✨Christmas Decorating Plans, Shopping for Decor, and a Christmas Haul | Christmas Decorating Ideas 🎄

Hey friends, welcome back to the channel. Today I thought we'd do something a little bit different. It was a beautiful day this morning. It was around 59 degrees or so and it just seemed like such a beautiful day to go out and start Christmas shopping. I'm specifically looking for Christmas home decor and I thought I would just take you guys along with me and spend a little time together. It's not often that I get to chat with you guys face to face. I feel like a lot of my videos are voiceover videos and I don't really get the feeling or sense of hanging out with you guys like as friends face to face and just spending some time together. So I thought it'd be kind of fun to try to create that with this video. I'd also love to go over decor plans with you guys. I'm starting to get there. It's coming together. I have a little bit of a vision coming to mind and I'm excited about it. And yeah, I just thought it'd be a kind of fun laid back, more personal style video. So I hope you guys like this. Thank you so much for being here. So let's get started. First of all, I did stop by Starbucks already. Ended up getting a gingerbread latte and this is one of my go to seasonal favorites. I get mine with half syrup and almond milk. This is definitely a treat. As for today, going over my Christmas plans, I'm always kind of going back and forth between collected and curated and I can never really figure out exactly which one I am. Curated look meaning more of a, it all matches, it all comes together. Like if my whole house just looked like the hearth and hand section at Target or a Kirkland store, if it's all pretty much one main design style and a really specific color palette, it's going to look more intentional and curated like a staged room almost. So there's things I do like about that to be honest. But a collected look I think is what most of us are more used to maybe growing up in our childhood, either at our parents' house or our grandparents' house. They probably had more of a collected look where they collected different decor items throughout the years and you kind of saw the same things being put out and maybe a few new pieces, but it all ended up being a little more eclectic and a little more just like the comforts of home kind of look, which I truly love and appreciate. So I really do think I'm a mix of both. What I like about curated is that I love color palettes that go together and are kind of calming to the eye and you guys know I love my clean and calm style and so I think a curated look definitely lends itself to having a very put together look and something that's easy on the eyes. But at the same time, I am nostalgic too and I do love some unexpected pieces. So I love, you know, things from childhood, I love some quirkiness and some whimsy and just some like more fun pieces. So I don't like everything to be just so predictable. I like to throw in a little bit of fun. So I am somewhere in the middle, I probably am going to blend the two and I am going to have an overall color scheme, but I don't think I'm going to be too rigid with it. And I'm just going to try to create some kind of homey, Christmasy, magical, but also hopefully pretty space for my family to enjoy Christmas in. So I ended up getting out all my Christmas decorations this morning and setting them all out on the dining room table as I typically do, just so that I could see what I have before I go shopping just to make sure that I'm not repurchasing anything that I already have. And I made a list of several things that I'm looking for shopping today. Again, I just thought it'd be fun if you guys want to get a little decorating inspiration or just kind of see my process of how I kind of put it together. And then maybe it'll inspire you as you start to plan for your Christmas. So I do have a list, I do have a budget in mind, and I do have like certain things I'm looking for that I'm really hoping to find today. So stay tuned if you want to find out if I end up finding what I'm looking for and what I end up finding. Thank you again for being here and let's get shopping. Okay, so that was a success. I just got out of Bath & Body Works and found some cool deals. So I'm going to go ahead and share those with y'all. So they had their candles and full-size body sprays on sale as a duo. So you could pick one full-size body spray and one three-wick candle for $17.95. So I thought that was a pretty good deal and I thought I could pick a candle for myself and then get a body spray for Noelle and maybe put it in her Christmas stocking. So she probably won't watch this video, so it's probably safe. But yeah, so I thought that would be a cute idea. I also needed room sprays. I always love to get the Bath & Body Works room sprays for my bathroom. So I usually stock up on those each season. So I went ahead and picked two of those. So I'll go ahead and show you guys what I found. So this is the candle that I got. It's called Spiced Apple Toddy. And let's see. It has notes of warm apple brandy, spiced plum, tart cranberry, and cinnamon stick. So that sounds pretty good to me. I love like spicy apple, I don't know, cinnamon smells. Yeah, that's really good. But it has kind of like that brandy feel to it too, which kind of reminds me of Christmas. And I don't know about you, but I feel like a candle is like 50% what does it look like, like the packaging, and then 50% what does it smell like. Smell is incredibly important, but I also want it to kind of go along with my decor and whatever room I have it in, I kind of want it to make sense in that room. And I think that this dark burgundy color, kind of like a deeper red, is going to be really pretty for Christmas. Mmm, that smells good. I really like this one, so I'm excited to use this one. And then for the body spray, I got, this one's called Magic in the Air. So I want to describe this, ooh, so I want to say this one's like very fresh and almost like nature-inspired. Yeah, it's very clean and fresh. There's something else that I'm having trouble, maybe a little bit of vanilla. It's kind of almost like a rain smell almost. It's kind of like a foresty, but very light. So I don't know. I think my daughter will like this. She usually likes a lot of the Bath and Body Works sprays and she's collecting them, so I think this will be a fun addition to her stocking. And then for my room sprays, I went ahead and got Cranberry and Eucalyptus, which is super cute packaging on that too. And then the other one I got is Frosted Forest. So I think having, you know, I always buy these in sets of two because they're two for a certain price, like it's $16. They're very concentrated, so even though they are $8 a piece, which seems pricey, they last a long time and really one or two sprays is all you can really tolerate. So these are very, very concentrated and they always last me a while. So I went ahead and got these and I'm really excited to change everything out for Christmas and take out the fall and put in the Christmas. So full disclosure, my first stop was actually Kirkland's and I didn't find anything. So I was like, kind of surprised by that because that's one of my favorite stores, but honestly, I just was not inspired by anything there and I didn't want to buy something just to buy something. So I went ahead and took a pass on Kirkland's. Maybe when I go back another day, I'll possibly be inspired by something there, but nothing really, you know, stood out to me. And so it was just kind of a pass for me. So I think I'm going to head over to the next exit in my town and that has the at home store and then there's a TJ Maxx and some things like that. So let's keep shopping and see what we can find. I found three things that kind of check things off my list. So well, basically two things and then one is just a neutral home decor piece that I'll be able to use for any season. So this is the little neutral decor piece that I got. It's a little like mini cake stand or cloche, whatever you want to call it. It's got the little glass dome lid, but then it's cute and scalloped and I thought that would be so cute in the kitchen. I was definitely on the hunt for kitchen decor specifically because I really don't have much of it and I do like to put a few things in my kitchen to make it feel Christmassy. So I thought get something neutral and then maybe put a little wreath inside like we're going to hit up Hobby Lobby next and I thought I could find like a cute little wreath to put inside and kind of make this more Christmassy. But then springtime I could see using it, putting some florals in there or another little spring type wreath, but I really just think it's a very versatile piece and such a great price. So let's see. Oh yeah, it was $9.99. So that's a good deal because it is, it's small, but it's also like a decent size. It's not super small. Okay. You guys know I had to get this. So this is definitely a touch of whimsy that we talked about, you know, making Christmas magical and fun for the kids, but I just thought this was so cute. And when I see things like this, it's really hard for me not to get them. Okay. Full disclosure. I love gingerbread houses. I love like childhood Christmas and magic and stuff that looks like icing. And even though I don't always decorate like that, as you guys know, I do like touches of that, especially around the holidays. So what we do in our house is I have a tree in the dining room that I tend to decorate a little more dressier and more neutral. And we kind of have that as our fancy tree. And then I have the kids tree in the family room and that's where they open their presents on Christmas morning. And then that's where I can like have a little more fun and playfulness in there. And we do like colors and all the family ornaments from years and years and years, you know, handmade ornaments that are totally falling apart and just all the stuff that makes my heart very happy on Christmas. So we just have a way more relaxed, casual, more collected looking Christmas in that room. And I wanted to put this in that room. And even though this is very neutral for a gingerbread house, I do feel like this is perfect for near the kids tree. And I just think it's going to look so cute. Probably sitting on the little table next to the lamp in the room. And it's actually a really good size. As you can see, it's like really big. And so I thought for $16, this thing is massive. So it's a really good size. And I thought it would look really cute by their tree. Okay, and the last thing that I got at TJ Maxx might be a little hard for me to show on screen. It's very large, but it's these things are so big. One thing I had on my list was to get bigger, more substantial pillows for the family room because I do have quite a large sofa and the pillows I have on there are pretty small. And I thought we could have a couple different sizes going on, maybe some larger ones in the background, and then maybe put some smaller decorative, maybe plaid or some other Christmas pop of color in front. So that's the idea. I do have pillow covers at home. So I want to use those. I have like plaids and I have ones that are like cable knit sweaters. So I'd really like to use those on the down inserts that I already have at home. But the cool thing about these was that they already have down inserts in them. I think they're down alternative inserts. So they're really nice quality, actually. And these huge pillows, I think they're 24 inches. Two of these with the down alternative inserts, so it's much nicer, was only $30. So that's like a total steal. I thought it would be a great addition to Christmas decor. And it kind of has like, kind of like a woven texture right here with like a very subtle stripe pattern. So just dark green and light green and then the edges are like a velvet. So very, very fun for winter and Christmas. Very cute. And like I said, just like real big and it's hard for me to fit them on camera. I really think that these are going to be great to have. Okay, so I am actually getting hungry. I need to eat lunch. So why don't we go grab some lunch together and I'll show you one of my favorite things to eat for lunch when I'm on the go and running errands. And then we can head to Hobby Lobby. Okay, I just pulled up to Hobby Lobby and I'm going to have lunch in the car before I go in. Because it's just that kind of day. I'm not going to make it home. But this is one of my favorite things to pick up when I'm running errands and it's chicken salad chick. So I don't know if you have one in your area, but I love it. And the reason I'm so excited about getting it today is because they brought out the Christmas or holiday flavor. But it's called Deck the Holly. That is literally my favorite. So you guys, this is so good. I normally do get jalapeno holly. If you like sweet and spicy, I love sweet and spicy things. Then give this one a try because jalapeno holly is more just spicy and then cranberry Kelly is more sweet and Deck the Holly is cranberries and jalapenos. So it's just awesome. It's like my perfect chicken salad. So anyway, this is what I got to have. I'm very excited about it. I really hope we find some cool things at Hobby Lobby y'all really, really hoping so because I still have quite a few things on my list and I'm hoping to kind of check some more things off. So fingers crossed, we'll find some good stuff there. Christmas, oh Christmas, oh we long for you. Christmas, oh Christmas, let your message once again ring true. Okay, so I am back from Hobby Lobby. It was pretty successful, too successful if you ask me. So I definitely did not plan on buying so many more things. I'm going to start with this little Christmas mug. So this is a cute little Christmas mug and side note, I've actually had this mug before. I decluttered it probably two years ago because I decided I did not need to have holiday mugs seasonal mugs for my coffee and I thought it was just a little too excessive and then I started to really miss having something like that to celebrate the season. So now I just let myself buy them. So I don't buy a ton, but I might buy one or two and just kind of enjoy it for my coffee for the holidays. And I'll just keep it like on my coffee maker and it's just like ready to go. So I have learned to just let myself enjoy things. I don't have to be so minimal. I can have like fun things, festive things. So since this is so cheap, I went ahead and just replaced it and I absolutely love this. The next thing I got was this really pretty deer. So I'm sorry, it's hard to see like being in the car. I'm so close to the camera because there's just no place for me to put my camera. So I'm so close to the camera that it's hard. I have to try to like back up a little in my seat so you guys can see these larger items. But I was looking for just a statement piece for my buffet in the dining room. And, you know, I like to, I have my lamp and my mirror. And then I like to add some statement decor pieces in there. And I just needed something kind of tall because the lamp is really big. The mirror is really tall. And if I just put tiny items on it, they just don't look like the right scale. So I thought this was nice and big, especially for the price, which so half a 28. So this was 14, which I still don't think is really bad for how big it is. And I think that this will look really nice on the buffet table. So I just got one. I would have maybe gotten two if they had had different heights, but they were all the same height. So I just got one. And staying on theme with the dining room, I did get these really pretty gold pine cones. And these are like picks. So I love the picks at Hobby Lobby. I find them to be very affordable. And really, this is where you can let your creativity shine. So let's say you just pick up a garland or a wreath, and then you go in the pick section or even your plain Christmas tree with just lights. You go in the pick section and just have fun with it, right? There's so many different colors, textures. Some are shiny. Some are more matte. Some are more natural looking. Some are more glam. And you can literally just put together your own creation that no one else will have. So I love the pick section. It's very, very great for getting out creative ideas. So I was kind of inspired by kind of a natural, but I don't want to say glammy, but more like dressy look for the dining room table this year. I was thinking I normally do my garland with the pine cones, and then I'll do like LED lights, like alternating. And I really like that. It's very simple. But you guys know I'm usually simple. And I really like the way that looks. It's very like rustic and natural. But since I am adding in some more gold this year, along with some burgundy, I just thought that this would be so pretty. So just adding a few of these in, tucked into the leaves, tucked into the branches, and then having the lights like twinkle around. I just thought that might be really pretty. So we'll see. You never really know until you put it all together, if you like it or not. But I thought this would be fun to try. So I got about, I think, eight of these. They're pretty small. They're not huge. There's only three on each one. And they were $1.49, half off. So I just got eight of these. And we'll see what we can do with them. And then I got this little sign, which is super simple but cute. It's got a little chain that you can hang it. So I'm going to try to hold it so it doesn't rattle the whole time. But you probably can't make it out with all the glare. It's Luke 2.11, about the birth of Christ. And I just thought this might be cute, either in my bookshelf or my bathroom shelf, maybe. But just a reminder to keep Christ as the center. And especially when Christmas starts to get crazy and feel crazy. And when the stores get crowded and loud and everything is overstimulating, this is just a nice reminder of why we celebrate to begin with. So I was glad to pick that up. Just a simple little statement piece. So that's all I have for you guys today. But I want to thank you so much for hanging out with me, shopping with me, talking decor with me. This is all the stuff that just kind of lights me up at this time of year. And it's just so fun for me. I hope it's fun for you, too. I hope you leave feeling like you were hanging out with a friend. Make sure to subscribe if you love videos like this. And Christmas decorating videos, organizing, all things home, inspiration for creating a clean and calm home. That's what I like to offer here on this channel. And I appreciate you guys so much. And I'll see you guys on my next video. Bye.