Tuesday, December 8, 2015

COZY CHRISTMAS SATURDAY

Still catching up from taking a week off from blogging...I wanted to share about our cozy Christmas Saturday. We had planned on decorating the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and thankfully everything went as planned! It was the perfect day to just lounge around after the holidays. We got home at a reasonable time on Friday so I made sure to have all of our fall decorations up by that night and our whole apartment cleaned!

 I woke up early and started the hot chocolate and sausage balls, and then started pulling Christmas decorations out of boxes. It is just so exciting going through all of our Christmas decorations and finding a few pieces I had forgotten about lol.

So here's the deal with our fireplace. We have a gorgeous white mantel, but a wood burning fireplace. 1. We didn't want to spend money on fire logs, ash bucket, and the fireplace tool set. 2. We have heard they are very messy and we didn't want to get stains on the carpet around the fireplace...hello deposit money lol. So we put the "crackling fire" from Netflix on TV and put candles in the fireplace. We used leftover pillar candles from our wedding so it didn't cost us a thing and still looked great. Plus it was not cold enough for a fire, it was around 65 that day! I really, really love our white mantel!

Matthew played some Xbox while I sorted through all of our decorations. We ended up throwing away a good bit. Some stuff had been broken and some were really cheap pieces I had bought for my college apartment and we both didn't really like them. We kept the perfect amount and I've been picking up a small piece here or there when I see a good deal (aka Target dollar section. It's on point this year with their Christmas decorations) 

I really wanted something for our mantel. Whether it be long garland draping off the sides or a bigger piece in the middle. I looked all over, but just wasn't willing to drop some serious cash on anything this year (I'll check back when it's on sale after Christmas!) So I looked through our stuff and decided to use what we had. The garland is just two really thin pieces of tree garland I had bought for something a couple of years ago and ended up not using it. I twisted them together and the wrapped a string of lights we already had around them. I thought about adding some ornaments to it, but really just loved the way it looked without them. 

The gold trees are beautiful! This picture doesn't do them justice. My mema bought them at Hobby Lobby a few months ago and then decided she didn't have room for them so she just gave them to us. I saw them last time we were there and they retail for $40 a piece!!!!! I about died.
The red and white presents I found at Hobby Lobby last year a couple of weeks after Christmas for about $5 a piece! They are metal and I think they look so good against the white!

We are using my 6ft Christmas tree that I used in my college apartment. It's small, but the perfect size for us this year! We did by new ornaments so that they would all match lol. We found them at Target. The lights we put on our tree are also from my mema. She didn't need them anymore since she bought a pre-lit tree last year and she was just going to throw them away, so I happily took them off her hands ;) Our tree skirt we found at Kirklands! I was really wanting a red plaid one and they had one and it was on sale...score! We also bought our stockings there for a really good price!

I found these placemats at Essex's last year on sale. Something about that Christmas plaid just gets me every.single.time. I love it!! The napkins rings I found at Belk last year after Christmas for .50 a piece! I bought 6 because I had no idea where we would be living or what kind of table we would have. I like to have extra than not enough, and they were so cheap lol. 

I love our little apartment and I LOVE it decorated for Christmas. So cozy and relaxing. I absolutely love coming home and plugging the tree and mantel as soon as I walk in the door. I just love Christmas time. 

We spent the day listening to Christmas music and decorating, watching Christmas movies, napping, snacking on sausage balls, Matthew played some Xbox while I finished addressing Christmas cards, then we made his favorite Hot Chicken Pasta for dinner, watched some of the Egg Bowl and Preds game and went to bed pretty early. It was the perfect, perfect day. 

Let our first married Christmas begin! 

22 comments:

  1. Everything looks great! I love the garland on the mantel and the candles in the fireplace are so romantic and cozy! Also, those napkin rings are the cutest!

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  2. Happy First Married Christmas season! Your place looks so wonderful! The placemats and tree skirt are perfect!

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  3. Love the candles in your fireplace!! So festive and just as pretty as a real fire!

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  4. Your home looks so beautiful! First married Christmas is truly the best.. I remember ours so so fondly! Praying you enjoy a sweet celebration as I type this comment! XO

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  5. Your home looks lovely! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas. <3

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  6. I love, love, love how you decorated for Christmas! It's so simple and elegant!
    Happy first married Christmas!!!

    www.suzannehines.org

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  7. That sounds like a perfect day! Your mantel & fireplace look gorgeous!!
    Kelsey
    www.thepeacockroost.com

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  8. oh your decorations are so lovely! very festive! I love this season!
    xo,
    nancy

    http://www.adoretoadorn.com

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  9. Love your Christmas decor! And the first married Christmas is a special one. Enjoy!!

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  10. Your holiday decor is gorgeous!!! I love your table linens and your fireplace candles... did you know they have an app for the fireplace? I found it on my mom's phone this weekend and I just about DIED laughing.

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  11. I love all your holiday decor. Your apartment is so cute and cozy. Next year I'm going to borrow your idea for "Cozy Christmas Saturday." Such a great tradition to start!

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  12. That sounds like the best day ever!! I love all your decorations and totally thought you bought your fireplace garland like that! I am so with you on waiting till after Christmas to buy some new decorations. I completely forgot about a few of the things I bought last year so that was a nice surprise finding those things this year :)

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  13. I love everything about your Christmas decor! You did an awesome job and I love those placemats as well as the metal gifts by the fireplace! Your day decorating sounds like the perfect lazy day! :)

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  14. Your place is looking really festive! I especially love the garland around the fireplace. The first year of marriage is something else aint it? .. Happy Holidays to the two of you.

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  15. Your home is so festive and fun, lady! I love your tree and what you decided to do with the fire place. Thanks for linking up.

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  16. Your house looks AMAZING! I'm loving those plaid placemats and really need to try out this crackling fire on Netflix, haha!

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  17. Your home is beautiful. I especially love the candles in the fireplace. Great job!

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  18. Your home is beautiful and so cozy! I am in love with red plaid too! It just feels so Christmasy. :) Love all of your great seasonal finds, I'm always on the hunt at the end of a season for deals as well.

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  19. Thanks my friend for sharing this interesting “Christmas” post!! We also had a blasting Christmas evening with my family. We attended one of the biggest Christmas events at domestic LA venues. It was so huge and fantastic event. I am so glad that I took my family to that show!!

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  20. Love your Christmas mantel,everything looks so cute! Hope you enjoyed your first Christmas together!

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  21. Love your Christmas mantel,everything looks so cute! Hope you enjoyed your first Christmas together!

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Your comments always make my day!