Kwafty Kwismas.

This year, I decided to get a little crafty for Christmas. I haven't always been a major fan of all things homemade, but I'm kind of loving craftiness right now (most was Pinterest-inspired, some was middle-of-the-night inspired), so I decided to make some stuff for our house this Christmas season. It's quite possible that my motivation comes from the fact that last year I was great with child and had zero motivation to open my eyelids, much less decorate the house for Christmas. My husband and I schlepped the Christmas storage boxes down from the attic this past weekend and when I opened them, I laughed out loud. Despite being neatly labeled on the outside, the inside of every box was a haphazard mess, evidence that everything was thrown in by an almost-nine-months pregnant Katie one year ago, who knew that the Katie this year would understand. 

Hilarious.

So, here is a little tour of our house bedecked for the season. The "theme" ended up being a lot of brown and gold, which I'm good with. Enjoy!

Well, okay, so the one thing that I did not make this year is my wreath (funny, since even craft-haters are usually not opposed to making their own wreaths!). I was actually a little stumped with what to do for a wreath this year, and this beauty showed up on my doorstep today, a surprise from my Memere in Vermont! It's real and beautiful and sheds needles everywhere. I love it.

And it has these bunches of ... something brown, that kind of ties into what I was going for. See? It just all comes together, folks.

Firstly, our dining room table. I love having a dining room table, if for nothing else than the fact that I get to decorate and stare at it. People say they don't want a formal dining room because they would never use it ... so what if we rarely eat in there! It's all about the seasonal knick-knacks you can use to bedeck it. That totally counts as using it. Totally.

The burlap came from my craft closet and the sticks came from my yard. Oh, and behold the delicious milk-glass cake stand. Delicious, I tell you.

Mmm, apothecary jars. I hijacked the idea for a mini-forest from my cousin, Ashlee. The "trees" are real branches cut from our Christmas tree and the fake snow is something I had originally intended as a craft for the kids, ha!

Brown/gold/brown/gold/etc...

Poor little twig tree. I always do these trees with grandiose visions of what the final version will look like, and every year it looks like the Charlie Brown tree. Ha! I like it. Note that the burlap at the end of the table is tucked up on the table, to avoid being pulled on by a cruising baby girl. Hence, we refer to this room as the "dining room", as opposed to the "formal dining room".

Next up, the piano! This is one of my favorites. Our piano has a very large blank wall all around it, so I wanted something tall to stick up there. I saw something similar to this on Pinterest, only the bunting was strung on a mantle. I wanted to somehow incorporate it in this room, so, I used my best friend's idea for inspiration and voila! (Also: I purchased plain bunting at Hob Lob and stenciled the letters.)

This little church is the first piece of a village that I started with the kids last year. A veteran mom friend of mine showed me the village that her family built by adding one new piece every year and I loved that idea! I always wanted a Christmas village as a kid. But, I didn't want to start something expensive. Enter Home Depot. This piece was $15. Woot! We started last year and the kids picked out this church. I'm excited to see what they choose this year.

And here ... is our tree. Sweet thang. The shortest and squattiest tree we've owned thus far, and our children's pride and joy. No theme. No organization. Just an absolute Christmas mess with a beauty all her own. Her lights twinkle.

She's awesome.

Caleb thought it needed some "color" so here is his helpful addition of curled ribbon ...

(Note that Nemo has abandoned ship! He's heading towards the toilet!)

... and I was able to sneak some of my glass up at the top. Some.

Lots of homemade stuff. I love it.

And then our Advent Wreath, on the breakfast nook table. Love.

And our faithful little booklet of Advent readings.

The mantle! My sister-in-law and I did the board projects together. The texture of the bottom board made the writing a little wonky, but it was fun to do. I love the mantle this year. So merry and bright.

(Side note: No stockings. I know. I'm AWFUL. Well, not that awful. We always celebrate Christmas morning with grandparents who have stockings for everyone, so I've kind of slacked on the whole stocking thing. Well, that and the fact that I cannot, for the life of me, find stockings I love. Anywhere. I think that makes me a Stockings Snob.)

Good tidings of great joy ... to all people. It gives me chills to read it. Such powerful truth! And the reason we celebrate. I love seeing this reminder all day.

Here is the classy nativity I found at Wal-Mart seven years ago. Possibly historically incorrect, with only three wise men and no shepherds (what?), but it's sandstone and it's unique. So ... it stays. For now. We use the kids' Melissa & Doug nativity to actually tell the story.

"It's Christmas", y'all.

Our Advent calendar! It was originally hanging on the fireplace, but it kept falling down, so on the hearth it stays. It's filled with fun activities we can do throughout the month, including visiting a local museum, donating toys, finding three bell ringers to give money to, making Christmas cookies, doing Christmas crafts, seeing lights, etc. It was really fun to come up with these ideas!

And there you have it! My crafty Christmas.

Have a lovely day!