Why I decided to spend a little more money on my Christmas Decor!

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Now, don’t get me wrong here, everything that I try to do is always on a budget… but this year, I made the decision to finally spend a little bit of money on my Christmas tree decorations.

Last year I did my tree in 100% Dollar Store decorations, and I completely loved it! Every year, I pick a theme or color that I would like for my tree, and then go out and buy a whole bunch of really cheap décor. It seems like I’m saving money at the time, but when I tally up the total cost of the past years, it really isn’t very great at all! It actually seems a little outrageous and ridiculous… therefore, I decided to put a stop to it this year.
After thinking about it long and hard, I figured out that if I spent a little more money on decorations that I actually love, that I would actually want to reuse them for years to come. This epiphany sent me on a new mission!
My mission was simple:
1. Find tree ornaments that are pretty neutral and can be used with different color schemes throughout the years to come.
2. Find tree ornaments that I really love, and that I would never get tired of looking at!

My mission started in the little, tiny village of Stirling, Ontario where I grew up. Although I no longer reside there, my parents still do and over the last couple of years Stirling has put on an “Over the hills for Christmas” tour. The tour for this year featured 15 different little shops that all get dressed up for Christmas and offer beautiful Christmas décor for purchase!

Unfortunately, with our busy schedule I only had time to make it to two of the shops this year. I actually had to sneak away and tell my husband and children that I was going grocery shopping… Oops!

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The first shop that I visited is one of my most favorite shops ever, The Vintage Junction! It is here where I found these beautiful ornaments! I instantly fell in love with them and purchased all that they had in stock!

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Just down the road from The Vintage Junction, there is another one of my favorite shops to visit called Rustic Routes & Hi Country. This is where I found these decorations. I carefully selected them because they are neutral and will work with other colors in the future. They are also super sparkly and super pretty!!

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I also decided to spend a little money on my garlands… I chose this beautiful silver, sparkly garland for my tree, to add a little shine! I also bought lots of burlap because, let’s face it – burlap is just classic, and it’s never going out of style! And then I made this DIY White Feather Garland!

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Another thing that I finally decided to purchase for my tree this year, is a tree skirt! For years and years I have been using table cloths under my tree… slightly embarrassing, or maybe super thrifty! Either way, I tossed in the towel and decided to buy this faux fur tree skirt. Again, it’s super neutral and should be able to work nicely with any future decor schemes!

So there you have it! Even though I spent a little more on my decorations this year, I am actually going to be saving money! A lot of money!

EDIT: Silly me… It was brought to my attention that I forgot to put a picture of my entire Christmas tree in here! Oops!

Here you go!

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My Dollar Store Christmas Tree! Wait….. What??!

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This year I decided that I was going to make all of the decorations for my Christmas tree — yes, make…. and well, how did that go, you ask…. HA!

So umm…. scratch that!

Welcome to my new post…. about how to decorate your Christmas tree with Dollar Store decorations! Yes, it is possible…. and yes — I am SO in love with the results!

Before I get to far into my post, I would like to point out that my inspiration for this tree, my burlap garland, did not come from the dollar store…. but it was the perfect foundation for me to build my dollar store decorations upon!

The colors that I selected to go with my burlap garland were 1. Silver, 2. White, and 3. Red. The reason why I chose these colors is because I knew that they would be easy to find… plus they are just like, so pretty!

I was able to find the cutest (and sparkly-est!) Silver ornaments at the dollar store…. pine-cones, sparkly stars, snowflakes, angels, bells, and my star-tree-topper, (also sparkly!). Then I found glittery, wispy fake-flower-thingies that came in both silver and red! To add white into the mixture, I found these other snow-ball fake-flower-thingies…. perfect!

Now I must say, my tree does look a million times better in person…. but I still had to share. Maybe I’ll find that shiny new camera under the tree, Christmas morning?! (Hint, hint Matt!) 😉

 

Cedar Boughs! – A How-To-Guide

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Why spend money on Christmas decor, when you can simply make your own? Here’s how to create the Perfect Cedar Bough!

Step 1: Gather your cedar bows. Cedar trees are a very popular North-American tree that you can find growing just about anywhere!

Step 2: Take your cedar boughs and line them up end to end, overlapping the ends about 3 or 4 inches. Layer as many boughs as you like on top of each other until you get a nice “full” look.

Step 3: Cut about a 3 or 4 inch strip of wire and wrap it around the bow ends. Take the ends of the wire in a pair of pliers, and twist. (Be careful, if you twist the wire too  much it may break off!)

Step 4: Hang and decorate as you please! 🙂

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