It's Alive!

My Christmas tree, that is.  Since getting my own apartment, I've had the same fake little tree.  It's a very nice, full, psuedo-realistic fake tree, and the decoration has varied slightly from year to year, but I decided this year I'd shake it up a bit. Both this year and last, while perusing Home Depot, my attention was grabbed by these cute little potted trees for $25 a piece.

Considering I took a pretty much identical phone pic last year, I went for it!

It's a little Charlie Brown-ish, but I'm totally digging it.  She's got Pizazz!

And it got a custom pot thanks to rope and hot glue.

It grounds it and adds texture below the branches.  Small project for such an impact!

I also reused last year's DIY clay ornaments, although I'm thinking a new DIY ornament for this year is in order, don't you think?

My new tree topper that I purchased on our trip the other week is reminiscent of the light that I used last year, but much daintier.

As I mentioned last week, for the first time ever, the interior wasn't the only place getting a bit of decoration.  After a bit of hemming and hawing, I decided to go au naturale outside with real garland draped around the porch entry with simple white lights.  At night it adds just a little bit of 'sparkle' and makes me smile without making dear Hubby cringe- mission accomplished!

I've also purchased my FIRST EVER wreath!  Yup, I've never been a wreath person before, but this one from Target hit just the right note.

I'm sure some of the decorations will evolve a bit over the next few weeks as I play around with things a bit more.  It's definitely helping to get me in the Christmas spirit!  That and LOTS of Christmas music!  It's an addiction, that I only let myself indulge in for a month every year.  Who's with me? What's your favorite Christmas song or CD?

Overcoming PTCD

Christmas decorating is going to be a little bit more exciting for me this year- my wheels are turning with ideas!  Why so different?  Well, for the first time in 5 years of living together, Humbug Hubby has given the green light on white lights- on our porch. As a young Jewish boy working in retail during the holiday season, Hubby was traumatized early by Christmas music on repeat and garish, in-your-face decorations.  Being the good wife that I am, I have tried to be sensitive to his PTCD (post traumatic Christmas disorder) and kept the decorating rather simple.  The extent of our previous exterior decorations was a kissing ball.  Last year, in a moment of clarity (or slip of the tongue) Hubby mentioned how nice tasteful white lights can look.  Yes Dear, I agree, we should totally have tasteful white lights on our porch this year!  What a great idea!

Oh the possibilities!!!

So I was thinking of doing something simple like this:

Too much?

I can only imagine what our electricity would cost with that on!  I kid of course, I was more thinking along the lines of this.

The puppy completes the ambiance.  Think I could get Charlie to pose in a Santa hat?

I love the not-too-traditional-but-still-traditional look of magnolia garland.  Mix in a few metallic leaves and it would be magical (IMHO)

No lights that I see here, but if you imagine this simple garland with lights, I could see that working on my porch.  I also love the wreath (I see a non-traditional greenery theme emerging)

This is also a leading contender.  Take away the large red bows and maybe add a simple burlap bow and now we're talking.

I know it's probably taboo of me to say in blogland, but I have no desire to spend exorbitant amounts of time and money decorating when it'll be mainly Hubby and I seeing it.  I'd rather have a few festive vignettes that put a smile on my face and get us into the holiday spirit.

I'll probably bust out the tree and ornaments and get started this weekend- I may even force Hubby to help.  It'll be good therapy for his PTCD, I think.

sources 1/2/3/4/5 If you know the original, non-pinterest sources, please share- I'd like to give credit where it's due!

Salvaged Tile Art

Last week when I was brute-forcing the bathroom floor out, I was hit with inspiration in the form of concrete chunks.... that's not too odd is it?

In my demo delirium (I've decided that's a thing) I looked at these pieces and fell in love with the modern art that smashing a floor created.  I thought it might be a bit too crazy to frame a chunk of concrete (not to mention HEAVY), so I salvaged some individual tiles that were intact and had a bit of fun.

The lighting seems to have been a bit funky in my house/I probably had the camera setting wrong while doing this project, but the real color of the tiles is closest to the smashy pictures above.

I got a shadow box frame from Michael's (with a coupon naturally) and started experimenting with tile patterns.  Once I settled on a placement, the tiles got glued directly to the frame's black fabric backing.

The entire project was complete in just a matter of minutes.

Who knew tiles saved from the dumpster could be so pretty?

Before gifting it to our real estate agent for all her hard work in helping us find Frankie (thanks again Amy!), I attempted to get a better picture of the shadow box on the picture ledge in my office.  The colors are better, but it's a bit shadowy.  I guess my photography skills were on vacation during this project.

I don't know about you, but projects like this (even with the bad photography) just make me smile.  What was last week considered ugly and dated in the form of a floor is now an abstract piece of art with a history.

Have you salvaged materials from a renovation and given them a new life?  I'd love to hear about it!