And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Well, after a LONG absence...I'm back! It has been pure craziness around here, between our trip to Vegas, snotty noses and ear infections and pink eyes and coughing, Christmas decorations, gift-making...well, you know - it's that time of year!!

So here's a bit of what we've been up to around here...

The tree - as you can see, it's up on a small table. To protect it from small hands. I didn't put the breakables on it this year anyway, and Anthony and I made a good-old-fashioned paper chain to adorn its branches with color. The Dollar Tree has some great non-breakable snowflake ornaments this year, so some of those are on the branches as well. It's a totally different color theme than we've ever had before, but since I used paper and dollar store ornaments, I spent a total of about $5 on new stuff and got a whole new look!

The mantel - it's really shallow in this house - and with our frequent earthquakes, I can't really put anything breakable or big up there. My original thought was something fabric-covered. Running low on time, I ended up using wrapping paper!! I simply cut out three different sized triangles from a big cardboard box (we have PLENTY of those sitting in our garage - remember, we moved this year?) and covered them in wrapping paper. I just propped them against the wall, and laid a beaded garland in front of them. Simple. I like it. It added just the pop of color I was looking for, and since I already had everything on hand, it didn't cost me a dime.

The stockings - I wanted to make new stockings for all of us this year. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I went out to the www to look for inspiration, and found some beautiful stuff here and here and here. The weekend after Thanksgiving, Jo-Ann's had their Eco-Spun felt on sale for $1.99/yard - this is REALLY cool felt - it's acrylic, and it's made from recycled plastic bottles! How awesome is that?! At 60 inches wide, that's a LOT of felt for a little bit of dough!! Anyway, Anthony got his stocking with a train and his initial; the girls got matching stockings with "m" on an ornament, for now. Darrell got a football, and I got a bird on a branch. The pink and brown one is for my litle sister, and the tree and "snow flower," as my son calls it, are for my mom and grandma - they will all be spending Christmas with us. I finished them all last night.

The top of the bookshelf in my craft room - I love the beads in the vase - so simple and a nice pop of color.

My dollar store garlands - I got 2 snowflake garlands for a dollar each and cut them into 3 pieces each, and used double stick tape to hang them from the top of the cut-outs between my craft room and the family room. Then I took one pack of dollar store snowflake ornaments and one string of turqoise beads I got on clearance at Jo-Ann's for about 80 cents, and made some additional garland - and now I have a lovely snowflake mobile of sorts hanging down when I sit in my craft room and look towards the family room!

What frugal decorating ideas have you come up with this year? It's been a fun challenge to decorate on a budget!!