Christmas Tree Decorating

 

So this year, my new apartment has a completely different color scheme than my old one. Go figure lol. The last two years I have done a white and green christmas (2011 and 2010). Prior to that, I had done the traditional red and gold. This year, my walls are grey and I have turquoise and aqua accents, so the green wouldn't really have worked.

 

So what to do for Christmas?! The easiest thing would have been to go for an all white and silver color scheme. I started decorating my tree with this in mind first.

 

I am so grateful my tree is prelit lol. They are sooo much easier to put up!

 

Most of my ornaments are just ones purchased from the craft store, but I do have one little box of glass ornaments that mean something special to me. My grandma had these little glass heart ornaments on her christmas tree, and our family inherited them when she died. Every year growing up when we would hang all our ornaments on our tree, coming across these always pulled at my heart a little with memories of her. A few years ago the last one left finally broke (hazards of pet ownership). Apparently my distress was visible, because last Christmas my mom hunted down new ones and gave a whole box to me for my very own!

 

 

I will always cherish hanging these on my tree.

 

So after decorating my tree all white, I was still missing some pops of color, so decided to throw in some Red! It's not as classic, but the little pops of brightness bring me cheer :) I even have little cardinals nesting in the branches!

 



 

Thank goodness my tree skirt works! The above picture doesn't really do the red justice, the picture below is a bit more true.

I don't think I will hang stockings this year, since my new apartment does not have a fireplace, and it would just be me and one for Sasha. She has been uber cuddly lately... anytime I am on the couch working on my laptop, sketching, or watching a movie she just plops right next to me hehe.

 

 

 

HalloweeEEEEEeeeeeen!

My first and original costume for this year, was Indiana Jones, as perviously shown hehe.

This costume was for a fun little collaberative party Friday night before Halloween! I had such a fun time!Pretty much the easiest costume to create ever. I could have done more, but since our office decided to do a collaberative theme this year which would not include my costume, I decided to split funds and invest in some DIY materials.

For my Alice in Wonderland costume, I chose to be The White Queen.

The White Queen was in Through The Looking Glass, and lives backwards through time, so she says some odd things in the book like "Would you like to have tea yesterday?". Anne Hathaway played her character in Tim Burton's recent film.

 

 I am very lucky tulle is so inexpensive... Many future halloween costumes will likely somehow involve this fabric lol.

 

I had fun experimenting with the makeup lol. I definitely think next time I will be more liberal with the black to create a more pronounced mask.

I wanted to have a white or light blonde wig, or at the very least spray paint my hair white... but ah well.

COSTUME ELEMENTS:

1. I just used some white and silver eye shadow over a white cream base to create the simple mask look. And of course added fun fake eyelashes! Nextt time, more glitter lol!
 

2. I love my homemade paper crown! I cut it out of a sturdy silver glitter paper, and attached it to a headband.
 

3. I purchased many many yards ot tulle at the fabric store (super inexpensive) and just tied strips to a ribbon. I wore this over a white skirt and stockings.

 

 

 

{Alice, The Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, The Rabbit, The Red Queen, The White Queen}

 

 

Halloween evening I spent with my gals watching movies and snacking hehe. Linsdey was Alice coincidentally!

 

I ended the night doing some knitting lol... its not a party if there isn't knitting happening hehe.

 

I really enjoyed having both a weekend of loud socializing and fun, and also a more low key classic halloween with close friends. Lovely year!

 

 

Boo!

 

I found this idea on Pinterest (but of course lol) and modified it for the office!

 

Basically the concept is similar to what I did for Easter. I made and packaged treat bags of chocolate covered pretzels for everyone, and then also made little desk signs as well.

 

Technically it really is suppose to be for only a couple of your neighbors, who are then suppose to pass the tradition on to others, and so on and so forth all throughout October. Knowing my coworkers though and their less than enthusiastic attitudes, I just decided to make it more of a Halloween treat thing.

 

I actually made caramel covered, chocolate drizzles, and nut spattered apples with the intent to use them for this project, but the caramel wasn't the best and didn't hold well away from the fridge. Hence white chocolate covered pretzels instead! :D