Every year about this time I get the urge to decorate everything in sight, but I get tired of the same-old same-old decorations. Plus, I'm unemployed and money is not exactly growing on the pomegranate tree in my parents' backyard. Thanks to a certain former roommate, I've also become a Real Simple disciple, so I checked out their holiday decorating section. They have some FABULOUS decorating ideas that have are a nice twist on the traditional decorations. They are generally easy and often inexpensive. Here is the website. Several of these ideas use satin or other decorative ribbon. This can be very inexpensive at Michael's or other craft stores. Michael's usually has a $1 ribbon bin somewhere, and I scour craft stores for clearance or sale ribbon. (Christmas ribbon doesn't have to be green, red, or silver to be festive. I personally love light or medium-blue and chocolate brown.) I've highlighted some of my favorite ideas:
Make garland with penne pasta and decorate with satin bows. I love this idea!
This next one uses cookie cutters and pretty satin ribbon. You might as wall string up those cookie cutters and look at them because, if you're anything like me, you have big plans for holiday baking - and that's where it stops. Even if you actually bake, you only use them about 4 hours every holiday season. If you don't even have cookie cutters (guilty!) they're very inexpensive to purchase and you can probably find a bunch at second-hand stores.
So you know when you were a kid and Christmas decorating involved those nasty, rubbery plastic holly candle wreaths? I love this idea to pull apart the wreaths and put the "greenery" in pretty decorative jars (it feels very post-modern). If you haven't inherited mom's Christmas decorations and don't have any laying around, I think every DI in North America has roughly three hundred bins full of these things.
I LOVE this ornament idea. Bonus: unlike candy canes, you can eat them off the tree and only feel mildly guilty and they're super cheap to replace.
Make sure to check out the "Present Toppers" link. They have some darling ideas!
Happy decorating!
1 comment:
SOOOOO cute! Great ideas!
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