What do you do to celebrate New Year's?

It's almost that time....New Year's!!! I've started taking down a few of my decorations, how about you?
We always leave our tree and nativity up through the Epiphany, and my snowman mantle will stay put for awhile since it's so Winter oriented. I usually leave them out until Valentine's Day and try to combine some valentines in with the snowmen :).
Hopefully you all had a wonderful Christmas...ours was fabulous, time spent with extended family and time just on our own on Christmas day, playing with our new toys, reading new books, watching movies, eating....all the good stuff!
I took down all our Christmas cards we received and decided to display all my vintage New Year's postcards....I really dislike hiding them in a drawer somewhere, they're just too pretty!
Dd and I hit Target this a.m. to see what was going on, they have lots of Christmas items left, all at 50% off. We didn't buy much at all because we really don't need anything.
This will be a relaxing week with dd still on vacation...love this time with her! Hope you're all doing well and have a great New Year!

Wishing you all a heavenly Christmas......go spoil someone you love and do something nice for a stranger.....you have no idea what they may be going through right now....you might even make their day :).

Cheers!

Gail

What is it about creating something?

It's just that feeling that you've done something that satisfies your soul.....you've accomplished something, something that isn't cleaning the kitchen, or finishing your laundry. After all, anyone can do that. Now I know creating a banner isn't rocket science, but what makes it fun is that you use the unique supplies that you have so that it's original...I'm big on that.
To create something is to take stock of your supplies and to reach inside and think of what would make you happy to look at.......something you can keep.....or to give to someone else.

I purchased these photo holders on Etsy......just love them for their possibilities. Right now they are holding Christmas images, but I've just slipped them in, so when Christmas is over I can change the images to whatever I want. So it's essentially a one-of-a-kind banner. I added the stars (also purchased on etsy). These are the kinds of things I like to create for my home because they're unique....I'll just bet no one else on my street has a banner like mine, and I love the thought of that!

I'm making a lot of gifts for friends and relatives this year as Christmas presents, what about you?

The biggest dictionary evah!!!!

I had to laugh out loud when I saw this "beast" at St. Vinnie's....I mean, come on people, could this be any BIGGER? It measures 5 inches from cover to cover, printed in 1946....hilarious, I had to have it.

pretty endpapers....
Then I hit Goodwill and saw this shiny brite box, I don't collect them or anything but because the bubble wrap was hiding what was inside...I had to take a peek.....
and found these adorable nursery rhyme ornaments! Aaackkkk!!! Have you ever?

I was also smitten with this little hanger, I'm sure you've all seen these before, but I just love the color of the little plastic clothespin hangers....
I think this will look great at Easter without the red cord, maybe a pastel seam binding ribbon?

So those were my meager finds for the day...not much but since I was going to the thrift store to drop things off I figured I may as well walk in and see what's going on.

Have you found any thrifty finds lately?

What I want for Christmas.....

A photography class!!!!! I've taken about 15 pictures of this little guy and they all come out fuzzy! Frustrating to say the least....and no, I didn't use my tripod because I'm just lazy!

In any case, this is the little guy I made last night for my dd's advent calendar. Since I've been sick all week I finally got out yesterday to do a little shopping but for the life of me I couldn't find anything cute to put in her calendar...so, what's the saying, "neccessity is the mother of invention", or something like that. She was happy with him so that's all that matters, right?

I'm very smitten lately with these little chenille ornaments so I'm going to make a few more, they have such a charming vintage feel to them.....

What have you made lately?

I want to live in this house....

don't you? Doesn't it just look magical and cozy and peaceful? Just like an enchanted village, no?
These sugary houses must speak to a lot of us because I see so many of them in most of the blogs I visit. Mine aren't old, but are charming nonetheless. I bought them at Home Goods last year and I just added some bottlebrush trees I already owned. I set this little vignette up in my foyer so I see it first thing when I come home....and I can see it from my kitchen and family room too. Hope your decorating is coming along well, I'm home with a sore throat and trying to take it easy. It's hard to be sick any time of year but seems so much worse around the holidays when there's always so much to do!

Oh well, c'est la vie, right? I'll keep eating my soup and hopefully will feel good enough to go out tomorrow........hope you're all well....

Let the festivities begin!!!

Hi friends, I finally got around to decorating one of my mantles! Woo hoo! Big accomplishment of late...before Thanksgiving I made some "ledger" flowers that you can see in the arrangement above. I love anything made with old ledger pages, and these have velvet flower centers and velvet leaves as well. The picture below is an angel (can't remember where I found her) but her dress is luscious, silk...but what made me unable to resist her were her angel wings...she's so soft and Christmasy to me!
I'm slowly easing myself into Christmas this year...I think because we hosted Thanksgiving for some of dh's family I'm a bit slower on the uptake than last year! At least I start my decorating for Christmas with a cleaner than normal house.

Yesterday we went to get two trees, one for the house and one for dh's office. I finally got rid of the pumpkins in front of my house (thought it might be time since our neighbors already have their Christmas lights and wreaths up!) oops....hate being that one weird house on the street, don't you?

Today will be more decorating inside and some crafting for me, I have some unfinished projects just calling my name...it's freezing here so a good day to stay in.....I hope you all are having a great start to the season!