Christmas Ornament Memories

Christmas ornaments for me bring back some of my favorite memories from the years past. Just this morning I found one of my childhood cheerleading ornaments from 1992... So I was in 4th grade when I got this megaphone. It just so happens to be the last year I cheered for the Brookwood Broncos before moving to Dacula:( I think that sentimental ornaments are a great way to keep the past alive and remind us each year of all things we are thankful for. So I just wanted to share a few of my favorite ornaments that we have on our tree this year....
I LOVE this 'Merry Christmas' sign that is hanging right in the front of our tree. I have made it a point this holiday to say "Merry CHRISTmas" to people as I am out and about shopping. It is the reason for the season after all.
This is the newest one on our tree this year. I picked it up at Swoozies for an ornament exchange, but come to find out we ended up not doing the exchange. I am secretly excited not to have given it away cause I really love it.
I got this fun little beauty up in New York when my girls friends and I went up for Christmas a few years back. We had so much fun out on the town and I loved every second we were there. Christmas in New York is so magical and must be put on 'to do' list again. Everyone really should see it!
Isn't this neat? Mom picked it up last year at a fun boutique. The three are connected like a little swag for the tree.
In our house we are MAJOR fans of diet coke so this just seemed fitting that it should be part of our tree. It cracks me up every time see it! We are very thankful for it.
We have a LOT of glass and Waterford crystal ornaments on our tree that we have gotten over the years as gifts from family members or just for collecting . They really make the tree sparkle. Not sure of the significance the '1988' has but I like it cause it's from my childhood. I was three that year. I'm sure it was magical. Can't you just imagine a little redhead on Christmas morning?

Just wanted to share a few fun shots from around the house that I put together. Over at Thrifty Decor Chic, she gave me the idea to use our candy jars for a fun little display. Our vintage cookie sheet really pulls together the red and green in my opinion.

Keeping with the ornament theme, I thought I would include this collection of ornaments that is on our coffee table. I picked up this cool picture up in Wake Forest at a vintage inspired store. It warms my heart when I see it! Not sure if you can tell but the Santa in front has an ornament body, too funny.
Do yall have any favorite ornaments that bring back memories?? Finished Christmas shopping yet? Ugg, me neither:(

Holiday Mantras

I keep reminding myself through the Holidays.....

I CAN'T believe that I have seen snow twice this year so far, I'll take it thats for sure, but I wish it would be a 'White Christmas' just once:)

Happy Holidays!!!! Got your shopping finished yet? Not me, yikes!!

Quick Run Down

So in a nutshell here is what I have been up to:

Back in November I went to my first Military Ball.....


Then it was Thanksgiving so we went to Tryon, NC with my sisters family. There was lots of relaxing going on, a little hiking and a Barn tour for Christmas....




In addition to making wreaths I also made the girls some Christmas ruffle pants and then made my girlfriends some Christmas stockings.....


Then, my sister got me the HOOK UP at her school and had 8 wreath orders and two tree toppers...they all turned out FABULOUS if I do say so myself.... so I was a BUSY BEE for days....then I drove up late Saturday afternoon in the snow so that I could be in town to deliver the wreaths on Monday morning... it was a good excuse to see them again so soon.

We were busy doing all of the following Church at North Wake, Shopping, Watching Twilight Eclipse, Shopping, Dinner with Daddy, Brunch with Abbs and Steph, Shopping....





Other than that, just hanging out....Getting ready for the holidays, working till Christmas, parties, and Family! Sounds perfect to me! Still have a few wreaths if anyone is still in the market for a unique one or needs a gift....Big ones are $50 and small ones are $35. Email me:)

Newness

*Note- The red/green ribbon on the first wreath is sold out, but I have other variations that look just as good:) So sorry! Any of what you can see can be custom made to your liking.

Christmas Wreath

I made this little Beauty a few weeks ago, but had yet to finish it until today. The wreath itself is made out of a green and gold Geo-Mesh. I have been wanting to get my hand on this stuff for quite awhile and finally found the perfect opportunity to do so. I also made a solid Red wreath with a Gold bow today, but still putting the finishing touches on, so check back later this week.

Embellishments:

Side view:

Let me know if you or someone you know would be interested in purchasing one for the upcoming holidays. They will be here before you know it and people are already starting to decorate! Oh yeah, gotta have 'Thanksgiving' FIRST.

All Hallows Eve!!!

Rockin' Robin, Tweet Tweet Tweet!!!

I did a time warp for Halloween this year! It was a last minute thing so I had a day to pull this together and didn't have to spend a penny! YAY, me! To tell you the truth I had a few options to pick from that I had around the house, but it came down to two that I was torn between. I really wanted to go as Rachel Zoe, the Celebrity stylist in all her glory. I had the perfect outfit picked out that was her to a capital T, but I felt like no one would get that I was her since she is kinda on the DL. She does however have her own TV show on Bravo that I am Bananas over... (Rachelism)!!! Also, I was going to need to find somehow to make my hair blond (i.e. wig, clip in extensions, spray) as well as a few other finishing touches. But I was willing to go the distance because I have my grandmothers Mink Stole that is AHHHH-Mazing in which I have been dying to wear and it just wasn't cool enough here just yet to rock the look.

So I went with a 50's girl! It is something that I have been wanting to be for a few years now. I have memories of my sister on choir tour in high school and how they got to wear poodle skirts and wishing I had one that would fit me. Oh how I remember putting them on when she got home and twirling in them! Guess it's a little girl thing! I still can't believe that I didn't have to spend any money on a costume this year, heck to the yeah! I had the red felt left over from Abby's strawberry costume that I made her, the shoes are golf shoes that I wore a few Halloweens ago, the scarf in my hair was from college when ribbon headbands were big, tried to go with some retro glasses and check out the ring in the next picture....


This is MY DAD'S high school class ring from 1968; Sequoyah High School Braves! I was over the moon to wear this and add that special touch to the costume! I think that was what sold me on wearing this outfit!

Kali the pirate and myself at her shindig. She got a group of us together to re-wear our costumes and hand candy out to trick or treater, but they were no shows! Even though we are all grown up it is still fun to go outside your norm and have a little fun! Next costume party, tacky Christmas sweater party! Man, do we have the perfect apparel at the Stringer household!

"StayCation 2010"

Still in Shock!!!!

Still dreaming of a tropical vacation.

So as you may or may not know, our trip to Mexico two weeks ago got canceled due to Hurricane Paula being predicted to hit the day we were scheduled to fly out! Oh the HORROR!!!! We were trying to find somewhere to travel to at the last minute, but the airfares were astronomical and everyone had been to all the places within driving distances. So in lieu of a terrible situation and a tough last minute discussion we ended up have a "Staycation". Our dear friend Paige had already driven up from S. Georgia and I was already in the ATL so we made the best of our city! On our first day we hit up J. Christopher's for breakfast where I had the best eggs Benedict! We spent the afternoon strolling around the Forum doing a little shopping and that night we went and did Sips-N-Strokes over in Dunwoody. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is an art studio where they have an instructor teach you how to paint a cool picture from start to finish. You also can bring any kind of beverage you wish....we chose bring a bottle of wine to enhance the experience and drown our sorrows of not being in Rivera Maya. I kid, I kid! Some people even bring a slew of appetizers. I was surprised that our whole class was packed out on a Wednesday night! It's the new thing here....
Paige really wanted to paint an Otter cause she LOVES them, but they didn't have one available so we did the "Funky Chicken" instead.

Assume the positing to paint Ladies:


All ready to get the show on the road:
A Blank Canvas...

Step One: Make the EGG body outline.....cause we all know that the egg comes first or is it the chicken??

Added some background color, gave it some feathers and a Tiara and Bada Bing:

Group Shot:

Staycation: Day 2~
Amanda and I went our hair dresser to get a little primping done! Let me tell you it was WAYYYYYYYY over due on my part! I hadn't had a hair cut in like 6 months! So I really needed a new look because I feel like when I have long hair that I have no style cut into it. Since I have been growing my hair long, I have also been growing my bangs out. Well so long, long bangs... HELLO short bangs......

That night we met up with the girl and headed to a FABULOUS dinner at the Atlanta Fish Market. Amy(Paige's sister) come down from Athens and McCall both join us in celebration of "Stacation 2010". Katie, Paige and Amy all have a dear friend who is one of the managers at the fish market, so he treated us very special by sending over some delicious appetizers and a decadent desert plate! It really took away our blues~



After dinner picture in front of the Jelly Fish Tank~

We ended the night with some salsa dancing at one club and then headed to another bar to get more of our kind of music. It was quite an eventful night! The rest of "staycation" was spent seeing movies (Life as we know it...SOOOO GOOD & Secretariat), cook-out with friends, sleeping late, shopping and then back to reality! SOOO sad that Mexico was a BUST, but God really had other plan in mind and I truly believe it was a divine intervention. So now we are saving our money we got back and planning a trip to hopefully CABO!!!!!

Festive Fall Decor

Once October rolls around every year I get soooooo excited to pull out all the fall decorations. All the warm colors just make me beam. I wanted to spruce up our fall decorations this year and give it a more grown up feel. Since I was little we have always decorated for Halloween but over the years it has gradually tapered off to just fall decor. Don't get me wrong I still love all the cute Halloween decorations out there, but we don't have any little kids in the house so I kept them to a minimum. Plus using the same color scheme that we already have it was just easier to incorporate things here and there and didn't have to buy to much. So here is what I did on the Mantel. It is the focal point in the room and just played it up.
*Bella wanted in on the photo fun. She is who I would ask if they liked it while working...hehehe.

I had these awesome orange feathers left over from Abby's birthday party that I needed to use again so why not bring some drama to the mantel. I have been collecting Flue-De-Lis candle stick for a project I want to do in my room, but haven't had the time to get around to doing it so I added some height up there and stuck the small wooden pumpkins on top.


Now the opposite end I needed some height on that side too. So while I was at Wal-mart the other night I stumbled down the Christmas isles to see what they had already gotten in and they had fall color decor so I snatched up these pretty ornaments to add some sparkle. I wanted to put them in candle sticks, but they wouldn't fit so I found this picture hanger that we had gotten as a gift or something, who knows where it came from. But it worked perfect to give some VA-VA-Voom.

Here are some other touches of fall in the house:
(loving the green countertops{insert sarcasm})


Taking it back to the old school with the little black witches that my mom made a longgggg time ago. It just wouldn't be the same to know throw back to the old days

Now heading outside I wanted to do something to with the black wrought iron tall lantern the we already had, so I spray painted the smaller one black (it was silver and rust). Tada~

Me being on a budge now, I did a lot of spray painting to things I could find or get at the dollar spot or GW. I really love how it turned out.


Happy Weekend friends! Planning on soaking up this unbelievable weather. I really want to hit up the Country Living Fair at Stone Mountain. It's the first annual one in the GA so I really want to see what it's all about.