Christmas Tour....Day One

The first stop on our Christmas tour is our master bedroom.

A red and white quilt has replaced the floral quilt and Santa's abound. A couple of weeks ago I found these two red corduroy pillows in a local antique market. They reminded me of the pillows that graced our sofa as a child. My mother had made pillows almost identical to these. In fact, that year she made them and gave them as Christmas presents. Seeing these two red pillows brought back a flood of childhood memories...so I just had to buy them.

Two wooden Santa profiles hang on either side of our bedroom window

and frame the bird feeders that hang outside.

This wooden Santa tag hangs on the wall inside the door...it is about 30 inches tall.

I just love vintage Santas!

Something about this Santa's face reminds me of my Dad in his older years.

The tree is decorated with handmade vintage look ornaments

that I spent the past week finishing.

I printed vintage images, adhered them to wood and cut them out.

Glitter, tinsel and wire hangers were added.

A few of my favorite Santas are placed around the room.

A whimsical elf sits atop my jewelry armoire.

Unpacking the Christmas decorations is like saying hello to

old friends that you haven't seen for a year!

I just love this jolly fellow....

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like.......

Christmas!

The turkey and stuffing are gone, the leftover pumpkins have been fed to the chickens, the autumn decorations are put away. This next week will be dedicated to making our home a Christmas house. Each day I will share pictures of the decorating.

Today we start with the front door....

Welcome to Christmas in the country. Come on in and sit by the fire. Have some hot chocolate and cookies and we'll share stories of Christmas Past.

Finishing the Old.....Making Way For the New

I have had Malphi's Flower Pickin Pinny neatly tucked away in my sewing room for the past two years. It was always one of those projects that I planned to get to when everything else of importance was finished. But then, as you all know, there is something else that takes precedence and that one project that is just for you gets put on terminal hold. Yesterday, for some reason, I just decided to make the Pinny....and except for a little handwork on the bias binding, I am almost finished. Here it is so far......(I will model it when it is totally done.)

The fabric is a wonderful embroidered linen from England. All of the seams are French seams, so there is no unfinished edges anywhere on it. I had a great time embellishing it with vintage crocheted laces. It is so feminine and frilly...perfect for serving our holiday dinners!

An Organized Kitchen

One of the things that I truly love about my kitchen in our log home is how organized I can be. There is enough cabinet and pantry space for all of my cooking tools and ingredients. Up till now, however, there was one very disorganized cabinet. I bet you can guess which one it is! Yep, you guessed it....the spice cabinet! Most of us probably have the same problem keeping our spices organized...too many little jars and not enough little spaces to keep them in any semblance of order. Well, my problem has been solved.

A friend made this handy spice cabinet for me and I installed it this afternoon. It has spring loaded hinges that are attached to the front of the cabinet. It swings out to reveal two sides full of spices.

The space that remains behind it in the cabinet has plenty of shelf space, now, to finish organizing everything.....and each container remains visible and completely accessible. I removed the two shelves, moved the shelf brackets back and cut each of the shelves in half. Then I installed all four halves which increased my shelf space by two additional shelves....spaced just far enough apart for those tiny spice jars.

My kitchen is now complete....my world is in order (ok, well at least my kitchen is in order!) Thanks JOE!!!!!! I just love it....my life is complete!

Christmas Bedding

This year I have decided to really do Christmas decorating on the farm in a big way. I have decided to finally do what I have always longed to do....make up each of the beds in a Christmas theme. My lavender guest room presents quite a challenge. After searching high and low for a quilt that would blend well with the lavender and also with Christmas, I gave up the search. There just is not a lot of Christmas quilts to be found, and none in the right colors. Since I don't have enough time left to make my own quilt, I settled on a loden green coverlet and I will accessorize the bed with pillows of the right colors. I started digging through my fabric stash and found some Santa squares and some fabric and set to work making pillows. This pile of bedding and pillows will transform my shabby chic lavender bedroom into a shabby Christmas room in a couple of weeks.

Glittered Putz houses and mercury glass will complete the transformation.

This pillow will find a home on the chair in that room.

Christmas Banner

You probably have noticed that I am in love with vintage images...

especially those old antique greeting cards

(although I also have a special place in my heart for old photos).

I have been looking for ideas to use these images.

I thought I would do a fabric variation of those adorable Christmas banners that folks are making from images printed on card stock.

I printed my images on printing fabric.

Then I appliqued them onto Christmas fabric and made my banner.

It is sewed together with vintage crocheted lace, vintage doily parts and vintage buttons to make a truly old fashioned looking Santa banner.

Fun With Vintage Images

I have such an affection for vintage images....especially those old fashioned post cards that were used as greeting cards. There are some terrific sites on the internet that have free images to download, as well as several sites that have downloads to purchase.

I printed out some of the free downloads, adhered them to 1/4 inch birch, cut them out with a scroll saw, drilled holes in the top corners, and gussied them up with glitter. Then I used wire and beads to make a hanger for each.

These will be used on one of my Christmas trees in the house this year.

Another project I just finished is these adorable paint cans...decorated with vintage pictures and gussied up with glitter and bow.

I have to thank Maryjane of The Beehive Cottage for this idea. She uses these as gift containers for her homemade popcorn treats. I may use them for Christmas cookies or just as a fancy wrapping for Christmas gifts....and the great thing is, it's re-usable year after year! My friend Sheryl-lyn and I made these together this past weekend. She thought she might use hers as a display container for a small Christmas tree. Great idea, Sheryl!!

Thanks, Maryjane for the wonderful festive idea!

These unused paint cans are available at Lowes in quart and gallon sizes. How cute would they be for a baby shower gift...decorated with a vintage baby picture and filled with all sorts of nursery essentials!!

Zoe and Her Quilt

Ok, I promise this is the last time I will talk about the Raggedy Ann quilt! I just had to show you a picture that Julie sent to me of Zoe and her quilt.....

Looks to me like a very happy little girl!

Thanks Julie!!

On to Thanksgiving

Well, Halloween is over. It's time to put away some of the decorations. The pumpkins and gourds will stay, but the Jack-O-Lanterns will be stowed away for next year. I thought I would make a couple kitchen towels to replace the Halloween ones that I made a few weeks ago.

Again, using those vintage images that I love so much, I made a couple of Thanksgiving themed towels to hang in the kitchen. I made some seam binding from fabric scraps to trim the picture and the end of the towel.....such a quick and easy craft. If you have not tried to print images on computer fabric/paper, you don't know what you are missing. This opens up a whole new world of crafting. This type of fabric/paper is available through The Vintage Workshop. This is also a great website for downloadable images (however there are lots of sites out there with free images).

Oh, I can hardly wait to decorate for Christmas this year!!! I plan to decorate each room specially.