BETTER LATE THAN NEVER... CHRISTMAS EDITION

Oh my gosh... There are only 2 weeks until Christmas!!!!!

If this facts makes you scream, panic, faint, stress out, want to eat a gallon of ice cream, cry, hide or makes you queasy... then you will want to read this!

I have some easy last minute decorating ideas for anyone who feels that Christmas has sneaked up on them this year!

And if you are super organized and all decorated you might want to read this too and... a) help a needy unorganized friend with the above symptoms or b) save these tips for next year.

Here are some easy peasy, low or no cost, fast ideas to get your halls decorated in no time at all... and a few last minute tips to boot.! These are my BEST last minute Christmas tips...

Don't we all love tips and decorating ideas that make our lives easier and more beautiful?

I sure do!

I'm so happy to be a part of...

Make sure you check out the end of this post for the list of participating blogs.!

This Christmas I decorated most of StoneGable with green... not fresh (due to a big surgery).

I used faux greens and lots of pinecones and "sticks and twigs" I have collected over the years. And most of us have tons and tons of greens and hopefully something we could classify as "sticks and twigs"!!!

I love love love "sticks and twigs"! They are fillers that add fluff and height and depth and drama and interest to greens!

And here's a great tip... cut those greens and picks apart. You don't need to put one big clump-of-a-green in a vase... cut apart several greens and mix them in a vase... the effect is so much nicer!

This is probably a no-brainer... instead of decking the halls with all those snowmen, Santas, elves, penguins, villages, gingerbread houses and poinsettias... try a simple bowl of greens with some fillers, like pinecones or ornaments or "sticks and twigs"!

Why drag out all the Christmas chotchkies and take hours to set them all up when you can put various greens in a dough bowl and throw in a few pinecones and have a beautiful Christmas decoration that took 5 minutes to literally put together!

Honestly, this is the best last minute decorating tip you will ever get!!!!! And it's so so simple!

All you need is a pretty pot...

or creamer...

or dough bowl...

or pitcher...

or crate...

or mercury glass...

or bowls...

or cups...

or boots...

or even a sweet little nest filled with greens!

These will bring Christmas spirit to any room in just minutes!

If you love real greens... now is the time to bring them into the house. Not before... or you will be cleaning up dropped needles and your arrangement will start looking dry and tired!

We buy our live tree ten days before Christmas to make sure it stays fresh until the New Year!

Here's another great tip. If you buy fresh greens, call your local tree nursery and ask if you can buy a fresh grade "B" tree or a "second". They are the trees that are not so pretty or have bald spots or crooked trunks. And they are usually deeply discounted.

I order one grade "B" fraser fir trees every year to use for the bulk of my fresh green decorating. It cost me $20.00. A big, big savings instead of buying small fresh bunches!!!! I cut the tree apart myself and arrange the greens in bowls, vases, pitchers etc adding other real and faux elements.

Click HERE to see a tutorial about making the above live green arrangement and how to keep live greens fresh!

So, If Christmas morning is coming much faster than you like and you are not totally decorated... make pretty arrangement of greens and you will be FA-LA-LA-LA-LA-ing for the rest of the season!

Remember to