Confession time, vintage ornaments and more stripey straws

Confession time: I did NOT get the tree or the last box of ornaments put away yesterday. I was too busy spending time with some girlfriends, hitting the thrift store, getting cupcakes with Maren, playing Just Dance 3 with my family and buying frames for our family portraits. Would you have wanted to give up one of those fun things to clean? I didn't either, which is why the tree is still standing in the front room! TODAY....I swear....

When I was taking off all of my beautiful vintage ornaments the other day, I couldn't resist snapping a few beauty shots:

Yum. And that's not even all of them!

Also, I forgot to show you all the cute new Christmas stocking that I ordered this year:

I ordered it from this Etsy shop: Bebe Sniklefritz. She's somewhat local so even though I ordered it late, I managed to get it in time for Santa to fill it up on Christmas morning. I've loved her stockings since last year and this year I finally gave in and ordered. The stocking is nicely sewn and I am IN LOVE with the retro print and of course the aqua and red!

I'd love to order coordinating stockings for the other three in my family but I'm not sure I can get Maren and The Mister to go for it. Rats! Porter's not old enough to have become attached to his Pooh stocking, which was a last-minute Target buy a few years ago because I needed something. Maybe I'll just order one for him now before he knows any better!

One more thing, before I go back to the ornament mines...remember the bowl of paper straw bits that I had leftover after making my Striped Straw Wreath? (which, by the way, I'm totally leaving out for Valentine's Day!)

I knew I could make something fun out of them rather than just toss them in the recycling bin. I actually tried to get Maren to do it because I knew it would be easy enough for her, but she wasn't interested so I just did it myself. I used some yarn and some red plastic faceted beads from my stash and made this cute garland!

I just strung the straws and beads on the yarn preschool-style. It took no time at all, and I had enough straw bits to make a good 10 feet of garland. I hung it above a window, but next year I'm going to use it on my Christmas tree. I love how the straws look like peppermint sticks and the facets of the beads catch the light and add just a little bit of sparkle. Not bad for 'trash'!