Sunday (my motivated, let's-get-it-done day), I managed to weasel the Bipster away from his studies long enough to help me go through the garage and pull out the Christmas stuff. As most of it had been in storage for 5 years, I saw some things I hadn't seen in quite some time, and most of it had only been used once - the first Christmas at the first house I owned. Up until then, I don't think I had ever decorated for the Holidays, living on my own.
For the very first time ever, my Christmas plates are out of their boxes and on display. I got these in 2004 from my Dad.
Unfortunately, they are from Target, and were only carried for one season. I have full service for 4, but enough dinner plates for 12. I hope eventually I can kind of fill in with solid colored stuff that matches these. But I love these darn plates, as limited as they may be. But if you ever see any more of these on eBay or whatever, let me know (I've checked with no luck)- the pattern is called "Winter Solstice". Since no amount of money could compensate for such a wonderful heads-up, I would pay you in peach butter. You're welcome, and thank you in advance. ;)
This hangs on the bathroom door, and was a gift from my friend LeAnn years ago:
So were this Santa and Reindeer that are currently bringing some Christmas cheer to the loo:
Now for the tree debacle. When I was little, there was nothing prettier to me than a white Christmas tree with blue decorations. Oh, how I longed for one. But since my parents' tastes were more country/traditional, we never had one of those. Oh, no sir. Live trees and raffia all the way! Plus, my mother made sure to let me know just how ugly white trees with blue decorations were to her. But, when I bought my first house (in 2004), my Dad bought me a white tree. Oh, the joy! I wasted no time buying as many blue balls for it as my budget would allow. However, I only got to use it for one year, and for reasons too numerous and lengthy to get into on here, it was put in storage with everything else I owned. In the meantime, I bought a vintage aluminum 4-ft tree from eBay. It has mostly been adorned with red decorations in the past few years. My dream for this year was to have the white tree in the dining room, and somehow find a place for the aluminum tree in the living room (again, we have a tiny house - 900 sq. ft.).
Sadly, once we started to assemble the white tree, it became quite apparent that it was just too big for the space we had. There is a happy ending, though. My friend really wanted a white tree this year, but didn't want to pay full price for one right now. She wanted to buy one after Christmas and get a good deal. So, she is borrowing my white tree this year. I am so happy it has a place to go this Christmas. It has been in it's box way too long.
But anyway, here is the silver tree in all it's vintage glory, wearing some blue (and white!) balls this year!
And since it's a little tree, there were plenty of leftover balls to become a makeshift centerpiece:
More fun ornaments on the tree:
(You know, just a couple of my favorite things - cheese and vodka! Wine bottle and wineglass ornaments not pictured.)
My nana loved cardinals. My sister bought me this ornament one year. It's hanging on a curtain tie-back. We loved her so much.
This ornament was made by Jan Pugh at Packer Creek Pottery. She is based in my little hometown in Ohio, and she makes amazing stuff, but it's not cheap. I'd love to eventually have some mixed and matched place settings from her store, and a birdbath. Here's her website: http://www.packercreekpottery.com/
I have another tiny cardinal hanging from one of my plants:
I have to find some taper candles for these - do they even still make them anymore?:
Vintage reindeer... love this little guy. I wanted one for so long and stumbled upon him in either Goodwill or Thriftsmart one day. It was love at first sight!
Vintage little grabby-Santa:
Vintage ornaments:
Last but not least, here is the hutch. I'm not completely sold on how it all looks yet. The top of it was Josh's doing. I like the stockings hanging over the shutter parts, but not in the middle. So if I were to remove the middle one(that one's for the dogs), I'd need to get new stocking hangers. And I'm also not completely on-board with the Santa tree-topper hanging out in the IKEA vase. I think a better idea would be some silver spray-painted branches in there. But we definitely need some height on top.
Well, that's as far as I have gotten this year. I would eventually like to have a Christmas tree in almost every room (smaller trees, obviously). When (if) I have kids, they'll have their own trees to decorate however they'd like. I know Josh would like a little tree with Tennessee Vols ornaments on it (and as orange will be an accent color in the library, it'd even look good in there). I have tons of fiesta dishes in my kitchen, and I also have about 8-10 red fiesta dish ornaments. They are super cute. I just have to find a small tree for them and that one will go in the kitchen. Hopefully I can get that done this weekend, but we'll see. November is a busy month, full of more great things I can't wait to share as they happen!
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