May Arts Ribbonista Christmas Blog Hop- Day 4

The Count Down Has Begun!! 5 Days 'til Christmas

Hi everyone. If you're a new visitor, I hope you'll see something here that makes you come back, if you're following the  May Arts Ribbonista  Christmas Blog Hop, glad you hopped by. If you haven't checked out the previous three days, after you visit here,  head back to May Arts and check them out.

Boy, this year has gone by so fast, it's a blur. One minute it was the middle of the summer and before I knew it, Halloween had passed and the gobble, gobble of the Thanksgiving turkey was just a faint memory. Is it me or does it seem like folks are putting up Christmas decorations earlier and earlier each year? I can faintly remember (hey, don't laugh, wait til you start to have senior moments) not putting up my Christmas tree until the middle of  Dec. Of course, that was when my boys were younger and we made an event out of going to cut down our tree. Artificial trees don't start to drop needles the minute you put it up so I guess that's why they are up so soon. Or, is it because Hobby Lobby has Christmas merchandise in the store by the end of July? And if you've been in a HL this past week, you know those 4-5 aisles of Christmas merchandise has been sold down to maybe 3 aisles!!

Well, you really don't have to run out and buy a lot of Christmas home decor items each year. You can always use what you already have and love in your home. I say love because if that pillow is on your couch for 10-11 months out of the year you must at the least have a strong like  ( if not true love) for it, so why move it for 1 month? Hopefully the following pictures will give you some ideas on using what you already have and just giving it a little tweak for the holidays.

What better way to add some holiday spark than with ribbon.  Here is the pillow that is on my couch most of the time.

Here's the same pillow dressed up for the holidays, wearing a silver bow made with May Arts  (SL60) ribbon.

The color of this pillow is reflected in my latest non traditional (NT) holiday color scheme.
 For three year's my NT tree was a white tree with orange and pink ornaments. You can see it in older posts.
 Well, in an attempt to have a more coordinated look, I changed it to apple green, chocolate brown and my favorite color, yep, turquoise. And you know my love for silver, so there is some silver on this tree.  Not wanting to break the bank on this new color change, I must say this tree is in the "developmental stage".  Of course you know that's secret code for waiting to catch more stuff on sale after the holidays. Check back in a couple of days to see the new NT tree. I thought that I needed to have similar or coordinating colors on my two biggest trees as they are in adjacent rooms. The "Big" tree has, green, fushia, purple and you guessed it, turquoise, lots of turquoise. It is my "Peacock" tree.

Since the mantle is in the same room as the NT tree I decided to forgo the greenery and ornaments of years gone by and go for a new look.  So this year my mantle sports lots ribbon and lots of turquoise.

Notice the turquoise and silver pine cones hanging from the mantle. These are found throughtout my holiday decor.

I have 22 Georgia Pine trees in my back yard. You know what that means? Yea, no grass to cut and no need to buy pine straw but more importantly, it means lots and lots of pine cones.  Now, if you are crafty you understand that every time I look out my kitchen window I start trying to figure out what to make with all those free, yes free pine cones. Pinterest has loads of ideas, and I tried a couple of them.
To make these larger pine cones more versatile  I drilled a small hole in them, screwed in an eye hook so that I can hang them by ribbon just about anywhere.  Maybe next year I'll hang lots of them on ribbon to make a garland for the tree or mantle.

  But this year some adorn my tree wearing a turqouise and green bow ( May Arts XY44 and MKK34)  and some hang on the mantle wearing beautiful bows .( May Arts  354-34; XY44: 350-15-46: 350-15-99 ).

But back to using what you already have.  I spray painted the smallest pine cones ( 1-1.5") silver and gold. These were placed in a large clear vase along with left over silver ornaments and I tied a pretty bow ( SL60 and 354-34) on the vase and put it back  on the hearth.

Another quick and festive idea is to dress up items already hanging on your walls.  I have a great  passion for silver trays repurposed into wall hangings  so  ome vintage silver tray with a mirrored centergot dressed up for the holidays. To give it a festive holiday look i added greenery, miniature mercury glass ornaments, silver pine cones and a turquoise ribbon. After the holidays, the greenery, ornaments and bow ( XY44) come off.

And I carried the colors and common element - silver pine cones into my gift wrapping.

These were just a few ideas for using what I already had to complete my holiday look. I hope it gave you some ideas for maybe a quick last minute fix for a spot in your house that just needs a little something extra.

I hope you enjoyed this post and most of all I hope you have a Merry Christmas and stop by again during the Happiest New Year.