SIMPLE DECORATION INSPIRATION {for the average person}

Hi all! It's me, Kaylee, again. Yes, I did address this post to the average person as I am probably the most average person you will ever meet. I don't have any specialized skills nor am I truly amazing at anything. If you are a top-of-the-line designer just turn your head away... like right now. I know these ideas are not the most spectacular so no need to judge but for those who are like me, an average person, this post is all for you! 

I enjoy decorating and trying to make things cute while on a {very}limited budget. I love beauty in the world and am all about seeing beauty in things and helping create beautiful moments out of events but definitely do not have the money to make things exactly as I imagine them to look. Needless to say I have finally figured out how to beautify my world without spending too much dough. Here are a few of my tips/ideas I've done to decorate for the holidays or big parties.  

EVENT 1: GRANDPARENTS ANNIVERSARY PARTY
I think Lindsay may have mentioned that we threw an anniversary party for my grandparents over Thanksgiving break. I took the liberty to be in charge of all of the decorations for the big event because, as I previously stated, I wanted it to be beautiful.

The event was in my grandparents LDS church building in Park City, UT. A really nice thing about our church is you can reserve the building to host events at it for little to no charge at all. Plus it has tables, chairs, a kitchen and usually audio/visual equipment. Lucky for us, our grandparents ward had bought brand new white tablecloths that they let us borrow for the event! 

This is what I did for all the tables. I used about 12 yards of butcher paper that I bought from a local craft store for $8 total for the place mats. Then I cut out each table mat and wrote "What I love about the Olsens:". I made about 90 which took a lot of time as you could probably guess. The greenery on the plasticware is juniper branches that I had just trimmed off from a juniper bush in our neighborhood {those babies are sooo full, you couldn't even tell we had trimmed anything off}. I added cinnamon sticks to it too. The cinnamon sticks can be kind of pricey but Clark found some in the candy container section at our grocery store where you fill a bag and pay by the lb which is so much cheaper than buying pre-packaged bags! I tied it with jute-looking yarn that Clark actually already had. The lanterns really tied it all together which my lovely sweet mother-in-law of dreams {She will get this if she reads this, right Michele?}so graciously let us borrow. My sister-in-law printed off old pictures of my grandparents and my aunt bought some frames for us to put on the table along with the lanterns. 

Tip 1: If you can borrow items from people you know, you will save a lot of $$!

Tip 2: You can save a lot of money also by finding things you have around your house/neighborhood  

I also made a banner to place above the food table. My sweetie mother-in-law also let me borrow the muslin material to make the banner and even cut out the rectangles and sewed the edges for me! The muslin was actually very cheap. She had previously used it for my sis-in-laws wedding and had bought it for $1 a roll at Walmart! Can we say what a steal!? I made the font by printing off each letter on a 8x11 piece of paper from Word using the "Stencil" font. Then I just cut out each letter and used it as a stencil. I had some white paint at home so I didn't need to purchase that either. I made the puff balls from a 20 sheet tissue paper package from Michaels. My sister-in-law helped me make these and I think they turned out so cute! Let me know if you want to learn how to make them, they are actually very easy!

Tip 3: Don't be afraid to ask for help. Being an average person, I do not know how to do some things so I went to my very experienced in-laws that were so sweet to offer their time and talents to help me out with this! 

These two pictures are extra little details that Lindsay and our sister-in-law Christina created the day we were setting everything up for the party. Lindsay saw this chalk board, used her magic and created the super cute/trendy/hipster chalk art! I loved it so much! She and Christina used Christina's extra pictures and the jute-yarn to string the pictures over a display table. They looked so cute I loved their sweet touches they contributed to the decorations!

Tip 4: Have people help you with the set-up. Having other people there not only helped everything go by faster but also allowed the event to have a touch of other peoples ideas and creativity to made things more beautiful than I could have imagined!

 ^^^ Some of my sweet set-up crew for the big event^^^

 EVENT 2: HALLOWEEN PARTY
I don't want to give too many details about this just what I did and how easy it was.

 I bought the Skull and Skeleton from the dollar store and used silver spray paint that my in-laws had laying around to make them look nicer. I also spray painted a pumpkin with a shiny black paint and the leaves with the silver. I already had the glass jar that I received as a wedding gift and filled it with microwave popcorn. I bought the cobwebs from the dollar store too.

Tip 5: Check out the dollar store before you go to any other store to purchase decor. If you can be creative there is usually something you can find and make more beautiful plus it is soo much cheaper!

 ^^^ The lovely back drop I made from a white table cloth from the $store and red paint that I already had. Let me tell you, this was the most fun part of making the decorations! I did make the banner too just from black poster paper from the dollar store, the red paint, and ribbon I had at home.^^^

^^^ Spooky book shelf with a few Halloween touches^^^

Tip 6: Add decorations to what you already have in your apt. 

^^^ I made the chalk board from an old frame I wasn't using and chalk board spray paint. EAT DRINK AND BE SCARY^^^

EVENT 3: CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

These really are not anything super special, I just wanted to show off my gorgeous Christmas tree!

^^^Because we have super tall ceilings we HAD to get a huge tree this year! We got ours at Smith's Market Place (local grocery store) for $50! It is over 8 feet tall and is the fullest real Christmas tree I've ever seen. I am so proud of it and love it so much. Smiths actually had better prices on their real trees than a local tree farm^^^

 ^^^ Because our tree was so full, we had to trim off some branches to fit it in the tree holder. I decided to make a wreath out of the extra branches and think it turned out quite beautiful if I say so myself. We use the jute/yarn to tie it together, and as you can see I put a big gold bow in the top. So easy and came along with the tree... can't get much better than that!^^^

 ^^^ Remnants of our very first Christmas tree and cinnamon sticks^^^

Oh, so my sisters told me I needed to put this on the blog. Here is my gingerbread house that got first place at work! Let me know if you have any questions and ill tell ya how I built it but I did not buy any extra materials at all to put it together. I just used what I had at home (cut up a box to support it, the extra butcher paper place mats from the anniversary party, the cobwebs from Halloween, Easter eggs, tissues and paper... that's pretty much it!)