Christmas Clearance!

The holidays were so much fun for us this year. We visited lots of family and had lots of fun. And ate lots and lots and LOTS of food. Which brings me to something else that’s been keeping me busy . . .

Ragnar Del Sol.

Have you heard of it? It’s a relay race that takes place here in Arizona at the end of February. Each team is made up of 12 runners and runs over 200 miles. I’m co-captaining a team. Planning everything is busy and training has started to get intense. But that’s good. Cause I gotta whip this body back in shape after gorging over the holidays! :)

But, don’t worry. I was still able to do some of my favorite shopping in between everything . . .

Christmas clearance!

I know, I know. I’m sure like me, you are SO.OVER.CHRISTMAS. But just indulge me please . . .

Now one of my favorite clearance sales to shop is Christmas clearance because unlike other holidays, there is always still a TON of good shopping after Christmas. And if you time it right, you can find an awesome selection at deep discounted prices. And because I decided to redo my whole tree in silver/red instead of the gold/red that I’ve had for the past 7 years, I shopped my little heart out after Christmas to find everything I wanted.

Everything I got this year was from Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, and Tai-Pan.

Silver and red ribbon to trim the tree. I found the big bolt of wired red ribbon (90 ft.) for just 2 bucks at Hobby Lobby.

Lots of silver and white ornaments and bulbs.

These next ornaments are my favorite! I got all of them at Tai Pan Trading at 50% off. I usually like to wait to things go at least 80% off, but I wasn’t in Utah long enough to wait for it.

Vintage sparkly candy canes from Tai Pan as well.

I love these snowflakes! I got a bunch of them at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby.

Even though I still have a lot of red ornaments from my former tree, I still wanted to add in some different sizes and shapes of red ornaments. I liked both of these from Hobby Lobby, so I snatched them up when they went 80% off.

And got some big red ones from Wal-Mart.

I looked and looked for a tree topper, but didn’t find anything that I was in love with. So I ended up just buying these floral fillers for the top.

Now, we’ll just cross our fingers that everything looks good together next year!

And do you want to know how much of a quack I am? I undecorated my tree from this year, and redecorated it AGAIN with my new things to make sure I had enough of everything. I know. Issues? I have them.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, I DID in fact freeze over Christmas. . . .Well, at least my eyelashes. My husband and I got up for a 7 am run while visiting my brother in Colorado . . . . It was 7 degrees outside. 7 DEGREES PEOPLE. It was cold, and we both had icicles on our eyelashes when we were done. Now you know why I love SUNNY DAYS :)

Still Here!

I wish I had something crafty and inspiring to post.

But nope.

I'm sure just like you, I've been busy shopping, wrapping and baking.

Oh yeah, and going crazy. Like I do every holiday season.

I am SO not one of those gals that has it all together right now. I am always flying by the seat of my pants and just barely skating by.

Oh well! Still love this time of year.

We're heading to the snowy Utah mountains for Christmas.

I’m a little bit scared. I grew up in Utah, but moved to Arizona about 2 years ago. I’m a softy. 50 degrees is cold to me now. It means I have to put on a long-sleeve shirt when running and wear shoes instead of flip flops. What the heck am I going to do in sub-30 weather??

We won’t be back until after New Year’s. But if any of you are still reading this humble little blog, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year!

Grandma’s Rocking Horse Cross Stitch

Last year my mother let me and each of my siblings choose something of my grandmother’s to keep. I chose this beautiful rocking horse cross-stitch. Not sure why. I just liked the simple beauty of it. Unfortunately, it sat in my Christmas boxes all last year cause I just hated the gold speckled frame that it came in.

But that was before me and spray paint were BFFs.

So this year when I pulled it out of my Christmas boxes, instead of seeing an uglygoldspeckledframe thathadnochanceofEVERseeingthelightofdayagain, I saw my grandma’s beautiful vintage cross-stitch that just needed a little paint on the frame to make it pretty again.

Do you have anything that spray paint can rescue?

Fur Wreath

The Nester last year posted an awesome tutorial on how to make a fur wreath for your winter/Christmas decor. I so loved the look of it, and decided to give it a try this year.

But this project was definitely a doozy!

In her instructions she says, "Like most of the projects we do here, there's a little risk, a little trial and error, a little imperfection and it's all worth it. Basically, you want to cover the wreath form with the fur. And the longer the hair, the more forgiving it is of your messy, inpatient, non-measuring self."

I didn't believe it when I started it, but the more a got into it the more I realized, yep! that's exactly what's going on here. No rules, lots of trial and error. And in the end, your goal really is just to cover the wreath form with the fur.

I had fur EVERYWHERE,
and I think I was itching my eyes for several hours afterward.

But it was so worth it!
I love that it's just a little different than what you usually see.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas . . .