I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know that I sure did. We spent all day with family, 18 of us gathered at my parents house, the food was a-m-a-z-i-n-g, we went on a nice walk to checkout my cousins new house they're building, and then we ended the day with a nice meeting at church. Such a blessed and beautiful day!

So now that it's officially acceptable to start talking about Christmas ;) I wanted to share with you a few adorable Christmas crafts I've been making. I've been crafting like crazy lately and my dining room table, floors, living room end tables, whole house office looks like a bomb went off! Last week my cousin and I threw our friend a 30th birthday tea party, you can see that here, and I made some super fun decorations for it. A big group of ladies are getting together to make reversible wooden blocks next week so I've been prepping for that. And then of course I have been decorating for Christmas and looking at Pinterest for some inspiration, and I found it! Just look at these adorable trees I made!

I am in love with my adorable handmade trees! They were so much fun and they have so much character. This entire project only cost me $5.75!

While browsing Pinterest I came across these adorable DIY handmade Christmas trees at beautifulmatters.com and I knew I just had to try and make some of them. Hers look perfect and her tutorials are great!

Photo by Shauna Mailloux from beautifulmatters.com

She broke up her tutorials up into 3 parts, to see each one please click Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. And her tip to use cereal boxes as the cones is genius! And FREE!

I am definitely giving her the credit for these, there's nothing too inspiring or different that I did to make mine.  I just wanted to share how mine turned out, and let you know the supplies I used to recreate these and what they cost. I did make up a few of my own that I thought would be cute and I will share those as well.

These are the 5 trees that I recreated from her original tutorial:

*Tinsel Tree ~ Super cute & easy!! I found a 6ft strand of thin silver garland at Target for $1. I wrapped it from top to bottom securing the ends with hot glue and a couple dabs along the way. Topper is a jewelry bead. $1

*Feather Tree ~ I bought a bag of feathers at Micheal's 50% off for $1.10, this was a total pain to make LOL. I had feathers and fluff everywhere! I kinda just threw it together and definitely didn't follow the tutorial too closely, I just wanted the mess to end! But it still turned out cute! The topper is a jewelry bead. $1.10

*Feather Boa Tree ~ I love this one and it was easy. I bought the 6ft mini feather boa at Micheal's 50% off for $1.65. Starting at the top I  hot glued it and started wrapping it towards the bottom gluing as I went down. I secured the end with glue and that's it! The topper was made from little sparkly styrofoam balls glued together. $1.65

*Dictionary Page Tree ~ I have a few old books just so I can craft with them, so I used book pages. This is one of my favorites and it was the most time consuming too. Figures lol! Topper is a Christmas pick. FREE

*Hemp Twine Tree ~ I used some Jute I had I my craft hoard. I just wrapped it from top to bottom, securing the ends with  hot glue. Then I added in a strand of white & silver twine for a pop of color. Topper is just another jewelry bead. FREE

These are the 5 DIY trees that I created, I just love them:

*Glitz & Glitter Tree ~ This is the easiest one of all. I found this glitter scrapbook paper at Micheal's for $1. I rolled in into a cone shape, hot glued the back and BAM! Instant Glitz & Glitter Tree :) Topper is a pom pom. $1

*Champagne Sparkle Tree ~ This is another easy one! $1 embossed scrapbook paper rolled into a cone, glued, and then wrapped with a thin piece of wired tinsel. Topper is a Christmas pick. $1

*Sparkling Snow Tree ~ Epson salt can be used in more ways than just in the bathtub. I used white acrylic paint, elmer's glue & epson salt. I quickly painted the cone using a foam brush and let it dry 5 minutes. Then I covered the cone with a thin layer of glue, thinned out with just a little water, I used the same foam brush I used for painting, I just rinsed it out first. I poured my salt onto a paper plate and then I rolled the cone into the salt. Let it dry and you have yourself a Sparkling Snow Tree. Topper is a pom pom. I had all the supplies for this so it was FREE.

*Lace Tree ~ I sew, therefor a have tons and tons of ribbon, lace and all that fun stuff. I found a piece of lace just the right length to wrap around a cone. I kept the base the neutral cardboard color so it had a little contrast. Starting at the bottom and working my way up,  I glued and wrapped it until I got to the top and glued the end to secure it. Topper is made out of styrofoam balls glued together. FREE

*Ruffly Coffee Filter Tree ~ I have a Keurig now and I have a bunch of coffee filters laying around that I don't use, except for crafting. This one was really fast and easy and another of my favorites. I took a few, like 5 or 6 filters, laid them flat and made a cut through the ruffle side to the center. I then cut out the center following the circle. What you're left with is a long ruffly ribbon. I cut that in half so that I had two long ribbons. I then separated out each filter, you should have 10-12 ribbons now, and then starting from the bottom I glued my way around and up to the top. I slightly overlapped the next ruffle with the previous one. I tired not to be too precise, I think it looks better when it flows a little more organically. There you have it a pretty Ruffly Coffee Filter Tree. Topper is a bead. FREE

There you have it 10 DIY cone handmade Christmas trees! And if you think that you counted 11 trees you are right. There are 11 trees in the first 2 pictures. This beauty was not handmade, but bought at Target, I just couldn't resist it's sparkly glittery-ness :) Target you win again!

I hope you enjoyed this post! It was a lot of fun to make these trees and it's probably my favorite Christmas DIY project I have ever done. Let me know if you try and make any of these! Happy decorating and DIY-ing! Have a fantastic day!

Be Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope today you are able to gather with your loved ones, fill your bellies with yummy food, make new memories, remember old ones, count your blessings, and reflect on things that sometimes you may take for granted, and to be thankful for them most of all. Your health, your home, your family, your friends, your food, your clothes, your freedom, I know I am guilty of not being thankful enough for these things on a daily basis, but I'm trying to be better. 

I see these quotes pop up a few times throughout the year and it's a good reminder to be thankful everyday, not just on the 4th Thursday in November. Here's a little inspiration and a reminder that there is always something to be thankful for...

And please remember to say a little prayers for those who are less fortunate. Especially remember those who are serving our country and keeping us safe, they aren't with their families, instead they are being brave and selfless, and fighting for our freedom.

Have a blessed day!

30th Birthday Tea Party

The last few weeks have been busy! It seems like I haven't had a chance to stop since we got home from Hawaii. But I'm not complaining, I've been busy doing fun things like decorating, crafting, shopping, baking, and planning a 30th Birthday for one of my best friends! My cousin and I decided to throw a fun birthday tea party for our cousin to celebrate her 30th. She is the first of us to turn 30 and we wanted to make it special. 

Our aunt got all of the woman on my side of the family pretty teacups and saucers last year for Christmas and every time we planned on having a tea party something would come up and it just never worked out. So finally we picked a day, and it just so happened to be a couple days before Kristina's actual birthday, so it turned into a birthday bash as well :) 15 of us ladies made it, that's everyone but 3, so that's a success.

My cousin hosted the party at her house and all the ladies pitched in and made food and desserts. I made up some fun decorations, thanks to Pinterest, and we all had a great time! It was sweet, simple and oh so girly! 

I saw this pin on Pinterest and recreated it to fit in with our theme. I think the birthday crown turned out so cute! (Excuse the quality of the pictures, they were all taken with my iPhone, blogger fail!)

These tissue paper flower pom pom's and tassel garland were super easy and I found the tutorials here and here on Pinterest as well.

As for all the other decorations, lace table cloths, cake stands and dishes, those were things I already had. And the Fun & Flirty Kristina's 30! banner I whipped up using scrapbook paper, vinyl, my cricket and some jute. Super fun and easy!

Here's a few shots from the party after all the yummy food was set out. We had croissant sandwiches, grilled ham & cheese, fruit and dip, you can find the recipe here, cucumber sandwiches, ham & dill pickle roll-ups, veggies, ranch & dill dip, cheddar broccoli soup, chicken & wild rice soup, Mexican tortilla soup, and bread sticks.

Then it was time for dessert and tea! Homemade devil's food cake with mocha frosting, you can see how fancy we are with our exquisite piping skills lol!

Tea, lemon tarts, cream puffs & chocolate filled raspberries. And everyone received a complimentary sugar cube in their teacups thanks to my 4 year old niece who just couldn't resist serving us those adorable sugary squares lol!

 My sweet little tea cup :) Mmm hot sugar water lol!

 The Birthday Girl!!

We had a great day celebrating a beautiful girl! Lots of food, love & laughs!

Next, it's my big 3-0! Eeek!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

A couple of days ago I decided to make a stove top potpourri, you can see that recipe here. The smell was intoxicating. Cranberries, cinnamon, orange and spices, mmm the smell of the holidays quickly filled my home. There are just certain smells that bring back great childhood memories and this is one of them. After feeling nostalgic for awhile, I decided to turn on my Pandora Christmas channel and then something magical happened...I was carrying in my Christmas decor and setting up my tree! LOL it happened so fast, and before I knew it, BAM it's Christmas :)

Whoops! It was November 17th and official the earliest I have ever put up my Christmas tree. And as my friend said, "well that escalated quickly!" LOL! I really don't know how it all happened, that really wasn't what I had planned for the day, but now it's Christmas all over :) 

My husband's birthday is the 29th of November and he is a little bit of a grinch prefers that we wait until after his birthday to decorate for Christmas, he always hated that he has the decorations up for his birthday while growing up. Well a few days ago I was telling him that I was in at Hobby Lobby looking at all the pretty Christmas decor and that I was reeeaaally in the mood to decorate the house for the holidays and he said "okay do what ever you want." Wait, what? Those are dangerous words sir, very dangerous! LOL! So when he came walking in the door Tuesday he had to do a double-take and then said, "oh you were serious about the Christmas decorating?" Yes dear, I never joke about Christmas decorating! 

I bought my 7.5 foot artificial tree last Black Friday at Target for a screaming good deal. This year I splurged a little at Hobby Lobby at got all new decor for the tree, besides how can you pass up 50% off ALL Christmas!?!?  Ribbon, ornaments, glittery branches, a new tree skirt and stockings. I've always wanted and pretty, elegant tree and I think I nailed it. Silver, white, champagne, glitter and snowflakes, it's a winter wonderland! Even the grinch Alan likes it!

I am still in the process of decorating the rest of the living room, I have just a few things left to buy, and a dozen half finished craft projects to finish, but for now I will sit and enjoy this beauty.

I'd love to know, is your Christmas tree up yet? When do you usually decorate? How early is too early? What are your decorating traditions?