Pinterest, my brain and my craft stash

This year's Christmas decorating has taken me longer than usual. My little Elf, while she is cute to look at, isn't much help this year. I suppose next year she will be trying to "help" but will be tearing everything down that I attempt to put up. Christmas decorating has forever changed, indeed because of the baby. No biggie! Adapt and overcome, yes? We have just turned our once 3 hour decor event into a festive 3 day marathon. And please hold, she is crying..

Ok I am back.

 I always have these awesome decor themes in my head for Christmas but when the time comes, I am hit with the reality that I am not a millionaire thousandaire  hundredaire. So, with the help of Pinterest, my brain and my craft stash, I've come up with other ideas that are more practical.  Maybe they aren't super trendy but if I like it, I do it. Simple, shmimple.

I had ribbon, clothespins, buttons and some old ornaments.

The only things I could come up with were these:

A ribbon wreath.

It has all of the colors of my living room in it so that's handy.

And someone gave me this little sign a while back that I never know what to do with. It seemed that it needed to be in the wreath.

It took me 3 hours. Not because it's a 3 hour project but

 because it was a bad nap day for Dahlia :)

Thennnnn, per Pinterest, I found this cute use for my buttons and clothespins. The idea I found had scrapbook or wrapping paper decoupaged onto the pins. No mother of a 3 month old has time for that. But I did have time to mass paint them with my acrylics and hot-glue buttons onto them. It took a total of 15 minutes, I think.Again, bad nap day = not so great memory for mom.

Handy, eh?

And here are the awkwardly hung balls,er, ornaments ;)

I saw the idea on a commercial and of course, commercial lady's turned out a bit more luxurious.

But, as is the theme of this year, it's hodge-podge and works for our house. Dahlia rather likes it. I put her in her bouncer and place her on the table and voila!  a Christmas mobile that mesmerizes. Bonus: glitter from the ornaments makes her extra sparkley.

 And there is ribbon placed everywhere on the light too. I just really like ribbon this year!

Our Christmas tree (glowing in the right-hand corner) is decorated with the fancy ornaments John's mom made over 30 years ago. I've not come up with a topper yet so it's kinda naked up top.

I like that when I walk in to my house, it's lit up with Christmas lights everywhere and is a cozy this 'n that combination of randomness,  very us.

Perfecto.