VINTAGE CHRISTMAS

Today is Vintage Christmas day at

Have A Daily Cup.  Since practically everything around here is vintage (including us), I wasn't going to miss this opportunity to celebrate with Jann.  Be sure to hop over and visit her delightful blog!

 In my last post I said I wasn't the glitzy, sparkly, glamour type --- well, I lied as I do have a fondness for shiny, vintage ornaments.

Ever since I inherited my parent's and grandmother's Christmas stuff in the 1990s, I have been searching for more vintage ornaments.  I've been keeping the collection under control, however, by buying only those priced way under the current market value.  My search centers on the balls with the cardboard hangers from WW II.  In all of the years I have only found three.  In our part of the country, they must not have been into conserving metal for the war effort; because they sure are elusive!!

In addition, I'm attracted to the vintage tree toppers and bottle brush trees.

I inherited several of the bottle brush trees from my grandmother when I received her collection of cardboard houses.  I love this little church and its tiny bottle brush tree.

We also like the old Christmas postcards which we display on this vintage grocery store receipt rack along with some pictures of our Christmases Past.

Look at this picture of our children taken 40 Christmases ago.  Santa has a death grip on Jenni, and Mike was ready to also grab her if she tried to escape.  Later in the day, we discovered that Jenni had come down with the chicken pox -- we have often wondered if we were responsible for Santa later coming down with the pox.  Plus, did he then have shingles later in life?  He looks a little scared, doesn't he?  I feel guilty........but at the moment we didn't know.

I guess you could consider some of our stockings vintage -- I knitted the first one for Bob before our first Christmas in 1958.

Another touch of vintage - my two grandmothers' and my mother's rolling pins.

I'm joining the following:
Have a Daily Cup for Vintage Christmas Thursday
From My Front Porch to Yours for Treasure Hunt Thursday
The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday
Nancherrow for Fridays Unfolded
Pieced Pastimes for Saturday Sparks

APOTHECARY JARS, TREES & A CLOCHE

Over the years I have collected a few vintage ornaments - some are from family and others were purchased. The ones that I didn't put on the tree this year ended up in the dining room plate rack.

I've enjoyed having the antique apothecary jars filled with some of these ornaments along with the vintage tree toppers on the top shelf.

I'm always on the lookout for the vintage ornaments with a cardboard hanger such as this blue one. These are from World War II when all metal was diverted to the war effort, even hangers for Christmas ornaments.Last year, I made the white bottle brush trees using Manuela's
(The Pleasures of Homemaking)
tutorial for bleaching & dyeing the trees. The only thing I did different was to remove the attached bases and replace them with wooden blocks that I decoupaged with red and white scrapbook papers.

The centerpiece on our dining room table, for now at least, is one of my favorite Jim Shore Santas sitting on a wreath and covered with a cloche.

I'm joining in the following parties:

Linda at Coastal Charm

is hosting a Christmas Open House on Dec. 9th

and

Marty at A Stroll Thru Life

is having her annual Christmas Cloche Party on Dec. 10th

Join these gracious hostesses for the festivities!

THE BOTTLE BRUSH TREE EXPERIENCE

I'm in love with the IDEA of crafting, but I'm just not very good at it. Give me thread and fabric and I can create; but glitter, glue, and I have never learned how to play together very well. But, I was so intrigued with Manuela of The Pleasures of Homemaking
and her bottle-brush bleaching project that I just had to try it.

I didn't take any pictures of the bleaching process, because Manuela's tutorial is so good - you can click here
to follow her instructions. Basically you buy those little non-plastic bottle-brush trees that are made to accessorize villages. Then you put them in a combination of bleach and water until they turn white. Rinse them in water, and let them dry. From this point on, they can be dyed with Rit dye and/or decorated any way you want.

I chose to leave mine white and glitter them. The thing that I did different was to remove their little white plastic bases, and replace them with wooden blocks that I decoupaged with scrapbook paper. I then covered the blocks with two coats of Mod Podge to seal. We predrilled holes in the blocks and reinserted the wire stems in with a dab of Elmer's glue.

I am enjoying my finished trees, and have given some away as gifts.

I'm still not too fond of the glittering and gluing process, but had lots of fun choosing the scrapbook papers.

Since Susan of A Southern Daydreamer is allowing indoor decorations during the month of December, I'm linking to Outdoor Wednesday
for this week's party.
Be sure to check out Susan's blog for a list of the other participants.