My Favorite Stores All in One Place

Last week my hubby and I went shopping at what has got to be the best mall ever!  Well at least the best in California...  We were at the South Coast Plaza Mall, in Costa Mesa (which is in Orange County).  Although I can't afford all of the stores in this mall, it has pretty much all of my favorite home decor and furnishing stores all in one location.  Spending a day browsing all of these stores is so much fun and it gives me so much inspiration!  I snapped a bunch of photos to share some of the inspirations with you :)  

The Pottery Barn

Restoration Hardware

 Crate and Barrel

West Elm

Z Gallerie 

And also Anthropologie (which I did not get a picture of).  I could seriously spend hours browsing these stores!  In fact I pretty much did.  My husband was so wonderful!  He patiently sat in each store and waited for me while I browsed, dreamed and took lots of photos.  Luckily he has a smart phone so it gave him something to do :)

See the guy in the chair (below) on his phone.  That is my amazing husband Jim.  He let me spend as much or as little time in each store as I wanted.  And he never complained, not even once.  Whenever I found something I wanted to show him, he would come over and look at it (pretty much to humor me)... Then he would go back to whatever chair he found towards the front of each store.  It was pretty darn cute!  Most women were shocked that a husband would be so patient while his wife spent hours browsing.  I think I am pretty lucky! Don't you?

Pottery Barn had many adorable Christmas pillows and accessories!

Also, some super cute present wrapping ideas.  I loved the red and green plaid all over the store!

Restoration Hardware has a rustic charm to everything they do!  Everywhere I turned I would say "oooh, I like that... or I want that".  Of course I was totally dreaming, but how much fun would it be to go into a store like that and say, "I'll have one of those, one of those and how about one of those"?

Instead I just imagine how I can make something inspired by them.

West Elm had many pieces made from reclaimed wood that gave the feeling of being warm and cozy.

Although Z Gallerie carries both furniture and accessories.  I love them for their accessories.  They carry so much variety and I like how they display them on color coordinated walls.  It makes it easy for everyone to select things that go well together!

I always love the aqua and turquoise stuff!  It's still my favorite color...

There was so much to see.  I probably saw at least a dozen items that I wished I could buy.  However, they weren't in my budget.  I was however able to get a little something on our outing.  I found a few pillow covers that I absolutely love (on sale, of course) at Pottery Barn for our family room.  They look beautiful on our couch!

As we walked though the mall I had so many special memories flood back of when my girls were young and we would go to this mall to ride the carousel.  Having moved away from the area over 10 years ago, and being that my girls are now adults, it was wonderful to experience those happy memories again.  I was thrilled to see the same carousel is still a part of the mall and many little one's were enjoying it!

Until next time...
Blessings,

Diana

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with Strings

I finally got our Christmas presents wrapped.  Every year I seem to forget how long it actually takes.  I've been working on them off and on for several days.  But I am so happy with the outcome, so it is worth it!  

This year I decided to match the wrap colors to the tree decorations and I went with a theme.  My theme is "Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with Strings".  I've never wrapped with brown paper (craft/packing paper) before.  I think in the old days people actually used their brown paper grocery bags.  Myself, I bought a couple of rolls of brown craft paper in the office supply aisle, by the packing/shipping materials at Walmart.  I also purchased a bunch of inexpensive glitter ornaments there.  The variety of ribbons and strings I found a few days ago at Michael's (on sale of course).  The ribbon was 70% off, which I thought was a great deal, considering it was a week before Christmas!  I even stocked up with additional ribbons in different styles for next year.

See how the ribbons and ornaments match the tree decor... and the brown paper looks awesome with the burlap!  It looks so cute that I don't want to let anyone open their presents until the end of Christmas day (lol).  But I suppose I will :)

I love how the glitter ornaments sparkle when the light reflects off of them (which is constant, since the Christmas tree lights are always on).  It looks like there are little diamonds all around the bottom of the tree.  

Can you believe all of the ornaments were only .97 cents each (or less).  And they are each good size running from about 5" to 8".

I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.  I hope your holiday is filled with many blessings!

Diana

Christmas Gift Wrapping with Monogram Tags

Today I am trying to decide how I want to wrap this years Christmas presents.  I often try to come up with a theme or color coordinated wrapping scheme.  It might seem a little OCD, but I'm really not OCD, I promise :)  I just really  like the look of it.  Last year I wrapped with a simple silver, metallic and white paper and then made custom monogram glitter tags with my Cricut electronic cutting machine.  Then I used vintage sparkling blingy hat pins to hold the tags to the ribbons.  Below are a few pictures of last years pins, gift tags and finished wrapped presents.

I found these vintage hat pins at a collectible/antique store for a few dollars each.  I was drawn to each of them because of their beautiful rhinestones which add lots of bling to the gifts!

I used a couple of sheets of Glitter Scrapbook Cardstock Paper and cut them with my Cricut to make these cute tags and letter cutouts...  

Helpful hint: If you've never used a Cricut or other electronic cutter, they are super easy to use and they make crafting so much fun!  I am very lucky to have my own.  However, if you don't have one, some craft and scrapbook stores do have machines that they will allow you to use and they charge you just a couple of dollars to use them.

I will start wrapping this years presents tomorrow.  I have come up with a super cute theme and I have most of my supplies already.  I am going to try to match the look of the presents to this years Christmas tree, red, a turquoise aqua color and natural burlap (tan).  

The title of this years gift wrap theme will be "Brown Paper Packages Tied up with Strings"...  I will share them with you when I am finished.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season!

Blessings,
Diana

My DIY Christmas Ornament Chandelier

Today I made this Christmas Ornament chandelier.  We found this branch last year in the mountains and my husband sanded all of the bark off of it.  He kept calling it his walking stick (not that he needs one).  I knew eventually I would find a use for it!  Last night I  had my hubby put two hooks in the ceiling so I could put up this cutie.

I started my project with the branch, ceiling hooks
ceiling hooks, fishing line (since it is clear and strong) to hang everything with, and some pretty ornaments (two of which hold votive candles).

I hung the branch about two feet below the 9' ceiling.  I used fishing line so it looks like it is floating in the air.

Then I started hanging the ornaments at random heights across the branch.  Only two of the ornaments hold a candle and I wanted to figure a way to have more candle light on the piece.

I decided to add a few hanging mason jars with votive candles in them.  These are actually battery operated votive candles  and jars I had used this past summer for our "glamping" camping trip.  If you are interested you can see that post - HERE.  

The snowflake ornaments and candle holders are all beaded with crystal beads which give them lots of sparkle and bling!

This finished candle ornament chandelier is so sparkly and pretty!  I love it :)  

Until next time...
Happy decorating!

Diana

Sharing this post at the Power of Pinterest Party at - Fox Hollow Cottage

DIY Boxwood Christmas Greenery Wreath

The other day while my husband Jim was putting up the exterior Christmas lights I started looking around outside and noticed that the boxwood plants growing around our house look a little bit like mistletoe.  I started wondering what I could make with them.  Side note: my brain never stops thinking of what I can make or decorate next.  Sometimes it gets me into trouble because I have way too many projects going on!  But this time, I decided to just go with it and do a little DIY project at the same time that I was keeping him company.  I got out my clippers and started cutting off the longer branches/stems from a few of the plants.  

Luckily my hubby doesn't even question what I am doing anymore.  I think he is used to me being in "project" mode at all times.  I was thinking I might be able to make a wreath with them.  After clipping a few handfuls, I put them on the porch and started arranging them, laying them into a circle.

I had some craft wire left over from a prior project that I used to wire the branches together. 

I cut several 5" pieces of wire and used it like twist ties.  

After wiring a few feet together, I realized that it was pretty flimsy and it wasn't going to hold a circle shape.  This project could have been an epic failure at this point (or maybe a garland)... but luckily I remembered I had a wire wreath frame in my craft room.  By now my husband was done with the Christmas lights and it was getting a bit cold outside, so I brought my project inside.  I cut some more wire pieces and wired the entire thing to the wreath (overlapping at the top so it would fit the circle).

My wreath didn't come out perfect, and if I had to do it again I probably would just wire the clippings directly to the wreath frame...  But overall I'm pretty happy with how it came out.  I love having a variety of greenery around the house at Christmastime! 

As for the Christmas lights...  I didn't get a great picture, but I thought I'd share them with you anyways :)  Here is a little collage of them that I did on Instagram.  

Until next time,
Happy decorating!

Diana