A Few Simple Tips for Organizing Christmas Decorations

Every year I decide it is high time to re-organize my Christmas decorations: I plan to buy plastic ornament storage boxes, red and green storage bins, and it will all be organized.  Then, sticker shock sets in when I realize just how many ornament boxes and storage bins I'd have to buy to get my stash under control.  This year, I was determined to make it work with items I already had on hand. 

Here are a few of my tips:

New Years Eve Outfit

We are going out for our first New Years Eve without the boys since our oldest son was born!  I'm looking forward to having dinner and hanging out with some of our closets friends!!!

I'm the type of person that, if I don't plan an outfit in advance, I'm guaranteed to show up 45 minutes late, my bedroom will look like a bomb went off, and I will most likely end up in the very first outfit I had on........and I will be unhappy about it all!  (My old roomates, who may be reading this, can attest to this fact as they repeatedly saw it happen in our 5 years of living together.)

That is NOT the way I want to start the evening. 

So, I did a little planning today:

 

Christmas around our house....

Hope you are enjoying your holiday's!  With my husband off of work for the week, we've taken the time to hang out as a family and I haven't been that into blogging recently.  I do have some ideas going around in my head - for which I just made a purchase today - that I will share over the next several weeks.  In the meantime, I uploaded some pictures from our Christmas celebration(s) and thought I would share those.

If I'm not back before than, have a wonderful New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!  Thank you to everyone who has found my blog this year and for stopping by to check it out.  I'm excited to have started this adventure and I'm so glad that you are following along with me.

In case you are looking for any last minute inspiration for Christmas, I'd love for you to stop by Pottery Barn's blog today to check out my Christmas Tablescape, that I first posted here, along with tips for setting your holiday table. (Don't forget your silverware like I did! :))

Winter Bedroom

I made a few small updates to our bedroom for more winter-y / Christmas-y look.

I started by changing the bedding to a completely neutral look.

I then swapped out my botanical's in the gold picture frames to this:

Christmas Gifts are wrapped....

...well at least some of them:

I don't enjoy wrapping gifts.  Most years I wrap the gifts the night before or on our way to the Christmas party.  Bows are falling off, two types of paper may or may not be wrapping the gift....ribbons are askew.

I didn't even plan on adding any bows and ribbon to the gifts this year.  I used up ALL of my gift wrap last year and decided in advance this year that I would keep it simple with silver and gold paper. 

Christmas Bedroom Peak....

I decided to add a few Christmas-y touches to our master bedroom yesterday while the boys napped.

Cornflake Christmas Wreaths....with Grandma

With my husband at the Bears Packers game today, I was left at home with the boys trying to decide what we should do.   I was happy when Grandma called to say she wanted to stop over and "bake" some cookies with my oldest son.   She arrived with all supplies in hand to make some Cornflake Christmas Wreaths:

The recipe is extremely simple, delicious, and fun for a little three year old to make and decorate!

Christmas Bathroom (and a before and after)

Before I move on to today's post, I'd like to mention that later next week, my Christmas Tablescape and tips for setting a Christmas table will be featured on Pottery Barn's blog!!!   I would love to have all of you stop by to check it out.   I will post the link on my blog when it's up.

Ok, so are you tired of the Christmas decor posts yet?  Sorry if you are...I have only a few more, I swear.  But, this one is also a little bit of a before and after as well.  Two for one.

 

We have a teenie tiny bathroom for the boys.  I haven't gone with a theme in this bathroom.  My theme is "try to keep it as clean as possible."  Every Christmas and winter I like to switch out a blue and green shower curtain for this black and white one from Target (Dwell Studio).  This is one of the only rooms in the house that you will find red this Christmas.  And only a tiny bit at that; but I love the way it stands out against all the white and black.

 

 

Winter Wedding

My husband and I celebrated our 7th year wedding anniversary this week.

I love to look back and think about the days leading up to our wedding (and of course our wedding day).  I never considered the possibility of several crazy snow storms the week of and the day of our wedding.  That is, until we had several crazy snow storms the week of and the day of our wedding. 

In the end it worked out well because it made for some fun pictures.  Here is a picture the photog took right when snow started coming down the day of the wedding:

Christmas Home Tour 2012

We've been busy decorating our house for Christmas and I've posted a lot of my progress for you here.  Today I am linking up to Jennifer Rizzo's House Walk. 

If you have not seen the 20 house tours she hosted last week, take some time to stop by and take a look.  All the homes are amazing!!!

Winter Entry

This is the first year I've attempted to do anything at all in our front entry:

Until last month, I had no table to speak of for the entry.  So I cleaned and moved this side board which was left behind in our basement by the last owners of the home:

Christmas Vignette

My fireplace is in a pretty sad state: our large tv is the focal point and cords are everywhere, we painted over dirty old brick, no practical mantel exists, and at the moment it is highly baby proofed.  I have attempted to decorate it and look beyond and it's good enough but really not worth a post.  Therefore, I thought I would share this media console that I've decorated as a Christmas Vignette instead:

I didn't realize it while I snapped this picture, but I think it is kind of funny that our puppy's mugshot has been highlighted/framed by the wreath.  Doesn't she look sweet?

First Paperwhite Bloom.....

It has only been two and a half weeks since I planted my Paperwhites, so I was suprised this morning when I woke up to this:

 

There were no blooms yesterday, while I was taking pictures for my Christmas Tablescape (paperwhites are in the background on our penninsula):

 

 

This is my first year planting these bulbs, and I'm kind of surprised at the different pace of growth for each of the bulbs; is this typical?  Here it is today, with its first bloom:

Christmas Tablescape

Today I was inspired by all of the beautiful Christmas images from around the web and decided to continue our Christmas decorating in other areas of our house.  We have already set up our tree, decorated our living room, and created an advent calendar, so I thought I would turn my focus to our dining room.