I'm not one to dress the house for shorter lived, child-centric holidays like Easter and Halloween, but when it comes to Christmas, well, come on, it's Christmas!
How can you not LOVE decorating for the holidays? It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Much to my husband's dismay, I start listening to Christmas songs the beginning of November, and try my hardest to get our tree up then as well. I compromise and wait until the end of November to deck the halls, but if I were a bachelorette, I would probably be one of those crazies who keeps her tree up all year. Yup, that's me :)
Back to my holiday decor...
I am a firm believer of decorating within the parameters of your style. If you live in a modern, minimalistic home, then frou frou red and gold frillies and ornate velvet stockings might not work. I like holiday decor that jives with my home's identity (although I'm still not quite sure what it is), and transitions well into New Years too. I've got a lot of gold, silver, and muted bluey green tones, so that is what I stick with for the holidays.
This year, I had a very late revelation that I NEEDED a tassel garland. Thank you Andrea (of Andrea + Chris + Our Chaos) for single handedly almost ruining Christmas for me ( I kid, I kid!). I decided that if I didn't have a tassel garland too, that I would become a very grumpy Grinch.
Andrea ordered hers from The Flair Exchange and I am in lurve with the seaside garland. I want, I want. I've seen these tassel garlands around for a while, but for some reason it just didn't click with me until the holidays that I really needed one. Unfortunately, I leave in 6 days for the in-laws, and I doubt my "flair" would arrive in time for me to enjoy it.
I found quite a few tutorials online that explain the process. It doesn't look difficult, but it does look time consuming. Considering I just placed some of my hair follicles in a petri dish to try and see if I could grow myself a clone, time is not something I have a plenty. And, I couldn't find any good coloured tissue paper or mylar to work with, so I scrapped that idea. What to do, what to do?
Make an easy, quicker version, I guess?
Although all of the required supplies are available at the dollar store, I found some cheap glittery garland from Canadian tire for $2 a piece. I bought 2 of them, and then later saw the same ones at the dollar store for $1.25 each. Just so you know..
Only two other supplies were used for this DIY. A rope and floral tape (both on hand but originally purchased from the dollar store and readily available anywhere). I cut the garland (I used two different shades of gold) to lengths that I liked once folded in half, wrapped around the rope, and used floral tape to wrap around to keep it put. To be honest, I didn't have much hope for how it would turn out; I also didn't have much to lose.
Low and behold, it worked! Cha ching! No no, it's no tassel garland, but for a quick and cheap DIY, it does the trick. It's so sparkly and blingy, and makes me want to host a NYE party. No, not really.
It dresses up my favourite piece of furniture as well, a danish modern sideboard I refinished a few years back.
I am still going to order the Seaside garland because it's just perfect for my house!
Have you ever bought or made a tassel garland? Do you keep it up all year? Because I'm pretty sure I would.