Merry Christmas!

Thifty Finds for Christmas

I thought I'd share a few of my recent great finds.

Many of the things in my home are twice owned items.
I love finding them at garage sales and thrift stores.

We have a great little local thrift store that I frequent.
It's a thrift store that our Christian School started a few years ago.
It's a great store because you're able to buy second hand items at great prices
and the proceeds go toward Christian education.
On Monday they set up their displays and put out all the new items.
If you arrive early on Tuesday morning you're sure to find some great deals.

I've been able to get Christmas ornaments for .49 cents a box.
My silver snow flake fabric for .99 cents.
You can see it in the photos below. There was enough fabric to make
two table runners and enough left over to place around my vignette.
The little blue and silver snowflake candle holder was only .49 cents.

On my last visit I found these cute Hallmark bowls for $2.49.



I'm using them as part of my Christmas decor and later
will use them for serving Christmas food.



This "Wish you a Merry Christmas" plate was .49 cents....


....as well as these set of 8 Pier 1 plates.




This year my dinning room Christmas decorations are in gold and burgundy.
So when I spotted these beauties I was very excited.

Yesterday they had all Christmas items for 1/2 price
and I found (4) gold place-mats ~ .25 cents each.

I planning to use them at a holiday party we're having in January,
along with these candles I found last year.

I'll share my photos of the party in January.

A Great Giveaway

A Holiday Giveaway that's Expiring Soon!

I wanted to tell you there's a great holiday giveaway at Home Construction Improvement!
It's a Paslode Framing Nailer giveaway sponsored by Paslode and hosted by Home Construction Improvement .

All entries must be received by 11:59 PM (Eastern) 18 December 2010. The winner will be announced on December 19th!
Enter to win the Paslode CF325 giveaway contest today! Head on over and check out the chance to win!

Christmas Cutout Cookies

It's the season for baking holiday goodies.
I'm joining in the fun and linking up to ...

Holly Bloggy Christmas
and
Best of 2010

December 16th @ Simply Sweet Home
and House of Grace
you can share your favorite Christmas recipes.

One of my favorite recipes for Christmas is the recipe for

Christmas Cutout Cookies







I've made these cookies for many years with my children.
It is a great way to spend some fun
quality time with your children.
When making these you can use any shape you like,
but my favorite is the snowflake!

I'd also like to share a photo from my friend's
Snowflake Shortbread Cookies.


I love the sparkle in these cookies,
aren't they pretty!




Linking to...

Remodelaholic Recipe linky party

DIY Stocking Stuffer Gift

Union Long Underwear
also known as Long Johns

I'd like to share with you today a cute/funny stocking stuffer or white elephant gift.
I've made several of these over the years. One of our family traditions is to give our children stockings on Christmas morning. We usually put a few small items in the stockings , like an ornament, small toy, candy and every year a pair of new socks.

Since we've added two son-in-laws to our family. I thought it would be fun to add a little humor and give them the " Long underwear" socks this year in their stockings.

This is a quick and easy DIY craft that any one can do. It doesn't involve skilled sewing.

Here's a list of items you will need.
-Two pair of white socks.
-4 to 6 red buttons
-white sewing thread

To start you'll need to purchase 2 pair of white crew socks.



Take one pair of socks and lay them together like this.



Taking your sewing thread, stitch them together
from the top to the end of the heal area.


The second pair of socks,
pull half of the sock inside of the sock (as in the above photo).

Leaving only half of the sock showing.
This will become the arms of the long underwear.
Stitching them to the upper portion of the first pair of socks.



Stitch 4 to 6 red buttons down
the front of the Union Suit Underwear.

Type up this little poem
and attach it to the underwear gift.
(Author Unknown for the Poem)

I'm linking this post to...

A special thank you to Tip Junkie - I'm so excited because
I won the $100 gift card giveaway @ The Family Gift Guide giveaway!
You can read about it here.

Inexpensive Homemade Christmas Gifts

Today at Tater Tots and Jello everyone is sharing their homemade Christmas gifts.


I don't have any gifts completed for 2010 to share with you, but thought I'd share some photos of a few very special Christmas gifts we made for a couple of our children when they were small.

We lived on a very small budget the years my husband was in seminary full time. I found a bag of fabric remnants at a garage sale for $1 - perfect for our Christmas gifts budget. The lady I worked for at the time was a seamstress for bridal wear. She gave me fabric that I used to sew look a like dresses for our myself, daughter and her doll.

Our children came down with chickenpox a few weeks before and during the Christmas holidays. This meant we were house bound, creating time for me to sew the doll clothes.

I wish I'd taken photos of all the doll clothes I sewed, but here are a few photos where you can see the clothes strewn about as she opened them.

We were also creative/thrifty with our Christmas decor... see our tree ($3 garage sale tree) decor in the above photo.
We used packing "peanuts" strung together with fishing line to create garland.

Don't fear! Our son didn't go without gifts that year. My husband is very creative, and made a Harvester Silo for him complete with a chute for the corn to slide down into a wagon. Gluing three large coffee cans together adding a plastic tube for the corn slide to the chute. (Shelled corn was placed inside the silo). He painted it and added Harvester and a flag on the outside.
He then went on to build a large red barn made out of scrap wood.

Here's our son happily displaying his silo and barn gift.
(See all his Dad's study books behind him.)

Christmas Tour of Homes

I'm joining Christmas Tour of Homes.

I've shared part of my home with you already but here are just a few more,
along with a few previous ones.



Display above kitchen cabinets.

JOY sign I made and placed above my kitchen cabinets.

Vignette above our cabinet in the dinning room.


Faux Christmas mantel in the dinning room.

Our small Christmas tree and
shutter card holder in the dinning room.

Vignette's in the living room.





The Epsom salt ornaments and candle I made
are displayed in our family room.

I will be joining the Christmas Tour of Homes with the Nester.



Hooked on Houses
The Shabby Chic Cottage - Holly Bloggy Christmas Home Tour

Union Station Clock

Do you love to get a free gift as much as I do.

Then head on over to Attempting Aloha, a new blog that I've just found recently.

She featured my DIY Epsom Salt Ornaments and Candle in her Blue and Silver Christmas series.


She's giving away a free personalized printout for your own Union Station Clock to the first 100 people who leave a comment about this project.

This is the Union Station Clock she made.
You can give her your name and a date to add to the clock to make it very personal for you.

Click here to see the details @ her blog.

Tell her you heard about the giveaway from
Thrifty Parsonage Living!

O Christmas Tree... O Christmas Tree...

I thought it would be interesting to look up the history of the Christmas Tree.

This is what I found at Wikipedia ...
"The tradition of the Christmas tree as it is today known is fairly young. It was established by Martin Luther as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Nativity scene.
Luther established the Christmas tree as a symbol of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. "

That being said I'd like to share with you our little Christmas Tree, I found it at Goodwill a few weeks ago for $14.99. Similar trees can be found price for $69 - $89 new!

My original plans were to place it on our deck , but we're not having the big Christmas party at our home this year and decided to go with a smaller tree that takes up less space.

Here are a few close ups of the ornaments.
I placed the little hand painted one in the front for easy viewing.


Here are the little trees in our living room.
I shared these with you in an previous post ~ Silver and Blue Vignette.
You can read about it here.








O
Christmas
tree,
O Christmas tree,

Much pleasure dost thou
bring me!

For ev'ry year the Christmas tree,

Brings to us all

both joy and glee.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,

Much pleasure dost thou bring me!
!!!!
!!!!


(Source for the verses from "O Christmas Tree" - composer Ernst Anschutz via Wikipedia)

I'm joining the Christmas tree party @ Thrifty Decor Chick.
House of Grace: Best of 2010 - Twice Owned Tuesday