It’s Christmastime here in our tiny apartment. I’m used to having a whole big farmhouse all decorated in greenery and snowmen. But here, we have neither greenery nor snowmen.
What we do have is Christmas spirit! Or rather, I have that and Hubs just plays along to make me happy. Don’t get me wrong, he had fun decorating our tree, but he certainly wouldn’t have fretted too much if we had decided we didn’t have room for a tree.
But…never fear, because Christmas is here!
Yup, that’s our first Christmas tree, folks. I’m proud we decorated frugally, so I’ll share what we learned in this adventure.
First of all, make stuff yourself! Like these trees! (That I’ll post about later!)
It’s part of the little scene on top of bookshelf #1
And the nativity set? Another tip, “re-use.”
I also have a tree like that on the shelf in our living room.
I got the idea from here.
The print is from here.
And I HAVE to show you the adorable place mats my mother-in-law made for me. How adorable are they?
And our second kind of paper trees, the folded ones I made, and I’ll post about, with our growing collection of Christmas cards.
I got the ideas for the trees from the mothership, Martha, of course.
And we also have stockings! But as the title of this post suggests, we had a bit of a dilemma when deciding where to hang them, as we have no fireplace.
But we got a shelf from my parents’ basement. (It’s a wonderland of usable stuff down there, though my mother’s probably horrified I’m admitting how much is down there. Sorry, Mom!)
Hubs painted it white, and I sanded it down to give it that vintage look I like. It’s old enough to really be vintage, it just needed a little love.
See, we can even make our own stockings! His is made from an old pair of jeans. And since we don’t have a sewing machine and Hubs would have FREAKED if I’d tried to smuggle it home, I had to sew it by hand, which took…awhile.
Here’s the whole look that greets you when you come in our front door by the kitchen now:
Print from tatertots and jello.
Closer look at the frame. Love it!
There, our stockings are all ready to be filled up with fun little gifts.
And in the spirit of giving, I’m going to GIVE you all a little tour of our tree.
Here we go, a cute little “S” I got from the church I volunteer at.
Here’s one I made last year at school.
And the ornaments from my childhood that I collected as a kid but that haven’t been hanging on our family tree in a long time:
Oh, and you want to see the ornaments I made?
Here’s some more…
Oh and just to make sure I represent,
It makes my heart happy to have our tree up and looking so festive. Who cares if our ornaments and decorations are a bit skimpy and we only spent 5 bucks on our tree. I say it’s beautiful!
I’ve been following you for awhile now…just happened to stumble on your blog. I absolutely love it! You and your husband remind me of my finace and I. We are college seniors and will be graduating in May and getting married August 4th. I love at how frugal you try to be with everything, realizing that while you don’t have much, you still make such a happy life for your husband and yourself. It’s just a reminder to me that starting off in marriage may be financially tough, but we will get through it just like y’all.
LOVE the placemats and the paper made Christmas trees! You always come up with such cute ideas! Also love the STL cards ornament. I’m originally from an hour south of STL. Always look forward to reading your blog, and hearing the realness and honesty of your life and relationship. Thank you!
Hi Christa! Thanks so much for reading and the great comment! Welcome!
I’m glad you can relate! I know being frugal isn’t always easy, but we’re doing our best. Best wishes as you get ready to begin your marriage!
Everything looks great…very festive! Glad I could contribute to your decor!
Love you both, Mom
Love you, too! And we’ll see you soon! This weekend will be a welcome break!
Everything is so cute. Love your tree, all the papercrafts. The placemats are adorable and love your stockings. Everything looks so sweet! Killer title of your post too!
Thanks! I’m pleased with how it turned out. I know so many young wives struggle with having “enough” decorations so I hope this might be helpful!
Looks like you did a great job and probably get it under the budget you were initially concerned about. Also, love the paper crafty decorations. I did similar things our apartment too. Looks great!
Thanks! I had fun trying not to buy anything, though we did buy a few small things…
I’m sure your apartment looks great, too!
Absolutely Gorgeous!!! Love all the homemade stuff. Jealous of those that can do things like that and really don’t have to put any effort into it. Just comes naturally.
Aw! Thanks! It took some work, even if it seems like it didn’t. Seriously, ask Hubs. I even threw out a couple of crafts that didn’t work out!
Love the stocking you made for Wyatt. It is very “manly”. I am happy that the placemats worked in to the decor. They were very fun to make. You are so talented in the decorating department, Wyatt is very lucky!
Thanks! It would have been easier to use a machine, for sure! But this works! 🙂
I see you are very excited and proud, as you should be! It all looks great. The paper trees are very cute (I like the ones made of squares best) and I LOVE the paper hearts — can’t wait for you to post instructions so I can make some for decorations! Maybe I could send you some paper bits I have and you can make some for me, too! I have a bunch of cut-outs that are pages from books (abridged readers digests, no good novels, I promise!).
I’d LOVE to help make these! Please let me help any way I can. They can be strung together to make garlands, or just strung on their own with fishing line or something. I just set mine in the tree because I didn’t know what else I’d want them to be used for.
And I like the square trees best, too. But they were more work…I have stuff to make two more…if I want to…
Thanks!
Everything looks beautiful!
Thanks!