7 Quick and Easy Ways to Create a Welcoming Holiday Home~

Image from Pottery Barn

The holidays are filled with family, friend and fun! And of course, we want our homes to create a feeling of welcome for our holiday visitors.

Here are seven sure-fire ways to create a welcoming holiday home...

1. Focus on First Impressions

Spend time fixing up what guests will see first: your doorway and it's surrounding area. Spruce it up by sweeping, cleaning cobwebs or debris from around the doorbell and in the corners. Shake off the doormat. Remove everyday clutter such as mail, toys and shoes by stashing them in a basket in the closet. Make sure your porch lights are working well.

2. Quickie Decorate

Resurrect a planter or two from the summer garden and fill it with evergreen clippings, greenery or ornaments that will survive outdoors. Add a festive wreath or a garland with twinkle lights.

3. Create Guest Space

Create extra space in your coat closet for your guest's outdoor wear. Temporarily move the bulk of your family's gear to a back bedroom. Add an extra doormat near the closet for wet or icy shoes. Consider bringing in an umbrella stand if it is rainy or snowy out - or just line a wastebasket with a plastic bag.

4. Gather 'round

Make conversation easy by arranging chairs in your living room so friends and family can talk instead of facing the TV. (Chairs are easy to rearrange if "It's A Wonderful Life" or other holiday classics are on!)

5. Be Superficial

Skip the heavy bathroom cleanup and focus on those things visitors will notice. Hurry and clean the toilet bowl. Set out fresh hand soaps and clean, festive guest towels. Wipe down the counter and sink. Easy-peasy!

6. Cool Off the House

If you are expecting a houseful of guests, turn down the thermostat a couple of degrees about two hours before they arrive.

7. Light Up - Safely

Candles are a wonderful way to add ambience, but if you have them in areas other than the dinner table - like on the mantel or in the bathroom - they will need careful monitoring. A great alternative is flameless votive candles. These create the ambience without the fear..(especially if, like me, you have curious little ones around!)

So go get those houses ready for your holiday entertaining! But, most of all, ENJOY!!

Ideas adapted from Better Homes and Gardens November 2007

Coming up this week on the Shabby Nest...

• Pretty Homemade Christmas Stockings
• A Great Giveaway

Have a good day~

This I love: Inspiring others~

A few weeks ago, I did a post about Restoration Hardware and their fabulous line of "green" furniture.

Photo from Restoration Hardware

Well, this last week, I received an email from one of my readers, Ana of Knock Off Wood. The subject line read "Look how you inspired me! Many thanks!". One of my favorite things about writing my blog, is sharing inspiration with others, so I hurried to see what Ana wrote. Here's what she had to say...

Thank you for your post back in November on the Restoration Hardware Catalog. I loved the post so much that I went out and found some scrap boards in my yard and bought $9.98 in screws and built a Farmhouse Table, very similar to Restoration Hardware's table, retailing for $2750. Thank you so much! You are greatly appreciated!

You know me and frugal decorating - after an email like that, I HAD to see that table, and fast! When I took a look at Ana's photos, I was amazed!

This is the table that inspired Ana...

Photo from Restoration Hardware


And this is the table that Ana made. This gorgeous table for $9.98!! And she even did a post that included the plans so that you can make one yourself !! I dragged the hubby over to the computer to take a look, and made him PROMISE on the spot, that once we are relocated, he will make me one of these babies. $9.98...sigh...perfection.

Photos from Knock Off Wood

Thanks for your email Ana!! So glad I inspired you...and so glad you paid it forward with this amazing tutorial!

Isn't blogland wonderful??

Have a great day~

Somethin's gotta give~

I'd like to be outside enjoying the first real snowfall of the season...

Or taking a winter carriage ride....

Or actually getting my Christmas shopping finished....

But, instead, I'm up to my ears in these....


And because my list of to-dos is miles and miles long, I have to be realistic. I just can't do everything. So I'll be shutting down my Etsy store until mid-January. Hopefully by doing so, what's left of my sanity will be preserved. Just kidding...kind of. ;-)

Have a lovely Sunday~

Frugal Friday: How to decorate a Christmas Tree for under $5

Hello all my lovely readers!! Happy Friday!!


Let me start today's post by explaining a little bit about this year's Christmas at The Shabby Nest. As you may know, we are moving. Well, here's the kicker...we're moving out BEFORE Christmas. Yes. BEFORE Christmas. (note to self....never move at Christmas time again.) We will be spending the actual holiday with my in-laws which will be absolutely lovely, but in the meantime things are a bit, shall we say, chaotic. Still, I couldn't let a house with four kiddos go without a Christmas tree now could I?


So this past Tuesday, we made our annual trek with the Hubby's family to a Christmas tree farm about an hour away (the same place his family has been going for the last 37 years) to get our tree. I told the Hubby that since we are moving, I was not pulling out the regular Christmas decor, and I wanted a small tree. We found the perfect little tree.


Once we got it home and put the lights on it, I explained to the kiddos that we were going to do something a little different this year. They were fine with that as long as there were still Christmas lights involved...because to them, that's all that really mattered.


Inspired by these two trees in the PB catalog (yes, there's that old PB catalog again)...





we created this sweet little tree. I'm calling it our Family Tree...

I printed out a bunch of black and white family photos (wallet sized) and simply punched holes in them and added twine to hang.

This is my favorite engagement photo outtake of me and the Hubby- notice "the Rachel" hairdo...circa 1995

That was the end of day one (and the tree was not done). The next day, the Toddler Demolition Team and I made a trip to Walm*rt and purchased a package of stencils. The kids thought I was a little nuts, but they humored me. I punched holes in the cards and added twine as well.

We used some snowflake ornaments purchased last year at the dollar store (I tried to avoid getting them out, but the kids spotted them in the box when I was getting out the lights, and hey, it's Christmas, and they're kids.)

Instead of a tree skirt, I just wrapped the base in some pretty black and white damask fabric that I had in my stash. It lends itself well to the color scheme and adds a bit of elegance as well.

Finally, to top it off, Mr. Two fell in love with this funny star (also at Walm*rt for $1) and had to have it for the tree. I wasn't too jazzed about it, but I bought it anyway. Then I hit upon the idea of combining the book wreath project with the star to make something fitting for our Family Tree. I just rolled up pages from an old book and hot glued them to the back of the star. I. LOVE. IT. Mr. Two couldn't figure out why I would glue "sticks" on the star, but when I told him that the "sticks" made the star extra special, he went along with it. :-)

It must be noted too that aside from putting on the lights, and the star, I let the kiddos decorate the tree by themselves (and I only moved a couple of things afterwards...I couldn't help myself...it's an illness, really.)

So here's the $$ rundown...

Lights............ free (already in our Christmas stash)

Tree skirt....... free (from my fabric stash)

Photos........... free (printed right off the computer)

Twine............. $1 (dollar spot at Tar-jay)

Stencils.......... $1.49 (Wally-world)

Star................ $1 (Also at Wally-world)

Snowflakes..... free (in our Christmas stash - but purchased at the dollar store initially)

Grand total....$3.49

There's some frugal decorating going on here, oh yeah! And you know, I think this may just be one of my favorite trees yet. Everyday I get to look at the faces of those I adore smiling back at me from a tree that celebrates the most wonderful season of the year. Isn't that what it's all about?

Have a great weekend~

A Well-Read Christmas Wreath~

When I saw this page in the Pottery Barn catalog, my heart skipped a beat. Yes, the bedding is lovely, and the windows are pretty, but it was those wreaths that I fell in love with. Amazing!! So, of course, I decided I had to make me one of those "bookish" wreaths.

They were so easy to make too...

I started by getting me a piece of heavy cardstock (in retrospect, I would actually recommend using heavy CARDBOARD for this project) and drew my wreath base using a plate and a glass for the pattern.

Then I simply cut it out.

I pulled out my trusty glue gun "Old Blue" and went to work.

After dismantling a book that I never read (and never intended to read) I rolled the pages into tight cones, and secured each one with a dot of hot glue, then I started gluing them to the base in a starburst pattern.

From there I kept gluing until the wreath was nice and full. I loved the shape, but the pages were too new looking. So I watered down some Raw Umber acrylic paint (when I say watered it down...I mean it was mostly water with a little paint in there) and brushed it over all the pages to create an aged look.

Then I added some pretty ribbon and hung it in my dining room window. I thought it looked beautiful...

...until I saw the sun shine through it. Oh. my goodness. It's stunning! And free! (Well, except for the ribbon, but I was buying that for Christmas gifts anyway, and it was 50% off at Michael's so that's almost as good as free, right? RIGHT?)

Want to see another PB knock-off book wreath? Brenda at Dragonflys and Stars shared her version during the last Frugal Friday Linky Party here at the Shabby Nest!

Have a great day~