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2012: Halloween Decorations

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Halloween decorations for your home

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

With a love for holidays, I store totes of decorations for each holiday and season in our garage. By taking the time to remove previous decorations, I seize the opportunity to clean my home while preparing for the next holiday or season. With fall activities underway, I’m ready to break out my Halloween decorations.

Though I keep my decorations simple and non-frightening, I love to see the creations of others. Depending on the project, I enjoy crafts, but I limit the time requirement. In using time wisely, these are some fun Halloween decorations that are child-friendly that you will want to display:

Decorating Candles

Love the simple additions to these candles creating a non-frightening mummy and ghost. The others are cute as well, but I really like the mummy.

Another candle craft option where children can help is this “batty” decoration over a tea candle.

Pine Cone Garland

Combine a family walk finding pine cones and a craft project to add a decorative pine cone garland to your home.

Spooky Silhouette

If you have empty wall space, then check out this adorable Halloween-style family tree.

 As you decorate your home for Halloween or the fall season, enjoy using time wisely with your family. As a co-manager of our home, Paul leaves the decorating to me. Though I can decorate much quicker on my own, my children love to help which makes the event a family affair. Happy decorating!

Question: What is a favorite fall decoration in your home? 

Decorating: Our Nativity Scenes

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Nativity Scene

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

Excitement is in the air at my house. My oldest daughter is 5 years old, and she awoke this morning asking to turn on the Christmas tree lights. Sometimes I think she eats, sleeps, and breaths decorating. She is very creative and in her element when we decorate together.

Bombarded with lights, sparkles, and advertisements aimed at squashing our contentment, Paul and I emphasize the Christ of Christmas. He is the reason for Christmas though we, myself included, can quickly get caught up in the wrapping, purchasing, and wanting mentality.

To focus our hearts and minds on Christ, our family follows a daily advent calendar beginning December 1, and we place nativity scenes around our home. We currently have 5 scenes: crystal set in living room, vinyl cling set on wall in hallway, 2nd grade son’s plaster set, kindergarten daughter’s ceramic set, and toddler daughter’s plastic scene.

Nativity Scene Tradition

Our manger scene tradition began with receiving our first one in our first year of marriage. I love crystal items and am blessed to have beautiful pieces which currently are stored away.

Tracy’s choice: Though I would love to display my beautiful crystal items, my children need freedom to play in our home without fear of breaking these items. As they grow older, I will get to  incorporate my things more and more. After all, the crystal is just a thing. For me, building relationships with my children is a higher priority than the decor of my home.

Our first nativity scene consists of 6 crystal figures that rest on a circular mirror. This Christmas decoration has become my favorite. Resting in the middle of our mantel, this manger scene resides at the center of our decorations and our celebrations. Though we have had a few other nativity scenes, I have pared down and only keep this one for our family. I also keep a vinyl cling nativity set that we place on the wall in our hallway.

Nativity Scene Choices

My 7-year-old Son

When my son turned 2, his grandparents presented him with a manger scene. He carefully played with the characters and continues to care for his manger scene.

Wooden Manger Scene

As our oldest daughter grew more inquisitive, she kept sneaking over to play with her brother’s set. Of course, my son protected his plaster-made manger scene, and we knew it was time to get her a set of her own.

My 5-year-old Daughter

For Christmas that year, my daughter was gifted a Precious Moments nativity scene from a dear friend. Though ceramic, my daughter carefully lines them up and moves them around.

Glass manger scene

A few figurines have been broken, but all breaks have been mended without noticeable errors. Her set still looks new, and she protects her figurines from harm (i.e., little sister.)

My 2-year-old Daughter

Yep, my toddler is now 2 years old, and she desired her own set. In watching the deals, I found the Little People Manger scene on sale at Family Christian. Using a promotional code, I purchased her set for $24 which was a bargain. Excited to have a manger scene of her own, my toddler plays with her plastic characters and all the animals.

Plastic manger scene

In keeping Christ at the center of our Christmas traditions, Paul and I encourage our children with manger scenes of their own. From plaster, ceramic, and plastic, the nativity scenes are different for each child, but portray the reason for the season.

As we continue our 25 Days ‘til Christmas, our family includes the gifts, Santa visits, reindeer food, Christmas movies, and stockings, but we keep our focus on the Christ of Christmas.

You can follow along as I document our journey this season. I post the result of each day on Using Time Wisely’s Facebook page.

My 25 Days 'til Christmas - Day 1

Day 1 – Visited a museum for a Russian Christmas celebration

My 25 Days 'til Christmas - Day 2

Day 2 – Decorated our home with nativity scenes

Please join me in the comments or on Facebook sharing your progress in celebrating this holiday season. Happy decorating!

Question: How is your holiday decorating coming along? 

Letting Go of Perfection

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Letting Go of PerfectionIn a desire to have a clean and organized home, I tend to forget that our home is a haven for my family. My husband and children need space to create and play. So, when the train tracks and Lego pieces emerge from their designated area and remain on the living room floor for days, I can joy in that space when I let go of perfection.

Honestly, I like the house completely picked up at bedtime. But the reality is that clean laundry is folded but all over the couch, the train track must stay another day or two, and the vacuum cleaner remains out because I’m just not done yet.

From allowing my children to help decorate to cleaning to playing, I can relax a bit while letting go of perfection for those moments.

Realizing that this post is mostly for myself as I get uptight about clutter, I know I’m not the only mom who gets tired of tripping over Squinkies and Lego parts.

Noting that these times are vanishing as my children grow older, I am letting go of perfection more and more resulting in a relaxed, creative space for play. Happy relaxing!

Question: Do you find it difficult to let go of perfection?

Decorating: Hanging Wall Art – Part 1 of 3

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Decorating: Hanging Wall Art – Part 1 of 3Downstairs in our living room, we hung a beautiful mirror above our fireplace when we decorated that room many years ago. Our 19″ television set resided on a small round end table with toys about.

This arrangement worked until we purchased a Wii. Trying to play the games on that little screen was tough for one player and nigh impossible with multiple-player games.

Our solution was to upgrade to a 40” flat panel television when we found a fantastic sale. When our television arrived Christmas of 2011, we moved the mirror to our half bathroom wall and installed the television above our fireplace.

Since the mirror was larger than the television, the white holes on either side of our television glare at me from the wine-colored wall. Though we tried to patch them a bit, we will fix them permanently whenever we re-paint our living room.

Not desiring to see anymore holes in walls than needed, I am so careful about where I hang items in our house. I know that holes can be patched. But I also know that if I plan, then I may be able to prevent extra holes in our walls which will save us time and maintenance.

When I need to hang items on a wall, I have learned to follow these three steps:

  • Step One: Experiment with the Wall Art Arrangement

  • Step Two: Sketch the Wall Art Arrangement

  • Step Three: Hang the Wall Art Arrangement

Step One: Experiment with Wall Art Arrangement

Before getting the hammer, nails, or pencil, I experiment with the arrangement on the floor. I arrange it and rearrange it. Trying out all sorts of arrangements until I find the one I really like. Then I leave it on the floor for a few days.

I then try to rearrange it again. If I come up with another option, then I repeat the process by leaving it on the floor for a few days.

Once I have the arrangement I like best and have tried other options only to come back to this arrangement, then I move on to step two. This process takes me a week or more, but I enjoy the discovery of finding pleasing designs without putting holes in our walls.

As designing and decorating our home is fun, I do take my time to get it right the first time. In using time wisely, I find experimenting with the wall art creative and beneficial in my process to get the decor from the box to the wall. Happy decorating!

Question: How do you experiment with wall art arrangements?

Decorating: Hanging Wall Art – Part 2 of 3

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Decorating: Hanging Wall Art – Part 2 of 3Having rented an apartment and townhouse for six years and looking at white walls, I was ready to decorate when we purchased our home almost 10 years ago. Since we were having our home built, I had a good 6 months to play with paint swatches and textures, and I did.

By the time we moved in, I had the colors chosen. Paul spent the first 2 years scraping popcorn from the ceilings and painting each room of our home. The result was a colorful home without any white walls. 😉

Content with our color choices, I am still careful not to damage the walls or add unnecessary marks or holes. In the first part of this hanging wall art series, I explained how I experiment with the wall art to find my favorite arrangement. Moving on to part two, I sketch the wall art arrangement.

Step Two: Sketch the Wall Art Arrangement

Decorating: Hanging Wall Art – Part 2 of 3With my wall art arranged on the floor, I take a large sheet of paper. I use a small easel pad that I received as a sample from Post It. This paper is peel ‘n stick which makes it nice to stick to the wall.

Taking the paper, I transfer the wall art onto the paper in the same arrangement. Using a pencil, I trace each item. Before removing the wall art, I poke a small hole in the paper where the nail or screw should go for easy alignment.

Removing the wall art from the paper, I have a complete sketch of the wall art arrangement. With the peel ‘n stick property of the paper, I just put up the paper and adjust on the wall until I find the perfect spot. I then stabilize the page with masking tape.

Similar to how I experiment, I leave the paper on the wall for a few days. I check to see if I will bump my head or knock anything off the wall. In this arrangement, the bottom item I am hanging is a magnet bar with clips. This piece will hold items in place which I will need to easily reach from my desk without accidentally knocking them when filing paperwork or functioning at my desk.

As this wall art serves both a decoration and a utility function, I needed to try out the arrangement before hanging it up permanently. That magnetic bar is heavy and the screws are big, so I wanted to be sure we did this arrangement correctly the first time.

After a few days, I realized that my arrangement was too high, so I readjusted my arrangement with less width and more height to meet my needs. Having the sketch on the wall helped me identify the distance before putting it on the wall and having to readjust and hide previous holes in the wall.

In using time wisely, I took my time about hanging this wall art arrangement. I experimented before sketching the arrangement on paper to display. Then I adjusted the paper as needed until I found the right height and arrangement that worked for me.

The last installment of this 3-part series will reveal the final results along with tips for hanging the wall art arrangement. As you decorate, finding the best arrangement is possible with a little patience, creativity, and planning. Happy decorating!

Question: Do you sketch your wall art arrangements before hanging them?