Brandon and I took advantage of a recent storm and did some foraging around the neighborhood. We found a fallen maple trunk that we grabbed for our future pizza oven or fire pit use.

We also found these huge pine cones from a neighbor’s tree. I had scoped them out as I was driving home from the store, so we brought a bag to pick up the good ones.

After letting them dry out for a bit — and un-critter themselves — I set up my spray painting station on the patio and got my most favorite metallic gold spray paint from Rust-oleum. I can’t get enough of this stuff.

After spraying on the first coat, I posted this photo to Instagram and Pinterest and it’s brought me more traffic than anything else I’ve ever posted. Ever. And not just American traffic. I’ve had blog viewers from Bulgaria, Australia, Finland, Ireland and the UK, among many others. Thank you, Pinterest!

I used a fun basket that I had purchased from the Goodwill ($1.99) and spray painted it a deep red, Rust-oleum Regal Red, to be specific. It took a few coats and turned out really great. Perfect for the gilded pine cones.

I sprayed the pine cones a few more times and placed them in the new red basket. I think it turned out pretty well. What do you think?

And a shot of our cozy living room, decked out for the holidays.

One of my favorite holiday traditions is speed tree shopping at Home Depot or Lowe’s. (Or Costco once.) Over the weekend we made the trek to Issaquah (about 10 minutes away), went out for a romantic lunch and spent 3.5 seconds picking out our seven foot tall Noble Fir Christmas tree at Lowe’s.  It’s a real beauty.

Once we got the tree home, it was time to bust out the five boxes of Christmas decor from the garage. A few hours later, the tree was trimmed and the halls were decked.

Here are some inexpensive DIY Christmas garland ideas. I’ve been scouring Pinterest for additional DIY decoration ideas and I’ll post those this Friday for my “Gone Pinning” feature.

I stopped by IKEA on Black Friday, after I was done with my morning shopping, (Why? Because I’m a crazy person, apparently), and found their holiday goodies.

Much to my delight, I discovered that they had these festive holiday Snofint glasses on special, for $0.49 each. No sense not having a full half set, so I bought six. Of course Brandon was pleased. (One of his least favorite impulse buys of mine is frivolous glassware.)

After I washed the glasses, I added some decorative sand and a candle and voila! quick, easy and festive. I’ve got four on the dining room table and the other two are adding some holiday cheer in the bathrooms.

I also found these amazing Snofint coasters, that come in packs of 10 and cost $0.99. They were such a deal that I bought four packages.

Here are the coasters:

With a large needle and some white embroidery floss, I set about making my garlands. Here they are. What do you think? I love them and am looking forward to putting them up, year after year.

I also made this garland last weekend with some felt balls. It’s another one of my favorites.

The house is shaping up quite nicely! Have you put your decorations up yet?