more vintage ornament pictures!

Here are a few of the ways I am displaying more of my vintage ornaments this year.

This is my large thrifted milk glass fruit bowl (or maybe, it is called a compote?). It sets on my great-grandma Stuhlberg's White treadle sewing machine that I bought at my grandma Elsie's (her daughter) estate sale when I was 19. This makes me happy! It now sits on my kitchen table. My small vintage silver tinsel tree now sits on my sewing machine.

Here is a close-up of my little elf. She stays out all year long. She makes me smile!

The sewing machine belonged to the same great-grandma that gave my dad this ornament when he was a little boy.
My next display is an idea that I am sure I got from someone like Martha Stuart. About 10 years ago, my mom bought herself and my youngest sister and me vintage Pepsi crates. For the first 4 or 5 years I had it, it displayed homemade bars of soap and wash clothes in my bathroom. Then it was in storage for a few years until I saw this idea. Now it hangs in my living room at Christmastime . The original idea called for mini teacup hooks screwed into the wood, but both Rick and I tried to put them in and the fact that it is missing them should tell you how successful that idea was!
Last year, Rick bought me 2 metal ornament trees at one of our local thrift stores. I came home one day and found them. I didn't even know that I wanted them until they were sitting on my kitchen table. This one started out in the bedroom, and now resides with the second one in my craft room. I don't have a photo of them in my craft room, but will take one maybe tomorrow.

The blue angel is a vintage Christmas ornament that also stays out all year. He makes me happy, too!

Hopefully, I will be back tomorrow to share the two ornament trees in my craft room as well as my Nativity set and some of my other favorite Christmas decorations. Hannah banana needs the computer to work on her Serious Interpretation for Advanced speech.

Have a great day.

Donnelly

My family thinks I am crazy, seriously!

One of the major reasons is my obsession with vintage Christmas ornaments. Every time I go to a thrift store or a yard sale, I have to check to see if there are any vintage ornaments. I have been known to purchase an entire bag or box, just to rescue one ornament. It is a sickness, really! I have enough vintage ornaments to decorate several trees. I think I am up to 9 large plastic totes full, maybe more.

Here are a few of my favorites:

I have one that my great-grandmother brought with her from Germany when her family immigrated to America. She gave it to my dad when he was a little boy. He gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago when my parents stopped decorating a tree for Christmas. It is all banged up and missing some of it's beads, but I have always loved it.

I have a clip-on cockateil that my mom's friend, Helga, gave me along with a entire box of Shiney-Brites that her Husband gave her for Christmas the year they were married. Coincidentally, Helga is from Germany too.

This little guy came with my husband when we got married. I don't know how old he is. But he has stood guard over our trees for the last 19 years; so if he isn't vintage yet, he will soon be!

Last, I would like to share the gold foil star that I made when I was 5. I am going to date myself and let you know that it has been on Christmas trees for the last 37 years. It was on my childhood trees each year. My mom gave it to me the year Rick and I got married and it has been at the top of our tree each year since then.

In the next day or so, I hope to share some of my other vintage ornaments and how I have displayed them, as well as some of my other Christmas decorations.

Hope the Christmas season is wonderful for you!

Have a great day!
Donnelly

Robyn and Clare's Ornament Exchange and Christmasy things!

I love blogland. I have met some of the nicest people through this cool world. Two of them are Robyn from http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com/ and Clare from http://clarescraftroom.blogspot.com/.They have been hosting the Handmade Christmas Ornament Swap 2009, that I have participated in. These ladies are awesome hostesses! They are quick to answer questions and are so helpful with their reminders, and a Flickr sharing group.

My partner is Linda from http://cottagegardenquilts.blogspot.com/. Linda is a Long-arm Quilter! How cool! I am amazed at the wonderful women out there who take such good care of other women's quilts.

I made Linda a cross-stitch ornament from the Just Cross-stitch Ornament Issue from 2001. The designers are Mary Olsen and Candy Scott from the Workbasket. The pattern calls for Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, which I am a huge fan of. I am not sure if they are still designing patterns or not. I am so pleased with the results!

I used the most beautiful cranberry-colored hounds tooth felted wool from our local quilt store. I used hand-dyed Belfast linen size 36. My favorite parts are everything. I especially love the french knots for the holly and the tree and I love the gold beads for the ornaments and the bells. So festive. Not sure where the ribbon came from. It was in my scrapbook ribbon jar. It is an iridescent red and gold. I made the hanger long enough to use as a door hanger, if Linda wanted to.
I handmade my Christmas cards this year. I downloaded this pattern in 2001, as well. It came in a series of 5 or 6 paper pieced ornament patterns. I have always felt that they should be made into cards. So cards they became! These have been so fun to make! I haven't sent Christmas cards for a long time and I have made whatever lame excuse I could make. This year, I decided that because I love to get something in the mail besides bills and that maybe my friends and family would too!

Here they are together!

Last night was Hannah's last Christmas concert, our last Christmas concert as parents. Hard to believe that we have been going to the same school auditorium for 19 years of Christmas concerts. This year, Hannah is in Concert Choir and Madrigals. The Concert Choir sang 2 songs. They sounded lovely! They sang "Lullaby" by John Ness Beck and "The Snow Begins to Fall" by Sally K. Albtecht. Hannah is in her black and red Madrigal's dress in the front row with the red hair ribbon.

The Madrigals sang 6 songs, 4 of which were acapella. They sang "Carol of the Bells" arr. Wilhousky, "Fum, Fum, Fum" arr. Ed. Lojeski, "We Three Kings" arr. Darmon Meader, "Bidi Bom" David Eddleman, "Masters in this Hall" Gilbert M. Martin, and "O Holy Night" arr. Mark Hayes. All of the seniors had solos in "O Holy Night". It was beautiful! Think about the music from the "Lion King" and you have the arrangement of this song. It was a fantastic way to spend a peaceful night in a hectic season! I will miss this in the years to come!

I have also realized that my last post/RANT about my Christmas tree was fueled by hormones (pms) and one too many glasses of Merlot. It is what it is. I have rethought my feelings about my tree and have decided to embrace it! I am known amongst my family and friends for my love of "Charlie Brown" Christmas trees. You know the ones. They have very few needles and tons of bare spots; but all they needs is a little TLC to shine! So why should this one be loved less than the others? It has many things going for it. It is definitely a conversation piece. It has a new element--the ornament spinners, it has NO icicles on it--a first in 19 years, it has my favorite things in the world on it--thrifted, vintage ornaments, it has the gold foil star on it that I made in kindergarten, it has a gold tinsel star that my daughter, Cassie, made for me when she was about 10 or 11, it has vintage glass bead garland on it-a first, and it has the 'Santa Suit' tree skirt around it that I love so much. I will be taking more flattering photos of it maybe tomorrow. That is, if and only if, I get my Christmas CD party favors done tomorrow afternoon. No, definitely to take photos before I start the CD's. I need good light.

Have a great day!

Donnelly

Bah Humbug!

So, I did get my tree up today.

And I think it looks good without the lights on.

At just about any angle, it is the most lopsided tree I have ever had. I love the "Charlie Brown" style trees. And I am usually pretty happy after I get them decorated with all of my favorite vintage ornaments.

This year, as I was decorating it, I thought it looked pretty good. I even found some special ornament things that spin the ornaments around. All you have to do is unplug a light bulb and replace it with the twirler.

But after taking photos of it. I am bummed out. It is horrible. It leans to the right side and to the back. Rick and Hannah worked for over a 1/2 hour trying to true it up, with no luck. So, we are stuck with an ugly tree this year.

I could just cry. Seriously, just cry.

One of my Christmas presents, that Rick gives me each year, is a Christmas party for our family and friends. So, I guess I can have all my friends and family all set on the couch at the same time everyone gets the absolute best view. Don't know how I am going to fit 30+ people on a sofa that sits 3 and have them all stay there for an entire evening.

Good thing everyone likes to be in our basement where our game room is. Everyone will be too busy playing pool, Foosball, poker and boardgames to more than glance at my tree!

Have a great week.

Donnelly

Hello, December!

I for one would like to know where November went. I realize that I lost about a week in October when Rick and Hannah were in Jekyll and Hyde; but November flew by so quickly!

We did have Thanksgiving dinner at our house again this year. It was the second time we have hosted it at our house. This year Rick, Hannah, Verna--my mother-in-law (who lives with us) and I enjoyed the company of my parents, our son Brady and his wife Kylie, our niece Devin, Hannah's friend Keith and our oldest daughter, Christy. The most wonderful thing is my mom and dad brought the turkey, the potatoes, the dressing and the gravy. My dad insisted. I made a sugar-free pumpkin pie, baked yams and apples (my mom's invention), and rolls. Kylie made a fruit pizza that I hear was to die for. I wouldn't know as I have food texture issues and it had bananas in it. Bananas top the list of my food texture issues. I hear the dressing and the gravy were good too. I don't eat them either--texture again.

This Thanksgiving was a bit bitter-sweet. Our oldest daughter's husband, is going through a mid-life crisis (funny to say as he is only 2 years younger than I am!) and moved himself, Christy and our grand-daughter Sophie to Phoenix, Arizona. Not only that, they left the day after Thanksgiving. To make matters worse, our grandson Isaak's father would not agree to let him move to Arizona. Our hearts were and still are very heavy. I totally support Christy's decision not to fight it; but my heart hurts none-the-less.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we bought our Christmas Tree permit and headed for the hills. We got to take our son Brady and his wife, Kylie, with us this year. If we could have waited a few more hours, we would have had our oldest son Jake and his family with us as well as our daughter-in-law's parents and her best friend. But, Brady and Kylie couldn't wait that long as they had a 2 hour trip to get back home and had work and school on that Monday.

Hannah and Kylie

Brady and Kylie with their tree.

Rick and I

Brady broke one of Rick's saws! He is NOT a tool kind of guy!

Rick and Kylie

Rick, Me, Hannah and Brady

Kylie putting their star on top of their tree

It was so much fun. Kylie has never had a "real" Christmas Tree. One or more of her siblings and maybe her mom are allergic to pine trees. We had so much fun listening to Christmas music and playing "car games". We left our house at 8:30 and were back home by 11:30.

I have just gotten my tree in our stand today. I usually stay up way too late the same day we cut it to get it and the house decorated. The last few years it has taken a little longer. I have learned to pace myself or my Rheumatoid Arthritis acts out and I pay for it for a long time. This year, however, I have been ill. I work in a school program for children with severe mental/behavioral disorders. At one time a few weeks ago, there were 2 healthy children out of 10! One of my little ones has Bronchitis and Strep throat. He shared his Strep throat with me. I am just hoping that I don't get the Bronchitis. I just can't wait to get my house decorated. I only have until Friday, as our annual family Christmas party is on Saturday! Rick has promised that we will dig all the boxes out of the storage room tomorrow. This is no big task as that room has become a dump-all for unwanted items. I think I will be putting those unwanted items in the back of our truck and dropping them off at the thrift stores on Monday after work.

I hope to post photos tomorrow night of my tree in all it's glory and then throughout the week as I finish with everything else.

Have a great week!

Donnelly

Life is Good!

I haven't been blogging a lot lately as I have been super busy. I have been quilting on my bed quilt. I have been super busy at work. I have been sharing the computer with my family, which has been an issue in the past!

Today we have snow! It has started to taper off since I took these pictures, but we have a good 1/2 to 1 inch of snow on the ground. I am just hoping the wind will pick up and blow it around a bit, so we can have a snow day tomorrow. That probably won't happen; but a girl can hope, can't she?

Yesterday, we hit the thrift stores. I was on a rescue mission to save as many vintage Christmas ornaments as I could find. I didn't find a single one. But I hit the jackpot anyway!

First I scored some vintage tatting thread. Rick made a point to tell me that he thinks I have hit hoarding status. I love the size 50 or higher vintage tatting threads. Those little balls of thread are so cute and they have the most amazing colors. Colors that aren't made now! I got an unused ball of yellow and pink as well as partial balls of green and variegated pink.

Here they are on my craft room bookcase with their counterparts. This little basket makes me so very happy.
But then, this whole bookcase makes me so very happy!

My next find, is another one of the things I collect. I love antique spools. These ones have been used as candle holders by the person who had them before me. I am not sure if I will use them for the same thing. But I found a home for them for now.

Sorry about the quality of this photo. I couldn't get a decent one with the flash on, so I turned it off. Then the light decided to glare through the blinds. Sometimes I can't win, no matter what I try.

Another one of the things I love are vintage aluminum drinking glasses. I haven't found one in almost a year. Yesterday, I found one in the most beautiful shade of blue! I just love these! In the summertime, iced tea stays pretty cold in these. And if you enjoy a really cold glass of milk, there is nothing better than an aluminum glass! I am not a milk drinker, but I love it in these glasses!

Here it is with it's relatives. When I took this photo, 3 of them were in use by my daughter and her friends with their lunch.

Next, is one of Rick's finds. He teases me about hoarding things, but he has his hoarding issues too. He collects sunglasses. Yesterday, he found a pair of late 50's or early 60's Ray-Ban sunglasses. He thought Hannah would love them and she did. Only drawback is that they have prescription lenses in them. They are super fun though!

Here is a shot of Rick's sunglasses. He repurposed a metal CD holder to hold them all so they wouldn't get scratched. He never pays more than about a dollar for any of his glasses. A few weeks ago, he found a $200 pair of Revo sunglasses for a dollar! And they are still listed as a current product on their website!

And lastly, I came across this bag of yarn. I have a really hard time passing up anything that I can use my crafty skills with. This entire bag of yarns cost me---

$2.50! These are Lang Yarns. I looked them up on the Internet and I got a steal! I am so excited because they are blends of some fantastic materials. There is an awesome linen blend, a cotton/cashmere blend, a silk blend, a Merino wool/silk blend and a few more.

I am going to make fingerless gloves for Hannah's best friends, Keith and Ron. I am going to try my hand at Alicia Paulson's http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2009/10/stripey-wristwarmers.html
version of Lucy's http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2009/10/wrist-warmers.html wrist warmers.

I am so excited to get started. Keith's are going to be charcoal and light grey with pink Fun Fur. Keith's favorite color is pink. Ron's are going to be a mixture of what is left of the charcoal and light grey with the green and dark red.

We are going to have Thanksgiving at our house again this year. Usually, we have it at my mom and dad's. This year, my mom has had some health issues, so Thursday here we come. It will be a bittersweet time, as our oldest daughter is moving to Arizona. We are hoping that Christy and her family drop by as they are leaving on Friday. Our oldest son has to work. Our middle daughter is in Alaska, where she lives, celebrating with her mom. My mother-in-law plans on spending the day with my niece, Devin and her dad Rodney. But we will still celebrate none-the-less. But we will have my parents, our youngest son, Brady and his wife Kylie and Hannah and possibly Keith and Ron for dinner.

Thanksgiving weekend has to be my favorite time of the year. On Friday, our community has a local toy drive at a local nursery. For the entry fee of an unwrapped, new toy we are treated to a great night. We get a potato/chili feed, Christmas music, all the hot chocolate and coffee you can drink, huge bonfires, and an awesome fireworks display. On Saturday, we are headed to our local forest, permit in hand, to get our Christmas tree. All day Sunday will be spent decorating the tree and the house. I am SO EXCITED!

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving Holiday spent with family and friends.

Donnelly