christmas Archives - Darling Darleen | A Lifestyle Design Blog

Modern Wire Evergreen Wreath

Modern Wire Evergreen Wreath

Wreath making is one of my favorite Christmas crafts for decorating the home. You really can’t go wrong and the outcome is so beautiful. I can’t wait to show you the wreaths and garland I’ve been putting together. I’m hoping to get my Christmas holiday post up either tomorrow or Monday (fingers crossed). If you remember last month for Thanksgiving, I made these Modern Harvest Wreaths out of wire hangers and clippings from my yard. I love the fun wreath shapes you can make of circles, triangles and squares. It really puts a geometric, modern look on a simple wreath. Well, I just updated my modern harvest wreaths with a modern wire evergreen wreath so they look a little more holiday and goes with my Christmas tree and ornaments. This craft is so easy! Don’t throw out those wire hangers, craft them into something beautiful that can be used year after year.

Supplies for the Modern Wire Evergreen Wreath:

Wire hangers
Follow the instructions for the Modern Harvest Wreath for making the wire wreath.
floral wire
wire cutters
wire pliers
Christmas ribbon
leaves–magnolia, eucalyptus, boxwood, any kind of ever green leaves
Cotton stem
holiday berries from any craft store

Instructions for the Modern Wire Evergreen Wreath:

After you make the wire wreath, go out to your yard or a neighbors or even the woods or a park and clip evergreen plants. An evergreen plant is a plant that stays green all year round for example boxwood, cedar fir, Fraser fir, eucalyptus, magnolia. There are so many evergreen variety but I tend for find branches that remind me of a Christmas tree. You don’t need a lot but enough to cover the bottom half of the wreath. Then arrange the evergreen clips with the large, bushier branches behind and the thinner smaller leaves in front. Take your floral wire and wrap around the wire wreath. Once everything is secure, add your holiday berry branches under the floral wire. Pull out the cotton heads from the stem and place them also in floral wire. Add some ribbon and you are ready to hang.

These simple modern wire evergreen wreaths are best placed over a mirror or over the back of a chair. I also love the look over a fireplace mantle or switching out a picture over a console with one of these modern wire evergreen wreaths.

Holiday Cards

Holiday Cards

When all the holiday cards are mailed out, I feel a huge relief and sense of accomplishment! Silly, I know. But it’s always a mad rush of timing to get our holiday cards ordered, then labeled, stamped and then out the door. This year I am actually a head of schedule, compared to last year’s Christmas cards. I ordered again through Minted. I’ve been ordering from them forever. They are my favorite, and always do such a great job. One of my favorite things they offer is free address labeling on my envelopes. It saves me a ton of time and forces me to update addresses once the cards are ordered. And did I mention it’s free! What you have to do is create a profile, add your addresses. The addresses are saved, so the following year all you have to do is update anyone who has moved, add or delete. The great thing is you really don’t have to worry about sorting though multiple files and addresses books to gather your family and friends’ addresses for your holiday cards. It’s all in one location and ready to be printed. Minted also offers letterpress cards and gold foil cards. There are so many styles to choose from! This year I choose the rose gold foil cards.

But if you happen to miss the rush of Holiday Cards, no worries! New Years cards are becoming so popular. I love Minted’s selection of New Years cards that I almost decided to just orders New Years cards instead. Less stress and easier on the budget to order after the holidays.

Use code WINTER16 to get 15% off your New Year’s cards.

Christmas Stovetop Potpourri

Christmas Stovetop Potpourri

Christmas memories are tied so closely to our senses like a freshly cut pine tree, the feel of cold snow, the sound of jingle bells, the smell of homemade gingerbread cookies. I love recreating those memories every year. Bringing the smell of Christmas into our home is one of the many ways I hold onto those memories. I love the smell of Christmas stovetop potpourri simmering and the aroma from cinnamon, clove and orange filling the room. It’s one of my favorite potpourris and so easy to put together. If I know we will be at home most of the day, I keep it simmering on low and the house smells so warm and festive. If we are planning on having company, I also love to throw the items in a pretty pot and let the Christmas stovetop potpourri fill the house with sweet aroma.

All of the items used to make Christmas stovetop potpourri are found in your kitchen and the recipe can easily be altered to accommodate items currently in your spice cabinet or around your house. I love to add lemon slices or ginger or fresh pine sprigs or rosemary. You can get really creative adding and opting ingredients. If you don’t feel comfortable having your stovetop on all day, then using a crockpot works just as beautifully and will deliver the same sweet smell. When using a stovetop, make sure to check periodically the water level and add to it if the water is low.

Christmas Stovetop Potpourri

1/2 orange sliced

1/2 apple sliced

1 cup of cranberries

3 cinnamon sticks

1 tablespoon of whole cloves

Water

Instructions: Fill a pot with water about an inch from the brim. Put all the ingredients in the pot and simmer it on low all day.

Enjoy the warm, spicy scent that will fill your whole house. Make orange pomanders with some of the remaining cloves and oranges.

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A Southern Christmas

A Southern Christmas

This Christmas I wanted to brace the Southern style of the holidays. We have lived in the South for a while and are coming up on our fifth year. It’s about time to accept all the great things that the south has to offer. A Southern Christmas with my own personal styling is my first attempt. I would say that I’m not planning on a traditional Southern Christmas with red and green plaid and big red bows. But I somehow wanted to bring in elements of the south into the home. So, Christmas decorating this year was focus on magnolia leaves. Magnolia trees are everywhere around the South. They have huge beautiful thick evergreen leaves with a contrast of brown on the underside. In the spring, huge fragrant white flowers grow. They are such a beautiful flower and really don’t last that long once picked. We planted two dwarf magnolia trees in our backyard, and I pulled some of the leaves from there to make my wreath, but I cut leaves from my neighbor’s 30 foot magnolia tree for my garland. If I had my own huge magnolia tree on my property, I would made my wreaths and garland entirely out of the beautiful leaves. But instead I compromised by using it as a filler to make my southern Christmas come alive.

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So, I bought basic cedar garland and using floral wire, I added magnolia leaves along with boxwood leaves and a few eucalyptus. Adding additional leaves as fillers for your cedar garland really brings it to life and adds character. I used the garland for my mantle and stair rail and also on as part of my dining room table centerpiece. Our Christmas tree is also southern style Christmas tree–cut down right here in Georgia! The leaves are softer and floppier than the traditional balsam pine tree. But I did sneak in a white flocked tree in our entry way. Here are a few other southern styling and holiday decorating tips to make A Southern Christmas:

Potted Paperwhites–I love using paperwhites as decoration during the holidays. If you plan ahead you can plant the bulb in a pretty pot and then as you closer to Christmas, white blooms pop up. They are so festive and pretty. But if you are like me and don’t remember, you can usually buy them in a pretty pot and then by Christmas the tops will all be white. I love decorating paperwhites in my kitchen or as centerpieces on my dining room table. Line the bottom of the pot with shiny, little ornaments. These look great paired with potted tiny rosemary or cypress tress.
Fresh Garland–I love the smell of fresh greenery in the house during the holidays. I have quite a few artificial garland pieces, but I always sway for the real garland. To keep it fresh all month long, make sure to take a squirt bottle and spray the garland with water every couple days. That way it will still look fresh and alive come Christmas morning.
Choose a color scheme and stick with it. Don’t feel obligated to use all your decorations every year. There were many ornaments I didn’t pull out these year because it didn’t got with my color scheme. I have these brightly colored, adorable stockings that I use every year, but last year I wanted the winter white stockings. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on new stockings, I sewed these out of painter canvas sheets that I picked up from Home Depot and then sewed faux fur on the top. Used my cricut to cut initials out with silver glitter vinyl. I made all six stockings under $15. I’m sure I will be changing it up in the future so I wanted to keep it cheap.
Put a wreath on it. If all you did was add a wreath to your door for the holidays, that is a sign of “welcome”. The look of wreath hung with ribbon is one of my favorite Christmas decorations–on doors, or windows. I invested a few years ago on live freeze dried, preserved boxwood wreaths and topiaries and it is well worth the money. I have used them year after year and they still look brand new and real.
Add small Ornaments. A simple Christmas decoration is adding ornaments to the bottom of plant pots or scattered around the top of garland. I love the look of glass jar filled with ornaments or bowls. Fill the top of your stocking with ornaments peeking out for a touch of fun.

Hope these decorating tips might help you when decorating for the Holidays and for decorating A Southern Christmas. If you want to the look with magnolia leaves and don’t live near the tree, most floral shops carry the magnolia leaf branches.

Here are some other decorating ideas:

Check out my other Holiday decorating tips:

Indoor Christmas Ideas + Holiday Baking

Christmas Table Decorations

White Winter Christmas

Advent Calendar

Cutting Our Christmas Tree

Cutting Our Christmas Tree

Tradition. It’s all about family tradition during the Christmas holidays. And one family tradition that we continue to do every year is cutting our Christmas Tree down. It all started the first year my husband and I spent Christmas together as newlyweds. We lived in Salt Lake City at the time. That Christmas year it had already snowed. We snowshoed into the beautiful Utah forest and cut down our first tree. We put the tree on a sled and skied back out. It was so adventurous and so much fun! I can still smell the freshly cut Christmas Tree. From that year on we continued to cut our tree down. Even when we moved to Connecticut and it was freezing cold outside and we have little babies, we would bundle them up and head to the Christmas tree farm.

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On Children: Hunter boots | Fur Vest | Ugg Boots | Fur Vest older girl | plaid leggings

Fast forward to today, we are still cutting our Christmas tree. My kids beg for us to keep this tradition up. The difference is, is that the Christmas trees in the south are not every attractive and don’t have the fresh pine smell. We call them Charlie Brown trees. I have to admit, I’d much rather head to the local nursery and buy our tree there. But tradition. That’s what it’s all about. So we keep cutting these southern trees down and laugh and enjoy the sweet holiday memories we are creating. The tree farm we go too really does makes up for all the things we miss in the Connecticut and Utah. After we cut the tree down they have ornament decorating table, hot cocoa and apple cider, cookies for the children, pony rides, tracker ride. Santa Claus is always there and ready to hear the kids Christmas list and we always get a Santa Claus picture with kids. The area is also really beautiful with horse pastures and gorgeous Southern homes.

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Merry Christmas, Love the Meier’s

Merry Christmas to you and yours! This was the easiest family pictures–no stress! We did it one Sunday afternoon, in between lunch, in our front yard and with a tripod! Seriously it was so random and unexpected. Maybe the pictures weren’t like last years, but it worked with our time schedule and it was one of those things like we do it now or it’s not going to happen. Sometimes you have to just go with the flow with what’s best for your family. Come what may and be happy about it! We are so grateful this time of year as we reflect on our Savior and all he has done for us! We are especially grateful for healthy bodies! We started off the Christmas season with a nasty flu virus, and my husband and I were talking about how grateful we are when our bodies are strong and healthy. And grateful for a Savior who knows the pain of sickness and can heal all things! We remember and love him for all he has done! Merry Christmas.

Our Outfits

Other Outfit Ideas:

Indoor Christmas Decorations + Holiday Baking

Me: Sweater | Jeans | Necklace Stella: Shirt

Boys: Striped Shirt Chloe: Round Tee, Crown

Indoor Christmas Decorations: I was sick at the beginning of December, and it just about threw my whole Christmas spirit out the door. We had our tree, but the decorations were still packed away in the box. By the time I was healthy, I was ready to get back to a normal schedule and eating habits and completely skip over Christmas. But my kids were eager for the house to be decorated, Christmas music to be playing and the advent calendar activities to be in full swing (even though it was December 7th!) . Thankful for my babies! They are the ones who brought back the spirit of hope, faith, peace and love in our home. So this past weekend I made sure we’d do some of our Christmas traditions like baking sugar cookies, putting up indoor Christmas decorations, making homemade sibling gifts and dancing around the Christmas tree. How quickly this month is going by!

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Crystal-Top Jewelry Box

Crystal Top Jewelry Box

Remember doing crystal-growing science projects as a kid? Well, this DIY uses the same technique but is better! For Christmas this year, I took my handmade gifting serious and grew crystals using Borax. The results are these darling faux-geode jewelry boxes that I gave away as gifts along with one of my jewelry pieces. Everyone who received one loved it, and I am eager to make more!

This crafting project is really easy, but it did take me about 2 days to grow the crystals so it does take some time. You could probably get away with 24 hours if you want the crystals to be a little smaller. The crystals are sturdy, and I glued them on with my E6000 glue and they are solid.

For a complete tutorial on this project, head over and check out Amanda Kingloff’s step-by-step tutorial and supply list.

Long Bar Necklace | Serenity Necklace

Don’t Want to Make Crystals? Here are some options

Winter White Christmas

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. No seriously…I am. I am missing all that white fluffy stuff…snow! And I take back all the times I cursed under my breath about how I hated the cold and snow while leaving in the northeast. Well…okay I’m taking it a little too far. But when I think of the holidays, a white Christmas always seemed to happened or was not far behind. I have so many fond memories of ski, boarding, sledding, ice skating, making angels. All the wonderful things that snow brings. So this year, after some Christmas tree failures, we decided to get a flocked tree to bring a little winter white Christmas into our home. And I think this is the most beautiful tree we’ve had so far.

You can see some of our other Christmas decorations previously posted.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Card

Our Christmas cards were mailed out much earlier than last year’s card. I was a little more on the ball this year and made sure to order before I was crazed with orders. I usually like to design my cards–it makes it original, saves money and time. But I have found over the years that it just adds to my holiday stress and Christmas time is one of my busy times for jewelry orders. So this year I ordered again through Minted and found a design that would go perfect with our move announcement and holiday cheer. I used our family pictures that we took this summer. I should of update but yet again, no time and family pictures can be so stressful! Anyway, my favorite part of the card is the raspberry-colored, star-lined envelope.

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