Christmas 2010

Hopefully everyone had an amazing Christmas! I don't think I've ever been more excited about Christmas decorating than this year, now that we finally have a fireplace and semi-finished living room! *insert happy dance!*  Of course, we weren't about to go crazy with decorating this year, or spend too much money on said decorations. I mean, we just renovated the great room, sans kitchen for now, and even though we got killer deals on just about everything we bought for the renovation AND did all the work ourselves, it was still a HUGE undertaking and cost quite a pretty penny. (you'd be amazed how quickly all the little things add up! I can't imagine spending full price for everything and/or hiring all the work out! yikes!!) So with my limited budget in mind I was all gung-ho to get my craft on and make a bunch of Christmas decorations this year! I brainstormed a bunch of my own decorating ideas, as well as got some nifty ideas from other blogs on the web. However, before I really got going on making any of them I ended up getting called for full time work all through September-December (which was a complete blessing!) but didn't allow me any extra time to finish many of the DIY ideas I wanted to try, plus do all my Christmas gift shopping, baking, wrapping, card sending, etc. Oh well, here's looking at next year, I'll have to remember to start early, like maybe now, so it will all be done in time for Christmas NEXT year! haha.
Anyways, if you have a crafty bone like me and like DIY decorating projects, here are some ideas I found that I really wanted to try my hand at making for next year!

Christmas Tree Ornament Advent Calendar

(you count down the days by putting a new ornament on the tree every night! how cute is that?! A new Unger household tradition in the making me thinks)

Christmas Card Holder

Christmas "Tree" Centerpiece

Christmas Cloth Wreath

Decorative Mini Christmas Trees

Artwork

Christmas Tree Ornaments

Pretty neat huh?! I can't wait to start making some of them!

The extent of my craftiness this year was a glass bowl full of cinnamon scented pinecones mixed with a variety of gold and red ornaments, and the wrapping job we did on all the gifts we handed out. In all honestly, we're pretty thrilled with the creativity and thriftiness we exercised wrapping our gifts this year, so of course I need to share it with you. ;)

Now by itself it may not look so great to you, but I tell ya, underneath our tree all piled together with brown and cream ribbons, they looked pretty awesome. AND you can actually RECYCLE this wrapping paper! (your welcome earth!) I've always hated the fact that conventional wrapping paper is non-recyclable...take a minute to think of how many garbage bags FULL of it make their way into our landfills every year! I'm no tree hugger, (we made pretty short work of cutting down the one on display in our house...:S) but hey, I was up to the task of saving at least some landfill room! (Don't worry, we plan on using our live Christmas tree as firewood so it won't go to the dump!) So after I scrounged up enough old newspapers throughout the week, I tied them up in some brown and cream ribbons I bought on clearance at Walmart, made some cute scrapbook nametags, and busted out the sharpie to add the personal touches! Brad and I have always LOVED drawing faces on the pictures in newpapers and magazines, so this made for quite the entertaining evening of wrapping gifts and laughing away at all the random pictures and comic strips we made. (Let's just say Mindy McPherson never looked so good!) And wrapping presents never was SO fun!

As for the rest of our Christmas decor, since we were so incredibly busy this season the decorating we did was pretty minimal, and simple, but hey, I think it worked! Here are a few pictures of our blinged out crib. ;)

The garland and lights were all left over from Christmas' past, as was the star on top of the tree and a few of the opaque ivory ornaments. I went with a new color scheme of soft opaque gold, ivory, red and browns. I got all the ornaments at Superstore for $10 bucks (a container of about 120!) as well as the stockings for $10 each. I had thought of sewing my own stockings, or crocheting my own, but the cost of fabric or yarn would have come close if not been right up there, so to save time this year, I went with the easy buy.

The wreath on the mantel I bought on clearance at Michaels for $3, fully intending to add my own greenery and decorations and hang it on the front door. But as I was prepping for Brad's surprise birthday party at the end of November I needed it moved off my table, so I stuck it up on the mantel to get it out of the way. Later, while in the midst of cleaning and cooking, I took a look over at the fireplace and rather liked the look of the "naked" wreath, sitting there in all it's nude glory...and it kinda reminded me of the real reason for Christmas, the reason Jesus was born in the first place...I'm not sure if it reminds you of a crown of thorns at first glance...but it did to me at that moment, and still does. So there it stayed, up on the mantel, bare, providing me with a constant reminder of Christ's sacrifice for us. A reminder that this baby Jesus was not only born for me, but that He was born to die for me. It made me cry almost every time I looked at it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Inspiration

So, here's my dilemma...I didn't marry myself...no,no, no I'm not getting all Sue Sylvester up in here, what I meant was, I didn't marry someone exactly like myself...and as much as it is a dilemma in some ways (more on that in a sec), it truly is a blessing in ALL other ways. I'm very glad Brad isn't exactly like me, I think we'd drive each other ca-razy if he was! But anyways, what I'm referring to right now is the difference between us, design-wise.

You see, when we first got married, we started off renting a basement suite, as most newly married couples do. (I'd like to know who in this wonderfully inflated lower mainland can afford their own place right away. I mean right?!) We did have a good chunk of money saved away for our future down payment, but at the time, we were earlobes-deep in school payments for the next couple years while Brad finished his Bachelor of Education. Thanks to our down payment, the government deemed Brad "not eligible" for a student loan, making it impossible for him to apply for any bursaries either, since having a student loan was a necessary prerequisite. So here we sat on a down payment, which we didn't want to use for school, while unable to get a student loan, of which over half would have been forgiven due to the nature of Brad's schooling, and no bursaries available. Oh, and I was making about $13/hr at the time. enter stress. We weren't about to take out a bank loan and pay interest on money we technically didn't need. (We just stubbornly didn't want to give up our down payment to pay for school) So....what did we do?! We prayed, and decided to trust God with our money, paying for school, and our future house. In the end, we chose to see how far we could get paying for school semester by semester out-of-pocket, and if we had to dip into our "house money", we would. And guess what? ...we got through all those school payments, rent payments, and bills, without touching our downpayment, and with no debt to our name. Lord, you are SO cool!

Anyways, rewind back to the real reason for this post, design. (insert exaggerated eyeroll to my ability to ramble in a sideways direction)

So while we were renting and living, quite literally, on a prayer (not to mention a really tight budget!), it's safe to assume we had NO spare cash to even think about decorating our basement suite. We lived on donated EVERYTHING. To give you a better picture of what that meant, we had to risk electrostatic shock everytime we turned our TV on because the buttons were broken off and we had no remote. Yah, we stuck a bobby pin into the "power" button hole and turned it just right so it would turn on, all the while sporting a perma-cringe in anticipation of "the shock". The couches we recieved were not only old, and uncomfortable, and upholstered in a permanently dirty green flower pattern, but to my surprise, came complete with what we now refer to as, "the unidentifiable brown substance of 2006", which was discovered between its back cushions during its "initiation cleansing". *shudder* But hey, at least we had a TV and couches right?!

So needless to say, we didn't even think about decorating or our "style" until we bought our house back in 2009 and starting the renovation process. When we first moved in, my naive brain subconsciously thought IT was going to be in charge of decorating and the overall design of our house, since #1: I'm a girl, and #2: That's what I'm into.  Clearly my subconscious was experiencing amnesia because although Brad is a guy,  he has an eye for design as much as I do. (and I mean that in the most manly, un-metro way) He's a craftsman through and through, with a LOT of good ideas to contribute. Funny thing is, I knew these things about him, I just somehow didn't attach them to our house renovation until we started discussing our own ideas and trying to put them together under one roof.

On the one hand, we have Brad. His dream home is a classic timber frame constructed from his bare hands and the trees he fell from the property it's built on. It's rustic and grand, with a huge wood-burning fireplace covered in stone, which may or may not have his hunting trophy hanging above the mantel. (I'm never 100% sure if he's joking or not when he mentions this, he likes to tease me with his "hunting lodge" ideas...)

It looks something like this:

Gorgeous right? Totally. But financially we're not there yet for starters, and even though I love this style too, it's not my personal favorite.
I'm in love with the cozy, country meets beachy, cottage feel. A smaller home with a softer color palette.

Something like this:

Gorgeous right? Totally. Hence, my dilemma.
There are certain feminine aspects to my preferred design style that would stifle Brad's manliness if he were forced to live in them 24/7. Whereas, equally, there are certain masculine qualities of his preferred design style that would stifle my femininity if I were forced to live in them 24/7. So, we're working on a balance. It's not easy and it might be a design disaster in the end,but we'll see. So far I think it's working fairly well. (I'll let you guys be the judge) We both are pretty good at compromising, and surprisingly our two design styles do share a number of things in common, making some decisions easier. We haven't fully got into the decorating aspect yet though...so stay tuned. ;) All in all, we're having a lot of fun with our first house. And that's what it is, our first house. We don't plan on being in it forever, but we're making it our own. This is our first home, the place we'll be spending the next 10-15 years of our lives, (maybe longer, who knows) and we want to spend those years living and building memories in something we like, something that feels like home to both of us.

Finally, if you're like me, and like to be inspired by pretty design pictures...here are some that I googled and oogled tonight....gorgeous right? totally... :)