{holiday} decorations!

Are you all ready for Christmas? I had a weekend FULL of decorating and shopping, and I finally feel ready to relax a little and enjoy the holiday. Since I did {finally} finish decorating, I snapped a few peeks into our holiday festive-ness.

I did actually change up the mantle a little. It's how we roll around here :). You can see the first round of the mantle here.

I'm excited that I managed to decorate within the color scheme I originally laid out. I like the addition of a little blue, so the Christmas decor doesn't look quite so out of place in my very blue living room. 

The next couple days will be filled with listening to Christmas music and wrapping presents by the tree. I can't wait. :) Are you guys finished decorating? How's your shopping going? Anyone out there see themselves in stores on Christmas eve? :)

** I am linking up with Cottage and Vines house tour party :)

{inspired} new artists + a winner (!)

As I mentioned in my Monday's Portland Bazaar post, I actually got to attend TWO awesome craft/artisan fairs last weekend. The other was Crafty Wonderland. I posted about it last year, so this year I decided to share with you some of the awesome artists I *discovered*.  These were my favorite from the event, and I hope you find someone you love out of the group too!

Girls Can Tell

Actually dissect things via art. I was super impressed with this clever concept and love seeing everything from unicorns to the brain to vintage noise makers dissected and labeled.

Slide Sideways

Slide Sideways creates quirky awesome posters. You all know how much I love those :).

Dan Stiles

A local artist/graphic designer that does amazing show posters. The poster above is one of the only things we bought at the show this year. Oh, and in case you're wondering why this looks nothing like my usual style? Sometimes marriage is a compromise :).

Appetite

This shop stole my heart. The fabrics she uses are amazing and I immediately added her bags and pillows to my with list.

And now, for the giveaway winner!

THANK YOU to all who entered! I had such a fun time reading about your holiday traditions, and I loved to see other people both enjoying reading them and getting ideas for their families :).

We had 41 people enter, and random.org chose #7.

#7 is Sarah, from Flourish, Design and Style.

 Sarah's favorite tradition is :

How sweet of you! My favorite tradition just started last year..my 4 + 5 years olds each get a little christmas tree in their rooms. On the weekends when we visit stores to do our holiday shopping they each pick out ornaments for their tree's.. they are sure filling up this year! And they remember where they came from, who we may have been visiting ( grams )so it's alot of fun for them! x Sarah


Congratulations Sarah! And, thank you again to all who not only entered, but read this blog. You guys are the best :). 

Have a great weekend!

{holiday} tree!

A little blog business before we begin! Don't forget to enter the Anthro gift card giveaway. I'll be announcing the recipient first thing Friday morning :).

Now, want to see our tree? 

I'm here to show you, but first, a couple disclaimers.

1. I have no idea how to take pictures of trees. For some reason, every year I'm at a loss.
2. After I took this photos and brought them to work to upload, I realized that I don't actually have our tree topper in place. This, sadly, is indicative of how this season is going.

So, with that intro, do you still want to see our tree? :) 

Ta-da! We kept the tree SUPER simple this year. We usually fill it with ornaments from each of our pasts, but this year, to keep with the rustic glam theme, we simply adorned it with a couple of garlands, red and white balls and gold balls. 

To compliment the book snowflakes, I made a paper chain garland out of books. It ties the mantle in nicely with the tree.

Making an appearance again this year is the red felt circle garland I made for last year's tree.

Overall, I can't decide. Chris LOVES the simple, more rustic tree. The sentimental side of me really misses the rest of our ornaments. A few might just make their way onto the tree before all is said and done :).

What do you guys think about tree decor? Do you keep it simple? Do you fill the tree with years and years of memories? Do you theme your tree each year?

I am linking up with the Tree Party at Thrifty Decor Chick. You better believe I'll be pinning lots of these beautiful trees simply for inspiration and instruction on how to take tree photos!