Christmas at the Stonebargers

Welcome to my living room! I decided to post these photos to give you an idea of how I decorate for the holidays. Now I hosted several events this year, including hosting my family for Christmas eve, so it's a little more over-the-top than normal. But I feel that by really decorating for Christmas, I get into the holiday spirit early and enjoy staying home in the cool weather. My kids also are starting to appreciate my effort. I had finished this room in the evening, so when my 4 year old daughter saw it all done the next morning, she gasped and said "MOM! It's so BEAUTIFUL!" I think that was worth all my hard work.

I tend to use my same decorations every year, but I move things around and pick a different color scheme for different rooms in my house. My main decorations are mostly in traditional red, and I love snowmen and gingerbread stuff. But this year, I incorporated gold into the tree and living room. Last year, I used red with white and went with a peppermint candy theme on the tree. This year, the peppermint stuff went to the dining room with my gingerbread collection. I admit that I did buy some new stuff this year...I was into the nutcrackers this year. (Curse you, Home Goods!) But most of my decor are favorite pieces that I bring out every year.

I also wanted to post these photos to remind everyone that I am available to help YOU decorate for holidays or parties as well. I can use what you already have, or design and pick out all new stuff for you. I can even come over and wrap all your gifts before Christmas.I often have friends come over and say, "wow, will you come do this at my house?" The answer is YES, and I'm affordable. (Are you kidding? A job that combines shopping AND decorating? Yes please.) So keep that in mind for your next special occasion.

Gingerbread Castle 2010

You followers out there will remember that we try to make a family gingerbread house every year. So this year, we decided to make something to submit to a real gingerbread competition. This is our edible replica of Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland. Now, I have to admit that it is usually a more family-oriented project, but this year, mommy kind of took over and did about 90% herself.

*** I have received numerous requests for the instructions and templates for this design, but unfortunately I don't have them! This was created for fun and not for mass production. So sorry! ***

Gingerbread Barn

When my husband and I were first married, we decided we'd do an elaborate gingerbread house together every year for the holidays. Of course, with the addition of our son, we have skipped the last couple years. But we are back to our tradition with this year's barn. I think my mom had pulled the instructions out of a magazine from the 80's, and I copied all the patterns and hand cut each piece out of gingerbread cookie dough. The reindeer and santa were all pieced together with 3 layers of cookie to make them 3D. We assembled everything with the traditional royal icing, some tinted dark brown. We also made a red glaze that we painted on the roof and sleigh before decorating with candy, which included candy canes, spearmint leaves, m&ms, silver dragees, and cupcake sprinkles. Everything here is (technically) edible, except for the foil wrappers on the presents in the sleigh (although some of the candy was stale and the dough is doctored a bit to be more sturdy...not as delicious!) It was a big endeavor, and we managed to keep it in tact even with the kids around. Other than a sagging barn roof, it looked as pretty as the picture!

Holiday Decorating - Laguna Beach

I was so excited when my very favorite Doctor called me to ask if I would help her decorate her house for Christmas this year. (Anything to help out the woman who delivered both of my beautiful babies!) She has a beautiful home that just needed a tiny boost of Christmas cheer. So we used all her family decorations and enhanced the traditional Christmas feel with a little bit of fresh greenery, poinsettias, and elegant ribbons. I made several centerpieces and candle holders for various places throughout the house, as well as a few fresh flower arrangements with deep red roses, white stock, white "pom" mums and seeded eucalyptus. I wrapped the beautiful stairway in her entryway with gorgeous embroidered ribbon, fresh cedar garland, berry branches and velvet poinsettias. And the dramatic 6 foot fireplace mantel got a similar treatment with ribbon, poinsettias, and fresh cedar; it was a nice enhancement to show off her family of caroler figures. Their Christmas tree was full of their family ornaments, and I added just a few poinsettias and berry branches to tie it all together. The pops of deep red color worked so well with the dark wood floors and wood beamed ceilings and light color walls of the house. I was honored to be able to be part of her family's holiday this year. Thanks Dr. R! xoxo

Christmas 2009

It's Christmas at my house again! You would think that with an active 19-month old in the house, we wouldn't bother. But the kids are surprisingly good about leaving the decorating (for the most part) alone. I wanted to post these personal photos just to give an idea of my decorating style. Now for my house, I tend to choose a whimsy, peppermint candy and snowman theme for my living room. This is influenced by my kids, but also reflects my taste, as I love "cutesy" and I love snowmen. The regular decor in my house is mainly inspired by Hawaii with a "Tommy Bahama" feel (I would like to think so, anyway!) So before kids, our tree reflected the spirit of Aloha - pineapples, orchids and copper poinsettias. We decided to put our Hawaii tree upstairs this year in our newly remodeled bonus room (and we simply replaced all our green and copper glass bulbs with gold plastic ones). It's been fun to have 2 trees up (actually, we have 5 this year! 3 more small ones in various spots) and really brings the spirit of Christmas to the whole house.

I would love to decorate for other people as well. So if you're interested in help during the holidays, for a special event, or just for everyday decor, contact me for a free quote. I can use your existing decor and add to it, bring in a new color scheme, or replace everything for a fresh new look. Happy Holidays!

Spookytown!

So I discovered a new talent this year - styrofoam carving! For the past few years, we have been collecting pieces for a miniature Halloween village. On a trip to the Department 56 store in Downtown Disney this fall, we were inspired to create a kick*&$ display like the one they had in the store (did you see it? it was awesome!) So we went dumpster diving to find all the styrofoam (our part in "going green" this year - reuse & recycle!), got a "hot wire" tool for carving, bought some spray paint & went crazy! I created this display which is customized for our particular Spookytown pieces, so in the "grotto" was our mummy and pirate pieces, and on the top level was our "town" pieces (Frankenstein's lab, the cemetary, dead man's mine, haunted houses, etc). The whole thing got several coats of spray paint (I discovered that oil-based spray paint eats away the styrofoam! Actually, it made a really cool "lava rock" type effect). The layers are held together with bamboo skewers. And the bottom level "grotto" got a thin layer of sand glued on. And the water we created by painting the styrofoam, then covering the area with clear caulking and painting the "white caps" with white acrylic paint. The waterfall was a mixture of blue cellophane, clear saran wrap, and hot glue. Topped off with some aquarium gravel rocks and dried moss, Spookytown was quite the holiday display this year. To check out more photos of our Spookytown, you can access the Lemax Spookytown website with the following link:http://www.lemax-spookytown.com/Displays/HalloweenDisplay2008.asp. Look for "Jeremy & Jennifer Stonebarger" towards the bottom of the list and click on our names. The whole thing was quite a project, but alot of fun. So all of you Department 56 or Lemax collectors out there, if you need a custom display built, let me know!!

Hawaiian Christmas Tree

This is the Hawaiian Christmas tree that I usually put up in our family room as a second tree. Yes, a second tree is a little extravagant, but we always put the live tree in the living room and then spend all our time in the family room. So we purchased a fake flocked tree (since both my husband and I always wanted a flocked tree as a kid and neither of us ever got our wish!) and carried our "Tommy Bahama" home decorating style into Christmas. I love the copper and green color scheme and all the pineapple ornaments that we've collected over the years. I top this tree with a bow and stems of silk orchids and copper branches. It may be a few years before we see this tree in our home again, since all the bulbs are glass and Jackson (my 8 month old son) is already a handful!

Christmas Decorating

This is our living room decorated for Christmas this year. I went with a peppermint/candyland theme this time. Luckily, my 2 year old daughter has never been one to bother the Christmas tree. I love to bring out all my holiday decorations each year...it gets us in the Christmas spirit every time we walk through the room. I would love to start decorating other people's homes for the holidays. I can use your existing decorations and add a little sparkle of my own. Or let me design a whole new look and buy some new pieces for your home. I also do custom gift wrapping, hand-tied bows, and floral arrangements and centerpieces.

Easter Sugar Egg

Remember the sugar eggs we all saw (or nibbled on) as kids? I got a set of molds for creating sugar eggs and we went crazy. It turned out so cute, that I actually wrapped it up and saved it, and now I pull it out every Easter for our table. The molded sugar egg and the royal icing decorations all dry to a cement-like state, so it looks surprisingly good each year. I have varying sizes of eggs (this is actually a cake pan - the biggest egg size I have) and they can be made vertically or horizontally. It would be a fun project to do with kids too, if they have the patience (my 2 year old is not quite ready to help!)

Gingerbread House (2006)

Gingerbread! Every year we (try to) make a gingerbread house as a family. This piece from 2006 was about 2' x 3' (in total) and about 2' high. This is actually a replica of my own house, complete with our two dogs (piped in icing) on the front lawn. I created a template by taking photos of the house, creating cardboard templates for all the walls and the roof, and cutting & assembling each piece from homemade gingerbread cookies and royal icing. We used (to name a few) ice cream cones, candy canes, licorice ropes, mini m&m's, gumdrops and starlight mints to decorate. We even used green sugar sprinkles for grass, "nerds" candy for pebble walkways, fruit leather for the roof, and white and green royal icing for the details. We have done similar showpieces for Halloween, Easter and we're thinking about a Valentine's house this year (we just didn't get to our gingerbread this Christmas, so check back in late January!) They last for months (if you can keep little nibblers away) and they make the house smell fantastic. If anyone is interested in a complete custom gingerbread house, please contact me for pricing.