another year

(My collection of vintage record album covers with wonderful happy idyllic family scenes)

Another year of Christmas hullabaloo is done. Don't get me wrong, I am sure many new memories were made and all had fun. It's just that since I have been a grown up, and even more so since I've been a mom, it is all so different at Christmas time. Now I am the one in charge of the magic making. The one behind the curtain, like the great Oz. I admit sometimes it's tough. I want to be the kid again, observing the magic and believing.

I long for the feeling of being a child at Christmas time to rush over me again. That feeling is worth more than gold. When you're a kid you take it for granted or you do not even know you have it. But you do!


Yes, I enjoy the process of making memories for my own kids. I just miss the old days. That's allowed. That is why I surround myself with things and images that make me feel comfort, like these silly record album covers. They just speak to me.

(N.'s collection of nutcrackers, and E.'s hand made Mandela type snowflakes)

N. has always had a fascination with nutcrackers. He has received all these as gifts throughout the years. On Christmas day I took my Santas out of my red cupboard and put his collection and the little tree with his nutcracker ornaments on it up on top. He was so thrilled to see his collection displayed in a new place and the smile on his face as he stood there, and each time he walked by, said it all. I had just made a memory for him!! That's what it's all about.

(Japan elves, my hand quilled snowflakes, and a silk hankie with a perfect winter couple)

My Grandma had made in Japan elves like these. To look at them in my home makes me recall the cozy days at her house during the holidays. She did not decorate every inch of the house as many people seem to do in my generation. She decorated the living room. The room where it all happened. Everything. She had no family room or den. The living room was the place. It was decorated with an aluminum tree and color wheel, items along the fireplace mantle and on top of the big console TV cabinet. The cabinet was big, not the TV itself.

The decorations were perfect. Perfectly enough. I never thought to question, "Why isn't there more?"

(my kids decorate the doll house each year)

This December involves weeding out many of the decor items as we sort through it all --giving some away and donating some. I have decided to have the kids do more of the decorating next year, not just being in charge of the doll house. They will decide what is enough. The kids will make it their own and decide what to love.

( the kitchen window sill )

I also changed the window sill display on Christmas day. I do a lot of thinking at the sink in the kitchen in front of this window. I needed a change. I get bored with it quickly and easily. I was suddenly struck by the fact that I needed it to be Winter instead of Christmas in that spot. So some milk glass was moved here from another area. It feels better now. I can't explain why.

(vintage game boxes)

I am a big fan of games that families play together that require no batteries or electricity to enjoy, thus the fascination I have always held for vintage games. That and the fact that the color on the packaging and game boards is just different, bright and fun. The photo is a group that's sitting atop my corner cupboard. But I keep some of my kids' board games out of the game closet at all times, sitting ready for play, often rotating some out for new choices. A spontaneous game of Chutes and Ladders can bring a smile to me any time. I have found that if I open the box they will come!! They, meaning one of my kids or 2 or 3. More memory making and laughter.

( house ornaments)

My Mom was a collector of these house ornaments. Each one has the year marked somewhere on the house. On the back you can look inside to the 3 dimensional rooms. After she died I continued to buy one each year, often going without something in order to fit it's purchase into the budget. They are not horribly expensive but still a luxury, in my opinion. I did not buy one this year. Maybe someday I will be able to find one on line, since this is the first year I have missed one. N. looks forward to unpacking them and carefully taking the protective box inserts apart to reveal each one. He put them on the window sill in the living room this year. And yes, those are all my paper snowflakes I have cut by hand with no patterns. Some have been hung on the windows every year for 17 years!!

So another year of Christmas has come and gone. We have new memories and the comfort of decor from years before. We had a Christmas without spending money. B was off work for 8 weeks and we were without his regular pay. Every dollar I had squirreled away for emergency times like this had to be spent just before his surgery to put a new engine in my car. Talk about an unexpected expense! We make every penny count at our house and to be without regular pay you find ways to survive somehow. We were blessed to have many good friends and neighbors who helped to make the Christmas season one of fun for the kids. They brought gifts from Santa and seemingly unending deliveries of trays of home baked sweets and other food. We were even given a turkey for Christmas dinner.

Friends, family and memories. That's what it's all about.

holiday decor

The kitchen window sill is sporting red and white. Can you believe these candles were from the dollar store a few years ago? I can't bring myself to burn them. Isn't that silly?! I made the red paper ball. They are so fun to make and can be done in any size or color or patterned paper. You just cut a lot of circles, fold them so they have triangle centers and glue them together to form a ball. My friend, Sharon, taught me how to make them. The greeting cards are from the 1940's and the one with the tree sticking out of the car was signed from my Mom to my Dad in 1947.

This snowman candy jar is a treasured item that I grew up with each year for as long as I can remember. I couldn't wait for it to be unwrapped from the newspaper that protected it inside the box of Christmas decorations stored away since the Christmas before. I have continued to fill it each holiday season with peppermint nougats, like my mom did. Sometimes when I was little I remember my mom would fill it with ribbon candy, but I can't always seem to find ribbon candy in the stores. When I do, I get very excited. I love Mr. Snowman, dirty Styrofoam face and all.

I have been looking for my felt elves with the plastic faces. They are still packed up somewhere with the other Christmas stuff. I love Christmas elves because my Grandma's house was decorated with the same little felt ones from Japan, called knee huggers. She also had an aluminum tree in the corner of her living room with the color wheel that would spin and cast a different colorful glow against the tree as it turned.

I tucked this folding snowman card on the porch of the doll house. The kids have not yet decorated it this year and I thought it looked a little bare and neglected. Click here-the doll house decorated in the past.

N. commented, "A Snowman on a porch???Oh Mom!!!!"

cozy in a storm of snow...

 I couldn't let this holiday season past pass by without showing what our house looked like inside. So here we go....

Yep! I did cut all those paper snowflakes! I have been cutting them and saving them for 16 years. This is not all of them. They are all over the house! On every window and lots of other places. The paper snowflakes will stay up until Valentine's day, like they do each winter.

Last year was the first year that I started hanging from the beams the other snowflakes- plastic, glass, wood, resin- that are collected each year during the after Christmas sales when you can get a really fancy flake 90% clearance!! I never spend more than $1 each. They are suspended from fish line. It is so fun at night when we have candles burning and the fireplace is roaring and there are no lights turned on. It is like a blizzard in the house and the flakes glimmer in the candle/fire light!

I took these photos at night so the flakes would show up nicer against the night darkness outside the windows.

The tarnished silver glittered star and filigree metal snowflake hang from the chains for the light/fan over the table.

When the girls were little we would make felt mittens on yarn each year as an arts and crafts project. They now hang in the archway with lots of icicles and their actual mittens they wore as babies.

My hutch is currently filled with milk glass, mostly inherited or cheaply thrifted.. Milk glass is so versatile, great year 'round and for any holiday too. I even used it in my Halloween decorating.

The milk glass lamp was a curb side find. I had the electrical stuff checked out so it would be safe, then added a vintage shade and it was all okey dokey!!
The 2 story doll house up on top was bought for a few bucks. It is really big. A super find. The people selling it thought it was "dumb". I haven't decided how I want to paint it so it is plain wood still.

This is one of my pieces that was found in someone's trash!! Can you believe it? This pretty lace edge rectangular piece. No!, I did not dig through spoiled food or scooped cat litter. It was in a open box at the curb with some other glassware type things, almost like the thrower-outer was feeling a pang of guilt and hoped someone would come and adopt some of it.  I can accept the rocking bottom flaw. Unconditional milk glass love!! I once brought home a freebie that was badly broken on one side. I put it up on a shelf with the good side facing out. I have gotten more compliments on THAT piece and it is only about 2/3 whole!!!

I put a lot of my favorite flakes on the cupboard each year.


Vintage games and other vintage found items are on my corner cupboard...the display changes.... it is crowded with the remembrances of Christmases gone by.... Santa gifts from before the days of video games .... you know, when games used imagination and manual power instead of computers/tv's and electricity to have fun.

I love the little knee hugger elves. My Grandma had them and it makes me think of her. That's her recipe box there in the picture!!

I love these old blocks I found when N. was born. The red book with the hockey player on the cover is one that belonged to my Grandpa and I was given from my Uncle J's house last summer. Thanks Uncle J!
Old books can be VERY fun just for their covers.
I made the little altered art card.

More thrifted milk glass.

And the doll house I painted many years ago that was bought for CHEAP! The kids have so much fun with it!! They decorated it themselves this year.

hand me down decorating

My thoughtful friend, Sharon, gave me some hand me downs (hmd) the other day. I LOVE hmd!!
I think it is a fun challenge to see how things will work into your own world when you acquire things from someone else. Here's what I found out...


N. and his friend J. rearranged the doll house furniture and decorated it with some hmd wired mini leaf garland too! I painted the doll house inside and out and added wallpaper, after finding it already built but naked, many years ago.

My milk glass vases on the kitchen window sill are entwined with some more hmd wired mini leaf garland. On my way to Sharon's house to pick up all this hmd bounty, I had to stop at my favorite thrifty shop to see if they had any milk glass. They usually don't disappoint and that day was no exception. I found a perfect Westmorland fan shaped compote for $1.55. I love how they have strangely weird cheap price points like $1.55! I will have to show you that later.

On top of my milk glass cabinet I used the two hmd crackle white candle pedestals as props for my pumpkins and added some silk leaves. You may recognise my tattered dictionary from the Halloween display I showed in another post. This time it is holding up the same twisted candle stick and also another pumpkin.

If you have hand me downs, you should give a few to one of your friends and challenge them to creatively incorporate them into their world. You may be so inspired you just might be tempted to ask for them back!!

Ready for a scaled down Santa

The kids decorated the doll house for the holiday. It is a fun activity if they can manage to do it without arguing too much! It came out very nice this year.

N. added the cotton batting (snow) on the roof top. The interior is decorated also. If they can leave it alone long enough for me to take pictures then I will and then show them to you.

They each have their own idea of how each room should be with the tiny trees and wrapped gifts. When one sibling turns their back another rearranges it all.

Merry Christmas time to all in doll house land!!

You can click these photos to see more detail.

Cottontail

This was our bunny, Cotton. Cotton was a very loved and very spoiled bunny, given lots of cuddles. She went to bunny heaven about 2 years ago.

 N. was smack in the middle of his "superman phase"! That was a period of time when I would have to wrestle that shirt off him to be laundered every now and again. The cape that is on it was transferred from a previously outgrown superman shirt. I created a super hero situation by sewing that cape on for him, he wanted to wear not much else instead! It is fun what little boys do!

An update on our pet baby bunnies:

They are all fine and growing quickly. They are hopping all over in the cage now and eating some of the food from their momma's dish too! Nibbles (as we call pellets of food) and  alfalfa, apple slices, cucumber, and some celery leaves. They still nurse, except now they chase after Momma to get the milk. They don't have to wait for her to bring dinner to them!!

The runt is still less than 1/2 the size of the other 2 siblings-but growing just the same! We are still deciding on official names. We seem to be calling the runt "Lucky" lately.

They are 17 days old today!!!!