Finally decorating for Christmas

Thanksgiving is over so now everyone's focus is on Christmas.  Not letting sad thoughts of a lonely Christmas away from Atlanta, Will's family, tradition and merriment creep in; I'm focusing on decorating our little home which, as previously mentioned, I've never done before and bring some festive cheer our way.

My Christmas vision consists of tartan, burlap, mercury gold & silver accents, live fir smelling up the house, personalized stockings for each of us, deer and stags - which I've come to adore since moving here and seeing white-tailed deer all around our street and neighbourhood. Yesterday was Black Friday so I figured taking advantage of the sales was the perfect place to start on my vision. While everyone else seemed to be running around like chickens with no heads, looking for random deals on anything and everything, I set out with list securely in hand and braved the crowds starting with the craft stores to find the first item on my list, a wreath:

A wreath is my favourite decoration for sure.  I'm beyond excited to finally hang one but never realized how expensive they are, so keeping all other decorating plans in the back of my mind, I set myself a $50 budget to find one yesterday. I quickly got overwhelmed at all the options and decided to get creative, buying a very simple green pine wreath with nothing but a gold berry accent on it.  It cost me $14 and I happily walked toward the cash register grabbing a tartan ribbon for $3 and a packet of plastic baubles for $6 on the way.  This made my wreath cost $23 all together and took no time this morning to afix the ribbon and baubles with green wire that I already had.  All that was left to do was step back and admire my handy work.

After the craft store I proceeded to several department stores, determined to find matching stockings for the four of us, but was not so lucky.  (I did get a gorgeous head band from Macy's but otherwise, I stayed on track and was so, so good! :)  Anyone who knows me knows there was no way I was missing a sale at anthropologie so that's where I headed next. Although I didn't like their stocking selections this year, I did get these mercury glass initials for when I eventually do find our stockings (Baxter's initial is in the mail since they ran out in store).

Then on our way home and completely by accident, Will and I ducked into Wallgreens where lo and behold, we found our perfect balcony decorations! We instantly liked these over sized ornaments because although they have the expensive appearance of mercury glass, they're actually made from shatterproof plastic and only cost $3.99 each!

For now I'm done with the front.  Next week I plan to move it inside where I want to decorate the mantel and fireplace. Stay tuned!