My five favorite holiday decorating staples

Hey all! I'm hard at work continuing to get our home decorated for Christmas. I'm doing it early this year because Thanksgiving is later and because I don't want to stress about it at all after turkey day.

When you're a decor blogger, there's some added stress to making your home pretty at the holidays -- I LOVE doing it, but this year I want to be done before December so I can spend the month sitting by the fire watching Christmas movies, drinking hot cocoa and eating bon bons.

You know, how December always is in our heads. ;)

Anyway, as I've been decorating I realized there are a few staples I use every year that I could not do without! They are my go-to's and I use them all over the house in many ways.

When it comes to the decor there are three items I use in various ways:

• greenery picks to add fullness and a deep green
• berry picks for a pop of color and dimension
• larger items like pine cones and ornaments to fill in empty spots 

I use them everywhere! Tucked into garland, containers and even trees. They add that little extra something for very little money. 

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The greenery picks are typically pretty cheap at craft stores, but I find it's even cheaper to cut them down off of longer garland. You'll just need some wire cutters to cut them into smaller sections. It's way easier to use them in smaller increments when just putting them here and there for fullness. 

My favorite place to find the berries is Hobby Lobby -- each one is only $1 on sale. And the pine cones can be purchased in bags or you can go foraging for them outside! (Just make sure you clean them before using!) 

I decided this year I'm going to do less decorating EVERYWHERE and more decorating in specific places, if that makes sense. So I went all in with the mantel, for example. I also added a bunch of the berries and greenery to our garland on the stairs: 

I usually use real greenery on the stairs, but it is SO messy when it's time to take it down. I found this cedar garland at Target that looks so real! It's the best price I've seen for something so realistic. 

The other staples I use all over the house are more on the hardware side of things -- the 3M hooks and metal cup hooks: 

I use the cup hooks for the garland on the stair railings -- I screw them in underneath to hold the greenery: 

These are so small, you don't even notice the hole the rest of the year. It's easy to screw them back in the next year as well! I also use them around the front door if I hang garland there. 

I use the 3M hooks on our mantel to hold the beaded garland, and I went ahead and hung our stockings from them as well for now: 

I have these metal stocking clips for the mantel that I'll use eventually, but I haven't found them in the storage boxes just yet. ;) 

I also use the 3M hooks on our windows for the exterior of the house. For these I like to use these exterior Command strips specifically -- they're made to hold up to the elements:  

If you use the Command strips and ever have a problem with them not coming off cleanly, this 3M hook removal trick of mine works every time! :)

These five staples make my holiday decorating go much smoother and make everything full and beautiful!:

The best part is, they work just about anywhere. Greenery, a pop of color and some natural elements are all you need to create a lovely holiday home:

Remember the DIY Christmas gift art I shared last week? Aren't they too cute on my do-it-yourself picture ledges? I just love them here!

Do you have any go-to's when it comes to decorating your home for the holidays? I couldn't do it without these five items. :)

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Easy ways to decorate for the holidays with ornaments

Have you started any holiday decorating yet? I usually wait until the week of Thanksgiving, but we had such nice weather last weekend, I finished up the Christmas decor outside already! I've never done it this early and I have to say, it's SO nice to have it done! 

I like to share inspiration early on so you can get some ideas for your own holiday decorating. I'm thrilled to be bringing you some tips today using some beautiful pieces from Pier 1! You may have seen these photos along with my face in this month's HGTV and Food Network Magazines. I'm thrilled to be working with them to share these fun tips. 

This is a sponsored post but all tips are my own!

I tend to use the same staples every year when I decorate for the holidays. I find you can make any room look festive with a few basics -- and the items I use in every room are ornaments. I know, I know...on the tree, of course! But I encourage you to think outside of the box with these beautiful baubles!

Fill a tablescape with ornaments: 

Isn't that stunning? The thing about using ornaments is it's SO easy -- for this display, start with a sparkly table runner. Place some bottle brush trees on top and then start piling on the ornaments!

You can use a long piece of greenery and wind it around, or just use sprigs of it tucked here and there (it will go a lot further this way). Use wire to secure the ornaments (these beauties pictured above are from Pier 1) to the greenery, or I find that they usually stay put if tucked in well enough.

I also love using ornaments as simple and pretty place tags at the table -- run some skinny ribbon through one and then punch a hole in the name card to run through as well. Or just tie the ribbon with the ornament around the cutlery as they did here!

Decorate the mantel with ornaments: