Thank you to all of my
All the best wishes for a joyful Christmas and a bright New Year.
I did hang quite a few on the blank spots I left on the living room tree and they are hard to photograph once they are on the tree so this is just what is sitting on the table in my art room.
This is the extent of the pink ones I have managed to accumulate toward that pink theme I had in mind. Something to aspire to for next year! I was at my hairdresser yesterday and she had the sweetest modern pink feather tree. It was tiny so if I find one of those in white I think it would be perfect for my tiny pink collection. A vintage-style white one would be even better!
I think these teeny tiny bells and the smallest indent I have ever seen are my favorite finds after that very first ornament I blogged about here. I put a quarter in the picture so you can see just how tiny they are. Adorable.
I don't know quite what to make of these. They are marked Shiny Brite and I have learned from Oodles and Oodles post here that they are called "unsilvered". I loved that post, by the way. I am wondering if they were intended to be Easter decorations. I MUST visit Amazon and see if there is a good book on vintage Christmas ornaments.
I couldn't get a close picture with these in the glass jar that is in the first picture so I poured them out in this dish so you can see them better. I added a quarter to this picture for scale as well..I hope to glue these tiny balls to some bottle-brush trees, just as soon as I find some of those - LOL! I got about half of these today. They were in a bag that included so much junk I didn't want that I asked the clerk if I could pay the full price and just take these out and donate the rest back. I don't think they are ever going to sell that sack.
The silver is worn off (I think it's on the inside so where does it GO??) most of these but I thought they were interesting because none of them are really round so I think they must be hand-blown. They are just marked Japan. I keep hearing the term "mercury glass" for these old ornaments but I question if they were really mirrored with mercury. I know if they are and I tell my geologist son I am hanging mercury all over the Christmas tree he will probably freak out and refuse to come over for Christmas.
I picked up this pair of ceramic candlesticks because of the unusual colors and the pink theme. It seemed like a good idea at the time but now I'm kind of rethinking that.
My SEW Somerset article was postponed until Spring. I was happy about that decision since it has a springtime theme and I kind of wondered why they would publish it in the Winter issue. That will be a fun one because it will include the technique article I submitted with it.
It is hard to see in the picture {try double-clicking} but the tree is just loaded with miniature ornaments I have collected over the years. Many were gifts since folks in my office all knew about my little tree and contributed here and there over the years.
I am not really using it in the kitchen but the living room was way to dark for a picture. I brought it home thinking I would try and find some tiny lights to add but haven't gotten around to it for this year. There's always next year and those after Christmas sales!
I kept the ornaments pretty simple this year. I just put up my very favorites, plus the vintage ones and simple bead garland. I skipped the tinsel garland completely this year and I think I like it. The tree isn't filled so I thought I would be fun to leave room to displays my "finds" during the season since I have this new fascination with vintage Christmas.
In the meantime, I have been playing around with some very basic paper crafting. If you haven't picked up the inaugural holiday issue of Cloth.Paper.Scissors Gifts I highly recommend it. There are SO many fun little project I want to try. This is one of those times when you feel like you really got your money's worth from a $15 magazine. Seriously. Go and buy it.
This project is by Michelle Spaw. They are little pinwheel-type things and mine are made from old Christmas Cards. I thought they would make fun little package tie-ons. Making them is kind of addictive! I plan on trying some two-sides ones from vintage sheet music and covered with {what else!} pink glitter! 
I added glitter to the antlers and the spots on the sweet little deer. I bought the adorable pink bottle brush trees from bleueclectic on Etsy. The picks are from Michaels. I added a 
It is one of those alpine style trees and I decorated it in a bird theme. You know how I love the birdies so any wonder this tree is my favorite? It is small so I don't remove the decorations. I just put a bag over it and carry it back up to the attic each year. Sometimes I'm tempted to just leave it up year around.
Obviously I have a ways to go on the decorating. It still looks a little bare underneath. I am sorry I couldn't get a better picture. Maybe someday I will learn how to compensate for low light, but apparently not today!
This one is a little closer so you might try double-clicking to make it bigger so you can see the birdies. Tweet. Tweet. 8+) 
Isn't this little 3D Santa just adorable? I have just a few vintage plastic decorations I display under the miniature tree I put on my desk at work and this Santa reminds me of those. I don't even know if there is a name for that stuff! Maybe someone will see this and educate me. This ornament is far to large for the miniature tree but will fit right in on the "big" tree with a few of the old ornaments I still have from my childhood.
I bought the whole box just to get that Santa ornament and I'm not sure what I will do with the rest of them yet. I was kind of thinking of a pink theme, just to change things up, but there are only two pink ones. They are each flocked or glittered with little scenes and sentiments.
And these guys - MAN are they cute! I'm thinking I might glue them on a piece of wood or foam core covered with glitter and maybe add some glitter to the antlers, too. How does this go with a pink theme? I need to get a plan.
I found this sack filled with a tangled mess of bright colors. I could recognize the miniature presents and little trees so I thought it must be some kind of Christmas decoration. Nothing I had ever seen before, that's for sure! Little paper umbrellas?? I got it home and spent 2 full hours untangling the giant knot and discovered there were four separate mobiles. They are all similar to the one pictured, with some variation in the colors of the paper umbrellas and trees. They measure about 8"x27". The papers they are made from remind me of a mulberry paper and the little trees have two layers that are stuffed with some kind of padding like little pillows. 
My favorite find was the two frilly little LUX soap "baskets". They are so pretty and brought back memories I hadn't thought of in years. I think they must have been made in the 1960s or early 1970s. I can remember some of my mother's friends making little "fishies" from the oval LUX soap cakes covered in pastel netting. They gave the bathroom such a lovely fragrance! I wonder if they even sell LUX soap anymore?? These are just adorable and went straight to my Etsy store where they can give someone else an awwwww moment.
I think a fair amount of what was called "tramp art" was once made using wooden cigar boxes. I have a few around that I store things in so I decided to spruce one up. Mine is pretty simple stuff since I only took a couple hours to work on it but it put a dozen ideas in my head.
The indoor flamingos make their happy home on the little china hutch in my kitchen. Yes, I have several outdoor flamingos, as well, but none of the traditional "lawn" variety. {{So far}} I have two neon flamingos I like to light up for parties and one metal flamingo watering can that is way too cool looking to actually use so it simply stands guard over the hot tub.
The tall one on the far left was the beginning of my collection. It was a gift from my paternal Grandmother. She got it sometime in the 1940s and gifted it to me about 20 years ago. Three of my flamingos are old enough to be considered vintage and the rest are more modern. 
Yes, I know the little guy in the front is a swan but he is pink so he thinks he's a flamingo and the rest of the flock indulges him.
My mother volunteered at a place called the Jubilee Store (love that name!) which supported her local food bank. She found this handled amber dish there, for a song, and asked a talented friend of hers to make the silk flower arrangement. She gave it to me for my 40th birthday and it has now been sitting in my office at work for FIFTEEN YEARS. Every now and then I use the canned air to blow out my computer keyboard and I give my 90s flowers a little shot at the same time. It has held up pretty well over the years. Mom has been gone 8 years this month. I finally brought it home yesterday.
My plan was to throw out the old flowers and replace them with something more fashionable. The dish is pretty and the amber color is coming back in style. Lime green and hot yellow maybe? What about bright blue?
The theme is Vintage Christmas and this is one of my photos in the listing. This is the first time I have been in one and I am SO flattered. Don't ya just love the Internet??
When I became an adult we lived many hundreds of miles apart but she would come "out west" every Summer and spend some time at my house and my Mother and Uncles houses and help out with the canning and keep company. The hankie box was a distant memory but a memory just the same. When she passed away in 1991 I was asked what I would like to have as a memento and the very first thing that came to mind was the hankie box.
Over the years I have added many more hankies to the box and (shame on me!) am no longer sure which ones belonged to Grandma but there were a few other things she stored in this box that still remind me it was hers and a place to store her special things.
Many of the hankies in these photos are not in pristine condition. That has never been as important to me as the lovely designs and what they represent. They are representative of a slower, more gentle, time and also a time when things weren't so disposable as they are today. I carried a hankie in my purse myself for many years, just because.
How lovely to look into your purse and see something like this!
Thank you for stopping by today and sharing in one of my cherished memories!
I bought the gorgeous boxes you can see in the background early last spring at Michaels. I finally sorted a portion of the vintage photos into two families and stored them WAY up on top of the very tall desk hutch in my art room. Step one.
I made up my mind I wanted to recover the pillow with an animal print to give the room a pop of something that wasn't flowers but I hadn't made it to the fabric store yet. Yesterday I stopped at K-Mart for a quick errand on my lunch hour. K-Mart is 5 minutes from my office and they have lots of stuff you need, you know?? So I'm dashing and here is this big, heavy terrycloth bath towel sitting there on an end-cap [imagine picture of light bulb here] ON SALE. Plush and perfectly cozy and $6.99. 
I rummaged around in my stash and came up with a 14" metal zipper - not really the right kind - but I made it work. No, it's not very creative and certainly not "artsy" but I think it will be pretty sturdy and comfy for the husband and checked off the to-do list. 
Now about that old barkcloth pillow cover... I should probably take it straight out to the trash can but there are still some good parts... you know? Plus I have about 1/3 of the big towel left!
Each year I put together some sort of little list system to keep track of the ideas, items checked off, sizes needed, coupons, receipts, etc. Some years it's as simple as a stack of index cards in a pretty envelope. Other years I have decorated the cover on a little spiral notebook. Whatever I make will be pretty battered by the end of the year from dozens of trips in and out of my purse so I consider them ephemeral in nature. 
I always save the holiday cards I receive in case I might make something out of them someday (big sigh) so this year I pulled out a pretty Christmas card to use as the covers. 
A little battle with a head cold sidelined me for a few days. I didn't even make my Sunday trip to the VofA for crying out loud. I'm surprised they didn't come looking for me!
Three little birds, not by my doorstep but watching over my kitchen sink singing... Don't worry about a thing 'cause every little thing gonna be alright... Don't you love the expression on the one farthest to the right - ha! I think maybe the other two talk too much.
This is the complete shelf. I have one on each side of my kitchen sink. I found both of the shelves on the same day from two different sellers on eBay - serendipity!
When they arrived they were both in various stages of disrepair and painted (if you can call it that) two different colors. I cleaned and sanded and cleaned and sanded and painted them in a color I call "Grandma Green". The color goes nicely with my small collection of vintage jadite. It wasn't an easy rescue but the results made it worth it in the end. Don't count things out based on the way they look at the moment. Think past the first impression to what they CAN be!
According to family tradition this figurine was a Mother Day gift from ME to my mother when I was a baby. Two little love birds sitting in a tree... K.I.S.S.I.N.G.... !
A packet of vintage wallpaper, a very vintage lace collar, glass buttons on cards and pink beads.
Vintage lace and trims and more glass buttons - yes those wonderful white buttons are glass! You can also see some tags and library card pockets in this picture.
More glass buttons, a vintage cabinet card, victorian scrap and lots of glass beads.
Vintage greeting cards, more glass beads and vintage Dennison Christmas labels.
And even MORE glass buttons. Okay, I have to tell you about the glass buttons. This vendor had apparently bought out the stock from a clothing factory and she had bags and bags of glass buttons. I started picking up one after another so she handed me a basket. I proceeded to load it up with every single bag of buttons. My DIL's eyes grew wide and she said "you're not going to buy all of them are you??". I mumbled something from my fog about thinking about it. Then I snapped back to reality and told her "Quick! Help me talk myself out of this or I'm going to buy the whole thing. How much is 27 x 3? I wonder what she would take for all of them? Hurry, save me!". All of a sudden I was really glad I hadn't gotten that glass of wine to sip while I shopped!
Well, no, I didn't buy them all. Big sigh. Even as we were walking to the car I was asking her "Do you think I should have bought them all? Should I see if I can still get back in?". I'm guessing she might have been rolling her eyes on the inside and thinking get in the car you wacky old woman don't make me stuff you in the trunk. 
But I got her email address. 8+)
