Something Christmas-y

Hello there!  I finally went to see Breaking Dawn today with a sweet friend.  That little break was SO needed.  Before I left though, I did my first Christmas-y, wintry thing for the house.  I think if you have seen my house at Christmas, you know I have a thing for snowflakes... I have it bad, folks.  And, I am sort of obsessed this year with kraft and white.  So, after I finished doing a doormat for the shoppe, I decided to use the other (which I bought for the back door... or in case I messed the 1st one up!) for our house.  I am one of those people who really likes a new doormat... it is almost as good as a new toothbrush or a haircut.  Anyhow, I figured let's combine a long time love affair with snowflakes and a new lusting for kraft on white.  Oh, and this is an official Vintage Junky DIY... ha!  I am so bad at tutorials!

Okay, so I started with a very plain doormat.  

Then, I cut a bunch of snowflakes out of printer paper.  I even noticed that on the front of this printer paper that it now has a paper snowflake.  See... they are on to us... they know we don't use a ream of paper for printing anymore.  And, if you don't cut snowflakes as often as I do and you forgot how to fold them, here is a little tutorial with some fun cuts that I asked the Mr. to put together a few years ago.  He is much better with that sort of thing than I am *wink*

So, I then pinned them all in place.

Then I asked myself... Michelle, could you have picked a worse day to spray paint... and I answered.. yes, I could have.  Yesterday it was raining/ snowing. Today is is a warm 30. 

Besides, I think those directions on the back of the can are for best results.  And I just wanted results.

So I sprayed.  And sprayed. And warmed up and sprayed again.

Now, if you are wanting a really BOLD design with loads of contrast, then you would want to pounce and stencil... and it would  be mighty frustrating to stencil paper over coir.  So, this is the method I chose.  If you had a metal or plastic stencil, it would be much easier, and BOLDER.  I knew there would be some overspray and it would be a bit softer.  I wanted snowflakes.  I had paper.  This is what I got:

The overspray wasn't too bad... it didn't leak under the paper too much... I used quite a few pins.  If you do this, don't spray at an angle, it will muddy your snowflake shapes.

And here it is all happy in front of my door.  Sort of a faded Fairisle Sweater/ Nordic look.   Now, I need to get to decorating the rest of this house (still not clean!)  Okay, I am off to work on our Advent calender... something I have been planning since this summer, yet did not really start it until tonight!  I have some ideas though *wink*

bye for now!

Toy Trucks Towing Tiny Trees: Etsy Update

hello!  I totally had a little bit of Christmas to share with you, but Tennessee weather had something else in mind: SNOW!  Not much, but just enough to make spray painting impossible or just extremely difficult and sloshy.  So, I am busily updating my etsy shoppe and enough of you asked yesterday about the little trees that I decided to list them there just in case you can't make the trip to bring these little haulers home.  I truly believe this is what SUVs were made for... hauling Christmas trees *smiles*  I just wish we still had Gabe, our Jeep Grand Wagoneer to take to get our tree from the farm this week.

Oh well, we do have Gordon, our Jeep Cherokee to tie a tree on.... I name our cars too.  Does that surprise you?  I name lots of things.... little men are usually Fred and Bob... every now and then there is an Enrique to mix things up a bit.

Okay, enough about me naming things.  I went on my date with my cute blonde and we picked out quite a few Christmas books (one aptly named Christmas Trucks.... perfect!) Tomorrow though, I am FINALLY going to have a date with a much older man.... not my Mr. either *wink*  I haven't seen Breaking Dawn yet, so my sweet friend (who I bailed on to get the shoppe ready) and I are going to see a matinee tomorrow... so excited!!  

I will have some Christmas-y projects soon... promise... I had my scissors snipping snowflakes last night *wink*

bye for now!

Christmas at the Shoppe

Hello all!  Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, I feel 100% comfortable talking about Christmas.  I didn't even put any Christmas up in the shoppe until Thanksgiving (we weren't open.)  And, since I can't put Christmas up in our home until it is c l e a n (my rule) I think that I will show you just a bit of what we did in the shoppe.

Some ornaments made from vintage clock faces

Little toy trucks with tiny little trees... baby hughes is quite upset that these aren't all his.  I have even tied trees to his current trucks and it just isn't the same.

I sort of flocked a tree... sort of as in this wasn't true flocking.... anyone know where to find that?  Now it is all falling off since I used a WHOLE can on a teeny tree... that's okay.... it looks a little snowy and magical on the tabletop now.... or everyone thinks I should dust.

I did some silhouettes of some famous Christmas personalities to put on some stockings at the shoppe.  I am still doing the custom ones in my etsy, but thought these may be a little fun for those of us who don't really like our profile *wink*

I also did these little Christmas burlap bags... I love how the white JOY turned out... I may have to make some more white words.

Some more repurposed items made into Christmas ornaments.... baby hughes helped decorate most of the trees.... this one is overflowing in vintage goodness!

Mr. Hughes made these... they are little slide holders with vintage paper.

I also updated my little etsy store... it has been sad lately with its vintage category lacking in items.  I found out this weekend that the shoppe is the perfect place to take photos... it gets good light nearly the entire day.

There are loads of vintage cameras... seriously, LOADS!!  The Mr. came across a lot of them and I picked out the best.

There is also some tarnished silver and some other vintage goodies now in the etsy store.

Okay, I am off to paint and then a date with a cute blonde.... we are going hunting for some Christmas library books.  I am working on our Advent calender and hope to show you that really soon!  This week we are going to chop down our tree too.... I love this time of year!

bye for now!

Friday Etsy Favorites *Black Friday*

hello all!  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  The Mr, baby and I had a quiet little day creating some new Christmas items and just enjoying the day... well, if I am being totally honest, the baby was a bit of a pistol.  Some tell me 4 is worse than 3... please tell me that it isn't true.  Two was a breeze compared to this 3 stuff.  So, I know some of you are die hard Black Friday shoppers.  I really have never been.  I do like shopping online and buying handmade more and more each year.  So, I compiled a little list of what I would buy if my paypal account was full and I had no bills to pay *wink*  Here is my *Black Friday* favorites:

This sweet fox towel would be a fun addition to our kitchen

found~ sweetharvey

Awesome tee... love!

found~ milatree

I love these sweet little embroidery scissors.... they would be great if I ever start my sampler

found~ cheswickcompany

Adorable frock... you can change and remove the collars and cuffs

found~ mrspomeranz

maybe it is the excitement over the Hunger Games trailer... or baby hughes' love for Robin Hood... whatever it is, I am in love with this little delicate silver necklace

found~ datter

Now, I wouldn't say all my ideas are amazing... I would say most of them aren't.  But, maybe they would be more amazing if I jotted them down in this little notebook

found~ sparrownestscript

isn't this awesome?!?

found~ merriweathercouncil

ahhh... ruffles.  They make me so happy!  

found~ bayousalvage

do you think this sweet flamingo would make me a better houseplant keeper?

found~ oneeyeddog

Knit buntings?  I think this may be perfection!

found~ ColetteBream

well, we are off to the shoppe for the day.  I will post some photos of some of our new Christmas and vintage items today... maybe I will list some on etsy as well!  Be safe with all those cah.ra.zee shoppers out there *wink*

bye for now!

sometimes I feel the need to clarify these *Favorites*  These are actually things I like... not like paid advertising or anything like that.

The Shoppe is Open!

hello all!  So, we opened the shoppe this weekend... Saturday was the first day we opened.  Not everything we envisioned was quite finished, but we opened anyhow... when will it ever really be finished?  In 2 days, it has already changed a bit.  But, it has changed A LOT from the original state it was in... remember the tiny photo?

And, here it is as of Saturday...

(keep in mind you will see rogue hammers and juice cups and trucks in the middle of the floor)

 

We didn't do anything to the exterior... it is a old building, but has been updated with vinyl siding and shutters

We did paint the door black and add some little decorative touches.  I am wanting to add a cute decal with our hours and maybe a light under this little portico.

Mr. Hughes put together some really cool framed heraldry prints from the late 1800s.

A month or so ago, we found a paper roller at a great price... they can be so expensive.  We snatched it up and I am so glad we did.  I made some cupcakes (golden with salted caramel icing) to share with our very first guests.

I painted the walls greyish blue... it was a pleasant surprise.  On the swatch card, it didn't look blue at all.   The floors are a slightly darker grey.  Under the carpet there was lovely stained linoleum tile... 2 layers in fact.  Over hardwood.  The way it was attached made it nearly impossible for us to remove the tile by ourselves.  Since we are renting and doing this on a budget, we decided that painting the floor was the best plan.  I am pretty pleased with the result.  It is MUCH better than the yucky tile.

I painted several pieces for the shoppe and for the booths last week.  One of the best parts about the shoppe is that it nearly split in half.  So, I was able to paint custom orders along with all of the furniture for the shoppe and a few pieces for the booths.... seriously, like I had A LOT back there. It is of course, a bit messy and not cute at all.  But, very useful.

Mr. Hughes is going to have some ready made chalk art here and also take custom orders as well.  

I made some more burlap shades and did a few new designs in linen and canvas as well.  

Mr. Hughes built me an awesome counter from a dining table base I painted and an old barn door.  He is also going to do me a little design on the chalk area behind the desk.

We also took down the fluorescent light fixtures and replaced them with some great pendants.  

 

I am planning on adding a light fixture to the pendant shades and a few burlap shades once my lamp parts get here.

We hung up a little piece of fencing to display the flower pins.

Mr Hughes found that great ledger and typewriter.  The little red truck is baby hughes'... not for sale!

My little Jeep business card holder on a really chippy counter

Mr. Hughes came up with this design when he purchased a lot of vintage cameras... we have all kinds.

So that is what we were able to get photos of the other day.  We still have more to take and a few more things to finish.  We have a photo booth planned with a vintage Land camera... the photos are incredible.    The Mr. also hung up a bunch more stuff on the walls today and I sorted and priced some more vintage things.  We are planning on putting out a bit of Christmas next week.

This was just our opening.... we plan to have a Grand Opening and ribbon cutting in the future.  It has been exhausting at times, but we had so much fun putting it together.

If you are in the area and would like to come visit, the address is:

309 Hardin Alley 

Spring Hill, TN

We are open 

Monday- Wednesday by Appointment

Thursday- Saturday 10-5

Sunday 1-5

I will be back soon with more photos and gasp... Christmas stuff for our house and the shoppe!

bye for now!