Holiday Decor in a Small Apartment

This isn't only our first year as a married couple. It's also the first year we will be on our own Christmas morning! So we wanted to jazz up our holiday decor a little this year! So I wanted to share a little of what we did.

Our budget was smaller than our 800 sf apartment, so sometimes creativity was in order! I'll break down all the little ways we made our home a little more festive this year! 

Wreath, of Course!

A wreath is a wonderful way to decorate, without taking up much space at all! My in-laws gave us this wonderful, real evergreen wreath, but with the simple red bow that accompanied it, I felt it was lacking something. I took a modern spin on it, adding a chalkboard wooden plaque on top! I can change out the words whenever I please! :) 

A Christmas Tree... 

This is our first-ever Christmas Tree! I told you, our apartment is small. So we found this wonderful 4', pre-lit gem at Michael's Crafts, on sale for $20! Steal! Remember, we have a tiny budget, so I placed a piece of cardboard on the top of an upside-down storage tub. I then covered the whole she-bang with a yard of some pretty shimmer fabric, and suddenly I had a raised tree skirt to help make our little tree the highlight of the room! 

...With Ornaments!

 

This ornament was inspired by an idea from Pinterest, our favorite creative friend. This is actually our first new Christmas tradition! I wrote the year with a special glass pen, and all the wonderful things that happened during the year. It's a wonderful keepsake, that can include children in later years! I'm also considering filling it with small items to further remind us of the year. Thoughts? 

My Maid of Honor gave us this adorable ornament as part of our wedding gift this year! She cleverly cut up our wedding invitation, and curled pieces to highlight them. She then arranged them in this ornament, finishing it off with some jute ribbon! Such a wonderful memory of our wedding we can bring out every year. 

Mantle (or top of TV unit) Decor 

We got these apothecary jars as a wedding present, and I love finding creative ways to display them! I simply bought some cheap but cute ornaments at the Dollar Tree to fill a couple of them. And the last one has candies, because who doesn't like some chocolate in their life every now and then?? These are on the top shelf of our "mantle" aka TV unit, along with our next items....

Jeremy was given these little village homes from his parents, so we might as well display them! Free decor! I paired them with one of my DIY creations from this year, a popsicle-stick tree! Its made from a cardboard cone, a wooden candlestick, and a mixture of mini-popsicle sticks and flat toothpicks. I then spray painted the whole thing with silver glitter paint, and glued a baker's twine garland around it. Each swag of the twine is finished off with a small sticky crystal. I was stumped on the topper, but my grandma saw what I was working on (we did these as a Thanksgiving bonding craft this year), and conveniently pulled out the cute little bow from her stash of goodies! Thanks Grandma! 

We Can't Have Christmas Without Stockings!  

I made these burlap stockings this year as well! I simply followed some directions I found on google. It's easier than you think, I promise! Though I will say, the burlap isn't the friendliest fabric to work with! I topped it off with a black and white fat quarter I had sitting around. (don't forget, cheap!) To personalize each one, I had these wooden letters from my scrapbooking days, and I mod-podged glitter onto each one! 

And being in an apartment, 3M's amazing removable wall hooks are a renter's best friend!

And of course, we can't forget Jetson's stocking too! I just carefully painted mod-podge onto this wooden coin in the shape of a paw, and sprinkled the glitter onto it! I then used another coat of the mod-podge to seal it all in. 

Share with me the creative, cheap, and space-crunching ways you've decorated this year! And I hope I can get your creative juices flowing! Until next time! 

Don't Let Thanksgiving be Run Over

Everyone has seen a version of this classic comic, but nothing has changed.

This past September, I was walking my dog past my neighbor's apartment, and my dog started growling in their direction. I look over to see a plastic reindeer on their patio. "Great", I thought, "We can add plastic animals to the list of inanimate objects my dog is afraid of." But then I paused. "It's SEPTEMBER. Why is there a reinde.......: as I looked more, I realized there were cling snowflakes on the window. Candy cane lights in the bush. And a fully decorated Christmas Tree clearly visible inside their home.

As I pulled my antler-fearing dog away from the scene, and wore off the shock, I officially decided my neighbors were nuts. 3 months before Christmas?!? Their decor will be up for 1/4 of the year! I pass this apartment every day, and while my dog has finally gotten used to the reindeer, I realized I was getting more and more annoyed. Actually, more than that. I was angry.

It took me a while to realize this anger. What was it even towards? Not my neighbor. They are crazy, but seemingly harmless. It wasn't about the commercials already chiming holiday tunes, as obnoxious as that is. Heck, it wasn't even how the black hole of Black Friday is slowly, year after year, sucking in it's preceding day for more hours of petty fighting. That's a whole other debatable beast.

No, I was angry for November. Not at it, for it. It's my birth-month, so I've always been partial to it. Yet somehow it has become only a speed bump in America's hurry from Halloween to Christmas. While somewhere, wrapped up in it's crunchy leaves, lies a holiday fighting for room.

Thanksgiving. It's not a huge day in my family (though I'd like to change that with my new budding family). But I truly feel that it is one of the most important American holidays of the year. A holday that's skipped over, time and time again. It's barely a blip on the American radar. Sure, everyone celebrates it. People (who can) go home to their loved ones to stuff their faces and maybe watch the big game. But why does society as a whole press the gas pedal, flattening this important holiday into oblivion?

This is why:
Thanksgiving cannot be commercialized. It will not be commercialized.

And this capitalist society resents it for that. There are no cards or candy. No flowers or gifts. No eggs to decorate or costumes to wear. No overpriced fireworks. Thanksgiving cannot be sold. There is no profit to gain. Thanksgiving is, at it's essence, being happy with what you have, right now. And no one can capitalize on that ideal. So society crowds it. Breathes down it's neck. Tries their best to make Thanksgiving uncomfortable by trading costumes and ghouls with ornaments and trees. By placing the most selfish day of the year right next to it. But wait! Why stop there? They go and decide that Black Friday isn't big enough, so they steal hours from the hemorrhaging holiday itself. Apparently, going the other way into the weekend doesn't appear greedy enough. They like greedy. They want greedy.

So my call to action is simple. Give thanks. Acknowledge your blessings. Cherish the memories. Whether you are surrounded by your crazy extended family while sneaking a forkful of pie, or you are far from home, but surrounded by friends who all brought their favorite dishes. If you have a little fight in you, help keep Black Friday on, well, Friday. Hang those Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving. Christmas is awesome, and represents so much to so many different people. But let's not desensitize ourselves of the holiday. Don't let it take over a quarter of our year. If we keep it short, it will be all that much sweeter and enjoyable when it does finally come. And then, we can finally give Thanksgiving, and the whole month of November -with it's colorful leaves and crisp air - the respect it deserves.

With pie. Lots and lots of pie. :)

Favorite Groom Pictures

So much emphasis is placed on the Bride, and I think it always has. But I wanted to give some much deserved to my groom, my husband! It seems every girl now wants a picture of how their groom reacts, whether it's excitement, or a tear. No tears here, but lots of smiles!

All photos by Katy Weaver Photography

Love this guy. :)