Christmas in Ohio 2011

Last Christmas was just like any other day for me.  The Arizona weather seemed to erase the magic and not being with my Ohio family was quite depressing.  

I'm thankful that the Husband and I were able to spend this Holiday in the Midwest!  Seeing all of the kids open their presents from Santa brought that magic back, making everything right again.  

No snow though! I guess I can't have everything ;)

 

I felt my photography skills were lacking so I don't have many pictures to share.

Let me start by saying that the younger half of Design DNA does her Holidays BIG!  This girl had 3 live trees (living room, dining room, basement), and 2 artificial trees (foyer and guest bedroom).  Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture all of the Christmas flair.

Dining Room:  Colors were white and silver.  The Brother-in-Law informed me that he used 17 strands of lights on this bad boy!

Living Room: Colors used were very rustic - brown, maroon and cream.  She did a lot of ornament clustering this year.

Going along with the rustic feel of the living room, sticks were grouped in a large vase and finished off with the same  coordinating ribbon from the Christmas Tree.

The stairs even got the Christmas treatment.  White lights and live garland were strung up the railing.

Thanks for taking the tour.

We wish you and your family a great new year!  

-Design DNA

DIY Candle Holders - Nature Meets Glam

Supplies: 

• Aluminum cans
• Sticks from the yard
• Candle sticks
• Hot glue
• Rope 
• Clear beads

Step 1:  

• Gather all the sticks you can find (well I had to because I don't have trees in my backyard - some how I had sticks though...)

Step 2:  

• Cover the can with a natural colored paper 
• On the first can I used scrapbook paper 
• On the second can I used a brown paper bag

Step 3:   

• Hot glue the sticks around the aluminum can (If I could go back, I wouldn't have used the aluminum cans for this project but maybe glass votive holders from the Dollar Store.  The can is much more visible through the sticks then I would have liked.)

Step 4:

• Adhere the cans to candle sticks (I had some glitzy looking taper holders I purchased from Hobby Lobby a few years back.)
• To help tie the natural look of the sticks  to the more glamorous look of the  candle stick, I strung clear beads on a thin rope and draped it around each can.

Christmases past...

I've been busy making Christmas gifts for friends... Gifts that have to be mailed across the country... Gifts that I can't post until they receive them...and it's killing me!! 

I feel like it has been a lifetime since my last post and I was itching to put something out there. Here are some pics from Christmases past...

2008

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What: 

My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and handmade snow ball ornaments.

How: 

• I raided the backyard for branches (and glued white glitter to the tops to simulate snow)
• The snow ball ornaments were created from white string, a balloon and fabric stiffener (glue, mod podge, etc.)
• Blow the balloon up to your desired snow ball size, wet the string with the glue and wrap it around the balloon in several directions.  Let the snow balls dry over night.  Deflate and pull out the balloon. 

2009
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Above: Grandma's hand painted village (which Jaime {sister} and I later inherit).  Below:  Grandma's hand sewn stockings

2010
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Last year's Christmas card - 

featuring our beautiful children ;)

 The first Christmas away from my Ohio family :(

Below:  Grandma split her Christmas village between Jaime and I.  I proudly displayed them in lieu of a Christmas Tree (I'm scared the puppies would be too curious of the tree).

We {the Husband and I} received so many greeting cards in the mail - I just taped them to the brick fire place.   

How do you display your Christmas cards??!

Thanksgiving

I'm currently in the process of painting our front room....I've been talking about doing so for over 3 years now.  I'm mildly in love with the main color choice, sort of a gray, medium blue (unexpectedly purple) and am terribly unhappy with the "accent wall" color that I thought for sure was a white/gray color that turned out to be ice blue.  I'm far from done with the painting but needed to take a break.  With Thanksgiving just around the corner I figured I'd better get this out as soon as possible!!  

This time in the words of Jaime (the little sister) Yay! 

 

***Hi my name is Jaime and the last few years I've had the honor of holding Thanksgiving in our home.  Grandma has passed the Holiday Hostess torch and I've gladly accepted.  I'd love to share how we decorated for last year's Thanksgiving bash.

I went to the backyard for most of my inspiration and collected all things from nature to decorate!  I carefully picked leaves to use as "confetti" and scattered them on the table and mantel.  I found thing such as pine cones, acorns, pods, and old fall colored potpourri that had lost its scent over the years.  

I picked sticks off of the ground and made arrangements for the centerpiece which was placed on the main dining table.  

I picked up 4 bamboo place mats from Pier 1 imports (on sale of course!) and used them as a table runner (reason for purchasing place mats instead of a runner: can be used as place mats and pieced together for a table runner!)  

I picked up all of the glass jars at thrift stores through out the year and even used some old vases that had been saved from flowers given to me from my loving Husband!  We are all about recycling and reusing!

To finish off the look, large pine cones and tags were used to create place cards adding to the "natural" and "recycled" theme.

 Can't wait to share this year's Thanksgiving with everyone :)