At Home: Holiday Inspiration

Hi everyone! Fairlight here, from flight of fancy designs. We are into December and Oh the holidays! They are here! It's time to celebrate. I'm so excited to get started. My list of "want to-do" is always ridiculously long and I have never once made it to the end of one. :) But oh well, there is always next year!

I always have great ambitions of making every. single. gift. on my list, new stockings, at least three new wreaths, a tree skirt, snow flakes for all of my windows, baked goods for all the neighbors and pastors and teachers, oh the list goes on and on. I love the collecting of ideas and inspirations, there is so much good stuff out there. No December is complete without pulling out all of my copies of past Dec. issues of my favorite magazines and spending an afternoon pouring through their pages. And even if I don't get the time (or energy) to do all the crafting and decorating I would like to do, the most important thing — spending time with my family —does happen.

photo © ethanollie

We always take an afternoon to decorate a gingerbread house together, go to the Festival Lights one night with friends, read our collection of Christmas books together, make and decorate sugar cookies and wrap our gifts together. We spend almost a week decorating our house and trees (one large, two small) and fresh gingerbread with real hot chocolate (hot milk with chopped Ghirardelli chocolate melted in) and everything topped with fresh whipped cream is a must while we watch Elf and White Christmas.

Today I wanted to share some of my favorite new inspirations from this year. I hope you have a wonderful month of holiday celebrating and find a bit of inspiration along the way as well.

Hanukkah is early this month and for some reason, ideas are slightly short on the ground, but I love these Hanukkah Window Stars

And this is great for little ones.

The Creative Jewish Mom always has some of the best ideas!

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I love making wreaths and I have about 7 at the moment but this seriously has my attention.

I also love this one too.

This one is pretty impressive too.

This one would be sweet to hang on a headboard or door handle.

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General craftiness of any kind is greatly encouraged in our house, here are some of our ideas this year.

I've already made a set of these and we all love them. They were an excellent and easy project!

How awesome is this Pottery Barn knock-off Noel sign?

Lavender and Coconut body scrub? Yes, please!

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I love advent calenders and here are a few of my favorites.

I love all the little boxes here.

And this mini muffin tin is darling and a space saver!

These cones would be super quick and easy too.

Grace of uncommon grace had some excellent advice and suggestions for celebrating Advent a few years ago. I still go back to them.

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

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Trees! Trees! Trees! Oh we love our Christmas trees!

This stand is very cool if you have an artificial tree.

I like this one for a real tree.

Or this.

I'm a total sucker for a live tree in an urn. Never mind that my urn is 3 ft. tall, pour concrete, and weighs in at close to 80lbs. I still love it!

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And isn't it the season for new recipes? These 3 have my attention and will be made very soon here!

This Cinnamon Honey Butter sounds divine.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting, yum yum!

This recipe for Candy Cane Truffles sounds pretty amazing too.

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Have a wonderful December with family and traditions, old and new. Sing some carols and light the menorah. Take a stroll through the neighborhood to see the lights. Have a snow ball fight (if you live up north) or make your own blizzard at home (if you live in the south.)
Eat some delicious food and enjoy the cocoa. After all, it is "the most wonderful time of the year!"

Somehow, not only for Christmas

But all the long year through,

The joy that you give to others

Is the joy that comes back to you.

~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's from my house to yours!

~ Fairlight

P.S. If you need some more inspiration try the the new e-zine Gifted found here. 223 online pages stuffed full of every delightful inspiration imaginable!