It's Christmas Time Somewhere...

This is not the re-designed blog.  I was cleaning things up to make it livable until the pros came in.

If you've wandered into any mall or department store recently, you've probably noticed that Thanksgiving has been skipped altogether - and life has fast-forwarded to Christmas.  Like it is every year following Halloween.  This is nothing new...and you either love it or beg for people to wait for it.  I'm happily on team "love it."  And therefore, have already begun planning to deck the halls, walls, doors and floors of my little home.

Last year I was up to my eyeballs in renovations and the thought of decorating my house while it looked like a war zone could have easily made me sick.  Not to mention that my decorations consisted of hand-me-downs and a fake tree from 1987.  I can't wait to decorate my home with some grown-up items.  Since I didn't have anyone to impress last year I could wait for Christmas decorations to be marked down 60-80% the day after Christmas.  I'm cheap, but I still like quality items, so I scoped out my favorite ornaments and then ran to Restoration Hardware, Potterybarn and West Elm to snag the markdowns.  So excited to decorate this year!

Yesterday I celebrated my day of birth by running around town to grab items for the projects in my head and spent a few minutes putting together my first Christmas project.  Be prepared for a string of Christmas items.  Don't worry, I'll throw some anti-Christmas ideas in here during the next 50 days for you on team "wait for it.

I love the idea of monograms on anything other than underwear, towels and bedding.  So, here is a cute monogram project that was almost done for me.  I won't make you wait any longer...

I picked up the two shadowboxes (at 40% off), and a bunch of scrapbook paper for future projects (amazing sale at 6 sheets for $1) at Michael's this past weekend. 

Target has some very cute ornaments in stock, including these monogrammed ones that are about 3 1/2 inches in diameter, which seemed perfect for what I was planning for my shadow boxes.

 I tried out a few backgrounds for the ornaments...

 

And settled on two different, but coordinating, backgrounds.  Justin actually chose these:

I then cut a size that would fit perfectly to the background, glued it to the frame backing with my 3M Spray Adhesive (this is my favorite adhesive for paper because it can be removed in the future, and it won't saturate the paper or show through).  Then I fired up the glue gun and stuck the ornament in the middle.  Let it dry for 1.6 seconds, and...

 

Ta-da!

 I love the way they turned out.  And I think it would be extra special to make a monogram shadowbox for each member of the fam.  You could even place these on the mantle above a stocking for each family member. 

 Too great not to share! 

 

Mary & Justin