Holiday Details & Ugly Sweaters

As I mentioned before in a previous post here, D and I moved back to Hoboken into this awesome apartment that has so much space and character -- so I couldn't wait to decorate, especially for Christmas. I have to admit though, it has been a little hectic moving in only a few weeks ago, trying to get everything set up and put together -- AND trying to decorate for the holidays. But we made it work. I plan on giving you all an official apartment tour next month when things are less crazy and I can get more done (right now our "office" is more of a "I don't know what to do with this yet so I'll stick the box in here" room. So until that gets all straightened out, I'll just give you a sneak peek of some holiday details -- followed by some ugly sweater pics of a party I went to this weekend.

Enjoy : )

Mantle in the living room. I LOVE the exposed brick here {totally a selling point for me} and with the mantle, I wanted to go with earthy browns, natural pine cones, garland and knit stockings with our initials. We also had an "incident" with a Yankee candle and a certain someone's very expensive and beloved tv which we will not speak of -- which has resulted in battery powered fake candles --much safer let me tell you!!

Winter = furry soft pillows with deer on them. Obviously.

The tree.

Some of my favorite ornaments --NY Giants and a doxie ornament that looks like our little Tiki girl!

More holiday pillows -- which in my opinion could use all year round!

My Christmas chalkboard!

Some festive garland I made with scrapbook paper and baker's twine. easy peasy!

cute vintage salt and pepper shakers my mom gave me to add a little old school charm.

legit mistletoe. Although I do miss the wannabe mistletoe D and I made a few years ago seen here.

Small holiday details in the bathroom. More handmade banners and a jar full of rubber duckies. Side note about the ducks -- D and I have this weird game where we hide these little ducks around the apartment and we have to find them (sooo weird, I know) but it's become a tradition. Not sure how or why it started but it has. So over the years we've collected these little ducks and I thought it would be cute to store them in a little glass jar in the bathroom as decoration.

Even more fun - I found Christmas ducks at Target in those dollar bins so this was the perfect edition for a little holiday cheer in an unlikely spot!

My Christmas ducks representing!

This is the second fireplace/mantle in our bedroom. I added some of my handmade banners, and a collection of other Christmas goodies. Again, I would have liked to have more time and effort in putting together a more polished look -- but since we only moved in 3 weeks ago I'll give myself a break. It's amazing I even decorated for the holidays at all now that I think about it!

More flame-less candles. Best intention ever.

This past weekend D and I went to my friend's annual Ugly Sweater/regift party. Since I've been crazy busy this month, I kinda totally forgot to find or make an ugly sweater so we were scrambling at the last minute. My sweater I found on the clearance rack at Target and D's sweater is from Goodwill for a solid $2. (which by the way, is from Gap and appears to be brand new -- so score, because he likes the sweater on him, and I think I do too!)

Now this my friends, is an ugly sweater. Well actually she's wearing a sweatshirt...but you get the deal!

For the regift portion of the night, the deal is that you are supposed to bring a regift you've gotten over the years or give away something you don't want -- and in return you get someone else's regift. It's definitely really funny to see the crap people give/get and always great for a laugh. And who knows, you might get something you actually like. Like D for example, got this porcelain tree that lit up and he actually liked it. We'll let him put that in his man cave! ; )

Me? I'm keeping my gift a secret because someone in my family might be getting a re-re-re-gift and I don't want him or her to read my blog and find out.

No worries, it's cool -- this is how my family rolls. Re-gifts are a must for our family Christmases because we love to laugh.

Group picture of the whole party. And even though I might look tipsy, I swear I was just blinking! 

But apparently the "ugly Christmas sweater" is back in style -- so you can find really cute ones everywhere. Here are some of my favorites below.

Christmas sweater / Long sleeve shirt / Christmas sweater / Red snowflake sweater / ASOS christmas sweatshirt / Christmas hat

Hope you all have a lovely day : )

-Steph