Every time a bell rings, I burn myself with a glue gun.

I don't know what my deal is, but this year, I have been ALL ABOUT Christmas. It's like my holiday spirit had been quashed in previous years by a 70-hour work week and crippling anxiety over the billable quotient of those 70 hours. Now that that particular stress has been lifted, it's like I have been infected with Christmas cheer. (What? I just like to smile. Smiling's my favorite!) Believe me, it's as painful as it sounds. Anyway, poor Mark has had to bear the brunt of my "cheer." The poor thing has been force fed Christmas carols and made to participate in decorating the crap out of the house. He mostly finds me amusing (thank GOD), but I fear he is reaching his limit. Luckily the rest of my plans are of the baking variety. Whew!

Just so you can feel bad for my poor, sweet husband, though, here's a peek at what we've been up to:

I saw this on Suburban Bliss years ago and have been shamelessly copying ever since. So cute, right?

I actually stuffed clear glass ornaments with fake snow and then strung them up with ribbons. This was when Mark began seriously questioning my sanity, in case you were wondering.

Hey, you know what's a BAD idea? Covering your entire house in pine garland about an hour before company is due.

God bless the Dyson.

This is the main tree. I love the look of all of the fancy themed trees I've been seeing online, but am staunchly opposed to them in my own home. This one is covered in old, mismatched, keepsake ornaments, and I wouldn't have it any other way. My mom even made that tree skirt when I was little. LOVE IT.

I hot glued bead garland to a candle. Back away from the Pinterest, woman.

I cannot begin to describe how annoyed I am by that votive on the left that is not equally spaced. I'm too lazy to go take another picture, but don't worry, I fixed it.

I even bought sparkly crap to shove into the pine garland. WHO AM I?

I take no credit -- this one is all Mark.

It's a Red Sox themed village. See Fenway in the back there?

See that circle-y thing on the red ribbon? I hot glued tiny clothespins to an embroidery hoop, then spray painted it all silver and hung it up there to display Christmas cards. To date, we have received exactly ONE CARD. What the hell, people?

This is my favorite. I have been lobbying hard for a real tree for years, and Mark (rightly) refuses, because we travel for the holidays and it would be a pain to de-tree before leaving. However, when he spotted this little guy at the garden center, he snagged it for me. How cute is that?

I hosted a holiday brunch for a few friends last weekend, and we're having a bunch of Mark's college friends for dinner on Sunday. Because it is Christmas season, I am totally using it as an excuse to bust out the fancy china and crystal. Ordinarily I fear making people feel uncomfortable with fussy dishes, but whatever. It's the HOLIDAYS. I am ALLOWED.

Ok, on tap for next week:

• Recap of the weekend entertaining festivities
• The beginning of the kitchen mini-makeover

Have a good weekend!

Is it crafty in here?

Ok!  So, first project!  It seems that Easter has kind of become our holiday.  For the second year in a row, both my parents and my in-laws are coming, and this year we will be joined by my grandma, my husband's brother, and my sister and brother-in-law, as well as my brother-in-law's parents.  For those keeping count at home, we're up to 12, which is CAPACITY for this little house.  Pray for good weather so we can send everyone out on the deck, mmkay?

Anyway, I really like setting a pretty table, and this year we have the new wedding china and crystal to use.  I know that I am the only one who will really pay attention to all of these little details, but they make me happy, so there you go.  I saw these little place card holders at Pottery Barn and promptly fell in love:

However, I definitely did not love the $32 price tag for a set of 4, seeing as I would need 3 sets of 4.  So?  I decided to do it myself.  I headed to Michael's and picked up the following:

-- Mini flower pots  (actually, these were from Home Depot -- $.99 each)
-- Floral oasis
-- Moss
-- Ribbon
-- Decorative thingies -- eggs, flowers, chicks, etc.
-- Place cards
-- Glue Gun!

Yesterday afternoon, I finally got to work.  I made a prototype, and it actually came out pretty cute.  Believe me, no one was more surprised than I.

So here is what I did; your experience/taste may vary.  First, I cut the oasis into cubes, which made it easier to smoosh into the little flower pots.

I stacked the cubes in the pots and cut smaller chunks to fill in the open spaces.  I did not glue the oasis into the pots, because I recently saw this and fully intend to reuse the pots later.  Yum.  Okay, where were we?  Right, they should look like this-ish:

Then it's time for the moss, which was the most unpleasant part of the process.  It's messy, it's stinky, and the hot glue makes it even stinkier, but the gross is relatively short lived.  I pulled off pieces of the moss and arranged it over the top of the oasis, then glued everything down with a good layer of hot glue.

It doesn't have to be totally perfect; you can decorate over gaps or stick more moss in later if you find a bald spot.  Then it's time to decorate.  I snipped the flowers off of the larger wire stems, then put a dab of glue on the base of the individual flower stem, then just kind of stuck them into the moss in the center of the pot, holding it in place until the glue firmed up.

I used 2-3 flowers, 2-3 eggs, and a chick for each pot.  I centered the flowers, just kind of tucked the eggs in where they fit, and put the chick in the front.

Next up is the actual name tag.  I found little Easter themed place cards at Michael's and figured they would work fine.  I folded them over, then glued a toothpick inside.

Take your place card and just stick it into the oasis in the back of the pot.  Last step is the finishing ribbon.  (I measured out one piece, then used it as a guide to cut the remaining 11, just to be sure I wouldn't run out of ribbon, which would so be my luck.)  I folded the ribbon in half to find the center, then put a little dab of glue in the center of the ribbon.

I took the bit of glued ribbon and attached it to the middle of the back of the pot.  From there, I wrapped the ribbon around to the front, and loosely tied it once.  I stuck another dab of glue right behind the tie, then finished it with a little bow.

DONE!!  It took about two hours, start to finish, to do all 12, and saved me over 50% from the Pottery Barn originals.  Perhaps there is something to this DIY stuff....