{Ali}

{Christmas Card Organization}

Do you have a pile of Christmas cards like this after the holidays are over?

image source

I know I do!

I LOVE getting Christmas Cards and I especially love getting photo cards.

I save them every year!

But all I do is usually tie a ribbon around the stack ad label the year.

Not very fun.

I came across THIS POST at the FABULOUS blog Eighteen25 and decided now was the time to get all those cards organized!

I pulled them all out, and just punched holes in the side, and placed them on jump rings, adding the cover page!

So Easy!

Then I just store all the booklets (two years per booklet) in a red velvet box.

I will pull the box out each holiday and make them available for everyone to look through.

It's always fun to see how all the kids and families have grown!

What do you think?

How do you organize your Christmas Cards?

Do you even keep them from year to year?

I would love to hear!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Monday!

Linking up with http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/

The reason for my lack of posts.....(warning ~ photo heavy!)

A few days ago, we experienced a very lovely situation here at the Moll house.  A fabulous master bathroom flood, that happened sometime during the night (while we were sleeping), that we didn't find out about until morning.  Not only was  the carpet in our bedroom soaked, the carpet was soaked downstairs in our family room.  Fabulous, right?  Oh, and did I mention that my laptop was on the coffee table directly below the master bath?  It's toast too.  Merry Christmas! 

We called our insurance company and they were awesome.  They were at our house within in a hour and had issued us a check for the repairs.  Weird how fast it all works now.  They sent a crew out to pull up carpet, rip out drywall and get huge dryers and de-humidifiers set up in our family room, master bedroom, and master bath.  This was yesterday morning.  So, for 24 hours now, our house has sounded like an airport.  It's crazy noisy.  Our family room is taped off from the rest of the house and  everything from that room was moved to the dining area.  It was making me crazy so I sort of moved everything around so I could at least function.  It's Christmas for heaven's sake!  I worked hard on decorating this year, and I wasn't going to let it all go to waste! :)  Here is the lovely family room:

Pretty fabulous, huh?

Here's the view from the other side of the plastic curtain:

Charming, isn't it.  Now imagine the sound that goes along with it!  All those fans going. 

While I was taking pics, I decided to just go ahead and document how the house looks this year, for Christmas.

The outside: 

 

at night:

 

Come on in!

 

Notice the plastic.....it's totally the new xmas decor! Also, notice the kid's xmas tree that is usually in the family room, is now in the dining area!  Love it!

The living room - with a hodge podge of furniture from the family room thrown in!  Ha!

Thanks for taking a moment to peek inside my crazy house this holiday season!  :)  Have a great Saturday!

 Linking up to  the CSI Project Home Tour

 

Christmas Card Display

It's no secret....I LOVE getting Christmas cards!  I've always struggled with the perfect way to display them though.  Last year I found the perfect solution (for me!) I purchased this photo holder/card display from my friend (and Willow House Design Consultant) Linda Burt.  And it has worked out perfectly!  Here is last year's card display (the cards have S L O W L Y been trickling in this year - what the french toast?)

 

How do you display your cards?  And is your Christmas card in the mail, on it's way to me?  I know my card won't be going out until next Monday (cutting it a tad close, you say?).....Tyson doesn't arrive home from college until late Friday night, so we will be taking a family picture on Saturday!  Yikes!   Enjoy your day!

DIY Sunday

Christmas came early for me!  Carl picked up the exact sewing machine that I wanted (which he saw on my blog!) for me today!  I have been making some pillow covers for the pillows on our couch, and I was using hem tape....which worked, but wasn't fabulous!  So after he picked up my sewing maching (BOO-YA!), I went to work and covered 5 large pillows, made 2 placemat pillows and make a long oblong pillow.  The photos are crap (per usual) and don't really show was a difference the pillows make.  BUT, I'm giddy to have those F U G L Y pillows covered!

Before:

 

After:

 

Not too exciting but soooooo much better!

 

I also painted my dining room chandy.....Carl installed dimmers and some more lighting!  Busy and productive day for sure!

 

Oh, Christmas Tree.....Oh, Christmas Tree

aka "The Beast"!  We've had this tree for 15 years.  We bought the first year we were in this house, and had no living room furniture.  We still don't really have living room furniture....and it's a good thing!  This tree takes up the whole room.  It is NOT pre-lit, and has to be put together branch by branch, by branch, by branch.  Did I mention branch by branch?  And then the lights go on.  It really is an almost 2 day process to get the darn thing up.  BUT, it's worth it.  At least in my opinion.  I love how big it is and it makes me so happy to see it in the living room and in the window when I drive up to the house! 

   

 

 


I have collected many ornaments throughout the years, and have made a ton too.  This year I added the white/red mesh ribbon that matches the ribbon on my garland.  I ditched the painted wood ornaments I made years ago, and added some silver/red ornaments I picked up at Target.  I have decorated mostly with Red/White/Silver this year. Lovin' it! 

I'm linking up with Sara at Thrifty Decor Chick and her Christmas Tree Party!  Go check out her beautiful tree, and all the others linked up!  Amazing!

 

Christmas Craft Link Party!

I'm linking up to the Christmas Craft Link Party that Kate @ Centsational Girl is hosting, and House of Hepworths This is super, super easy! 

 

I purchased two 8 x 10 canvases (sp?) from Walmart

 

Then used my Silhouette to cut out the numbers 2 and 5, and adhered them to the canvas

 

Then I just painted over the vinly with red paint.  Easy peasy!  After the paint dried, I peeled off the vinyl....and TA-DA!  Super quick and super easy!  Perfect idea for a quick craft!!

 

 

Now head on over to Centsational Girl and check out all the crafty goodness!

 
 

Madi's Christmas Tree

As I was cruising the Christmas aisles at Walmart last night (looking for more red/silver ornaments!), I came across this CA-UTE white tree!  And just one aisle over, I saw these funky blue/teal ornaments, which would match Madi's room perfectly!  And, since I hadn't seen much of my daughter the past few days (busy with cheer, school, sleepover) I was missing her and thought I should surprise her with a tree in room!  Here she is!  Cute, huh?

 

 

Enjoy your Saturday!  Madi and I are off to a Mother/Daughter Champagne/Tea today!  Should be FUN!

My Christmas Vignette

So......the problem with linking up to these "blog parties" (at least for me) is that I don't get home until after dark, and taking any kind of photo in my house after dark is just crazy.  So, I apologize ahead of time, these pictures are horrid.  BUT, I promised I would blog everyday, and I'm forcing myself to just join with the fun that goes on in blogland.  So, without futher ado.....here is MY Christmas Vignette.  I have a large wall shelf in the breakfast nook of my home.  I usually decorate it for every holdiay.  Here is my  shelf all dressed up for Christmas (sorry for the ugh photo!)

 

Just a hodge podge of misc. xmas stuff.  Tai Pan star, ceramic snowmen I painted with friends, various boutique finds.  After Christmas, this shelf is emptied of Santas, and will hold only snowmen (until Valentine decorations come out!)

 
Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality