Crafts + Party Time!

On Friday I talked about all my crafting plans for Shelley's baby shower. Well the day of her shower finally arrived and my house was ready to celebrate the glowing momma!

Here are the glitter lanterns along with the drinks table! They were battery operated so they twinkled during the party.

We served a cranberry + lime punch, water, and hot chocolate to go along with our winter food themed menu. We had Bailey's, Vanilla Vodka or Rum if guest wanted to spice up their hot chocolate. Bailey's and hot chocolate, yummmmm.

Here is the mantle with my moss initial. I used a variety of silver candle holders, white tappered candles, votive candles, and magnolia leaves. Pretty simple but I was thrilled with the results. The moss initial added much needed texture and another shade of green. The color scheme for the party was blue, white, and silver so I stuck with blue, white, and grey onesies.

Momma-to-be with one of her friends.

I also made some white and silver tissue pom-poms. I learned a few pom-poms lessons haha

1. Do NOT use target brand tissue paper. Too thin.
2. Michael's tissue paper works perfectly.
3. Make sure you buy tissue paper that is all the same size. Cutting tissue paper down to size is not easy.

What crafting have you done for baby showers or bridal showers?

xoxo,

Southern Gal

Christmas Decorations + Mantle = LoveHate

I'm going to be very honest here......I struggle with my mantle all year round!

UGH it drives me crazy. I always feel like something is "off." I have no idea why but some days there is "too much silver" or "too much glass" or "too much height" or "not enough height" and recently I've decided to blame the wall color. Seriously. The wall color is to blame here. I use to be happy with my mantle decorations until one day I had plaster work done and the walls had to be painted once the plaster was repaired. I told the contractor to pick the same paint color because I LOVE it. I still love the color but it is no longer the color of my living room. I came home from work, he was done/gone, and my walls are a weird beige/white color. Needless to say, I was not pleased. Okay this is not a story about my shady contractor so I'm going to move on.

So my mantle issues have carried over to my Christmas decorations. For the past 3 years I've used gold glittery trees (that have lost some glitter), candles, and other stuff I can't remember. This year I decided to waste my time try something new.

Let's start at the very beginning with my everyday mantle.

Boring, I know. Normally there are fresh cut flowers where you see the dried hydrangeas to add more color and balance the height. However, I didn't buy fresh flowers last week because I was gone for Thanksgiving and I knew Christmas decorations were next!

So I got to work from an idea I had in my head. Here are my sticks!

Working away at my idea in my head. Will it work????

Time for the big reveal!......

BAM....Christmas Mantle FAIL!

The sticks just blend right into my "beige" walls.I could even envision the lights and greenery I had planned to add. I was so disappointed in the outcome. However, after a solid night of bar hopping and a morning of sleeping late, I felt refreshed and ready to face my mantle again.

May I present 2011 Christmas Mantle....Drum roll please!

Ta-Da!!!

Gold trees again, red tree, fresh candles, TONS of lights (200 just on the mantle!), and greenery from my front yard. I'm very pleased with my mantle this year even though I used most of the same stuff. Somehow it looks different. 

Did anyone else struggle finding normal, traditional lights this year?? I went to FOUR stores looking for white lights on green wire. Yes, that's right, I said FOUR....Target, Walmart, Lowes, and finally Rite Aid. The last place I looked is behind my house. Yeah, I could have walked up there instead of driving all over creation. I knew I shouldn't have left ITB (Inside The Beltline) to go looking for them!

So I guess you're wondering what I did with the sticks. I left them sitting on the dining room table for a day or two deciding what to do- reuse or toss. I decided to give them one more chance before kicking them to the curb.

Lookie, lookie!!

I'm super excited about my centerpiece for the dining room table. I'm pretty proud that I was able to salvage part of my vision!

I hope you're having just as much fun getting into the holiday spirit as I am!

Sweet Dreams,

Southern Girl

ps- If you have any ideas for my everyday mantle, please help a gal out!!

All photos are personal.