Doors Tag

Last week's tag challenge at Dragons Dream was use a door, lock, and key.  Well, one thing comes to my mind when I hear the word door:

Enjoy and don't overdo the celebrating!  See you next year!

Winter Wonderland-ette

Living in the upper Midwest my entire life has left me rather blase about snow, but since we have had next to none up to this point (which is very strange), I took a few pictures on Friday when it finally did snow a bit.  Wow-- rather long-winded sentence there.

Enjoy!

Calling All Gurleys

Here are a couple of photos of my (formally my grandmother's) entire Gurley candle collection.  If I keep up blogging, maybe I will continue to highlight certain candles during Decembers to come.

Keep in mind my aunt has a few, my sister has several, there are also Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving models, and quite a lot were damaged and lost over time so the original collection was quite impressive.  One of my aunts said my grandmother and her collection were in a Chicago paper once (decades ago), but I've never been able to track that down.

I also should mention there are non-Gurley makes in here as well.  That's okay.  The more the merrier!

Nothing says "Christmas" to me quite like the smell of old wax and limp, yellowed tissue paper.  Maybe I need to get out more!

Enjoy!

TT/Christmas and Swap

When you stop and think about it, "Christmas" is really a broad subject.  What direction do you go?  Traditional?  Modern?  Religious?  Cutesie?  For Tag Tuesday this week, I decided to look at my scrapbook papers and just use an image I liked. So here is what I picked.

Kind of modern yet antique-type colors. Maybe another day I would have created an entirely different tag, but this is the finished product for this week.

Some of us Taggers participated in a Christmas themed swap.  These are the tags I made.

These are the tags I received:

The candy canes is by Mo, and the tree is by Barb.

The angel is by Liz, "Let It Snow" by Jane, and the bird by??  It was not signed, and I don't know yet who made it. Just found out the cute bird is by Norma!

The backs are pretty too!

So nice to see the work of some of these folks in person!

Enjoy!

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas everyone!

Be safe and joyful!

Mod Xmas

Ever unpack Christmas decorations and say, "Oh yeah!  I forgot about these." That's what I said when I unwrapped these two flower power ornaments.  I picked them up cheap at a thrift store last year.  They're a kind of paper mache material-- sort of unusual.  I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Well, okay, if she likes them..." Well, I do!  So mod!

I originally felt like I needed to apologize for the plastic canvas ornaments showing in the photo.  My eight-year-old bought a shoebox full of ornaments at an estate sale this fall, and those were in there.  She thought the box held the best treasures.  To be honest, seeing those on my tree is kind of heartwarming.  Someone made those, no family member wanted them, so they found a home on a little girl's tree.  Hmm... sounds like a plot for a picture book.  Feel free to whip up a bestseller!  Besides, if my daughter posted a picture of her ornaments on her blog, she might write something like, "I feel like I need to apologize for the mod flower ornaments.  My mom bought them at a thrift store..."

Enjoy!

Pinocchio At Christmas

Every Christmas my folks bought us kids a special Christmas ornament.  My mom would cut tiny strips of adhesive tape and write my name and the year on it and adhere it to the back of the ornament.  This glass Pinocchio was my very first; actually my dad bought this one from Marshall Fields (probably) when I was just four months old.  I'm not going to admit to the year, but there's no denying it's definitely vintage today.

I'm amazed those legs and arms are still intact after these, uh, many years.  A couple of my other annual ornaments have some damage, but this guy is tough.

By the way, I now buy an ornament every year for my daughter and write her name and the year on the back.

I'm linking to Mockingbird Hill Cottage to share my favorite Christmas thing.

Enjoy!

So Deer

This is my favorite vintage Christmas find this year, and that's pretty easy to say since I only found three things this season!  The "pickins" were mighty slim around here.  Actually I'm not even sure how vintage this deer is as there were remnants of hot glue on the bottom (which easily peeled off), but it is very cute-- kind of big too; about 6 inches high.  I added the bow.

Enjoy!

Cool Yule Swap

I participated in my first blog swap hosted by Art JOY Stuff.  We were to make 3 ATCs, using bright colors for Christmas.  Here are the ones I made and sent off.

Here is what I received.  Gorgeous and detailed, "Figgy Pudding" ATC from Kim of Art JOY Stuff.  I had seen this card on her blog earlier so to have it in hand is a real treat.  Thank you!

This cutie is from A Vintage Fairy.  Aren't the colors great?  Love it!  Thanks!

This darling card is from Angie at Hope More Studio.  Very charming and sparkly! Many thanks to you too!

Kim also included this super-duper Santa ornament-- how nice!

It is really interesting to see what other artists are up to and how each one interprets a theme.  Swapping is fun!  Thanks again to these talented and thoughtful ladies and to Kim for hosting.

Enjoy!

Gurley Wednesday

Well, I had a 2-for-1 yesterday, and here is another one today. Two cute but quite different angels.  The  angel on the left is a Gurley, but the one on the right I'm not too sure about.  Doesn't have that Gurley look or colors and no label on the bottom, but I've always liked its simplicity.  Both are quite pretty.

Enjoy!

TT/Decorate A Christmas Ornament

I actually made two tags for the "Decorate A Christmas Ornament" theme at Tag Tuesday. The matchbox is embellished with an old postage stamp (notice the price!). I also used some snazzy sequin trim that an aunt of mine handed down. By the way, how do you cut that stuff without it falling apart? I used lots of craft glue! Anyway, I was about halfway done and thought I really wasn't following the directions of using an ornament shape. So I made a second one:

Those are more old postage stamps too.  I mod podged the whole thing to look a bit shiny and sprinkled some glitter on the top and bottom.  Normally I steer clear of glitter; it follows me around for weeks, but my daughter had left some sitting out where I was working so...

So 2-for-1 this week.

Enjoy!

Another Xmas Tag

The last Christmas tag I posted a couple of days ago led me to yet another blog challenge called Frilly and Funkie. So here is a tag I quickly came up with for that. The base is an old library due date card.  The cat I found as a free image last year but never did anything with it; I was glad to finally use it.

Enjoy!

A Few Humbugs

Nothing is perfect.  Here are a few things I don't like about Christmas:

 The mess while decorating.

 A tangled mass of ornament hangers.

Running out of room to put decorations.

What "humbugs" you?

Enjoy!

Stamped Xmas Tag

Through a Tag Tuesday friend of mine, May, I came across a blog called, "Dragons Dream Tag It On."  Anyone can make a tag for a specified theme.  Well, I'm anyone. So I decided to give it a go.  The latest challenge is "Christmas," and the only requirement is to use at least one real stamp.  Here is my entry:

The Christmas tree stamp I used is really old.  I'm surprised it still works so well.  It is from a set in a wooden box, no less, that belonged to my husband's grandparents.

Enjoy!

Gurley Wednesday

A cute little Gurley today.  An old-fashioned lamp that stands about three inches tall. Can you see the texture detailing on the bottom part of the lamp?  Sort of looks like hobnail milk glass.  Neat.

Enjoy!

TT/Deck The Halls

"Deck The Halls" is the theme at Tag Tuesday this week.  And I'm sure the gal running it, isn't expecting this:

When I dug through my Christmas paper stash, the "Deck the Malls" image immediately caught my eye.  So I added some vintage style ads and text from an old accounting book.  The "receipt" hanging to the side are from the same book.

Do you "Deck The Malls" this time of year?

Enjoy!

Glass Wax Or Do You Say Grass Wax?

So the mister and I were at an estate sale about a week ago, and look what I found in the basement.  Glass Wax in person!  To see why this is so funny to me, revisit this post.

Enjoy!

Christmas Tunes

This time year Christmas music is heard from my stereo, radio, computer...  My mother had quite a few Xmas LPs (which my dad still has, probably unbeknownst to him, in a closet; I know where they are), and every December we would play them over and over.

What is your favorite Christmas song?  So many good ones out there.  You can't beat Bing Crosby or "Charlie Brown" music.  I don't think I could pick a favorite.

Here is a sampling of the "real" Christmas music, as opposed to MP3s, I have in a variety of formats.  I wonder how I escaped the 8-track phase?

Christmas getting a bit overbearing?  Give Bob Rivers a listen.  Guaranteed smiles, possible chuckles.

And just to prove I'm not a dinosaur (yet), here is a recent playlist on Itunes on my computer.

I'm linking to Mockingbird Hill Cottage this Saturday because Christmas music is a favorite thing of mine-- in December anyway!

Enjoy!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Okay, look at these:

Now, look at these:

So what's wrong here?  Hint #1: All of the above pictures were shot on December, 3, 2012.  Hint #2: All of the above photos were shot in the upper Midwest.  Figuring it out?

What a delight for a few days!  But yesterday was back to near-reality.  But, hey, 40 degrees in December?  I'll take it!

Enjoy!

Gurley Wednesday

A smallish, but tallish Gurley candle today.  And why this steeple hasn't snapped in 60 years is beyond me.

Enjoy!