Christmas 2014 Open House Tour

Thank you, Sherry, of the "No Minimalist Here" blog for

 inviting me to join in with other bloggers for a

 Christmas Open House Blog Hop! 

We'll start the tour of my home (well, for this post it is the outside

decorations and the dining room...too many pictures for one post)

in the front yard.

Unsightly spot lights and cords are a necessary evil to light up the front of the house
 at night during Christmas-time.

Last year I made all new decorations for the outside going with

a festive red and bright green color scheme with a candy theme. 

I didn't get all of it back down from the attic this year but 

enough to make the yard and front of the house "merry and bright".

If you want to see a tutorial on how to make the candy decor,

click on the link Make Giant Candy Decorations. 

Last year's deco mesh garland did not make it out of the attic

but I did make some deco mesh and ribbon toppers for the lights.

They are really easy.  Using 21" deco mesh, cut several pieces

10" wide (your pieces will be 10" x 21").  Roll the pieces into

tubes. Pinch the tubes/rolls in the middle and secure them with 

a pipe cleaner. Then make a bow using wired ribbon. 

 Add some other decorative elements if you want to. 

Secure the mesh rolls onto the lantern with the pipe cleaner.

Tie the bow on next.  Add other decorative elements if desired.

I actually ended up using two sets of the deco mesh spiral bundles to make the topper full. 

Because I already had wreaths for each of the six windows 

across the front of the house, I made a burlap door hanging of

a Christmas tree for the front door.

I love making burlap door hangings because it allows you to

choose any object you want, any size you want, any color

you want to paint it. They take a little time, mainly for the 

paint to dry, but they are not hard to do.  Here is a tutorial:

DIY Painted Burlap Christmas Tree Door Hanging .

Each of the windows has a deco mesh wreath.

These are also easy to make and give you a lot of bang for 
your buck.  Here's how they are made: Make A Christmas Wreath.

 Most of the lollipops by the mailbox are made differently 

than the ones by the front door. Although both types use the

 canned spray foam, most of the lollipops by the mailbox 

get their color from paint rather than from wrapping paper. 

All of them are covered with cellophane to mimick a candy

wrapper and to protect them from the weather. 

Here is the mailbox as the sun is setting and the lights are turned

on. The mailbox itself got a new "do" this year. If you want to

 see the tutorial for it, here it is: Deco Mesh Mailbox Topper.

Here is the front of the house at night...

So come on in the front door now.  This are is just an open area

that is a combo foyer and dining room.  When we moved into this

house ten years ago, we sheetrocked over an opening in the wall

behind the buffet.  This gave us a longer wall to put this large

piece of furniture on AND kept folks from seeing directly into 

the kitchen from the front door. 

I enjoy changing out the artwork in this frame seasonally. 

This angel was a very last-minute Christmas decoration a 

couple of years ago and I still love her. Here is her story...

Angels Watching Over Me.

On top of the buffet are candles and bottles brush trees in 

pottery from Hobby Lobby. 

The two candle holders were a splurge for me. I bought them from

a decorator that came to help me with furniture arrangement and

accessorizing. Usually my shopping style is 40-50% off coupons.

The candles in the pottery are LED lights that won't burn the 

bottle brush trees. They also have a great feature of coming on

at the same time everyday for about four hours. Especially in the

winter it is nice to come home in the dark and candles are

"burning in the window" to welcome you home. 

The "snow" in the pottery is actually epsom salt. To keep from 

using so much epsom salt, a piece of cardboard was cut to fit the pottery and placed  on top of several upside-down glasses down

 inside the pottery.  Then the salt was added on top of the board. 

Looking to your right, you will see the dining room table.

Even though we almost never have snow on Christmas in Alabama,

I have been brainwashed by songs, etc. to think that Christmas

is better with snow. The miniature houses and little bottle brush

trees sit on serving plates covered in epsom salt to mimick snow.

The little houses are $1 each from Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree

that have been spray-painted white. Here's how they were made

and used in 2012 ...DIY Mini-Winter Wonderland.

This year I used more ornaments, less bottle brush trees and

less plates in the vignette. 

Glass Cake Stand

Serving Stand with Handle (in middle)

Silver Cake Stand

I lucked up on little cardboard houses WITH trees that have a

little light inside that you can switch off and on. 

Did you know that it is very easy and inexpensive to bleach 

bottle brush trees? Here's how: Bleached Bottle Brush Trees.

If you don't want to bleach your own trees you can find small

ones in stores already done. Hobby Lobby has some in the 

doll house section. These with balls already on them came

from World Market...

...in the scrapbook section of Jo Ann's I found these...

The chalk-painted hutch also in the dining room usually has 

more bottle brush trees displayed but this year it got a

 pared-down look with older silver trees from the attic. 

In the background of the picture below, you can see into the

living room.  If you would like to see the living room and the 
fireplace mantle decorated click on  Open House Tour Part Two.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Be sure and go visit the other blogs that are in the "hop" today!

21 Rosemary Lane reveals her beautiful living room...

A Stroll Thru Life shares Part One of her home tour...

All About Vignettes shares her "other" mantle in her sunroom...

Curly Deco Mesh Mailbox Topper

Want a fun and easy way to add holiday color to your mailbox?

This topper made from deco mesh is sassy and eye-catching. 

All of the items that I used for making this mailbox topper came 

from Hobby Lobby but you can find similar items at other craft

stores.  The deco mesh and the ribbon are easy to find on sale

 at  50% off once or twice a month at HL.  You can use a HL

 40% off coupon to buy the wire metal mailbox frame and

 green zip ties in the floral supply section of the store. 

I found out that these wire frames are also are used to put flowers on

caskets and in graveyards to put flowers on grave headstones .

Regular price the items are $3.50 for the frame, $8 for each 

roll of 10" deco mesh, $10 for ribbon, $4 for zip ties.

Full price DIY...$33.50

Sale and coupons for supplies DIY...$16.25

The frame is pretty ingenious...it bends to fit the shape of your

regulation mailbox.  It is easier to bend when it is off of the box.

Here is the frame in the process of bending. 

To avoid scraping your mailbox, just bend it when it is off of the 

mailbox and then do small adjustments as needed to keep it snug

to the mailbox.  The rubber on the "arms" of the frame keep it from

slipping around and also help it from marring the metal mailbox. 

The wire bends easily but keeps its shape. 

If you live in a windy area you may need to tie the topper down.

Run wire, string, fishing line, etc. from the "loops" on one side of the frame,

under the mailbox and tie on to the "loops" on the other side of the frame. 

Once you get the basic shape that you need to have the wire frame

fit on your mailbox, you can work on adding the mesh inside your

house if you are a baby about being out in the weather like me. 

The mesh is 30' long.  Cut the mesh into 10" pieces. 

Roll each 10" piece of mesh into a spiral. Pinch it in the middle.

You can roll all of your pieces at one time and use something like

a clothespin to keep it tight or you can roll the mesh as needed

and keep the rolled mesh in your spare hand till you get three

rolls to zip tie onto the frame. 

If you have not used zip ties (or cable ties as they are also called)

before, you may need a moment of practice.  

Zip ties can be purchased not only at Hobby Lobby in the floral section but at 

home improvement stores and even Dollar Tree in the hardware section. 

I could not handle adding more than three "rolls/spirals" at a

time with the zip tie. The trick is to keep the rolls rolled as you

 add them. You can alternate colors (I only used two

but you could use three or more) in each bunch if you want to.

This first bunch shows four spiral/rolls but I went with three at a time after this one

 Pull the zip tie as tight as it will go to keep the mesh spiral

roll bunch from slipping around and to keep the rolls rolled up. 

Here is a view of the bottom of the frame after three bunches

were added to the frame...

...and from the "good" side...

Keep adding bunches of rolls to the frame with the zip ties.

good side

bad side

If you plan on adding other embellishments like bows, ribbon

doo-dahs, ornaments, etc., you can tolerate some "holes" in the 

coverage of the mesh roll bunches on the frame 'cause you will 

fill in the "holes" with other items.  Use zip ties, floral wire or

pipe cleaners to attach other items to the frame. 

Honestly, I went too tight on my coverage of the bunches when I

first was adding the mesh to the frame. I could have gotten by with

only the two rolls of 10" mesh but I needed to open up some extra

rolls I had purchased "just in case" to add fullness at the end. 

Here is what the frame looked like with two rolls of mesh...

If you want it really full, get more than the two rolls of mesh.

The more spiral bunches you add to the frame, the fluffier the

mailbox topper will be. Put spiral bunches on the horizontal

wires, the vertical wires and the "legs" of the frame.

 Cut the ends of the plastic zip ties so they are not sticking out

willy-nilly on your topper. 

Here is what that mailbox topper looks like with just the mesh...

It is cute but it can be even cuter with some ribbon added. 

Here are some candidates to add to the topper

I don't know what to call these ribbon bunches...doo dahs?

Anyway, the ends of wired ribbon that is cut into "fishtails" is

an easy way to add embellishment, color and pattern to the topper.

Pinch a couple of  pieces of 8" wired ribbon in the middle.

Wire the pinched center with floral wire leaving several inches

of wire on each end.  Cut the ends of the ribbon either on the 

diagonal or into "fishtail" or "notched" shapes. 

You could add a whole bow onto the topper but it tends to get

"lost" in the depth of the spiraled deco mesh rolls. 

Wire the ends of the ribbon "doo-dah" onto the frame where ever

you need some sassiness or to fill in a "hole". 

Slip your embellished mailbox frame onto your mailbox. 

You might need to keep the topper to the back of the mailbox

in order to use the flag when you want mail picked up. 

I only had a little of the striped ribbon left over from the wreaths

that I made last year for the front windows to tie in the topper.

I thought that the polka dot ribbon in basically the same colors

was a pretty good second choice for the main ribbon on the topper.

Make a Christmas Deco Mesh Wreath

Last year I tried to make a deco mesh mailbox topper using 

more of the technique that is/was used on the wreaths.

It wasn't horrible but it kinda of looked like a mish-mash of

mesh and ribbon. I never did a post on it even though I did 

take pictures of the process like a good blogger. 

I am much happier with the deco mesh mailbox topper made in the 

style of a curly/spiral deco mesh wreath but with the 10" mesh. 

This same technique could be used for other holidays or

occasions using different colors of deco mesh and ribbon

to make a fun and welcoming decor item for guests or for

folks just driving by your home.