Deck the Halls with D.I. Vases, Falalalalaaaaaa, lalalala....

Holidays are a big deal to me. I like to really go all-out. It's just that normal life can be so exhausting and hard and... I don't know.... hamster-wheeley. Yeah, I just made up that term. So when a holiday comes around, I want to celebrate and make it fun and not just a normal crazy day. I want it to be a celebratory crazy day, I guess. Because every day is crazy around here.

This winter has felt so long and hard. I just really wanted to do some fun stuff for St. Patrick's Day. I have no Irish heritage whatsoever, but Ben's birth mother and father have quite a bit, so I thought it would be fun to do some St. Patricks-ey stuff for his sake and for the kids' sake. And for my sake, let's face it.

The first step was decorating (I'm doing another post on the food I made that day). I had NO St. Patty's Day decorations, and all of the store decorations seemed really ugly and cheesy. So one night while I was scanning at work, I was searching for fun decorating ideas. I came across the Better Homes and Gardens website, which had several really fantastic ideas for St. Patty's decor.

I had a very, very limited budget, so I decided to try this idea. I went to D.I. and found several green glass vases of various sizes. Then I went to Wally's and got some fake greenery - I left some vases empty and put the greenery in some. I put the vases and bottles on a white serving tray I already have:

It turned out so, so cute. The fake greenery in the lime green vase is supposed to be the Bells of Ireland flower. Only four of the six bottles/vases were D. I. finds. Then I bought a tabasco sauce bottle and a rice wine vinegar bottle at the grocery store, emptied them out, soaked them, and peeled off their labels.

I still had some space left on my tray, so I kept my eyes peeled for green glass bottles for the next couple of weeks. That's when I found the Mexican Currant Soda that I talked about here. So that's been added to my collection. It's weird; once you start looking for green glass bottles of different shapes and sizes, that's all you do forever. I really do need to add a few more skinny, shorter bottles to the tray, so if anyone comes across some, send them my way. And I want a cooler tray, one like they show on the Better Homes and Gardens website. Maybe I'll go to Pier One next year and find one.

I also implemented this idea from that same website:

Green Christmas ornaments in a big glass vase. I had some weird St. Patty's beads that I got somewhere along the line in my life, so I kind of dangled them over the edge of the vase for a little kick.

What do you think of my decor? It really made things feel festive. I'm totally going to utilize a couple of the other ideas on that website for next year.

Now it's Easter decorating time, and I quite honestly hate all of my Easter decor, so I've been visiting the Better Homes and Gardens website again for the last few days. I particularly like these ideas and these ideas.