A Vintage Junky Christmas 2010

Hello all!  Hope you had a very wonderful weekend!  We stayed in for the most part... the festival we were going to got rained out.  And then it SNOWED!

In fact, I am home today.... snow in Tennessee + no salt trucks + idiot drivers = Mommy at home. So I thought I would show what our house looks like with all the Christmasness (I kindly decided NOT to show you the two mountainous baskets of laundry waiting on me.)  So, grab some cocoa and sit down... this a full of pictures post.

The back of our front door... I ordered the mini boxwood wreaths from Garnet Hill.  They are preserved so hopefully they will hold up a bit better than the ones that I made last year.  My kissing ball that I have had for 3 years, didn't make it this year.   

I found these fun cards after some sweetie sent me (I mean, baby hughes) one tied to an owl.  Then I saw them on etsy here. I hole punched them and strung them to some baker's twine.  I love baker's twine!

I decided to make a few snow globes this year... I couldn't find glycerine to add to the water to make it thicker... so I had to use baby oil and mineral oil. An expensive little project, but it fulfilled this little part inside of me that loves miniature stuff in jars... terrariums... snow globes.... 

I found the the instructions by Martha here.   I may make some more if I can find some jars to fit these other deer I have.  A word of advice... make sure the jar top is threaded.  I had a top that screwed on and off on another, but it wasn't threaded so it is leaking a bit.

The dining room... I sort of went crazy with my circle punch... jumbo confetti!!!  I am not sure how much longer it will last, it sure is festive and fun for chubby little hands.  Oh, and you can see that I finally decided to go WITH the grosgrain ribbon trim.... I think it is just more me.

We (I begged) decided to get a small tree too... I loved our table top tree last year and the drum that covered the base, so I decided that we should do two.

Jumbo confetti runner with one of my favorite mercury glass pieces filled with vintage light bulbs...

don't get me started on these new LED lights.  I don't like them. One bit.  And we try to live green.... but I still want twinkle lights and griswalds.

A piece from the booth that hasn't sold yet... no matter, it makes a really nice tabletop tree perch.

I added the devil Joy from last year.

I love ornaments hanging in front of a window... so this year I did it.

And, what would a mini tree be without mini presents?

I started a tradition this year...see that little box wrapped in sheet music has a tag that says it can be opened on December 24th?  Mr. Hughes asked me... did you seriously wrap baby Jesus?

yes, yes I did.

I hope that in the future years that while baby hughes is impatiently waiting Santa on Christmas Eve that we can maybe infuse the Reason for the Season by unwrapping and placing Jesus in our Nativity.

Okay... here is a few testimonies to the paper snowflake madness going on here.  

In the windows....

Garlands....

Strands... they are everywhere!!  They are fun and simple to make and are so festive and NOT precious. So, if a certain hyena decides to go on a destructive rampage, all I am out is a few sheets of paper.

Here is a tutorial in case you don't know how to make them.

Mr. Hughes' favorite decoration (an heirloom if you will) is all sparkly with some vintage like garland and some HO HO cards.

Some garland and some birch covered pots.  I was trying to go for a theme... kind of a Nordic, papery snowflakey, vintagey, handmade sort of Christmas. Not sure if I got it or not, but it is all definitely thrown in there.

The best shot of the tree... it has been so grey.  The stockings have since changed.... I will show you in a minute.

Chomp (pronounced ammmpppp, like a chomping noise) got a little Christmas fun too.

Yes, I like to decorate his bowl.  See the above reference to miniature things in glass jars... 

The tree got decked out in paper snowflakes, paper punch garland, silhouette tart tins, sparkly pipe cleaner snowflakes, glittery wooden balls. In short, no breakables.

I love real greenery just set out.  Mr. Hughes got some tree (free) clippings from Lowe's.  So I spread them all around.

Some fun vintage candleholders that the Mr. found a few years ago.  I almost painted them... I am not a red person.  I am glad I didn't though... I like the pop they give the windowsill.

Our little ceramic nativity.  Not the whole thing..... there are several animals that didn't make the cut. You should see the camels... they are totally out of proportion... of course, I have never stood next to a camel, but still.

I even added some red velvet pillows... you know... to go with the NOEL.  Maybe red is growing on me. 

The fun snow globe that leaks *no smiles*

baby hughes had some fun with it before we took it away.

Here are some wreaths that I added to the tree after it was finished... some awesome bottle brush wreaths from Scarlett's.

And this year's stockings.... well, I love them!  I made the stockings out of a test yard that I had bought for the dining room drapes and decided that I wanted our silhouettes to make them pop a little.

So I bought some sticky back felt and Mr. Hughes (really good with some scissors)

cut them out (he already had our silhouettes created, he just needed to resize and print) and I just peeled the backing off and stuck them to the stockings.

The big stars were rusty and I decided they would look better painted.  Then my impatient self didn't want to wait for the front and back and the sides to dry... so I used Rub and Buff.  

Much, much better!

This was the very first thing I did this year for Christmas.  I wanted big jars full of German glass glitter all around... well, all around out of reach.  Well, that stuff gets a little pricy when you buy it by the pound... so I got some cheapy stuff and filled the crown jars with it and stuck some tapers down in the jar (use some candle sticky wax on the bottom... the glitter isn't dense enough to hold the tapers by itself.)

Good thing I got some cheap glitter.... cause Mommy dropped a jar full of it.

My vacuum is so pretty and sparkly!

And one last thing that I got this year off of etsy and I love, adore, can't get enough of (and it is red too!)

My little ho ho ho garland on mini embroidery hoops.

I found it here.

Well, I think those mountains of laundry are threatening to avalanche.... so I better get to them!

bye for now!

ps.  A bloggy friend just suggested I link in with the Nester's tour of homes... so I think I will!
and the Shabby Chic Cottage for funsies!
And last, but certainly not least, Rene at Cottage and Vine!
Thanks for having me ladies!

Friday Etsy Favorites *Wrap*

hello.hello.hello.

how are you? It is cold here kids... I know I have said it before, but we are talking in the teens in the mornings. yuck.  So, we have been staying in. Where it is warm and there is plenty of Christmasness to keep us busy.  I have been working on teaching the boy "Jingle Bells" and against my better judgment, I am going to do my best to find him a nice bell this weekend.

Oh, and all my decorations are up... but has been so grey so no photos... maybe later today.

I just have to finish wrapping up some gifts.  And, if I would have been thinking way ahead, I would have scooped up these items that will make the most ordinary parcel spectacular.

Christmas is coming, so let's *Wrap*

Love these clay tags stamped with *wish*

would make great ornaments too

found~ marleyandlockyer

handprinted wrapping paper.... so, so pretty!

found~ oscaranddollie

hmmm.... these are my favorite shade of my favorite color and my favorite shape.... a curvy, brackety shape

found~ scrapbits

my newest obsession- vintage dennison labels (this set is mineallmine)

found~ vintagehandmade

so pretty!  I would just keep the gift that these adorned... too pretty to give!

found~ PaperEclectiquesDeux

love.love.love. baker's twine.  I have it in aqua, black and brown.

Now I think I am missing out since I don't have the red.

And I am so not a red person

found~ parcelandpaper

Both the ornaments and the pretty cursive words had me at letterpress!

found~ DingbatPress

love this great twist on the classic stick on bow

found~ ConcreteJungleCrafts

I would keep this box forever.

found~ rubyrockwell

Not sure what I like more.... the silvery twine or the calligraphy!

found~ KisforCalligraphy

Now, in my last post about my wonderful day, I left out something that was especially exciting and wonderful until I made sure it was going to happen.  I got a call while Mr. Hughes was buying a memory card at Walgreens.... a call letting me know that there was a space available in my one of my favorite antique stores!  So, Vintage Junky will be a chain of sorts in 2011!  I am pretty excited and seriously need to get busy, busy, busy (said like the bad magician in Frosty) painting furniture and creating some new items for my space in Winchester Antique Mall.  I will still be keeping my booth at the Roost... those ladies are too fun and sweet to leave!

We had some very fun weekend plans that I think are going to be cancelled... stinking weather... 80% chance of rain.  I will try to get some photos of all this Snowflaky, Vintagy Christmasness up in here to post next week.

have fun this weekend... make it wonderful!

bye for now!

Sunshine and Rainbows

Hello there... how have you been? Well, I would be lying if I told you that I have been *fine*

You see, I am still coming down off a perfect sort of day high.  There was sunshine ( and 50ish temps,) but no rainbows on Friday.  Actually, at one point, there were birds flying in a perfect heart formation.... I turned to Mr. Hughes and told him it was a sign that we were *meant to be*

Now, If you know me or Mr. Hughes for that matter, that isn't something that either of us would say.

Still, I said it.

It was that kind of day.

We started off our day with a trip to Starbucks... they had told me 2 days prior that they were finished serving the pumpkin scones this year.  Guess who had a pumpkin scone Friday morning... 

Then, we made our way to the mall.. I know, yikes, huh?  Well, I strategically planned this outing so that it was the perfect time between the mall opening and Ole St. Nick's lunch break.

Barely had to wait in line.

baby hughes did not scream.  That in itself was not surprising... he is pretty friendly and social.  And cute too.  But, in case you are thinking of taking him off my hands, just know that he also punches and throws fits like no one else. 

So, after we got our adorable 2010 photo (Kris Kringle had a real beard... that is a requirement) 

we got these funny little reindeer antlers..... and what was inside the reindeer antlers?

A Build -a- Bear coupon.  Genius marketing strategy.

Well, why not?  We rode the incredibly fun *ride* up to the 2nd floor.

And what ever did we find to build?

A snowy owl.

perfection.

We are still deciding what to name it... 

After doing a little more browsing/ shopping, we headed to a Christmas Tree Farm that Mr. Hughes found online (oh, and we picked up a Cherry Coke along the way.  A real one.)

We had a slight little problem with forgetting the camera card.  A trip to Walgreens fixed that.

You can't take a 2 year old to his 1st ever trip to a Christmas Tree Farm and not photojournalize it.

This farm was the real deal.  Lots of trees.  All Sizes.  

They give you a saw and a measuring stick.

And, turn you loose. To run in and out of rows of trees, searching for *the one*

And, when you found it... and passed it up to search a little longer... well, you never found *the one* again.

That's okay though.

We did find a tree.

The perfect one.

And, when Mr. Hughes put down the camera to saw the tree down, I picked up the camcorder to document my manly lumberjack man sawing through the tree (very anticlimatic... it took him like 2 minutes, tops.)

Well, wouldn't you know, somehow, I didn't record the *timber*

So disappointing.

The treefarmhands got the tree ready and tied it to the top of the Jeep.

What an SUV is made for....to haul Christmas trees.

Then, we had one of them snap our photo in front a vintage truck... yep.... that one at the top.

We don't have many family photos.  This one happened to turn out.

And, will be on our Christmas card this year.

If we had hired a photographer, and bought clothes, and fixed our hair the way we wanted, the photo would have been awful.

This one... perfect.

We left... made a stop for some lights and Mexican.

Then a long afternoon nap for baby hughes while we got the boring tree stuff underway.

All the decorating still isn't quite finished... it will be very soon.

Right now, I am watching my hyena engrossed in his Thomas trains with a green food coloring goatee from a *surprise*

Mini Christmas mints.

He totally gets surprises.

Here's hoping you all have a few days here and there that put all other exciting days to shame.

Bye for now!

Friday Etsy Favorites *Deck*

Happy December~

whew... it has been a week since I last blogged.  I wish I could tell you that it was because I was traveling some place warm.  Or doing something interesting. Or even decorating.  But, nope, none of that.  I have been sort of hibernating, without sleeping.  Well, all that will change this weekend, that is the plan at least.  And I have all things Christmasy on my mind as I mentally *Deck* the halls.

 I love fresh greenery and boxwood is my favorite!  This bough would be the perfect spring on a door or above a doorway.
found~ garden22designstudio

This festive garland is so sweet with the little bow.
found~ handmedowns

These bright, fun coasters will add the perfect splash of red to your party.
found~ rubypress

And for the minimalist in you....
found~ paperklipdesign

This, my friends, is what SUVs were made for... oh how I miss Gabe... our Wagoneer!
found~ ohlittlerabbit

Now, I have a handpainted plate for Santa's cookies, but if I didn't have a fingerdot prodigy on my hand's, I would totally go with this one.
found~ wickedlygoodwares

 I love these fun felt stockings... especially the color combinations
found~ rikrak

I am really silly about some things... and there is this field of cows near my house... like dark, dark brown cows.  And they look great against the green, green grass.  I love those cows.  Every now and then, a white fluffy cow will get into the mix... it is great!  And, this towel reminds me of that!
found~ stranddesign

I have bought 2 towels from this shop and they are adorable.  She used pieces from vintage tableclothes and appliques them to the towels.... genius!
found~ vintagehome

And, this so needs to be on my front door!!  With the perfect green ribbon!
found~ blossomy

So, I am off!  We are planning to visit Santa today.  Last year, baby hughes was fine... loved him.  Let's see what he thinks of the big guy in red this year.  Then, we are going to get our tree (planning to, sometimes things don't go as planned for us)
Then we will trim our tree and deck our halls... maybe throw on the Peanuts Christmas Soundtrack... we are wild and crazy!

bye for now!