After Christmas Holidays and When Christmas Ends

 

                                            After Christmas Holidays and When Christmas Ends

Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday time. Now what? When do we take the Christmas lights down? When should we remove Christmas decorations? How long do I really want to leave things up inside the house, and outside too. Questions of right away, or how long is the right time to then remove things. Many thoughts, and ideas about these questions are shared by many people everywhere. 

First of all for me I am disappointed about how fast Christmas disappeared with many businesses. Use to be a really big thing the 1st 2 days after Christmas was doing returns of items received. This would take place because maybe an item was the wrong size, item does not work, item broke, maybe an item was duplicated in receiving, unfortunately maybe not real pleased with what was received, and there are many reasons for all the returns and exchanges after Christmas. This year after Christmas going into a store sometimes we are anxious to look at christmas decorations, and decor with all the major mark downs. Not as much was seen as I am use to seeing from the past years. Also, Valentines items were already being put out. Christmas is done, push it out, onto the next. So very sad because Christmas is a special time of year with many thoughts, feelings, and beliefs too. 

Something I was also reminded of was that the twelfth day of Christmas was known as the Twelfth night before the feast of the Epiphany, the coming of the wise men to visit the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. The twelfth night may have signaled the end of Christmas for some. Others have celebrated with feasts, games, and plays. So, then does Christmas end on January 5th, or January 6th. The end of the festive season is on January 6th. It’s an ancient Christian feast day that celebrates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, and with the arrival of the Three Wise Men. 

So, when many leave all the lights, and decorations up for everyone to see some of the reasoning is because officially Christmas is not over. Others leave things up because they like it, and want to. When some do remove Christmas they still leave some things out that they feel relates to winter. Such things like pine, snowmen, cardinals, angels, trees, reindeer, and whatever else they feel appropriate.

So, if you pulled everything right away that is fine, and that is your choice to do so. If you leave things up longer for whatever reason you have that is also acceptable too. Here we still have everything up inside the home, and outside too. Everything is lit up every night, and I so enjoy it all yet. I smile when I see others doing the same thing too. There is no right, or wrong choice to the decision that we make. Please respect the decision of everyone with this issue, and remind yourself that there are reasons for everyone to do what they do. 

I am happy you stopped by LilacsNDreams today, and I Thank You for the visit. Till the next time everyone be safe, and enjoy what you do. Take care!

Merry Christmas Happy Holidays to All

 

Merry Christmas Happy Holidays to Everyone

Hi, and welcome to LilacsNDreams everyone! Wow! In a couple of days it is Christmas Day! Many will be celebrating at that time, some will wait till the weekend, some might celebrate a week later. Whenever you have chosen LilacsNDreams would like to wish you all well during this time. Save travels, enjoy the time making memories, I hope everyone has some where to go or can celebrate with someone for the holiday. Making the best of this time that we can. 

Take care everyone, and enjoy your celebrations in all you do. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!! Happy Holidays, and be safe in all you do. Take care, and see you again soon. Happy Holidays from LilacsNDreams!!

Christmas Holiday Celebrations With Family and Friends

 

                                       Christmas Holiday Celebrations With Family and Friends

Hi! Welcome to LilacsNDreams everyone! Christmas Day is almost here. A week from Wednesday already. Whew! Seems to be coming at us just a little quicker. So, are you ready for the celebrations? I so hope that everyone has some where to be, someone is visiting you, that you are able to celebrate Christmas in some way with family, friends, church, and pray you will not be alone. 

I have loved Christmas as a child, and still enjoy celebrating the time with family, friends, neighbors, and we have always cooked meals, and opened our doors so no one has to be alone. This year is a little different for us, and a first time I am having mixed emotions about. We had made plans to travel to my sisters for Christmas on the weekend after Christmas Day. I reserved the motel for a couple nights, and we were going to sit and discuss the menu when I was there in person for the night. Well, before I could get there to talk with her I received a message that her, and her son decided that they would do Christmas on Christmas Day, and we could get together another time. I understand things being difficult this year, we are all dealing with things. But, I can say I am a little hurt by this, and feel cut off too. I did spend the night there, and celebrated Grand Daughters birthday, and my sister said nothing to me. It’s like it never happened, and it was no big deal. For first time for Christmas we are kind of left sitting. 

So, now with this change of not celebrating the following weekend with family, schedules have changed a bit. On Christmas Eve I will be house/dog sitting for our friends so they can spend the night with their family celebrating. Then, since our plans changed my husband will then be taking his boss’s load so he can make a little money, and his boss…our friend can spend time with his wife’s family celebrating on Christmas Eve. Nothing like what was planned, and I am still in awe of how my sister cancelled us out. But, it is what it is. We will make do ourselves here. 

I so wish for everyone to be able to celebrate Christmas in some way, some where. I truly do. It’s a special time of year that I hold precious, and just wish the best for everyone at this time of year. So, I am wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!! Happiest of New Year to all from LilacsNDreams. Take care, have fun, be safe, and enjoy the holiday everyone!!

Christmas Decorations Lighting For The Home

 Christmas Decorations and Lighting For The Home

Hi! Welcome to LilacsNDreams! First week of December is now passed. How is everyone doing with Christmas? Are we in the shopping mood for gifts, or maybe in the festive mood for decorating. We have been busy here ourselves with decorating inside, and outside the home. The outside is almost done. Just waiting on a couple of shipments to finish off the porch rails, and the door cover with a decorative arch that is being put there too.

I did get some pictures of things right now. The inside has some done with daylight, and then a couple were done with evening and lights on. 

All of these pictures are in the living room, or big old bay window we have, the buffet in dining area, and wall in the back entry way. I noticed I forgot the 1 wall in the dining area that has an old sewing machine sitting there, and old lamp from my grandmother, and I have christmas wording with lighted jars and a lighted candle there too. Usually have just a little bit more done, but still did quite a bit for this year. 

These next set of pictures will be from the outside of the home. Lights on the bushes, along the back fence, above the garage door, and going towards the front porch.

Our bay window has Mr and Mrs Santa Claus standing there with some lighted gifts, lighted post stands, and lighted white deer below them too.

The porch was not pictured fully because waiting on shipment for the lighted garland we got, the door cover, and then the decoration for around the door needs to be added too. 

LOVE decorating for Christmas! It’s fun, and to watch the expressions from people passing by, and seeing the kids faces gives us much joy in doing this too.

Hope this finds everyone doing well, and surviving all the craziness with the season too. Thanks for visiting with LilacsNDreams! Have fun, enjoy, and take care everyone! See you again soon. 

Happy Holidays Christmas Time at LilacsNDreams

Happy Holidays Christmas Time at LilacsNDreams

Welcome to LilacsNDreams everyone! I hope everyone had a great week with Thanksgiving celebrations, and a great weekend with Black Friday. Hope Cyber Monday is going great for everyone too! Watching some of the news this past week, and it was showing that people were doing more shopping physically in the stores compared to online. Interesting, and I actually was happy to hear it too.

I have been busy with up and down stairs to the basement, or even upstairs. I have Christmas items in both locations, and trying to locate some things to decorate inside the home. Then, taking empty containers back to their spots again till Christmas is over. I hope to go outside one of these next couple of nights to get some pictures to show what is done for this year. Our big bay window is the main attraction that was really decorated. Inside, and outside are very simple, but very nicely lit too.

With all of the holiday festivities I have really been wanting to craft some pieces for decorating in the house. Add a few touches here, and there with the decor. At the same time I have spent much time looking through the internet, and soooo enjoying all the DIY handmade repurposed items being shared by other crafters. Gives me some great ideas too! I find myself going through the inventory I have in my mind, and putting some things together in my mind. Kind of making my own plans for things. 

I would recommend to many of you if you are wanting some ideas, or are looking for some inspiration to browse through Pinterest. Many people share things there, and there is a lot of great things to see there too. I love looking through there myself because of all of the variety of things being shared by so many crafters. Get some ideas for completed projects, instructions of how to do some projects created, supplies shown that are used, and so on. Just a lot to see, enjoy, and to learn from.

So, gonna keep this one a little shorter this time. I wanted to come by, and say Hi to everyone. Hope everyone was able to enjoy Thanksgiving with Family, Friends, neighbors, and had some where you could be. Thanks for stopping by LilacsNDreams today everyone. Have a great week, and hope to see you again soon. Take care!

 

DIY Handmade Repurposed Christmas Home Decor

DIY Handmade Repurposed Christmas Home Decor

Hi! Welcome to LilacsNDreams! It’s Thanksgiving week, and I would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! This year it’s not really feeling like Thanksgiving in this home, or in our area. It’s sad really. As many seen before Halloween was here there were many things for Christmas being shown, and displayed.

I belong to many different groups on Facebook for Dollar Tree, Handmade Crafting, Hobby Lobby Fanatics, and things like that. Within many of the groups everyone has been showing their completed projects regarding Christmas decor. Many of the reels you see are showing many different video projects being done in regards to Christmas decor too. I so love Christmas, and I am truly enjoying a lot of things being shared for crafting with the holiday too. I spend so much time looking at all the pictures, and videos that I maybe could get some of my own done if I would get to work on things. I have ideas, putting pieces together in my mind with the inventory I have, and that’s all the further it gets. It’s fun, I enjoy creating in my mind too, but I really should be physically putting things together too. 

I have downloaded a lot of pictures I want to share with you showing some DIY Handmade Repurposed Christmas decor. Please Note…that these are NOT my pictures, they are not my projects, but they come from other fellow crafters who have shared their projects on many different Facebook groups. So many beautiful ideas, and different ways everyone has done some of the same ideas too. 

Beware, there are a lot of pictures. I apologize if I duplicated any pictures. I tried to show a variety of things being done, and different ways that maybe the same item was being done too. So many great crafters with some great ideas, and techniques. Many of the pieces used were from Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Hobby Lobby, found thrifting, some things came from their own homes/families that were repurposed and upcycled into something new. Pool noodles, plates, bowls, cups, ornaments, circular rings, trees, flowers, vintage collectibles, picture frames, and so much more! Lots of talented people sharing their things within Facebook groups, blogs, websites, etc. So, have a look and enjoy!

These stars were all made using pop cycle sticks. I have seen people use the Jenna blocks from Dollar Tree too.

Using the 3 stack of white pumpkins, hat made using a tin can, and with lights used this turned out great!

Using a vintage pan, and different ornaments and embellishments

This is a neat technique using cups, saucers, plates, a bent spoon or fork, maybe a bent wire of some sort, and all the little figurines. Popular has been using ornaments to make this similar design too.

Popular wired ring, some fairy lights, ornaments, trees, snowman figurine, and so on

Here nut crackers were used to make this carousel along with trees, some crystal like stones gems, fairy lights, plates/mirrors, and so on

It’s noted above picture items they used to make these. Wow! Who would have guessed, right?

Here are some candle stick holders with the christmas bulb lights, and different embellishments used

Love these ladders made from popsicle sticks, gingerbread people, and other embellishments 

Rings used here, attached to some of the rectangular plates it looks like. Fairy lights used, Santa, acrylic reindeer, and other ornaments to decorate

Popular ring used here, flicker tea candle, and this is pretty with the ornaments displayed with other embellishments they used too

Another beautiful center piece done with the metal ring, fairy lights, deer, trees, ornaments, icicles, greenery, and so on

This center piece was nicely displayed with the deer, ornaments, bow ribbon, trees, and so on

Mini album that shows the use of picture boxes and picture frames that were nicely decorated

Here a wreath was used to make a center piece with painted pinecones, and different embellishments

So simple and elegant and beautiful. Nice change from some of the others that were created

You will see this popular christmas carousel done in different ways with some having the bottom devise for it to turn around too

This is a simple display that is adorably cute too

I like how these were done with the Dollar Tree boxes, painted, and put together making a train

These are done with different glass bowls, cup with handles for center of the body, and I have seen some done with the tooth pick holders for top hats. Different candle holders have been used too

This one was done just a little different with using the little picket fencing and made steps which does add a little character to it as well

These 2 items have both been done with wooden plagues….or a rectangular dollar tree plate could be used too. Using cotton balls, styrofoam balls, or whatever your imagination desires to make the snowmen. You can see different simple embellishments used to decorate with too

I adore the picture frames being decorated like this. So simple, and so cute too!

Here are snowmen made using different glass bowls for the bodies. Couple of them used vintage toothpick holders for the top hats. You can see other lids and such were used making the hats too. LOVE the creativity with these as well!

Both of these pictures used the rectangular plate from Dollar Tree in gold. Nice arrangement was done with ornaments, the flicker candle, and so on

Here is another carousel done differently

Gorgeously done with blue, silver, fairy lights, different ornaments, etc.

This is something uniquely done with the Merry Christmas Santa boot ornaments as the base with a plate attached to the top of them. Making a plate stand. So festive, don’t you think?

Plate, deer, trees, and different items used to decorate, and make this arrangement. Notice the light posts which are made from candle holders, glass jars, and lids. 

These have also been popular to make using Dollar Tree bottles that are colored glass with the stoppers. The wings are ornaments used from Dollar Tree. You’ll also see sometimes ribbon, butterfly wings, and such are used to make angel wings too

Lots of pictures, lots of ideas, and this is just some of them. There is so much out there to see, and visualize in the crafting world. If you’re like me, it’s easy to get lost looking at all of it. Before you know it the day is gone, and sometimes it’s still hard to pull away from looking.

Thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams! Hope you enjoyed the DIY Handmade Christmas decor shared today. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy all you do, and be safe! See you again soon!