A few posts ago, I got a sweet comment from a reader named Molly. She wrote:
“…I just read on Whitney’s blog that you already have your tree decorated, and I want to see pictures!! I am so excited to do Christmas decorations at my house, but for that I think I have to wait until after Thanksgiving, when I have some dollars. (I would love to see yours for inspiration… you are my Martha Stewart :)”
And later, after I replied how flattering (albeit ridiculous) it was to be compared to The Big M Little Artha, she confirmed…
“You’re my real life Martha Stewart. See, I don’t think of Martha as a real person, because she can pay people to give her ideas and take credit for them, you are the real thing, and a whole lot less pretentious.”
Well, I was dashed. Me? Martha? Huh? Nevertheless, Molly had a point: Martha can pay people to give her ideas. I, on the other hand, cannot. I can, however, unabashedly steal any idea I see on the internet and claim it as my own.
I’m going to show some pictures of our Christmas Joy, but first I want you to know there is good news and bad news. Good: All of my Christmas Joy was received as either a gift, loan, or hand-me-down. The things I did purchase were bought after Christmas last year, at 60-75% off. Bad: If you don’t have your Christmas Joy yet, you will probably want to wait until after the holidays this year to get it–better deal. But that means it won’t be as joyful. Sorry.
So now, with no further ado, I give you…
…I’m quite nervous now with all this talk of M-diggity…
…I hope you’re not disappointed….
The Christmas Joy of Camille and Poor Kyle
I know the real Martha could come up with much better, but looking at these pictures brings me good tidings of great joy anyway. Let’s take a closer look…
The tree. Special thanks to Poor Kyle’s poor mother, who donated this to us last year and bought herself a new one. This year, she came to see the decorations and forgot she’d given us her tree…and she didn’t even reclaim it! Sweet.
Most of my ornaments came cheaply in packages of many (i.e. the red glittered to the right), but I purchased some fancier, buy-one-at-a-time ornaments last year after Christmas (i.e. red striped one to the left). It makes my whole tree look more expensive than it really was. Score.
Ahh…the tree topper. We always had an angel on ours growing up, and I almost felt like a criminal when I bought a star instead…but I simply could not find an angel that didn’t look like a psychopath with beady glass eyeballs. And this star was five bucks in January.
One tradition I didn’t forsake, however, is arranging a nativity on my piano. Kyle’s dear granny donated this…I’m not sure if she even knows that. Thanks, Granny!
She also donated the lamp post there under the “Christ” sign. Word on the street is that she made it with her own two hands. Lucky me...
Everything looks better in a glass container.
And wrought iron.
And lastly, the berries I got at Michael’s (again) after Christmas. They were regularly $40. I got three of them for $12 and walked away happy.
Merry Christmas. Oh! But first, Happy Thanksgiving next week.
p.s. Another special thanks to Poor Kyle who fixed my blog layout (the kid’s a genius) and snapped these pictures. What a catch.
p.p.s. It’s Thursday–ask me a question if you’ve got one!
26 Responses to {Everyone’s Martha to Someone}