November Wrapup

Well, I guess it's the last day of November. I must say this has been one of my laziest months ever. I mostly spent it drinking hot chocolate, decorating my apartment for Christmas, and starting some new projects. I'm hoping that December brings much of the same, but maybe with a little more venturing outside the house. Here are a few snapshots from the month:

My favorite posts from November:

• Snowglobe Craft Night
• Antiques Auction
• Winter Wonderland Hallway

And a few goals for December:

• Host a fancy Christmas party
• Buy some handmade gifts for friends and family
• Try a bunch of new baking recipes

I hope you all had a great November and I hope December is even better!

Winter Wonderland Hallway

In an effort to find creative ways to decorate my little apartment for Christmas, I ended up spending a lot of time turning my boring hallway into a "winter wonderland." It's basically just tinsel garland, white led lights, and paper snowflakes, but I'm really liking how it turned out.

Want to make your own? First, you'll need to buy two tension curtain rods that fit in the width of your hallway. Hang them up at even heights at each end of your hallway.

Then start by tying the garland around one of the rods, string it around as many times as possible, and do the same with the lights. Make your favorite paper snowflakes (I don't need to go over this one right? I think everyone made these as a kid...) and tie them onto the garland and the light strands using either white yarn or string. My yarn has some sparkle, but I suppoooooooose that isn't mandatory.

Done! Now I feel very festive every time I walk through this hallway.

Cool Stuff

I shared a little holiday DIY over at After Nine to Five this week for glittery star garland.

I'm in love with this tutorial for friendship bracelet hoop earrings by PS I Made This... so creative!

This girl made a really detailed dollhouse to look like the homes in The Hobbit. I seriously love The Shire and would definitely love to have those skills.

I think I need to make this sparkling pumpkin cider beertail from Brit+Co.

I love this idea for faux striped walls in Apartment Therapy. I can't paint the walls in my apartment, so I may just have to give this a try.

If eight of your favorite websites were Pokemon... need I say more?

Find any cool stuff this week?

Jeans

Yes, I'm wearing jeans. This is a rare sight, but I'm too lazy to do laundry and I need more pairs of fleece tights for the winter (I'm also too lazy to iron my clothes if you'll notice...) But at least it's cold enough to wear boots regularly and these are my favorites.

Outfit details: Modcloth tunic, Target cardigan, Macy's jeans, Von Maur boots (similar), vintage earrings *This post contains affiliate links

Sponsor in December

It's almost December and I seriously can't wait! I have so much fun stuff planned for this blog, so here's the monthly reminder that I'm accepting pay-what-you-can sponsorships and trades with other bloggers. Email me at wattlebirddesigns at gmail dot com for more info. And check out my awesome November sponsors!

Antiques Auction

Over the weekend, I got the chance to attend my very first real in-person auction. There were so many great antiques - furniture, clothing, books, and pretty much everything in between. I seriously wish I had a bigger apartment so I could have bought more. Here's a peek at some of my purchases.

This big ornate mirror was probably my favorite purchase of the day. I had been looking for a cool mirror for my living room area and this was one of the first things to catch my eye when I walked into the preview. It was a steal too ;)

This silver tea set was my most expensive purchase of the day, but I think it was totally worth it. I collect tea sets and I know I'll be keeping this one forever. 

This table is actually a Singer sewing machine table from the '50's, which I guess I now collect too (though not on purpose). I just seem to find these tables everywhere and they're always so cheap and in decent condition. I wasn't planning on bidding on this, but when it looked like it was going to go for less than $20 I just couldn't help but bid on it. 

And finally, I purchased two boxes full of hats, shoes, purses, and belts. I looked through the boxes at the preview and really liked a lot of the items, particularly the shoes. Then when I got home I found that not one of the pairs of shoes fit me right (they were either sliiiiightly too small or sliiiiightly too large - I might just keep some of the ones that are too big and try to make them work). So anyway, there will probably be a huge Etsy shoe sale in the coming months! But I love some of the old hats and purses so much.

I seriously had more fun than I thought I would just holding up my number and bidding against people. If you get the chance to go to an antiques auction in your area, I highly recommend it!

Cool Stuff

Did you know I'm one of the new craft contributors for After Nine to Five? I've had a lot of fun working with Ashley and coming up with ideas for cool DIY projects. You can check out my first two: Yarn-Wrapped Boots and Wine Cork Board.

Party On is still going strong too. It's been a bit quiet this week, but we just had a huge photo shoot so there will be plenty of new posts up next week. So far a few of my favorites have been this Ginger Apple Sangria Recipe and Halloween Cupcakes.

Of course there is plenty of cool stuff on the internet that I didn't make. I'm so in love with this tutorial for Mini Marquee Signs over on Oh Happy Day, which is also what gave me inspiration for a new life goal this week: filling a phone booth with balloons.

I really really really want this Christmas Tree Necklace from Fred Flare. I'm still on a hiatus from buying clothing and accessories until Black Friday, so maybe I can hold off until then, and then I'll basically wear it every day until Christmas.

Also, this Pi Pizza Cutter from ModCloth is basically the best thing I've ever seen. 

And offline, I'm really enjoying putting together Christmas decorations for my apartments, going for walks outside, listening to Taylor Swift preeeetty much nonstop, putting peppermint mocha creamer in my coffee, and catching up on Parenthood.

What are you up to this week?

America

Happy morning-after-the-election! If you're like me and you stayed up to watch results, then you're probably feeling a little sluggish now. Politics is really emotionally draining for me, which is why I don't really talk about it here. And I don't plan to now either. But I was always told that if people vote, the right person always wins. And it seems like there were a lot of lines at polling places around the country yesterday, so that's a good thing. Now let's all get along again, okay?

Outfit details: thrifted dress and sweatshirt, Target tights, Payless flats, Jewelmint bracelets, vintage earrings