Since I waited until two weeks before Christmas to attempt this project, all major stores (Target, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree & Michael’s) were out of the mini ornaments. I did pick up the Styrofoam cone from Dollar Tree, which made me very happy! Since I couldn’t find the mini ornaments, I thought I could use this silver garland instead and make a great substitute. About two seconds in, I realized this was going nowhere and it looked terrible! On to the next idea…
I went back to Michael’s (and sort of hoped the mini ornaments would pop out at me) and got these red jingle bells of all sorts of shapes and sizes instead. I thought this would be such a cute little alternative! The packages had mini, regular and large jingle bells. Perfect! I could start with the biggest and work my way up to the tiny ones.
Ummm…no. There were gaps and holes all over the place and then I thought I had enough room but didn’t have enough room at the top for more and then I tried to put a bow on it but it made it look worse. Serious, serious fail! I was so frustrated and mad by this point. I had put the bells all the way up to the top and then proceeded to rip them all out (which left huge dents in the Styrofoam since I had pushed these in as hard as I could) and just say, well…its actually not blog-land appropriate what I said but lets just say it was a word and my dog ran away because he thought he was in trouble!
Once I ripped off the bells and was left with a bumpy and uneven cone, I threw the torn off bells (note the pieces of hot glue and Styrofoam in the crevices) into a mason jar with some faux snow and called it good. What else can you do?
So, since it had worked time and time again, I got out the jute twine and wrapped it around the form to make a natural, jute Christmas tree. I’ve seen this on several other blogs and thought it was cute plus I already had the twine and it took like five minutes to wrap this around the small form.
It isn’t all blinged-out like I wanted but it works and I think balances out the shiny and glittery little bird on this Hobby Lobby tray on our ottoman. I kept one bell on top just so people would know it is a Christmas tree and not some cone with jute twine on it for no reason. Or at least I hope they will know.
So that is my tale of my two day, Christmas craft fail. At least it was salvageable, right? I hate not being perfect.
I was put in charge of decorations, so I knew we needed to start with a banner. Since I don’t have a fancy Silhouette or Cricut machine, I had to make it by hand. I’m pleased with how it turned out! I traced circles on the orange/white paper and navy paper using two different sized glass mixing bowls. I strung the circles together by jute twine I already had on hand. This was a pretty cheap and easy project!
Our spread of food! There were some really cute blue and white iced cookies, as well as the blue and orange cake.
The drink station…water, mimosas and a pink lemonade/sprite mix that was delicious!
We took the mom and dad’s baby photos and framed them, as well as the sonogram of little baby Luke. I love seeing the parents and the future child together!
A close-up shot of the three frames. I had the silver and orange frame on hand. The navy frame is a 5×7 frame from the Dollar Tree that I painted with navy acrylic paint. 
Look at these guys! I got them at the Farmer’s Market that is right by my office. They were only 3o cents a pound so I only spent $6.13 for them both! Such an awesome deal. I love the warts and shapes to them! In our old house, we lived on a street with a school so we never put anything outside that could get damaged or smashed, which kids LOVE to do with pumpkins. I am so excited we live in a neighborhood where nothing should happen to these and I can have fun with not only inside decorations, but outside decorations as well!
I was looking for something fun to do for Halloween on the ledge we have between our kitchen and living room. I was deedle-dawdling (yes, that is a real word and a very technical word for putzing, poking, moseying slowly) around Pottery Barn one lunch and saw these jars with candy corn and candles – so easy and so cute!
So, I took several mason jars I had and added candy corn and small candles – so cute! It was a 5 minute decorating project, which is always the best kind. It was also super cheap since I already had the jars (but they were cheap too – $10 for 12 of them) and already had the candles!
Here’s a close-up of the jar. I’m already thinking of variations of this project for Thanksgiving and Christmas. These jars are amazing and the possibilities are endless!
The Steen Style 