Okio B Designs

I've been showing some of our Christmas touches for the past couple of weeks now. Here are a few more to share.

The $24.99 Target wreath that I snagged for $3 at our local church thrift store. The Merry Christmas sign is from Walmart. I wanted to keep it simple.

Some bells and greenery hangs from our porch light.

Santa has definitely come to town! Here...

And here.

Snowman hat on a stack of books.

Can't forget the bathroom! And, of course, wishing everyone:

Peace...

On earth!

Jeanine

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Tinkering with some Dollar store match boxes over the weekend and came up with some petite pretties.

I used some French book paper and religious images found on Etsy to dress them up. Slide open the box and...

You find a little surprise inside. A small square religious metal - also made using the Etsy images.

These would be sweet to give as a gift, but I must admit...these are for me!

Jeanine

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I've had this vintage milk bottle carrier for a couple of years now. I dress it up and down depending upon the season. I gave it a quick holiday makeover and have it on the trunk we use as a coffee table in our livingroom.

I made the wood pieces quite a few years ago and break them out every December.

I added some Mason jars and festive candy to add a touch of color.

A quick update to a favorite vintage piece!

Jeanine

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I picked up a few Xmas ornaments over the weekend at our local Dollar store. They are super cute and glittery, but definitely missing a little something-something.

I can't make a paper snowflake to save my life so I immediately grabbed a three-pack of these glitter snowflakes. I printed out some religious images onto label paper to start.

The images are super small which was ideal for this project because the middle of each snowflake is no bigger than an inch and a half.

Next, I cut out some French book paper and distressed it a bit. I added a strip to each snowflake with a good ol' fashioned glue stick.

Loving them so much more now that they have a Frenchy touch! I also picked up two glittery bells.

They got a Frenchy touch too. Une etoile means star.

And jouir means to enjoy. I used vintage French flashcards and tea-stained seam binding to add to each bell.

I love that I have some new Xmas ornaments for only $3!

Jeanine

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Sadly, we do not have a mantle in our home. Every Xmas I wish we did. Since we don't, I have to create a makeshift mantle of sorts out of the corner cabinet in our dining room.

I dress up the top of each year as if it were a mantle. This year, I have a bunch of jars with bottle brush trees, a cloche, an apothecary jar filled with decorated matchboxes and this bird cage that is up year-round. This year I added some faux greenery.

I added my star garland after I took the first picture. I used some pre-cut, self-sticking stars and twine to create the garland.

The cabinet houses my snowman collection.

I gave my vintage typewriter a holiday touch as well.

Yesterday we put up our outside Xmas lights. I'm still in the process of dressing up our porch.

Jeanine

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I survived Thanksgiving! Hope you did too! Our Xmas decorations are in full swing now given that according to my 6 year old, there are 26 more days til Xmas.

This was a Pinspiration. I found something similar on Pinterest but now I can't for the life of me find the pin to show you. I believe the pinner used metal letters to create their banner. Mine are wood (from A.C. Moore) but I painted them a metallic silver for more of a metal look.

I hot glued beer tabs (yes, beer tabs!) to the backs of each letter so I could string them along a piece of twine. This is is tied to our faux wrought iron bed.

A sweet little holiday touch for the bedroom.

Jeanine

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Image courtesy The36thAvenue.com

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Jeanine

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Brrrrrr...it's been bitterly cold here and we're waiting to hear if we're going to be hit by this crazy storm that is headed towards the East Coast. Since the theme of the day seems to be snow, I thought I'd share some of my wintery snow globes and Christmas cloches.

I have these all about the house this year. This one is housing a glittery church ornament I picked up at Walmart. No, that is not dust on top of the glass. See that chalkboard behind it? My 6 year old was blowing chalk right before I snapped this picture. Yes, blowing chalk. Nice, eh?

Some new snow globes I made last week using glass jars from our local church thrift store. My faux snow is Epsom salt.

Mason jar snow globes from last year. Above and below.

This cloche is hard to make out but it's holding a bottle brush tree from Home Goods and one of the altered Santa tins I did a few weeks ago.

I do this scene every year in our kitchen. I love the play on whites and you'll notice yet another cloche holding a bird.

I'm hoping anyone in the path of the storm stays safe and warm!

Jeanine

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I love dressing up this vintage school desk we have in our diningroom. Of course, 'tis the season for some Christmas touches.

I did a Pottery Barn knock-off with the noel letters. I've been wanting to do it for literally two years. I finally remembered to pick up the letters during my last trip to A.C. Moore.

The snowman and reindeer are from Home Goods. I made the framed holiday sheet music using a graphic from The Graphics Fairy and Dafont for the lettering: Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.

I also added some handmade Joyeux Noel clothes pins and ornaments I picked up from Kohl's last year. The bird candleholder is from the Dollar store and the little embellished book is tucked there year-round.

I'm definitely getting into the holiday spirit!

Jeanine

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We have this itty bitty piece of wall in our livingroom. It's hard to dress up because it is just so, well, small. It is, however, the perfect size for these JOY picture frames.

I picked up the frames at our local Dollar store. Never mind that candleholder sticking out. It's on the opposite wall and I just couldn't get a good camera angle with it there. You can see it below too - doh! And my spacing is a little off but I refused to put another nail in the wall.

I used DaFont.com to create each letter and then printed them onto white cardstock. Cut them down to size, stick them in the frames and done!

Quick, easy and a super cheap Xmas decoration.

Jeanine

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I always have a bunch of Dollar store prayer candles lying around. Each year, I try to do a new style for Xmas.

This year, I started by wrapping each candle in vintage sheet music. I picked up the glitter stars from Michael's. They are self-sticking so I added one to the front of each candle.

I added some rhinestone bling above the stars. If you remember, I picked up a French dictionary over the summer. I flipped through the pages and took out the ones that had joyeux and noel.

I photocopied the pages, cut them down and glued them to the front of each star. Just the right Frenchy touch for the season!

Jeanine

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I was able to hit a couple of garage sales this weekend. The season seems to be winding down here so it was slim pickings.

I did find a bunch of holiday items. A white ceramic Xmas tree, another wreath, gingerbread prims and some vintage glass ornaments.

I really love this tree. You probably can't tell but it's a little sparkly. Not sure if I'm going to leave it as is or dress it up.

I also picked up a few glass jars for mini snow globes. The glass candleholders are already holding candles under some rusty springs I picked up a few weeks ago.

I spent $7 on everything. Kind of sad the garage sale season is over but I'm sure I'll be busy decorating for Xmas over the next couple of weekends.

Jeanine

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I popped into our local Dollar store earlier this week. They had these adorable reindeer ornaments. I scooped up two and gave them a quick Xmas makeover.

You've probably seen similar reindeer on Pinterest. I know, I myself, pinned a few different glitter versions.

For mine, I snipped off the cord that you would hang them with. Then, I printed off the words wish and believe using my favorite carnival font from DaFont.com onto plain white paper.

I cut the words down so they'd fit around the reindeers' necks, and stuck them on using Glue Dots.

Not bad for $2!

Jeanine

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I never realized how late Thanksgiving was this year. Quite funny that our holiday decorations will be going up before turkey day. I don't think that's ever happened before. Anywho, I was tinkering with some skeleton keys over the weekend and decided to make some into Christmas ornaments.

I chose some festive ribbon to start. Then one by one, I started adding little embellishments to each one.

I hand-stamped the Joyeux Noel onto plain white paper and distressed it a bit. You can see some Scrabble tile "plaques" I also have in the works at the top of this photo.

For the other two keys, I used a random scrapbook paper number 3 that my Mom gave me a couple of weeks ago. The 25 is a wood piece from the calendar I picked up over the weekend from a local church fair. The December is also from that calendar stash.

I used Glue Dots to adhere each embellishment, so they can be pulled off down the road and the keys can be used for another project.

Jeanine

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I have to thank my sister Kathy for pinning this great technical drawing of a Lego onto Pinterest. My boys are both Lego fanatics and I knew they would love something like this for their rooms.

The one that was pinned, I believe was from Gilt.com and was $65. Ouch! My version cost about $4. I picked up the frame from our local church thrift store for $1. I spray painted it black and cleaned up the glass.

Over the weekend I picked up the frame mat from Michael's. It was $2.99 with 25 percent off. I printed off the image (found on the internet) onto cardstock and it fit beautifully.

This one is in the 8 year old's room. The 6 year old is anxiously awaiting his. Hoping to find another cheap frame Friday at the thrift store. Fingers crossed!

Jeanine