Category: Holidays

Christmastime is Here

Deer are congregating on the fireplace.

Some garland found its way to the stairs.

(I had a bunch of the fake stuff from IKEA last year. It’s skimpy, so I tripled it up, and it’s still skimpy. Maybe we’ll get fresh greenery next year instead to do these stairs justice.)

And the table is a mini forest.

The Christmas tree got a few welcome additions from the kids.

We have a couple of extra little trees around too, made and decorated by the kids.

Presents are present.

And my fancy blogger tree is looking festive.

Soon the children will be nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of Plants vs. Zombies dance in their heads.

Merry Christmas!

December 23, 2013
DIY Wood Slice Holiday Party Invitations
These are special invitations — ones that you might make for a handful of close friends. They’ll either need to be hand-delivered or mailed in a small box, but the impact they’ll have is worth the extra effort. Similar to my DIY wood Valentines earlier in the year, the painted wood slice can be reused by the recipient as a photo/note holder through the rest of the year.

Supplies
- Wood Slices (mine were approximately 4″ in diameter)
- ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape
- Acrylic Craft Paint (I used gold, pearly gold, and white)
- Paintbrush
- White/All-Purpose Glue
- Mini Clothespins
- Invitations (purchased, printed, or handwritten)
Instructions
- Begin by taping off a section of your wood slice to be painted. I sectioned off about a third of each circle and filled in with gold paint. If your tape is wide (like mine), you can rip it down the middle, since only one straight side is needed. Be sure to press down firmly to keep paint from getting under.
- Acrylic craft paint dries quickly, and you’ll be ready to peel off your tape and start on another section in as little as 20 minutes.
- I tore my tape down the center again, then used the straight sides to make skinny stripes. I made sure to overlap one or both of the other colors with each stripe.
- The mini clothespins can be attached with a thin layer of white glue. Let them dry, then clip your invitation to each wood slice and you’re done.
This would be such a delightful invitation to receive! And long after the party is over, the recipient could reuse the wood slice to display photos, notes, or holiday cards.

This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape, but all words and opinions are my own.
December 4, 2013
I’ve Gone All Traditional On You

With the Christmas tree, that is.

tree c/o Treetopia

I still love our pink tree, but it’s only 6′ tall. It was a little undersized in the old house, but in the Victorian, with its 10′ high ceilings, it would have been way out of proportion. Plus that tree just had its day in Cottages and Bungalows magazine’s Christmas issue, and I wanted to try a green tree for our first Christmas in the new house. We did the same thing when we moved from our apartment (silver tinsel) to the first house (green).

We haven’t decorated the whole house for the holidays yet, but we finished up the tree last night.

I bought my Pretty in Pink Christmas tree from Treetopia in 2009. The second floor is looking a little crazy right now, since that’s where our unpacked boxes have been congregating, but I may use the tree up there eventually. (This year? No promises.) Treetopia wrote to me a couple of months ago, offering the tree of my choice, so I chose the realistic-looking Oh Christmas Tree.

I’ve been arranging and rearranging the two parlors, so the space is a little sparse at the moment. I did move one of the green chairs over that I showed you yesterday. Again, it looks nice — it’s just not in line with what my overall plans were.

We’re so happy with the placement of the tree in front of those curved windows though! It was one of the things that Brandon and I were looking forward to when decorating this house.

November 14, 2013
Cottages and Bungalows Christmas Issue

I got word last December that a magazine was interested in featuring my house in their 2013 Christmas issue. A couple of weeks after the initial email, Cottages and Bungalows had arranged for a photographer to come and shoot my home, all decorated for the holidays. And now, one year later, the issue is out on newsstands!

I knew which rooms were being shot of course, but I had no idea they would use all of the photos in a ten-page spread. I was out to lunch with a friend when I saw it, and whoa, was I excited. It’s so fun to see the pink Christmas tree in print, and for the old house to get one last hurrah!

Thank you, Cottages and Bungalows!

p.s. If you’d like to see more details and get a little more information on those decorations, I wrote about it last year, here and here. It’s kind of cool to see how different it all looked in the magazine’s photos versus mine.

November 4, 2013
Our 2013 Holiday Cards

Holidays are made for you at Zazzle.
Find cards you’ll covet at http://www.zazzle.com/holiday+cards.

Our holiday cards are here! Oh, yes; the Balch family is on top of it this year.

We have, in the past, sent out ‘Happy New Year!’ cards because we were a bit behind. My uncle remarked that he had “never gotten one of those before!”

Ahem.

This year, I ordered our cards from Zazzle instead of adding the task of designing and printing my own during an already busy time. (Former stationers feel a bit of pressure in this area, you know.) I narrowed my choices down to a few favorites before deciding on the cute polka dots design, and I upgraded to metallic paper. The paper has a subtle sheen to it when the light hits it from different angles, and the gold text and dots sparkle. And the picture? Well, we do take ourselves quite seriously around here.

It’s a little early, but warm wishes, love the Balch family.

p.s. Eleanor is a junior stylist in training. Please do enjoy her lined up rock collection.

Sponsored by Zazzle

October 22, 2013
August’s Second Birthday Party

A few weeks ago, we asked August for a little party planning input.

“What kind of birthday party do you want, August? Cars?”
“Uh huh.”
“Construction equipment?”
“UH HUH!”

So construction equipment it was.

Decorating the table involved gathering all of his construction toys and raiding Eleanor’s train table for Playmobil landscapes and trees. I thought it looked cute. Brandon took one look at the scene I was creating and said “it’s like the Lorax, told from the other side.” We had confirmation when Eleanor grabbed an excavator, made crashing noises, and started ripping out trees from the plastic earth.

Construction birthday party! Take that, nature!
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February 19, 2013