simple + budget friendly x-mas decor

If you were to ask me what my favorite season is, I'd answer with a resounding "Christmas!"
If you were puzzled and looked at me, asking "ya mean winter?"
I would look back at you, just as puzzled & throw a snowball at the side of your head.

I think Christmas should have it's own official season. It's already shoved down our throat the day after Thanksgiving; in essence, it gets it's own month. *insert shrug, here*

As magical and wonderful as the season may be .. it's financially straining, stressful, chaotic, and the constant music makes my ears bleed on the inside. *insert disapproving headshake, here*

I only meant to whine about the money & chaos, but I went off on a little tangent. At my work, they've been blasting Christmas songs 24 hours a day for the last 8 days. I'm ready to jingle bell someone right across their one horse open sleigh. :)

I digress !! EEK !

Searching through pinterest and stalking friend's pictures of their own decorations on Facebook, I decided I needed to take a trip to the local thrift store. I spent $20 on a bunch of

• lights
• bulb ornaments
• colored bells
• big and small glass containers
• strands of beads

After the blessing tree at the baby shower, I've been dying to use more branches in our house. They're natural, they're pretty, and they're versatile for all SORTS of holiday decorations. *insert evil laugh, here*

I gathered some sticks from the neighborhood and placed them into a sconce-style vase. I wrapped the vase in Christmas'y ribbon and place some of our ""new"" ornaments on the branches. I really, really, really love how it turned out !!

This next project was more of a 'pain in the face' than it was hard .. but omigosh it was a giant pain in my face. The original 'pinspiration' was this window treatment, here. Of course, it was harder than it seemed like it would be.

First : I had the tedious task of cutting various lengths of fishing wire and tying the ends into loops. Then attaching the un-looped end of the wire to ornaments. This wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that the only fishing wire I had was the thinnest possible wire you can buy. *insert sigh, here* It definitely made this step the most challenging.

Second : I convinced the hubby to place a curtain rod up, so we could hang the 'treatment' over the blinds. snagged a 'double layer' rod at our favorite local thrift store for $1Third : my sweet husband put the rod up for me.

Fourth : I begin to look at and mentally criticize the blinds. Years of being behind the couch, rowdy kids, frisky cats and silly puppies had clearly taken their toll.
Our poor blinds were mangled with a capital M!!

I didn't have it in me to go back to the thrift store to see if they had just the right size/style curtain for my window. Just at the beginning stages of my frustration, my brilliant husband ran and grabbed of our many white flat sheets we never use.

He grabbed it by the bottom, folded it in half to determine the center and cut a 2 inch slice. Then, like it was made to do this very thing; in 2 moves he tore straight up the sheet all the way to the 'trim' and stopped; grabbed the curtain rod and slid it into the 'pocket' of the sheet's trim. "Voila," he exclaimed "your white curtain, madam."

It's a billion little things like this that make him my hero.

I used some ribbon to cover the outer rod and make a bow for the center up top. I used the same ribbon to make 'curtain ties' on each side.

We attached the ornaments and hung up our labor of love .. I adore it. <3


and there you have our cheapy cheap decor for this year .. thank you pinterest and my friends who also posted their pictures of their decor. <3 :)