Ahhhh….welcome to my new blog.  I’ve made the transition to Wordpress and I now “own” my site.  Yaaaay!  I still have a lot to learn, but it’s a work in progress.  Also, it’s now easier for people to leave comments!  You don’t have to log in or have an account to comment.   So far, I’m happy with the transition.

I have been so busy with moving the blog that I barely even got to talk about Christmas this week!!!  We had so much fun.  Here are some pictures of my decorations.  (And I still have them up…I refuse to take them down till AFTER New Year’s!)

My husband finally hung my HUGE window pane mirror above the couch in our living room.  I hung my moss wreath from it by tacking the ribbon to the top of the window pane.

I made this centerpiece for our kitchen table.  I took a bunch of extra Christmas tree branches I had collected when we were at the Christmas tree farm and stuck them inside this old coal bucket I painted white.

I took one our family Christmas cards, punched holes in the sides, and tied it around the bucket with polka-dot ribbon.  I love the way it turned out!

I also started my mercury glass collection on the fireplace.  I added holly berries and strung Christmas lights around the glasses on the mantel…I love the effect! (And I managed to cut the ugly TV out of this picture.)

I have seen tons of creative ways people use clothespins in blogland.  Thanks everyone for the inspiration-I decided to use them to hang Christmas cards on twine across our kitchen window!  It had a cheery ”garland-like” feel to it.   I could see the pictures of my friends’ adorable kids/pooches/etc. easily (I spend every year trying to keep one card from covering another…I’m weird like that) and I was able to make it with things I found in my house.

And finally….our tree.  Good grief.  I love our tree and our decorations, but every single year we have a CROOKED star.  No joke, every year.  When we buy our tree, we always forget to ask the”tree people” to cut the top branch shorter to make it work with our star topper.  And this is what it looks like every year.  At this point, it is kind of just our thing…we are the people with the lopsided star.

Excuse the lighting…it’s hard to get a good picture at night.

Christmas morning….oh, what fun we had.  Briggs made a beeline for the slide…and just sat there.

As a matter of fact, he just kept sitting back and looking at everything.  (He held this pose for a few minutes…just trying to figure it all out.)

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday….and a late Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

By Courtney Ronay of Southern Nest

Sometimes, the way a present is wrapped is as exciting as a gift itself. For a recent birthday party, I came up with this fun way to add a gift tag to the box.

I wrote the recipient’s name on a clear glass Christmas ornament with a kelly green paint marker. My original intention was to fill the inside of the ornament with snips from the birthday boy’s party invite. After that went terribly wrong, I curled tiny bits of lime green curling ribbon and put it inside the ornament. (The wrapping paper is actually brown craft paper, my latest obsession. More on that another time.)

I did have a bit of a blond moment by using a glass ornament. Seeing as how it was for a child’s birthday party, plastic would have been far more suitable. It did, however, make it into his mother’s hands safely. If you do try this for a child, I suggest using the plastic version of this type of ornament.

I know you are all up to your elbows in gift wrap and bows right now….this is the perfect, simple finishing touch!

 

By Courtney Ronay of Southern Nest

By Courtney Ronay of Southern Nest