Around Here...

This is the scene at our Christmas tree at least once a day, with ornaments knocked to the ground every time!  I try to appreciate the humor while I'm picking them up off the floor....!

 

Santa has been apprised of the Lego sets each child wants on Christmas morning.

 

And we're doing our best to keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas!  (I found this beautiful vintage nativity trio out thrifting.)

 

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday this year!

 

Christmas Dollhouse!

 First of all, I'd like to say thank you to Kim K for inspiring me to create this Christmas dollhouse!  Although I've decorated the outsides of dollhouses before (see this post to see this year's dollhouse), I've never done anything to the insides of any of my houses for the holidays.  But Kim does such an amazing job decorating her dollhouses for every holiday, I thought I'd give it a try.

 

And I'm so glad I did!  It was such fun finding ways to decorate-I looked around at the things I already had, and found most of what I needed.  But my other great source was searching thrift shops in their Christmas section!  Christmas ornaments are perfect, because so many of them are miniatures.  A couple more small purchases at the craft store, some quick projects on my sewing machine, and I had plenty of items with which to decorate!

 

 Since I already had this dollhouse displayed in the room where our tree is, it was the perfect candidate.  This one is the Keystone I showed you here.  It was mostly furnished, but I did borrow some items from other houses to complete it for Christmas.

 

 I tried to add decorations to every room, just so that it all looks festive!

 

 Anyway, now I'm going to shut up and just let the pictures do the talking.  I'll start the tour up in the bathroom (this family has so much Christmas spirit, they even have decorations in their bathroom!) and end in the family room where the real festivities are taking place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, it really was so much fun!  I can't believe I didn't do it sooner!  I hope you enjoyed the tour, and if you haven't seen Kim's blog before, be sure to check it out- she has the most amazing vintage Christmas decorations (as well as every other holiday!) and adorable dollhouses tours, too!

 

Vintage Felt Projects, & A Fun Vintage Find!

 

 When I last left you, this was how my wall and Christmas buffet were decorated.  Well, if you know me, you won't be surprised to know that some things have already changed...

 And here it is now!  If you don't want play "What's Different?" and scroll back and forth between the two, I'll go ahead and tell you what's changed.  Yesterday, I needed to kill a couple hours, and took a trip to an antique mall.  I found three new/old Santas (sweet-faced ones that I don't have) and three new/old stockings!  So I pulled out a few of my least favorite Santas (they're on Ebay here, if you're interested!) to make room for the new guys, and hung up the stockings.

 Here's a closer look at the stockings.  The three in the middle are the new ones.  The four little ones were found thrifting, and the one on the right is one I "made".

 And a closer look still.  I adore the pastel colors of Adam's stocking, and can't get over how cute the name "Tootie" is!!

 And speaking of adorable Christmas felt projects, I told you I'd show you a little of where some of these projects started out. 

 Here is how I found the advent calendar at the thrift store.  Cute and adorable, but a little dark, and lacking "oomph"!

 

 And here is how the large white stocking from up above started out.  A grungy, crusty burlap (not the pretty kind like is popular now!) wall banner.  I also loved these angel banners, but again with the gross, dirty burlap- yuck!

 I also had several different vintage tree skirts and other felt projects that had seen better days as well (sorry-forgot to take pictures of those).  So I removed all the main images from their backgrounds, laid them out on my floor to start getting ideas and a color theme, added accents here and there, and voila!  I had a collection of new/old wall hangings!

Here is the advent calendar again.  Bye-bye dark green background, hello fresh cream background!  I also added the aqua and turquoise pieces of felt to work with the color scheme.  I have to say that I LOVE how it came out- it was pretty cute before, but I find it so much cuter now!

 

The grungy burlap angel banners were transformed to this.  I have them hanging on the insides of my front doors. 

 

The longer burlap banner was turned into the stocking you see here. 

 

 Old tree skirts and stockings turned into these hanging Santa banners, and if you'll notice, I used the tassels from those burlap banners on the bottoms!

Oh, how I love vintage felt!! Can't you tell??? 

 

 

 

Now another thing I put into the title of this post was "A Fun Vintage Find".  Take a look below to see what it was!

 

A PINK Harold Gale Santa!  I've lusted after this Santa before at antique stores, and he goes for quite the pretty penny.  Currently on Ebay, he runs between about $85 and $150.  Do you want to know where I got him?

 

Can you believe it??  I swear, I NEVER find anything good at Goodwill anymore.  But after spending a couple hours at the antique mall, spending "real" money on vintage Christmas decorations, I decided to stop at the Goodwill on the way to pick up Avery.  And there he was, in a big bin of unsorted items.  I guess I was in the right place, at the right time- hurray!

 

And doesn't he look so at home in front of the pink Christmas tree?   I think it was meant to be....!

 

 

My Christmas House, Part 2

 Well, a few days ago, I showed you the front room of our house decorated for Christmas.  Now it's time to show you our family room, my personal favorite!  The above photo was taken from the kitchen, which opens out to the family room.  Isn't it fun and colorful?

 

 The top of the sofa table got a little bit of a Christmas makeover.  Funny enough, everything here was a "left-over" at the end of my decorating.  The tin dollhouse had nowhere else to live, the bottlebrush trees were extras, the glass ornaments were missing a spot, and the burlap ribbon was the end of the roll from the Christmas tree!  But they all came together wonderfully right here!

 

 Here is the fireplace.  Notice I've conveniently cropped out the open shelving on either side- this part of the room is in the process of being remodeled- we're going to build shutter-style cabinet doors for the shelves, so that they will no longer be open.  Hopefully, this will be done over Christmas break...

 

 Every year I do something different on the mantle.  This year it's a little scene of Santa with his eight reindeer. 

 

 Here's Santa (he's one of my favorites- such a sweet face!).  I made a toy bag out of some velvet, and wrapped up some little presents to go in his sleigh.

 

 And here are the reindeer.  I've actually added Rudolph since these photos were taken.  The kids kept asking where he was, and I coincidentally saw a Rudolph Dream Pet at the antique store yesterday, so added him to the bunch!

 

 Underneath are hanging the "vintage" stockings I made a couple years ago.

 

 And on the other wall is my main display.  We purchased the wooden buffet this year, and it proved to be the perfect spot to add more Christmas décor!

 

 This tree is where the kids hung all their own ornaments, and I added some more colorful ones from my collection as well.

 

 Cute handmade ornaments mixed with ones that they receive each year to commemorate special events- it makes me happy to look at it!

 

 The top of the buffet was perfect for my vintage Santas and elf tree.  Oh my, it is such a cheery place to look at!

 

 Here's the elf tree in closer detail- can you believe I found that tiny little tree skirt?  From the thrift store, as well as the actual tree and most of the elves!

 

 I made these felt wall hangings this year.  I just love vintage felt Christmas items, and pick them up every time I see one out thrifting.  But often, they're just a little TOO vintage (dirty or grungy!), if you know what I mean.  So I carefully remove the main images and make them into something new!  I love the way these felt banners came out, and they were so simple to make!

 

 Big Santas on the tabletop, and tiny ones on the pink wall shelf.  I picked up the largest stuffed Santa for only $3 a few weeks ago- he's so lovable and sweet!

 

 Another smaller Santa with his own sleigh over on the left...

 

 Below is our little Christmas village.  Some years this comes out, and some years it stays packed, but the new buffet had the perfect little cubbies to create four different scenes, and the kids have had a lot of fun with it.

 

 The larger white stocking above and the felt Advent calendar were also projects this year.  In a future post, I'll show you how they started out, and how I transformed them.

 

 The Advent calendar is so wonderful!  I don't think it was a kit (as felt wall hangings often were), because it's not quite "perfect" enough, but I could be wrong.  Maybe it was a project from a magazine that some mother followed along... Regardless, it's wonderful!

 

 Each decoration lifts up to reveal a little picture cut out from a magazine.

 

 Cute little windows with decorations on each one.

 

 There's Santa under Day 15!

 

 And out in front of the calendar are just a couple more miscellaneous things- a pink tree with vintage beaded ornaments, and a modern light-up putz church.

 

Thanks so much for taking my holiday tour!  I have a feeling I'm going to be very sad to take down our decorations this year.  They make me so happy every time I look at them!

 

I'll be back soon to show you the transformation of some of the felt projects I've shown.  Hope you're all having a great holiday season so far!