Use tulle to add some chic to your rustic Christmas tree

Everything these days is about texture layered on texture, about hard lines against romantic ruffles, about rustic marrying chic...

What better way to continue this trend in your home, than using .99 cent tulle from the Dollar Tree, cut in pieces and tied randomly to your Christmas tree. The juxtaposition of soft tulle folds, against the sharp green needles of the pine, creates a beautiful compliment to your favorite ornaments. Furthermore, the glow of the lights further enhances this wonderfully inexpensive, holiday reDESIGN.

Others are re-DESIGN-ing their REAL-ity!!

Here are some great pictures of someone's REAL-ity that has been re-DESIGN-ed!!!

This follower was married this past October at her beautiful Upstate New York farm. The wedding was full of great vintage finds and classic details.

She took these great finds and re-DESIGN-ed them into amazing holiday decor.

Can you find some examples from my past posts; windows, shutters and those great burlap swags are all included in her wonderful vignettes.

She continued her great creativity and created a magical snowman with grapevine wreaths- what a great rustic chic detail for a beautiful Upstate New York in the winter! Love it and I am so proud of this follower for using such creative energy. I have a feeling she is extremely proud of her decorations, in her new home with her new husband, this very special Christmas.

Silent Night after a day tragedy

SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE... All of the young, innocent,children that had your lives stolen and all of those that survived, but will be forever changed by a bad dream that no mommy or daddy can ever make go away.

I heard silent night played on the radio tonight right after a discussion about today's events. My heart broke and my eyes teared and the words of the song never sounded so strong. I will never again hear the Silent Night of yesterday, from this point forward I will only feel the depth of words established today.

As the mother of a kindergartner and a former Fairfield county Connecticut elementary student myself, the event that took place today will forever resonate deep within my heart and soul. We can not take away the pain that the families touched by this tragedy are feeling, nor can we assume that we are immune to the horrors that exist in the world today... But what we must do is create amazing life moments.

It is time to live with a focus of what it is truly important... The definition of family can be so easily lost in today's hectic lifestyles. Bring back family dinners, game night and family projects. Give back attention, love and patience. You will receive back memories that you can cherish for a lifetime.

Money saving tip for holiday shoes for the kids

If you are like me you enjoy finding new outfits for the kids to wear for the holidays...But you don't enjoy all of the cost that goes into an outfit, that at most they may wear two or three times. So last year at an after Christmas department store sale we went ahead and purchased the kid's dress clothes for this year. However, not only do the kids not fit into their clothes from year to year, but their shoes too.

So I found myself on the hunt for little boys dress shoes... Would someone please explain to me why little boy's dress shoes have to be so ugly?! They look cheap, oversized for their feet and cost as much as my husband's shoes. I went to one store after the next, searched on Black Friday and even got as far as bringing a pair to the counter to purchase.

In the end, I just couldn't bring myself to do it; spend all that money for shoes that once again have a life span of hours. It was in my most desperate moment that an idea came to me; dye a pair of suede shoes he already has in the closet. I bought shoe touch-up dye (yes, the one that says do not use on suede) for a few dollars to see if my idea would work. Sure enough, a couple of coats of dye and his old, tan shoes are now charcoal and ready to wear for the holidays.

Here is a picture of him wearing is newly reDESIGNed shoes for his school play.

Creative, budget friendly gifts for all those extra people on the list

The holiday gift list seems to get longer and longer each year... Family, teachers, bosses, employees, the list goes on. So if only we had endless budgets to spread the cheer.

The REAL-ity is we must remain cheerful and get creative... And that is just what I was busy doing this morning.

These teachers gifts are a simple, practical and fun, not to mention extremely reasonable. I bought a multiple pack of clipboards from Office Depot . To be honest I wasn't crazy about the traditional brown, but sometimes we must let practical needs outweigh creative desires and in the end I think it turned out just fine. For the ribbon I relied on some of my existing resources and a 50% off sale at Michael's. Just create a layered bow, hot glue it to the clip (being sure to not interfere with the tip of the clip for functionality reasons) and then personalize as you wish. I used the teacher's names, but a simple generi message such as #1 teacher, would work just as well.

Have fun and be cheerful, because you can now cross a few gifts off your list!!

Using architectural salvage for holiday decor

Check out these creative ways to use salvaged pieces as part of your holiday decor.

I used a set of old shutters as a back drop for my back door, holiday vignette. Also notice how I have once again used those great 99 cent glitter letters from Walmart- love those!

Old windows seem to be everywhere these days, so why not use them in your holiday DESIGNs?! I used the Silhouette to cut out the Merry Christmas and holly. But once again paint pens or the great glass markers that I posted about last week, would also be great ways to create your own messages.

Sometimes a great idea finds you

Do you ever lay awake at night trying to think of creative new ways to reDESIGN something in your home?. I know that I do and some nights great ideas are born and others nights-nothing... but then every once in awhile a great idea finds you.

Take for instance this great antique cabinet, that some friends/relatives of mine were so kind to part with... This great vintage, glass sided, cabinet came from a local auction for a great price. However, not only is the overall piece great, but it displays an amazing and REAL-ly simple idea; use old sheet music to line the interior of a piece of furniture- brilliant! However, I am sure whomever created this antique method of decoupage many moons ago, did so out of lack of available resources or maybe they were way ahead of their time and knew what an amazing concept they were implying for the future. Either way the piece is beautiful and the concept magnificent. This is one piece that I will cherish for years to come and will willingly accept the reason I came across it; to share this brilliant idea with others and to continue this great technique on other furniture re-DESIGNs!