Friday, November 30, 2012

Christmas ornaments for the B Farm Tree

I went to the farm this week so the chimney could be cleaned...guess the previous owners weren't careful what they were burning. But now it's all clean and we can build a fire in it. Hurray! Looking forward to a cozy, fire burning in the fireplace, hot chocolate kind of night. ( closes eyes and dreams of cold weather- oh yes, please!)

Of course I took full advantage of my time there to decorate the farmhouse for Christmas.  I had stuff everywhere while I worked. I put out the Christmas candles, decorated the mantel and entry table, and of course, the tree.

In a previous post, I shared my twig stars and acorn bells. You can see that here: Theme For The Farmhouse Tree. Here's how they look in the tree:




I also took some pinecones and either added glitter or "snow" to them.


The red felt reindeer came from Wal-Mart and I added a few ornaments I already had that were nature inspired like the olivewood nativity.

I have also been saving can lids to make ornaments. To make, I spray-painted them Hammered Red, punched a hole in them, added a twine or ribbon hanger, then added different sayings and designs using a silver Sharpie paint pen:









I had several of these in different sizes. The red looks great with all the natural elements like the pinecones and acorn bells.

Then I made the cutest felt owls:
3 of my felt owls


I had bought a kit from Michael's but the owl in it was bright blue - not the color I wanted for this tree. So using the kit owl for a template, I cut these out of brown, grey and white felt and hand-sewed them together. I added a plaid bow or scarf to dress them up. They were very easy to do.






I think they turned out oh so cute and they add a sweet touch to my tree.!

The lights are the most expensive thing on the tree - I bought the warm white LED lights - I like how they look and the warm glow they give off!

I am very pleased with my natural and rustic theme. Best of all, I didn't have to spend a great deal of money and got to reuse things that would otherwise have been trash!

I hope you'll join me over the next few weeks when I'll share the other decorated areas in the farmhouse and my favorite Christmas cookie recipes.

I hope you are having a wonderful week filled with Christmas cheer!

Joy From the "B" Farm,
Cecilia

Linking to these great parties:
Life on Lakeshore Drive Christmas Blog Hop & DIY Christmas Ornaments
DIY Showoff: DIY-Holiday-Highlights-3
Savvy Southern Style wow-us-wednesdays-94
The Dedicated House Make-it-pretty-monday-week-26
Family Home and Life wow-us-wednesday

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Christmas decorating humor

The city house has been decorated for Christmas! Yesterday, we worked on the yard...

Mr. B put up lights on the house, pulled out the sleigh and wire reindeer, and set them up. I went out to check on him and this is what I found:



All the deer piled in the sleigh and Santa pulling it. Ha, I can't leave him alone for a minute - so I did what any sane DIYer would do - I made a sign and stuck it in front of the sleigh:



Poor Santa. His reindeer have rebelled and are throwing ornaments out the sleigh and now he's having to pull them. Maybe they don't like the warm weather we've been having or they're just tired of working or maybe it's a new reindeer game. Whatever it is, Santa has his work cut out for him. It looks like they're not going to behave.

I love my husband's sense of humor. It has kept me laughing through the years.

I'm going to the farm this week and will decorate while I'm there. Maybe I'll throw in some humor somewhere. Maybe.

So I want to know: Do you have a Christmas funny?

Have a blessed week,
Cecilia

Linking with these great parties: Life On Lakeshore Drive Bouquet of Talent #12



Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just want to take this time to say "Happy Thanksgiving" to all my blogger friends and readers. I hope you have special time spent with family and friends, lots to eat, and much to be thankful for.



With joy and thanksgiving,
Cecilia

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Theme for the farmhouse tree

I've decided on a theme for the farmhouse Christmas tree....

It was an easy decision, really. I've always wanted a tree with white lights (my kids always voted for the multi-colored lights and although I like that look there's just something serene about white lights) and I like the rustic/ woods/ natural look so it was really a no brainer -

I decided on a tree with all white lights and a rustic/ woodland theme. After all, we are in a beautiful woody setting.

Some of our wooded acres

heading out the drive

Whew, now that that decision is out of the way, I started brainstorming on what natural elements to hang on the tree - like acorns, pinecones, sticks, and also stuff made from burlap, felt, etc. Oh, the creative juices have started flowing!

some of my materials

I started with an acorn jingle bell - we have lots of acorns. I decided to just use the caps. I picked up lots of them, brought them inside, and then glued them onto silver jingle bells. Next I added a jute hanger on top. Cute, if I may so say so myself. :o)



Another idea was to make wood stars out of small tree branches...I don't know if I'll make very many of those unless I figure out an easier way to put them together. We'll see; I like them but I'm still working out the logistics.




And since pinecones are easy to come by at the farm, I'm thinking of adding glitter/fake snow to those for some holiday sparkle.

Pinecones on the tree


I also plan on making felt owls, red birds, and doves. And burlap will definitely make an appearance somehow - monogrammed hearts or as a garland or some other rustic motif.

Then there's the can lids I've been saving...I might spray paint them or maybe put a burlap circle inside or maybe both? And perhaps little birdhouses (another use for sticks!). And so on...oh the possibilities are endless!
Can lids and acorn bells


I'm going to keep the color scheme pretty simple - whites/silver, browns, grey, and red. And lots of texture. Can't wait to get it done and decorated...But I'm sticking to my rule of not putting up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I can work on making the decoratons until then. That should satisfy me for now. haha!

Do you have a  theme for your tree? What made you decide on that one? I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for visiting,
Cecilia

Linking up with these great parties:
Simply {You} with Simply {Kierste}
SavvySouthernStyle wow-us-wednesdays-92

I just realized I'd pinned a post from Dishfunctional Designs on acorn jingle bells. I want her to get the credit for these. Here's the link: http://dishfunctionaldesigns.blogspot.com/2012/09/acorn-crafts-home-decor.html. Sorry for the oversight!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

A visit with friends

This past weekend we invited some of our good friends to the farm. They've all been asking when they got to see it. Now seemed like a good time...it is cooler, the scorpions are under control (or at least not liking the cooler weather ), the trees changing color , and the house is finally fit for company.

We had a blast. We met in town and drove south about 5 miles to Baby J's Barbeque. Yum, they have some of the best barbeque and fried catfish around. They just recently painted and spruced up the place. It is just so homey! Really, really nice folks.


Of course, we had to go shop in downtown Palestine. We enjoyed browsing through the antique stores and other shops. Found a pie place in Old Town- Oxbow Bakery and Antiques. And yes! they had my favorite - coconut cream pie. I was ecstatic - it was soooo good!

view of downtown


Coconut Cream Pie

Oxbow Bakery and Antiques 
After we were stuffed, we headed out to the farm where we proudly showed off our place to our friends. They loved it! We stayed up late playing "Apples to Apples". We concluded our visit Sunday with a wonderful church service and then went to lunch at the Dogwood Diner. Again, yum. Good hamburgers, good breakfast foods, good diner food!


I'm so grateful for close friends and the good times we can share. Hope you all have a wonderful week and lots of good times shared with friends.
-Cecilia

*These photos are not mine as I forgot to take pictures. Sigh. I always seem to do that. I got these off the internet.


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