Christmas is past

This is what it looked like a few weeks back, before I decorated the hutch with vintage Christmas stuff. My kitty was inspecting the area for me. This is also what it looked like again last night, after all the vintage Christmas was packed away for another year.
How 'bout a look around at what it was like for the holiday here when all the vintage nostalgia was in full force.

So much of this stuff takes me back to the days of visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house. I have great memories of those times.... visual reminders and certain scents-- like ham baking in the oven, or fruitcake in a tin, can make me feel like a kid in their house like it was yesterday.

Some of these items will be sold off and new (or old) things will come in to replace them. The circle of collections and thrifting.

We had a good Christmas together as a family. Good food, good memories made, the warmth of a crackling fire in the fireplace and the promise of what our faith brings us.

I love the photo above and am thinking I will offer it for sale as a print. Don't you love those old Christmas bulbs?

We did end up having a real tree once again this year, vs. an artificial one, after a lapse of several years. Boy did I miss a real tree. Love the scent! Our tradition each year was to go to a tree farm the second weekend of December and cut one as a family outing. I miss that tradition, but the tree farms all became more pricey than our budget would easily allow, so sadly there have been no recent trips to the tree farm. This year we headed to the big box home store to buy a tree that was probably cut back in Sept. or something crazy like that. Anyway, we could afford it as it was cheap enough, with the help of our rebate coupon we were redeeming from a previous purchase for a much needed home repair- (adventures in home ownership, as we like to refer to it)-and it really was a cute, tiny tree, after all.... even if it had been cut months ago and struggled to hold its needles.

On top of the table by the window it looked like a tall proud tree from outside. We did fool the neighbors, until they came inside and our secret was revealed. Look closer and you will see one of our traditions...

We always put my stuffed animal squirrel from my childhood tucked in among the branches.
Some of you may know of a movie that has a squirrel in the Christmas tree!!

We ended up having to take down the tree early as it was very dry and we did not want to burn down the house. You know, since it was probably cut back in Sept. or something and all the drinks we gave it were not enough to refresh it for long. We would ordinarily leave it up until Epiphany. Since I had to take the tree down I disassembled the rest of the decor while I was on a roll. On to the new year!!

dust bunnies and cob webs are a decorator's friend

Do you ever use the excuse that you need to rearrange absolutely everything to dust properly? Ok so maybe I'm just weird that way. I have been told I am weird for many reasons, but we won't go into that just now.

Yesterday the sun was shining and I love that. But that happy bright sun has an evil side. It shows all the cob webs and dust bunnies. You don't have those? I'm happy for you --now go away! Just kidding.



I love to rearrange things. Furniture and "stuff".
"Blame it on the doll house that Santa brought", my mom always said. I got one when I was in 1st grade. You know, metal with plastic colored furniture? I was constantly changing it all around. Even putting the kitchen in the bathroom and the bathroom in the living room. Now that's weird for sure. But fun, admit it! I can't be that creative in real life but I can change lots of other things around my real house without someone calling for the men in white coats to take me away.

This sewing machine went to live at my brother's house for a while. When I was about 9, Santa brought me a mini, real working sewing machine. Good grief... my smile wrapped around the back of my head that year  when the wrapping paper was torn off !

So now there is a new arrangement and a few less dust bunnies and cob webs about.

Good thing they come back. Good, you say? Yes. That way I can change things yet again!

How often do you rearrange "stuff" and make new vignettes?

Post note: The things shown were given to me and nearly all of it has subsequently gone on to live at someone else's house (my brothers and I trade things back and forth), or they have been sold off. The old books were my great grandmother's (I still have those) and have her name handwritten inside the cover with the dates they were received. looking at them is kind of like a time capsule of a simpler time before all our connectedness to so much technology. I have a fondness for old thread spools that are wood and for old sewing books. One year for Christmastime I took all the red and green wooden spools of thread and piled them inside a clear glass canning jar with hinged lid...I had more positive comments on the uniqueness factor of that, than on the beauty of the live Christmas tree.

milk glass

The green beads are a necklace that was my Mom's from the 1950's at one time there was a set of clip-on earrings to match which she often wore for card club night with her friends. Vintage red and white linen towels like my grandma had in her kitchen, folded among the milk glass. I love anything red and white.

Green apple candles (that look nicer in person than in this photo) and red berry springs add pops of color.

Vintage string of wooden beads in green, red, and golden shades.

Snowflake shaped candle that is actually a floating-type candle (which I have used in a shallow milk glass bowl filled with water and then floated cranberries in along with the candle), paper hand made quilled snowflakes made by me tucked into a pile, and Paper Posie flowers made by me scattered along a pedestal cake plate.

A vintage porcelain carnival prize doll with the "cold paint" all worn and chippy.

Many of the things in these photos will be let go in the circle of collections...some come in and many go out to new homes.

These are actually in another area other than my hutch. Stacked compotes in graduated sizes and some ratty old books: Peyton Place and Art Linkletter The Secret World Of Kids. The angle of the photo makes it look somewhat like a leaning tower. It is straight, I assure you.

All of my milk glass was either my Mom's or was thrifted. I have found a great fun place where they always have milk glass. I have never been there that they did not have at least 1 or 2 pieces. One day I was there they had the craziest price point too....55 cents.... too bad they only had 3 that day!!! Have you seen what this stuff sells for on the _bay site??

I grew up being surrounded by all my Mom's milk glass. She collected it over about 50 yr's time. It is adaptable to any decor or time of year or holiday! See what I did here with candles!!!

You can see all old milk glass posts here.

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.

tarnished silver, old books and photos

My hutch display recently went from light and airy pastel pinks and rich wine red roses and lacy pink doilies and hankies. You can see it [here].to...
a darker, quieter, fall display of tarnished silver pieces and tarnished framed family photos and antique books and "fantasy family" tintype photos.


The little girl in the big silver frame is my Grandma (Dad's mom) when she was 4. The oval silver frame holds a photo of E. in the baptism gown I made for her out of a vintage cotton petticoat. The brown book, Child Classics, is from 1909 and The Land of Play book from 1911.





I like how the tin types look with the tarnished silver. The one of the two men sitting with their arms crossed is one of my favorites!


The book, The Adventures Of Ol' Mistah Buzzard, is from 1926. The two boys in the round frame are my Dad (on the right) and his brother wearing matching corduroy hats, jackets and knee pants that my Grandma made for them. The square frame holds a photo of my Mom and Dad on their wedding day.

The little girl with the tricycle, in the tarnished rose frame, is me when I was about 2.
The book, Around The World With The Children, is from 1917. I sewed the cat from a kit when I was in elementary school.


The couple in the oval are the parents of my very best life long friend.
They are like my second parents and surrogate grandparents to my 3 kids. My kids call them Nannie and Grampy. The two Billy Whiskers books are from 1902 and The Holton-Curry Reader is from 1914.

The girl in the oval frame is none other than me on my 17th birthday!


The small frame holds a photo of my B on his baptism day. His Godmother/Aunt is holding him. In the center framed photo- the little girl wearing a hat is me, about age 6. The wedding photo is me dancing with my dad.
The heart shaped frame is me and B on our wedding day. In the frame next to that- the little girl in head scarf is me at age 2.
The frame at far right shows me at age 5.