Today’s holiday DIY is so simple, it barely needs an explanation! These jingle bell garlands take no time to throw together and add a pop of color (and music!) to any room of the house.
Supplies: jingle bells, twine, and a plastic needle.
Directions:
1. Thread the needle with twine and string on jingle bells.
2. Hang and enjoy!
Do you have any super easy DIYs for the holiday? We’d love to hear them!
Happy Friday! Today we’re sharing a deliciously festive cocktail that’s perfect for your upcoming holiday parties (or just a quiet night home on the couch watching Christmas movies!).
Peppermint Martini
serves one
vanilla frosting
candy canes
1 oz Kahlua (try Peppermint Mocha!)
1 oz Iced Cake vodka
2 oz sweetened creamer (we used french vanilla coffee creamer)
Directions:
1. Use a knife to spread the frosting around the rim of the martini glass.
2. Place a few candy canes in a Ziploc bag and seal shut. Crush the candy canes using a hard object like a rolling pin or the bottom of a glass jar.
3. Pour the crushed candy canes onto a round plate.
4. Dip the martini glass rim into the crushed candy canes until all of the frosting is covered.
5. Add Kahlua, vodka, and creamer to the glass.
6. Stir with a candy cane and enjoy!
Check out the timelapse video below to see exactly how we made them:
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
15 shopping days left until Christmas! Today we’re sharing gift ideas for possibly the most difficult person to shop for on your list. From hand cream to headphones, this list has it all. Enjoy and good luck!
1. Mantry Subscription
2. Magnetic Nail Bottle Opener
3. Diamond Socks
4. Beats by Dre Headphones
5. Fitbit
6. Chewbacca Bottle Opener with sound
7. Portable Record Player
8. Chapped Hands Remedy
*This post contains one affiliate link.*
Have you picked out your Christmas tree yet? Is it a pristine fake one like ours, waiting it’s turn all year in the garage until its time to fill our home with joy? Or is it a real tree, sweetly scented and picked with great care after five or six laps around the tree lot? OR did you brave the forest and cut one down yourself?! No matter how your Christmas tree came to be, we want to celebrate the excitement and wonder. And what better way to celebrate such a monumental occasion than with a cake?
Our very own little winter wonderland cake, complete with edible Christmas trees! Here is how you can make your own:
Supplies:
– A cake! We made a four layer chocolate cake with white frosting to resemble snow!
– Pretzel sticks.
– Candy melts in green.
– A Ziploc sandwich bag
– Cookie sheet or plate.
– Wax paper.
– Sprinkles (optional).
Directions:
1. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and line up your pretzel sticks.
2. Melt candy melts in a bowl and scoop into a sandwich bag. Use kitchen scissors to cut one corner of the bag.
3. Pipe the candy melts out of the bag in a zig zag pattern over the pretzel sticks to create a tree.
4. If using sprinkles, quickly sprinkle them over the trees before the candy melts harden.
5. When the trees are solid, carefully remove them from the wax paper and place them into the cake!
To add some height to your Christmas Tree Farm, use a few pretzel rods to create taller trees!
We hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful season! What’s on your holiday to-do list? We’d love to hear!
Only 17 days left until Christmas! We are so excited and having so much fun decorating and celebrating this happy season. Today we’re sharing an easy Christmas garland for your mantle, your tree, or anywhere in your house that could use a little Christmas! All you need is some fabric (leftover scraps from past projects work GREAT!), a pair of scissors, and some twine. Let’s get started!
Directions:
1. Gather your supplies. We used fat quarters from Joann’s Fabrics and Crafts in red, greens, black, and white. Unfold the fat quarters and iron as necessary. We then folded them back up lengthwise and ironed a crease on the fold. Our folded fabric was about 21″ long by 9″ wide.
2. Cut fabric into strips. Start the scissors on the folded edge and cut across the width of the folded fabric. Our strips were about an inch thick and 9 inches long (18 inches long when unfolded).
3. One piece of fabric at a time, you will create “Lark’s Head Knots” around the twine. We placed our fabric (folded side at the top) on top of the twine.
4. Reach inside the top of the loop and around the twine and grab the ends of the fabric.
5. Pull the ends up through the loop.
6. Tighten the knot you just created.
7. Flip the knot back down and adjust as necessary.
8. Slide the knot down the twine next to its buddies and grab another piece of fabric to continue!
Soon you’ll have a garland full of knotted fabric strips!
Hang your garland wherever you’d like! Ours is across the entryway table in the foyer. Find our Christmas Countdown Plate here. 🙂
Follow Vicky Barone on Instagram for more holiday ideas and decor or check us out on Pinterest for lots of fun projects and inspiration!
Next up in this year’s gift guide series: gift ideas for kids! From princess bedding to personalized growth charts, these gifts are sure to please this Christmas. We also included a tee-pee (!!!!) because you absolutely cannot go wrong with a teepee. Happy shopping!
1. Multi-dot Teepee
2. Personalized Red Heart Chair
3. Princess Bedding
4. Super Santa Personalized Ornament
5. Locomotive Layers Personalized Train Growth Chart
6. Spooner Board
P.S. Here are some of the things I got my boys! Shhhh! Don’t tell them! 😉
1. Gobblet
2. How to Speak Droid
3. Mighty Red Locomotive
4. Magnetic Wooden Block Set
5. LEGO Chain Reactions
What are your favorite kid picks? We’d love to hear!
Candy cane vases are making their rounds on Pinterest and in the Vicky Barone studio! Candy canes are such a fun and inexpensive medium to work with (and eat). You only need three supplies to make this vase! Let’s get to it…
Supplies:
– A glass vase. Make sure the vase is a cylinder so the candy canes have a flat surface to stick to.
– Candy canes. We used four 12-packs to cover our vase.
– Hot glue.
– Ribbon (optional).
Directions:
1. Run a line of hot glue down the back of a candy cane.
2. Quickly press the candy cane to the side of the vase and hold in place until the glue hardens.
3. Repeat with the rest of the candy canes until you cover the entire vase.
4. Tie a silky red ribbon around the finished vase.
*optional: unwrap the candy canes before gluing. We chose to keep ours wrapped to prevent sticky fingers and to help preserve the vase longer.
If you don’t want to use hot glue and you’d rather have a more temporary candy cane vase, you can use a rubber band instead! Place a large rubber band around the vase and insert the candy canes one by one. Tie a ribbon around the vase to cover the rubber band! When the holidays are over, remove all the candy canes and you’ll have your vase back for every day use!
We didn’t have any flowers, but we made do with a mini Christmas tree and we really liked it!
Like candy canes? Check out these adorable candy cane place card holders! 🙂
Happy December! Can you believe it? Before you know it, it will be Christmas day. In the meantime, half the fun is the countdown! We made this chalkboard advent calendar to help keep the excitement going all month long. Here’s how to make your own…
Supplies:
– A metallic charger. You can find these at most craft stores for just a few dollars.
– Chalkboard paint. We LOVE Rust-Oleum’s Black Finish Chalk Board paint.
– A paint brush.
– Chalk (and a paper towel!).
– Alphabet stickers.
Directions:
1. Gather your supplies. Make sure the charger is clean and dry before painting.
2. Paint the center of the charger with chalkboard paint. Let dry completely.
3. Prep the chalkboard. First, rub chalk onto a paper towel.
4. Gently rub the chalk-covered paper towel onto the chalkboard paint.
5. Add stickers! Say whatever you’d like. We had enough random stickers to spell out “Countdown to Christmas,” but you can also say “Days until Christmas,” “Christmas is Coming,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” or anything you’d like!
6. Use chalk to start your countdown. Each day, wipe the number away with a wet or dry paper towel and write the next number.
We displayed ours on a pretty black easel in the foyer (that fabric garland tutorial will be on the blog soon!). It’s so exciting to see the countdown each day! It’s no advent calendar full of candy, but your kids may still fight over who gets to write the numbers each day. 😉
Here’s Cooper posing with the countdown plate like the majestic beast he is…
…aaaand here he is looking awkward.
Eek! We can’t wait until the plate reads a number like this!
We hope everyone has a wonderful first day of December! Happy Holidays!