Make Your Own Whoville Mantel

i had a vision for my mantel this year.   i didn't really know how i'd go about it, but i knew i wanted an ooey gooey drippy gaudy mantel.  i bought practically every ornament left at hobby lobby last year when they went 90% off.  i didn't care what colors they were or what they looked like.  i just stock piled for cheap.  awesomely enough, most of them are shatter proof.

so here's what i ended up with:



quite whoville-esque, no?

wanna learn how i did it?



i first wrapped lights around some of that miserable wired cheap garland (you know the kind i mean?). i had it lying around.  it's one set of lights and one garland probably 6 feet long.

i put a couple of command hooks backwards on either end to hold it on too.

after that i started tucking in strips of wired ribbon.  this candy striped ribbon is what was left 90% off last year too, and i love it.



some strips were about this long.



some were shorter.



the bonus of using the cheap wired garland is that you can wrap it around ribbon to keep it in place.



just keep adding long and short lengths and overlapping them tying the in with the garland.



here's what you get.   now that looks ok.  you could stop there, but we're gonna keep going.



here's my ginormous bucket of ornaments i collected.



i went through two rolls of this twist tie wire i bought at walmart.



loop it through the top of the ornament.



and twist it onto the garland.



once again, this is a perfectly acceptable garland, but i kept saying to myself, "let's make it ridiculous."  so ridiculous it shall be.

notice that i added our stocking holders too to help lock it in place.



this picture doesn't really do it justice, but there are a ridiculous amount of ornaments there now.  that's cool and all, but it gets even better.



last step.  i bought about 10 of these holiday picks at hobby lobby.  they're not with the usual christmas stuff.  they're over by the floral stuff.  les faux fleurs.



give the wired end a bend.



and tuck them along the back behind all of the garland and lights and millions of ornaments.



now it has some shoulders.



there she is.  drippy ooey gooey awesomeness.  like when you think you've put on too many ornaments....add about 20 more.



shazam!  whoville called....they want their garland back.





perfectly childish for a perfectly child-like christmas home.

Here We Go

ya'll ready for this?!  christmas has begun at the ehaus house!

we kicked off with our usual sparkling cider and powdered donuts then unleashed the music and decorations!  let's go christmas!

the boys set about untangling lights, and jack made it his mission to test and replace bulbs.  ah dedication.

jon got going on the exterior.

there was ninja interpretive christmas dancing.

with ornaments.

the boys decorated their bunk with blinking strands.

and i added their little blue and brown tree.

snowflakes in berries.

oh you know there's more :)

Laundry Room

hey ya'll!  hope everyone had a fun thanksgiving!  we started ours by watching jon run a 4 mile turkey trot through old town and past city park.  we had so much fun we're planning on making it a family tradition.  the weather has been unseasonably warm though so next year when we're standing out in the snow for hours, i'll be wondering why we ever thought it was fun...

here's our picture of thanksgiving:



awesome, huh?  i think it really captures the day ;)  jeanette (on the left) and i did spend hours in this kitchen (with my new appliances!!!!!)(well, that's not the new stove), and kier and karen (basement dwellers) took off to thanksgivings of their own.



on to the laundry room.  let's start the tour in the garage.  so our basement dwellers come and go through the land of bicycles into the laundry room, and down the stairs to their luscious accoutrements.  the ping pong table and fooseball table were both given to us, and we've sold the ping pong table.  normally the girls park over there.

some of you may notice the car.  it's one in a long line of loaners we've been driving this fall while we've replaced nearly every working part in our rendezvous including the engine.  we could've remodeled both our bathrooms by now...

i suggested we just be a biking family the other day, but i suppose with winter upon us that's not totally practical.



we have a mild organizational system by the back door.  every boy has a sock drawer, shoe bucket, coat/backpack hook and bike helmet hook.  there are a few additional hooks mostly for snow pants. 

come on in the laundry room!:



i think it's fairly self explanatory.  new paint on EVERY surface.  (doors, cabinets, railing, window trim, walls and baseboards) and new hardware on cabinets.  the washer and dryer are old, but still kickin'.









pulls are from hobby lobby, and if someone wanted the paint color on the walls i could find it.  it's sherwin williams, and i also painted the garage that color.







hooks are from anthropologie and bench was from ballard designs about 10 years ago.





we pulled all of our christmas stuff out thanksgiving afternoon.  the boys have loved finding all of their christmas books.  many christmas posts in the pipeline!