DIY Holiday Tree

Creating a beautiful Christmas tree - that also has personal touches - can be especially time-consuming. But I recently discovered a site, TomKat Studio, that shows how to create the lovely tree below in a short amount of time. 

The Polyvore board above DIY Holiday Tree shows most of the details.

The site's creator Kim Stoegbauer crafted a beautiful handmade garland, 
with instructions at TomKat Studio.

 I love my children's preschool ornaments decorated with 

glitter and macaroni. In fact, I have a small tree covered 

with these keepsakes. It will always be my favorite tree!! 

But on our family's larger tree, personalized frames 

with more current pictures would look wonderful! 

Kim personalized her tree with beautiful handmade photo frames.

Easy instructions for this project can also be found at TomKat Studio.

For a little more twinkle, you can add fairy lights available at Amazon for $14. 

They are available here at: Amazon. 

And by adding some glitter ornaments and a few mercury glass balls, 

you'll have a personalized tree that takes little time or money. 

Then you can enjoy the holidays with your family and friends - 

without spending a lot of time and money on your Christmas tree!

Festive Hostess Gifts

Getting ready for an Open House? Holiday party? Or family celebration? Now's the time to start thinking of a creative gift for your host!

FESTIVE HOSTESS GIFTS 

All the gifts above can be found on Polyvore. 
(And there are links for each hostess present in the set above.)
Two of my favorites are the St. Nick Candy Bowl and the 
Snowman Goody Jar. Both are cheerful and fun --
the kind of gift that will bring smiles 
to your hostess and other guests!

St. Nick Candy Bowl
(Source: Dot & Bo)

Snowman Goody Jar 

(Source: Zeckos)

Throwing a party is a lot of work. But with a little planning you'll bring happiness to your host with a thoughtful and clever gift!