Winter Apothecary Jars

There is something about these glass apothecaries that lend themselves to any season. I guess it could be the fact that they are clear and pretty and you can put anything you want inside them.


Shells, an old finial, pretend eggs and nests, fake snow, silver anything, tiny bottle brush trees, berries, rocks, notes, nuts, ribbons, buttons, coins, photos, tiny frames, toys, Christmas ornaments...



For more inspiration visit Holly Mathis:: the Queen of Apothecary jar decor.

What do you put in your apothecary jars?

A Simple Garland

This year my garland is simple. OR simpler than last year. I still love a full, fat lovely garland but for some reason this garland wasn't packed with the rest of the Christmas stuff so I had early access to it and I realized how much I love it.


It's just two strands of natural looking plastic garland from Hobby Lobby. Bought a few years ago a half price. I looked this year but I couldn't find more. I like how real this garland looks with it's yellowy brown edges.


I made three tiny holes in my mantle {because I'm not afraid of holeyness} and just attached the garland to the tacks.


It was kind of plain so of course, I had to add something to it. I found a few picks of red cherries and berries and just laid them in. Then I tore off a few leaves from a fake branch and stuffed them in as well.


Very simple. Very pretty. Very done.

Need an even simpler garland? Follow Layla's lead and use a strand of beads!

Christmas Tour How To

Next Monday, December 14 is the much anticipated, highly regarded, horribly too soon Christmas Tour of Homes! Many thanks to BooMama for entrusting me with this huge responsibility!

Who can join in?

ANYONE! As long as you have a blog or flickr acct that you can link to--everyone is invited!

What Do I do?

Simply share some of your holiday decor by writing a post and showing photos. You can show one photo or 28--it's totally up to you. You can write a big bunch of stuff or keep quiet, the point of the tour is to encourage and inspire each other with our decorating. I love pretty decorations but this is not a contest. Everyone is invited to join in, from the simplest decor to the most elaborate. I'd love for you to grab the button right below by copying and pasting the code in that little box into the HTML section of your blog or sidebar. Or you can grab it however you know how. Also, feel free to link to thenester.com it will take you to the tour on Monday.

<center><a href="http://thenester.com/"><img alt="Christmas Tour of Homes with The Nester" src="http://graphicallydesigning.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ontour.png" title="Christmas Tour of Homes with The Nester" /></a></center>

How's it work?

Some of you are totally down with understanding all the lingo and the link up method. It's basically going to be just like Emily's Tuesday's Unwrapped or Melissa's Friday Holiday Linky posts and Kimba's DIY Day .{scroll down on those posts to see all the links}.

When you see these words on Monday at the end of the post, obey--click there to enter your PERMALINK--not today, Monday.

By 8am {EST} Monday morning I'll have my tour up at the top of the blog {remember, if for some reason you don't see Nesting Place in your reader or Blogger Dashboard, just type in thenester.com} and there will be an obvious place for you to enter your blog PERMALINK in at the bottom of the post. If for some reason you see an error page that means I've wrecked up the whole internet. Just be patient, eat a candy cane and check back soon.

What's a permalink?

{copied straight from my sister's explanation}

A permalink is the URL to a specific blog post. In other words, each blog post has an address and the permalink is the street number and the avenue. For example, my blog address is www.nestingplacenc.blogspot.com. But the permalink to this post is http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmast-tour-how-to.html

To get the permalink, I simply clicked on the post title and it popped up in the address bar.

Why was my link deleted?

{also copied straight from my sister's blog because I am 8 years old and lazy and she explains stuff much better}

Probably because you linked to your blog rather than the permalink of your post. Sometimes people like to browse through your Tour of Home posts from my site days or weeks after you’ve posted them. If you simply link to your blog front page, they will not be able to find your Tour post. Unless you use the permalink, your link will be deleted out of courtesy to the reader.

I hope that covers everything~enjoy your holiday decorating and don't forget to take pictures this weekend!

I hope you had a wonderful, maybe even snow filled weekend. I didn't see one flake of snow but it was still a perfectly delicious weekend spent at my sister's beautiful homey home. We made PW's cinnamon rolls. And oh my. Make sure you wear elastic pants when you make them.

In other news, I'm moving again. Actually, this time the blog is moving {thank the good Lord in heaven that I don't have to pack anything} No matter what, you will be able to find Nesting Place at TheNester.com . If you type that in now it automatically takes you here but soon it will take you to another here that looks a little different but is basically the same. Kind of. I should look into being an air traffic controller with my oh so clear and concise way with words.

Lastly, I've got a post up at (in)courage today. There's a sweet story about Barbie dating someone from the nativity set and somehow I end up tying that in with decorating. Meet me there?

Garnish Your Gifts

Half the fun of giving a gift is wrapping it. I get so excited when I can give a gift that looks so pretty that I wish I could keep it. Some people wan to have the cutest outfit, or have the latest hairstyle, I want to wrap the prettiest gifts. I'm pretty sure it's a sickness. Unfortunately, during the holidays, I can't spend lots of time on each gift. But, by raiding my craft closet and having a stash of simple white containers, I can make even the most insignificant gift look like I put lots of thought into it. And you can too.


I started with all different white, kraft and clear boxes provided by Garnish. Y'all these boxes are not expensive. They are the same price or less than what you can spend on gift bags $1-$2 each. I secretly hate gift bags. I know, I know, they are easy. And yes, I have used them. And no, I would not ever dream of turning away a gift simply because it came in a snowman gift bag.


But, I try to make it my personal mission to see how I can avoid giving gifts in the gift bags. This year and most likely for the rest of my life, I'll be using these boxes and filling them with everything from chocolate covered pretzels to candy to tassels to books and toys.


There are lots of shapes and sizes and they are perfect for the food based gifts that I love to give and receive. But they are also perfect for any other type of gift.


The paper bowl is great for leftovers or Brunswick stew for you to keep or give.


But what little boy wouldn't love to have it filled with Lego's? You know how I like to pass great toys down after my boys have grown out of things. {for the record my boys have NOT grown out of Lego's, I did that just for the photo, hopefully the Lego's will be around for years to come} Even though the toys are used, they can still be packaged nicely.


I added a Posy pin to the top of this small kraft box and a few stickers I had in my crafty stash. I'll put some candy and a gift card inside. Instant gift that looks like a million bucks.
Garnish has clear boxes, labels, food safe vellumy tissue paper stuff that has a fancy name, twine, every size white, kraft and clear box that you can imagine-- it's like packaging heaven.


You can even use the labels for your gift tags. Isn't she lucky to have a sister like me? {crickets}


Not only can you use Garnish to wrap every gift this Christmas, you can put them to their rightful use--packaging food. If you are giving gifts of food this year, packaging is everything. Besides taste, taste is also everything. Oh and cleanliness. Cleanliness is everything too.


If you are hosting any kind of get together this year, look at all the simple fun you can have with Garnish. Their stuff makes you look like a regular Martha Stewart only it's inexpensive and super easy and there is no jail time involved.


I suddenly wish my name were Sara.


Make life easy on yourself and consider how you can add some Garnish this season.


Leave a comment and tell us what you would Garnish to have a chance to win one of 3 $25 Garnish shopping sprees. Trust me $25 is a LOT of Garnish!


I cannot stop showing you photos of all the darling things I did with my Garnish supplies. Forgive me? It's just so easy to look like a wrapping pro with some fabric scraps and stickers.


And you know how I never require you to go on a wild goose chance and spend 3 hours at the sponsor's website? Well, I HIGHLY encourage you to click, because of the eye candy and hilariously, folksy writing at Garnish. It's like J. Peterman meets JR Cigar magazine {have you ever read it? It's brilliant, totally makes me want to smoke a cigar!?} I just want to hang out at the site and become friends with the staff.

Now enter to win, and if you desperately need you some Garnish--all US orders have a flat rate shipping of only $7. Off to find more things to Garnish! Have a great weekend! Cross your fingers for snow here in NC for us!

Tree Skirt Alternatives

{the only photo I could find that showed part of my tree skirt--a leftover piece of fur--no one ever focuses on the skirt, you shouldn't either}

I'm going to get hate mail for this one I just know it:

Do not ever purchase a tree skirt--use that money to buy more tree lights, we both know you could use them. Or use the extra money to buy gifts, if you have lots of gifts then who needs a skirt? If you have a skirt already, fine use it, but I'm convinced tree skirts were created by the government as a ploy to get us to buy yet one more unnecessary, unitasker thing.

Here are some things you can use to clothe your tree bottom instead:

• An old curtain
• table cloth {scrunch it up so you don't see the stains}
• burlap
• a piece of fur
• two pillow shams layered around
• extra fabric you have packed away
• tulle
• place baskets around the ugly tree stand and fill them with gifts
• one of your own skirts from your closet--a full one
• a quilt or pretty blanket
• a sheet
• lots of gifts {my personal favorite}
• An old bridesmaid dress {strait from the brilliant comment section!}
  

If you don't have any of this stuff and live in an empty house, you probably need to buy other things more than a tree skirt. If you still insist on purchasing something, buy yourself a pretty fur throw and then after the holidays put it on your sofa so it has more than one use.

{I try to pick a tree where I can have lots of low branches--there's barely room for gifts, much less a poor little skirt}

Let the hate mail flow.

How To Decorate A Christmas Tree

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? For most of us, it's not a matter of deciding what aisle of ornaments to purchase. In a perfect world, it would be fun to get to buy hundreds of dollars worth of the latest Christmas decor ever year, but that's completely unrealistic. We just want to know more of how to make our measly $10 go the furthest when deciding what to buy. And what we can do without.



Here's what I've learned over the years when it comes to lights and ornaments:

Lights:: You Don't Have Enough and Neither Do I

Lights are highly important to your Christmas tree. If you only have the money for either lights or ornaments, buy the lights and hang Sharpe markers, bras, cans of soup, mail--anything else on your tree. No lights=no magic. I've never seen a tree with too many lights--have you? Basically, make sure your tree has lots of lights and be sure to tuck some in deep close to the trunk as well as on the outside branches. If you really want to drive us light lovers crazy with lust for your tree, add in a few strands of C9s and sit back and enjoy the compliments.


I kept it short for the lights because I could write a book about ornaments. Get comfy and grab some coffee because here we go...

Ornaments:: To Theme or Not To Theme?

Trees want a theme. I'll be the first to admit that the theme can be that you don't have a theme. That's fine but make sure it's obvious that's your theme, the non-theme that is. If you say you don't have a theme but then your tree looks like you started 3 themes, the theme is simply confused. You'll wonder why your tree looks weak and not put together. The only way to pull off the non-theme theme is to fill your tree with all sorts of mixes of ornaments and be purposefully non-themey.

If you are like me when you hear the word theme you have instant visions of a Sesame Street Nursery complete with wall murals of Oscar the Grouch and plastic beach buckets filled with real sand adorning a beach house. That's not a theme, that's an easy, weird way out. We are talking direction, goal, purpose--that is the kind of theme we are going for, not some category that we have to slave over to fit into, but rather some guidelines to help direct us on what should and should not go on our tree to make it work. A theme frees us up to hunt for what we can use, it doesn't box us in.

Did you ever imagine someone could talk like this about an ordinary Christmas tree? I could preach all night about it.

Here are some themes that I've used:

Color

The theme for this tree is bright colors. I used inexpensive, bright, shatter proof ornaments and lots of colored ribbon. My boys added in any and all hand made penguins, drawings and toys that they wanted. The more color the better.


Wintry/shiny/natural/browns/whites/nesty/blues
{I never said that your theme needed an official name}

This is my new old tree. My $5 yard sale beauty. A few years ago I had the bright idea to buy brown ornaments. Guess what? Brown ornaments don't show up on green trees. But they look great on white trees. Back to the theme. For this tree I had to shop the house. I looked for anything with browns, silvers and whites.


Besides the brown castoff ornaments from years gone by, I also had a few tiny birdhouses that I had collected over the years. Some had a string to hang them, some I simply sat on a sturdy branch. There is no rule that says everything on the tree must have been purchased from the ornament aisle. The best tree decorations are the ones that mean something to you--usually they don't have a neat little hook hole to hang it from.


I remembered that I had a bunch of tiny nests with eggs glued in them so I grabbed those and scattered them around the tree just tucking them onto the branches.


Really, it's just a mess of my favorite stuff that looks good together. A bird that a friend sewed for me, a tiny framed photo of one of my boys, anything silver I could find, random white angel ornaments.



My favorite item is this pair of felt baby shoes. They belonged to my grandfather. I adore this tree. It cost me all of $5 to decorate {I had forgotten that I had brown balls packed away from a few years ago and bought $5 worth at the grocery store} and it is full of meaning and memories. Since we have two other trees my boys don't mind if I keep this one pretty.


Our family tree has a theme too. Red. Red is the theme. Any thing in our home that had red in it was fair game to try on the tree.

Here's a very limited list of things you can try on your tree

• frames
• wooden letters
• wooden spools
• flowers
• bells
• hearts
• toys
• ribbon
• silverware
• shells
• burlap ripped up
• crystals
• tiny mirrors
• feathers
• tassels
• tiny baskets
• small wrapped boxes
• paper chains and paper snowflakes
  

If your tree is looking a little lack luster shop the house and see what you can add in.


Remember this red floral stuff from here and here? Now I tucked it into the tree--it made a HUGE impact. I just use the same few items over and over again--are you sick of seeing it all?



Shop your house, define a theme and ruthlessly search for anything that could possibly work. Promise yourself you will give every idea a chance. Anything that has a remote possibility of actually working must be at least put on your tree for a few minutes. Remember, your home's return policy is very generous, so give anything a try and see if you like it.


You really can use anything to decorate a tree, right Gina?

Does your tree have a theme?
What's the most nontraditional thing on your tree?

***

Winner of the Red Letter Words Giveaway::

Miss Priss' Momma


Winners of the Jesus is the Gift Apron Sets::
get me your addresses girls!

Cathy T:: {I emailed you}



Stepahanie

Heidi @ The Craft Monkey

Use What You Have Christmas Decor

Hang a simple wreath from your curtain rod with a plethora of colored ribbons and ornaments.


Use your leftover trimmings around the house in different containers.


Group extra ornaments {I've got some broken ones I cannot part with that I pile in an apothecary jar}.


Shop the garage--red ribbon, red balls and some red accents turn ordinary things into instant porch decor.


Group your collections and then add in a splash of holiday with berries or greenery or tiny wrapped gifts.

Photos: Southern Living