Decorative ideas for a holiday party...

Hello and welcome to the weekend!  I have a special column today to help you with last minute ideas for decorating your holiday party.  With New Year's Eve this week, its time to get it going!! So, let's get the party started!! 



Elegant Decorative Ideas for your Holiday Party without Spending a Dime


With Christmas now over, you are faced with the realization that it’s time to start decorating for your annual holiday party. There’s no need to fret and start running to the nearest store for decorations. You have all you need in your Christmas storage box and then some.

Whether it’s a winter wonderland outside your front window or not, you can create that warm and fuzzy feeling in your home with a little help of the imagination. Always infuse your personality in
everything you do. Most importantly, choose a color theme that works best with your home decor.
The goal is to use what you have to make a dazzling statement.

Ideas for the entryway



It wouldn’t be Christmas without all those greeting cards and colored envelopes from friends and family.
Don’t leave them in a pile on your kitchen table; use them as fun and colorful garland to drape around an entryway mirror. Just simply poke a hole in each card and use a festive ribbon.



Create a wintry scene using mini Christmas trees, holiday figurines and reindeer. Use a white piece of fabric you find in the home or extra large cotton balls and fluff them out to make snow.


Design your very own vinyl banners using ribbon and Christmas cards and cut them out to spell “Happy Holidays” or “Merry and Bright”. Hang it from a prominent wall so that guests will see it as they walk in.

The tabletop


Don’t spend a fortune on floral decorations, use what you have. Grab three vases of varying sizes and fill them with ornaments or holiday candies. Use a mix of bright color or go silver and pale blue for a more sophisticated look.



Bring some nature into your home by cutting a pine branch or holly branch from the yard and place it around a vase filled with cranberries. The rich red and green definitely says “Merry Christmas.”

Don’t forget the chandelier! Make a statement from above by dangling crystal ornaments or fun snowflakes on beautiful ribbon. Your guests will love it.

(image)

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These are just a few simple and easy ways to get holiday party ready without spending a dime on expensive decorations. Breathe new life into your holiday decorations with a little imagination and have fun.




(additional images by me)


Have a wonderful weekend and I hope these tips help you with your holiday party!!


If you need your house spruced up for the new year, I can help! Please contact me at monacointeriors76@yahoo.com for more information.

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Best of MI...Inspiration for 2013...

Happy New Year!! Here is to new beginnings, bittersweet endings and best wishes for a fabulous 2013!  Welcome back to my continued 'Best of' series...I loved this story about the Nearings and hope you will too.  It provides inspiration, which is what all of us need at the end of the year as we look to the new year.  I hope you all have a wonderful time today and tonight and I will see you back here in 2013!  Much love and thanks to my followers, readers, and anyone who stops by my little tiny corner of the internet universe - I love 'knowing' and communicating with all of you!! xoxoxo



Not to be preachy or anything like it, but I came across these wonderful words that are food for thought on this summer Sunday. Helen and Scott Nearing left their cosmopolitan life in New York City to live in the wilderness of Vermont in 1932 and wrote a book, 'Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World' and it was described as 'this century's Walden.'  They lived as simply as possible and later Helen wrote a memoir, 'Loving and Leaving the Good Life' and lived into her 90's and Scott lived to 100. I LOVE this list that Helen included in her memoir and hope you see something you like as well:

*Do the best you can, whatever arises.

*Be at peace with yourself.

*Find a job you enjoy.

*Live in simple conditions; housing, food, clothing; get rid of clutter.

*Contact nature every day; feel the earth under your feet.

*Take physical exercise through hard work; through gardening or walking.

*Don't worry; live one day at a time.

*Share something every day with someone else; if you live alone, write someone; give something away; help someone else somehow.

*Take time to wonder at life and the world; see some humor in life where you can.

*Observe the one life in all things.

*Be kind to the creatures.

Which is your favorite? I love all of them, but particularly like 'live in simple conditions' etc. But they all give me something to ponder.

Have a great Sunday! ;-))

(image by me)

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New Year, new decade...

Well, here we are in 2010...another decade gone. January is always a good month to think about changes you want to make, things you need to do differently, exercise and nutrition programs you want to get started and on and on. Resolutions? maybe, but, I prefer to think of it as a continuation of what I already been doing, only now I will do it better!!! if that makes any sense, what are you doing, trying, changing in 2010? Any short or long term plans?

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