Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all enjoyed this wonderful holiday and are still in the midst of the celebration and joy! And to those of you back at work, thanks for making the world continue (ohhh possible Mayan joke?!). So I had every intention of getting this post up pre-Christmas, but with company coming in, it just didn’t happen. I still wanted to share the festive table settings and glittery creations to let the season live a little longer and to perhaps give you some inspiration for next year.
The first order of business was to allow my obsession with glitter, which the holidays only fuel (can I get a hallelujah?!), to come out in full force with this glitter project that I found over on 5 Days…5 Ways. She so very nicely made up these beautiful reindeer and Christmas tree templates. All I had to do was print them out, cover the black areas with glue, and then dump sprinkle nicely glitter all over them. Wa-la! Beautiful glittery Christmas decorations.
But I wasn’t done with the glitter yet! [Insert maniacal glitter obsessed laugh here]. I had collected some pinecones (from work no less!) and had been itching to do some sort of décor with them. unfortunately, they had just been sitting in a bag until this point. So with my glue and glitter arsenal, I attacked the pinecones. What I first did was just randomly paint sections of the pine cones with gold paint. I love the look of natural wood with gold. I think it has an elegant, rustic look. Then I painted the entire pine cone with glue and once again sprinkled it with glitter. Another way you could do this would be to spray paint the cones gold and then use a spray adhesive to coat the cones and then dump the glitter on them. It depends what you have on hand.
Once I let all my glitter creations dry, it was time to put them around the house. The first place I did a little more Christmas décor was in the guest bedroom. I wanted to add a little more Christmas sparkle here because we had guests who would be staying here. So I made up a nice little winter glitter wonderland for them to wake up to every morning.
Then it was time to attack the tables. We were going to be using our formal dining room (it’s about time!) and it was already looking quite spiffy with its new light fixture, new rug, and beautiful Roman Shades, but it still needed some more Christmas-ing up!
For the most part I used what I had: ornaments, mason jars, a glass vase, and the beaded place mats. Although I did spend about $3 on this table with my bargain poinsettia (always get them 75% off at Lowe’s this time of year) and the three round, gold, candle items that I picked up at Goodwill for a grand total of $2. To get the natural element in the table, I clipped off some shoots from our holly bush outside. I can’t believe I had never done this before! The holly bushes have beautiful red berries on them all winter long, and they hold up really well after they have been clipped.
Then I moved into the dining area in the kitchen, which I thought could get some sprucing up.
I used the table runner that my mother-in-law made (incredible, right?!), a vase I had, more holly clippings, green napkins I already had on hand, and then…for the grand finale, mini Santa hats. I think they came on candles we bought for Christmas last year. They were just hanging around in a pile of Christmas odds-and-ends. Then, I saw them and inspiration hit! I wanted to keep the salt and pepper shakers on the table for practical purposes, but they just looked off in the décor. Whoosh went the Santa hats over the shakers. A giant grin went on my face. They were the crown jewels of the table setting in my mind. It was the main item I showed off to company. Every time someone came to the house, I whisked those little hats off to surprise them what was underneath. Do you think I’m a little too proud of that little Christmas decoration?
So there brings to an end, the finale of Christmas décor in the Rapp household. Yes, the tree will be up for at least another week or two to really eek out the best of the season, but no more holiday decorating and crafts. It’s time to regroup until next year. Once again, I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!
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