Vintage Christmas

Before the season is over, just wanted to share a few ways that I used vintage items in my Christmas decorating.  After the epic flooding in my basement this summer, I lost a lot of my Christmas decorations. It forces me to take a fresh look at some the the things that I still had and see what I could do with them!

A friend gave me this old coffee pot when cleaning out her parents' home. A perfect spot to "plant" a little Christmas tree. Next year I will try a real mini one and see if the cats will leave it alone.

A bare spot on the wall where I hung my childhood plaid lunch box.

So obsessed with bottle brush trees. I picked up a package of them at Joann's last year post Christmas and scattered them everywhere. I like the look of this one perched on an upside down tea cup.

More trees and a snowman caught in a mason jar. (Made the snowman years ago, one of the few of my snowman collection that survived the flood.)

I had to toss all the Christmas wreaths that were stored in the basement. Here is a new one I put together using some thrift store sweaters I had stashed away and and some vintage buttons.

I sadly lost most of my vintage ornaments from my grandmother - the water melted the paint right of the them. Wish I hadn't tossed them and kept them as a plain silver color, but was so overwhelmed at the time with trying to save things.  A few were left, and I went out this December to antique stories to try to replace a some of them with some similar ornaments. Put them in a bowl under a tinsel tree.

I added a few red dishes from the dollar store to my stack of blue dishes. The mason jar has a solar light top that I discovered at Michaels - I'm definitely getting more of them!

I also bought a bunch of these cute little frames at Michaels at their dollar spot.  My brother recently scanned all of our family slides, so I added a few photos from when we kids. Will do more of these for next year. 

A few years ago I made some faux mercury class candle holders out of thrift store dished.  Mixed them with a pretty door knob. Put a few bottle brush trees in bleach to turn them white. One of my cats loves playing with these trees and I keep finding them on the floor, thus the wonky shape.

More vintage postcards. Twisted wire as holders in a salt shaker and in a door knob.

And speaking of cats, they did much better this year at staying out of the Christmas tree (at least while I was watching) but they still both had to check it out when I first put it up.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful! God's blessings to all!

Vintage Golden Remix Jewelry

Over the past few months, I have played around with remixing a variety of vintage jewelry bits.

Old watch - turned into a "locket" removed the insides, added a bit of a dictionary and a rhinestone.

I think this might have been a clear glass drawer pull. Added other beads to bling it up.

Large pin turned into a pendant. Added another vintage bead and charm on one side of the chain as an accent.

Long chain made up from all the leftover bits of gold chains from other projects, all joined together.

All kinds of gold chains and mixed and twisted together.

Flower pin turned into pendant. Clipped onto on other mixture of gold chains.

I often play with all these bits off and on until I find a perfect combo. Enjoyed having a few snow days to finish up the projects.

 

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Daycation

A last hurrah before school starts in earnest.  I decided to take a little daycation road trip an hour up north and do a little recreational shopping.  First stop was Great Lakes Crossing.  I had a $5 coupon from Eddie Bauer and I always enjoy the challenge of seeing what I can get for really cheap.  Found these two blouses on the $4.99 rack - originally $59 dollars (although we all know those prices at outlets can be pretty inflated).  I discovered that Eddie Bauer gives a 10% discount with teacher ID - never knew that, weeping at all the $$ I could have saved over the years!  With my discount and coupon, these 2 items cost under five dollars.  SCORE!

Then headed up to Clarkston.  I have always wanted to try out the Clarkston Union restaurant that I have heard so much about.  An old church repurposed into a cool restaurant.

I just grabbed a quick sandwich while sitting at the bar.  Got a pecan cherry sausage smothered with mushrooms and onions.  That sausage slid right off the bun after one bite - had to resort to cutting it up in pieces to eat!  The grilled onions underneath were pretty good, too.  Next time, though, going for their famous mac and cheese!

I stopped at the gift shop next store and grabbed a couple cupcakes for to take home for dessert.  I seriously think these are the best cupcakes ever!  I am a frosting freak and these had a mound of buttery frosting.  I tried the raspberry one that had a great raspberry filling and a blueberry one with an almond cream frosting.  I would make the trip again just to get these cupcakes! 

Then on to downtown Holly.  I don't think I have been there in many years and had forgotten how cute it is.  There are several really interesting gift shops on the main street.  My favorite was called Pigeon in the Parlour - just loved how all the items were displayed!

I did some antiquing - there are several great stores to explore. 

I always love Battle Alley Arcade Antiques - it is divided into cute little rooms that are fun to wander through.   

I bought a few vintage hankies and 2 wire locker baskets that I plan to use for storage.  I'd been looking for wire baskets for a while - really liked the number tags and the diamond pattern that the wires make.

Vintage Tablecloth Bed Canopy

So I had a little fun last week creating a canopy for my bed out of two vintage tablecloths.  I thought it turned out rather cute!

I was inspired by this display at Ikea.  I have the same bed and loved how they draped the fabric to make a simply canopy.

I sewed two tablecloths together.  I took the fringe off of an old chenille bedspread that I had cut up for other projects and basted that onto one edge.  I used inexpensive curtain rods from Ikea and pipe clamps.

The ceiling is slanted where the wall paper starts.  Simply tucked the clamp in behind the paneling here without a screw.  Next summer hope to take down the wallpaper and paint the pinewood paneling white.

I added old white shutters on each side.  I recently bought matching night stands from Meijers which flank each side of the bed.

And a few of my key necklaces hanging on the shutters.

Another look - the pillows are also vintage hankies and fabrics.

Vintage Italy Postcards

I have always loved the colors of vintage postcards.  I picked a bunch up at an antique shop after my return from my trip to Italy.  Today I was scanning them for a little digital project, and thought that I would also upload them to Flickr as well as post them here.  I hope you enjoy a few faded views of Rome, Venice, and Florence!

Italiana Albero DI Natale

When I finished decorating my Christmas tree last week, it just seemed blah.  So I gathered a stash of vintage postcards from Italy that I collected after my trip last summer and tucked them into the branches.

Seeing these pictures of all the lovely places that I visited during the summer makes me smile every time I look at the tree.

A friend gave me this cute passport ornament that goes perfectly with the postcards!

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