Vintage Sunday

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Kalli's not to excited though. Yesterday before the snow started I managed to get all the Christmas decorations out of my outside storage. The rest of the house is still being cleaned. But with snow all around I decided to decorate the den.

I have three artificial Norway spruce trees in different sizes.  The medium one I put on my hearth and I call it my vintage Christmas Tree.  The reason is the decorations were my Dad's when he was a boy.   I have lovely small to large colorful Christmas balls.

 Some still have thread on them where dad remembers tying them on the tree and others have scrap wire, and vintage paperclips.  The round white one above and the pear below represent fruit and are made from spun cotton fibers pained and glittered.

The bell is one of many I have small and large in red, blue, and purple jewel tones.

The horn actually works when you blow in it!  Don't you love the snowman and the reindeer?  The stocking was crocheted by a friend.

The plastic birds  on the left are my favorite!  I have then in the yellow and the white.  Their feet are made to clamp on the branch of a tree.  The tree topper is another bird made of plastic with a nylon tail.  It is modeled after the German hand blown glass ornaments. 

What is great is these are just some of the ornaments I have, and my Dad has even more.  They all look old and worn which is part of their charm.  I brought them all home on a plane from my grandparents one Thanksgiving- pre-911 security.  I carried on three well tied boxes along with my rolling suitcase and a tote bag.  I would never have made it today!

The rest of my mantle has a manger scene, angels collected from my Grandmother, and reindeer made from wood by my Dad. 

The stockings I made -one with Opus is for my late cat and the other is just one I made to hang on the other hanger.  I made everyone in my family patchwork stockings back in 1993 or 94 and they are hung at my mom and dad's.  Don't worry Kalli's is at m&d too.

BTW I am very proud of this fireplace screen.  There was an ugly black and brass screen  i removed it and bought the window with two other for $3 at an auction.  The moldings framing the window were found out the local habitat restore.  I screwed and nailed and whitewashed.  I love it!  Of course it is only decorative. 

This is a favorite area as it is next to the TV and three windows out of which are cedar trees, snow!, and birds at the bird feeder.  I love my den!  Merry Christmas!

 PS  Dont you love this folded paper moravian star?  I love to make these with kids!  I may have to do a tutorial.  You can find some good directions here as well.

Keep dreaming…Colleen

Craft/Quilt Studio Renovation

So for the past 2 weeks I have been scrapping wallpaper( a lovely tiny blue flower) and scrapping wall paper. Monday morning I spackled and sanded and painted the walls a lovely pale blue. I was kind of limited in paint colors as the carpet is a medium blue and I was NOT going to replace it. Tuesday I painted the trim white.

Then..... I was so excited to take my new sewing desk out of the Jeep where it had been living since Saturday. I have to explain that the 'new' sewing desk is actually a Habitat Restore find. It is sturdy with lots of drawers for sewing stuff.
Did you notice the lovely green and white top? You too can have such loveliness...it's contact paper! It goes perfectly with the green and blues with pops of turquoise color scheme.



Did you notice the eclectic knob mix? They have a TON of designer knobs at the Habitat Restore so I picked my favorite ones.


This is the one on the middle drawer...I also have a cool yellow ceramic cat...I mean it is part quilt studio and as you know you cant quilt without a cat. I just have to figure out where to screw it...

More later on the reno...as the Great Clean out of Summer 2010 continues.

Keep Dreaming...:o) Colleen