Happy New Year from the Brew Crew!

Hi friends,
Happy New Year! Do you have some fun plans for New Year's? If so, please share them with me so I can live vicariously through you! I remember the days when we used to go dancing or dress up in black tie digs or even have a really nice dinner out. Ah! Those where the days! These days my honey and I are happy campers snug as a bug in a rug in our bed by 9pm reading our books on our Kindle Fires. That is happiness! We're old, huh? Oh well. It had to happen. I can't even remember the last time I stayed up until midnight. It just doesn't happen over here at the Brew Crew. 6am comes way too early.

I wanted to share with you that today after church I finished taking down all of the Christmas decorations and my honey took all of the boxes, bags, and tree up to the attic. I was kind of depressed about having all of the decorations put away- honestly, the house looked so stark and plain. So I decided that this year, we would decorate for winter! Why not?

Mostly I reused snowflake decorations from our Christmas tree. Away went all of the red and green and welcome to the blue, white, and silver. See what you think:

 

I also added some super cheap scrapbook paper, snowflake stickers, and ribbons that I purchased at the Craft Store yesterday for less than ten dollars to add to our 'winter motif':

I also decided to add some of our silver pieces to our winter wonderland (I love mercury glass, don't you?):

 

 

Here is our family's new year's resolution (believe me, it's needed by all of us!):

 

 

I still couldn't bear to take down the Christmas cards:

I spiced up my home office with snowflake lights that my honey just got on sale (really for outside use for next year):

 

 

Here's the living room (I couldn't bear to take down the garland and it does have snowflakes on it so I think it qualifies as winter decorating):

Here's my honey cooking dinner for us:

Happy New Year friends!
May your year be filled with love, laughter, and light!
Megan

Winter Decorations

Happy New Year friends!
I hope you had a wonderfully joyous Christmas season with your family and friends!
We had a great holiday celebrating with family. Santa was very kind to the Brewers.

We were all under the weather with nasty colds/coughs, all except my husband Steve. He must have one amazing immune system! But we're all better now and I have started taking down the Christmas decorations. I always get kinda depressed when I take down all of the decorations because the house looks so stark.

So this year, I had a brainstorm. I decided to decorate for winter! Why not? I ventured out of the house today, the first time in days, I spent two days on the couch in my pjs watching HGTV nonstop, and made it to the local craft store. I only spent a very small amount and bought scrapbook paper, snowflake stickers, and blue and white ribbon- just dollars. I can't wait to share with you how I've decorated for winter.....one word.....SNOWFLAKES!

I promise to do another blog posting soon and share lots of pictures of my winter decorating. I need to get all of the Christmas decorations back into their boxes and back up into the attic soon so I can take some pictures for you.

Happy New Year!!!!
What kinds of plans do you have?
Do you do New Year's resolutions? I do. I'll share mine soon- they're the exact same resolutions as last year and the year before that and the year before that.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan

Merry Christmas from the Brewers

Merry Christmas friends!

I have been thinking of you all this holiday season and hoping you are well. I have been busy working at my job in education but wanted to take a few minutes to visit with you and share how we decorated for the holidays in our home.

Caution: I went a little crazy with tons of pictures added to this blog update!

First off, I have officially lost my mind this year. I made two Christmas cards, yes, two! Have you ever done this? Or am I the only crazy one? I just couldn't decide which one to go with so I ordered both. Now, I didn't mail friends and family two Christmas cards from our family. That would really be crazy if I did that, right?????

Here they are, which one do you like best?:

1. Our favorite place in the world: the Beach-

2. The kids in their Christmas outfits (you don't want to know how I was screaming at them to smile for the shots, you've never done that, right?)-

 

 

I love pouring over decorating magazines to get inspired for decorating for Christmas. I am always awed by their cool color choices. Then I look at our collection of Christmas decorations, all green and red, and I think, 'How can I not use the stuff I already  have?' Maybe someday I'll really spice it up and go with a cool blue and green Christmas motif or something different but for now I'll drag all of our favorite oldie but goodies green and red decor.

 

This year I was inspired by several magazines to add some homemade Christmas decorating touches to our home that I'll share with you below.

 

Entry Way: I reused old white cabinet doors as a Christmas card hanger. I took the cabinet doors off a DVD storage piece we have up in the bonus room and attached clothespins with hot glue to hold Christmas cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family Room: I was inspired by a decorating magazine to make Christmas banners with colorful Christmas scrapbook paper that I cut into triangles and attached to red ribbon.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Eat-in Kitchen: I liked the Christmas paper banner so much I continued it in here too (plus it was super easy and cheap to make and fun too!).

 

 

 



 

 

Living Room: I was inspired by another decorating magazine to add garland to the archway (reused all of the materials by the way).

 

 

 

 

 

This is where the kids and I read the Christmas books that they open each night- (I blogged about this idea that I got from a friend last year, you can read about it here:)

http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-tradition.html

 

 

 



 

 

My Home Office: Another idea that I got from a magazine this season was to make these handmade peace, joy, and love signs. All I needed was Christmas scrapbook paper, 3 small wooden hoops, red ribbon, and a few stickers.

 

 

 

 

 



My wish for each and every one of you this Christmas season is to be filled with the spirit. May you feel the love of Christ and share that love with everyone around you.

 

 

 

God bless you all-

Megan