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Simple, Affordable, and Cozy Christmas Decor | Emily of Handmade Farmhouse

Mar 11, 2024
Welcome back to the

simple

Farmhouse Life podcast, today we're doing the Christmas

decor

ating episode. I like to do something like this every year. I bring in different people who inspire me a lot with their Christmas

decor

ations this year. Emily Barlow from Handmade Farmhouse was my favorite guest and that's who I got, she has been featured on Better Homes and Gardens for her Christmas ideas. Create the most beautiful baked goods and package more than just the decor, so we're going to get into budget-friendly Thrifty decorating ideas,

handmade

ideas, but we're also going to dig deeper if you don't do any of that, the meaning behind it and the sentiment behind it.
simple affordable and cozy christmas decor emily of handmade farmhouse
Christmas this year will be more important, so let's delve into all that and there are a lot of good ideas. which I'm very excited to implement very soon here in our own home, so join me for this interview. My name is Lisa, mother of seven and creator of the Farmhouse en Boom blog and YouTube channel, join me as I share my love with you. for creating a

handmade

home from scratch cooking and a little mompreneur Life along the way well, thank you so much for joining me Emily. I'm excited to have you do a Christmas decorating episode.
simple affordable and cozy christmas decor emily of handmade farmhouse

More Interesting Facts About,

simple affordable and cozy christmas decor emily of handmade farmhouse...

It's really crazy to me that right now we're thinking about this, but it's time to think about it, especially with some of the things that we're going to talk about in the planning phases to eliminate that, so I'm excited to chat about that, so let's get started first. with a few introductions, tell us about yourself, your blog, your Instagram, your family or anything else you want to share. Well, thank you first of all, thank you very much for inviting me today. I am very excited to be in I have three children. I'm a mom and wife.
simple affordable and cozy christmas decor emily of handmade farmhouse
I've been married for almost 17 years and my husband and I, oh my goodness, about six years ago our family had outgrown the house we were in and we decided we wanted to look for a space we could buy and make. ours, so we started looking for a house and looking for something we could do as a fixer-upper. My husband is an engineer and I am a creative so we have a good balance of technical and creative brains between us and we wanted to fix something but we looked for months and had no luck finding a house so after getting really frustrated, We both came to the conclusion that building might be something we would be interested in, so we talked more and more about it and decided to build our own house, but we decided to do it all ourselves, so it took us 21 months of nights and weekends and He would go every night after finishing work and spend three or four hours doing whatever anyone could do. night and we worked for a long time to get home and we were really dreaming of having a little more open space where our kids could run around.
simple affordable and cozy christmas decor emily of handmade farmhouse
I wanted to plan a huge garden and be able to do a little bit more on the farming side with canning and eating food that we grew ourselves and that kind of stuff, so it was a long process and a long journey for us and I could probably join you one more day to talk about that trip, but once we arrived I moved into the house and started documenting

simple

things here, like how I decorated our home with vintage and second-hand items, seasonal decor, and how to cook from scratch, my Favorite recipes, intentional living, gardening, everything that encapsulates farming and I guess living on a farm is what I really like.
I wanted you to be able to find all that and the daily happenings on my Instagram and then my blog is made at mano

farmhouse

.com, so I've been following you for a long time. I find your decoration beautiful, all your cakes, everything you do with a very beautiful touch, so you generally know that when you make cookies you package them beautifully or you make bread, you will make a really beautiful score, very beautiful, I have to tell you during all these I've been following you for years, I don't think. I knew that you and your husband built your house yourself.
I know you built it, but I didn't realize you built it yourself. Yes, it's a bit of a crazy story because a lot of people try to build their own house, but what that means for them is that they will generalize the house and hire subcontractors and for us it was unique because we did the work ourselves. I helped my husband lay the floor and he had about 20 years of construction experience, that's what he did to go to school. And he's so talented in so many different areas and he's new to how to do everything, but it was a huge sacrifice for our family and a lot of times I don't like to talk about it because it's hard to remember those moments. because my kids were very young and I was at home doing things with them and he was gone, we were apart a lot, so it was a very difficult time for us, but it definitely made us appreciate living here now and I mean, yeah, every centimeter of this house. there's blood, sweat and tears poured into it, so it's special, wow, yeah, that requires repairs, a whole new level, just build it completely from scratch, that's absolutely incredible, that was a lot, you know?
Follow Abby from M is for Mama on Instagram, yes. and we actually connected while we were both building because we had a similar experience, so yeah, I love her, yeah, she's probably the only one I know. I know people who have built small houses and things like that, but they built like a full house to the end. for themselves that I can think of on the Internet and I've actually been to Abby's house and it's amazing, it's pretty on Instagram, but in real life I was amazed that they did that, yeah, they completely built that thing from scratch.
It's really inspiring, it's amazing, her husband's name is also Sean, it's funny, we had a lot in common and we visited each other frequently during that time because we were both so busy with motherhood and trying to find balance in doing that, yeah , they are amazing hats. I'm going to you because I feel like I'm the type of person that can have a lot on my plate more than probably the average, but I don't know that, I don't know that, yeah, it's hard, we would take off. sometimes and we would just go to a park and take our kids for a picnic even if it was just for an hour and we learned to appreciate little things like that because that was the only time we had together, so that was a good time for us. building a foundation for simple joys and appreciating quality time together, yeah, because you don't have a house that we generally associate with a lot of normal life in the, you know, inside a house, like we're washing dishes in a sink and We're making dinner in our kitchen, so having to appreciate all those things without having a stable home at the time is hard.
I can imagine, yeah, sure, yeah, well, okay, I'm sure there's a lot more of that on your Instagram. Like you said, we could have a whole episode on that, but we're going to talk about Christmas, so I was browsing your blog and I saw that you were featured in Better Homes and Gardens magazine for Christmas ideas and the funny thing is that I actually had you was the person for this before I saw that it had that feature and clearly Better Homes and Gardens saw its Christmas talent and I saw its Christmas talent thank you yeah that was crazy so I remember it it's all very beautiful and simple thank you I memory. getting that email from them that I thought was a joke.
I mean, I didn't believe it at first. I've loved Better Homes and Gardens since I was a teenager, so to me it was a crazy, impossible idea, but I looked. I dug deeper into this and yeah, they came and photographed, they pretty much showed off the Christmas treats from our kitchen that we made and I made some macaroons that I painted with edible coloring gels and I did some cute Christmas designs on them and the gingerbread cookies and things like that. it was really fun that it came out in October 2020 which was a difficult time for everyone in the world so it was a really highlight for me and it was just a special moment for us for sure yeah it was a really beautiful feature , OK?
So you mentioned a There are a few things that talk about painting edible food. I want to talk more about that shortly because it's actually something my kids and I just tried recently. I'd never done that before. Yes, first let's talk about Christmas traditions. This is something I'm doing. I'm very excited about this year. I've been thinking about how I really did a good job this year. In the summer we did all the summer things. In the fall we did all the fall things. We went to the garden. We have been to the pumpkin patch several times.
I'm going again today. Oh great, how about Christmas? There is so much activity during that season. Yes, many times, if I don't do it intentionally, I end up regretting not having done it. do a lot of things, do you have any family Christmas traditions in general or when it comes to Christmas decorating and involving the kids in decorating your home? I feel like you really have to be intentional about what you choose to do with your family during the holidays because there are always a million directions you can go. Personally, I love being home. I'm a homebody so I love creating traditions at home because we're always on the run with the kids and so during the Christmas season.
We have to protect that moment when we can slow down and create special moments and some of the traditions that we like to do every year is that I like to set up a small cocoa bar in our kitchen so that it looks like a tray or a basket on the kitchen counter and then I buy glass apothecary jars and fill them with different flavors of hot chocolate, maybe each of the kids can choose a favorite that they like. I order those little mini dehydrated marshmallows every fall and winter and add them to a jar so the kids can scoop a big scoop into their cup and then I'll make different sizes of cups.
I like Santa mugs. Hobby Lobby last year I found these as little mini Santa cups and my kids and their cousins ​​went crazy for those just to make little little things for the hot chocolate tea party and then we also ordered to-go cups for guests coming over so the kids can make them some hot chocolate to go and it ends up being this really cute little area in our kitchen where the kids love to make special things for Christmas, it's a really cute idea. My children would love to be like me. They like hot drinks, as if they all come down every afternoon.
I have a pumpkin spice latte. They always want a decaffeinated version. So I think something like this would really warm up the kitchen whenever we're tired of not being able to go out. What other things do you do? You make something like candy sticks or any other fun little decorations for heat. cocoa bar yes, I love decorating my kitchen almost as if it were a bakery at Christmas. I think using those mason jars those mason jars are just a fun texture to bring in during the holidays because they're neutral, but whatever you fill them with just reflects the season, so I'll do candy canes or mints.
I have made cupcake liners that are very cute with seasonal things. Decorated gingerbread cookies inside the jars. You can get some really cute bakery boxes on Amazon that have like a decorative clear cellophane window. on top and baker's twine and things like that that you can put in your kitchen to make it look like a bakery, but we'll bake cookies and treats and then we'll wrap them in those boxes and take them to the kids, the teachers, or The neighbors and I feel that when the kids have fun at home and feel that feeling of Magic, The Magic of the Season, you want to share that with someone else and it's fun for them to have those things easily accessible so they can take it and share it with other people.
I have a row of white shelves in my kitchen that have white plates and I love to decorate them for Christmas with just little things that I have collected over time, like some nutcrackers. and some striped cloth napkins, so I'll make some stacks of those bells and Little Brush bottle trees and stagger everything so it feels balanced, but just adding those pops of red and green makes the kitchen feel so special and

cozy

for Christmas. So it's fun. I really liked your bakery idea and I'm already trying to figure out where I would put everything in my kitchen because I have some kids, obviously I have babies, but I also have older kids who can do a lot of things. those things for themselves and therefore giving them the opportunity to have all the supplies available and ready to share with friends and family is a nice idea and with anything that has decoration.
I like it, as long as the decor isn't just something to sit and look at, but at least feels like something you could use, so you know, all year round. I like hanging herbs to dry and aprons, but then at Christmas, the idea of ​​having that bakery really sounds like it looks, you know, it looks nice, but then it's also practical because you can make some cookies for your friends or for someone passing by or hot chocolate, it's a very nice idea.beautiful. Yes, I also think you can use functional items like rolling pins in a crock or you can get those big ones. glass jars I think you can get a gallon sized glass jar at Walmart with the glass lid, you can fill it with Christmas cookie cutters and it's also fun to see them in a basket on the counter so there are lots of different ways to you can incorporate those functional elements and it just becomes your home decor for the holidays and there are a lot of cute signs you can get that say like gingerbread bakery or things like that to really make your home feel like your kitchen really feels. like a you know Mrs.
Claus's bakery for Christmas so it's fun fun the kids love it it's so much fun yeah my kids I'm just imagining how much my kids would like that with cookie cutters Christmas cookies like you said, it's a very good idea. because because I never know where to put these things, like during Christmas which is the only time they all come out of the basement, but then where do I put them because I don't have designated places in my drawers for Christmas cookie cutters, so the idea Having a place on the counter is also a decoration that is very cute.
I like that I'm thinking of a lot of ideas now it's a lot of fun. I mean, there are endless possibilities. I even have this old scale that's like a hundred years old from my great-grandmother and her. She used to weigh her chickens in it, so it's pretty old, right? in a family sense, you know family traditions or you bring as family from the past and anything that you can bring that has symbolism like that or reminds you of something special just makes the home feel very special for the holidays and I love that, Yes Yes.
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Thanks, with Christmas decorating, one thing I want to talk to you about because this is something you've gotten really creative with over the years: themes. Do you plan a theme each year for your Christmas decorations? How do you choose one? How do you store things? Have you repeated many topics? Come on, yes, let's talk about Christmas topics. This is a good topic. We could make a lot of progress with this one. A few years ago I started choosing a theme for my Christmas and it's not something I think about too much beforehand. It's something that I just let happen while I'm decorating, so I don't worry too much about choosing it before I start organizing Christmas.
The reason I did it is because I feel like what I just did. I said it, anyone can decorate for the holidays, but when you bring items or do things with more intention, it becomes more symbolic for you and adds so much more meaning and a great feeling to your home for the holidays, so I was thinking. about I think it was during 2019 or 20 when things got a little crazy in the world. I was decorating this gold and mercury crystal tree in our office and my little one was five at the time. My little Knox, the youngest, loves Christmas and he was just screaming with joy for me to take these shiny star ornaments and all this stuff and help me put them on the tree and I had Christmas music playing while we were decorating in song by Judy Garland Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas version and I love it so much and when she said let your heart light up, I stopped for a minute and really stopped and thought about those words and how important it was for me to eliminate all the stress and the worry and craziness that I had during that time and letting my heart light up during the holidays and soaking up the energy of my kids feeling this magical season, you know, and all the wonderful things that come with that and that was okay. for me. to give myself permission to put those other things on hold for this season and just let my heart be content with where we were and that set the tone for my decorating for the season and I did things that were special to me. some old ornaments from my grandparents and I made some ornaments that were symbolic of certain things to me, so every time I walked by that tree in that room I felt like my heart was light and it was so special that it was one of my favorites.
I did it last year, I lost two family members unexpectedly and I won't go into it too much because I'll get emotional, but last year Christmas was my first Christmas after the loss and a lot of people who have been through that I think, I know that you feel a little numb during the holiday season. It's hard to decorate and be cheerful at Christmas when you miss someone and feel a little empty, but I have three kids that I knew I still needed to do. It was special, so I decorated the tree and I was feeling a little bored and I remember that night I put my kids to bed and I went downstairs to turn off the lights on the tree and I started modifying the tree a little bit and I kind of moved the ornaments around and I ended up making them like little ones. groups of ornaments, so I would put different sizes together and make groups of four, five or six ornaments together and suddenly this beautiful tree that was totally different from the original one that I had decorated came to life and I came up with this idea or this theme of being together always and I thought there are still ways to make Christmas special and include those people that I have lost that are gone and make us feel like they are still here with us and it gave our tree so much more meaning to me, it was a more beautiful tree and I think if you ever get stuck searching for a theme or feeling that your tree is unfinished or that you just don't find it inspiring, don't be afraid to modify it and redecorate it or change things up a little bit. make it feel good, add or remove and maybe as you wish. do that, a theme will come to mind or something will inspire you while you're doing that, yeah, I love that you had, I think one of the ones that I really liked was like, I think you called it Children's Christmas, that was really cute.
Now, you usually like one theme or color palette for the entire house or do something a little different for each room. um, yeah, I loved that year we did nostalgic Christmas. I wanted to recover many feelings of like the wonder of childhood, going to my grandparents' house when I was a child and that year I did like a Full House theme. I did our mud room and it can be a little overwhelming decorating your entire house for Christmas, but I did the main areas, the dining room. bedroom, kitchen and living room and in our mud room where we went in and I just carried the pops of red and green throughout the house, but I would say if you're overwhelmed by feeling like you need to decorate your entire house just stick to one room at a time and you don't have to go all out like the kitchen, just add in, you know, the things that we talked about that might reflect the holiday season and then it feels like it's all kind of cohesive. and you didn't have to spend a million dollars to decorate your entire house yeah, yeah, speaking of not spending a million dollars, do you have anything that you've invested in that you get out year after year that you know I'm trying? think about things that don't require you to buy new Christmas decorations every year, any basic items that you really like and you know that once you buy them, you have it and that's, yeah, you know what I mean, something that is as an investment. that you put out every year makes your house look cheerful I think a Christmas tree is big, a tree that you love because you can change the ornaments if you go to Walmart or Hobby Lobby and buy some of the big packages of ornaments. that's your base, so every year, if you feel like you want to change things up, you can get them on Etsy or Amazon or somewhere where you can find more expensive specialty ornaments, but you still have your base ornaments that make it feel like you don't have to redo the whole tree, so my tree is big. garlands I think I love using fresh garlands, but since I like to decorate early and it stays up for quite a while, I feel like I can't make fresh garlands because they dry out so quickly in my house and then just make a mess, so yeah, I think which are very beautiful to use fresh but I have invested in cute garlands that are fake and look realistic, they make some really amazing ones and that way you can have it up for several months and it stays beautiful.
Another thing I love is that they can stay up all January and you just take away the Christmas stuff and then you have Evergreens until January which is really nice because it's so cool during January so it's nice to know that you still know that touch of green on the garlands because I was thinking about Garland too, something you can do if you buy maybe like one garland a year so that way you don't spend like a million dollars here before to change that, I'll just do something with a ribbon like, for example, I want to make a blue Christmas, so I will add blue ribbon to my garland that I bought years ago or a red and white Christmas.
I'll add the red and white ribbon, that's one way I take something I bought years ago, all you have to do is add ribbon and bells and then everything is fine, yeah, and I think if you stick with neutrals with certain things like me. I love putting out chunky knit blankets. I have a little cushion with a vintage Santa face that I put out every year because when I look at it, it's so cheerful and it makes me happy, so when you do that, then you can. incorporate some different colored cushions but still have those basic items on your couch so you feel comfortable and it's fun to get cups or maybe plates or something that you can reuse during those seasons but then add colored candles or like you said ribbons or little different pops of color, but you have those I love using white plates with like wooden chargers because that's something that's always going to look beautiful no matter what the colors of your centerpiece are or whatever, yeah, yeah, in the In the fall winter the days get shorter and one thing that makes me feel good is the

cozy

lighting and Christmas really allows for that, you know we bring in all the Christmas lights, the twinkling lights, you have a blog post about this and I pulled out some really .
Great ideas I'd love to talk about, one I never thought of is mirrors around a tree, can you tell us a little about that idea? Yes, I discovered it by accident when I made that gold and mercury crystal tree. What I told you about, I had that tree in the back left of the music room of our office and on our piano I added a mirror that reflected all those bright lights from the tree in the gold and it was very cozy and beautiful at night one time it got dark and the tree just lit up and I realized oh my gosh it doubles the Magic in any space so if you had a floor mirror or even placed several floor mirrors that you could stack behind your tree or towards the right or left side of the tree you pass and you can see them both.
I think that's what makes it so beautiful and mirrors are such a fun thing to use, I mean, all year round, but especially during the holidays I love to use them on the mantelpiece and on the back of the piano and on the floor mirrors too. I think they're amazing, so yeah, there's a lot of different things you can do to reflect that beautiful light mm-hmm, I like it. I haven't thought about it strategically and in fact I have a mirror that's a little offset right now because we had it in the corner of our room and then we put our son's crib there once he stopped co-sleeping and that's it. in a different corner and I'm wondering how I could strategically place that next to a tree so that way we can make that reflection and cozier lighting everywhere like that yeah, yeah, about that, yeah, it's amazing, I love doing it, right? do you have certain mirrors? that you bring to light at that moment or just reorganize what you already have, yeah, I usually just reorganize.
I have a lot of mirrors that I bought at thrift stores and garage sales and thingsso, you can usually find wood. framed mirrors or something that looks a little more unique in its shape, the one I used on our piano, I think I found it at Home Depot or Walmart maybe and it actually looks antique, it has a brass frame around it and then it has some beautiful designs. at the top and it was actually pretty cheap, it almost looks like that one from anthropology that everyone loves. I can't think of what it's called Primrose, maybe it's just so beautiful anyway and I think I know so, it worked great for Christmas, but Anyway, mirrors are a really fun thing to use in corn design because they make make every room you walk into feel like adding a window because you can tell it makes the room feel bigger, but yeah, I also love using artificial candles. in front of the mirrors to turn on that flickering light because it just adds that instant cozy feeling to your home, yeah, I like the idea of ​​maybe putting a little table in our entryway and putting a mirror on top of it and then putting those fake candles in front of it, yeah Yes, if you have an entryway like that where there is a dresser and then a mirror on top of it, one idea you could do is use like a bucket or a bowl and put a cake stand in the center and then you can use some vegetables and put it underneath from where the cake stand is and then place your fake candles on the cake stand to support them.
Move a little closer to the mirror and it just adds up as a complete decor piece for your entryway. It's a fun idea to use as a centerpiece. Well, I really like that idea. I'm actually thinking about her while you're here. Saying this, I say, okay, I have some, we rearranged everything in our house, so where we put the tree last year won't work this year, so I'm thinking I might take out the side table and move it out of the living room. room, put the tree there and then put it in the entryway and then add some of the things you're talking about, that sounds very, very nice, it's so fun to be able to reuse what you already have, yeah, it's crazy how when you move a little things that you already have it's like you bought something that you know you're completely reinventing and reimagining it and it's like it's something completely new.
I love that we are quick to buy things and not rethink them and sometimes a new version is needed. perspective to help you see it maybe someone else from the outside to see it in a new way because sometimes something has been in a certain place for so long that you forget that you can make it all new yeah, just moving it around yeah, I love that and that's something I'm hoping to do in January since I usually don't like messy decor, but I guess cozy Christmas decor can be a little messy, but it feels nice during that season, but then in January I think it's okay , take everything out.
We're going for a minimalist decor and that's a fun time where you can take out old things and move around and feel like it's a refreshing change for you. It's funny how all these things happen every year, like when the leaves turn on you. You start thinking about Christmas and then as Christmas goes by you start thinking, "Okay, we have to start with a clean slate" and then it starts to get a little warmer. It's funny how the seasons really dictate how we feel about our homes because I'm exactly the same. Sometimes it all rolls into February like I'm still riding that Christmas wave, but at some point it all has to go.
Everything has to be dusted. I need it to be a blank slate before spring things start happening, yes. Okay, and that's a lot of fun too because once you're done with Christmas, then okay, give me spring, give me garden, give me seeds, let me think about new growth and all that kind of stuff, so it's a time too fun of the year. Aha, yes, like getting the greenery out of here, so we put our little seeds in pots in pots in front of the windowsill, yes, there always has to be something to keep us not bored.
I love seasons for that, yes I do. Also, another thing you talked about in your cozy Christmas lighting post was incandescent tree lights, so I noted in the notes that I'm not really sure I know the difference between those and LEDs, can you explain that and why? they are so much more welcoming, yes, I mean there are probably other people who know a lot more about all the differences, but for me I always lean towards incandescents versus LEDs because usually LEDs are a cooler blue white light and incandescents Oh, that's what I don't like and it can't be like that either.
I feel like it's not that welcoming. I love that warm yellow light that feels like a candle, so I usually always go that route, but I know that LED lights are much more energy efficient and light bulbs don't work as much. as hot as incandescent so there are benefits to it and I feel like more and more are creating LED lights that have a warmer tone to them so I think if you buy like a tree that's pre-lit with LED lights or you're looking for string lights, just be very aware of what the tone is going to be, whether it's going to be more of that cool blue or whether it's going to be the warm yellow, you know, because I think that can create such a big difference in how your tree comes together, yeah, that's one of those. things I don't really feel like I knew or understood when I started buying light bulbs for my house and realized I didn't like when certain lights were on. and certain lands go dark and I'm like, oh, that's because this one makes everything blue and this one makes it feel warm and cozy.
It's really interesting how much of a difference that makes and you know, it sounds like you're really done. looking at it like what light bulbs we choose but it really sets the tone and makes a big difference so I can see why that would really matter it really does and even from the outside looking in when you get home if you have got the blue LED lights, It almost feels more like a doctor's office or a business than a cozy, welcoming home, you know, yeah, that's definitely something I've noticed over the last few years. You also have a blog post that has seven inexpensive Christmas lights. decorating ideas I thought it would be fun to talk about this because, as we've mentioned a couple of times, some people feel like they can't really decorate because they don't want to turn around and they don't have the budget to spend it.
I spend thousands of dollars each year on Christmas decorations. I know it's me. I don't want to spend so much money on Christmas decorations. So what are some very inexpensive ways to make your house look beautiful because I think you have a lot of them. This is a good one, especially for this year where with inflation and what we're paying just for groceries and gas and other things, there's going to be a lot of people stressed out just thinking about gifts for Christmas and decorating shouldn't be. a big stressor in our life because anyone who comes into our house is more about the feeling you have and the company you are there with and maybe it is about filling the senses than the flavors of the season and smelling something with pine scent and touching a cozy blanket and listening to Christmas music is more about that than this crazy, over-the-top decor.
Now I love Instagram. I love finding inspiration there and I love seeing everyone's creative ideas, but that's a double-edged sword for us. We decorate our houses because we feel like if it's not that then it's less and suddenly we're sad about it and it's not like that, we can't make the season special, well that's not true at all, last year we did some. Like you said in that blog post, some decorating things on different budgets and I think that might have been one of my most popular blog posts, not necessarily because it was budget-friendly, but more because it showed creative ways you can do things for Stuff. transforms things that you wouldn't even think twice about, by the way, we held up some empty boxes and packages from our pantry, like boxes of gelatin or rice or macaroni and things like that, and we wrapped them in brown and white paper that you can get at the dollar store and then I just put some twine around it and hung it on this row of hooks in our kitchen, it's like a vintage hook rack, you know, I put some greenery on top of it and it was brown paper bundles tied up with string and it ended up being so cute because we just hung and staggered these bundles at different heights and I think I even found some brown paper that had like little snowflakes printed on it so it was really cute yeah yeah I'm looking at the picture yeah , it was a really fun and cute way to fill that space on the wall.
You could do that in a driveway, yeah, that's like a whole, yeah, I mean, you could, you could do so many things, maybe two three dollars, yeah, super cheap, just using boxes. that we already had and that would also be a really fun Advent calendar if you wanted to put some candy or toys from the dollar store or something Christmas related for your kids or I don't know, maybe put a piece of paper that says let's go. do a service for someone today or whatever your Advent is counting down to Christmas, there are lots of ideas you could add to something like that.
Another fun one I did that is very popular on Pinterest every Christmas is I took an old enamel bowl, I think probably about 100 years old from that same great grandmother I was talking about and I took this enamel bowl that has a red rim and I put a little fake Christmas tree and then some silver ornaments and I put it in the kitchen and stuff. People liked that because it's something very easy that can be done in five minutes and it used something that was special to me and yes, it's fun for the kitchen or you can use this as a coffee table. a centerpiece or entry table would look cute on that too, yeah that's really cute, yeah I noticed all the things in that blog post, the gingerbread house is in its sugar jar, that's super cute and you can understand that I keep my sugar and flour in those jars anyway. so I had them on hand, but gingerbread is so easy because you don't have to make a full house, you can just make a flat cookie and stagger some of them in there.
Yeah, I'm looking at these and they're just so many cute ideas that none of them require you to spend hundreds of dollars at Pottery Barn, you know, yeah, the paper bag luminaries, which are super fun with little kids, just grab paper bags. white and put a small flickering tea light, just an imitation. one inside the bag, um, yeah, and then you know you would have to help your kids with an exact knife or help them with scissors to cut out little stars, but they could have that on their nightstand as a night light or you could put them on your ledge of your porch if you wanted.
I don't know, there are different ways you can wear them and I think they're super cute. Going up the stairs would be very nice. We have a staircase that I really like to decorate. That would probably be something my one year old would just take away, but yeah, it would be nice if he could keep him from getting into that. Yes, it would be fun, although it's a great idea to have them all stacked on the staircase. Okay, so let's talk shelf ideas. We have a shelf in our bedroom. I'd like to put up a few more just because I love shelves, but what are some of your tips?
You have a shelf in your living room to have a nice shelf. All season long, this is maybe something where sometimes when it comes time to decorate for Christmas, I don't necessarily feel like putting a lot of effort into it, but then I end up leaving my Christmas decorating on for so long that it's actually worth the effort. to obtain it. true, and I know you probably have some inexpensive ideas that would make it look beautiful. Yeah, um, I think it was God. I've only had my mantle for less than three years, so I had to use my console table for my mantle for a long time, but I loved having it during the holiday season and covering up the faux greens I told you about.
I love using Mirrors On The Mantel in the centerpiece or art. There is a lot of digital art you can get now. seasonal it's so beautiful just on Etsy so maybe you can find some art that's like an ice skating pond or I even had one that was like a sheep herder just different winter scenes that are really fun you could hang the signs with the words that Have I had one that says hot chocolate station or something about Santa Claus? They're really fun for the Christmas season, but maybe in January what you could do is take the Christmas decorations off the Leave Your Greens mantel and add a winter scene, um.
Artistic image where the Christmas things were and that way you don't have to totally change the look, but it's refreshing for January and February and usually what I like to do for Christmas is just stagger things in threes at a time so that he sits. really balanced so I'll have my main mirror or art piece or sign of my greenery underneath and then I'll stagger some candles or something to fill that Center that's open if you don't have anything and you don't. I don't want to go buy anything and then wrap some empty boxes and make different cute wrapping papers and just put a bunchof different small gifts there.
I also took ornaments on hooks and hooked them directly to the greenery and made them really cute. little designs with embellishments in the greenery to add, you know, bring that color on top, yes, God, candles are fun, there are so many different things you can do on a shelf. I like your decorations. I was going to ask you how you did that because It looks very crowded a lot of times. I think that's the mistake I make with a lot of my Christmas decorating: not putting up enough so that you have more ornaments than I originally thought you would have, instead of just having a row of them, there are several. groups of them and then it's behind several layers of greenery, not just like a strand of Garland, yeah, I love it when people incorporate two or three different types of greenery because of the textures, if you like a pine and then a eucalyptus and, um, cedar and things like that, it's so beautiful to add those different textures and that's something that looks beautiful also during January and February, yeah, but yeah, there's so many things you can do and that year I got hooked on those ornaments I had a Lots of people ask about that, if I glued them together or how I did it so they wouldn't all fall at the same time and I think if one of my kids would have dropped it or thrown a ball at it or something like that.
It probably would have been gone, it was when they were collapsing, yeah, because I didn't. I want to glue everything up because I thought well, if I don't want to do the same thing next year then I want to be able to take it all apart so you know if you want to do something sturdier and You do not want. commit to gluing maybe you could use glue dots like removable glue dots to help hold things together, it works well for me just using the little hooks, you could probably also use wire and thread the wires like floral wire, something like that.
It would be nice if those stacked ornaments ended up being a lot of fun and it almost made my mantle feel as special as my Christmas tree because you know how sometimes you like to say you put all that effort into your tree and then you're like oh my mantle, right? what am I going to do with it? Yes it was fun to make them equally special that year so there are lots of things you can do just be creative yes yes it's really pretty and again you can just pull it out of your embellishment stash add them and then apply a coat of vegetation, you could even do a little imitation, something new.
I like the idea you were talking about with the packages, that's a really good thing for your whole house if you know you want to decorate any room. Putting together some really pretty bundles is a great tip because you can layer two or three in a corner or on a shelf. Can you give us some of your package tips because your packages are actually really pretty and I'm a person who rushes through this and ends up, you know like, oh, they're just going to open them up, but to keep them early and have them as decorations.
I imagine sometimes you break up too. I know you did it on the rope one, but even the packages underneath are there. like on a shelf, are you wrapping empty boxes because who buys that early? Yes, but I definitely don't. I just store like Amazon boxes all year round and I keep them in my storage room, yeah, or in your garage if I have to, because they add a lot and it's so much fun and my kids know not to get into them because they know they're empty, but I think you can find some really cute coordinating paper.
In fact, I found a very nice role in the family, is it the dollar? Tree the dollar store last year and they had some really cute different paper patterns, but they all seemed cohesive, so I grabbed five different ones from there and then a really good one that was a higher quality one, maybe from Hobby Lobby or me. I don't remember exactly where, maybe Walmart or something, and since I knew they would be just for decoration, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on expensive paper, but they looked really cute and when you coordinate them with the colors on your tree they just add another thing beautiful to look at under the tree and they make it feel special and then you can add your ribbons to it or the dollar store really has some cute things that you could go buy. little snowflake ornament or some little bells or something to add where your bow is and all that makes it all feel really whimsical and fun, yeah.
I was starting to think, what would happen if you left it open or wrapped it in such a way that one side you could open it and put a gift in later when that time comes. That way you could use it. That might be a good idea. Yes. I definitely have. If you're careful, just slide a small butter knife under the tape. Yes. Yes. Yes, because if you know that you want to decorate from the beginning, it's a really nice and inexpensive way to make things look full because you can stack them, you can layer them, but then when you actually bring a gift to your grandmother or you know your Aunt, yeah, I've never thought about that before, but now I notice it in my head, because for this, yeah, it would totally work, taking another quick break to tell you about the traditional skills school I told you about spoken.
This on this podcast before, but I had a chance to dive into some of the classes and they are so well done and informative and full of what you need to preserve food. Build a garden. Dairy farming. Ferment all the topics that a Many of you, if you listen to this podcast, are probably interested in traditional skills school, it is the perfect way to continue learning those skills because they are constantly adding new classes, all very well done, they have canned a pressure, pasture recovery, pasteurization, meat, chickens, gardening, curing. pork, a nutritious kind of bone broth with Sally Fallen Morel.
You can get all of this by visiting bit.lee, slash, Farm Skills again, that's bit.ly, slash, Farm Skill, enroll in traditional skills school and continue making your classes learn new things. that you can implement in your home and that will help you be more self-sufficient, it will save you money. There is a lot of good information there. I look forward to continuing to watch all of your classes as you post them again. That's bit.ly slash Farming skills, okay, share with us some of your favorite places to buy ornaments. I struggle with this. I have made handmade ornaments.
I've made, you know, ornament packs, but I feel like I've never found something I really love. I think because I like to change things a lot. I never spend a lot of money on expensive decorations. There are some you can get that are glass and they are so beautiful. I have little kids who break them so I just don't want to. I'll be heartbroken about it and I don't want to haunt my kids if they accidentally break one. I just don't want to do that, so yes, I usually buy the large ornaments in bulk from Hobby Lobby.
Walmart has some great ones um and then. Once I fill my tree with the simpler ones, then you can spend a little more on a six or ten pack of the fancier ones. I think when you mix the best and the cheapest, it can be. a really suitable variety and no one will look at it and think, oh that doesn't look very special or pretty because you have a mix of both. I think also getting a ribbon that is pretty and unique makes a big difference. I know it in my trees. I didn't always use to make ribbons, but in recent years I usually get two coordinating ribbons and put them together and wrap them around the length of the tree and then spread them apart a little so you can see. both ribbons and it just adds so much texture and variety to the tree and makes it so beautiful and that's another fun thing that you can coordinate with your wrapping paper with your gifts and then all of a sudden you have color and texture. and patterns and different types of things all over the tree that make it really fun to look at, yeah, so I would say for Walmart and Hobby Lobby ornaments they're great.
Amazon sometimes has good deals. Etsy maybe for the more special and unique ones if like Vintage, I know Grandin Road and Balsam Hill, they have more expensive, unique, beautiful and pretty glass, so if you wanted to give it different shapes, I think it was Grandin Road that emerged as a vintage line where they have the ornaments. They look like the ones my grandma used to put on her tree and they're like pastel pinks and greens and stuff like that, so they would be super cute and actually my grandma's tree was covered in tinsel and stuff like that.
Also, if you wanted to do a vintage theme, you could really have fun with that. Yeah, I remember doing that when we were kids too. My mom had the pencil there. Another thing she was thinking about was the tape using the tape you put on. on the tree and on the packages, did you ever take that and find a way to display it? What got me thinking was that you showed off your cookie cutters and other things you use and I've never done this before but I was just thinking. around the time you were saying it showing the tape somewhere, yeah, I think a Better Homes came.
I actually did a tablescape where I had a few different ribbons in an apothecary jar or one that I had just untangled all over the table, which was kind of cute. but I know I'm thinking of an idea that Michael was inspired by a shared amulet. Oh, I've seen the tape of him. It has a small cabinet. I love that it has those beautiful ribbons on reels in that cabinet. nice decorating idea, so that was fun and it's also nice because I always get really messy when I do all this, like I have ribbons everywhere and, you know, the tree ribbon, there's a ribbon that I've been putting on the packages and then I put it back in the bag so you know, just to put it away and sometimes you need a little bit more, like maybe a kid pulls on a bow and you want to add a bow to still have it out but out of reach, yeah, it seems a very good way to make it beautiful, but you can also take advantage of it whenever you bring in other greenery from outside quickly, you can wrap it because it's all good there, yeah, I love it and I think it's Another thing you could do for Budget Decor.
I used to have a console table that had two little shelves on the bottom and one year I made a basket full of faux wrapped gifts and then I put the paper tubes right next to them because they were such cute paper so I displayed them for that you could make another little basket with your ribbons in it and then all of a sudden it's like a reflection of a wrapping station, um, and it's got all the colors of the season, so yeah, I say go for it. what's functional for you is part of your decor and I think it's super cute for Christmas time yeah that's given me a lot of ideas with you making the bakery and the cookie cutters and leaving all this stuff out that I have to figure out how keep. away, yes, that's a very good idea, yes, okay, do you have any other tips, tricks, Christmas decorating ideas you want to mention or all your own?
I would just say: Find the meaning, make it your priority of the season to make things special, meaningful and symbolic one of my favorite things that we do too that are traditional is that we have this little, I think it's called The Giving manger. , it's a little manger with Jesus in it and it comes with these little pieces of straw and every time you go and do a service or something like that. For someone else, you can put a piece of straw in the manger and that helps us refocus our season on serving others and being like Christ, so that's important because that sets the tone for what Christmas is really about and My kids love leaving gifts for teachers and neighbors or doing surprise things like that since they know how to decorate for Christmas, so don't think too much about the decoration and just spend time with your family and create meaningful moments. gingerbread houses and cookies and having your own little Traditions, whether they're big or small, and that's what helps you avoid getting overwhelmed and burned out during the holiday season, which for moms I think is such an important thing to happen. because we have school. music concerts and end-of-season things and projects at school that are due and it gets to the point where so many things happen that I wonder: am I enjoying this season or am I surviving this season properly?
And I think so. save and defend time for the things that make you feel special and that make your family feel comfortable and fun, you know, watching a movie together or baking, you should make time for those things, so that you can look forward to the Christmas and not just that it's amazing. There's a lot going on and I also have the stress of buying gifts for everyone and planning ahead and preparing food and things like that, so I think that would be my biggest advice, yeah, if you don't want to decorate anything like you were saying. first fill the house with a Christmas aroma bake some cookies and play Christmas music and that could be maybe you don't even put up a tree but all that makes it seem like Christmas you could even just be evasive Green the aroma the music the cookies, you don't have to worry for none of this, so yes, refocusing is very good advice.
Yeah, I think when we think about what was most special to us growing up with Christmas, we don't necessarily remember specific things, it's more. of the feeling of the Christmas season, oh, absolutely, that's what we want for our children and for our family as well, is just to feel that, oh, this is a time of yearso magical and special mm-hmm, yes, yes, well, thank you very much for what you gave me. many good ideas. I'm looking forward to implementing many of them in my own home for anyone who wants more inspiration. Emily is mostly on Instagram, right.
I mean, I know you have YouTube and your blog, but where you share things in real time. is it on a handmade farm or is it just a handmade farm just handmade knit Farm is okay awesome thank you so much again for sharing thank you for having me. I had a great time, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the simple Farmhouse Life podcast, I hope. You have a lot of ideas again, be sure to check out Handmade Farmhouse. Also, it's been a while since I've asked everyone for a review, so if you're enjoying this podcast, it helps a lot when my listeners leave a review. so you know, a five star review on Apple will be very appreciated and whatever you want to say about it or even if you don't want to, include some of that and just give a review that would be very appreciated.
As always, thank you so much for listening and we'll see you on the next episode of this simple Farmhouse Life podcast, thank you.

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