DIY Mercury Glass Christmas Trees

It's been a year.  A whole year.  Yes, I know, how terrible of me to stay away for so long!  Things just got busy and one day turned into another, which then turned into a month and well, here we are...an entire year later.

I'ts been a good year though.  We have been blessed and are so thankful.  We spent most of our weekends this summer at our cabin by the lake in the mountains.  We were excited to spend another week in South Carolina enjoying the beach {A family member lives there part time and was so gracious in sharing his home with us} I've been keeping busy with all sorts of fun little projects too.  

I've re-done lamps, made chalkboards, painted cabinets, started Project Life...I've been sewing, reupholstering chairs and ottomans...I completely re-did our bedroom {with an absolutely amazing color on the walls} and I've even dabbled in paper crafting and card making!

Whew, a lot I know but it's been a year remember?

I'll be sure to share all of these things in the coming weeks but for today's post, I wanted to share a project that I did for Christmas.

Mercury glass Christmas trees.

  I know you've seen them around.  They're so pretty and they add the perfect amount of sparkle to your Christmas decorating.

Let's face it though, they're expensive.  Especially if you wish to use more than one!

So, one day last year while walking through the Salvation Army thrift store I saw a tree shaped glass container and it sparked an idea.  It was 25 cents so I scooped it up and then started collecting them all year.

When it was time to start decorating for Christmas this year, I had seven of them (one of them isn't pictured here).  Most were clear glass but two were green in color.  They had a plastic lid that seals the bottom.  I think they were used as candy dishes?  The best part?  I only paid 25 cents each for them except for the large one in the back...it was $1.50

Using my DIY mercury glass technique that I posted about here, I went to work painting all of these trees with Krylon Looking Glass Mirror paint.  

I love how they turned out and they add just the sparkle that I was looking for!

I've scattered them throughout the house and they've landed on tabletops, the piano, and the fireplace mantel.

I even put two of them on our bedroom mantel.  I love them!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all are enjoying a blessed Christmas Season!

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

A Ballard Designs Stocking Knock-off and...Christmas all Through the House

The windows

are

all adorned...

...the chandeliers too...

the coffee pot is on,

ready to welcome you!

Our hearts are set on home,

no place we'd rather be...

gathered all together to trim the Christmas tree!

*****

We have been busy decorating and fluffing, enjoying this Christmas season.  I've been working on a few projects ~ super simple and inexpensive that I will share.

First up are these stocking I made - inspired by Ballard Designs.  I saw them on the current cover of Country Living magazine...LOVE them but not for $39.00 each!

So, I made my own. 

Very simple really.

  Take an inexpensive stocking that you can buy at Walmart and lay it out on a piece of burlap that has been folded in half {or freehand it}.   Cut around the stocking so that when you're finished you have two matching pieces.  Sew them up, wrong sides together.  Now turn it right side out and sew a piece of upholstery webbing onto the top edge of your stocking.  Lastly, sew on a loop of ribbon, jute, or whatever you have on hand so that you can hang it.  I used seam binding.  That's it!  For less than a dollar each, you have a pretty Ballard inspired stocking to hang on your mantle.    

***

Another fun project I did were these faux mercury glass ornaments. They're actually plastic and from the dollar store (shhh...don't tell anyone)

They were an unattractive gold color when I bought them.  I simply spray painted them with metallic silver spray paint.  Now here's the cool part about this project.  The plastic and paint that these ornaments are made of don't completely agree with  spray paint.  The silver paint covers it well enough, but it bubbles up here and there creating a look that resembles mercury glass.  I loved the finish that this created.

the ornaments needed a little something paired with them so I also made this chalkboard.  The tray is another dollar store find that I taped off and sprayed with chalkboard paint. 

throw in a pretty glass bowl of citrus

and you have an instant vignette for the kitchen island!

***

Underneath the coffee station in the kitchen, I added this basket of old percolators and tucked in a bit of white pine greenery.

I put a Christmas tree laden with candles up on the mantle.  See the champagne bucket it sits in?  A great French bucket look-alike until I can actually find an old authentic one{I found these for $6.99 at the Christmas Tree Shops}! 

I hope you are having a blessed advent season.

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas!

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

Christmas in the Air

We're doing lots of decorating and lots of listening to Christmas music.  I love this time of year... it's true meaning is very special.  There is much peace, love and happiness and I enjoy making the house sparkle to reflect that!

I've redone my chalkboard on the mantle for Christmas.  Now I just need to get some fresh greenery to tuck in here and there.

These are the birds I worked on last week that I mentioned earlier.  I'm going to post tomorrow about how I did them.  A fun project that was very easy to do.  The product of sudden inspiration while at the store shopping with my husband. 

Be sure to come back tomorrow for the how-to!

Some reindeer that I added to the mantle alongside the chalkboard

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

Christmas Around the House

We did some more decorating this weekend

a few touches here and there...

even the piano is looking festive.

the mirror in the foyer

wishing you joy

a silvery icicle

and some vintage silver balls

the front living room tree

Hoping everyone had a good weekend and that you are enjoying this Christmas season!

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

The Day After

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know we did!!!

The day started off a little crazy, but that's what keeps it interesting right?

You see, everything was going along smoothly at first. We got up early and my husband and I were enjoying a cup of coffee while getting breakfast ready for the kids. Then, as we got ready to prepare a huge meal for about 20 guests...it happened. I discovered that we suddenly had no running water. Now you have to understand, around here, we seem to always have a water main break somewhere in town which causes the surrounding neighborhoods to be without water for a couple of hours. No big deal, we're used to it. So I thought...okay, I'll just do something else until the water comes back on. Yeah...famous last words. I then discovered a huge puddle of water on the floor in front of the sink. Our sink sprayer hose decided to burst on Thanksgiving morning! Each time I turned on the faucet, testing for water, I was unknowingly sending a torrent of water loose under the sink.

Well, we had seen tons of commercials on TV advertising Lowes pre-black Friday sales, so we assumed that Lowes was open right? Wrong! No one is open on Thanksgiving Day! Here we were with no runing water in the kitchen and I needed to wash potatoes and do lots of breakfast dishes! We got lucky though, there was someone else in the neighborhood who seemed to be having some plumbing issues as well. They had called a local plumbing service who made a Thanksgiving house call. My husband walked over to the neighbor's house as the plumber was finishing up and heading back out to his truck. Hubby asked the guy if he happened to have a sink sprayer hose that he might be able to sell us. Not only did he have one in his truck, he gave it to my husband. Yes, gave it to him - free of charge. Hubs insisted that we pay but he wouldn't take anything for it. Just wished us a Happy Thanksgiving and told my husband not to worry about it. People are so generous!! Anyway, thanks to that plumber who makes house calls and another very handy neighbor, we got that sink up and running in no time. Thanksgiving was saved and we had a lovely dinner! We had lots of family over and after dinner we all competed with each other in a Wii Bowling competition. We had such a blast and have vowed to get together very soon to do it again. A large family game night! What fun!

~~~

Today, we started the full fledged Christmas decorating AND...I am getting ready to embark upon a HUGE project. It involves our bedroom, paint and lots of furniture rearranging. Wish me luck!! I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew!

The basement project is finished. I'm just waiting to find a beautiful Frenchy cabinet to house all of my creative supplies. So, for the time being, I have decided to move on to the bedroom redecorating project. Will have lots of photos to share once everything is complete!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

~~~

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen