Deocrating for Independance Day. Part One

I like to start decorating for July 4th sometime in mid to late June. This allows time to get everything up and enjoy it before it has to come down again.  I am going to take the next week or so to share some of these ideas.

Remember those DIY apothecary jars that I made? (click here for tutorial)
Changing out the contents for different holidays and seasons is a simple way to make your home festive.  I purchased most of these materials at the Dollar Tree.  The first jar is layered color confetti paper in red, white, and blue. The second jar is open top and has red, blue, and silver star garland and has two flags that I picked up at WalMart for about a dollar each. The last jar is another red and blue garland strand.
It is really simple and cheap but is fun and festive.

Up next will be a banner to span across the opening of the doorway!

Saint Patrick's Day Decor #3

Remember those apothecary jars that I made? If not, check it out here.

I can use these for every season and holiday by simply changing the contents.
This is how they look for Saint Patrick's Day:

 

 

Here is a closer look at the contents of the jars:

 



I filled the first jar with cheap, shiny, shamrock garland that I picked up at the Dollar Tree for $1.
The second jar is filled with white shredded paper and then I used a circle punch to make some circles on a green and white polka dot card stock. I pushed these down and to the side of the jar for just a little green color. Cost: free with scraps I already had lying around.
The third jar is filled with green glass gems that I also found at the Dollar Tree. I used 3 bags so this filler cost $3 but will get reused for something at Easter and Christmas. :)
Total cost for fillers for 3 jars: $4.  What an inexpensive, fun way to decorate for March!

Saint Patrick's Day Decor #2

I think there should be a banner for every holiday in our home. I don't have a mantle, but I do have a shelf above the doorway between the living room and kitchen. It makes a perfect place to hang holiday banners.

 

I kept this banner really simple. I cut white card stock on my Silhouette Cameo. I then used the same shape but reduced the size to cut this pretty green polka dot from patterned paper. I cut the letters on black card stock using the Harrington font in Silhouette Studio. Then I glued it all together. I used a glue stick for the two banner shapes. I found a glue pen is easiest for the letters. I used a single hole punch to punch holes on each side of the banner piece and then strung a ribbon to hang the banner. Easy, simple way to bring festive to your home!

Saint Patrick's Day Decor #1

I want to share some ways that I am decorating our home for Saint Patrick's Day.  Today is Day 1 and combines a family activity with some easy decorating.

This is the inside of the door going to our garage. This is the door we go out most often and so I chose this location for our activity. I made a simple sign and then used my Silhouette to cut out four leaf clovers on green card stock.

The idea is that the family comes together and talks about their blessings. Then you write a blessing on each clover and sticky tack it to the door.
We used a gold Sharpie to write one word blessings such as family, love, faith, home, etc...
This would probably be MUCH MORE fun with kids instead of a grumpy husband who thinks it is silly. But still, it did get us thinking about our blessings, which was the main point of the activity :)

Our Christmas Story

We had a nice Christmas. Jason and I hosted my family here at our house. My brother in law had to work the day before and after so he wasn't able to be here and he was missed. So we ended up with 6 adults.  For our family it was all about the dinner! LOL
For breakfast I made a strawberry and cream cheese braided bread, blueberry muffins, and fruit. Jason made an awesome quiche loraine. It was so the big breakfast hit. I personally think that dish should be a Saturday morning tradition from now on...
Jason also helped make a few dishes for dinner. It was really odd and really nice to have some help with dinner! Jason roasted a beautiful bone in roast beef in his dutch oven under the carport.


After dinner we exchanged gifts and spent some time hanging out. My family had to leave early because the weather was about to turn messy. It was raining most of the day and then.....

We had a white Christmas!!! That NEVER happens in Arkansas! It started snowing Christmas evening and kept snowing all night. In all we had 9 8 inches of snow!

 

 

 The only problem was that snow was followed by 5 days without power. We roughed it out for the first two days and then I took the furr kids and we to Jason's parent's house while he went out on the road. We finally got power back on Sunday night and I headed home. I had to throw out all the food in the refrigerator and inside freezer but I was able to save some of the stuff in the garage freezer since it had been soooo cold outside. I was really worried because it took a lot of hard work to put up all that corn! Read about my corn experience here.

I celebrated with Jason's family on Thursday evening. He had already left for a trip to Canada but we had fun without him. I really love my new family :)

I hope you all had a safe and wonderful holiday filled with family, friends, and Christ.