Holiday Craftiness

I've always been creative, and I've also always been on the frugal side. The second one has come from necessity and then just became a way of life. This Christmas season, I've been having so much fun meshing the two together as I decorate.

I did purchase some things to add to my decorations this year (a hazard of helping in a friend's shop), but most of what I have has been around for years and I also repurposed some items. When I do buy something, I don't purchase cutesy, fad things. I tend to purchase things that are timeless, and don't go out of style. I love what I've come up with so far!

I had this ladder in storage which I purchased at a thrift shop a number of years ago. At the time, I had distressed it with white paint and sealed it with Modge Podge so I could use it at craft shows. I like how this turned out. I added the wreathe and star garland and just propped up the sign on it.

I bought the greenery and pinecone garland and added the stars and hung this above my kitchen sink.

The mantlepiece decorations and most of the tree decorations I've had for years. In fact, the gold deer that are on the tree and mantlepiece were given to me about 8 years ago and I use some variation of them each year.

I added lights to this basket I was given and mixed in pinecones that I picked up on one of my walks. 

I saw this idea on Instagram, using brown paper bags. I think they are so cute and will be hanging these in my front window. I like them because they can last into January.

I make Swedish Pepparkakor every year, but this year I used a patterned rolling pin my daughter gave me and they turned out so cute!

These are minty chocolate cookies made with peppermint patties. Oh, so good!

I had the fun job of designing our new church nursery and spent a few hours putting these decals on the walls. I thought they were so cute! It was a fairly inexpensive way to decorate. I wrote a grant which has covered most of the cost to renovate the new nursery so now all of the children's ministry is in the same area.

I purchased two area rugs to match the jungle theme. All that's left is getting covers for the outlets, moving a cubby and affixing it to the wall from the previous nursery and then moving in the furniture.

I'm not sure where all the inspiration for decorating this year has come from, but I'm enjoying myself immensely. I'm also beginning the task of decluttering and organizing which is kind of fun in its own way (sort of..lol).

I'm looking forward to a fun day. I was going to get together with a friend to make wreathes, but Dan wanted to go and get a small tree for downstairs today. Emily is coming tomorrow and will help me decorate that. Her main reason for coming home is that she wasn't here for Thanksgiving and missed out on pumpkin pie. She asked if I could make her one. Silly girl! 

I need to make that today as well as soup for workers for an event this evening. This evening is a Christmas parade in the city, and they line up in front of our church. Our church provides cookies, hot cocoa and bathrooms for the parade participants. This will be our first one since being here (last year was canceled due to the pandemic). I'm looking forward to it.

The next couple of weeks will be busy as I prepare for a board meeting Christmas get together here on Thursday night and then we are having an open house for our church family on the 18th. 

There is lots of to do, but it's the type of creative activity that I find enjoyable. Snow is on the way again for this week so that is definitely putting me in a festive mood!