adding them to big spaces where I don’t have anything to hang. It brings a pop of Christmas to an otherwise blank area. This is also great for apartments and rentals because they are removable and don’t damage the walls.

Little Bows: Much like the stickers, bows are inexpensive and can add a little pop of Christmas to just about anything in your home. I love to put them on things that I have to leave out during the holidays. You can get a pack of bows for less than $10 and transform your home. Here are some of my favorites: Colorful || Solid || Budget

Not Pictured:

• Christmas Quilts – I shop Christmas clearance every year for blankets for the following year. These are great and they take up space. They make everything look cozy and they are functional.
• Pillow Covers: I bought covers for the cushions that are already on my couch. That way I don’t have to get and store extra pillows. Amazon has some cute ones that are linked here.

I wish that I could give each of you a grand tour, but this will have to do for now. When I came up with this blog post idea in January, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to format it and frankly, I still don’t love this style of format, but you get the gist of what I was trying to share. If you made it this far, you will be the first ones to hear that I am considering changing platforms for my blog. I feel like there is so much more I could do if I had a better place to create my blogging content. I am pretty limited here in this space and my blog is beginning to bore me (appearance wise), so just keep that in mind and as always, thank you for supporting me for so long in this space. I wouldn’t be doing this without you.