Valentine Decor

I totally forgot that I took pictures of my Valentine decor and didn't share them with you!

Here's my Valentine "mantle"

I told you I needed more Valentine decorations! Sadly, I didn't find anything I liked in the stores this year, so I'll have to keep an eye out next year.

The picture frames are from Target. They always have cute frames for the various holidays/seasons. I have lots of these around our house. They are usually around $5. Sometimes I buy them when they're on sale and sometimes I wait until they go clearance the day after the holiday. It just depends on if I really "need" it!

The picture on the left is from one of our first dates and the picture on the right was taken the summer before we got engaged.

The cupcake was a gift from my mom. It usually lives on my kitchen windowsill.

What did I do with my Ikea vase?

Filled it with conversation hearts! I bought 2 bags at the grocery store when they were on sale. I figure they'll probably keep for a couple years, so I'll get more use out of them. The candle is also from Ikea.

I did find some super cute owl window clings at the grocery store, but I already took them down, so no picture!

I won't be decorating for St. Patrick's Day as neither of us is Irish and I've never really celebrated it. I'll wear green that day and that will be the extend of my "celebrating." I'm using the time between holidays to find some decorations for our mantle when it's not holiday time. I've got my eye on lots of cute things at Michael's. I won't be decorating for Easter until March 24, so plenty of time to find new stuff!

(I am totally trying to justify a trip to HomeGoods soon!)

Do you decorate for holidays? What's your favorite place to find decor items?

My New Favorite Store

I mentioned a few weeks ago that M and I went to Ikea on our vacation to pick up some new stuff for our house.  Our closest Ikea is a 2 1/2 hour drive, just outside Chicago. Obviously, a trip to Ikea is a day trip and requires planning. Sadly, we cannot just decide to go to Ikea on a whim.

On that last trip to Ikea, I also planned to visit some other home stores that were in the area that we do not have in our area. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to visit one of the stores, which made me sad because the stores we did visit were such a bust. Luckily, we had a chance to go back to the area a couple weekends ago and I was able to visit the store I missed.

It is now my favorite home store.

HomeGoods is run by the same company that runs two of my favorite bargain stores, T.J. Maxx & Marshall's. We have 2 T.J. Maxxs and 1 Marshall's in driving distance, but sadly no HomeGoods. Unlike those two stores, HomeGoods only sells items for the home.

At first I thought it would just be a bigger version of the various home items I see at my local T.J. Maxx and Marshall's. A messy, jumbled collection of knick-knacks, kitchen items and weird art. How wrong I was! The store was very neat and organized. They had all kinds of departments. Tableware, cookware, bedding, bath, decor and lots of furniture! They had a whole section of lamps. M and I even found the lamp that we bought at our local T.J. Maxx last fall.

My favorite part? The furniture! They had several Lane recliner chairs that would be perfect for the reading corner I'm trying to make in our living room. Sadly, none of the chairs were the right colors for our house.

So what did I get?

I picked up this green wooden bird for our living room. He was only $6. (Please ignore the crappy table that was in the only good light at the time.)

I picked this up for dining room. I haven't decided yet where to hang it, so no pictures of it on the wall just yet.

I'm now obsessed with trying to get back to HomeGoods. The closest ones are by Chicago or down by Indianapolis. Either way, not a quick trip! Maybe I should start a letter writing campaign to bring one to the area.


 HomeGoods and their parent company have no idea I even exist.  All opinions in this post are my own.

My First DIY

Now that the baking and gift wrapping is finally done, I can share with you my first DIY project for our home.  It also happens to be a Christmas decor project.

I've seen wreaths like this one for sale in various stores.

source

Most stores want anywhere from $30 on up for a wreath like this one.  I really wanted one for our front door, but I did NOT want to pay that much money for a wreath.

 

As it turns out, you don't have to!  (I'm a terrible blogger and did not document the process, so bear with me.) I bought a 24" wreath at Christmas Tree Shop for about $7.  I sprung for a lighted one, but you could go even cheaper with just a plain wreath.  I bought a set of ornaments for $2.50 at Michael's. (They were 1/2 off!) and some green twist wire for $1.50 at Meijer.

For just $11, I came up with this...

 

Pretty cute right? I'm on the hunt for the right ribbon to perhaps make a bow for the top. (I actually took off a pretty cheap looking "velvet" bow that came with the wreath.)  And bonus, I can always change the ornaments if I decide to change the look.

 

I've never been very crafty, but I'm pretty proud of my very first decor DIY project!

Christmas Decorations

I've mentioned before that I love Christmas and I love decorating for Christmas, so I thought I'd share with you some pictures of our decorations. Since this is our first Christmas in our house, it's kind of a hodgepodge of stuff that I've been buying over the years. (I love shopping on the day after Christmas!)

I've already shown you our tree,(which is still topper-less and skirt-less) so let's look at some other decorations.

Here's our "mantel."

We don't have a fireplace, so the top of our entertainment center became our mantel. I actually have ideas for decorating this, but I don't have any of the supplies I need and I'm waiting until after Christmas to buy them. So this year, I went with simple decor. I did buy the garland this year. It's from Target and it was on sale one week, so I grabbed it. The angel lamps hold tea lights and were a gift from a student years ago. I should have taken a closer picture so you could see how pretty they are.

The manger scene has a bit of a story behind it. Every year at the church I grew up in, the children receive a piece of it. How old you are determines which piece you get. I believe you start with the baby Jesus. These are hand carved figures, but I cannot remember where they come from. I believe it is either Israel or an African nation. I have all the pieces that my brothers and I received over the years. I'd like to point out that the 3 figures on the right are shepherds and not the Wise Men as I don't put the Wise Men in until Epiphany. (and yes, I know I really shouldn't put Jesus in until Christmas, but I thought it looked odd without him, so there he is.)

How about a quick look at our dining room table before it became gift wrapping central?
I really don't have ideas for this area because eventually our dining room will actually be decorated and have a theme. So this year, I just used what I had. The runner is from Kohl's and is always on the table as it actually is part of the theme.
This little tree was my Christmas tree when I lived in my college dorm. I got him at Target. I did decorate it with little ornaments, but a certain cat thinks they are fun to play with, so I've been finding them all over the house.

That's the majority of our Chistmas decorations! Next time, I'll show you my very first DIY craft that I made for our house!