Let December begin!

As you know for two months I have been preparing for this wonderful month! The month that everything gets out of control crazy, stressful, annoying.....not for this glitter loving gal! House is decorated, presents wrapped, and calendar filling up. I have not one stress coming my way other than maybe trying to make it to more than one place to celebrate the season :) This year was a challenge for the decorating, new house and no blue prints for the trees but it worked out and I actually have next years line up documented and pretty excited about it ! Now the outside lights is not only another post but another blog !! LOL we won't go there. I learned to let alot of things "GO", the outcome has been refreshing! Morning and night I sit and look at Bertha, she's a beauty to me and I look forward to her staying the same and growing old with me and the family here at "OUR HOME". I was able to add a Santa pic to my love list and I LOVE IT , my invisible hanging ornaments over the arch make me smile and the gingerbread kitchen decor makes me hungry LOL . Hoping my Santa and Nutcracker collection grows and may the creativity of hot mess always be in my soul. @

It's beginning to look alot________________

like CHRISTMAS !!!! Well Betty is off to her new home and a couple of my other friends as well. I managed to undecorate Bertha and move her to where Betty was and get her almost completely re-decorated. I am so much happier with how she looks now. I got a tree up and decorated in Brandon's playroom...I have to admit I wasn't into it and looking at it , it shows, but at least its up and he is happy with it. I bought me a fireplace picture that I simple adore! I hung wreaths under the arches of the playroom that I feel really sparkly about :) My floating ornaments turned out after a few set backs...LOL
The nativity scene is up and that makes my heart warm and fuzzy. The semi circle is now a lighted snow bank for Santa and some presents. All and all ... it is beginning to look alot like CHRISTMAS !! @

Talk about change of the season

Wow it has been awhile since I "blogged" and I like to say it is because I have been crafting so much I haven't had time but that is not the case. I have however been able to get several other things done just in time for CHRISTMAS :) I am a complex chic needless to say and with that complexity is much anxiety LOL I dream of the Norman Rockwell scenario and well it just isn't how things go around here but I always have this attempt to make a tradition and moving here hasn't changed that. I started certain things in the old house that I can't bring to this one by all means, so I feel pressure to start this one with new stuff. I have struggled like crazy to figure out what and where and who and how..... I went from having 15 trees up and decorated to only 4, which I will be changing....YES change! I decorated Bertha and Betty to what I thought was going to be the way it will always be and after much much MUCH anxiety this is what has come to be now...... Bertha will be moved, and that means I have to undecorate her move her and redecorate....BABAAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHA, Betty will be no more, Roxie will stay up this year but only as a guest, she will not be returning and as for all the others, they are searching for new homes. I KNOW , it took many sleepless hours, a few tears and just some rationality (which is not always easy for me) to make some changes and get settled, but I have to admit I feel peace coming soon and isn't that one of the best parts of CHRISTMAS.... Peace on Earth? @

Sneak peek

I have been working on Bertha for a few days now... I am loving her so much, this is the first time she has been dressed up, last year all her branches had was snow and snow flakes BUT this year she is earning her name :) I think she will fit in nicely and she will be my new tradition at this house. I don't have things that other families do so I am having to , ONCE AGAIN, try to make a new. That is a whole blog in itself..... Anyhow...I posted on my FB a little guessing game as to how many ornaments Bertha will have.... I gave size and height and well my craziness should be enough to get a good guess going but then I thought I might post just a glipse sneak peek here on the blog ;) Are you ready? Set,

 

 

 

TA DAAAAAA !!!!!!@

It's beginning to feel alot like Christmas

Started the day off with capri pants and a short sleeve short. I am now sitting here in fleece pants and a sweatshirt ! The CRISP weather and the smell of holiday scentsy through out the house and of course seeing how Bertha is almost complete and I have now started on Betty :) It is all coming together nicely and the chill is like an extra spoon of sprinkles on a big moist cupcake ! I am only 5 days into my two month process and I feel like I am already behind LOL 
I think tonight I will sit and sparkle in the glow of the Christmas lights with a soft blanket, my boys, the breeze from the windows and some pizza. Need to refuel the creative juices for additional ornaments. :) @

twinkle twinkle

Boy was today a day! Started off CRAZY and for me I know that is daily but today was hot mess crazy. Ava started off on the wrong foot with me, she dug under the shed aka Christmas closet and got her a RAT not a mouse a RAT! UGH


disgusting!



Then I lost my mind because I was trying to get ahold of hubbs to discuss this issue with HIS dog and could not reach him at all, I freaked out like a 42 week pregnant women !! Long story short he called and he was fine and of course settled me down.... by this time the drama mill was in full swing and I felt like just getting back in bed BUT a hot hot shower and some deep breathing exercises LOL I got back on my glitter horse and started lighting the trees.

this is the first round of the lighting phase.... the trees now need to be fluffed and possible addition of lights. This is also the daytime phase as well, the trees must pass a night time lighting test before we fully get into swing :) I have to be honest once I see the lights on a night it is one of the hardest things for me to not turn them on every night! Something about the glow of Christmas lights - heavenly !!!! @ 

O holy night!

Oct. 1 = trees to be placed..... DID NOT go well. I seriously picked this floor plan with Bertha in mind. Where she would perfectly be placed, thinking there would be SO much more room for trees here. Boy that did not work out. Bertha needs to lose about two FEET ! The walls with the curves that I just LOVED when looking are suddenly curving the wrong way LOL  I get Betty up and she seems to be about three strands dead and with all the hoop la I ended up adding Roxie who wasn't even suppose to be out this year which can only mean one thing...NEED MORE ORNAMENTS !!! :) Needless to say I am unsettled but this is exactly one of the reasons why I stress now so when the time is here that I should be stress free , hopefully I will be ! :D However Nick and I handled the day very well and will get it all in order. I think tomorrow I should turn on Pandora Christmas, a good dose a Feliz Navidad always makes things better. @


Nick is such a big help !
 





 

this is a problem !

Finally got her to fit !

 

Nick loves Roxie

Look who is in town !!!!!

WELCOME Santa !!! Yes I went and got him this morning... I saw him on friday and for the rest of the day and all day saturday he was on my mind. I could barely sleep knowing we were apart so first thing this morning (after coffee of course) I was on my way to get him. I walked up and it was like I could see the relief in his eyes that I had come to take him home ! He will be assisting me the next two months getting all the trees up and ready! We start in the morning. We have a big journey ahead of us on uncharted territory. Not knowing just how or where everyone will go but I feel confident that we will figure it out. So for the remaining part of today we have to get the front ready for Halloween. Yes we are crazy behind the scenes but from the street we are on holiday proper schedule :) Hey I have my limits !!!

With that being said here is our new little friend for upcoming halloween holiday ! Thank you pinterest for the idea :) @

It's polite when it's pretty

We are in a new neighborhood and we all know what that means..... SALES PEOPLE !!! I know it is a job and they are only doing the job but with the crazies nowadays it just isn't worth the free carpet cleaning or the 25% discount on the monitor of the alarm ( especially when I get a bigger discount from my home insurance through USAA ;) I looked for the NO SOLICITING sign at Lowe's and Home Depot, just not real pleasing to the eye... I mean I want to nicely say - NO! What can I make to be nice and still say NO!???? I look through my box of things to re-do and I see it and then I hear my Big Shot scream out to me " use me ang, use me !!!" Well I'm not wanting to tell everyone NO! just the solicitors..... I grab the chalkboard message thing I had in my house at least 5 years ago, YES you read that right...FIVE years. I told you I was frugal ! I changed out the pic, made a pretty NO SOLICITING framed message and now I have a chalk message board by the front door so that at CHRISTMAS time I can leave a nice nice message to SANTA !! :) <3 @

Before

After :)

framlites are my friend :)
 

Don't whine, use twine

This was a couple of days ago that I actually finished these, and I think I am happy with the turn out. I had these tall metal vases that we had purchased to use as stands for some speakers in the old house. Again, the color scheme from that house to this one - not going to work.... I love the shape and size of these vase things and so I wanted to keep them but you know that color thing ! My first plan was to paint them of course....spray paint now is made to go on EVERYTHING right??? I think that would have been ok but I could totally see myself re-doing the re-do and with the other million things, re-do of re-do's just not on the schedule. Then it hits me...go old school :) Get that twine and glue and get after it ! Round and round and round I go...twine glue twine glue twine burn finger on glue. I'm still thinking they need alittle something but just hasn't come to me YET :) I can say I know that they will fit in nicely with the CHRISTMAS decor for the mantel. @


Before

Re-done

3 ingrediants :)

I sometimes can be long winded ...lol so I will try to make this LONG story short. In our last home I started off with the "formal living" as a playroom and made a border around the room of scrapbooked pages of friends and family ( actually I think I may have completed 4 but you get the point) then I changed that room (shocker) into the Zebra lounge. The Z lounge did not have the border of unfinished scrapbooked pages in it but I still had the 20+ frames :-/ OF COURSE I tried to put them in every other room in the house but it just didn't work out, so I packed them in a tote for just in case :) Well today just in case called and woohoo I made a dry erase month board...yes I have at least three of these that no I do not fill out but hey ....you NEVER know ! As I was taking my weekly stroll through HL I find this template and just next to it was some scrapbook paper that I am sure I probably have four sheets of at home already but this time it was on sale ;) I then think hmmm I have that tote of frames! So I skip to the check out and get my things and rush home and here's what I did .....



ingrediants 1,2,3
 

Ta Daaaa :)


 

Here is what is my favorite thing about it.....the background paper is changeable so when December gets here I can add my CHRISTMAS paper and keep track of all my parties that I will be attending!This has tons of room for embellishments but I have three other things I started and need to get to so I will have to come back to that part !! @

Lack of craft

I got absolutely zero ornaments made this weekend! Yes I am very sad about that but I do however have a wonderful ornament closet for the trees built :) aka shed . I almost want to be able to put the trees up to take them down to put the stuff in the closet :) hahahaha - in due time , in due time. NOW I need to pretty up the outside of the shed, you can't close up glitter and not look good while doing it ! @

Move over design on a dime !

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS??? No I did not get my ten ornaments made, I barely even started them but I did however finish another project and SAVED SOME MOOLAH !!! :) Once again in the BallaedDesigns catalog I see something that I really like but can't afford and don't think I would pay this much even if I could afford it, there is Christmas trees that need to be decorated for goodness sake ! hA
What caught my eye was a burlap message board -


( by the way I just took this pic with my webcam...hee hee , first time I have ever done that, this could mean crazy new things for me )
Sorry the picture is soooo large and blurry but I have to be at the school in ten minutes- but as you can kinda see the board is anywhere from $49.00 to $219.00~~ CRAAAAZZZZZIIIIEEEEEE
My little mice start churning in the wheel in my head and this is what I came up with ......

The color is a little lighter because of what I am going to paint in the room but other than that I saved mucho dollars. My boards are a 22x28, not a size available at Ballard so I will just compare against the medium sized one they have for $89.00~~ Canvas boards 2pk that was a buy 1 get 1 free ( I got 4 boards total for 9.99, the fabric was 3.99 a yard before my 40% off coupon and the tacks.... 300 for $1.00 at the dollar tree. Big savings = more to spend on CHRISTMAS !!!!! @

 

10 days and counting

I am scheduled to start putting the trees out on 10/1.... there has been much movement within the house that is allowing me access to put more trees up than I had planned ( bummer :( LOL ) but I have to admit that I am VERY far behind on my ornament making. I have been so wrapped up in making other things I am in a panic. BUT that is exactly why I start in October !! Gives me 60 glorious days to get ready. Tomorrow I will be making at least 10 ornaments, its my goal and I'm pretty sure I can make it :) !! I'll post pics once done. I tell you now that I am actually typing this out and having to think it has hit me hard that I need to finish staining the fence, paint the bedroom , paint the baseboards, move the cross wall and get organized..... OH MY ! No worries right? :) @

Re-vamp that lamp (shade)

As some of you might know I am "frugal" - and I am only saying frugal because CHEAP just doesn't sound as nice.... haha
For someone that doesn't like change - I sure change things up ALOT! I paint and then re-paint, I decorate and then re-decorate , I move furniture and then re-move furniture , I blame it on my ADHD that I have self diagnosed myself with :)
SO moving into the new house I just feel that its color scheme (for now) needs to have blues and greens in it. The last place was more of the carmel, red , goldenrod tones....I'm just not feeling it here. Since I am not feeling it and EVERYTHING I own seems to be of the carmel, red, goldenrod color I say to myself..do I force the wrong color feel ? Do I buy new stuff? OR do I revamp it all???? Yes revamp revamp revamp. And do it with glittery frugalness........
Over the dining table is one of those lights where you can put those little shades on the light bulb. I bought some little shades on clearance  for $1.29..... they are a deep red, which at the time I bought them I didn't know that I wasn't going to be "feeling" that color, anyhow who turns down $1.29 , right? I get a catalog in th email from Ballard Designs.... after I got finished choking on the prices $$$$ I started my frugal wheels turning. The red shades just stuck out like a big finger in the eye. I see these little shades in the catalog for a price of 21.00 EACH or if you kindly order 5 or more they are ONLY 19.00 each... humm I would need 5, so 95.00 for some tiny little shades - NOT HAPPENING TO THIS GIRL ! Instead, I take my 1.29 shade , rip the top layer off and add natural colored raffia and wa la! So doing the math of 1.29 x 5, plus 1.00 for raffia , and 2.00 for the glue sticks= $9.45 hummm YES TO THIS GIRL !!! :) Of course the shades do not look exactly like the catalog but if I am saving $85.00 - it sure is close enough. How does this relate to Christmas 365??? I bought the shades after Christmas when they were clearancing out :) Christmas might have been over but the shades I will use the entire year (or until I change ;) @

Before

during
 

After

40% off Heaven

Hobby Lobby finally put there Christmas stuff on sale...yep 40% off all Christmas !!!! It was like magic as I walked through the doors and saw glitter EVERYWHERE ! I was beyond happy, my heart skipped a beat , and a big grin was slapped across my face :) I do have to say that I feel I should predict what the future of ornaments will be as it appears I always think of what I want and can't find it anywhere so I have to make it and then the next roll out of Christmas stuff it's everywhere and I find myself once again trying to configure the images I have dreamt up in my head :) SO this year I am on a HUGE kick of using my big shot and framelites... I am once again in love <3 The crazy thing about this trip to Hobby Lobby today was not even suppose to be for Christmas items, it was to get things to finish 9 other projects so that I could decorate for Christmas ;-)
13 more days :) , who's counting with me ??????? @

Make room for one more ~

I am still trying to figure out where to out everything in the new house..... that being said, managed to move one room to another and flip things around (again) only to discover with this new arrangement there is now room for another tree :) Wasn't sure how I was going to manage a tree in the front room but low and behold she will have three windows for her eyes only !!!! Pretty happy about that. @

Garland garland everywhere !

This year will be something new for me as I have stairs now. I have never been able to decorate with garland down a staircase. I am beyond excited as the first time I saw the garland they have at The Gaylord with the ice shows I KNEW I wanted to do that at least once in my lifetime. Well it's time !! I know my budget comes no where near the budget of the Gaylord but I have ideas swirling like a crisp minty peppermint candy in my head. Of course, I always vision something that rarely comes to life but I try and I tweek and I figure I have 365 days to make it closer to the image next time :) @

Day one ~

So I am starting this Christmas 365 blog ..... I should say attempting to start it. I know this is suppose to be sooo easy but I have to tell you I am struggling with it like crazy.... WHY can't I add a cute image here and change the color of the font along with the font faster than I can snap??? Well anyway , I apologize if it looks crazy but I soon hope to get some blogging layout 101 from a dear friend who actually encouraged me to do this :) xoxo Melissa B
Now that I am finished ranting about my inadequacies I can get to business! Christmas 365 is truly something I do in my own life.... think , dream, sleep, craft, miss, anticipate, Christmas 365 days a year :) It's true. Christmas is my most favorite holiday EVER !! The meaning is true to my heart and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, and then top it off with glitter, bling, lights and all the beautiful colors, I mean come on !!!! :)
Just for a little background info on this addiction I have so having this blog may make sense to you as you follow along ;) I have been known to have over 15 trees up for the holiday season. I'll post pictures for proof soon. Anyway, I have so many because I LOVE IT but more so because I can't decide on just one color choice or theme as sometimes it goes. I have dabbled in the thought of year round holiday tree and trust me, I have sketchinsg of each months tree but I seem to be the only one on board for such an idea- (for now) I am working on it....daily ;)
My year goes something like this: I start with putting the trees up October 1st....Calm down and keep reading so you will understand why . I make alot of my ornaments for the trees, so I am making year round or at least planning. Then I have everything done by December 1st. All decor is up, all presents bought and wrapped , all cards mailed off and I enjoy the entire month of December with all the parties and get togethers and FOOD ! Starting in January I am already thinking about Christmas again :) I usually know what colors I will go with and spend the next 9 months prepping. So lets journey through this craziness together....Welcome to my world 365 ! @