Along the Journey Hand Picked Faves

Hi friend! I’m so glad you are here today! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.

I took some time away last weekend. Yep, I skipped the Black Friday shopping hoopla and stayed home to eat leftovers! It was a quiet weekend and I appreciated cozying up by the fire with a big bowl of homemade popcorn and a good movie 🙂

So that put me behind a little bit in getting this gift to you! I’ve added a bonus to the freebie library! This advent calendar is so adorable and you can have it in an instant.

I will include the info to access this sweet advent calendar later in this post. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what we have been up to lately!

recent projects

Our front porch is undergoing some Christmas decorating. You know by now that I enjoy changing our decor and that includes changing up the look on our front porch seasonally.

It can get pricey so one way to update decor is to reuse and repurpose. I grabbed a tomato cage and some cypress branches from our backyard and made this cute tree.

This weekend we are going full tilt with our Christmas decorating. Hubby and I will get our faux Christmas tree down from the attic and start to get it decorated. I say start because I have plans to make some new ornaments for this tree. Stay tuned for the DIY tutorials!

recent YouTube video

With the holiday last week, I took some time away from YouTube. But I’ am back at it! I’m sure you will enjoy watching this video tutorial for the DIY Tomato Cage Christmas Tree.

BTW, one of my subscribers told me that at the beginning of this project, the tree looked like The Thing from the Addams Family TV show! Omgoodness, I busted out laughing because she was so right!

Watch the video and let me know what you think! Tap the image below to watch!

hand picked faves shopping!

The following post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click and then buy something, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you! Thank you for supporting my blog. full disclosure here.

Four of my blogging friends and I are getting together and sharing our hand-picked favorite finds just ‘four’ you! We will each be sharing four things we are currently loving and we know you will love them too!

You can check the links below for our faves and be sure and pop over to visit their blogs. Each of these ladies has a beautiful vintage-loving style like you and I do. I’m sure you will enjoy reading their posts!

Reinvented Delaware – Cindy

• The long nights of winter are here! I love to burn candles, especially on long winter nights. Battery-powered taper candles are my fave. I have about 3 sets of six all around my house! Battery-powered pillar candles are great too. I have a set in my dining room and in my living room. They add the right amount of coziness to our home!
• We have some of our Christmas decor out. A King of Christmas 4-piece collection set was so easy to set up. The whole set is arranged beautifully around the faux fireplace in our bedroom. Why not have a bit of holiday decor in every room in the house? We will be getting our Christmas tree down from the attic this weekend! And then we will head outside for some decorating. I am sure we will need some extra outdoor extension cords. Are there ever enough electric cords??
• Does your skin dry out during the winter months? Mine does terribly! I’ve been using argon body butter has made such a difference. I’m sure my skin will feel much better this winter!
• We had a ton of leftovers from Thanksgiving this year! Having Pyrex dishes on hand came in handy for all of those mashed potatoes, gravy, and turkey. All I need to do is pull them out of the freezer and I have dinner. The Pyrex dishes will come in handy throughout the holiday season and would make great gifts too!

Lora Bloomquist – Lora

• Christmas is the season of lights and you can never have too many on these dark, cold winter nights. I love having a little flicker in every corner of my home because it makes the season special. This year I bought a box of cute little battery operated candles. There’s 24 in the box and they come with a variety of clips/attachments so you can put them anywhere! They also have a remote control and many options of effects. I can’t wait to tuck them here and there-in my glass front cupboards, in my hutch display, on wreaths. You can find them HERE.
• I’ve kind of got a thing going for enamelware coffee and teapots;) In the winter I love to create a display of seasonal colored ones in my aqua porch cupboard. When I came across this red with white speckled one in a vintage shop, I knew it would make all the other ones pop with it’s vibrance. It is so cute! You can find similar vintage versions HERE.
• At a recent estate sale I just happened upon, I picked up these 2 hand painted cabin in the snow pictures. They are so sweet and have become the inspiration for this year’s Christmas decor. I love decorating with items that are more “winter”, so it all doesn’t have to come down so soon after Christmas. You can find vintage and downloadable cabin art HERE.
• This cute set of little reindeer are so lifelike! I picked up a set a couple years ago and decided I needed more this year;) They can be tucked here and there into any vignette and are so inexpensive. I definitely have a woodland deer theme going on this year and these cute little guys will feel right at home. Find the set of mini deer HERE.

Saved from Salvage – Regina

Regina couldn’t join us this month. She is helping others make DIY Christmas projects during a workshop this weekend! 🙂

Sky Lark House – Anna

• These small European Bread Boards make a great gift for that hard to shop for person. They are also a reasonable price at less than $60.
• Having something to hold your tablet or cookbook when you are following a recipe is always nice. This marble stand is perfect and it looks beautiful. This is a kitchen essential if you do a lot of holiday baking.
• I have this rug in my living room. It’s great to use as a base for layering and the neutral color goes with any decor.
• Finally, this blush gives me a boost around the holiday season. It’s an easy to way to get spruced up.

Advent Calendar access

If you are interested in checking out the free printable advent calendar, simply click on the “Get My Freebies” button at the top left of this post, and enter the password (check the recent email from me – I include the password in each email I send out!)

Navigate to the Printable Art category. The two-page Advent Calendar is tucked away safe and sound in the Christmas Frameable Art Folder in the Google Drive where you access the other printables!

Like all of the printables, I recommend that you print the Advent Calendar on heavy-duty card stock or watercolor paper that has been cut down to 8.5″ x 11″ Print the two pages at a high quality and you will have yourself an adorable Advent Calendar to count the days until Christmas!

one for the road

Recently, I came across an amazing blogger named Heidi. She has great ideas about decorating her Christmas tree with a simple rustic feel. You are going to love the way she turns bottle brush trees into the cutest ornaments!

Tap the button below to see these adorable Christmas tree ornaments!

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Until next time…