Upcycled Winter Snow Village

So....what do you get when you combine various and random Christmas village pieces from thrift stores and yard sales, a candle shaped like a tree, a couple of Christmas ornaments, and some leftover light fixtures that have been replaced in your home?

We'll get to that answer in a minute.

First let me just say, now that all of the holidays are over and things have slowed down just a bit (STILL waiting on Baby Girl's arrival...due date was yesterday!) I wanted to pop in and share this project I did back at the beginning of December.  I did it for Christmas, but actually I plan to leave it up through January because it's more "wintery" than it is Christmas so we can enjoy it a bit longer.

I've always loved Christmas villages, but I've never set about collecting one thus far because 1) we haven't had the room to store all the extra boxes it would take, and 2) I've never really had a good spot to set one up.  But this year I decided to do one on a smaller scale and on the cheap.

So how do you turn all those random things I mentioned before into some semblance of a village?

You spray paint everything white, Mod Podge on a little glitter, add some white lights and white sheet and VOILA!  You've got yourself a wintery snow village.

I even spray painted and glittered the candle tree to make it match.  I also added in my yarn "snowballs" that I made a few years ago just to add some extra interest and texture.

The little clear trees were a set of Christmas ornaments that I found at a thrift store that already had silver glitter on them. I love how the clear glitter on the houses resembles sparkly snow.

And the leftover light fixtures?  Well, I used the glass globes from them and stuffed some of the string of lights up inside of them to make them glow.  They look like big balls of sparkling ice to me.  :)  The rest of the string of lights was tucked under a white sheet to make it look like glowing snow.

It's amazing how a little bit of spray paint can bring random things together and make them cohesive.

My total investment in this village was about $6.  I tried to only pick village buildings that were less than expertly painted to begin with, that way I didn't feel so bad covering up someone else's work, lol!

It's glowing and beautiful and we've really enjoyed it and will continue to enjoy it for a couple more weeks.

I'll be sure to keep you posted on Baby Girl's arrival.  Hopefully SOON!  We're all getting very anxious for her to come.  :)

Winter Coffee Table Vignette

Over the weekend I had an unexpected junkin' adventure that I can't wait to share you with you.  I found some great treasures and I'm excited to give you the full scoop.  My Facebook fans got a little taste of it when I shared snippets of it with them.  If you haven't already, be sure to stop by and "like" the page.  You're missing out on half the fun if you don't!   So stayed tuned for that adventure later in the week.

But for today, I'm sharing my winter coffee table vignette.

Last week I shared the winter mantel with you, and promised some more to go with it. 

 I hope you enjoy what I came up with.

Keeping with the white and silver palette I had going on with the mantel, I shopped my house for some more items to create this gathering.

Farmhouse Winter Mantel

I've been having so much fun shopping my house and coming up with some new arrangements for a January "winter" theme.

The shelf (or "mantel") in the above picture is how I had it last year.  It was cute and very "wintery," but this year I wanted something a bit more "junk-i-fied."

Here's this year's winter "mantel."  Only 2 things (besides the greenery) are not 2nd hand treasures.  The rest has been either thrifted or a yard sale find.

Winter Decor & a Snowman Party

Ok, I realize that it's a little late to be showing you this when it's almost Valentine's Day already.  But since I've been having technical difficulties I'm runnin' a little behind.

Anyways.....a few years ago I realized I was never ready for the house to go back to "normal" after Christmas, so I decided to start decorating with snowmen for the month of January.  I stick with a mostly blue and white, not-too-Christmasy theme.  

While I was putting it all up this year, it hit me that mid-January is the perfect time for a party.  People kind of get the after-Christmas blues, cabin fever starts setting in (at least up here in the frigid North it does) and so I decided to take advantage of the decor already being up and have a Snowman Party for my daughter and a few of her friends from church. 

You might be wondering why I have brown candles up there instead of white ones, but it's because they're Peppermint Cocoa scented ones and I think that's perfect for Winter.