Tick Tock... Tick Tock...

Yesterday I needed a little "me" time. A little "leave the kids and husband at home" time. See the best thing about Christmas Vacation is that we are all together, all the time... And the worst thing about Christmas Vacation is that we are all together, all the time....

So in a moment of self-preservation I ran over to B&N looking for some Magazine Therapy before I skipped over to a friends cozy house for some girl talk...

What I picked up at B&N was the January issue of Romantic Homes. I had put off buying it because I knew I would want something non-Christmasy to read once Christmas had passed, and I didn't want to buy it too soon... So there it was on the shelf, waiting for me to take it home.

After sitting on the couch and flipping through the pages I was inspired to transform my mantle for New Years. Turns out we are having 2 fairly impromptu gatherings of old college and new church friends with their kids in tow, over during the next few days - we didn't mean to have New Year's gatherings, it has just sort of happened that way...

So after the kids went to bed I gathered various odds and ends and created this little assembly on the mantle using all the old and new clocks I had from around the house, along with a few party hats I found stuffed away and some glass glitter snowflake ornaments... I have to give Elizabeth Maxson credit for the inspiration for this arrangement because I have never decorated for New Years before and may have not thought of the clock idea if had not been for her article in RH. (You can see a bit for yourself her on Elizabeth's blog if you haven't had the chance to read RH yet.)

This morning before tackling anything practical like laundry or bed making, I whipped out this "Bonne Annee" banner to hang. I used shipping tags and a new little experiment for making the letters. I am toying with the idea of selling DIY Kits for banner making online and this would be one style option- what do you think?

Thank you all for being such lovely friends and readers - your visits mean so much to me and are always so much fun to see!

However you welcome in the New Year may it be lovely, full of hope and faith for the coming days!