Merry and Bright Holiday Cheer

Hi friends! If you’re coming here from Debbie’s blog, Refresh and Restyle, welcome! Debbie’s style is always on point don’t you agree?

Today is the last day for our Merry and Bright Holiday Tour. It has been so much fun planning, creating, photographing, editing, and blogging about it all. I hope that the content I’ve shared has helped inspire you in different ways this holiday season. If you missed the first two weeks, you can find my home tour here and my tablescape ideas here.

This last week is a full recap as well as some other ideas we wanted to share. My brothers, sister, and niece are all coming for Christmas so I’m so excited that we’ll all be together in one place with my parents. It’s rare for all of us to be together since we all live in different places. For reasons more than one, this Christmas is really special to us.

If you follow me on Instagram, I teamed up with 22 other ladies to share some bar cart ideas for the holidays. Since I don’t have a bar cart, I decided to use my Homegoods tiered tray and my large console table in my office/dining room. This console table comes in handy for so many things! I created a hot cocoa station for my guests to enjoy at their leisure.

I posted this homemade marshmallow recipe on Monday. It’s always a hit every single year. Since I only make this once a year, we all look forward to it. Do you like smores? Well, these marshmallows take them to another level.

I took an old tray and lined the bottom with plaid wrapping paper. You’ll see I have a thing for plaid. These mugs were from Michaels last Christmas. They are extra large for jumbo sized hot chocolate filled with marshmallows and other toppings.

How about some candy canes, whipped cream, and mint chocolate chips? Yes please!

Can’t forget my homemade salted caramel. Oh man, that stuff is the bomb.com! I’ll have to share the recipe soon because it’s finger licking good. #wearstretchypants

I love my 3 tiered tray. I’ve used it for so many things in the kitchen and this is just another use I’ve gotten out of it. I’ve even used it to corral kids’ crafting supplies.

For the Merry and Bright tour, we were all sent a “Merry and Bright” decal from Candi who runs an Etsy shop called, Welcoming Walls.  I decided to stick it on a large thrifted art frame so I could reuse it every Christmas. I placed plaid fabric behind the glass and taped white scrapbook paper on the outside so I could change up the menu or other writing. I didn’t realize till I finished editing that I wrote, “whip cream” instead of “whipped cream.” #oops

I added a chalkboard banner to the front and added some holiday decor. I can’t wait to see my family and friends take advantage of this fun little area! #treatyoself

Since the main floor was decorated, I didn’t put too much effort upstairs. I did however hang up an extra wreath we had on top of the bed. I also sewed some gray plaid pillow covers. I think these could be used year round. I always seem to rotate pillows around the house.

Subtle changes in the bedroom add a bit of Christmas cheer. Since my master bedroom makeover, I played musical chairs with some lamps. I placed these smaller more neutral lamps and my husband and I like them much better in here.

A couple of weeks ago, I shared my free scripted printable.

Check out my organized gift wrapping station post at Orgjunkie. There, I shared my approach to a simple yet stylish gift wrapping.

Here’s a recap of the two tablescapes I pulled together.

Thank you so much for joining me and the other ladies on our tours! It’s been a true joy getting to be a part of my first home tour with other talented bloggers. I’ve been blogging for almost a year now and I’m still on a huge learning curve. Thank you so much for taking the time to drop by and hope you’ll stay a while. Merry Christmas!

I’m the end of the blog hop but you can start again with Kate at Chic on a Shoestring.

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating (Kate)

Design Asylum Blog (Kellie)

Positively Southern (Tamyra)

OMG Lifestyle (Elaine)

Confetti Style (Shelly)

Amy Howard Social (Amy)

M. Jones Style (Marsha)

Refresh Restyle (Debbie)

Love Your Abode (Yuni)