you can do it all by yourself

Traditional, Minimal, Whimsical

When it comes to decorations there are three types of people. (Four actually, if you count the grouchy, under-their-breath-muttering Grinches who don't decorate at all.) First, you have your traditionalists. For them Christmas is cherry red and ever green. Period. Second, there are the minimalists. These people like golds, silvers and whites with subtle hints of deep reds (maroon, burgundy or ox blood this year if they're on trend) and maybe some moss greens. The last group is anyone else. Bright colors for Christmas? Holla! Tacky ("vintage"), every color lights?--they're their.

I find myself in the latter two groups. I guess I'm a bit of a rebel against the man. (You know, the man who decided Christmas colors were red and green.) This year though I'm saving my whites and silvers for New Year's and I'm trying to make our home merry, bold and bright for Christmas.

These are some easy diy decorations to get your home all cozied up for the holidays.

(The first one is a link to a kit which is a little too pricey in my opinion. If I make these, I'll probably get some stiff felt from Joann's and trace the shapes from the cookies cutters that we got from IKEA. (These cookie cutters are ridiculously awesome by the way. The package included animals like a porcupine, a squirrel and a moose.))

Are you a traditionalist, a minimalist, or a do it your own wayist?

paint your walls gray and the world will look better

Our house is in a bit of disarray but I'm so proud of little pieces of it (especially our lovely, hard-earned walls) that I decided to shove some piles to the side and show you what we have so far.
In order of appearance:

A lamp! I told you I was looking and I found this beauty in Salt Lake last weekend! It was the score of the century since I've been wistfully looking at similar ones for weeks. They were out of our price range (plus shipping!) but this one was even better than many of those.

These are our walls. You can't quite tell, but the left wall is an accent color in elephant skin and the right one is painted in classic silver. Our walls are pretty much the pride of our home. At least in my eyes. The tablecloth is an awesome blue/purple/green vintage one from my mom and sitting on top is a vase from our wedding decorations with dried lavender.

Our rocking chair nook where we talk and gaze out the window at our view of beautiful sunsets along with our small collection of art they we need to figure out where and how to hang. Suggestions are welcome. As are introductions to further art to make our life more visually stimulating.

Well folks, that's all for now on the home front.