Tag: celebrations

Mad for Plaid at Home for Christmas

Mad for Plaid at Home for Christmas

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Welcome to the 2015 Home for Christmas blog hop hosted by Hometalk.com and Country Living.com. I’m so excited to be a part of this fun and can’t wait to share a little Christmas decorating tip with you. You also might want to grab a cup of cocoa (with loads of mini marshmallows), find a comfy chair and follow all the other bloggers along the way. You can also follow the hop at #homeforchristmas.

Plaid is absolutely the bomb right now. . . wait a minute, I don’t think “the bomb” is the bomb right now, but eh, I’m going with it anyway. If you are as mad for plaid as I am, I have an easy and affordable way to add this colorful tartan to your holiday décor.

You could venture out to find just the right kind o’ plaid ribbon spools to fit the bill, but these seem rather difficult to come by and often don’t successfully mimic the original. Instead, shorten your quest for perfection by just buying the real thing. That’s right, purchase a few yards of actual plaid fabric (which comes in a huge variety of colors and patterns) at your local craft or sewing store and cut it into strips to use wherever you normally would ribbon.

Simply decide how wide a strip you need, make a small cut in the fabric and tear it to full length going with the grain. This tearing technique gives your tartan pieces a more rustic look and let’s you decide exactly how wide your fabric “ribbon” will be for each specific use. Here are just a few uses for tartan tidbits around my holiday house, but the sky’s the limit when it comes to plaidifying your place.

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This little lantern vignette sits in the front porch wicker chair that has been stripped of its cushions. The little touch of tartan adds a whimsical and rustic flare to the my Christmas decorations.

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My son and I took a nice stroll into the woods this week to cut the evergreen boughs that adorn my childhood sled. The skates were a garage sale find from many years ago.

These homemade plaid bows are perfect for the store-bought faux pine wreaths that hang in my two front windows. It’s almost as if I cut up one of my husband’s cozy shirts to give our home a warm hug for the holidays.

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 These petite grapevine wreaths hang in the decorative windows in my living room. I used to hang them with ribbon, but in my search for the perfect plaid I found that cutting strips of material just the right width was a better solution.

Jack o’ Oranges Saved My Dignity. . . Okay, That’s an Exaggeration

Jack o’ Oranges Saved My Dignity. . . Okay, That’s an Exaggeration

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After an epic fail in the Halloween school snack category, I decided to give a go at these quick jack o’ lantern Mandarin orange snack packs. Okay so let’s face it, I didn’t have time to give anything else a try before the preschool party, so I was delighted that these little fun-faced treats were a breeze to complete.

I bought several four-packs of the Mandarin oranges (peaches work great also) at my grocery store and dug out my black Sharpie to draw on faces. The store brand cost about $2.20 per four individual containers; but unfortunately the “best by” date was also stamped smack dab on top of the seals. Although the dates showed up more in my photos than real life, you might want to shop for a brand that prints the freshness info along the side.

The preschoolers didn’t seem overly impressed with this tasty (and healthy) treat, but they also didn’t seem too impressed with any of the other cute little spooky treats that decorated their party plates. Of course as long as the kudos are being passed around between the parents, it’s all good. Right?

Secret Subject Swap — Memorial Day Memories

Secret Subject Swap — Memorial Day Memories

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This week, 16 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My Secret Subject is:
What is your best and/or worst Memorial Day memory?

It was submitted by: www.southernbellecharm.com

weddingpicOh shucks, this is such an easy one for me. You see, my husband and I of almost 12 years now tied the knot on Memorial Day weekend 2003. That, and the only other Memorial Day that sticks in my head was a crazy girls trip to Padre Island after high school graduation. . . but my husband may not appreciate it if I didn’t put him tops on my list. Just kidding, babe; you know you’re number one.

Although we married a bit later in life than most, we only managed a long weekend for our wedding and honeymoon both, because my husband-to-be had just taken a new job and hadn’t earned a lick of vacation. Of course that didn’t stop fools in love, and after a February proposal we promptly set a date for Memorial Day weekend. Let me tell ya, my mom and I can execute a wedding like nobody’s business and three months was a (semi-) breeze.

We married in a little white church in Farmington, Arkansas, and had the reception outside under a tent. The morning was filled with thunderstorms and lots of rain, but somehow the sun came out early enough to dry the ground but not enough to raise the temps. As it turned out, it was a perfect day for a wedding, especially when you’re the one getting married.

After the ceremony we drove through crazy dense fog to Roaring River in Missouri for a weekend getaway together. The trout fishing wasn’t fabulous, but we didn’t really much care. Hmm, maybe my new husband cared at the time, but he didn’t let on. I won’t tell you about the big fish that got away (as my love-struck hubs went running for the net he forgot in the car), because that seems to be a reoccurring theme in my trout fishing adventures. But trust me, it was huge.

As we quickly come upon another Memorial Day this month, my husband and I will also be celebrating another year of marriage, which always make the weekend special. Sometimes it doesn’t quite fall on our anniversary, but it’s usually somewhere close. The very best thing about it being a holiday weekend (other than honoring the men and women whom have served our country) is that we often get to take a short trip to celebrate. (That and it helps me remember that I better buy a gift and card for the special man in my life. Sometimes, I can be such a guy.)

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If you want to read more of the fun, here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

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