Manolo for the HomeHoliday decor | Manolo for the Home - Part 2



Archive for the 'Holiday decor' Category


Getting Ready for Fright Night

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
By Christa Terry

I just received the season’s first invitation to a Halloween party. I know, I was just as surprised as you no doubt are. Autumn won’t even begin for another twelve or so minutes. But now that I hang with mommas and babies more often than I hang with 20-something hipsters, I guess I’m going to have to get used to extreme advance warning when it comes to holiday parties. Fair enough.

The invitation did get me thinking about Halloween and Halloween decorations and especially Halloween candy, but mostly about decorations since I do write a home and living blog. A quick sweep of Amazon reveals just what I thought it would: goth coffins, bloody handprint cling film, angry cats, severed heads, and goofy grinning pumpkins. There are even Halloween trees and Halloween treesHalloween tree decorations, if you can believe it.

Luckily, decorating for Halloween and other holidays doesn’t have to mean throwing good taste out the window. Suzanna Frosch and Blake Tovin‘ of New York’s lower Hudson Valley demonstrate that you can get ready for a night of ghosts and ghouls without sacrificing your home’s exterior to the Great Pumpkin.

halloween decorations 1

Following their lead involves little more than a pair of scissors and some paper. Country Living has great Halloween decoration templates from white chocolate spiderwebs to upscale jack-o’-lantern designs, and of course, spooky bat stencils.


Easter Is in the Details?

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
By Christa Terry

I am consistantly surprised at how many Easter decorations I’ve seen in recent years. Back in my day — if I may be allowed the luxury of playing at being old — people hung decorations for Christmas and Halloween and that was about it. You’d see the occasional Hanukkah decoration, but they weren’t at all common, and there were very, very few outdoor Easter decorations, if any, hung on neighborhood homes.

Easter lights

That meant no lights

Easter flag

No Easter flags

Easter bunny

And certainly no inflatable bunnies on choppers… I mean, really? An inflatable Easter bunny riding a motorcycle? So you tell me:


Happy Valentine’s Day from Never teh Bride!

Saturday, February 14th, 2009
By Christa Terry

Last year on this most romantic (or most un-romantic, depending on who you are) of days, I featured furniture for the broken-hearted. This Valentine’s day, I’m feeling a little more upbeat and a little more optimistic, perhaps due to the little one on the way, so I shall present you with a quintet of quirky gifts for the home from Kikkerland.

Kikkerland hearts

While it’s certainly no gaudy heart-shaped box of inferior chocolates, a tin of heart-shaped paperclips is a lot less fattening. Ditto for the heart hot water bottle cozy, which will at the very least keep some part of your anatomy warm. The cupid’s arrow scroll holder will either get you a kiss or a restraining order, depending on your message. You might also say it with heart-shaped magnets or perhaps even combs, though I’m not sure what exactly you’d be saying… Get organized! Brush your hair! I love you!

Romantic? Not quite. But if you’re dating someone and you’re still in “I like you a lot and don’t want to scare you off” territory, you could do worse.


Happy Holidays from Never teh Bride

Thursday, December 25th, 2008
By Christa Terry

Bookshelf holiday tree

Like I said over at Manolo for the Brides, whatever your preferred end of December holiday, I hope it’s a happy one! Me, I do Christmas, and while I copped to a Christmas tree for The Beard’s sake, I would much rather have set up a Shelf Tree, like this one by Frank Visser of IJM.


Tacky Isn’t the Reason for the Season… But It Could Be!

Thursday, December 11th, 2008
By Christa Terry

Holidays are by their very nature a little tacky, and Christmas is the tackiest holiday of them all. Bright reds and deep greens typically look awful together, but we tolerate the combination around Christmastime because those are the colors of the holiday. Suddenly traditional plaid fabrics are de rigueur and metallics are out in force. Snowman figurines become legitimate decor. Blow up statuary appears on lawns all over town. Blissfully, it all gets socked away for another year once the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drops.

tacky Christmas

Before we can all once again hide our secret holiday shame, an act which brings with it its own wonderfully guilty pleasure, the people at Tacky Christmas Yards collect pictures of the most garish outdoor holiday decor displays they and their followers can find. The entries for this year’s list are still coming in, but there are plenty of tacky yards from 2007 that may amuse.


Wreaths Reinvented

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
By Christa Terry

The holiday season is once again upon us, which means it’s time for holiday decorating. If you’re like my father, you have already hung your outside lights, decorated your Christmas tree or put your menorah on display, and erected the largest Christmas village this side of Hallmark. If you’re like me, your holiday decorations are on a UPS truck somewhere and might arrive in the next two weeks. Whatever your holiday decorating style, you may enjoy gazing at or even craftily copying the reinvented wreaths featured in a recent LA Times slideshow.

holiday wreaths

Last year, I gave relatives homemade wine cork wreaths as holiday gifts. Many hours and two severe burns later, I decided that I’d buy holiday gifts this year. That said, if I did decide I wanted a holiday wreath, I’d probably still make my own, and I could do worse than to use the above wreaths as my inspiration. Forget boring evergreen branches — wreaths can be made of anything from leafy greens to feathers to driftwood.


Gifts For the Home: The Under $40 Edition

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
By Christa Terry

I’m proud to say that I actually have quite a bit of my holiday shopping done, though this is by no means usual. This year, I copped out and went with gifts for the home. I guess it’s fun trying to buy gifts for my elders who already have everything they need, but I just plain don’t have the time this year to dedicate my time and energy to shopping.

What do all the parents and grandparents in my life have? Homes, that’s what. And I’ve never heard anyone complain that they simply have too much cute in the kitchen.

Picasso napkin ringsholiday appetizer platesretro clock
cake standretro spice rackblue coffee press

What you see:


Your Very Own Harvest Moon

Friday, October 24th, 2008
By Christa Terry

Arg! Halloween is almost here and work has kept you far too busy to dig the giant hanging spider out from the basement! What to do, what to do? You could do what Sylvar did and transform cheap Ikea accessories into re-usable holiday decor.

paper lantern

How did he do it? It took:

It also took about one and a half hours. Sylvar is calling it a harvest moon, which I think is an apt description. You could also tape black paper eyes, a nose, and a toothy grin onto the REGOLIT to make a jack-o-lantern that magically becomes a lamp when Halloween has come and gone.









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