My daughter emphatically informs my husband a few Saturday’s ago that I have gone ‘craft crazy’ in reference to my Christmas experiments (out of the mouth of babes). Let me explain the series of events leading to this moment… 

Over Thanksgiving weekend I solicited the help of my talented friend, Susan Presparé, to work on our Christmas decor. We left town and gave her free rein and we love everything— it was such fun and a huge blessing to come home to a decorated house. In case you are wondering why I didn’t just do it all … three reasons… a) we had five six closings scheduled for December, b) no one in my family would help me for more than five minutes, c) my dear husband gave me his permission. Say no more, done.

If you happened to read my most recent blog post, I talked about my exciting preview on Dec. 3 of the Nashville Parade of Homes. That very same weekend I also attended the Christmas Tour at A Vintage Affair at Haven Farm. My friend and Allen Team stager, thedecorologist, was one of the selected vendors at this very special event.

Susan Presparé, Karla Broooks, Melissa Allen, Karen Hattan, Kristie Barnett a.k.a. thedecorologist and Moose.

These three back-to-back happenings really got my creative juices flowing and my Christmas spirit soaring. So, even though our halls were fully decked already, I still took a DIY approach to all of my ‘new’ inspirations and had a marathon DIY weekend. Perhaps I do deserve the ‘Craft Crazy Mom’ title after all? Here are the results:

My obsession with burlap pillows started with the Home Decorators Collection catalog. I fell in love with the joy pillow above. But when I went online and put it in my cart, the expected ship date was 2/23/2015. What? Sorry, but I hate to admit I am an instant gratification kind of girl. Plus Christmas would be over and done and I saw this as more of a Christmas pillow. Although now that I think about it, ‘joy’ is something we should all shoot for year-round, right? Gonna think about that– it is still in my cart. The stencil burlap pillow above on the right was my compromise and I do love it. I purchased it Thanksgiving weekend when visiting my folks at Antiques’ Et Cetera in Benton, KY.

And then there was the joy pillow above at the Parade of Homes…

I decided to give this a go myself. I headed to my favorite Goodwill in Brentwood, purchased the only two like new pillows that might work (for under $8 total), created a stencil and Caylee and I painted these with acrylic paint.

Our decorated porch was one of my favorite surprises when we came back home from Thanksgiving. I love how Susan anchored our bench in the corner, used fresh magnolia leaves, added the beautiful bird pillow and bird house and repurposed the two rusty old lanterns (another project that was just sitting around in my garage). She told me she hadn’t found just the right thing for the tall white lantern yet and that maybe for now just put some candles in it. I obliged…

My candles weren’t quite right. They did look great from the above left camera angle, but in full frame they were really way too short for the very tall lantern (right photo).

I kept thinking about the nature inspired decor and suddenly it came to me– I needed a ‘Partridge in a Pear Tree.’ I immediately called Susan and she agreed. Yes, that was exactly what I needed. Wherever would I find one?!

Once again, I headed to Goodwill and it was obviously meant to be because ‘by gosh, by golly,’ they had a partridge (I researched them before heading out, of course, as I had no idea what a partridge looked like in real life). At first I was discouraged and about to leave when I found one more display of wreaths hanging on the wall and alas… a little partridge was nesting on a once loved, stripped down twig wreath. I grabbed a few more things–a piece of an artificial tree, a few pear ornaments, ivy leaves that I would cut into partridge tree leaf shape, a bird’s nest ornament, moss and the red mercury glass base (all found there for a total cost of about $10). I headed home, assembled my supplies and got busy…

What do you think about the end result? I really do love my little PIPT.

Christmas Bells Are Ringing…

I could not get enough of A Vintage Affair’s host, Jenni Bowlin’s incredible farmhouse and decor. This is the holiday bell over her breakfast room table. Isn’t it amazing?! I decided I needed a bell on my dining room chandelier.

My friend and Expert Psychological Stager™, Karen Hattan, found this mercury glass bell at the Providence Marketplace HomeGoods (we had to stop on the way home, after all we were already in Mt. Juliet). I called my teenage son and asked him to text a photo of our chandelier to make sure it would work. I am certain that he thought I was crazy too! But it worked perfectly.

Next up. The Christmas cloche.

Is this not the sweetest thing? I also spotted and loved this baby reindeer cloche at A Vintage Affair, but I had already found many things to buy–I had to stop myself.

As time went by and I kept decorating, I realized I had all the makings of a cloche myself, at home. We never use our wedding china so I grabbed a small plate for the base. Added sparkle snow… borrowed an angel ornament from our main level ‘Christian’ Christmas tree…. added a glass dome from an old clock. Ta da. Angel cloche.

When I bought these vintage prints I wasn’t quite sure what their purpose would be? But they were so cool and retro. I ended up propping them in the corner on a semi-painted canvas (another project in waiting) on our stairwell. They make me smile when I haul laundry up and downstairs.

That concludes Mom’s crazy craft weekend. Funny thing is, my daughter had a rainforest biome project due the next weekend. She thoughtfully chose to do a comprehensive multi-level diorama depicting not one, but several floors of the rainforest. Her grade: 100%.

I think the pear doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Caylee also found another purpose for the vintage prints in her homemade Christmas picture frames! Merry Christmas Ya’ll!