A Very Merry Christmas

~from our family to yours~

Thank you for allowing me to share this cozy corner of the web with you. This year has overwhelmed me the great gift of friendship. From those of you who have reached out virtually, to those whom I've had the pleasure of meeting face to face, you are all treasured and I am so grateful to know you.

Please enjoy these photos that some Chelsea's Garage friends have graciously shared of their beautiful homes decorated for Christmas!

What a welcoming entrance for this front foyer!

I'm kinda in love with this "Joy to the World" homemade burlap banner

It couldn't possibly get any cuter in the mudroom.

A sweet friend from college and her 6 month baby belly, (and her pom-pom wreath)! 

She's so stinkin' cute it's borderline unfair ;)

Another beautiful pom-pom wreath! Never would have thought of doing stripes. Love this!!!

What a wonderful way to display Christmas cards! Love that they're out in the open to be enjoyed throughout the season! (And I'm diggin' that pillow like Santa's mid-section with a belt buckle counting down the days until Christmas. Fun, fun!)

Look at these cutie-pies and their  hodgepodge Christmas trees! With a styrofoam cone, hot glue gun and silver metallic spray paint, the possibilities really are endless!
(I spy a...calculator?)

When a friend shared these trees she wrapped in a sweater and some twine, I knew this would be a fun idea for next year! Inspired by similar trees she noticed at Anthropologie, this little pair looks perfectly cozy in cable-nit.

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Years, dear friends. Wishing you a very blessed time with those you celebrate with and the gift of free, pure joy that we've been given as a result of Jesus' most divine birth.

Peace out until after New Years!

~Chelsea

~Brown paper packages tied up with strings~

By Chelsea

these are a few of my favorite things!

Hi friends! 

How are you doing? Not spreading yourselves too thin, I hope.

This is a challenging time of year for those Type A perfectionists out there. 

I'm not one of them. Not completely, at least. But a dash enough to know it can be exhausting trying to get everything 'just so' before Christmas.

Just try and remember that the joys and blessings of Christmas do not rest on your shoulders. In fact, they have nothing to do with how your home looks or what gifts are given. All this decorating and gift exchanging is simply a wonderfully fun way of putting an exclamation point on the reason at the forefront of our celebrating. :)

On that note, I was listening to 'My Favorite Things' the other week while watching the Sound of Music live with Carrie Underwood, (no one compares to Julie Andrews), and the lyrics struck me. Nothing on the favorite things list is all that spectacular, which reminded me of the impact that simple joys can have...

...which prompted my Christmas gift wrap this year!

Supplies:

Brown postal wrap

Teal and white string & Gold and white string

A rainbow of paint swatches collected from Home Depot, Lowes, and Benjamin Moore

The postal wrap, bought from Target for $6, is 4 or 5 times the size of a normal roll of wrapping paper. What a money saver! The string was less than $2 per spool and the paint swatches were free. After all the gifts are bought it's nice to save what you can on gift wrap!

But this simple gift wrap has a festively fun impact, don't ya think?

For each gift I wrapped it was fun to consider the person who would receive it and think about what color to use for them!

Pretty simple but I love the snaps of color with the paint swatch gift tags! If you're interested, here is how I wrapped the Christmas gifts last year. :)

Enjoy your weekend, friends! On Monday I'll post the photos you've sent of your projects and homes decorated for Christmas, so if you feel up for sharing please email me your pics at chelseasgarage@gmail.com!

~Chelsea

One A Week {Star tree-topper}

By Chelsea

Hi All! I don't know about you, but there is something about the holiday season that slows me down a bit. With all there is to do and prepare, I find myself taking my time with no particular rush. My little ones and I have thoroughly been enjoying some later mornings in our pjs, having picnic breakfasts on the floor of our basement while we watch Christmas movies, and then getting dressed with no particular agenda for the day and seeing where the wind blows us. 

I try to spend a few quiet moments with the Lord every morning before my kids wake up. Sometimes I just sit and look out the window and pray about things on my heart. Sometimes I crack open a devotional and/or read my Bible. Lately, I've enjoyed going through an advent devotional that started December 1 and goes until December 25. It was given to me and at first I wasn't so sure I'd get a whole lot from it; I thought it would just go slowly through the events leading to the birth of Jesus. But, there is less emphasis on how He was born, and more on why He was born. 

Joy. Pure, uninhibited, free joy. 

Jesus had to be born a human man in the flesh so that he could die with our sin. And, "if we do not need to fear our last and greatest enemy, death, then we do not need to fear anything. We can be free: free for joy, free for others." Pastor John Piper

I guess you could say joy is the root of my recent laziness. There is not a whole lot I feel like doing but bask in the gifts that God has lavished over my undeserving self. Four of them, in particular - my husband and our children. There is so much  that our kids are amazed over at this time of year, and all I find myself doing is sitting back and watching them with a renewed sense of amazement myself.

Today, I have an 'unplanned' One A Week Christmas DIY project for ya. Early last week the star tree topper that my husband and I picked together for our first Christmas broke. It made me a little sad; it wasn't anything spectacular, but I have wonderful memories of our first Christmas together. Our first Christmas tree didn't have a lot of ornaments, but it had a bright, lit up star that we had picked out. For its replacement, I tried my hand at making a star tree-topper out of a wire shirt hanger. It was an easy project that my kids enjoyed watching and sharing input.

Supplies:

wire hanger

twine

floral wire

Step 1: Unwind the hook of the hanger

Step 2: Straighten your wire hanger out

Step 3: Bend five 'fingers' in the wire

 Step 4: Pull the 'fingers' around until your two ends meet, then wind the two ends together

Step 5: Tie an end of twine onto your star in a knot, 

then wrap the twine around the entire star, knotting again at the end

Step 6: Wrap some floral wire around an inset of the star a few times, then 'curl' it out, (the 'curl' will be where you slide it onto the top of your tree)

All finished!

So, the down side is that it's a bit hard to see against our white walls. But, it was a quick and easy replacement and gets the job done. At least for this year. :) (Full Christmas home tour here)

Other One A Week Christmas DIY projects:

Pom-pom wreath

Crepe flowers wreath

Pom-pom garland

Holiday sign

Cardboard ornaments

If you are up for sharing, please send photos of any of these, (or your own), Christmas decorating projects to chelseasgarage@gmail.com. I'm going to post them all the week of Christmas!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

~Chelsea

Whimsical Christmas decorating: Full home tour

By Chelsea

Hi friends! It has been such a joy to see the pictures some of you have sent of your homes decorated for Christmas! Keep em' coming; your creativity has been so inspiring, (and I'll be compiling them to one post to share close to Christmas)! I finished all our decorating earlier this week and thought it would be fun to link up with Jennifer Rizzo's Holiday House Party!

If you love seeing homes decorated for the holidays, you'll definitely want to hop over to check out the many beautiful homes linked to this virtual 'tour party'!

I never decorate for the holidays with any particular theme or color scheme, but I like the decorating to feel fresh and unique year after year. Since I don't want to spend $$$ on brand new decorations, this stretches my imagination with what we already have - and gives me the opportunity to make new things myself! As you tour the rooms I have linked some of the DIY projects for you to check out if you'd like, and a few more will be coming soon!

Please come in and enjoy the tour!

Holiday living room

Pom-pom garland tutorial here

Our young children, (ages 4, 4 and 2), set up the nativity for the first time this year.
I love that they huddled everyone around baby Jesus!

Rather than buy all new pillows for Christmas and the winter, I rummaged my closet and pulled out two brown belts to gather around my large white pillows!

During our snow days earlier this week the little ones and I got busy making some snowflakes of our own inside, (tutorial coming soon)!

I haven't made paper snowflakes in decades!
What fun!

Sadly, the tree topper that my husband and I picked out together before our first Christmas broke earlier this week. I made this one from a wire coat hanger wrapped in twine! Tutorial coming soon.

Front Entrance

Homemade sign tutorial here

Cardboard ornaments tutorial here

Dining room

Lumbar pillows made from placemats! Tutorial found here.

Pom-pom yarn wreath tutorial here

Trimmed Christmas tree stumps used as candle bases

Bedrooms

Welcome to Shire's room!

I just added a little 'ice' to her homemade headboard, (headboard tutorial found here)

Welcome to Colin's and Mason's room!

A couple familiar pals are droppin' in for the holidays

And finally, welcome to the master bedroom!

Block printed lampshade tutorial here

I recovered my corner chair with a soft navy and gold plaid fabric 

for the holidays and winter months!

A nod to our beloved home state: the cardinal; our state bird!

A few small sprigs from our Noble fir fit nicely in a pair of mismatched Mason jars

Merry Christmas, to all!

 Thank you so much for coming by! Don't forget to check out Jennifer Rizzo's virtual holiday tour party to see some amazing homes decorated for Christmas! Lots of inspiration out there!

~Chelsea