Every year, I take down Christmas and my home looks so un-inspiring and blah!  I miss the twinkle, the glow, the excitement!  The days are cold and dark, and it's so easy to get the winter blues.

This year, try to keep on top of those blues with a few easy DIY's to keep yourself, motivated, creative and inspired!

One of my favorite ways to decorate for winter is with big blankets and cozy pillows!  It invites warmth and cuddling!  Two of my favorite things.

This Chunky Blanket looks perfect!  It's a 45 minute arm knitted blanket!  What the What!??  Have you tried one of these!?  I think I need to this winter!


Blanket How To

And while you are de-cluttering and cleaning out your home and closets, save some of those winter sweaters to make some pillows.  I have done this before and I love them.


Sweater Pillow


One of the easiest and most effective ways to decorate for winter is with candles.  I love the glow of candles at night, after dinner, when we are all gathered in the living room, reading, watching T.V. or talking.  It just feels like family to me!







































Jar Candle

Another simple way to decorate for winter is to re-use some of your less "Christmas-ish" Christmas decorations.  I made these beautiful winter trees a few years ago, and I keep these out on my buffet long after I put my Christmas decorations away.


Cone Trees

Looking for something to do with the kids!?  I love these snowflakes made out of popsicle sticks.  Hang them on a bare wall and you have instant winter decor!


Snowflakes


We hope you liked these tips for winter decorating.  If you are still looking for some inspiration on freshening up your home for the the new year, check out our Instagram giveaway of a flower delivery.  Hurry!  Ends Monday January 11th.

We picked up these cute little burlap bags and black and white tags at Target - Dollar Spot.
We put a Chap Stick, Breath Mints, and a few Chocolate Kisses in each bag then wrote on the tag,
"Kiss Me At Midnight".  We had these little Kiss goodie bags for each of our guests.




We used a glass vase from the Dollar Store that we taped off and then spray painted Gold Stripes to hold the props for our Photo Booth.  An inexpensive way to make an elegant statement, don't you agree?  The Cute little Chalk Board Easel we picked up at Target - Dollar Spot, Score!

Photo Booth Props of Fun    A Photo Booth is easy to set up and guests of all ages have fun with it.  Just make sure to have lots of fun props to choose from.  We picked up a pack at Walmart that had a bunch of props in it for around $4.00 bucks. Most of all cut loose and be Silly! Beverage Bar    We covered our Sparkling Cider bottles with some gold glitter paper for a touch of sparkle.  (on a side note we covered our table with left over wrapping paper from Christmas) We picked up the paper straws with Tags at Target - Dollar Spot, and we put them into a mug that we picked up on clearance at Target.   We served Sparkling Cider and Sprite with garnishments to add to the glass like; frozen cranberries, lemon and lime wedges, assorted frozen berries and frozen peaches and mangos.   We also had some Cranberry juice to make "Mocktails" we mix 2/3 Cider or Sprite to 1/3 Cranberry Juice over ice or and add a wedge of Lime.  So Yummy!   Paper Fortune Cookies   We used the tutorial in the link above to make our Paper Fortune Cookies.  But instead of already having the fortunes in the cookies, we used it as a fun game.  We had slips of paper already cut and we gave one to each guest as they arrived and asked them to right a prediction for 2016 then place it in a cookie.  Later in the evening we read them out loud as guest tried to guest who wrote the prediction. (the link has printables for fortunes if you want to use those)    

I love a good tablescape!  (is this a word?)

I so wish I could have my table set at all times, but that just isn't practical for my family seeing as how my dining table is also used for an art desk, a puzzle table, a homework station and to occasionally eat from!  In an ideal world, it would always look perfect and set and ready to sit and eat at!

I think that is why I am so in love with Sunday dinners and special occasions.  Because I actually set the table and make an effort to make it a gathering to celebrate.  Setting the table doesn't have to be expensive or stressful.  For these four ideas, I just went through my craft stash and found things that I loved.



For the first one I used ribbon from the Dollar Tree, and a pine cone from my back yard.  Super easy, but it fancies up the table a bit, and announces that its a special dinner.






This second one is so farm chic!  I used gold Washi Tape from my stash and attached notebook paper to the plate with "I'm grateful for....." for your guests to ponder while waiting for dinner.  I tied a napkin with ribbon and florals from my craft stash.  You could use any floral stem here.




This third one is again, ribbon and a min frame from the Dollar Spot.  I had this hounds tooth fabric and the burlap in my craft stash.  Then I just decorated with white pumpkins I bought at Target.




For this last one, I just used different plates that I have, showing that you can mix and match any dishware that you may have.  It doesn't have to all match, or be fancy.  I painted a pumpkin from the Dollar Tree gold, and then used fabric from my fabric stash.


I hope these ideas gave you some inspiration to look through your stuff, make a trip to the Dollar Tree and make your family dinners something to celebrate!

Planning a Halloween Party!

HGTV 41 Printable Templates





Make an Adorable Bat & Pumpkin Centerpiece like this one from Ella Claire.  Which is Simply Spooktacular!

Bat Printable - HGTV

Or how about adding a few Creepy Mice to your décor.  Like these from Martha Stewart!

Creepy Mice - Printable - Martha Stewart

How about making a B-E-W-A-R-E Banner at your front door

Beware Banner - Printable - HGTV

Here are links for some more Halloween Printable Templates
Raven
Black Cat



Check out our Fall issue and past posts, for more Fall / Halloween inspiration!

lovefabdecor
ellaclaireblog

I bought some fun summer 12x12 scrapbook papers and a package of colorful brads from the craft store, and that's al you need.  We cut each scrapbook paper into 4th's, so then we had 6x6 paper to work with. 

I found this pattern from http://www.auntannie.com/FridayFun/Pinwheel/  to make the pinwheels.





Then we just hot glued them to the foam form and VOILLA!!!  You have an adorable summer wreath. 

Have you tried making pinwheels yet?  What wreath do you like to use for the month of June?