Winter Decor

It's January!  And it's hard to believe that it's 2013!  I remember when the 2002 Winter Olympics were announced and that felt so far away.  It was a big deal because it was local - and nothing ever really happens in Utah! Ha.  And now... 2002 is in the distant past.  Time flies!

So I love two things - well, I love LOTS of things, but two in particular for today... Home Decor and Silhouette - and when I can merge the two, I'm a happy girl.  I like using the Silhouette Studio software to make signs and printables.  I enjoy layering patterns and shapes and changing opacities and line settings.

I made this sign last Winter and it's one of my very favorite things I've ever created with my beautiful machine. And then my hard drive died.  I'm glad I printed it, but I wish I still had the hard copy.  I can recreate it, but I haven't.  I also made the smaller sign.  It's much more simple.  No layering - no changes to opacity - basically just a font with a pattern fill.  Still cute.  I found that blue and wood frame at TJ Maxx and bought it without a plan in mind.

The paper trees are new this year.  I found them on Pinterest and my friend and I had a craft night to make those and a couple other little things.  The instructions are here.  They were very easy, but more time consuming than I thought they'd be.  The furry tree is a craft boa that I wrapped around a metal frame and stuck on a candlestick.  Simple, but cute.  And it's more fun to enjoy "winter" in my warm house than outside in the below-zero temperatures! Brr! 

Christmas Tree Decorating

I love my Christmas Tree.  I've learned a few things over the years that have made my tree better. I don't consider myself an expert, but I do enjoy the process a whole lot.  Also, photographing a tree is hard!

We had a 6.5' tree for a couple years and it made me claustrophobic.  In fact, one year I took the tree down a week before Christmas because I was tired of having it in my space. That said, I live in an apartment.  In a house, I would have no issues with a larger tree.  Our is 4.5' and it is perfect for us.

Pick a color scheme or theme.  Or go with a collected/eclectic look.  I chose to match the decor in my living room.  It's primarily orange, aqua, and plum.  Choose ornaments in various sizes (appropriate to the size of the tree), colors, and finishes (shiny/matte/glitter).  That adds a lot of interest. 

Also, use plenty or ornaments.  I don't like naked trees.  Nor do I like trees where you can't see any tree at all under the mass of ornaments. I have approximately 75 ornaments ranging from 2-6" on my 4.5" tree.  For my own taste, I won't do more than that.  I may switch out some of the existing ornaments, but I like concentration of ornaments as they are now.

Attach ornaments to the tree with green florist wire.  That allows you to place ornaments exactly where you want them and it controls how they hang.  It's also great for people with pets or small children because it's much more difficult to knock the ornaments off the branches.

I like to tuck some ornaments deep into the branches while others hang from the ends.  That gives the whole tree more depth and more interest as well. 

I prefer a fake tree, but I don't prefer to see areas of the tree that are less full - primarily on the inside of the branches.  I bought a cheap fir garland ($4 at Walmart, I believe) and cut it in 3 or 4 pieces and then I strung it between the empty spots on the inside of the tree.  It looks like a much more expensive tree now.   Very full and lush!

I also like matching the gift wrap to the style of the tree.  I used lots of ribbon and paper doilies on mine. Now I just need to finish shopping!

Halloween Decor

I feel like Autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all thrown at me at once and I'm changing up my decor a lot over 3-4 months time.  Then there is a huge dead-spot for decor on the calendar that stretches from Easter to Autumn.  It seems that things could have been spaced out a little better. Haha.

I like to add new things to my decor and switch things up so that there is some variety from year to year.  This year's addition is the canvas print.  I designed a similar sign last year and framed it.  And I really liked it... except, I kept thinking about how much more I'd like it if it was a canvas.

The original sign was created with my Silhouette Studio software, so I needed to recreate it in Photoshop for printing and sizing.  I ordered here and waited forever. I was anxious to see it and they also had a computer glitch on their end - the combo made it seem like forever.

I added some potion jars I created last year and some decorative pumpkins from a few years back.  I also suspended a spider from a little web that I stuck to the ceiling with clear thumbtacks.  He's on clear, elastic thread, but the photo caught the shadow, so it looks like it's dark thread.

Unfortunately, I was waiting on the canvas to decorate for Halloween so I won't get to enjoy this decor for very long. Soon enough, I'll be switching things up for Thanksgiving.  I'm also kind of obsessed with canvas prints now and want to order all the signs I've created on raised canvas!  They're more than I'd pay at the store, but I somehow justify it in my mind because I did the design work and made exactly what I wanted.  Haha!