Little House at Christmas //

Another chapter in the "Have your dream-house for your first house" story. Though by the world's standards I am far from poor, I certainly have no income to spend on Christmas decorations. So how did the Little House get prettied up for free? I'll tell you!

This wreath I constructed from a garland that my Aunt gave me. I have a ribbon jar in my house and pulled this thick, white one out and tried several different ways of tying it before I settled on the two bows.

This bowl of holly is what remains of the garland I constructed the wreath from.

I knew that I wanted to hang a garland over this doorway. That was the one thing I was set on when I set out to decorate. My Aunt was so kind to give me her extra ones!

As you will see when I do a post about all the little details in the kitchen, I have collected a lot of glassware in the past year and a half. Among my dishes, I have three sets of wine glasses. A package of candles I bought from Target to burn when taking a bath, one of each of the wine glasses, an antique tray that was handed down to me, and a touch of nature -- voila! An elegant and easy centerpiece. 

I couldn't wait until morning to create it so I collected the branches and pine cones by the light of my car's headlights out in the park last night. You know. Just contributing my share of odd stories to the neighborhood. 

I put away a few of my blue books and replaced them with red ones.

I also replaced my silk peonies with pine boughs. Here is another example of utilizing glassware for candles. You've only seen half of the variety of glasses I have. I've asked my roommate to remind me never to buy another glass.

A couple of years ago while my siblings and I were creating a paper chain to decorate the Farm for Christmas I free-handed this nativity scene. When I hung it on the wall at first it looked like it was drowning in wall space though. ModCloth had just sent me a gift guide in the mail with a fabulous pattern all over the back of it. I hung that on the wall, took a frame out of its glass and hung that right over the top and rehung the paper art in the center. It has much more presence this way.

My little sister was so sorry for me that I couldn't have a Christmas tree that she loaned me her miniature tree, complete with lights and ornaments. She's a dear! It's so quaint it makes me smile everyday.

Last year I purchased an advent calendar from Naptime Diaries but since I was in India for part of December I never really used it. I've been wanting to hang something decorative over this long window for months and the calendar fits perfectly! Ten yards of blue and white twine from the dollar section in Target and my big splurge: two packages of mini clothes-pins ($5 per package) brought the whole display together.

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Trust me, you have things laying around your house -- and yard! -- that you can use to decorate your home for free too. Likely there are people in your circle that have decorations that they never use and would be happy to part with if they know you could use them as well.

{ total spent to decorate the Little House for Christmas: $11.00 }