Christmas Mantel

I haven’t done too much holiday decorating, but after our stint downtown Chicago, I was totally inspired to start. I even made a Christmas craft!

Here’s my Christmas mantel!

I made the “Maligayang Pasko” sign/décor the other night, and tomorrow I’ll show you how I did it!

“Maligayang Pasko” is how you say “Merry Christmas” in the Philippines!

I’ve got a very multicultural mantel (well, at least two cultures). :) Next to my Maligayang Pasko sign are two Swedish Santas that I embroidered and sewed together a few years ago.

They’re from a Husqvarna Viking embroidery disk.

I made a spot for Katie Daisy’s “Peace on Earth” print (next to some Barbie ornaments).

And no mantel would be complete without stockings, in our case a hodge-podge of 99-cent clearance stockings from Old Navy, which I embroidered with our names, and some removable-picture pet stockings that will hopefully last for many pets. :)

Before all this, I had just begun playing around, styling the mantel with my Spring in the Dunes print.  I was using various empty frames (well, filled with whatever the store had in them) and objects for height and scale.

But I’m pretty happy to leave that project until after the new year and enjoy this for now.

Now onto cleaning and decorating the rest of the house!

Aerogardens on Sale!

So, I should have posted this sooner, but they keep threatening to end the sale, so I didn’t. (Of course, now that I’m actually posting this, the sale might be actually over tomorrow.)  Aerogardens are on sale!

For the past few weeks, Aerogarden’s been having some good sales, (Cyber Week, baby!)but in my opinion, the best one is the Aerogarden 3, like I have, for $49.95.  Trust me, that is the best price all year.  I know.  I’ve been shopping for them all year. :) You won’t find one cheaper!

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I love mine! I love watching it grow, and I love having fresh herbs for cooking. (In fact, I’ve got a stuffed chicken post that I should really write up for you! Yum.)

If you’ve been thinking about getting yourself one, now’s the time! (If I didn’t jinx the sale by posting this, that is.)  :)

Happy shopping!

(Update: today, Dec 5, the black Aerogarden 3 is still $49.95 but the others are $59.95, BUT they’re offering free shipping! Go shop!) :)

Ideal Bookshelf Book and House of Hepworths

So, I’ve been telling you how I’ve bought (and been in love with) some of Jane Mount’s “Ideal Bookshelf” prints on 20x200.

I just found out (via Cup of Jo) that she’s illustrated a whole book of ideal bookshelves! My Ideal Bookshelf is totally going on my Christmas wishlist!

Head over to Cup of Jo for some more pictures from inside the book!

………………..

And here’s a new blog I’ve been reading: House of Hepworths.

I can’t remember how I found it…it was either Pinterest or Young House Love. :)

She’s got lots of great ideas, including this “fake pinch pleat” which I totally plan on using when I finally get to making my living room curtains.

I’m also in the process of making some Christmas artwork inspired by this post.

And this post.

Head over there and check it out!

December

The holiday season always sneaks up on me. Even though I’ve been busily buying Christmas presents since Thanksgiving, I haven’t been quite in the spirit to start decorating my house (I still have pumpkins on the front porch!).  I mean, how is it December already?

It was 60 degrees out yesterday (and today), so I did put up decorations and lights on the outside of our house, because I knew I’d never get a better time.  But figuring out numbers and lengths of extension cords doesn’t exactly get you in the Christmas spirit.

Then last night, we ventured to downtown Chicago with friends (since it was so warm) and really kicked off our holiday season. :)

We stopped first at Daley Plaza for Christkindlmarket.

I was in love with these colorful lighted stars. I know we’ve all seen them before, but how pretty do they glow? What if these were your only holiday decorations? Gorgeous.

Then we headed over to Michigan Avenue to see the trees and eat a delicious late dinner.

It’s all enough to get anyone excited for the holidays, right?

I feel like I’m ready to start my decorating! I’ve been pinning a lot of ideas, so I think it’s time to actually bring of them to fruition.

Where are you with your holiday decorating? Have you started? Are you done? Can you believe it’s December??

More Artwork for Me and for You

The worst part about Christmastime + blog is that I want to share all these great things I find, but I don’t want to spoil presents and surprises! So all I can say is that if you know me, and you want to buy something that I’m posting, you’d better contact me first so I can tell you if it’s okay or not! :)

Last night, I just went ahead and got another Jane Mount bookshelf print from 20x200.

Did I already tell you that I bought this photography-themed one a while ago?

I love books and I love paintings of books, what can I say? :)

While I’m telling you about lovely things that I have bought but not hung, I also got this awesome watercolor of London from 20x200.

And I got this cat painting at a resale shop. I’m not normally a fan of animal/pet art to really hang in my house, but this one seemed pretty cool (and it looks a lot like my cat, Puppy). And with a new mat and frame, it will be perfect.

I just can’t wait to hang everything (ahem, but when?) and show it all to you in action!

Then this morning, via Pinterest, I stumbled upon Katie Daisy, an awesome artist who sells her work via Etsy (as well as other places).

Isn’t her stuff great?

And for Christmas:

So beautiful, right? I am definitely ordering quite a few prints today.

Again, if you know me, don’t order anything until you get my consent. :)

Have you found anything beautiful today?

Cyber Monday Fabric Shopping!

Did you do any shopping this weekend? I did a lot and it was great! Mostly online, but we ventured out to a few stores eventually.  There were great deals and I feel like I’m ahead of the game for Christmas!

I even got a new bike! (That I really was supposed to get around my birthday – thanks, Mom!)

Today, onlinefabricstore.net is having their Cyber Monday sale, and my chair fabric is included! Woohoo!!

Now, this doesn’t actually guarantee that the chairs will get reupholstered anytime soon…

 

But it would be oh-so-nice to have them done (and some curtains made and hung) before New Year’s.  It’s good to have goals, right?

Are you doing any Cyber Monday shopping today? Do you have lofty goals? :)

Thankful

Of course I am thankful for lots of things, but as cheesy as it sounds, I’m thankful for my family.

This is not nearly all of them, but they put up with my picture taking and stick out their tongues when I tell them to.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!