my own christmas countdown

Creating a Christmas countdown Activity list for my kids was a lot of fun. I really want them to enjoy this season. And although G doesn’t understand yet and L doesn’t show the excitement and enthusiasm I’d like sometimes, I think it’s a great way to create some anticipation to that special day. I won’t get tired of saying it, I love Christmas!

I love it so much that I’m enjoying my own Christmas countdown. I had so much fun decorating for Halloween, that I wanted to do it all over again for Christmas. I made a list of Christmas crafts and ideas that I’m working on. Some are done, some are still waiting. And like my Halloween projects, these crafts are very easy {some extremely easy} and very budget friendly. Of course, I scoured the web for some inspiration.

- Christmas pillow covers. How cute is this one? {at least one}.

{image via etsy}

- Christmas artwork. Glitter = festive in my book.

{image via shakentogetherlife}

- Christmas napkin rings and table cards. It can’t get better than stripes {ok, maybe chevron}. Simple and cute.

{image via prudentbaby}

- Christmas table runner. How lovely is this table runner? So delicate.

{image via prettymyparty}

I have a couple more projects and I’ll be sharing them next week. So stay tuned.

Happy Saturday and happy crafting!

holiday decor

Last year I wanted to decorate our tree all gold for Christmas. But since we were going to Perú for the holidays there was really no point in decorating. We put a little Christmas tree to keep the holiday spirit and left it there.

This year is different. We’ll be hosting our first Christmas. And although I like the gold look for Christmas, after seeing this images, I think I’ll stick to the classic, red and white.

{image via here}

{image via here}

{image via here}

{image via here}

{image via here}

{image via here}

Our tree is up but needs more ornaments. This year we went Christmas tree cutting {as part of our Christmas countdown activities} and when choosing our tree under the sky, I guess we didn’t realize how big it was. The ornaments we had are not enough to fill it, so we’ll need to get {or make} some more. We put up some lights and some decorations here and there, but I still have some projects in my list, like making Christmas stockings and sewing some Christmas pillow covers. All that on top of our family Christmas countdown activities list. Oh boy, it’s going to be a busy, but happy, happy, month!

december is here!

It’s been a while, isn’t it? The end of the year is getting busy as usual. We celebrated L’s birthday before Thanksgiving and just had his birthday party with school friends on the weekend, we went to Boston for Thanksgiving and we just started getting ready for Christmas.

I was a little sad because we were not going to be all together for Christmas this year. I have spent a couple of Christmas away from my family since I moved to the States, and really, it was fine. But now that I have kids it’s different. I want them to share this special holiday with my family. I want them to grow up having nice memories of Holidays spent and shared with grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. Because those are the memories I have. But then my sister and brother-in-law somehow made it work and are coming, too! We’re going to have a full house and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been looking into ideas about how to decorate the house, how to set our Christmas table and I’ve planned a full itinerary of Holiday activities. And I put together our Countdown to Christmas. A tradition I started last year and that hopefully I’ll keep up for years to come.

{images via smashing magazine}

It’s going to be a hectic, chaotic, maybe a little stressful, month, but it’s going to be fun and joyful. A great way to end the year, with all the people I love. Here, together. All I want for Christmas is that!

november after sandy

I completely lost track of time while dealing with the lack of power at home. I finally realized it was November when ConEd gave us an estimated power restoration time as Nov, 4th. Of course that didn’t happen and we’re still without power. It’s been a week now. A new date was said to be tomorrow by 11 pm. However, rumors are the real date is Nov 9th. At this point we don’t want to keep our hopes up. We’re just trying to make the best out of this situation and focus on keeping the kids nice and warm. After all, losing power is nothing compared to losing your possessions, or even worse losing a loved one. Without power and all, we are the lucky ones. And we’re thankful for that.

The house is a mess but I’m trying to get ready for some upcoming events. L’s birthday party, which I think we’ll change for a later day, a trip to Boston for Thanksgiving, and the Holidays. I can’t believe it’s almost December again! It’s going to be a bittersweet Holiday season, though. My family is coming to spend the Holidays with us, but my sister and brother-in-law, due to work schedules, won’t be able to make it this time.  It’s sucks we won’t be able to be all together, especially for Christmas. But we’ll try to handle it as best we can and I’m sure we’ll have a great time.

images via smashing magazine

All media has covered all the devastation Sandy has caused here in the East Coast. But let’s not forget that before Sandy hit the States, it slammed the Caribbean, causing lots of destruction there, too. There are many organizations trying to bring some relief to the affected areas, International Medical Corps, Direct Relief, Red Cross, among others. Please, consider a donation.

Hope you all are safe and warm.

halloween party!

Head over to mamemima to check out our halloween party decor and details!

apartment therapy room for color 2012 contest

I interrupt my Halloween decor {on a budget} series to ask for your help. Yesterday we entered Apartment Therapy Room for Color 2012 contest and have rapidly escalated to the top 10 rooms in the “Light” division {the leading rooms have been in the contest for weeks!}.

Please help us with your vote to get to the second round. This initial round ends October 29th, at noon. You can only vote once so if you could spread the word around I’d truly appreciate it.

Please vote for us. Go here to vote. Thanks so much!

I’ll be back with more Halloween decor ideas.

halloween decor {on a budget} – spider web art

Remember my Halloween wreath? Well, in all my excitement for finishing my first Halloween project I didn’t consider how it would hold up on our front door. We don’t have a covered porch, just an overhang. Silly me, I thought that’d be enough to protect it from the rain. Well, it wasn’t. Next day it was hung I looked at it and it was already a little wet. And it didn’t even rain that night!

Obviously it was not going to resist real rain. So I brought it inside the house and I was left with an empty front door again. I thought about making another wreath, this time of fabric, but wasn’t very convinced so I put aside the idea while I worked on L’s Halloween costume. I have to sew pants for his costume and I needed a tutorial. I’ve never sewn pants before {or any piece of clothing for that matter. Do bow ties count?} so I headed to Made, one of my favorite blogs to find sewing tutorials. While browsing I saw this spider web art project. I happened to have an empty frame that I already painted all white for another project. So this was perfect!

I didn’t have any yarn around so I used some white crochet thread  that my mom left last year {she knitted some really cute sweaters for G}. I really should have used orange twine for a little bit of color though.

I really took me about 20 minutes to make the web. I added the rest of the glitter spiders I used for the wreath. After seeing the finished product I wanted to paint the frame orange since I think the contrast would have looked nicer but never got to it. To hang the frame I added a piece of grey ribbon I had but, now looking at the pictures I don’t like it much. Maybe some orange ribbon?

This was another easy, simple and very budget-friendly Halloween craft. I still have a couple more DIY Halloween projects to share so come back soon.

Linking up with: eighteen25, somewhat simple, skip to my lou and momnivores dilema.

halloween decor {on a budget} – free striped candles

This project couldn’t be simpler. I had white candles. I had black electrical tape.

I like how the candles look a little more sophisticated. And they can stay like that all year round, not just for Halloween. Orange candles will work better for Halloween, but I only had white candles {I forgot to take pictures of the candles in the dining room}. I’m not planning on lighting the candles so this is more just a decorative thing.

Materials: white candles and black electrical tape {use orange candles, purple or green, depending on your Halloween decor}

Next project: quick Halloween Spider Web Art. Stat tuned. Happy Friday!

Linking up with: eighteen25, somewhat simple, and momnivores dilema.

halloween decor {on a budget} – free halloween printables

I collect frames. I have many in different sizes and colors. And I wanted to use some of them with some Halloween related prints.

I printed a couple of images, a skull and a spider, I found on the web. And I edited a school drawing L did last year. I just changed the blue background for an orange one. I wrapped some of my decor books with newspaper so they can be more in tune with the decor. But as you can see I haven’t finished.

I still wanted to add something more typographic, so inspired by this print  from Jess LC {love her blog!}, I created my Halloween versions. They are not perfect but they look nice.

I also printed a couple of pictures of last year’s Halloween {the boys in their costumes}. I think this will be a nice tradition every year.

It was a simple, easy and cheap way to add some Halloween spirit to the house, in addition to my other Halloween DIY projects.

Materials: white cardstock and various frames.

You can download the prints here and here. Enjoy!

Coming up: free striped Halloween candles.

Linking up with: eighteen25, somewhat simple, momnivores dilema, and polkadots on parade.

halloween decor {on a budget} – free halloween pillows

Somehow this didn’t post last Friday. I thought I scheduled it but I guess I didn’t do it correctly. Anyway, here is another DIY Halloween project. This is an easy one!

Our couch in the living room was one of the spots I wanted to decorate for Halloween. Updating the pillow covers according to the occasion was the easiest way to go.

I thought about getting black and white fabric to sew pillow covers and {freezer paper} stenciling them with a Halloween design. But while looking into my stash of fabrics, I found two old pillowcases, one white and one orange, that I was saving to repurpose. Well, they were perfect for this project. I choose a spider silhouette I found on the internet and was ready to stencil the next day.

Before that I needed to stop by at Michael’s to get a hot gun pistol {I used regular glue to attach the crepe paper florets to my Halloween wreath and it was a little pain} and there I saw this Martha Stewart spider silhouettes kit on sale. I grabbed it thinking I could use them for a streamer or to decorate the walls.They were cut on hard cardstock, so instead of {freezer paper} stenciling, I had the idea to use them as templates. I placed them in my pillowcases the way I wanted them and traced around with a sharpie.  Once I had my silhouettes traced all I had to do is fill them in with my sharpie.

I put my new Halloween pillow covers on my chevron pillows and I like the way you can slighty see the chevron as a background. I borrowed the black pillows from the playroom and the black mesh is from the Dollar Store. This pillow covers are simple, and definitely not the finest, but I think they’re good enough for Halloween.

Materials: old pillowcases, Martha Stewart Spider silhouettes – $2.99 {Michaels. They were used just as templates.You really don’t need special templates. You can get any image you want from the web, trace it on cardstock and use it as a template.}

Next, free Halloween printables. Stay tuned!

Linking up with: eighteen25, somewhat simple, momnivores dilema and skip to my lou.