DIY Gift Tags (From Recycled Holiday Cards)

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the holidays! I had a great time hibernating at my grandmother's house in Canada, eating lots, and relaxing with my family.

I like to keep my Christmas decorations up for a least a week or so after the New Year.  I don't like how my apartment feels empty when they're gone.  I guess that I can use it as motivation to try new projects!  

I have a little tip to share with you that's economically and environmentally friendly!  Last year I cut up the Christmas cards I received and saved them to make gift tags for this year.  I saw the idea on Pinterest (as usual).  Holiday cards are always so pretty, and I was happy to put them into use instead of throwing them away. (Plus they came in handy since I didn't need to buy tags from the store!)

Creating these tags were effortless!  

1. After cutting your cards, punch a hole.

2. Tie on a piece of ribbon.

3. Write your message on the back and tie the tag onto the gift! 

I hope you found this little tip useful for next year's gifting! 

Stay warm!

Holiday Party Recap

Hello! Over the weekend my boyfriend and I hosted a holiday party for our friends.  The party was a blast, and I enjoyed baking and decorating!  I found this cute Christmas tree brownie idea here and attempted to do it myself.  I'm not the best froster, but this was a fun way to make the brownies festive!

Photo credit: David Santiago

I bought the pearl sprinkles and the decorating icing at AC Moore. I kept mine simple, but you can go all out with the decorating! 

**Tip: If you want to use a candy cane for the trunk of the tree, make sure you make thick brownies.  My brownies were on the thinner side, so the candy cane didn't fit. 

We also bought these awesome photo props from Party Goodies on Etsy.  She can customize your order.  

The theme of the party was Eat, Drink, & Be Merry!  We used this print out as part of the table centerpiece. 

Hope you're enjoying the holiday hustle bustle! Have a great week!

Christmas Molasses Cookies

For me, molasses cookies taste like Christmas...must be all my wonderful memories of eating molasses cookies in my Sitty's kitchen while spending the week at her house with all the family over the holidays. (Sitty is grandma in Arabic.)  While I can never replicate my Sitty's molasses cookies, I am excited to say that I finally got them right this year!  The touch of cinnamon, gloves, and ginger make this cookie a rich, but not overly sweet cookie for the holidays!

Check out the recipe from my last year's post around this time....Molasses Cookies Recipe.

Pine Cone Frenzy

Lately I've been a little pine cone happy (as strange as that may sound)!  It all started with using pine cones as place holders in my previous Thanksgiving post.   Now I'm using pine cones to compliment my holiday decorating! I found my inspiration on pinterest.

DIY Pine Cone Door Hanging:

This is a easy and fast project.  I finished it in about 10 minutes! 

Materials:

Ribbon

Pine cones

Hot glue gun

Scissors

Method: 

1. Cut ribbon to desired length.  (Hold the ribbon from the door hook to see how low you want the pine cones to hang.)  Tie a knot where you want the pine cone positioned.

2. Tie a bow at the knot.  

3. Hot glue the bow to bottom of pine cone.

4.  Trim the excess ribbon on the side not for hanging.

5. Tie all the ribbons you have together and hang.  I used 3 pine cones but you can use more or less.

More pine cone decorating:

Coffee table center piece:

(pine cones, mason jar, epsom, salt, candle)

Mixing glam with rustic: 

(vase, costume jewelry bracelet, pine cone)

What are your favorite holiday decorating tips?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so happy that I was able to share my Thanksgiving with my family, boyfriend, and especially with my happy 2 month old nephew! I hope you all had a special day wherever you are!

I'm going to share this year's table setting. I kept the table simple since the food is the main attraction (and major space taker.) I found the pine cone place holder idea here. You can use names or write something related to the day! (The little walnut is for my nephew.)

Thanks for taking a look! Until next time,