Arsenic Lace

Holiday Decor

Christmas Decor Tour

by 3 Comments

Christmas Decor TourOver the last few weeks, I’ve posted little snippets of my Holiday decor on Instagram stories. To my surprise, I got a lot of messages asking if I would be posting a Christmas Decor Tour. Sadly I didn’t get to decorate as much as I would have liked but the living room does look pretty glorious and festive. I decided to do a last minute Christmas Decor Tour post of the living room to fulfill some of your requests.

Christmas Decor TourThe first thing I knew I wanted to do was make these DIY Mid-Century Christmas Village Putz Houses from Krys Melo of Melodrama. If you don’t follow her or her blog please run right over there ASAP. Her style, use of color, and home inspire me so much. Plus she lives in Palm Springs which is my dream! I saw these Christmas village houses last year and I said to myself, “one day I’m going to make those”.

Christmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourA couple Sundays ago Ethan and I made boozy hot chocolate, put Christmas music on, decorated the pink Christmas tree of my dreams, and made the Mid-Century Christmas village. They turned out even better than I imagined and I think I want to make it a holiday tradition to make one every year. I guess if I start running out of space I’ll just have to start gifting them to people! They make the perfect Christmas decor for the mantel. My favorite part was decorating and styling them. I love bottle brush trees so much! At one point Ethan was like, “do you have enough bottle brush trees?”, and the answer is always no, never!

Christmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourWe decorated so much for the holidays in the house I grew up in and it always got us into the holiday spirit. Since then I’ve haven’t lived in a place with the space to accommodate holiday decorations and honestly, the holidays have never really felt the same. For the first time in my adult life, I have the room for a real sized tree and this made my heart so happy beyond belief. I collected a few ornaments over the years and have been gifted quite a few as well. I’ve been basically hoarding them until the day I could put them on my very own tree. 2017 was my year for this. 2017 has pretty much been my year for a lot of things.

Christmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourI decorated the bar cart for my Holiday Hot Cocoa Bar post and slightly tweaked it after moving the Keurig back to the kitchen. I love the Be Merry banner which is from Target. Most of my holiday decor is pretty budget friendly (Target, Michaels, Homegoods, DIY). I just had to invest in the tree which I got from Treetopia. It’s called the Pretty in Pink Tree which couldn’t be more appropriate.

Christmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourChristmas Decor TourLast year I found this Tom & Jerry punch set at a thrift store for $12. I’m so glad I can finally put it out on display for the holidays. I seriously can’t wait until next year to expand my decor a little more into other rooms of the house. What is your favorite Christmas decoration? Is it something that’s been passed down in your family? Perhaps a special ornament? I’d love to know. I hope my Christmas Decor Tour has brightened your day and puts you in the holiday spirit. Four days till Christmas!

Everything’s Coming Up Rosé with Jord Wood Watches

by Leave a Comment

Looking for Valentine’s Day ideas already? I hate to admit it, but it’s one of my favorite holidays, even if it’s kind of made up! Anything that has to do with eating, drinking, chocolate, flowers and pink, I’m all about. Pink and red is one of my favorite color combos and this is the only time of year I can buy pretty much anything in that color scheme. You feel the same way, don’t you?

If you’re looking for a tasty cocktail and a gift for her or him, look no further! I’ve teamed up with Jord Wood Watches to shake you up a delicious treat this Valentine’s Day. Jord makes beautiful wood timepieces that are very modern, stunning and completely unique. They offer many beautiful wood finishes and color options, and make both women’s watches and men’s watches. Moments are bigger than minutes and your watch should tell more than time. This Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to show your loved one that your time, is and will always belong to them. There’s a contest going on to win a $100 to use on the Jord site. All you have to do is go here, and fill out of entry form. Contest closes 2/12. Good luck everyone!

I have matched my drink to my watch with the Cora Zebrawood & Rosé. It has a beautiful light blush face that accents the wild and natural grain of the Zebrawood. I’m shaking up my Everything’s coming up Rosé cocktail that has Gin, Lillet Rosé, lemon, blood orange, and a hibiscus/passion fruit tea syrup. It’s sweet, floral, fruity, and slightly lower ABV, so you can have a few. Oh, and it’s this beautiful deep pink color. Perfect!

Like Lillet Blanc, which you may be more familiar with, Lillet Rose is a wine-based aperitif, made from the Grand Cru Bordeaux grapes used for Lillet’s white and red versions, and then combined with fruit liqueurs. As a result it’s bright and fruit-forward but not overly sweet — a pleasure to sip on its own, or in cocktails. Since this cocktail is slightly lower ABV, if you want to kick it up a notch top it with Champagne. This would be a good batched drink for a punch bowl at your Galentine’s Day party as well. I used TAZO Passion for the tea syrup, I love using it in cocktails and it’s very easy to find. It is a blend of hibiscus, orange peel, rose hips, and passion fruit. Very fruity, herbal and compliments the other flavors in this drink wonderfully.


Everything’s Coming Up Rosé

1 oz. Gin (I used Brooklyn)

1 oz. Lillet Rose

3/4 oz. Blood Orange Juice (if those aren’t available regular oranges work)

1/2 oz. Lemon Juice

3/4 oz. Hibiscus Tea Syrup

Combine all ingredients in tin, shake with ice, and strain into a coupe glass. If you want to dry this cocktail out a little and also add more ABV top with champagne. It will be delicious. For the tea syrup brew a cup of tea (8 oz.) and then add the same amount of sugar. If you’re making a larger batch you will have to add more tea bags.

DIY Christmas Ornament Wreath

by Leave a Comment

I love fun decorations for the holidays and this wreath is super easy to make with some time and a lot of hot glue! I wanted my wreath to be colorful, happy, and festive, so I decided to go with a palette that went with my taste and decor which is mainly pastels. I got my ornaments a few ways, some were bought new in larger sets and others were vintage purchased from thrift stores. Finding vintage ornaments is great because most of the time they are really inexpensive. I found quite a few sets at Goodwill for $2 each. I did need to make a run to Target half way through when I realized I was going to need more ornaments. So to be on the safe side try to have more ornaments than you think you will use.

What you will need:

  • A styrofoam or straw wreath form
  • Tinsel Garland
  • Hot glue gun and extra glue sticks
  • About 120 ornaments in your preferred color choices

I started by organzing my ornaments and planned on how I would style them by color on the wreath. I decided to go with a neutral silver and fill in with pink, gold, and blue. There’s also some random coral and periwinkle because I found a few vintage ornaments that were too pretty not to buy and incorporate.

Next step is prepping your wreath. I wrapped my styrofoam wreath form in tinsel garland that way the first layer of ornaments would be easier to glue on and also so that if there were slight holes, tinsel would be showing instead of styrofoam. Plus it adds a little sparkle!

I worked my way from the inside out, first glueing onto the form but then also glueing the ornaments to eachother.

Continue building and glueing onto one another. Ideally you want to work from the flat surface on the inside of the wreath to the flat surface on the outside of the wreath so that there are no holes from any angle.

After you cover the whole wreath with the first layer, go back and start filling holes, this is when I started to add more color. This is also when I got crazy with it and ended up with a very large wreath. I am super happy with how it turned out and now it’s a decoration I can continue to use year after year. It is a little more special because I made it myself with colors and ornaments that fit my personal aesthetic.