Made@home ornaments, $15 big impact display

     This year, thanks to Pinterest giving me a starting point or two, I got away from thinking I needed to replicate a magazine Christmas look. I don't live a magazine life, so why was I trying to get that look? Maybe I was watching too much HGTV... (blasphemy!) So this year, I gave myself permission to do my own thing. And you know what? That's very liberating and stress-relieving.

     I started with this pin: super hero ornaments. Then I asked Chris for a list of his top 12 superheroes. I didn't tell him what this was for. Maybe I should have let the surprise go and told him, as I had to make him revise his list for having two on there that had no identifiable logos. And then had to make my own logo for Night Crawler as i didn't know the one for Martian Manhunter either. I think he snarled at me from the other room at least once. But the end product was worth it:

     12 of our favorite superheroes, which will be adorning our tree that actually looks like it belongs to us- you know, gamers & geeks. I don't think he's even noticed yet that I threw in the Greatest American Hero- a "hero" from a show he used to watch with his dad that he really likes. I kinda wish the glitter in the Hulk ornament had shown better- it mostly ended up in the bottom, and I learned mid-ornament that the black acrylic paint I had was unusually thick and wouldn't mix well. So many q-tips later, and lots of paint on my fingers, I got the desired darker silver for Thor. Probably would have been easier if my paint hadn't been half-sludged. Or if i had mixed it before pouring it into the ornament. Meh. Live and learn. It was fun anyhow.

     And today's step in getting some holiday spirit <forced> into us (I'm notoriously anti-holiday spirit, but I'm trying) I made a 5 minute display to set on the entertainment stand.

See it over there on the right? Ok, you're right, Reese cups look AWESOME and way too yummy right now. That's what I get for watching the commercials. Here's a close-up, stop drooling on the chocolate;

     You saw the title, right? Yes, this costs just $15 to set up. $9.97 for the 2 gallon jar at the Wal-hell-mart. (10.50-ish with tax.) Those giant ornaments came from Family Tree Dollar something or other for a buck each.So $5 there.  And the pine cones were rescues from the wreath the real estate agent sent Chris the first Christmas he lived here...which stuck around for 2, 2 1/2 years.... it was a live wreath. I think it may have been part zombie.  But it contributed to the cause, so good on it.
     The bonus to this set up being I don't have to do much dusting of it. Because do you know how difficult it is to dust something that has glitter on it? Yeah. I don't want to find out, either. :)