Christmas in July
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This post has been placed here for three reasons: (1) to remind you that CHRISTMAS IS IN 5 MONTHS (even though it feels like it just passed) and you best be getting to your Christmas shopping if you want to have a stress-free holiday and play your assigned part in the matrix of capitalism. GO! NOW!
This post is also here because (2) I've created this new website (hi!) and before it officially launches in a few days, I'm going to be migrating some of my favorite/important/relevant posts over here the best I can - so they'll pop up when you search and all that good stuff. This here's one of them.
...and (3) since John left, I've been thinking a lot about what Christmas is going to be like later this year without him. I thought I'd just get it out of my system now. // So, without further ado, CHRISTMAS 2017...in July 2018...
I live in a one-bedroom apartment 40-minutes outside of NYC. I don’t have a grand living space by any means, but it’s got a lot of blank-slate walls and a nice open and airy feel, so I do what I can with it. I’m also not my sister or Joanna Gaines — both of whom have extraordinary interior decorating talent and a knack for creating beautiful spaces.
With that being said, I’m proud of the look I created this year for Christmas 2017. It’s ‘me’ to the MAX on the very minimal budget I have to make these kinds of things happen, so here we go…
I live in a one-bedroom apartment 40-minutes outside of NYC. I don’t have a grand living space by any means, but it’s got a lot of blank-slate walls and a nice open and airy feel, so I do what I can with it. I’m also not my sister or Joanna Gaines — both of whom have extraordinary interior decorating talent and a knack for creating beautiful spaces.
With that being said, I’m proud of the look I created for Christmas 2017. It’s ‘me’ to the MAX on the very minimal budget I have to make these kinds of things happen, so here we go…
Above were key parts of the look. Two trees. // My beautiful pink tree from treetopia blew its top third last year, so I wasn’t planning on going through the work to erect it when it wouldn’t have looked right to begin with.
I picked out my mini white tree last year at Target the week after Christmas for $5. I had planned to go really simple and just use that one, but the Monday after Thanksgiving - on a whim - I made a late night trip to Target and BOOM! I spotted it: a slim, 6ft rose gold pencil tree (ON SALE) and it was love at first sight. I knew it’d be the perfect apartment tree, and it is. I was right. I love this tree. I love my big, fluffy pink tree too, but it did not fit in my space as snug as this rose gold one. So…OBSESSED. Two trees. …and topping them? Pipe cleaner goodness.
In 2011, I read a blog post tutorial on this DIY Starburst Pipe Cleaner Tree Topper. Fast forward six years (!!!) and a new apartment later – and there was my version atop my sweet rose gold Target tree. I loooove that inspiration has no shelf life. // To coordinate, I created a quick, loopy star for the mini white tree.
Now, while I was making my pipe cleaner tree toppers (a la …love Maegan from six years ago) I thought about what else I was inspired to make back then. I recalled DIY gold stars that I hand cut from white poster board and then painted with glue and sprinkled with chunky gold glitter (like we used to do in elementary school back in the 80s). This sparked a 2017 version of the idea and a quick stop at Michael’s for pre-glittered gold scrapbook paper. (Less mess for the win!)
Instead of putting groceries away or starting dinner that evening, I sat on the floor in one of those creative trances that take over me sometimes, and I freehand cut out these five-pointed stars, all wonky and perfectly disproportioned. I stuck them to the wall with some masking tape, and the effect it creates brings me so much Joy with a capital ‘J’.
The icicle lights hanging above the stars bring me equal amounts of holiday bliss. They were either going to go around my window frames or on this wall, and this wall won out. Noticing how I created this effect with one string of lights and a pack of command hooks – in a style that you cannot deny was greatly influenced by Joyce’s manic Christmas light hanging in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 1 – makes me laugh. Haa haa! I really loved binge-watching that series last month.
Our photo ornament stockings are making their third Christmas season appearance, and still I love them now as much as I did then. I also plan to adhere to the same high stocking stuffer standards as I did last year.
My adorable little $8 lightbox from Big Lots I purchased at the beginning of the season got a new merry message. …and on the lower shelves you can see a holiday candle of the sweetest smell & a little nativity scene set up.
This is the nativity set I grew up with. My mom had a little manger doll house thing for them to sit pretty in, but I’m not sure what happened to it. // When I moved into my apartment two years ago, I took them with me and had plans to maybe spray-paint them gold, modernize them like a true millennial. I can’t though. They’re vintage and covered in memories. The paint on Joseph’s face is chewed off from my childhood pup, and that’s kind of means the world to me.
My Santa & Mrs. Clause trolls were Christmas Eve presents from 1994? ’95? Troll dolls were all the rage that year, and I had quite the collection. These are another childhood fave I’ll never give up.
My duo nutcrackers are past and present colliding, too. The one dressed in navy? I picked him out in a Christmas store when I was 6 or 7 and my mom bought him for me. I think I had just watched ‘The Nutcracker Prince’ or something, and I imagined him & I were in the movie. The pink one? A house-warming present from my cousin Sammy after visiting my apartment two years ago. He couldn’t have gotten my aesthetic any more perfect.
My DIY wire bulletin board got a holiday refresh. I plan to hang Christmas cards I receive in the blank spots.
My Christmas Countdown board – another after-Christmas clearance find at Target last year – has been fun to tinker with every morning as we get closer and closer to the day.
...and that’s look this year. No kiddos to decorate for as of yet, so adult and fuss-free is the vibe. // The kitties – being 7 that year – recognize when the tree goes up that a certain season is upon us. At least I feel that way. They get little more settled in, a little more cozy.
Animals feed off of us I think, and I certainly feel more ‘hashtag’ cozy laying on the couch in the light of the tree, staring at the below festive areas I created. John and I have fallen asleep more times on the couch this past week than we have in the past few months, probably.
I find it fascinating how the look of Christmas evolves. Being 33, I’ve experienced a great amount of them, but only the past couple of years have they been mine to stylize. I’m so grateful for this, and my cup runneth over with my own traditions that I’m forming, but it is bittersweet too. I’m trying to be present and breathe in this year’s setup because I’m truly in love with how it’s been making me feel, but I can’t help but feel nostalgic for the Christmases of my childhood at the same time. …and desperately long for the Christmases to come, when – God willing – my littles are here to celebrate with.
That’s the journey, I suppose. The ‘good ol’ days’ are always happening and they also have yet to happen. Do like a present and wrap yourself up – all up in the blessings you can create and celebrate today, tomorrow, and in the next few weeks. I’m doing my best to soak in every little detail this year. This post is that. Thanks for hearing me out. // xoxo
Since that original post, these were some favorite shots of the season too. I wrapped presents with cream-colored wrapping paper and a thick yarn that I bought with the intention to hand-knit a cowl out of. (Major FAIL!) John & I also drank so much coquito...one of his clients made him bottles (!!!) of it, and we were like glugglug.
That mini clipboard that reads '24' is a perpetual calendar I found at Target that I have loved so much. It was the greatest early Christmas present to myself. Those pink bottle brush trees were also a Target find (at the Dollar Spot) and that pink fur throw blanket. // ...and photo ornaments of Raelyn because DUH...and it was her first Christmas.
Finally, the shot above of my mom and sister on Christmas morning at my mom's house, right before we were going to leave for Christmas brunch at my aunt's. We were exchanging gifts; it was bright and festive, a frozen moment in time, a holiday season in my life I want to remember forever -- we're all adults now, we all have our own set of challenges and struggles, but we were together. That's all the matters.
