Our Christmas apartment.

Needless to say, Andrew and I are on a bit of a budget this year, with a big move in the next few months. The goal for Christmas this year was to make the place look Christmasy without getting a ton of things that we can’t take with us or breaking the bank.

I think our results turned out to be pretty decent given the situation.

Sure, the tree is a little scruffy and abnormal…it was free from Momma Nature. But with a little lovin’ it became our first Christmas tree.

We did visit the Dollar Tree, which I will probably utilize in the future even if we were to come into money. I got our little birds and gold, glittery ornaments there.

I also utilized what was accessible to us, and used the remaining branches off of our poor tree to decorate the rest of the house.

The “funnest” craft out of this experience were the “Twine Balls,” which I used her and there around our apartment as well as this year’s tree topper! It’s an easy tutorial and you can find it here.

One of the cheapest crafts that a woman can do lies in the realm of book crafting. With a thrifted, $1 book you can decorate your home with garlands, banners, wreaths, and these Christmas…stars. I saw a picture of these stars for sale on Etsy and this thought followed, “That looks easy…I bet I could make that.” So I whipped out an old book, scissors, and a hot glue gun and this was the result:

Now they decorate the wall next to my tree and I’m thrilled with the product.

Our advent calendar was inspired by my friend Jacqueline, whose you can find here. I took the same pocket idea, but used book pages and gold paint instead. Then I cut index cards in half and wrote a passage of scripture to read along with a special Christmas thing to do.

Finally, I used these wood pieces that Andrew lovingly cut for me earlier this year. They’ve moved around quite a bit, but I love how they accent the tree and I think I might continue with the log slice decor trend.

We did splurge on one thing, being our first Christmas ornament, which I bought from this Etsy store.
As for wrapping presents, I took the minimalist approach and used twine over kraft paper with candy canes to add the seasonal touch.

All I have to say is, look out next Christmas--I have some ideas in store!