Before Thanksgiving, I set out to make something like this:

I was going to DIY a super awesome Christmas banner to hang from our mantle. I was ready to go to Hobby Lobby, I even made a shopping list.

But then something happened.

I went to Target.

And for $3.99, I found this:

I really didn't have much of a choice in the matter. I had to buy it.

Last night I began stringing it up across our mantle, until I ran into a problem. It was WAY too long for our mantle. After some finagling, I decided to take off "Christmas". Jason thought it looked weird, so obviously I tried to convince him that it was the "hipster" thing to do. He didn't go for it, so he came up with the idea of putting "Christmas" below the "Merry" instead of beside it. I said, "But there's only one ribbon," and as soon as I said that, I remembered that I have a huge roll of twine.

I LOVE the way it turned out. I think that it adds the pop of color that our mantle was missing, and I love how full it looks with the double banner. The twine brings in the rustic tones from the fireplace and burlap that we have scattered throughout the house, including on the mantle with the little baby tree.

I may be only semi-homemade, but hey, if it looks this good, and it's less than $5, can you blame me?