christmas – Page 2

Treetopia Ice Cream Social – National Ice Cream Month Themed Holiday Trees

Published on July 14, 2017April 16, 2023 by Krys11 Comments

I know, I know…a Christmas tree in July?!

In case you didn’t already know, July is National Ice Cream Month! To celebrate I’ve teamed up with Treetopia (who believe their trees don’t have to be limited to one holiday!) and five other bloggers to bring you sugary sweet ice cream themed holiday tree ideas.

What’s even sweeter? Treetopia is giving you the chance to win special treats through their social media giveaway, and brand ambassador, Jen Perkins’ Facebook live contest!

Ready for my ice cream themed creation?

Tada!

I started with a pink lighted tree from Treetopia, of course, and decorated it with DIY ice cream ornaments and ice cream string lights.

I used tissue paper to create pastel scoops and placed them in real sugar cones and cute ice cream cups.

Then I used colorful mini marshmallows and candies to decorate them!For snow cones I used tissue paper and party hats!

For extra sweetness I used twine and taffy to make little filler ornaments.

By the way, the pastel pink tree gets even pinker once you turn on the pink lights!

Can’t forget the sprinkles! I filled Treetopia’s iridescent ornaments with rainbow sprinkles! To top it all off I used the rest of my tissue paper and a party hat to make a giant ice cream cone.

Make sure you check out the rest of the blogs to see more sweet inspiration:

Jennifer Perkins

All Things With Purpose

The Latina Next Door

Smart Fun DIY

Celebrate and Decorate

And don’t forget to check out Treetopia’s Facebook page for details on how to win some special treats!

Melodrama Holiday Home Tour 2016

Published on December 23, 2016April 25, 2025 by Krys3 Comments

I’ve said it before but I feel like this month has flown by. I honestly wanted to do a little more decorating but ran out of time. Boooo. I did manage to get all of the necessities in here though! Christmas Tree: check! Bottle brush trees: check! More Christmas trees: check! I’ve realized this year that I have a thing for Christmas trees.

In the dining room I used large bottle brush trees from Target to decorate my shelves and then stuck in two more baby trees for good measure.I got a little more festive on the adjacent bar, of course. I used Shiny Brite ornaments and epsom salts to dress up a cheapy $5 plain wreath and garland.The living room is definitely the most festive place in the apartment! I spy a DIY corn husk wreath over the fireplace.I also decorated the fireplace with my collection of bottle brush trees and DIY Putz Houses. And then there’s the tree!

I’m going to miss this when it’s gone.

I got this hat for my dog but she hates it so Frank the flamingo got a festive little makeover.

These DIY pom-pom pillows dressed up our little IKEA Hack bench. I made these for Christmas but I think they’ll end up sticking around all year.

I didn’t get much decorating done in our bedroom, except for this little gold tree that holds our personal, heirloom, and travel collection of ornaments. I used a faux fur throw as a tree skirt and hung a cute little DIY Christmas print on the wall. The lighting from this tree is super cozy and great to have on during bedtime Christmas movie watching AKA my favorite winter time hobby.

That’s it! Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays! Xoxo!

Coquito Puerto Rican Holiday Drink Recipe

Published on December 22, 2016November 29, 2025 by Krys5 Comments

We all have traditional comfort foods and drinks that taste like the holidays to us. You know, the ones that you just can’t do without and look forward to having once a year, every year? One of ours is Coquito, a creamy Puerto Rican coconut and rum based drink.

Every family has their own recipe and preferred way of making it, some use egg yolks making it more of an eggnog-like drink, but the mainstays are always coconut cream and rum, and lots of it.

Here’s our favorite recipe given to us by my aunt. Thanks, Titi Pily!

COQUITO

1 (12 fluid ounce) can Evaporated Milk

1 (14 ounce) can Coconut Cream (unsweetened)

1 (13.5-ounce) can Coconut Milk

1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 cup White Rum

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

4 Cinnamon Sticks

1 teaspoon Whole Cloves

1 2″ to 3″ piece of Fresh Ginger

2 cups Water

Directions

You’ll be making a sort of tea with the ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. First, peel the ginger and chop into large chunks. Place the ginger in a medium saucepan and muddle until all pieces are smashed. Then, add the cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and water to the pan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once it reaches a boil, lower heat, and simmer until the water turns brown, about 20 minutes.

Once the tea is ready, strain into a large measuring cup, you should be left with about 1 to 1.5 cups of liquid.

Add evaporated milk, coconut cream, coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, rum, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon and 1 cup of the tea to a blender (or a large bowl if using immersion blender) and blend on high for 1 to 2 minutes, until everything is well blended.

Pour the Coquito into glass bottles or mason jars and refrigerate until it’s cold. Once it’s ready to serve, shake the bottle or jars to make sure everything is well combined, pour into small serving glasses, and top with a light sprinkle of ground cinnamon.

DIY Christms Village Mid-Century Putz Houses

DIY Mid-Century Christmas Village Putz Houses

Published on December 14, 2015November 29, 2025 by Krys10 Comments

I’ve always had this wild fantasy that I would become one of those people who collect and make elaborate Christmas villages. I just love the idea of making perfect make-believe Christmas towns and being able to look at them all season long. The first time I ever walked into a Department 56 store I almost died. Alas, those things are expensive and I’m not a millionaire (Yet.) (Kidding.)

However, to fill the Christmas village hobby void I started making DIY Christmas village houses, otherwise known as Putz houses! Porcelain versions became popular around the 70s, but cardboard versions were very popular in the mid-20th century. Just my style.

Traditional cardboard putz houses were just that – traditional. Most were the standard cottage or a-line box. I have a love affair with mid-century modern architecture, so I sketched my designs pulling inspiration from some of my favorite architects and homes I grew up around in Palm Springs and LA. Then when I started to render them to be printables, a quick little internet search for putz houses led me to one of the best retro blogs out there called Retro Renovation! I’m so glad it did because they have some pretty amazing and inspiring Putz house patterns and tutorials! Great minds! Check those out immediately.

Anyway, this is a pretty easy and straight forward craft that can be done a few different ways. I personally printed the patterns out on cardstock and used hot glue to assemble them. You can also trace the pattern onto cereal or gift boxes. To color them you can digitally fill the pattern in with color before printing, or you can use paint, crayon, or colored pencils to fill it in. Then use cardboard pieces for the roof and base. Whatever works for you!

After assembling the walls and roof, I covered a piece of cardboard in white felt and attached it using hot glue. I applied a hefty amount of white glue to my roofs and piled on the buffalo snow.

You can use miniature trees and accessories like cars, animals, and snowmen to bring the scene to life, and as you can see every house has a tree up in the window.

For this one I used paper straws to hold up the carport.

And for this house I cut light shapes out of scraps of felt and glued them on.

So fun! Get out your exacto knife and start cutting!

Click here to download my variation of the patterns that I used here, and be sure to visit Retro Renovation for the originals and even more great putz templates, ideas, and step by step photos.

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