Decorating for Valentine's

I was kind of sad to take down the Christmas decorations, which is unusual for me. Most years, by Christmas, I'm ready for my house to go back to "normal." BUT - I've moved on! :) I decorated our kitchen buffet for Valentine's! I wanted to keep it cheap but still look cute.

I found these adorable printables on Pinterest and used one for Christmas. I just upload the Jpeg to my Costco account and have them print it for around $6! There are ones for all of the major holidays and they are so cute!

I found this cute "Love" sign at Hobby Lobby for $3! I put it on an easel that I already had.

Apothecary jars come in SO handy for decorating around the house! I just filled these with colored basket filler paper (from Hobby Lobby for a couple of dollars). I tied Valentine's ribbon around the top (that I had already).

I found these glitter hearts at Hobby Lobby for $1 (have I mentioned how much I LOVE cheap) :)

These candlesticks are always on the bathroom counter but for Valentine's, I tied some Valentine's ribbon around them. I also found this cute printable on Pinterest too and put it in this adorable frame that I already had at my house.

Pinterest is a GREAT place to find ideas for decorating and I'm totally addicted! I also have an addiction to printables! :) It's such a cute and FREE way to add a little decoration to your house!

Our Christmas(es)!

Our Christmas ended up being both the weekend before Christmas and as well as Christmas weekend. We started out with Christmas at my grandmother's (my mom's mom). That family is small and we don't see each other nearly often enough so it was nice to just hang out and chit-chat.

The guys were into a football game and waiting to eat. haha!
My grandmother was so proud of her Christmas tree. :) It was pretty!
We also had our Christmas breakfast with my grandparents (my dad's family). This family is HUGE so it's mass chaos but I couldn't imagine it any other way!

This was just too sweet not to share. My cousin Noah and his wife had their second child earlier this year and these are their two kids. How sweet is this big brother? I just LOVED seeing them together! So sweet!

These are a few of my younger cousins (and my brother) and I just adore them! This group keeps me in stitches and also keep me young! :)

Enjoying each other after a HUGE breakfast

We spent Christmas weekend at my parents. On Christmas Eve, some of our family came over for our annual Christmas game night! Rob and I look forward to this night every year because it is SO much fun! We snack and play games and LAUGH all night! LOVE nights like those!

My aunt and uncle (2 of my favorite people in the world)
My mom and brother enjoying a game of Apples to Apples

More Apples to Apples

On Christmas Day, we opened our presents with my parents and brother.

Christmas afternoon, Rob's dad and his wife came over for lunch. It was SO nice to have my family and Rob's together for Christmas afternoon! I love that my father-in-law enjoys my family (and vice versa) because it makes life much easier!

Santa also visited 3 special dogs over the Christmas holiday. Yes, we set out their gifts (remember, we don't have kids) :) They got new plush toys, chew toys, tennis balls, and a new pet bed! And boy, are they enjoying everything! They were good dogs this year! ;)

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and are definitely Blessed! This Christmas was filled with lots of great food, presents, games, but most of all family! It was so nice to get quality time with all of our family! LOVE LOVE LOVE the Christmas holidays and I'm sad to see them go!

Christmas Home Tour

Today I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner and The Nester on their Christmas home tour. This is my absolute FAVORITE time of year! I LOVE coming home to the lights and smells of Christmas! This month has been super busy so I'm so excited to have a few days off next week to just lay around and watch Christmas movies and bake goodies and ENJOY the season!

This year we decided to go with a pencil tree instead of our usual BIG tree and I'm so happy with our decision! With the pencil tree, we don't have to move furniture out of the living room so it is so much easier! This picture makes it look like I have thrown presents under the tree - I promise they are organized and attractive! ha!

I bought these stockings a few years ago and have debated on getting new ones but I'm just sticking with them for now.

The mantle - I want to get more apothecary jars because I think they look so good and are a cute and inexpensive way to decorate. The "Joy" sign is a picture frame I had at my house. I used scrapbook paper and did vinyl letters. I like how it turned out.

I did more in the kitchen than I usually do. This was a hutch until a few weeks ago when we decided to take the top part off and make it a buffet. It makes our kitchen seem so much bigger and I love it! I'm still trying to figure out how to decorate it. I'm hoping to find some decorations for it at some after Christmas sales!This is a Disney plate (you guys know we LOVE WDW) that we got for a few dollars a few years ago and I added vinyl to it. If you look very close you will see a certain mouse's head! :)

This is a ceramic tree from Rob's childhood. His mom always displayed it in their house and we got it after she died. It's such a neat tree and I love that it was something he remembers from being a kid!

This is a printable that I got from a GREAT BLOG here. I had it printed as a 16x20 at Costco for around $6 and bought the frame at Michael's with a 50% coupon and I LOVE how it turned out! I will blog about this project later!

When I got married I got quite a few Fitz and Floyd Woodland pieces and they are some of my favorite Christmas decorations!

Kitchen window
This year, I also added a small tree in the kitchen. I got these Williams-Sonoma chef snowmen ornaments as a gift a few years ago and found this cute tree to display them on. I think next year I will add a small strand of lights. You can never have too many Christmas lights...am I right? :)
I also added a table top tree in our bedroom! Since we went with a pencil tree as our main tree, I had a LOT of ornaments that weren't used and that wasn't an option! ha! So, on this tree I put all of our wedding ornaments, along with some from places we've been and some of the dogs' ornaments. I love waking up to this tree every morning - I can't say the same for the Hubs! ;)
In our guest bathroom, I added this cute little snowman towel and cute picture frame.

Christmas is, by far, my favorite time of year! I LOVE decorations and decorating my own house! I love seeing and visiting family that we don't normally see, all of the candies and cookies, the smells, the lights, driving around and looking at Christmas lights on houses, and everything else that comes with it. But I am most happy and thankful for the Son that God sent to the Earth for us!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas Y'all!!! :)

Christmas Craft

I bought this cute, plastic platter at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago for $5! The outer rim was polka dots but the white middle part was plain and needed to be jazzed up a bit! Tonight I used the handy Cricut machine and "gussied" it up a bit! I'm going to put it on a plate stand in the kitchen! I love how it turned out! So fun!

Georgetown Cupcake

While in DC, we decided to head to Georgetown and try out Georgetown Cupcake. If you have watched the TLC show DC Cupcake then you know all about this cupcake shop. It is really a cute little shop but CRAZY busy!

These pics were with my phone so they aren't very high quality.

Inside the store

The daily menu...the cupcakes were $2.75 each which I didn't think was too pricey. Considering, GiGi's cupcakes are like $5 each, their price was a steal. And Georgetown Cupcakes were MUCH BETTER!!!

The packaging - how cute are these little boxes

I had the chocolate and vanilla cupcake (on the left) and Rob had the red velvet (on the right). They were DELICIOUS!!! Like I could see myself ordering them and having them shipped delicious! :)

US Capitol

We also toured the Capitol while we were in DC. If you've ever seen the Capitol, you know how beautiful it is. It's even prettier than I remember it being.

Inside the dome

Closeup of the Dome

Speaker of the House, John Boehner's office

Such a beautiful and historic building