Merry Christmas!

Merry

Christmas

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our home

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yours!

~Thanks for stopping by!~

~Angie~

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Santa came early!!

I got my new toy from Santa yesterday!  And I have been playing with it ever since! 

Yep I was a good girl and got a camera!  What are you getting for Christmas?

Bonus -- a few pics of the kid trees at my house.  I left them out inadvertantly last week during my home tour...

~Thanks for stopping by!~
~Angie~

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"Gingerbread" Houses the EASY way!

I posted about our gingerbread houses last year.  But we repeated the annual tradition and I thought I would share it again.  Absolutely the easiest way to make a "gingerbread" house.  Full instructions can be found here.  The basics are -- use melted sugar to glue together graham crackers in whatever shape your kids can imagine.  Then let them go wild with icing and candy til your kitchen is a mess!  But it is tons of fun and will soon become an annual tradition for you as well.  Don't worry there is still time!  We made ours in a few hours...

Ice cream cones covered in green icing become trees...my "icing" is just powdered sugar mixed with water.  I don't get fancy.

Every house gets a powdered sugar snow before being put out on display.

This year there were some fairly elaborate designs...plus lots of laughs...

Yep I even made a few myself...

So break out the graham crackers and whatever you can find in the cabinets!  Spend an hour or two making a mess with the kids!  It is what the holidays are for!

 Posted at Get Your Craft On on Today's Creative Blog.

Posted at Take a Look Tuesday on Sugar Bee Craft Edition.

Posted at Tip Me Tuesday on Tip Junkie.

Posted at Tutorials and Tips on The Stories of A to Z.
~Thanks for stopping by!~
~Angie~
The Country Chic Cottage  

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State Love Ornaments

Originally posted on The Scrap Shoppe -- but I wanted to share the tutorial with y'all in case you missed it.  These have been very popular and I have made lots for gifts.  They are one of my favorite ornaments too...

You will need some wood united states cutouts.  I got mine on etsy.  In writing this post, I found out that she does not have anymore of these.  I have scoured the internet for a source but have not found one.  There are sources that cut custom shapes from wood that you could use.  If anyone finds these exact cutouts please let me know.  Otherwise you handy women with a jigsaw will have to make your own.

I didn't even break out the drill.  I just used a small screw driver to put a hole in my cutout.

 

Paint with as many coats of white as it takes.  I used my fave Decoart Designer series paint.

Print out a map of the US with the state outlines that is about the same size as your wood piece...

Lay the paper on top of your wood and trace around with a ball point pen.  The pen will make a slight indention in the wood.  Then you just fill the indention with your gray paint.

I then just added a heart in the approximate location of the city.

Add a ribbon to hang and you are done.  These are easy and oh so personal!  A great addition to any Christmas tree.

Posted on Met Monday on Between Naps on the Porch.

Posted at Just Something I Whipped up on The Girl Creative.
Posted at the Sunday Showcase on Under the Table and Dreaming.
Linking up to the Holiday Party on Centsational Girl.
Linking up to the Pinterest Party on The DIY Show off.

~Thanks for stopping by!~
~Angie~
The Country Chic Cottage

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My Christmas Mantle (mantel) plus a craft contest!

I am participating in a mantle hop with some of my Tennessee besties tonight!  

 Read on to see more about my mantle decor and to hop around to all of the other blogs.  Also I have a craft contest for ya that is super easy to enter and worth up to $300 for the winner!  More details at the end of this post.
Onto the mantle....during my Christmas home tour yesterday I promised y'all all the details and I never break a promise.

I went with a collection of different Christmas trees on my "mantle" shelf.  If you are new here, I pretend to have a mantle but all I have is a huge shelf in my living room.  :)  On the left is my sheet music tree and my faux nailhead tree...

Plenty of pine cones and my doily tree....

And of course bottle brush trees in mason jars...love...

I also filled my Ikea lantern with bottle brush trees.  Can y'all tell I got a great deal on these at the end of Christmas last year?

One of my milk glass trees is also on the mantle.  Plus a toy truck carrying a tree!

On the other side, my sheet music tree stands proud!

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of my mantle!  Before you run off...
Pennysaver and Mogasa.net have a great Craftmas contest going on!  You can enter your Christmas crafts for a chance at up to $300.  I entered mine!  Just submit a photo of a craft you have made by 12/29/11 to enter.  

Click here to read all the rules and to submit your craft. 
Now are y'all ready to hop??  The bloggers participating this time around are:

Myself

Michelle from The Scrap Shoppe

Jessica from Sunny Tuesday

Deneen from Dreaming in Color

Hop along for some Tennessee mantle inspiration!
 ~Thanks for stopping by!~
~Angie~

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Christmas Home Tour 2011

Welcome to my Christmas home tour 2011!  My goal this year was to add a touch of rustic to my home decor.  Enjoy!
This happens to be one of my favorite arrangements so I am going to put this picture up top.  It is just some cedar clippings in a glass pitcher with some of my paper feathers and a burlap mason jar ornament.  

We will start the tour where you should start a tour -- the front door.  You can find all the details on my front door decor here. 

In my foyer, you will find a vintage sewing machine and a small coffee table all decked out with Christmas decor.  That is where my Christmas card ladder display is too.

The top of the vintage sewing machine got a runner out of vintage quilt squares....

Milk glass, silver, and another paper feather....

We always hang our stockings from the stair railing.  The railing itself is decked out in faux greenery and some burlap chair webbing...

The coffee table has a pair of my burlap covered poinsettias....

Vintage ornaments were added to a large mason jar.  The glass jug got a piece of sheet music with a Christmas song and some epsom salts in the bottom.  The birds that are scattered around all came from the dollar tree.  One of my milk glass trees ended up on this table....

More bottle brush trees added to my kid's toys!  More info on that can be found here.

  I have been dreaming of vintage bulbs piled in a ball jar since last year at this time.  It took me an entire year of thrift store stalking but I did it! 

 

 Pine cones added to chippy terra cotta pots look perfect in a rustic setting.  Oh yes more paper feathers and vintage ornaments!

 

Every year I find a special place for "our first year" ornament....

My special vintage wood wagon got decked out in cedar and pine cones...

With just a few paper feathers...

It is tree time!  The tree is also in our foyer.  Hubby and little man went to the woods and brought us home a perfect little cedar tree.  It is all decked out in red and silver with a few other special ornaments.  And yep that is hubby's little red car from when he was a little boy.  You will have to imagine it stacked with presents because I have not wrapped a thing yet!  I neglected to take pics of the kid trees!  Whoops!  I might do that as a post for another day! :)  We have two other trees upstairs. 

 I used plain red burlap as a tree skirt.  We added little man's train too...

 

Lovely paper ornaments that a great friend made for me this year!  I think these are so unique and so me!  I just had to show them off....

Bowls filled with ornaments in the living room.  So simple yet so pretty...

The kitchen counter got a Christmas touch as well...

Plus a white vintage bowl filled with Christmas goodies...

More ornaments to spread cheer on the kitchen table....

I even added a few Christmas touches to the top of my barnwood hutch...

Just ribbon and a few scattered ornaments...

I will leave you with one picture of my mantle shelf in the living room.  I will give you all the details on it tomorrow night!  Y'all stay tuned!

I hope you enjoyed a tour through our home for the holidays!

 Posted at Transformation Thursday on The Shabby Chic Cottage.

Posted at Show off your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans.

Posted at the under $100 party on Beyond the Picket Fence.

Posted at the Open House Party on No Minimalist Here.
Posted at SNS on Funky Junk Interiors.
Posted at the Weekend Wrapup on Tatertots and Jello.
Posted at Sunday Showcase on Under the Table and Dreaming.
Posted at the Christmas Party on The Nester.
~Thanks for stopping by!~

~Angie~
The Country Chic Cottage

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