Posts Tagged ‘Christmas decorations’
Posted by terrepruitt on December 23, 2020
I have received so many wonderful gifts throughout the years. I cannot remember where all of them came from or thank everyone for everything I have received over the years. Sometimes I forget who gave me what. And I know that they forget, too. But this year I have decided to tell people that I love their gift and it brings me much joy. I started with my red wreath.
It is made of metal bells. I love it. It is such a great addition to our Christmas decorations. As I was hanging it I snapped a picture and sent a text to the person that gave it to me. She didn’t remember giving it to me – we all do that, right? But I do. I remember and it makes me happy. I LOVE that wreath. It goes up every year and it has a special spot.
Another thing is a gift I inherited. I remember when my mom received it and I loved it then, and I love displaying it now. It is a row of family bears. listing all of my family’s names. Only three in that row are still around.
Another thing is my tree skirt. John’s mom made me a beautiful tree skirt. I had always dreamed of having a tree skirt to put around my tree and I finally had one. Every year I was so excited to put it around the tree. One year she was over and she said, “But, that doesn’t fit.” Because it only went around about 1/4 of the area below the tree. And I replied that I didn’t care, it was awesome. But she remedied that by making me a HUGE tree skirt. And I love it. Half of the reason I bug my husband so much about putting up the tree is so I can place that beautiful skirt around it. It always fits!
And my table cloths. John’s mom made them all. One I am able to put on our table in our breakfast room. That is a signal to me that decorating as begun. Putting a festive table cloth on a table is a great (and quick) way to decorate. Another one I usually put on a small folding table we put up so that I can put more Christmas decorations out . . . but that table wouldn’t fit this year with my “studio” curtains. It was in the way . . . BUT . . . I am using it to cover the rolling cabinet I have the monitor and laptop on. And the napkin that matches is being used to cover the monitor. And then, since I couldn’t put up the table I decided to use two TV trays in its place (I had to have something, I have a lot of decorations!) and that enabled me to use a table cloth that I have not used for years. When we first moved in we had a round table in the dining room and John’s mom made me the most beautiful round table cloth. It was the PERFECT size. It is green with slightly shimmering Christmas trees on it with heavy bright gold trim around it. I love it and get sad when I don’t have anything to put it on so I was excited this year when I could use it. She also made me a table cloth for our coffee table that has cats on it, but I rotate years that I use that and I didn’t use it this year.

There is also my light jar I received. It was years ago when light jars first came out. I had wanted one and was so excited to have received it.
Wow! I probably could go on and on, but I will stop there. I just really love decorating for Christmas and I look forward to using these treasures every year.
I think if any year is the year to reach out to people and let them know that they gifted you something you treasure NOW is that year. What do you think? What about you? Do you have anything you received as a gift that you treasure and use every year?




Posted in Misc | Tagged: Christmas decorations, Christmas table cloths, family of bears, lighted jar, red bell wreath | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 21, 2020
Last year a friend gave me a Bath & Body Works candle in a jar. It smelled so yummy I bought a bunch of them when they were on sale. But I have an issue with throwing “jars” away. Jarred candles feel much safer in that the flame is in a glass container, so I primarily purchase those type of candles (aside from tealight which I then put in containers). I just don’t like throwing the jar away. Last year I painted jars that I had from candles and gave them as gifts. But this year I am not seeing anyone and with a dance studio in our living room I didn’t want to take up the dining room table with crafts. But I did have those Bath & Body Works jars to deal with. And actually it started with a vase that I got for my birthday.
I always have pine cones as part of my decorations, but I don’t always put them all out. This year I stuck them in a square vase I had received with flowers in it for my birthday. I put a cork light in it and I really liked it. So I got the idea to fill it with Christmas ornaments and give it to my friend. I had NO idea what to get her and so I thought this would be nice. It is an really easy thing to decorate with and it has a pop. I had ordered pink and silver ornaments, but they sent me red and gold. The delivery had already been delayed so I wouldn’t have been able to get a replacement in time . . . plus the red ones were ok. But the pink and silver would have been awesome. (She’ll never know.)
So, I filled the jar with the ornaments to see how they would fit. Then I took them out and put in the light. I ended up doing that several times until I was finally satisfied. I didn’t use any glue so it was quite easy to rearrange things. Then I tied a bow around it and whamo! INSTANT light up Christmas decoration.
I loved it so much I thought about the Bath & Body Works candle jars! So I filled two of those with ornaments and cork lights. With these two jars I ended up getting new cork lights and they are pretty cool. They have different settings and a timer. Seems like they improve the lights every year.
So, I am super happy. I really like these decorations. I like to make stuff and I love to be able to recycle. And like I said, I think they have a big pop. Anything that lights up POPS to me.
I have a lot of Bath & Body Works candles to burn so I am sure I will fill the emptied jars with other things and give them as gifts. The possibilities are endless, they don’t have to be filled with Christmasy stuff!
I think these are adorable (yes, a little horn tooting), what do you think? Do you like to make gifts?


Posted in Misc | Tagged: Bath & Body Works candle in a jar, Christmas decorations, Christmas gifts, Christmas giftsks candle in a jar, Christmas lights, cork lights, living room dance studio | 5 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 11, 2020
With our living room as my studio for Nia, yoga, and stretch I’ve had to make some adjustments that have displaced some of my Christmas decorations. I’ve had to move some furniture around and my Zoom backdrop is in the way of a table that I normally put up to display a number of Christmas decorations. So . . . I’ve been rearranging things a bit. I just put the small bottle light up tonight, and I thought that it would be the piece that allowed me to be at peace with this arrangement, but I am not sure about it yet. I will have to sit with it. I have still been up and down (there are two ladders involved) decorating so we will see once I have a chance to actually observe it. My original vision was for multi-colored strings of lights. I didn’t have them, but might be able to scrounge them up. Maybe THAT will do the trick.
Christmas decorations continue for Friday Photos in December.
How are you doing so far?

Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas decorations, Christmas Ornaments, Friday Photo, Nia, stretch, studio, Yoga | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 7, 2020
Oh, I am so surprised with myself. I don’t know how I missed this ALL these years. I love when restaurants, offices, etc have their wall hangings wrapped. It looks so festive. I always marvel at the time it must have taken someone to wrap the hangings. And yet I have never done it myself. WHAT? I don’t get it. How could I have missed this opportunity all these years? What a great way to decorate and re-use/recycle wrapping paper. I just don’t get it. This year I was looking at my purple and blue plates (don’t match red and green) that are in my plate holder and I was trying to think of something to do with them. I have Christmas dishes, but we didn’t get them down this year and I am ok with that because we have so many other things to decorate with. Then it dawned on me . . . I could just wrap the plates.
YAY! Now several things; my hubby let me do something this year he doesn’t normally let me do so I was so excited I didn’t give a lot of thought to wrapping. I figured we are not buying a lot that needs to be wrapped this year so why have the boxes with the wrapping supplies down in the way. So I just grabbed some wrapping boxes and the bag of “to be shredded for bagged gifts” paper. So I didn’t have a lot of paper that would match the bows I hang on the plate holder. So it is not the best paper, but the idea was that no one would see it. Ha! Now you are . . . but oh well.
In case you were wondering what I got to do that was so exciting to me – you are not going to think it is exciting, but I was sooooo happy – I will tell you. I got to pull stuff out of boxes and then put the boxes back up. Normally we bring all the boxes in the house and then I empty them and they stay in the house until will put them back up. And usually we put them all back up at the same time. So to be able to empty some and not even bring them in the house – such a relief. The amount of stress that alleviates is amazing. May sound silly to you, but I was happy.
Anyway . . . this post is me being excited about recycling wrapping paper to decorate and to have a “new” decoration”. I can change the paper every year. Well, not really because I often put my Christmas china up there. But this year . . . . a new decoration!
Well, it is December. So that means a lot of posts – A LOT – about the Christmas tree (wait till you see the skinny guy we got this year), the decorations, and the season. Yeah, still celebrating and grasping at the Joy of the Season!
How about you?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas papper, Christmas plates, re-use, recycle, the Joy of the Season, wrapped wall hangings | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 11, 2020
I was busy taking down our Christmas tree and trying to un-decorate yesterday. I got involved and forgot out posting a Friday Photo. It is past the time we normally like to take down Christmas so I as on a mission to get the tree out of the house. When my husband came home from work he jumped right in to help and we were able to get the tree out of the house. Normally I would just skip my Friday Photo, I mean, I didn’t post on Friday so technically it is not a “Friday Photo’. But as I continued to pack up the Christmas decorations I saw this card and it is way too pretty to put away never to be seen again. So I wanted to post it on my blog so I could see it.
I will title this “Faux Friday Photo” so I will know how to find it.
Happy New Year!

Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas 2019, Christmas card, Christmas decorations, Christmas Tree, Faux Friday Photo, Friday Photo, sparkle | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 3, 2020
I am usually ready to put away the decorations, but this year, I am not. They are not “bothering” me and I am not tired of them. This one is actually not mine. I wish I would have thought to post it on Christmas. I was wanting to do a post on Christmas, but we were at my family’s (this is theirs) and I didn’t get to it when we got home. So, here . . here is what should have been posted on Christmas as today’s Friday Photo. I suppose by next week’s Friday Photo, I will have to move on from Christmas stuff . . . but not yet.
Happy New Year!

Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas Day, Christmas decorations, Friday Photo, O Holy Night | 3 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 4, 2019
I don’t even remember how I found these cool candles, but I bought one for my husband for Christmas and loved them so much I bought more. This is an insight into the fact that I have not even begun to take down Christmas decorations. Been sick and using all my energy for work! This is a glowing Friday Photo.

How is your New Year going? How long do you leave your Christmas Decorations up?
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: 2019 New Year, beautiful candles, candle, candle flame, Christmas decorations, Christmas gift, cool candles, Flatyz, Friday Photo, gift of candle, New Year, work of art candles | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 1, 2018
I hope everyone had a very nice first day of 2018. I know in my group of friends/acquaintances there are some that are facing some pretty heartbreaking challenges, but for the most part I am seeing a lot of “Happy New Year” posts on Facebook. A lot of people thinking that 2018 will be better than 2017 . . . not getting into what they might have thought 2017 (good/bad/great/horrific) . . . just that they think 2018 will be better. I have a few things I am looking forward to in 2018.
I am going to eek out the last day that I think I can get away with posting Christmas stuff. I received several lovely ornaments for Christmas and I want to share . . . although I am sure they will make it on to some form of my social media next year. I wanted to share this year, too. Some I have already posted on Facebook. But I am sharing here too!
I have two new ones from Pilgrim Imports. You may have read my post about Lenox ornaments. I used to get their annual snowflake ornament. I did it for years. But the quality started to decline and I was rethinking that whole thing. Then one year I received one that was poorly painted and the little gems were all crooked so I asked to exchange it. Well, they sent me another one that was almost as bad as the first. So I stopped receiving
their annual ornament. And asked them to stop marketing to me altogether. Their regular ornaments might be better quality, but if they can’t put out a good quality for their annual ornament I stopped being a customer. I discovered Pilgrim Import ornaments. They are metal ornaments with sparkles attached and bobbles hanging from some of them. I love them. If you’ve seen any of my post about Christmas ornaments before you have probably seen one or two of them. This year I received two new ones. A jelly fish with pink and blue “pearls” attached. And a giraffe adorned with glass beads!
And . . . as I said, Lenox’s regular ornaments might be fine because we receive a beautiful glass Angel that says HOPE from my sister-in-law. It is also not the regular porcelain (or whatever the snowflakes are made of) type of ornaments I used to collect.
I also was gifted a silver star and a beautiful blue butterfly. The angel I received on Christmas and our tree is a little too droopy for me to trust her on it. I don’t think the branches would hold her safely. But the star and butterfly are not as fragile so they went on right away.
I am looking forward to decorating with them next Christmas. I am not looking forward to taking down the tree and all the decorations. So much so that I haven’t even started yet.
Happy 2018. Is there anything you are looking forward to in 2018?


Posted in Misc | Tagged: 2018 New Year, Christmas decorations, Christmas stuff, Christmas tree ornaments, Happy New Year, Lenox, Pilgrim Imports | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 15, 2017
I took a photo of these reindeer to post for my Friday Photo!
I love my Christmas decorations!

Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas decorations, Friday Photo, reindeer | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 11, 2017
I love Christmas decorations. I have a lot of ornaments and it takes me quite a while to decorate the tree. I also have a lot of decorations that I set all around the house. That can take some time, too. It seems like every year there are some that I just don’t know where I put them the year before and so it is a challenge trying to get all the things out and around. But there are some decorations that are super easy to put out. They come right out of the box and in their spot and BAM! Decorated! They are high return decorations . . . in my opinion. They look great and they are soooooo easy to deal with. It is great to have easy decorations that have a bang. I am going to share with you the ones I think of as easy but have a really big bang.

First, is my lighted berry garland. I have two strands. These are the best things every. I have looked for them over and over and I cannot find them. I have some really pretty berry garland, but it is glass/plastic covered styrofoam so it is kind of delicate. It sheds no matter how careful I am. And so little bits of coating (I don’t even know if it is glass or plastic, but I don’t want my cats to eat it!) come off. So while, I love the look of it, it is not that easy to display and take care of, but the berry garland I am showing you here is awesome. It is plastic and it is very hearty. I actually just lift it off of the shelves and put it in a box. It somewhat stays in that formation in the box so I can just lift it out of the box and put it over the shelf and BAM! Just like that the shelf is decorated and looking very festive. This is one of my favorite decorations. It is usually one of the first things to go up. So easy and so decorative.
Another easy but beautiful (in my opinion) decoration is my wreath made of ornaments. This one is a cheap plastic version, but hanging on the door, ya can’t tell. It looks like nice ornaments. I think this is another easy thing to decorate with. Just pull it out of the box and hang it and you have all kinds of colors going on. It is shiny and colorful. Speaking of wreaths another great one for easy decorating is my bell wreath. This one I received as a gift from a friend and I love it. It is made of metal so it is a better quality than my other wreath. These two things along with my berry garland are the first to go up.

Then there are big red bows. I don’t know that it gets any easier than that. Just huge red bows placed about the space. Big red bows give it a nice cheery feeling. So festive!

And if you have some, why not use the Christmas plates. I actually have a plate holder on my wall that has plates in it all year round so when Christmastime comes I just replace our regular decorative plates with the Christmas plates. Easy-peasy. They have so many types of Christmas plates you can probably find just the right ones to match the rest of your Christmas decor. Or get some really fancy ones to be the highlight of your decorations. However you do it, plates are an easy way to decorate.
Whenever I pull out my berry garland and put it over the shelves I think, “Dang that was easy!” This year is occurred to me to share and to pick a few things that I think have a decorative POW but that are really easy to put up/put out/display.
What do you think? Do you have any decorations that take absolutely no time to put out, but really POP?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: bell wreath, berry garland, big red bows, Christmas decorations, Christmas plates, easy Christmas decorations, lighted berry garland, wreath made of ornaments | Leave a Comment »