Christmas Time in the Willey Household

Apologies for not updating this in a while. I've been doing things here and there. Although it seems like time has gotten away from me, I have managed to get 1/4 of the way done with my Florida Gator's quilt. I've also started making some Christmas gifts for the family. Since we are poor college students, I've opted to make most of my gifts. I've worked on a couple of DIY decorations for the house as well.

As you may remember my fall wreath here. Since I hot glued the things on it, they were super easy to take off. I reused the wreath for my Christmas wreath. I had the ribbon from last year's decorations. I got all of the little decorations at Hobby Lobby for 50%. So in all it cost less than $7 on this. I think it looks amazing!! I just cut the pieces with wire cutters, wrapped the wreath with ribbon and hot glued everything on it.

I had exams to study for this past weekend. While I was occupied, my husband, his best friend Brice and his girl friend and a good friend of mine, Sam, went out to her property and cut down a Christmas tree for us. It fits perfectly in the corner of the big room and looks awesome with the decorations on it!!

I also cannot leave out my mini Florida Gator tree on my awesome console table! Not to mention the amazing crocheted stockings for Eric and me, by my mother :)

My truss table is holding my big bowl of ornaments and greenery next to the front door. I wanted to put Christmas lights on this table, but unfortunately the nearest outlet is in the middle of the hall way. Either way, it still looks fantastic!

And finally, since I don't have a "proper" place for the Christmas cards that we receive, I had to look for another option. I took some leftover Christmas ribbon from the wreath and slung it over my cabinet doors. Simple!!

I have a ton of this ribbon! Just in case we get a lot of cards this year, I have more cabinet doors I can put more on.

I'll be stopping by the hardware store next week after I take my final exam for my next furniture project. Be on the lookout for my updates on that!!

Until next time,
Sarah

Fall Decor

Right after Labor Day, I got the itch to take all of my summer decorations down and to make it look like fall threw up in my house. So I ventured out to Hobby Lobby and Michael's...and spent a little more than expected. In my defense though, the fall garland and flowers were SUPER cheap and the vases I bought will serve more than fall decorations.

I replaced the summer flowers with fall flowers in my teapot.

This was fun! Got a bare wreath at Hobby Lobby for 2.99 and hot-glued various fall things on it.

With the abundance of pine trees here in the Black Hills, comes an abundance of pine cones. Not going out to the craft store and purchasing them. Nope, they are right in the backyard. I ended up about 2 miles from where we live and took a hike. I returned home with 2 plastic bags full of pine cones and a handful of different sticks and dried up grass. I baked the pine cones at 220 degree for 20 minutes. Let me just say when I took them out, it smelled like Christmas! I did the same with the sticks and grass. This kills whatever was living in the pine cones and pretty much dries up any sap on them. You have to be careful and keep a close eye on them...they can catch on fire. Here's my finished product.

What is really funny is the straw around the big pine cone bowl...that came off of a package. It was tied around to keep it closed! I think everything turned out perfect! Notice that I did end up getting some baskets for the bottom shelves of my table...they were 30% clearance at Target. What a steal!!

Until next time,
Sarah