More Christmas bang for your buck with simple embellishments

Decorating for Christmas is one of life's win-win situations for me. I love listening to Christmas music at top volume and decking the halls for all I'm worth. The process of decorating for Christmas is a lot of fun. And then, when the fun decorating projects are done, my house looks festive and welcoming.

But like many of you, I'm working to keep my holiday decorating costs as low as possible. One way I accomplish this is by adding free or inexpensive bolstering to decorating pieces I already own.

Here's the wreath for my front door. It's the right size, but it looks so sad. I'm not a big fan of artificial wreaths, but the real ones are too expensive. So I use this wreath as a base

and stuff real greenery (clipped from our Christmas tree) right into the artificial wreath. Suddenly my flat artificial wreath is looking plump and fresh:

And with some simple embellishment and a bow, voila:

Look at them side by side:

A big difference for no money!

I use the same artificial garland on my staircase from year to year, but I like to plump it up with some fresh greenery, too:

It's amazing how adding fresh greenery to an artificial base works. Somehow the whole thing seems fresh.

I also love to use poinsettias in my decorating. There's just something about their vibrant color that works for me. I'm a sucker for traditional red and green. You can find really inexpensive poinsettias at nearly any store at this time of year. The only thing I don't like about them is that they come in those foil-wrapped pots. Love the flowers, hate the pots. My solution? I remove the poinsettias from their wrappers and place the plastic pots in my DIY textured pots.  Then I add Spanish moss (available by the bag at Dollar Tree):

This display is in my entry hall. I bought four cheap poinsettias. The one in back is elevated on clay flower pot turned upside down. I like the way this gives the grouping a bit more presence, and the unsightly pedestal is hidden behind the flowers in front. The Spanish moss hides the tops of the plastic pots and keeps the attention on the flowers. I love the massing of flowers, and I spent very little money on it.

Do you have any tips for creating a festive look you love without breaking the bank?  Please share!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

For every time of year, the smells are among my favorite things. That's especially true at Christmastime. You know the smell I mean, don't you? Evergreen and orange and cinnamon and clove all mingled into one wonderful fragrance.

Well, if you want a little more of that fragrance in your house, there's a company I can recommend to you: Aromatique. Headquartered in Heber Springs, Arkansas (my husband's home state!), Aromatique creates some of the most beautiful fragranced products you'll find anywhere. You can go to www.aromatique.com to read all about it, or you can just take my word for it and look for these products:

Refresher oils. Inside the boxes are these cute little hard-for-me-to-photograph bottles:

Not much in volume--just .5 fluid ounce per bottle--but so much fragrance! "Smell of the Tree" smells just like--well, you know. The tree. Honestly. I've tried lots of fragrances, but this one tops the list in my book. It smells just like a fresh-cut Christmas tree. Now, I know a lot of you have artificial trees. . . but don't you wish those boughs smelled like a real tree? Now they can. Drop some of this refresher oil onto a few branches.

And then, my favorite: "The Smell of Christmas." Mmmmm. Just exactly the way you want Christmas to smell. Put a few drops of this oil in water and simmer on the stovetop. You'll soon have the fragrance of Christmas wafting through the house. (Just be careful not to spill any near an open flame!) Or rub some oil onto cinnamon sticks, tie a bundle with a jaunty bow, and look:

Such a cute little decoration for a bookshelf or desktop. Maybe a fun treat for a teacher's desk.

Or use short cinnamon sticks, rub some oil onto them, and tie up into a cute little woodland ornament for the Christmas tree.

The folks at Aromatique have never heard of me, so I'm certainly not getting anything to promote this product. But I think you'll love it. And a little $9 bottle of oil goes a long way, so it's an affordable indulgence.

What's your favorite Christmas smell?

Such a gift

It's December 1! The countdown has begun! Today is the day we start using our Advent calendars. The tree is up and twinkling with lights. The wreath is hung. The halls aren't decked yet, but they're getting there.

Today is Tuesday, though, so (thanks to Emily) it's time for me to stop and unwrap a moment from this past week.

I want to share a special triumph from this past week, but it involves a story. A story about my middle son, Preston. Preston is a giant of a boy--6'8" in his sock feet. Here he is this past spring, all dressed up for the Spring Formal:

Preston is big and strong and healthy. But the healthy part is something that we don't take for granted. You see, in April 2008, Preston was not healthy. In fact, his heart was most decidedly not healthy. At the age of 14, Preston had to have open-heart surgery. I'll never forget that day: surgeons at Duke removed Preston's ascending aorta and replaced it with a polyester graft and replaced his aortic valve with a stainless steel valve.

Preston's always had a heart of gold. Now he has one of gold and stainless steel and polyester. We tell him that he's the Six Million Dollar Man.

Preston came through the surgery brilliantly. He was released from the hospital after five days. But he was very weak. Friends gave him magazines and books and movies to help him pass the time. But he was too weak to concentrate on any of those things. He could sit up just long enough to watch a short show on TV, and then he would fall asleep again.

So all during that recovery process, guess what Preston watched? Day after day, as he regained his strength, he watched episodes of Alton Brown's Good Eats. He had episodes recorded on the DVR, and he simply scrolled through all the recorded shows. He'd watch one, then sleep for an hour, then watch another one.

The good news is that Preston recovered well enough to be able to rejoin his class at school and finish his freshman year. Last year at this time, I found the perfect Christmas present for him. We snapped this photo on Christmas morning:

Yep. Good Eats on DVD. He was a happy boy.

Last week, Preston cooked our Thanksgiving turkey. All by himself. Well, he and Alton did it together. Preston pulled out his copy of I'm Just Here for the Food and watched a couple of episodes of Good Eats for direction, and he proceeded to brine and roast the BEST turkey we've ever had. Honestly. I'm usually responsible for cooking the bird, but I admit that his was better than mine have ever been.

And as we tucked into that delicious bird, you can imagine how thankful we were.

I'm glad that Thanksgiving comes just before Christmas. It's a good thing for me to enter this holiday season fresh from a time of giving thanks.

Grace to you,