Now that things have wound down from the holidays and everything has been packed away, my house  looks so empty! A part of me loves that everything feels so fresh and gets a nice cleaning but the other part of me wants to hold on to it a little longer. It’s so much work to only have the decorations up for a month or so. This is why I decided to keep one tree up through the winter and use it as a holiday tree! I thought for January, February and March, I’ve kept my 4′ white tree up and am decorating it differently for each month. January was  a winter/snow theme, February is Valentine’s Day, and March with be St Patrick’s themed. I was leaning towards putting it up in the office but I decided the living room was a better space. This way, we’ll be able to enjoy it more since it’s the room we spend the most time in.

I was never totally crazy about January’s tree, which is part of the reason why I waited so long to finish this post. I liked the all white of the tree itself but I never found what I needed to bring the bottom together. The white snowflake doilies are my Nana’s. They’re so pretty and have just a touch of glitter on them. For February, I went with pink, red and gold. I used regular Christmas ornaments, some garland I got for 20 cents on clearance and some gold heart shaped doilies I got from the Dollar Spot at Target.   Here are some of my favorite trees I found on Pinterest that I’ll be using for inspiration.

I also wanted to do an advent sort of calendar for a Valentine’s Day countdown. I used kraft paper bags I’d already had and grabbed some mini clothespins from Michaels. I then used kraft and chalkboard gift tags and wrote the days on them. I only had 12 bags and couldn’t find them again so I figured we’d each do 6 days. Jamie opens his surprises on the odd numbered days and I open mine on the even. For Jamie, I bought little chocolates, a mini bag of pistachios, a $5 gift card and some lottery tickets. I hope he doesn’t read this before he opens all his gifts! On the 14th, we’ll exchange small gifts and cards. It’s something fun and can be done inexpensively. I got the candy and treats from either Dollar Tree or the Dollar Spot at Target. I wanted a couple of days to have “bigger ticket” items so that’s where the gift card and lottery tickets come in.  Last night, I opened up a Cadbury creme egg and a V-day Snickers! My hubby knows me so well!

Have a great Friday, everyone!

XO,