My Insanity

An insane amount of creative ideas for celebrating life

  • birthdays
    • boys’ birthdays
      • Robot Design Academy
      • Bionicle Birthday
      • Truck Birthday
      • Pirate Party
      • Good Knight Party
      • Rocket Blast
      • Camping Birthday Adventure
    • girl birthdays
      • Tangled Celebration
      • Book Club Birthday–Prologue
      • Eyelet and Rainbows
      • spa day
      • Karaoke Birthday
      • Nancy Drew Mystery
      • The Fairy Party
      • American Girl Mystery
      • Kim Possible Birthday
      • Princess Pony Party
    • babies and kids
      • ABC 1st Birthday
      • Sweet Celebration
      • Brooklyn Baby, A unique baby shower
  • other celebrations
    • anniversary
    • Ice Cream Social
    • family reunion
    • showers
      • Brooklyn Baby NYC
      • She’s About to POP!
      • Lil’ Punkin
    • wedding
      • A Winter Wedding
      • Summer Fun Wedding
  • holidays
    • New Years
      • A New Years Ball
    • Valentines
      • Amazing Race
      • Snack Gift Basket
      • School Valentines 2011
      • School Valentines 2009
    • St. Patrick’s Day
      • Seen on St. Patrick’s Day!
      • Sophisticating St. Patrick’s Day
    • April Fools
      • April Fools Day Feast
      • April Fool’s Day Fun!
    • Easter
      • An Earthy Easter
    • mothers day
    • fathers day
      • A TIE-rific Father’s Day
    • 4th of July
    • Halloween
      • An OZ-some Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
      • Green Thanksgiving
      • Thanksgiving Ideas for Kids
      • The Fruits of the Harvest
      • Thanksgiving 2008
      • Pumpkin Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
  • gifts
    • 30 sucks! A Literal gift
    • Robot Birthday Treats
    • Lifesaver Thank you’s
    • Smore Fun Classroom Treats
    • Scrabble Tiles for the Teacher
    • Lifesaver Printable
  • home decor
    • makeovers
      • Loveseat makeover
      • Office Chair Makeover
    • mantle decor
      • Spring Mantel
    • Space Room
    • Bulletin Board
    • Art Center for kids
  • kids
    • school is cool
    • Toy Kitchen

Dickens Caroler Inspired Christmas Tree from Treetopia

November 22, 2017 By kendra 1 Comment

DISCLOSURE: I was given a tree and other products in exchange for this post and participation in this campaign. There are links in this post that may contain affiliate links, meaning I will earn a small commission if you follow the link and make a purchase. Opinions and Insanity are, as always, my own.

It was so fun to be invited to be part of Treetopia’s Design Council for 2017. I love a beautiful Christmas Tree, especially when I can let my imagination run wild with a themed tree.

I wanted a more homey tree this year, but also with a bit of glam in the mix.

During the holiday season, I am part of the Goode Time Carolers of Phoenix. We sing 4-part a cappella harmony in glammed-up Dickens era costumes. Since music is such a huge influence for my family–especially around the holidays, a Christmas Carol theme is perfect for our tree.

I found some vintage Christmas carols on-line and printed them out to make these ornaments. I used decoupage medium to make them more stiff and give them a bit of shape.

For the Dickens part, I found various silhouettes on-line and designated them as various characters from Charles Dickens’ famous “A Christmas Carol.” I had the chipboard frames on-hand from another project. I spray-painted them a deep green to match the plaid ribbon you may recognize as part of the new Hearth and Hand line at Target. I felt like that plaid would be right at home in Charles Dicken’s world.

I was so happy I was able to get a flocked tree! I’ve been wanting to try one out for many years! BSB prefers the more traditional green tree, but I love the way that the green colors pop against the flocked tree. They would be lost in a regular evergreen.

I purposely chose a lot of white, gold, and silver ornaments to fill in the rest. They blend in with the tree and let the green and black elements really stand out!

Here’s a shot with the lights off so you can see the ornaments better. The draped gold beads add that Victorian feel to the tree.

I wasn’t quite finished with the tree when I had my daughter pose for some pictures with her dark-green Christmas dress.

I just love the mix of old and historic with new and trendy!

Thank you Treetopia for giving me this opportunity! These are the products they sent me:

 Snowy Spruce Flocked Christmas Tree 7.5’ Clear

Harvest Pine Wreath 24” Unlit – Shown here above my mantle with more Hearth and Hand ribbon wrapped throughout to tie it in with the tree. For a simple look for the mantle, I gathered our antique brass candlesticks and lined them up. Our dark green velvet stockings work nicely with the tree, as well.

Sadie Fir Wreath 24” Clear Led – This wreath is currently adorning my front door. I tucked some gold and copper dipped faux magnolia leaves into the pine branches. This made for a nice transitional wreath that could work for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Milady Pink And Plum Glass Ornaments – These didn’t actually make a showing on this tree. I’m saving them for when I do a nutcracker/ballet-themed tree. Won’t that be pretty!

 

Hurry and take advantage of Treetopia’s 6th Annual Secret Santa Sweepstakes happening between now and Nov 25:

You and your loved one can get a chance to win a tree and an ornament set by choosing your favorite look from our 2017 Design Council (eh hem…mine!) and telling us why it suits your holiday style. Ready those sleigh bells and sing your way through the merriest time of the year! Head over to one of Treetopia’s Social Media Accounts to participate:

#SecretSantaxDesignCouncil

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Pinterest

 

Simple Thanksgiving Tablescape

November 22, 2017 By kendra 1 Comment

Disclosure Statement: Some links in this post contain affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my link. Thank you for supporting my craziness! Respecting the bird, before I move on to Christmas posts, I wanted to share the simple tablescape I came up with for last year's Thanksgiving dinner. It was a different kind of year for us. BSB's parents were on a mission for our church and we weren't traveling, so we didn't have a huge crowd to worry about. We ended up spending the morning volunteering at St. Vincent DuPaul and had such a great experience there that we are planning on going again this year. I realize that this isn't what everyone's backyard looks like in November, but here in Phoenix, November is when it starts to feel pleasant to venture outdoors again (but you still want to stay in the shade). Can you see how enormous our garden … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]

Floral and Gingham Easter

February 27, 2017 By kendra Leave a Comment

Over the year's we have had some fun themes for our Easter celebration. It makes me happy to try and coordinate outfits and table-setting around a theme. Last year, we had fun combining two hot trends: floral and gingham. The gingham tablecloth from my daughter's 14th camp/dance birthday party worked perfectly as a backdrop for all of my florals, which included a real garden rose centerpiece picked from our friends' beautiful rose garden. I had also been wanting to try some of the buttercream rose piping techniques I had seen on-line so we made these little rose cupcakes for dessert and had fun making this mini-tiered cake with my daughters. The trick is to pipe the roses on to wax paper and let them harden before transferring to the cake. Then you can add leaves. I am in love with beautiful paper plates. They answer the age old question of fancy vs. convenience. And these ones are so … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]

Thanksgiving Tablescape Menu and Dessert Bar

November 23, 2016 By kendra Leave a Comment

We had an awesome Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. Sadly my computer crashed shortly there after and I lost the photos, but I still wanted to share our menu and set-up ideas. We had a gourmet-style menu, with a dessert buffet and Hot Cider Bar. For more fun and delicious Thanksgiving ideas, check out my Pinterest. Menu: Bacon Sage Turkey Bobby's Sausage Stuffing Mashed Potatoes Breaded asparagus Sweet potato fries with sriachi Sauce Fruit Salad Pumpkin-style rolls   Dessert Menu: Bourbon Pecan Pie (Gigi's) Pumpkin Gingersnap Pie (Gigi's) Caramel Sea Salt Cupcakes (Gigi's) Apple Cider Cupcakes (Gigi's) Strawberry Cream Pie Pineapple Pie Apple Crumble Pie   Hot Cider Bar: Fresh Apple Cider (heated in Crock Pot) Caramel syrup whipped cream Cinnamon candies Cinnamon Nutmeg   Sources: Copper Plates: Hobby … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]

Homemade Lemon Ice Cream

June 30, 2016 By kendra 6 Comments

Is there anything that says summer better than lemon? I know! How about ice cold, fresh, homemade lemon ice cream? My husband's family has a long held tradition of making lemon ice cream when the temperatures rise. He made it for me when we were dating. It might just be one of the reasons we got married. The other day he got a hankering (probably inspired by the fact that I cleaned out the pantry and now the ice cream maker was in plain sight), and made a batch. He has doctored up the recipe a little from what his family did originally. But the end result is absolutely delish! I posted a picture and some commentary on Instagram and based on the response, decided I'd better share the recipe here, with his permission, of course. The recipe I'm sharing is BSB's version. The original did not include yogurt, used heavy cream, and not quite so much lemon juice. So there is room for … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]

Wooden Father’s Day Tie Banner

June 9, 2016 By kendra Leave a Comment

Many years ago, I created a Father's Day banner out of paper ties. I have loved this banner and used it repeatedly, but it has become apparent that making the banner out of a different material would transform it into something that could withstand the years! Here is my wooden version of the Father's Day Tie banner! This is a fun project for a craft night or to do with the kids. You could give each kid their own tie to paint. You could add letters to spell something--I had originally planned to on these--or you could just let the ties do the talking--which is what I decided to do, since I loved the way the patterned ties look hanging together. You also have the options to leave some the wood exposed--like I did on the striped ties--for a more rustic look, or paint each tie entirely--like I did on the polka dots. But before we get too carried away designing the banner, we should make sure we know what we … [Read the rest of the Insanity...]

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There are no days in life so MEMORABLE as those which vibrated to some stroke of the IMAGINATION.

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