Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

I hope you all have a fun-filled day and enjoy this wonderful time with friends and family. 

Christmas Vignette

One of the downfalls of our house is that it has no fireplace. Although I would be too paranoid to ever light a fire, I do wish I had a mantle to decorate for the holidays. Instead, we have a buffet right inside our front door. This Christmas, I did not hesitate to deck it out in everything Christmas. 

I used a lot of decorations I already had, along with a few DIY projects to make this holiday vignette. I don't know about you, but I think it is absolute perfection. Okay I lied, I decided I need a Christmas lamp next year. 

I had these silver frames I picked up from TJ Maxx a few months ago. You can never have too many frames, right?! I fell in love with these two printables when I saw them on Little Baby Garvin's blog.

I threw a candle on a plate and added some ornaments for the center of the vignette. I also made the fancy lights with a set of white lights I already had and tied squares of tulle along the string. 

I saw these Floating Ornament Christmas Trees at a boutique a while back, I immediately decided I was going to make my own, with the help of my husband of course. I LOVE the way the turned out, and I have even seen many versions of them at random stores this holiday season. To see how I made them, check out my tutorial here.

The Christmas Wreath Frame was another DIY project (tutorial here). It was originally going to decorate the front door, but I loved it too much to put it outside. 

I also dug out another "handmade" hurricane vase to fill with gems and Christmas bells. I added a snowflake to the vase, which was originally a candle charm, to spruce it up a bit. 

The Christmas Vignette was by far my favorite thing to look at in our house this holiday season. I can't wait to decorate it for every season :)

Happy Christmas Eve!!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Saturday morning, I woke up and noticed the ground was white. It finally SNOWED! I jumped up and down like a four year old and ran outside. I have been anxiously awaiting snow since the day after Thanksgiving, and Michigan has been letting me down. 

When I came back inside, I immediately called my dad to enlist him as our photographer. I had been debating doing Christmas Cards for quite some time. Last year, I told myself to wait until we were married, so this was our year. I wanted to use a wedding photo, but then we would be missing our newest addition to the family. So I patiently not so patiently awaited the arrival of some snow so we could do some family pictures outside. 

We piled into the car and drove to my parent's house. An hour later, we had the pictures taken, our favorite picked out, and the Christmas Cards designed and ordered. Thank you daddy! <3

Here are some of our favorites! 

Didn't my dad do a great job?! They turned out wonderful!

Christmas Wreath Frame

Since my ornament wreath didn't fit on the front door this year, I decided to make a Christmas Wreath Frame instead. I have seen these all over pinterest, but couldn't wait to make my own version. When I found a large white frame at Hobby Lobby on clearance, I snatched it up without thinking twice. Later that night, I busted out the spray paint and went to work. 

I painted the frame a bright red to really make it feel like Christmas. All of my holiday decorations are red, green, and silver (or white) so I decided to keep that color scheme for this "wreath." I found a wonderful assortment of ornaments at Michael's. And since we have already discovered I have an ornament obsession, I bought some of each design.

I had some plain green ribbon on hand left over from St. Patty's Day, so I used that to tie and hang the ornaments. I finished it off with a striped, glittery bow. 

 I love it so much, I didn't have the heart to throw it outside. Instead, it is sitting on the table right inside the front door. The front door is still empty, but oh well... there's always next year!

Floating Ornament Christmas Trees: Tutorial

Remember in yesterdays post when I mentioned my ornament obsession? Well, then this project won't surprise you much. I am so excited to present to you...Floating Ornament Christmas Trees! This is a project I have been working on for a long time, so I am ecstatic that I can finally show off the final product.

(Note: This project doesn't take much time, it just took Adam and I a while to draw up the measurements we wanted and figure out how to get them to stand up nicely. They also sat unpainted in the garage for weeks before we managed to find time to finish them)

what you will need:

ornaments(various sizes), 1x4 pieces of wood, saw, wood glue, white spray paint, and glitter spray paint(optional), glue gun, felt

I was able to purchase most of the ornaments for this project from Dollar Tree. All the rest I pulled off the Christmas tree. Shhh, don't tell the hubs!

The first step is to cut all the wood and put the tree forms together using wood glue. The diagram below shows the measurements I used, and how I put it all together.

(NOTE: The program we designed these diagrams on was very exact, our measurements were not. We measured everything to the nearest quarter inch)

When the glue has dried, it is time for the paint, white first and then glitter if you choose to do so.

Next, adding the ornaments! Lay your trees down and arrange all your ornaments inside your tree before gluing. This way you can see how it will look and reposition them to your liking. When you have the ornaments in their places, you can begin gluing. I started at the corners and worked my way to the center, gluing the ornaments to the wood and to each other as I went.

I also added felt to the bottom to prevent them from scratching surfaces. 

Simple as that, you now have beautiful ornament trees to decorate your home for the holidays!

My ornament trees are being displayed on table right when you walk in the front door. I love that they are one of the first things people see when entering our home. 

Anyone else obsessed with ornaments for decorating this season?

What are some DIY Christmas decorations you have made this year?

Hello December....

Happy December Everyone!

Christmas is in full swing here at the Muszynski household. Christmas music, Christmas crafts, and peppermint schnapps is about as good as it gets! I tried to hold back as long as possible, but ever since Black Friday, the Glee Christmas music has been blaring throughout the house nonstop, unless Christmas Vacation is in the DVD player.

We have exactly 25 days left to get as many viewings of each of these movies in as possible. 

The Christmas tree also went up immediately after Thanksgiving, and thankfully Lucy hasn't even paid any attention to it. We actually think she is afraid of it.

I give you... the Griswold Muszynski Family Christmas Tree!

I also decided this year that I have an unnecessary amount of ornaments. What can I say... I love them!

The Christmas craft ideas just keep on coming and I can't wait to post my final products.

We just recently found our Christmas coffee mugs. They've been packed away in the basement since our big move. We've been drinking hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps ever since.  

Another one of my favorite things this holiday season is decorating the dog. I know this sounds silly, but I seriously love her Christmas collar with jingle bells on it. I even bought her a Santa hat. I can't wait to sneak it on her while she is sleeping. 

Tomorrow, Lucy gets to meet Santa. I am beyond excited!

'Tis the season to be merry... (well that's my name)