A Little Nativity for Everyone.

This year I made a little tiny, portable Nativity for every family at church - plus extras!

I gave out 1 piece of the Nativity each week of Advent. 

We jokingly called it the "Happy Meal Nativity" - a new prize each week :)

In all seriousness I designed it to motivate each of us to think about each "major" player in the Nativity story in a special way. 

We tend to put our Nativity out and think, 

"OK. That part of my decorations is finished and not think about it in detail." 

Maybe you are more intentional than I am but the busyness of the season distracts me! Easily.

My components were Joseph, Mary, The Manger with a star above it and Baby Jesus, of course!

It all fits in a sandwich size baggie with a sticker on the front with a verse from Luke.

They were very popular and people were excited to get each piece. People put them on their desks at work (there's on in high finance and another at the Space Center in Huntsville!), gave them to grandchildren, friends, shut-ins, family at nursing homes and more.

 (That's where the extras went.)

They put them on the dash of their cars and mini vans, carried them in their backpacks and shared the story of each piece with people they showed it to. 

A  church visitor on this past Sunday was so intrigued she took pictures and asked for details so she can take the idea back to her church in North Carolina.

These little Nativities really got around!

Merry Christmas!

A Spot of Christmas Green

I have a new little spot in my garden area. 

I started this project a few months ago but it's just now all coming together

 so I gave it a little Christmas touch!

I had a bunch of bricks that I saved from a patio demo 

when we installed The Bucket this Summer.

The hutch is one that had been shuffled into the back of a storage area. 

I thought a coat of SW Lounge Green (which is the same color our porch floors are)

 would liven things up!

 No playing favorites here - we use ALL the plaid ribbons!

The twinkle lights are staying up year round (duh!)

 I look forward to how handy it will be this Spring.

But for now it has a holiday feel. 

#throwback Christmas Projects for Children

I'm throwing it back to when I used to design craft projects for children- 

just in case you are looking for some meaningful projects for this season and a way to spend creative time with your children or grandchildren!

(Follow all of the links for early blog posts with details and/or instructions)

Oh, and these posts are very old - pardon the primitiveness of my blogging! 

First up, an inexpensive and easy Advent Wreath. It just takes a little bit of time because of drying times but it's not too late to get this going for this year and the whole family could make it together.

This Advent Calendar was a huge hit. It's reusable and cost about $2.00 to make. Seriously!

I still have parents tell me that it's the first thing they pull out when they decorate and I taught their children a decade ago! Some of them are in college! 

But Christmas traditions are strong!

I wish I had a better picture - it's so cute filled with all of the ornaments and #25 is the star!
It's so, so simple. It's made from a Dollar Store cookie sheet, some spray paint I had on hand, craft paint and some foam shapes. Most people have to buy magnet tape for this but if you have some of the free advertising refrigerator magnets people send in the mail then you might have everything you need on hand. 

And here is a tiny Nativity that anyone and everyone can make! 

I've taught 3 year olds all the way up to senior adults to create these.

I used Altoid tins for a while that I spray painted black. They were free but it became difficult to collect the hundreds I needed when my craft camps were full so I switched to the little paper mache boxes and I really liked the simplicity and texture they added to the project. They are less than a dollar so it's still economical. 

You can also put the verse sticker on the back of the box, use the lid for another tiny Nativity and add a hanger to the top and hang it on the Christmas tree.

So gather up some supplies and found items, dollar tree finds and things on hand and create some Christmas crafting memories.

Merry Christmas Eve!

... and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Christmas Tour-ish Part Two

If you are just getting here and are wondering what a "tour-ish" is then catch up here!

Today's tour-ish is of the Family Room and Kitchen. 

We got our decorating completed early for a little gathering that Mollie and I co-host each year. We have a "Get Merry with Mimosas" brunch on the first Saturday of December. It kicks off the season in a good way - with family and friends, motivates us to clean and decorate early, lets us spend time with people who get busier and busier as the month goes on and results in us being less hurried later on. Our decorating is completed - and let's face it, if the party was later in the month I'd be decorating up to the last minute!


A little bonus to this "tour-ish" is that we had
 a very unusual, unexpected 8 inches of snow in the South. 
So, probably for the first time ever, I have snow pictures at Christmas!!

This is a LOT of snow for Georgia. And rare in December!

(The huge Sycamore in the backyard after dark on Friday night!)

So it was very pretty outside. And quiet. Not a creature was stirring.

Now back inside:

Here is the Family Room full of friends at our Get Merry with Mimosas Party!
(and that weekend it was 68 degrees!! Then snow the next!)

(Cute girls but please notice I painted my ugly fireplace brick white and it looks so good!)

This room is not easy to photograph. 

The morning light is very bright as you can see and then it's dark by noon :(

We brought our trees back from our Thanksgiving trip to VA.

They look smaller in the "wild." :)

This one is pretty big - we had to trim. A lot.

Last year we only got lights on the tree before our Mimosa Brunch

 and never went back and added anything else!

This year we got glass ball ornaments on it!

Notice how fabulous they look with animal print.

#animalprintisaneutral

Maybe next year we will get to the "family" ornaments we have collected through the years. #goals

The tree is really the main decoration in our family room each year. 

We do have fresh greenery and palmetto fans on the mantle
 and a few things tucked here and there.
 But not much.
 So much daily living goes on in there that there isn't room for much more!

(FYI  I talk about drapes for the family room all. the. time.  So far - nothing)

(Early Christmas present - blue and white garden stool from my hubby.

Opened early so I could have it at our Mimosa Party!)

The kitchen is fairly minimal as well.
 I use wreaths to give the kitchen it's Christmas cheer.

And we have a second tree on the back porch 
with lots and lots of colored lights in all shapes and sizes. 

Anything goes back here :)

A jingle bell wreath on the back door get a lot of movement so lots of angels get their wings...

"Every time a bell rings an angel gets her wings."  ZuZu Bailey  It's A Wonderful Life

Please excuse the tarped-for-Winter furniture outside on the porch.

 I should have uncovered it for photos but you know, life.)

(I recovered my chairs before the Mimosa party! I love this fabric, Ming Dragon I believe. It was supposed to be used in the last One Room Challenge but got scratched at the last minute. Perfect on these chairs!!)

 I love wreaths and bows and they do not usurp counter space
 so that works in our busy kitchen.

Bowls and bowls of Christmas candy are a must. 

Speaking of busy- my stove top is never, ever as clean as I would like during the holidays 
so I have a quick fix! 
I have a cookie sheet with really cute "faux" gingerbread men on it! 
I actually made this for a Junior League Christmas Showhouse 
that I was part of a few years ago. 
It comes in handy though!

That's about it for our Christmas "Tour-ish." So, we wish you a merry Christmas from our house to yours :)

#hohohomerrychristmas

Christmas Tour-ish!

I hesitate to use the terminology "Christmas Tour" of my home considering some of the blogger tours out there!

So I guess it's a tour-ish! Sort of a tour...

Really just some peeks into our Christmas decorating...

We have a new (to us) greeter guy by the front steps.

I decided to cozy him up with a plaid scarf and Mollie gave him some sparkle with a "bouquet" of shiny ornaments in the shell he holds.

We are pretty smitten with him.

Just inside the front door is our most recent One Room Challenge project - our entryway.

It was fun adding some holiday touches to our "new" room.

The ceramic Nativity lights up but doesn't photograph well that way. 

I have been putting it on that chest for longer than I can remember.

I put a $4.00 pink poinsettia in a cachepot and added magnolia branches and evergreens to make it full and look good reflected in the mirror.

I'm a pink or white poinsettia gal all the way.

On the opposite wall in the entryway is my fabulous Brighton chair and table thrifting find from a few months ago.

To the left of the entryway is our Library.

 Formerly the Dining Room, about 10 years ago we started adding bookcases

 and morphing it into the full blown library it is today.

It is the only room that doesn't have white walls - they are high gloss black 

(Sherwin Williams Tricorn).

The Library is all about the blue and white chinoiserie ornaments on a mini tree. 

Oh, and wearing our furs. Faux, of course.

I hinted on Instagram last week that I was making a few changes in our downstairs powder room in preparation for a holiday brunch that Mollie and I jointly co-host.

It was supposed to be a quick paint job to  switch the green mirror for a different bamboo mirror I found the week before and paint it and the tan cabinet a bright cheery coral-y pink to coordinate with my flamingo print and add some pizzazz to the powder room.

We love the bright color (and by "we" I do not mean my husband) 

and it really adds a lot to the room even if I ended up not being able to use the "new" mirror after painting it and then having to repaint the first bamboo mirror from green to the new SW Grenadine pinky-coral color. 

This is why one should not start a project a few days before one has 20 women for brunch and why one should try mirrors to see if they fit before one paints them. 

Just sayin'

(And the towel is crooked. But isn't it cute?)

You can see the big tree on the screened in porch peeking in.

 A few pink bottle brush trees and some shiny ornaments for the bamboo shelf 

and we are set in this little room.

That concludes Part One of our Tour-ish. 

More to come soon.

I hope.