Shop News!

Hello friends! Christmas is next week and I just wanted to say that for the rest of the remaining year, Inspirations by D will not have magnets or push pins in stock. I am in the midst of other projects and have not had the time to dedicate myself to keeping up with creating lovely things for the shop this year, except what is currently available. As for having some in the future, only time will tell.

I thank all those who have been supporters of my magnets especially Nancy, thank you!  I hope that everyone has a blessed and wonderful Holiday.

Advent Wreath

The Advent wreath is a wreath, or circle, of evergreens, made in various sizes. It is either suspended from the ceiling by ribbons (preferably purple) or placed on a table. The devotion is usually incorporated during the family meal, or during family night prayers. Fastened to the wreath are four candles standing upright, at equal distances. These candles represent the four weeks of Advent. Three of the candles are purple, reminding us of the penitential nature of the season. A rose or pink candle is lit for the Third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete (rejoice) Sunday. The name is taken from the entrance antiphon or Introit "Rejoice (gaudete) in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice." It is reminding us that the end of Advent is almost here, and we can hardly contain our joy.

The wreath should be in a circle, a symbol of eternity, and a reminder that God has no beginning nor end. The evergreen is a symbol of eternal life and a reminder that God is immutable or unchangeable. (via)

The appearance of the actual Advent wreath is varied—everyone has their own interpretation of the Advent wreath. The look of your family's wreath depends on how much time and creativity you devote to it. Your family can create their own special wreath, or add personal touches to a store-bought wreath.  We make ours different every year depending on the supplies we have on hand. I like to use what I have on hand.

For our Advent Wreath this year, we used white candles because we could not find the purple and pink in our area.  So to make up for the candle colors, we wrapped the candles with yarn, three purple and one pink.

Supplies we used:

• 4 candles
• small Nativity Figure
• yarn for colors
• flat glass dish to hold candles
• large candle holder to hold base up (or other wide base like an empty flower pot)
• evergreens & pine cones
• artificial wreath
• scissors
• ornaments

First the candles were wrapped with yarn.  We placed the base on the table in the center of the artificial wreath.
The flat dish was placed over the candle holder, then we placed the Nativity scene in the center.  The four candles were placed at equal distances around the Nativity Scene as seen below.
We added extra evergreens to add dimension and texture.  We then added pine cones and ornaments randomly around the wreath.

Thank you for visiting!  Love having you over,
Do you place an Advent Wreath in your home?
Have you ever thought about adding it to your family tradition?

Create a Good Deed Manger

Hello there!  I hope that you are enjoying the decorating festivities around blog land.  Today I wanted to share something that I have been wanting for a long time and I finally got it done this year.  I asked Mr. M if he could make a small manger out of the scrap wood we had in the garage.  He wanted to make it beautiful, but I asked that he make it simple and old looking.  So this lovely manger is imperfect, but that is why I find it perfect.

This manger will serve as a Good Deed Manger at our home.  A Good Deed Manger is a Christmas activity that teaches children the importance of good deeds and acts of kindness.  This family activity centers on an empty manger during the time of Advent. By doing good deeds, children as well as adults, earn pieces of hay, that are used to fill the empty manger.  So every time a good deed is done, for others, you place hay in the manger.  In doing acts of kindness, they learn of it's importance and by the end of Advent, the manger should be cozy for the arrival of baby Jesus on Christmas morning. We have already begun filling the manger with hay for good deeds the family has done, like helping folks stranded on the road with their car, providing food for those in need and helping senior citizens push a cart, buying someone a warm drink...you get the idea.

You may place a Nativity scene around the manger if you like. The manger does not have to be like this one, the manger can be made of anything, cardboard, shoe box, and other materials.  Did you know that the actual manger Jesus was laid in was made of stone?

If you want yours made out of wood, then this one is pretty basic. For the platform inside, we used a piece of wood and just laid it in, it's not even attached, that way I can move it around.  You can see it on the images below.

The measurements for the boards are:
-legs are 17" long 2" wide
-the two boards on the short end are 12" x 10"
-the longer boards you see attached to legs are 17" x 6" wide

I used a pre-stain wood conditioner to prep the wood (it gives it an even tone when stained
I then used the same stain method I used here.





On Christmas morning, the manger should have enough hay for baby Jesus and should look
something like this. Any baby doll can be used.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope that
this has inspired ideas for your Christmas.

Decorating with Cotton Stems

Antique Farm House

    It's almost the start of the holiday season...and I have noticed many people itching to decorate their

    homes, myself included.  One of the things I love to decorate with is cotton.  Yes, you read right, cotton!  Living in the south gives me the advantage to use natural cotton stems for my decorating needs.  I just love how it looks!

    For the folks around the world that will like to decorate with cotton this year, Antique Farm House has cotton available right now!  You may want to visit them this minute, because it's a one time deal. There is a different deal everyday and today it's cotton, so get on over there and get your cotton!

I have posted two of my favorites items, the cotton wreath and cotton garland, I just love them!  I wanted to give you the opportunity to grab some and start your holiday decorating.

Antique Farm House

I have added below a few ideas to inspire you this season for decorating your home using cotton and other natural elements.  As for the wreath below, I could not find the original link, it is only available on pinterest, but if you know the original source, please let me know.

These are some of my favorite ways to use cotton on decorative pieces including the Christmas tree.
There are many other ways to decorate, so I hope that you feel inspired.

pinterest

Sophia's Decor

Sophia's Decor

Perfectly Imperfect

Hope that you enjoy!

(This post contains affiliate links & will be compensated only if you make a purchase, thank you)


Linked to:

Craftberry Bush Domestically Speaking

Happy 2014; Christmas 2013 Roundup

Our Christmas is not over yet, as we embraced the arrival of our Savior in our hearts and homes, we await the visitation of The Three Wise Men whom brought gold, myrrh and frankincense to Baby Jesus.  They sought  Him to pay Him homage, the King of Kings.  Happy Epiphany!

©2010. http://www.inspirationsbyd.blogspot.com. All Rights reserved.

Christmas Home 2013

I have been trying to make our home look a little festive this year since my focus has been on other things.  I am sharing my living room & dining room space with you today which is pretty much what I have decorated around the house.

I used decor from years past, handmade and purchased ornaments are combined in this year's Christmas decoration.

We did not put up an Advent calendar, but instead, a Jesse Tree.  Are you familiar with the Jesse tree?  It is fun and educational for both children and adults.  The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Christ.  My son loves it and looks forward to each day's scripture reading and devotion.  I made my own Jesse tree ornaments by printing out the symbols for each day's reading. We cut the paper out and added ornament hooks to hang on the little tree I got last year.

Depictions of the Jesse Tree are based on a passage from the Book of Isaiah.

"A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots."

Isaiah 11:1    NRSV

On my last post I showed you how I made my pom pom garland.  I used the garland to decorate the mantel, I added reindeer ornaments instead of regular ball ornaments for a different look and I like how it turned out.  You can basically add whatever you like to the pom pom garland for extra flare.  I placed the book page trees from last year on the mantel and added the stockings that I made last year as well.  You can find the tutorial for the stockings on this post.

Further down, I added a photo of the living room during the decorating process, the tree does not have a garland yet and my mantel was somewhat bare at the time.

For the dining room, I added a wreath with a layer of berries and a red vase that serves as a hurricane candle holder as the center piece.  To each side I added a gold wire reindeer and red candles.  Off to the side, I also placed my advent candles, but did not photograph it this year.

Thank you for joining me today on this tiny tour.

Linked to:

Home Stories A to Z
Craftberry Bush

The Nester

The Dedicated House

DIY: Pom Pom Garland

I've been meaning to post this since last year, but I did not have the opportunity to until now. The days have been dark and gloomy and in order to have good photos, you need good lighting. I finally decided, light or no light, I have to post it, because it's popping up everywhere. So my apologies for not having great images, but you get the idea on what the garland looks like.

Do you remember this post?  I showed you how to make Pom Pom Ornaments for your tree.  This year I used my pom pom ornaments to create a garland.  I made one last year, but never got around to posting it until now.  This is pretty simple to make, all you need to know is how to make a pom pom, and you can read the directions on here.

You can use yarn or some kind of string to hold your pom poms once they are done making the amount you want.  Tie each pom pom to the string to hold them tightly.  Keep the poms poms about 6 to 8 inches apart.  For extra flare you may add ornaments as seen here. You can place the ornaments between the pom poms, then hang them anywhere.

I made two sets of pom pom garlands, a small one and a large one.  The one seen on this post is the large one. Use them anywhere, mantels, trees, and over doors, the choice is yours.  I also used reindeer ornaments for my pom pom garland and you can view that one here.

I hope that you enjoy & Happy Crafting!

©2010. http://www.inspirationsbyd.blogspot.com. All Rights reserved.

Christmas Tree Farm & Our Tree

Hello friends!  Before continuing, I want to warn you, this post is filled with lots of green.  We were out and about searching for our perfect tree after Thanksgiving.  Our faux tree fell apart last year, so we needed a new one for this year.

Do you remember our first real tree three years ago?  Well, we drove back to that tree farm to find a similar tree, not so much for it's appearance, but for it's memorable fragrance.  I know, I'm weird, but the house smelled amazing that Christmas Season, and so we were on a mission to find one just like it.
Thankfully, this year they didn't paint any of the trees, it was pleasant to see the trees in their natural state, and we searched.  They did not have any of the Blue Cypress Pine that we wanted. The Blue Cypress they had were still too premature and the trees they did have do not hold ornaments well.  After searching almost the entire farm, we decided to look somewhere else.  It was fun as we hunted for our perfect tree.  We looked high and low and it was getting dark.

Finally we dropped by our local hardware store; and that is where we found our tree.  Mr. M was not impressed, but we managed to find one we liked and it is filled with fragrance.  Unfortunately, my new garland was not long enough, and I was not able to use it for this tree, I knew I should have purchased two from LMM.  While placing the ornaments on the tree, my son told me to add more.  I originally planned for silver, white and gold...
But I finished with all the colors I had in the box.  I have not decorated with lots of colors before, nor with so many ornaments, so this was different for me and I'm still getting used to it.  So there you have it, our Christmas tree.  I am using last years handmade ornaments for a different purpose this year, which I'll post later on.  I have not made much effort this year in decorating my home, my focus has been on preparing my heart to receive Him this Christmas, so Christmas home decor is a process right now.  Thank you for visiting today!

Linked to:
The Dedicated House
Dwellings
Craft-O-Maniac
I Should be Mopping the Floor
DIY ShowOff

©2010. http://www.inspirationsbyd.blogspot.com. All Rights reserved.