Christmas Decor DIY

The last couple Christmas we had were pretty plain because I just wasn't in the spirit to fuss with the decoration. This year, my sister passed down her Christmas tree to us before moving so we put it up and all of a sudden I just had this urge to decorate. I got most of my stuff from Michaels, Wal-Mart, and the Dollar Tree store.

This coffee table center piece consist of a glass fish bowl filled with ornaments, glittery balls, and pine cones at the bottom. On top, I filled it up with poinsettia flowers, red and white, and added some winter berry branches. I also found some LED light strings that are battery operated at Wal-Mart and swirled the lights around the flowers and voila! Super pretty and glowy center piece!

Mason Jar lights was also pretty easy to do. I found these green colored mason jars at Wal-Mart. Purchased the colorful battery operated LED lights and just put it inside the jar and turned them on.

I did another centerpiece that I placed on the table behind the sofa. For this one, I purchased the tall glass vase from TJ Maxx and filled it up with ornaments. Adorned the top with a bow.

The branches are super pretty and sparkly. I got these from Michaels, along with some twirly glittery strands. I also put some LED lights around the branches, although they are hard to spot on the picture. Lasly, I hung some glittery snow flakes on the branches. 

If you have an empty bottle of wine, don't toss it out. They come in handy for decorations. I filled this one with fake snow and LED lights. Added a poinsettia, winter berries, and decorative branches. Finished the look with an ornament hanging at the bottle neck. 

This would make a nice gift. I got these smaller mason jars from Michaels. Hot glued white lace and red ribbons around the rim and added a flower and tea light candle. Super quick and easy! 

Mason Jar snow globe was one of my favorite projects! I bought a set of snowman salt and pepper shakers and they fit perfectly in these jars. They're so easy to do. You can find those mini pine trees at Wal-Mart and Michaels.

And lastly, these are also super easy. I found a few bunches of holiday bouquet like these and mini garden pots from Michaels. Just trim the stem and hot glue it to the pot and that's it!

Tis The Season To Be Jolly

Hello! You can actually see my reflection on the ornament holding the camera

What I love most about Christmas is the beautiful and colorful decorations but it's been a few years now that I've stopped putting up the Christmas tree and the lights. I don't even know what Christmas is all about anymore. I just know I'm broke as hell when Christmas rolls around. I get mixed emotions of happiness and sadness but one thing is certain, I always keep myself busy and distracted...A full time job, 3 kids, 2 blogs, and a shopping addiction...Damn, life is good (I think).

Anyways, my sister called me up last weekend and ask me to take some Christmas photos of her little family. Of course I said yes...I'm a noob who needs practice and friends and family is always a good start.

I made the mistake of arriving at her house without taking my tripod, LOL...I didn't even start and I failed already! But I'll make sure that this is on my checklist for next time. To be honest, I don't use the tripod very often cause it can get in the way but I've learned from this experience that I could've taken much better sharper pictures. Most of my pictures were a little fuzzy cause I couldn't keep a steady hand. 

As far as lighting, I had nothing fancy but gotta do with whatchu got, right? So it was pretty much just indoor lighting, some daylight coming through the windows and lights from the Christmas tree. I am hoping that in the next few months, I have a better lighting equipment for indoor shooting.

I thought I was shooting Raw, which is something I wanted to try, and again I failed, LOL. I did not get my settings right so I ended up shooting Jpeg. I'm definitely taking note as I learn from these stupid mistakes.
I find small children very difficult to photograph cause they can't stay still. Don't even talk about group photos because if one kid looks alright, the other is looking away or moving around. Photographing kids will take a lot of trials and errors for me to get it right.

By the way, this is Max, my sister's dog. He's a rat terrier. He's not very photogenic. He didn't want to even look at me or even pose. He just laid there minding his own business. I guess I should've offered some treats huh.

All these pictures were taken with Canon T3i, 50mm f/1.4 lens...Aperture f 1.6, Shutter Speed 1/20 sec, and 400 ISO.

At last, I managed to make the final touches on these pictures by fixing the light, contrast, and colors using Adobe Lightroom 4.2 and Photoshop 7.0. I say they look pretty decent. I'm still learning so I am hoping that in the next year or so when I look back at my older pix, that I see a significant change in the quality.

Happy Holidays! May you have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year.