Another blog hiatus y’all. I hate it, but it just gets away from me with long days and busy evenings! I miss blogging so much when I’m away from it though, so one of my 2016 goals is to get into a real groove with this baby and grow it.
That being said, I’m back at it in the midst of the holiday craziness because I just had to share the festivity that’s been happening at our Lincoln Park apartments – and show how easy it was for some simple, key pieces to transform a whole place into a winter wonderland! Christmas is by far my favorite holiday, and I just loveeee being in a big city for it. It’s totally magical, and I wanted that to be reflected in our personal spaces.
Decorating for each holiday has always been a big deal for my family. Since my mom should basically be a HGTV show host, I’ve gotten to learn from the best! One of the best parts about decorating this year, was getting to decorate two apartments – mine with Becca, and then Eric’s just a couple floors above us. Two chances to decorate = a Christmas lover’s dream.
Becca and I’s moms were so kind as to send us back from Thanksgiving with lots of cute decorations, and my mom even sent some over for Eric’s! The rest of the decor you’ll see was picked up at Michaels, Target, or the Dollar Store. Basically I’m saying, even if you’re young, on a budget, and really trying trying to get in the Christmas spirit with your own set up for the first time – it’s totally possible! Hopefully this can serve as some inspiration.
Us three amigos cracked open a bottle of red wine one night, put on the “All I Want for Christmas is You” Spotify playlist, and got to working on Becca and I’s place first. Bruce the Spruce is the main star of the apartment.
Tinsel and Christmas lights line the room frames, and we tried to implement a little Friends inspired door decor by placing a wreath over the peep hole. Stockings sit perfectly under those light up letters we recently snagged at Michaels for 60% off, after eyeing them for months! Let me tell you friends, half of Michaels’ entire store is always on sale, and we’ve found lots of good party and decor goodies each time we go.
We got to decorating Eric’s place a few days later. My mom was so kind as to buy us our very first ornaments and stockings, which we will treasure forever and always. Eric and I set out for a day of shopping to stock up on the rest – including a beautiful 7.5 foot tree!
We’ve got the adorable animal ornaments up there from mom, and some Star Wars ones I had to snag at Target since Eric finally got me to watch the movies – apparently I’m C3P0 and Eric is R2D2. We filled up the rest of the tree with some classics we found at Michaels and extras from Becca, but still have a few to pick up we’ve seen out and about that we want for our collection.
There’s a wreath, garland, and “Be Merry” banner I wasn’t leaving behind at Target up in Eric’s too. I think my favorite part of the whole place though, is the man-made mantle Eric set up that we garnished with scented pinecones, tinsel, gold glittery reindeer stocking holders, and the personalized burlap stockings from my mom. It turned out to be a pretty great set-up, right??
It was so much fun setting up my first place in Chicago with Becca. We have been such a perfect match as roomies starting out adult lives in the big city together. Shopping and decorating with Eric was a whole different kind of wonderful. Picking out things together that we both loved, since we knew next Christmas we’d be sharing our first space as Mr. & Mrs, added a new kind of magic to the whole process!
In the next couple weeks, we’ve got family and friends in town, and I can’t wait to show off these little home sweet apartments. Happy Holidays from The Windy City to you and yours!
