New Year's Mantle

 

I admit to taking Christmas down as soon as I wake up on the 26th. When it is over, it is over. This year was no different, but I have been a little less frantic with my clean up. Generally, we go back to school on the 2nd, but this year we go back on the 7th. I think that is why I am not in as much of a hurry.

For a few days I toyed with the idea of hosting a family friendly New Year's Eve party. I decided to decorate our mantle for the event.

 

 

 

 

In hindsight I wish I would have stuck with an all black background. The patterned paper makes it looks uneven.

 

 
I especially like it when all the lights are out.

I don't think we are going to have an actual party at this point. I haven't made phone calls or invites. I imagine we will have a nice dinner with a few people and simply hang out and relax.

I also decided to keep a few of my Christmas decorations out for my front window vignette.

 

 

 I love my trophies!

 

Delia wanted to pose for a picture with her Christmas gift, Pete the cat.

It is really difficult to get a good picture of this window especially at night. I kept getting a reflection of me in it with my Christmas pajamas. No may gusta.

Tomorrow the tree will come down and all 12 bins will go back into storage. The rest of break will be spent cleaning, organizing, looking for deals and hopefully crafting and painting. I have furniture stacking up. I am excited to try out my new mouse sander and buffer Santa brought me. I was a good girl!

Failed Business Venture & Luckett's Green

I agreed to give a holiday bazaar another go this year. My husband's school was hosting one again and I figured it was a good way to get out of cleaning the house on a Saturday. I had a lot of inventory from this summer and had been making some Christmas items over the past few weeks as well.

I decided I needed something to help display my wares. I remembered this shelf I picked up at the auction for $2.

It was sturdy, but did not have the actual shelves. I pulled out my handy dandy circular saw and cut my own. I knew I was going to use a peppermint pink chenille bedspread as my tablecloth and thought Ms. Mustardseed's Luckett's Green was the perfect coordinating color.

This is not my entire booth, but this is what the shelf looked like. I kept the shelves a natural color for two reasons. First, I thought it would make them stand out and second, I ran out of paint. (Okay so they really weren't painted for the second reason.)

I didn't do too well at the bazaar. I made my table fee back and a little more. The traffic was slow and I know my items aren't hot sellers in the area we live in. I have so many people tell me I really need to take my stuff to antique shops in different areas of Portland where they will sell quickly. I know this is true, but I just haven't made the time to get serious about it. Maybe this year I will (do I have my first New Year's Resolution?).

I am pretty sure I will be selling this shelf after the holidays. For now it is sitting on my porch and is looking lovely next to the red Adirondack chair.

Here is one of my favorite pieces from the bazaar that didn't sell:

It is an old bread tin. I glued mica flakes to the back and bottom for snow. I added some vintage lace, a glitter/tinsel embellished house and some bottle brush trees. It is so cute and because it didn't sell it looks great in my vintage inspired front window.

Vintage Music Wreath

I currently have a thing for using vintage music in my creations. I love music, but am not musical. I played clarinet for a year, violin for a year, and piano for two years before I finally determined I was not cut out for a career in music. I regret this decision now, but as a kid didn't think ahead. Oh well.

I recently purchased a scoring board by Martha Stewart.

I was able to use a coupon at my local craft store (SHOP LOCAL) so it was only $14.99. I am not a tool purchaser generally, but I thought I would give this one a whirl. I LOVE IT.

I began making dealymabobs with it and have kind of been addicted. I don't know what these things are actually called (sorry I didn't buy a crafting dictionary), but I love them.

I made a whole bunch out of an old music workbook. After I had a stack I decided I needed to do something with them so I created this:

Each of the dealymabob centers has a vintage button. Next, I glued them down to one of my metal wreath frames (I sold a ton of these on Etsy. I guess they are hard to find). I had this Happy Holidays glitter ornament left over from last year. I glued it across the front and I suddenly had a lovely little wreath.

I tried to sell it at the one and only bazaar I did this season. There wasn't a lot of traffic and the part of town I live in isn't into "vintage inspired decor". Go figure. I know exactly who I need to give it to. Merry Christmas to ___________!

I haven't crafted in over a week and am trying to wrap up the last school week before the break. We are also trying to cram in our traditional holiday activities like our trip to see Santa in downtown Portland.

We have pictures with the same Santa for the past 12 years. He used to be at Macy's, but they went with a "corporate Santa". After being fired, Santa Tom decided to go into business for himself. He is now located in Pioneer Courthouse Square and boy am I glad.
The visit is very intimate. After standing in line you are taken into a waiting area and then into a little room where he resides. The camera person, Santa, and your family are the only ones in the room. They allow you to take your own pictures after they are done with theirs. We took our pictures while they were discussing lists. In the second picture you can see Delia counting down her list on her fingers.
Afterwards you go into another area to pick out your pictures. When we looked at ours I realized Delia still had her coat on. I almost said it wasn't a big deal, but the worker convinced us to take them again. She even snuck us through the back door for the retakes so we didn't have to stand in line again. I unfortunately did not get any shots of this with our own camera because I was so grateful. Ahhh. How many more years will I get to enjoy this tradition? I hope for at least a few more!

Everyone Has A Porch Tree...Right?

We have never had a flocked tree. I remember growing up my grandparents had one that was overly flocked and they decorated it with purple and red lights. The ornaments were all jewel tones. My grandparents were not your typical variety.
I wasn't a fan of flocked trees until I spotted one a few years ago that was partially flocked. It was so natural looking and made me believe it had snowed indoors.
One of my favorite local garden centers sent me an email stating all of their Christmas decor and trees were 50% off including flocked ones. We flocked over to the center and spotted the perfect tree the second we walked in. The first rule of finding the perfect tree is to keep looking just to make sure it is indeed the perfect tree. We kept looking and spotted another one that seemed to be the second best. We told the staff we wanted the one in the front. "No you don't. It doesn't have a water bowl and will dry out quickly. We can sell it to you for $10 though."
We talked. Do we want a dried up tree? Nope. We went with the second best one. It was $45 and was seven feet tall. Sure, I could have gone out into the rainy, muddy fields and cut my own for $20, but it wouldn't be flocked and I was short of time this year.
The kids picked out their yearly ornament. Drexler went with an Oregon State Beaver pennant and Delia picked a Chinese take-out container. She loves herself some Chinese food.

I love the flocking on it. It really helps my Mercury glass ornaments stand out. This tree is in our Living Room and is the center of our holiday decorations. Our family room tree holds the kid's ornaments and ones that were given to use over the years (teachers get a lot of ornaments over time). This is a fake tree and it is going to go bye bye at the end of this season. The good news is I know a place where I can get a fake tree dirt cheap.

 We decided for $10 we could afford to buy a porch tree. Yep. We have a porch tree. Doesn't everyone?

 I really do need want three trees. I used to decorate my parent's tree with a different theme each year. One year it was a rustic garden theme, another year it was toile and ironstone.Sigh. I guess that is what porch trees are for.
This porch tree has rusty garden tools on it. We had a windstorm the other night and it blew many of my hydrangeas away. I still love it!

Let Your Light Shine

The events of the past few weeks have been gut wrenching. As a a young teacher I had vivid dreams of school shootings. As I became seasoned those dreams have faded, but sadly they seem to becoming a reality. I choose to focus on living life to the fullest. I tell my students we can't live in fear, but should always be prepared. I try each day to find beauty in the things around me. Simple things make me happy. I have kept a candle lit for those who passed on Friday in the school shootings.


I have been in love with jute binding for some time. I especially liked the red I found on blogs. One day while shopping at JoAnne's I found a yard shoved between fabric rolls. I couldn't find the roll it came off of and left without it. I had an idea to make some decorative using it.

These candles were purchased for $1.09 at Winco in the Hispanic Food Aisle. They are simple, cheap  and easy to work with. I had a tough time finding red jute webbing though. My local ENORMOUS fabric store had none and wasn't willing to special order it for me (boo). I searched online. Bingo. I decided to buy 12 yards of it. The price was .59 a yard so the total was $7.08, plus shipping. HOLY SHIP. Shipping was $17. Are you kidding? This meant it was now $2.00 a yard. I remembered JoAnne's and called them to see if they still carried it. They did. With my 40% off coupon it ended up being $4.00 for 10 yards. Lesson learned: The price isn't always what it appears to be.

These candles cost me about $1.50 when everything was said and done. I love the way they add a subtle hint of red into a room. The other bonus is they can be used after Christmas as well for Valentine's Day.

I have a ton left and decided to make this little number.

I spotted one like it on Pintrest. It looks great next to my red door.