Chelsea says Merry Christmas and so do I! I'm going to be taking a blogging break through the Christmas holiday so I can get all of the presents wrapped, house cleaned, menu set, family visited, etc. etc. - you know how it goes!
A very Merry Christmas to you all.
As is the case with many this year, our budget is tight. I wanted to dress up our outdoor areas for the holidays but I didn't want to spend the money on the usual mixture of greens and miscellaneous bits and bobs that I usually do. So I went to the Dollar Tree and found a treasure trove of goodies! The green poinsettias above are velvet, I opted for green as the window boxes will stay this way through winter. I also found the felt snowman scene. I stuck a few skewers in to keep the little family in place and good to go! The greens were snipped from some trees in the backyard.
All in all a very affordable project.
I also found faux holly and the gold Christmas tree at the Dollar Store. Mixed in some more of the free backyard greens and the front stoop is all set.
I snapped these photos quickly before work and neglected to straighten the tree. My neighbor was outside at the time I was taking these and I think he though I was crazy!
This has nothing to do with outdoors but I wanted to show you a photo of the stocking my mother-in-law made Chelsea. I had to use the flash in order to get the details as the house was too dark. This baby is huge! It is much longer than Mommy and Daddy's stockings. I think Santa may have to stuff some newspaper in the bottom of this bad boy or he will go broke.
I have stumbled across a fabulous English company, Ella's Kitchen Company. Just look at these fabulous products! Love these drawer systems developed for holding dry foods and spices - they do ship internationally as well! Now I just need to save my pennies.
Want!
Love!
Need!
All photos taken from Ella's Kitchen Company.
Following up on my previous post I thought I'd share some scenes from our Christmas village. The previous post was a compilation of some of my favs from Flickr. This past weekend Jeff set up a small portion of our village pieces in our kitchen window. We have Radio City where we can take in the Christmas Show. Have you ever been? Even though I have been to NYC countless times and only live 90 minutes away, I still have not taken part in this holiday tradition. Perhaps in a few years when Chelsea can come with us...
I love the idea of walking around the snow covered streets and picking up some fresh mistletoe.
We can even stop off at Rockefeller Plaza for some ice skating (if I knew how to ice skate that is).
Here is an overall view. Also a bargain hunter tip - Lowes has packs of 4 street lamps for less than $6.00! We found this out after purchasing a Dept. 56 pack of 2 for $20.00. Needless to say, hubby returned those and purchased two Lowes sets at a fraction of the price.
