Decorating for Christmas on a Tight Budget of $0

I have startling news for you:  we are in a recession.  Ha!  Well, unless you have been hiding in a cave for the last few years, that is not new news.  This year promises to be extra hard for us as my husband's work has dropped off early.  I am fortunate to have a job to fall back on, but we will once again be scrimping for the holidays.

I love decorating my house for Christmas.  My fondest memories of childhood include sitting in front of the Christmas tree listening to Elvis belt out "Blue Christmas" from our record player speakers.  I used to just sit and bask in the beauty of the lights and sparkling decorations.  The tradition of decorating is important to me.  I hope to pass on those traditions to my children, along with some new customized DEVINE family traditions.

A couple of years back, I bought a shabby chic shower curtain that I was in love with and redecorated my bathroom around it.  Unfortunately, I do not have to many Christmas decorations that fit in that color scheme.  I really wanted to go out and buy a few pretty decorations this year, but......    I decided to get creative!  I want to show you what I did and I would love for you to share any ideas you have with me :)

This is my undecorated bathroom shelf.  I pushed everything around to dust.  I found a white tin on top of it from Christmas last year that had some pretty pine cones in it.  That gave me an idea!  I headed out to the evergreen bush in the yard and cut some greens.....

Here is what I came up with.  Everything (except the Hallmark ornament) was on the shelf already, I just spruced it up with greenery.  As for the little tin with the pine cones.....

The pine cones had been spray painted white and tipped in gold glitter.  I bought them that way a couple of years ago, but they would be easy to make.   Next was this area......

My pretty little towel shelf.  See the picture frame with my petite little sweets in it?  I decided to download a Victorian picture from the internet and replace the pic for the holidays....

The flowers were ones I have had since I was first married.  I used to decorate my tree with them, but they have been sitting in a bowl in my bedroom for years...  If you are a mom, you most likely have art supplies lying around the house.  I took a cue from my pine cones and got out the glitter and the Elmer's glue.  (that Egyptian death mask project has paid off once again! )

Then, I was back out to the evergreen bush....

Here's the finished product.  Admittedly, I had the tree already.  Funny thing, it sat out in my kitchen all year and never got put away after Christmas last year.  :)  I have not pulled my Christmas decorations out this year yet!  I am just using things that I find around the house. 

Next I need to tackle this....

 I have commissioned my family artists (my husband and kids) to make me some paper snowflakes.  I guess I need to get my decorations out and see if there is anything packed away that I could use.  If you have any suggestions let me know!  I will be plugging right along, cleaning and decorating....cleaning and decorating...