Just Lovely: Christmas in Kentucky

Just Lovely is a Young Mary’s Record photo series dedicated to pictures or collections of pictures that we have acquired that represent things we think are wild, beautiful, and just lovely.  Today’s Just Lovely post is a series of photos taken in Kentucky.  All photos from Young Mary.

Dig ‘em?  See the rest of this series on our Young Mary’s Record facebook page: HERE.    Thanks and Happy Holidays!



Super great product and my favorite buy of the day!

Having won “The Industrial Design Excellence Gold Award” — these nifty push-pins by Tak Brand are my FIND OF THE WEEK.

Each pin is actually two pins, as you can see.  Perfect for string Christmas lights or wrangling electronic cords.  I can’t wait to get these in.

I bought a 50-pack from Fab.Com’s SALE today for $7!

I know I sing the praises of Fab often, but it is a GREAT deal site.  You can use my invite to browse — HERE.



DIY or Die: Making my own Ornaments

After seeing the price tags on Christmas ornaments (even with that nifty 50% off at Hobby Lobby!), I still found myself cringing and not willing to buy too many mass-produced ornaments this year.  I bought two small boxes of regular ornaments at a big box store the other day to fill up the tree’s “background” — and those will be the only mass produced ornaments I purchase.

A few weeks back, I googled “homemade ornaments” for research and found a variety of really great ideas!  One that really caught my eye (and resources) were decorative button ball ornaments.  You see, I’m currently inheriting/saving quite a lot of goods from my grandparent’s estate and one of which was a bin of buttons:

To create these ornaments, it requires little money and few supplies.  Styrofoam balls = 50 cents a piece.  Sewing straight pins = $2 for 100 pins.  Buttons = free!  hand-me-down!

These are fun and easy to make.  Even my bah-humbug of a room-mate Ben couldn’t resist making his own.  It’s like a merrier verse of sticking pins in a voo-doo doll?  Arrange the button on the styrofoam, pin it, and repeat.  Also, if you have some difficult buttons, keep them in place with a little dab of hot glue. 

On each of these balls, there was a place that marked the center and a tiny hole.  I kept this hole uncovered, knotted some ribbon, pinned it, and attached that to hang from the tree.  And done!  Beautiful, home-made, and a keepsake of my grandmother’s sewing notions I can have year after year.