Christmas decorations completed for 2013

Hi everyone! I'm sorry about posting the finished decorations so late. They have been completed for a week or so. I didn't get to do all of my ideas that I had in my head this year so I had to prioritize what was the most important and finish what I had already started. I'll be sure to get started sooner next year and that way Christmas want creep up on me like it did this year. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Normally I'm really on the ball when it comes to anything to do with Christmas. Maybe it was the fact that we had a shorter period between Thanksgiving and Christmas or something another. Not sure what it was but I'm still really happy with all that I did get done. So here are the final results.

 Ok well remember in my last post I said that I was going to flank either side of the fireplace with gumball topiaries? Well here they are....you all have no idea how much time those consumed before Suzie told me that I could put the air dry clay in the oven to move along the process MUCH quicker. I would cut and roll sheet after cookie sheet of balls thinking that surely I would have enough...only to wait 3 days until they were dried, painted and rolled in glitter that I needed 4 times more to even get a good start on things. But they were so worth it. I really didn't expect them to weigh as much as they do though. I guess I thought that air dry clay would be,.....well lighter, more airy. I bought plain terra cotta pots and painted them and then made homemade texture paste to add the "icing" to the rim.

 Even though these topiaries put me way off schedule. I would still do it all over again because they make me happy and smile and look so yummy.

 Here is a close up of the "icing" pots that the topiaries are in.

 The stockings make me giggle. I absolutely love them! I had a vision for the fireplace and these were one of the top priorities. I wasn't able to find 4 different Christmas pattern fabrics at Hobby Lobby but think that it all came together even with the one that's polka dotted. It still goes with the theme I think. I haven't had a stocking since I was a little girl. Zoe even got a stocking....of course.

 This is the wreath that I made this year. I probably wouldn't of bothered with making it but had already bought the ornaments to put on it. It was just a manner of taking the old things off of this wreath and adding the new candy things and balls. Most of which I found at $ Tree.

 This wouldn't of happened this year either had I known that I wouldn't be able to go all out with the candy theme outside like I had in mind. But this was another project that I had started most of the things to make it so I wanted to go ahead and go thru with it. Next year I'll just be sure to start extra early. We've had lots of rain since I put this out and so far so good. It's holding up well. Tonight we are getting some really heavy winds so I'll have to get back with you on how it does with that. I may be chasing lollipops and gumdrops tomorrow.

 I redid this trunk over the summer and plan on planting flowers in it during the summer months. It wasn't a trunk that I could really fully refurbish like my other trunks. My brother in law found it for me because he knows how much I love to redo them. I refused to let this one go to the dump...I saw it's potential.

I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years. Thank each and every one of you for visiting my blog this past year. I love to read comments after you've browsed my blog. (hint hint) Thank you all and I'll see you next year.