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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

Yes indeed. Here in the small 12x12 confinements of the dorm room  we knew it was Christmas decorations that we'd need. To decorate, of course as if there were any other reason. We like to keep the door festive for the season. I didn't have a theme, I just wanted to show some holiday spirit. paper, lights, a mini tree I already had it.The next part was creating a design. We wanted to do it quickly and not waste much time. I arranged the window, I put up the tree.it would've been better if all the decorations were free. But thanks to Black Friday I got great deals.Having the most spirited room was really a steal.

but enough rhyming me. I have posted pictures so that you can also see. See the effort and the spirit. Be inspired this holiday, get into it, feel it.

I made this wreath myself if a wire wreath outline, geo mesh in gold and white, 4 picks, 1 gold floral bouquet pick (cut up), silver and gold ornaments, and a giant gold, glitter bow. The wreath cost me, to make, less than $25.

The door is wrapped in golden snowflake wrapping paper (walgreens $2.99), green construction paper links, card stock presents, construction paper star, and construction paper lights.

This is our window sill at the moment. She has a photo album of her and her boyfriend, a picture with her sister. I have the poinsettia and pink lamp. The lights are wrapped forward and backward around the items, along with gold holly garland.

This is the 2" Christmas tree at the foot of my bed above my clock. It is decorated with the multi-color, star ornament set (Target 1/2 off Christmas decorations). The lights came on it and the tree plugs into the pink desk lamp next to it. This tree was passed down through the family.

Decorating for the Holidays: Dorm Edition

I have always loved when the holiday season rolls around. I love how the world seems to change the closer we get to this time of year. Although it's cliche to say, I tend to find people take the time to care about the things in life that really matter...family, friends, and the spirit of giving. Should I be any less excited to decorate for the holidays just because I'm in a dorm? I think not!

I have always decorated some part of my college dorm room for the holiday every year. My freshman year, my roommate and I decorated our door in wrapping paper only for Christmas, we struggled with a Thanksgiving decor idea, and I'm not huge into Halloween. The two years after, a few of my friends and I moved into a house. That we did go a LITTLE nuts for. By little I mean we had paper snowflakes, a two foot tree (decorated of course), garland that wrapped around our entire banister, and wall plug-ins/air fresheners that fit the season.

Having transferred for the last two years of my education (Master's program timeline) I am back in a dorm room and my decorating obsession has followed me. My roommate and I did decorate for Halloween, rather we had a Halloween door. Since it is weeks past I apologize in advance for posting this photo, but we've become a stopping stop for some of our neighbors in our hall.

The idea was that it would be a mummy door. Thanks to my roommate's boyfriend, it is a terrifying mummy/monster door. The door is wrapped in blue and purple streamers and tapped to secure it. The eyes and ghost are courtesy of my mother, she bought them at the dollar store. Don't mind the Minnie Mouse ears, those came from our R.A.

The door in total took me about an hour, but we were the only room I think in our entire hall that decorated.However, if I am wrong, we were at least for sure the only room on my floor that decorated their entire door. We took this down after the first week of November, but before we did that we had to come up with the next theme. It's too soon to break into the Christmas spirit, at least for our neighbors. Thanksgiving was next and we had a great idea. We knew we wanted to incorporate a turkey and the beautiful colors of fall. After several hours of deliberation we successfully created out Thanksgiving door.

The eyes of the turkey are Styrofoam plates, which we then colored on with brown marker. Everything else is construction paper. The wreath is a combination of maple and other leaves, while our names are oak leaves.The turkey beaks are also construction paper and are 3D and stick out. 

Shortly after putting this up we heard several comments from the other side. We heard things like "Thank goodness, they recognized the holiday before Christmas," and "Aw, that's so cute." Both comments we are okay with. We definitely have eyes looking to see what we do next, but we like it that way.

Hopefully this helps bring you inspiration or assurance that its perfectly acceptable to make your dorm your home away from home. If it doesn't do that then maybe it will give you some seasonal inspiration for decorating or whatever you like to do this time of year. Check back to see what we do for Christmas!

Sunday Tidying

As promised ladies and gents, after getting homework out of the way I tidied up my dorm room (or at least my half). I took before and after pictures so that you could decided for yourself, my level of success.

This was my side of our dorm room. There was more of clutter than pure chaos but something had to be done!

I'm on the left side of the this somewhat walk in closet. The built ins came with the room. During a hectic week I usually pull out outfits to wear and then  when I don't wear it, it gets thrown into its "home." Needless to say this definitely needed to be fixed.

The mother of all messes...my desk! This small scale picture doesn't show how bad it really was. I like to be pretty organized with things that relate to school, so this was driving me crazy.

There was clearly a lot to do but, luckily for me, I had all of Sunday if I needed it. I started with my desk because it was making me the most insane, and besides my bed was already made. It didn't take me too long to rearrange the drawers and make room for some of the stuff sitting on top. Next I moved onto the closet. Halfway through the closet, I got a text from some of my friends saying they were going to get pizza. I still had about an hour and half until they were leaving, so it was time to get down to business. I got the closet organized, swept the floor, and straightened up the bed. Time for the finished results:

Bed is straightened up and cleared. By the way..there's a new mirror (thanks Target) where the calendar was. Don't worry the calendar is still up, just shifted right. The only thing on the chair now is my backpack ready for classes tomorrow morning.

It might seem messy but scroll up a little and you'll notice some subtle changes. After all it's the little things in life! But all kidding aside,  I put my shoes away, folded clothes that were sticking out, and put everything in its rightful "home."

My inner peace can finally rest at ease. I tamed the best, reorganized drawers, and cleared off my desk. Notice the new mirror, again, and the calendar that is slightly shifted (which by the way is also marked up for the remainder of this and next month).

 ...and there you have it. My Sunday shenanigans continued, the room was cleaned and tidied, and my my inner peace restored. Homework done and ready for the week, the room tidied and reorganized once more, and the rest of a Sunday evening to relax and watch TV or blog more...I call this Sunday a success in my book.

 Happy Sunday everybody!