Vintage Christmas Monday

I am joining the party at Anything Goes Here hosted by Joan on Monday. I bought this silver Christmas tree at a Christmas clearance sale a few years ago. It certainly has that vintage look although it was new. I have it sitting in my craft/sewing room and initially was only going to put vintage ornaments on it. But I collect things slowly so I have had to fill in with new ornaments that have the vintage look.


















Here is a real vintage tree topper and some old ornaments that I have collected over the years.








































































































The Raggedy Andy ornament was on my mother's tree when I was a child. There was a set of six I believe but this is the only one left. They were my favorite to hang on the tree. Thanks for stopping in and don't forget to go on over to anything goes here and check out the what the rest of the party goers have to show off. Here is the link that you need to go to:
http://thepottingshed-anythinggoeshere.blogspot.com

Holiday Cloche Party

I tried to get my jar ready for the Cloche party last night but the glitter just was not dry enough to finish up. Hubby took me out for dinner tonight and we went to pick up our oldest grandson after that so I am just now able to get my pictures downloaded and add to my post. You can see all the other beautiful Cloches at http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/2009/12/holiday-cloche-party.html


















I had this jar all set with the snow and the red and white tree that I have had for a couple of years and just did not know what to do with it. I had saw these little cardboard houses and churches at Michaels (they come with a string to hang them) and thought I could paint them and add to the jar. I then saw someone else, sorry I forget whose wonderful blog, had already done this and added glitter. So that is what I did. I tried to bleach the green trees but it did not work. It only lightened the color. So I added glitter to those also.














Here is a close up of the house you probably cannot see that I used a crackle medium the roof looks really neat.














I have had these birds under glass for a while so I placed them in with some Christmas decor so they would fit into the holiday theme. I usually have framed pictures sitting on top of most everything so I decorate around them. I think I still need something to pull this together just not sure what.














This is what our back woods looked like this morning. Our first real snow fall. Everyone asked me if I ordered it for my birthday. Wouldn't be wonderful if we could keep this under all our glass with all our villages.














Hope you enjoy checking out everyone else pretties and get some wonderful ideas for you Christmas decor at A Stroll Thru Life with Marty.
Thanks for stopping!

The Winner Is

I told you on my previous post that I was drawing for a gift for one of my friends on this day for a reason. That reason is because today is my birthday. So I thought I would start out my day by giving someone else a gift from me! So here it goes, to one of my friends (follower) the winner is, drum roll,







Mrs C! You have won! Hubby drew your name while I was throwing cloths on for work. Had to grab the camera. I should have wrote every bodys name out in darker ink. This was fun and I wish I could send a pair to everyone but I have not had the time this year to paint ornaments. Have to run off to work now, hoping to post some pretty pictures later today. Mrs C e-mail your address to me I will get your package ready over the weekend and hopefully send it out on Monday after work. btowsley@comcast.net.

A Little Something for One of My New Friends.

When I first entered this blogging world I won a couple of drawings. Boy was I excited! Then I started making friends and receiving such sweet comments. Boy was I really excited and it does not matter in the least that I have not won a thing since. Well it seems as though the giveaways are to celebrate something special when I sign up for them. Well most of the time they are. Here is my Little Something:
These are two of the ornaments that I painted last year for Christmas presents. I did not give all of them and most of my friends and family have a set. So on Friday morning I am going to pull a name out of the hat and gift them to one of my followers. Have to say I don't like the term follower as much as friend. But if you follow and you are interested in a chance to get this little gift just leave me a comment by 7:00 A.M. Friday morning. Hubby gets up to walk down the hall to his home office for work at 8:00 A.M. that is when the drawing will be. Have to make it a short time for you to leave your comments because I have no idea how to keep this at the top of my blog, so no new posts for me until Friday. I might get some projects finished! And Friday is a little special, I'll let you know why then.

Vintage Christmas Monday

I have joined the Vintage Christmas Monday party at "Anything Goes Here" hosted by Joan. You can join in the fun by visiting Joan's site here.
http://thepottingshed-anythinggoeshere.blogspot.com/2009/11/vintage-christmas-monday-blog-party.html
I have been unpacking boxes since Friday morning and here are a few of the vintage things I found.
A book I had as a child. And I am old enough to make it vintage.


























I got this out every year and read it to my girls when they were growing up. I continue to get it out each year for our
grandchildren.



I found both this celluloid Santa ornament and the Santa figure at antique or vintage shop. I have had them for a few years so I am not sure exactly where.

I did not find the light that fits in the back of the Santa yet and he will be sitting elsewhere when I have. He was just hanging out for his picture.












The last items I have this week are some Christmas cards. The card with
the carolers was given to me by my piano teacher sometime in the 60's and the Santa card was sent to me by an Aunt/Sunday school teacher. It is a Hallmark card and looks as though my mother poked a hole in the back and added some floss to hang it in the tree. I usually stick both of them in between tree branches.

Sunday Morning from Our Home in the Woods

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1-2

Day Two Christmas Decor

I stayed home another full day. I am enjoying my home, I really am. I've carried boxes up the steps and back down again. I rearranged furniture and dusted. Should I have done that before Thanksgiving? No one noticed. And by mid afternoon I had a mess.














Here is the tree in the Great Room (that is what my husband calls it).



















I was hoping to get the walls painted in this room before the holidays but the time got away from me. It was already getting dark when I was taking pictures so I had to turn the lights on which caused quite a problem for me when I was trying to take the pictures. I took quite a few and tried quite a few different settings before I got this one. I would love to have tons more ornaments to pile on this tree, but alas I don't. I bought this tree before we moved into this house. It was close to the ceiling at our previous home, but this house has high ceilings. So Jeff built a wooden lift and put it in the bottom of this container to get us at least an extra foot of height. Pretty smart that husband of mine.














I love jingle bells. I like the look and the sound they make. Of course these don't get rang unless the grand kids are jumping a lot.



















This door hanger make a great noise when someone comes through the door. One more day off from work. I might have to brave the stores and start my Christmas shopping tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for coming by!

Day One Christmas Decor

I did not get up and do the Black Friday shopping. I am wondering where I have been. When did everyone start calling it Black Friday? When I was younger and wanted to brave those crowds we just called it the day after Thanksgiving shopping. I guess that does not have the same ring to it. I got up early yesterday to start the turkey and all the rest of the the dinner that we had here at our home. And since I get up at that time Monday through Friday for work I quite enjoyed sleeping in until almost 8:00 this morning. I did start putting out my Christmas decor though.














I started collecting Fontenini nativity pieces that are made in Italy years ago. Jeff built the manger for my birthday the year I bought the holy family. I have thought about staining it or painting it but I have always liked the raw wood (I think it is cedar) and expect it might possibly just color as it ages. I might change my mind one year, I've been known to do that.
It usually looks just like this the day I set it up. Then we have little guests.
















And And it quite often will look like this.














I have been known to search the house for baby Jesus during the month of December. If you have not seen this nativity before they are hand painted on some kind of molded plastic. That is actually why I started collecting them. I had a small nativity set when my children were little and I had to glue some pieces back together a couple of times. So I don't mind the touching, it gives us a chance to tell the Christmas story to the little ones.

I also decorated one of my smaller trees. This one is in my living room. I hope you are all enjoying your holiday weekend!

Sunday Morning from Our Home in the Woods

Whatever you do,

whether in word or deed, do it all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God
the Father through him.
Colossians 3:17

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving day with all your families!

Brenda

A New Room for Three Boys

My middle daughter has four boys. The two middle boys are ages 3 and 4. They had a nice bedroom downstairs but did not like sleeping down there. So my daughter and her husband decided to take the smaller bedroom upstairs and move the two middle boys in with the baby. This was a lot of work in itself. But they wanted to give the room a new painting and decor for the the boys, so I thought I would show you how talented my daughter is.








Her husband painted the walls and got the first coat of paint on the tree then my daughter took over. She has been working on this for about two weeks. As you can imagine with 3 boys four years and under it is taking her a while to get it done. There is another wall that she has not started on yet and a few things that need finished in these areas. But I took these pictures when I stopped in the other evening and could not help but post them.

My oldest daughter is an illustrator. You can see her art work on her blog at:
http://lizseelye.blogspot.com/

And my youngest daughter is our chef. She has always loved to cook and bake. She makes some lovely cakes for family birthdays.

I am proud of all of my daughters they have grown into wonderful young ladies.