Anne Hogan

We all know that Pinterest isn’t an accurate reflection of real life, but just how inaccurate is it? My cousin came over recently and when she looked around my living room she said that my Pinterest boards all made sense, because she could see the style reflected in my home. It was a tremendous compliment, but it got me thinking. How well do my boards reflect my real life? Let’s take a look….

My Pinterest weekend look…

My real life weekend look (with a bonus look at my real life bedroom)…

My Pinterest dinner…

My real life dinner…

My Pinterest dining room…

My real life dining room…

Those are just a few highlights. How about you? How does your Pinterest life stack up to your real life?

Well, I finally got around to taking down my Christmas decorations! I’m counting it as a victory, even if the boxes are still stacked up in the living room. You know what else I did? I decorated my mantle for winter, and I love it!

I used a big metal star from Target – it has the look of galvanized steel, plus some glitter, plus it’s feather light. I lurve it. I also used some beachy hurricanes that my aunt got me for Christmas, and the faux mercury glass candle holders from Target that I’ve been using to decorate everything for the past three years. Those burlap and glitter birdhouses are actually Christmas ornaments. If you look closely, you can see that they say Christmassy things, but if you don’t look too closely, they just look like fancy script. The pearl branch things are from Michael’s and adorned my Christmas tree last year. The starfish garland has also been on my Christmas trees for the past two years.

That was a lot of information about the assorted junk on my mantle.

So there it is, my winter mantle. I know I’ve only done three mantles so far (Halloween, Christmas, and now this one) but this is by far my favorite. I think I’m finally getting the hang of this mantle thing.

Welcome, come on in!

I love decorating for Christmas, and even more than that, I love showing off my decorations. So come on in for the full tour!

One of the first things you’ll notice is my starfish tree in the entry way. I think this might be my favorite tree this year. Don’t tell the others.

You’ve already seen the gingerbread village in my dining room.

And you’ve also seen the gingerbread wreath in my kitchen.

I also gussied up my oven with some adorable kitchen towels.

Next we’ll move into the living room, where I really went all out. I even changed out the curtains. The pattern is small, so it’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but they’re covered in little stockings. I used the same fabric to make pillow cases for the couch.

If you’ll turn to the right, you’ll see my lighted rag garland and matching rag wreath from last year.

And if you look a little closer, you’ll see that I even decorated all of the cubbies.

Now turn around and check out my mantle. I don’t totally love it, but I think my favorite part is the Santa hats I put on my elephants.

I used the mantle to display all of the ornaments that I love, but just didn’t fit on one of my theme trees. My Tri Delta ornaments, Diet Coke, and the Gators.

And finally, the piece de resistance, the big tree. I did something totally different this year and went with lots of bright, bold colors and a kitschy mix of felt and glitter. I am totally in love with it.

So, that’s my holiday home! Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed seeing my decorations!

I cannot believe that this is the first craft I’ve done in my new apartment! I guess I just haven’t been in “craft mode” lately. But I’m really happy with the way my gingerbread wreath turned out – this is an idea I’ve had for a few weeks and finally got around to making this weekend.

It was super easy to make. You need a styrofoam wreath form, some fabric with a small print, felt, scissors, straight pins, a big embellishment (I used a glittery gingerbread ornament), and ribbon. I forgot to put the ribbon in this picture. So sue me.

First you’ll want to cut your fabric into two inch strips and wrap it around the form, securing it with straight pins. Easy peasy.

Then make some felt rosettes. Just cut some circles out of felt – I’m not gonna lie, this gave me some carpel tunnel flashbacks to my fall felt wreath – but you don’t need that many. I didn’t count, I just cut them until I ran out of red felt. Making the rosettes is really simple. Just fold your circle in half, then in half again, then pin the point to the wreath. Once you cluster them all together they’ll stand up and fluff out.

[Sidebar: I'm obsessed with my nail polish. Just thought I'd share.]

Keep going with the rosettes until you have about a fourth of the wreath covered. Or however much you think looks best. I’m not the boss of you.

You’re almost done! Now just cut a length of ribbon so your wreath hangs at the height you want. Since I used an ornament as my embellishment, it already had a nice jump ring at the top to string the ribbon through. Then use a pushpin to secure it to the top of your door.

Ta da! Super simple, but I love the way it looks!

It’s that time of year – I’m breaking out my gingerbread village! I think my gingerbread collection is my favorite part of my holiday decorations. It just makes me happy.

This year it lives on the sideboard in my dining room, with my pink tree as the centerpiece. And thanks to my DSLR, I can finally take a picture of said tree with the lights on!

I just love these little guys!

I have two very pretty, but very un-Christmassy French watercolors hanging above the sideboard, so I covered them up with some gingerbread placemats.

On one side of the tree I have my miniature village, complete with dog houses.

And on the other side is a somewhat random collection of things. I know I need to get some real photos for those frames, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I just love having my whole collection (minus my Lennox gingerbread, which I was nervous about putting on a cheapo miniature tree) in one place.

So that’s my gingerbread village! Have you started decorating yet? Do you have a special holiday collection that you love?