Saturday Night... Before Christmas | Disco Ball Christmas Tree Inspiration

It’s time! I’m super excited to be a part of Casa Watkins’ Christmas Tree blog hop this year! Welcome to everyone who is arriving from Casa Watkins and Rebecca Propes! And make sure you head over to Au Petit Salon tomorrow morning to kick off tomorrow’s blog hop posts! Scroll to the bottom to check out all the posts from the blog hop!

We’ve had our white Christmas tree for a few years now and I was feeling a little uninspired at the beginning of the month. I thought maybe this year we’d let the white tree hibernate and head to a tree farm to do a real tree this season. But then I had an idea: DISCO CHRISTMAS. Is this just an excuse to buy a ridiculous amount of disco balls? Maybe. Am I already scheming things to do with all these disco balls after the tree comes down for the season? Absolutely.  To be fair, I do wish this tree was even MORE over the top, so this top image has a few extra disco balls photoshopped on (I mean, really, I could go for even more, but let’s calm down, Liz).  

I’m always torn between having a faux tree and a real one, a green tree and a non-traditional tree, a sentimental ornament tree, and a pretty beautifully designed tree.  Growing up we usually had a “pretty” faux tree in the living room, and then a live tree upstairs in the family room that had colorful lights and all our fun family sentimental ornaments and I really loved that.  Unfortunately, for now, our house is too small to accommodate two trees, but someday. Someday.

6” Disco balls | 8” Disco ball | Mixed size small disco balls | Mini disco ball garland | Feather boas (used as garland) | White tulle (fills in tree center and hide the ugly “tree trunk”) | White Tree | Tree Topper

Click to see the DIYs on how I made the Disco Ball Ornaments, and the Sparkly Tree Collar

START CODE:

Monday

Casa Watkins Living // Up To Date Interiors // Mocha Girl Place // Kate Decorates // House of Hipsters // Monica Wants It

Tuesday

The Happy Housie // SKG Designs // Delineate Your Dwelling // Cuckoo 4 Design // Room Bloom Design // My Sweet Savannah

Wednesday

Iris Nacole // PMQ For Two // Stacies Spaces // Rebecca Propes // Liz Morrow Studios

Thursday

Au Petite Salon // Taryn Whiteaker Designs // The Honeycomb Home // Daly Digs // T Moore Home // Love Your Abode

Friday

Haneens Haven // Our Fifth House // Seeking Lavender Lane // Two Twenty One // Amber Oliver // Zig and Company

Dreaming of a White Christmas

I have wanted a white Christmas tree for probably 4 or 5 years. It feels like forever. This year I decided to finally go ahead and just go for it, and I’m SO glad I did. I’m head over heels in love with it. I knew with my black chalkboard wall it would go perfectly, and I’m really happy with how it fits in my space! It’s still early in the season and not even December yet, so I’m sure I’ll make some additions to my holiday decor as we approach Christmas, but I wanted to share my little white tree because I’m so happy with it!

White Christmas Tree: Wayfair
Jute Rug as Tree Skirt: Wayfair
Tree Topper: Amazon
Ornaments: Thrifted

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merry christmas!

five homemade christmas treats!

t's Christmas week!  That's totally a thing right?  Christmas week?  It's like how you get a whole week for your birthday, right?  Right.  Since I'm sure we'll all be indulging in a few seasonal treats this next week I thought I'd share some of my favorite holiday recipes from Christmases past.  Do you have a favorite holiday treat?  When I was a kid we used to get these Santa cookies every year from one of my grandparents' good friends.  Each year she'd make these big Santa sugar cookies and frosted them with some delicious frosting to look just like Santa.  I always loved opening the package from her and getting our yearly Santa cookie.  There's just nothing quite like a home baked goodie.  People say that they can taste the love baked in, which can sound silly, but sometimes I think it's true.  
Nowadays I'd say that my favorite holiday treats are boozy holiday beverages.  One of my favorites this year has been Mulled Cider with a splash of whiskey.  Hot Buttered Rum and Eggnog are also some great drinks and adding peppermint schnapps to hot cocoa is one of our holiday traditions!
Above: Homemade Eggnog


Peppermint Fudge


Christmas Cookies


 
Candy Cane Mug Hangers


Homemade Peppermint Schnapps

handmade holiday gift guide // for the photographer

ne thing that I get super excited about it is getting new photography gear.   Whether it's a new lens, new editing presets, or bags and support gear, shopping for camera stuff turns me into a kid in a candy store.  This gift guide has a lot of things on it that I already have and love, so I wanted to share them with you guys because I'm sure you'll love them as well!
My big personal wishlist item this year is the Holdfast MoneyMaker camera harness.  I first saw it when I was in the audience at Creative Live earlier this year at Jen Rozenbaum's session and she was using one and I was like  O_____O   "I NEED THIS."  I don't like traditional camera straps and haven't used one in years, but hadn't found an alternative that really seemed to fit my needs.  While my lenses aren't giant, by the end of a wedding day my wrist would be killing me after holding my camera for 8-10 hours straight.  When I saw Jen using her MoneyMaker I knew it was the exact thing I'd been looking for!
I spent years editing photos in Photoshop and then a couple years ago I really wanted to try out VSCO's film packs because I really loved how they emulated a real film look.  I ended up getting Lightroom so I could use their Lightroom presets and it's made my editing workflow so much faster.  I still use photoshop occasionally for certain things and retouching here and there, but for the most part I only edit in Lightroom now and exclusively using VSCO's 1 + 2 Film Presets.
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Before I stopped using a normal camera strap, I had an IMO strap which I loved.  It was so cute and such an improvement over the boring, stock Canon strap that the camera comes with.  It's such an easy way to make your camera unique and stylish and if you're not shooting for hours on end or need everything that the MoneyMaker strap offers, IMO straps are a great option.  I have their rainbow zig zag strap but I love this one's Pacific Northwest vibe!
I didn't do much in the way of Black Friday shopping, but I was on the hunt for some photography deals that day and one big ticket item I snagged was this gold sequined backdrop!  I fell hard for it a while ago and it was a little present to myself for my business and I'm so excited to shoot with it.  It's on backorder so I won't get it until January, but they've got a bunch of other colors in their sequin collection and a lot of them are half off right now!
One of my best Christmas gifts from a couple years ago was an Ona bag that I use constantly.  It holds my laptop, lenses, camera body and more, so it's my go-to carry-on when I fly.  Unfortunately it's too big to be my day-of shoot back with my extra lenses and such, so I've been using a camera bag insert inside a smaller purse that works so perfectly.  But, I've had my eye on this Ona bag for some time.  It's the same size as the makeshift bag I use now and it's in the prettiest cognac leather.  Swoon!

top photo via benj haisch