Your Questions Answered: Holiday Decorating

I would like to know your decorating plans for Christmas.

Oh, boy. I hate to say it but I am not a very festive decorator. It’s not that I’m against it or anything, but I just don’t really think to do it. I guess it doesn’t seem worth all the hubbub to me and, honestly, the red-and-green really clashes with the color scheme I’ve already going on in our décor!

However, I am trying, bit by bit, to adopt more of a holiday spirit. Which is why a couple of years ago, I picked up a silver miniature Christmas tree and some matching ornaments at an after-Christmas sale. And last year, I pulled out a nativity scene my parents had given me. And displayed some other festive odds and ends I’ve collected, slowly over the years. You can see my decorating from last year, which I chronicled in this post.

This year, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. It likely will be pretty close to what I did last year, although I think I would like to do a more woodsy theme (think white, green, and brown featuring branches, pine cones and acorns) than the traditional red-and-green. (Those of you who know me well in real-life are probably not surprised by that at all! For everyone else, I really love woodsy things. Remember the artwork over our couch? So much so that my favorite Halloween costume a couple years back was as a garden gnome, and I used to have a collection of miniature “woodland creatures” on my desk at work.) 

I’ve started collecting some ideas for easy decorating ideas that can last longer than just the month of December but be fitting for the entire winter season. (Gotta get your effort's worth out of the decorating, if you ask me!)

When I was in Anthropologie a couple of weeks ago, they had jars filled with acorns and wrapped with pretty ribbon that I thought I could co-opt. I’ve also had a hankering to try my hand at a tiny terrarium-esque display. And the blogsphere has been overflowing with cute, crafty ideas for homemade wreaths made of everything from yarn to book pages.

Here are some of my favorite holiday decorating posts that I've read online recently that have kick-started my inspiration or given me something poignant to think about:

• "The Use-What-We-Have Christmas" from Small Notebook (this really spells out my approach holiday decorating!)
• "DIY Holiday Wreaths" from Creature Comforts (TONS of crafty ideas!)
• "10 DIY Christmas Projects" from a.toodle.lee.do (including the book-pages wreath)

• "Emily Thompson Wreaths" from Design*Sponge (more wreath ideas using twigs, pine cones and bright ribbons, like the one pictured above)

• "Holiday Inspiration" pages that Marta Writes has collected from various magazines
• "Gifted Magazine" from Creature Comforts (this is an online magazine that features all sorts of holiday-related inspiration from gifts to fashion to decorating; definitely check it out!)

In all honesty, I probably won’t get around to decorating for another week or two, but this question has given me a good kick toward thinking more about my decorating ideas, which I obviously could use!

Do you have any other holiday-decorating resources or ideas to share? If so, link them up in the comments!

What Other Questions Do You Have For Me?
Recently, I invited you to ask me any questions you might have that I could answer in upcoming posts, whether it's follow-up regarding anything I've written about in the past, curiosities regarding any of my personal experiences, or your general blogging questions.

In the following weeks I will continue to respond to your questions, so please feel free to ask any that come to mind in the comments below or send me an email. I have some questions in the queue regarding my thoughts on faith, how I knew my husband was "the one," and how my baking soda shampoo is doing, so those and more to come!

(If you missed last week's Q&A, they were in regards to the fonts I use on my blog.)