It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's been about a week since we started putting up our Christmas decorations. We started the Saturday after Thanksgiving and finally finished this past Saturday. The tree took awhile because (1) it's new so we didn't know how many lights or what extra decorations we wanted and (2) it's really BIG! The tree that I had broke last year, when it fell over in Eric's apartment. So, we were blessed to be offered a nice tree from our church's music department. They bought some trees to decorate the church during the holiday season. However, the 8.5 foot trees they bought weren't big enough... yes weren't BIG enough. Crazy, huh?!? Anyway, they offered one to us and we were very thankful to use one since we didn't have one and didn't really need to spend 100s of dollars to buy a new one. However, we did spend some money on new lights. Eric wanted clear lights and I wanted colored lights. So we splurged a little and got both. I think we ended up putting 2300 lights on the tree. But it looks really good :) We also got some tinsel for the tree to add a little extra something. It's messy... but I think it adds a little sparkle. The only thing we haven't found is a lighted star. So we just used my old one. The bad thing is that you can't see it at night. Oh well... maybe next year. Here are some pictures of our decorating. As you can see, it was a few days process.

Eric unwrapping the bottom layer of the tree.

Eric & I stringing lights (we did it by sections)

Hanging ornaments

Eric hanging ornaments on the top of the tree
(that's a TALL tree)
Our newest ornament
(First Christmas in our new home)

Eric putting the star on top

Final results at night after the tinsel

For our mantel, we wanted to add a little Christmas touch. So when our family was here for Thanksgiving, my mom made us a swag out of the extra corkscrew willow branches we had. We bought some holly berries and ribbon at Hobby Lobby (for 50% off) to add to the swag. We put the holly berries in the swag and then I made the bow and attached it. It was the first time I've ever made a bow... so I think I did pretty good. We hung the swag up on the front of our mantel and hung our stockings on either side. We also got some red, green & white tapered candles to put on top of the mantel. Here's the final result.

My homemade bow

Our Christmas mantel decorations

With the fireplace (which we use quite often)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Final decorations for our mantel

Awhile back, we made an art piece to go over our mantel. We decided that we needed something to go on either side of it. So while we were in Baton Rouge a few weeks ago, we found a set of 3 pillar candle holders at my parent's house. They were gracious enough to give them to us... of course they were just sitting on the floor in the hall... taking up room. Dad even put them in a bag for us to take! Anyway, last week, we finally found some candles that we liked to put on them. On the other side of the mantel, we found a big vase at Walmart that we liked. We decided that we wanted to put something tall in it. Some kind of big branches... or something like that. Eric mentioned that there was a tree at his parent's house that has long curly branches. It's called a Corkscrew Willow (or Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa'... as Eric would say). So he thought that might be a nice decorative touch... a free decorative touch (might I add)! So this weekend when we were in Winnsboro, he cut some branches to bring home. Here are some pictures ... and the final product on our mantel!

Eric and the tree

The Corkscrew Willow tree branches

Eric cutting a branch

Eric cutting a high branch

Eric and his loping shears

Me & my man with our matching glasses
(it was early... and COLD!)

Our mantel decorations

The vase with the corkscrew willow branches

Weekend Projects

Last weekend, Mom came up to help Eric & I finish unpacking and organize. While she was here, we actually hung some things on the wall. And that got me thinking about what other decorations we needed. All of the walls in our living room were bare. Especially the large space over our fireplace. So Monday night, Eric & I drove out to Hobby Lobby to see what kind of art they had there. And we found a few things that we liked, but nothing big enough to go over the fireplace. But we did buy a few other things that we thought might look good in our living room... and they were all 50% off! While we were there, we looked at the fabric and actually found one we liked. So we had the idea of stretching the fabric like canvas on a frame to hang over the fireplace. We figured that would be cheaper than any piece of art we could find. So, today we went back to Hobby Lobby to get the fabric and to look for a frame. However, we couldn't find a frame as big as we wanted (48' x 60'). Eric thought we could make it ourselves, and for much cheaper than we could buy one that big. So we went to Lowe's and bought the wood and accessories to make the frame, as well as a hand saw and mitre box for Eric to cut the wood. While we were watching the LSU game this afternoon, we cut the wood and assembled the frame. And finally stretched the fabric and stapled it on. It only took about 3 hours :) See our assembly pictures and final result below (I forgot to take picture while we were assembling the frame itself). I think it turned out pretty good!

Eric stretching & stapling the fabric on the frame.

Watch out, he's dangerous with a staple gun!

Lending a helping hand to my hubby
while he's stapling the fabric on the frame.

The finished product :) It's almost as tall as Eric!

Here's the final result on our mantel!

Eric also hung a few of our other purchases in the living room.

Above our front door

Our "junk" hanger, just inside our living room by the garage door.