I have a love-hate relationship with the fireplace in our new house. The fireplace surround is patterned blue and white tile that I think is so charming, so quaint, so New England. I kind of love it. But the tile colors and pattern really limit what I can hang over the fireplace and how I decorate the room. So I kind of hate it.
And after hanging up our Christmas stockings, I realized that my fireplace is a little confused about its holidays. It's convinced that we're celebrating the 4th of July. Our red and white stockings with the blue and white tile fireplace? It was making the room feel like I should whip out the sparklers and glow snakes instead of the garland and presents.
So what's a girl to do? I didn't want to spend a lot of money on new store bought stockings but also didn't have a lot of extra time to create new stockings from scratch. My solution was to add some quick and easy embellishments to some basic burlap stockings. I picked up four burlap stockings for under $25 at the Country Living Holiday Bazaar but if you have a little time and some basic sewing skills, you could make them yourself for next to nothing.
Dressing up the stockings couldn't be easier. Wrap a 2" wide ribbon around the top of the stocking. Secure both ends of the ribbon to the back of the stocking with glue dots ("zots").
Wrap a different colored 1 1/2" ribbon on top of the first ribbon, secure it to the back of the stockings with glue dots and tie the ribbon in a bow. Then, how about adding a tag? Because we all know that everything is cuter with a tag. I picked up this pack of Martha Stewart tags at Michael's:
You could add an initial to your tag with a marker or sticker or take another minute or two to embroider it. Simply draw the initial on your tag and then use a needle to make holes at the ends of the letter and where the lines intersect:
Pick up some 39 cent embroidery floss in your favorite color, tie a knot at the bottom of the floss, thread your needle (a needle threader helps - embroidery floss is thick!), and hand sew your initial. Once you're done, cut off the extra embroidery floss and tape the end to the back of the tag.
Cut another piece of embroidery floss to create a loop to hang the tag from the bow. You can leave it at that or you can add a little piece of cute ribbon to the back of the tag.
My new stockings are perfect for the decorating commitment-phobe in me. It will be a cinch to change out the ribbons for something new next Christmas and get a completely different look.
I've finished decorating my mantel too - here's a little sneak peek:
Until then, I'm going to keep adding some Christmas decorations here and there but I'm keeping it pretty simple this year. After having just unpacked and put away over a hundred boxes from our recent move, taking out the Christmas boxes seems like two steps back so many of my holiday decoration boxes are going to go unopened.
Surprisingly, I've found that I really appreciate the look of simple. Like these chairs that were in need of some dressing up:
I took some ribbon that was leftover from making the stockings and tied bows on the throw pillows. One minute and done. Love that.
What's your approach to decorating for Christmas this year - are you going all out or keeping things simple?
