A TRIO OF TREES

Even though I am taking a hiatus from my own blog, today, I am over at the fabulous Suzan's blog Simply Vintageous....by Suzan sharing a little holiday project. 

Actually.....3 of them.  A trifecta.  A "Hat Trick"...she's Canadian after all.
You can check it out by clicking HERE or on the picture below.

Really, don't you want to know about a naughty little black lace tree?

LIVING IVY CHRISTMAS WREATH

I promised myself I wouldn't make my life any crazier this holiday season by decorating this house while trying to renovate the other.  However, with company coming this weekend, I felt like I needed to make things just a bit festive so they wouldn't think I was a complete scrooge.  Time to put creativity to the test, using what is at hand.  In this case it was an ivy plant I had in my kitchen.  Looked like a perfect candidate for a Christmas wreath to me. 

This went together so fast and was so easy!  You could make this out of any trailing plant.  You just need a couple of things you probably already have.

Hot Glue Gun

Twig Wreath or any wreath form

Dowel Rod or stick

 
All I did was shove a dowel rod into a twig wreath form and secure it with a generous amount of hot glue.  After it was set, I just broke off the dowel rod to the length I needed and shoved the whole thing in the center of the plant.

At this point I separated the ivy vines and began winding them around the wreath form.  Every now and then I secured it with a few "twist ties" I made from this twiggy looking paper-wrapped wire stuff, which I loved because it blends right in.  (Floral wire would work fine too.)

Add a pretty bow and you have a lovely living wreath that won't dry out and lose needles.

Add a wooden deer with a festive ribbon around his neck for that extra holiday decor cuteness factor.

How easy was that?!  After the holidays, I'll just remove the bow and leave the wreath form in for a pretty ivy topiary.  (I suspect it will make a grand reappearance sometime around Valentines Day.)  Not bad for just using stuff I had.  Zero dollars......perfect for my holiday budget!
I still have one or two more easy holiday decor magic tricks up my sleeve.
  

WINE MULLS....THE PERFECT HOME MADE GIFT!

Mulled wine is truly a unique holiday wine drinking experience and wine mulls are probably my favorite thing to make and give at Christmas.   These are so easy to make and one mull with a bottle of red wine, makes a perfectly elegant and inexpensive gift.

I have been known to keep a basket of them by the front door to give to holiday visitors and party guests.  So lovely, don't you think?

Guess what?  If you have friends who don't drink alcohol, these are perfectly wonderful in warm apple cider as well. 

The following recipe makes just two mulls, but it is as easy to make 10 or 12.  Just multiply the ingredients accordingly.

Wine Mulls
1 med. orange
1/2 C. firmly packed light brown sugar 
1tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
2 (2") cinnamon sticks
12 whole cloves

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cut orange in half lengthwise and scoop out pulp. Place a ball of aluminum foil in each half.  (This helps distribute the heat evenly as well as helps the orange half keep its circular shape as it's drying.)  Place halves on baking sheet and dry in oven 4-5 hours. Remove foil and dry an additional 15 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg. Pack half of the mixture into each orange half. Decorate tops with cinnamon stick placed down the center (press into brown sugar a bit) and place 3 coves on each side. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, tie top with a pretty ribbon and include the following Mulled Wine recipe.

Mulled Wine
1 wine mull
1 (750 ml.) bottle of red wine
Pour wine into pan. Unwrap mull and drop into pan with wine. Heat through. (Do not boil.)

I made this tag, hole punched it and tied it to the top of the mull wrap with pretty ribbon.

A few notes on making these wine mulls.....
I juiced my orange halves and then scooped out the pulp.
(Bonus!  Fresh squeezed orange juice to drink while you are making these.  I recommend adding a little vodka to that juice!)
The orange halves shrink a lot and get hard and dark orange when drying out.  Don't freak out.
Dry time depends on the size of the oranges.  I used medium sized oranges and it took about 4 hours. 
I made the aluminum foil balls big enough to fill up about half the space in side the orange.  
I used a Dremel to cut my cinnamon sticks to make them fit perfectly inside the orange half.

Sharing at:
Twigg Studios Sunday Show Off 
Boogieboard Cottage - Masterpiece Monday 
It All Started With Paint - Super Saturday Linky Party 
Call Me PMc - Marvelous Mondays  
Kitchen Table Art - Making Monday
The Dedicated House - Make it Pretty Monday 
Cedar Hill Farmhouse - The Scoop 
Knick of Time - Vintage Inspiration Party 
Kathe With an E - You're Gonna Love It Tuesday

SNOW JAR CHRISTMAS TREE - CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Since it's Christmas in July in the blog world, I'm sharing this project that I did for my friend Natalie at NorthShore Days.
Natalie was my first blog friend and her encouragement, emails and kind comments kept me going in those first scary days of puttin myself out there in the blog world.  She has a heart as big as Christmas itself!  If you are lucky enough to have Natalie as a friend, you really don't need anything else for Christmas!  If you have a friend like Natalie though, you might want to make them something like this for Christmas.......

 Every time I see the beachy blue colors (and I'm seeing them a lot this holiday season) I'm reminded of my good friend Natalie and her love of the beach in her home of New Zealand.  
This project started out way back last summer when I bought an old outdoor brass porch light at Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store.  Those things are awesome and have a ton of cool parts.  For this project, I used the top cover and spray painted it silver.

 Then I gathered a few supplies and went to work.

 What you'll need:
Glass jar with a lid, bottle brush tree, wire cutters, artificial snow, beads, some kind of base (I used the lamp part mentioned above) and glue. (I forgot to get the glue in the picture....oops.)
The first thing I did, was trim my little tree to fit inside the bottle.  I had to use some wire cutters to cut the stem down and then some scissors to trim and shape the branches at the bottom.

Using a toothpick and some glue, I put the beads on the tree.

When it was dry, I stood it up and glued the base to the inside of the jar lid.

I put a little artificial snow in the jar.  (It doesn't take much!) 

 Then I carefully slid the tree into the jar, screwed the lid on and tapped it until most of the snow fell to the bottom.  I decided to tie a little blue ribbon on it and then just set it on the base that I had spray painted.  

If you don't have a lamp base that you just happened to have spray painted last summer laying around, it looks pretty cute without one too!

 Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, I wish you the best!  I also want to remind you to reach out in the blog world and make some friends.  If you're lucky like I was...you may find someone who becomes a life-long friend who is dear to you even outside of blogland.  I love ya Nat!
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VINTAGE BLACK AND WHITE FRAMED CHRISTMAS PHOTO

It's Christmas in July and although it's hard to think about Christmas this time of year, I'm doing it!   

 I'm delighted to share this cute, easy and inexpensive framed vintage photo project with you.

 The whole project came in at less than $2.00!  Gotta love that, right?
Here's how I did it.  The supplies are.........

Hinged double photo frame (Dollar Tree...guess how much? Yep $1!)  Photo mat (Dollar Tree....4/$1.00....that makes it 25 cents!)  Black and white photo from a Christmas card (free).  You can find a lot of very cool vintage Christmas photos for free at The Graphics Fairy though.
You can ignore the little package of gems, because in the end, I felt like I didn't need to use them.
Let me give you a close up of that Christmas card print because it's absolutely adorable, which is why I saved it for several years!

Seriously, do you not want to just hug that little girl??!!!  

I put the oval mat over the photo and slipped it into the large half of the frame.  

I wanted to put some cute saying or something in the small frame.  I made this on PicMonkey.  (I love PicMonkey!)  

It just seemed appropriate for the picture.  I printed it out, trimmed it to fit and put it in the small side of the frame.  It was at this point I decided not to add the little gems.  It somehow took away from the vintage feel of it.  

   It may be my favorite Christmas project this year.  Easy and inexpensive, yet simple and precious.  Come to think of it....that's just how I like my Christmas to be!  I hope yours is the way you want it to be as well!

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