living simply and embracing imperfection
We were blessed last Wednesday with a light December snow, which is somewhat rare in our neck of the woods. It snowed off and on all day, although the accumulation barely made an inch. But how awesome is it to be able to look at snow falling and all our Christmas decorations? That counts as [...]
Hey all! Way back in 2009 (seems like the dark ages in blog-years, huh?) I wrote about how I wrap our family’s Christmas gifts. Well, since I LOVE this gift wrapping system and how much time it saves me each year, I’ve updated it with better photos and clearer directions with the hope that it [...]
So…I’ve shared our silver, white and burlap mantel, our decorated sideboard (with thrifted deer), a glimpse of our tree and some ornaments I’ve made, but guess what? There’s more! Ha – nothing like over-sharing, right? But I’ve wanted to share some of my favorite decorations with you all – starting with a view of our tree [...]
Hey friends, have I got a handcrafted ornament you’re going to love today! It’s super quick, super easy, and super cute – can’t beat that, can you? And it goes with any other book page or music sheet decorations you might have made (like these book page rosettes, balls, and paper chains, or music sheet [...]
Hello all! I’ve got a fun and quick catalog knock-off diy ornament to share with you today that uses the thrift store garland from this photo (the deer was made over here, if you missed it): I was actually looking for tinsel garland when I found this at the thrift store, though I didn’t think [...]
This season I’m enjoying mixing rustic and shiny with fresh greens on our burlap and silver mantel and our metallic tree with a burlap ribbon. I had a lot of fun creating this sideboard vignette to coordinate using these items plus apothecary jars, a cake stand, and a cute white deer that started out like this: It was [...]
Hello all! I hope you are having a great week and are enjoying this first week of December. We’re still adding to our holiday decorations around here and will put our tree up this weekend. I’m also making more pom poms and thought I’d share with you how easy they are to make, so that [...]
After the abundance of our Fall Mantel – appropriate with the theme of Thanksgiving, harvest and all – I was in the mood for a quieter mantel (meaning less cluttered – I don’t think I’ll ever tire of sparkle at Christmas!) for the holidays. Two things I knew I wanted to start with were my [...]
I’m so excited to share with you this list of our family’s favorite Christmas cookies, candies, and goodies! These have all passed the taste test and most are holiday staples that I make every year. But I’ve also included year-around treats like chocolate chip cookies because they are awesome to have as the “regular cookie” [...]
Happy Thanksgiving, friends- I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating the holiday! Btw, I’m loving the book-page banner and how easy it was to make one that said “give thanks” to replace the “fall” banner. The song from this Psalm (100:4-5) always goes through my head on Thanksgiving: Enter His gates with Thanksgiving and His [...]
Happy day before Thanksgiving! I thought I’d share with you my Simple, White, and Natural Thanksgiving tablescape so you could see that a beautiful table doesn’t have to be: expensive complicated over-the-top take a lot of time Of course it can be, but that’s not what we’re about here at AOC! We like things simple [...]
I just love how these decoupaged coasters turned out and I am excited to share them with you – including the steps to make these yourself and a printable for the holiday words I used! Although there’s nothing new about decoupaging coasters, it’s still a wonderful way to upcycle old, outdated coasters into either gifts or [...]
I’m so happy to share with you that my friend, Amy, at Raising Arrows is offering a Family Christmas Eve Candlelight Service download FREE to all her subscribers. It is a simple, meaningful way to celebrate Christ’s birth which I LOVE and hope to use with our extended family this year. Amy has a large [...]
Ornaments made from vintage book pages seem to be pretty popular. There are many different kinds I’ve seen, and I made a few this year to add to our Christmas decorations. I like them all, but my favorite is this Rosette Ornament I made with accordion folds. You definitely get a lot of bang for [...]
Here is my favorite new item that I made for this Christmas season and alluded to when I wrote about our new ornaments and decorations using vintage book pages: a vintage sheet music wreath! Isn’t she something? I really, really like what it brings to the entry area of our great room. Since it tops [...]
I’ve got a new article up over at In a Nutshell, the AboutOne.com blog that helps you manage your life. It’s all about a way our family has attempted to fight the commercialization of the Christmas season. It’s really simple. It really works. It’s a nice tradition, too. Curious? Read the article at In a [...]
After noticing that most of my Christmas board pins at Pinterest were decorations that used vintage book pages and music sheets, I realized I had a theme going on. I’m not trying to say I’m unique here- seems lots of people with blogs are making decorations with book pages. I noticed that some posts I [...]
When we started decorating for Christmas last week, this is what our mantel looked like. My daughter and I collaborated on it – well, it was mostly my daughter, because I was busy making new ornaments and decorations (more on that tomorrow!) However it got done, I think it turned out nice. Last year we [...]
I hope you’ve enjoyed the 5 Days of Christmas Cookies this week! Are you going to make Mini Almond Joy Brownies or Chocolate Drizzled Nut Squares? Perhaps it’s time to decorate cookies with the kiddos and Whole Grain Cut-Out Cookies are sounding good? And for the chocoholic on your list I recommend the Espresso Truffle [...]
Complete List of 5 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 1: Mini Almond Joy Brownies Day 2: Whole Grain Cut-Out Cookies Day 3: Espresso Truffle Bars Day 4: Chocolate Drizzled Nut Squares Day 5: Homemade “Moose Munch” Honey Caramel Corn (today) Though this homemade “Moose Munch” caramel corn isn’t an actual cookie, it is a great [...]
Complete List of 5 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 1: Mini Almond Joy Brownies Day 2: Whole Grain Cut-Out Cookies Day 3: Espresso Truffle Bars Day 4: Chocolate Drizzled Nut Squares (today) Day 5: Homemade “Moose Munch” Honey Caramel Corn Let’s see: Rich? Check. Ooey-gooey? Oh, yeah- right there in the caramel layer. Chocolate? Of [...]
Complete List of 5 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 1: Mini Almond Joy Brownies Day 2: Whole Grain Cut-Out Cookies Day 3: Espresso Truffle Bars (today) Day 4: Chocolate Drizzled Nut Squares Day 5: Homemade “Moose Munch” Honey Caramel Corn Let me say right off the bat- these are NOT brownies. Uhn-uhn. No way. They are rich, [...]
Complete List of 5 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 1: Mini Almond Joy Brownies Day 2: Whole Grain Cut-Out Cookies (today) Day 3: Espresso Truffle Bars Day 4: Chocolate Drizzled Nut Squares Day 5: Homemade “Moose Munch” Honey Caramel Corn Remember my list of holiday cookie requirements from yesterday? Based on my favorite criteria: rich, [...]
Complete List of 5 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 1: Mini Almond Joy Brownies (today) Day 2: Whole Grain Cut-Out Cookies Day 3: Espresso Truffle Bars Day 4: Chocolate Drizzled Nut Squares Day 5: Homemade “Moose Munch” Honey Caramel Corn I’ve made Christmas cookies every year for as long as I can remember and through [...]
At the holidays, many of us are thinking about traditions and the things we look forward to doing with our families- both immediate and extended. Our desire is to make memories that will last a lifetime. Which is wonderful – but let’s not forget about family traditions we can create all year long as well. [...]
I could easily fill a post about thankfulness just with the “normal” things I’m grateful for: my husband my kids my extended family friends our church health work lovely house Well, see, that’s almost ten right there- pretty much a no brainer. But what if I go deeper? Try to remember some things from the [...]
A couple years ago, I wrote about our family’s easy gift wrapping system. A key component of this system is wrapping sturdy boxes and the lids that come with them separately so that they can be opened without tearing the paper and then be reused from year to year. While the finished box looks complicated, [...]
Oh, don’t worry, not anything big- just decor changes. It’s almost Christmas Eve after all, I don’t want to rock the boat too much! You may remember a few weeks ago when I posted this picture of our Christmas tree: While there’s nothing wrong with it, we’ve had a white/silver/gold tree for a few years [...]
We had our annual early Christmas with some of my extended family over the weekend and I couldn’t wait to share with you some of the clever and unique handmade gifts they came up with! I think I’ve shared with you before that my siblings and I try to exchange simple handmade gifts in lieu [...]
I’ve been enjoying looking at people’s holiday decorations around blogland recently and was inspired to post some pictures of my own. Here’s a quick glimpse of our holiday decorations this year: Our mantel is not too different from last year, but it does look more lush, and that would be thanks to my teenage daughter [...]
The short answer is, “Not shopping.” I gave a long answer last year around this time, complete with suggestions of homemade gifts you could give if you like to avoid all the “black Friday” hubbub, too. Some of them will sound familiar because I’ve gone into more detail on some for the Handmade Gifts series [...]
Do you stay up to 2 am wrapping Christmas presents? Or spend hours wrapping gifts? Do you buy loads of paper, ribbon, tags and bows at the after-Christmas sales only to see them end up in a recycling bin or trash can the next year? Well, that was my life during the holidays for a [...]
The kids and I decorated these ornaments a couple of years ago and they are still one of our favorites. They sparkle and look a lot like store-bought ones. We use them everywhere- on the tree, in bowls, and on greens down the table with candles. All you need are:1. Plain ornaments-we used silver, frosted [...]
This little recipe is amazing! I’ve always loved butter mints and never realized how easy (and inexpensive) they were to make. And I get to decide what’s in them! Not only that, these are melt-in-your-mouth good, too. These butter mints would make a cute gift for teachers, postal workers, or just on their own in [...]
One of the ways our family focuses on the meaning of Christmas (not just the gifts) is to celebrate Advent, taking time in the days leading up to the 25th to remember why we celebrate this day. It also has become a meaningful tradition and fun decoration for us as well, and hardly cost anything [...]
For today’s “Cookies in the Cottage” I thought it would be fun to list the cookies I’m planning to include on this year’s Christmas cookie plates (that aren’t really plates anymore- I bag the cookies up and put them in small dollar store bags because I think they stay fresher). I’m including my thoughts on [...]
Does a Thanksgiving Dinner really have to break the budget? I’m sure it can if there are a lot of dishes involved and a lot of ingredients that aren’t normally on the shopping list. But what about the “typical” Thanksgiving meal? I’m thinking of one that would include: TurkeyMashed PotatoesSausage DressingVegetable (ours is Broccoli Parmesan [...]
I believe a cottage can be anywhere or anything (condo, ranch, farmhouse) as long as you have a "cottage mentality" which puts people above things, celebrates imperfections, embraces simplicity, and finds joy in everyday life. Thanks for joining me!
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