Vintage Christmas Monday: Upcycled Sweater Stockings

a few years ago, my sister and i made these stockings out of old sweaters that we thrifted, felted, cut out, and then stitched up by hand with some chunky yarn. i love how rustic and homey they look. every year that i pull them out of the storage box, i think of the day we made them. they are so very special to me!

(i should also mention that my sister is an amazing seamstress and should start her own Etsy shop...once her little ones get a bit older, for her sake!)

thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit Joan at Anything Goes Here for more Vintage Christmas Monday fun!

glowing

a tree transplant

in this post, i showed a photo of my branch tree sitting on the little table below. unfortunately, it had to be moved due Vintage Modern Boy running into it quite frequently...don't ask me how, though by the fifth time i started to get a little suspicious. so to avoid a potential tragedy (i.e. broken ornaments or VMB losing an eye), i moved it to a safer location. which meant a new arrangement for the little table.

i wanted to keep the same feel...a bit of nature and a bit of sparkle. i'm very happy with how it turned out. i think this smaller stick, in a very, very old liquor bottle, is much more appropriate for the space. the mercury glass and that oh so sweet little bottle brush tree give it sparkle and warmth.

as for the big branch, it now happily (and safely) resides on my bedroom dresser. i think it is a much better spot for it as well. and it has been reunited with my "jewelry branch" that came from the same tree.

a happy ending for all!

Vintage Christmas Monday: Mercury Glass Ornaments!

hello! today i'm joining in on Vintage Christmas Monday hosted by Joan of Anything Goes Here.

i thought i would share some of my favorite vintage mercury glass ornaments...

i began collecting them a few years ago after i found some boxes of old Shiny Brite ornaments at a garage sale (for 50 cents a box!).

in an effort to display them and keep them safe from our Christmas tree climbing cat, i put them in this bowl that i got on clearance at Target a few years ago. (ironically this bowl was adopted by aforementioned cat as his preferred napping bed when it was empty...though not anymore!)

i like the bright funky retro-ness of them...they remind me of the decorations in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"! (the colors are really quite wonderful in person, but i just can't seem to get a good photo of them)

thanks for stopping by! now go check out all of the other Vintage Christmas Monday goodness at Anything Goes Here!

sparkling

this morning i woke up to sparkling mercury glass (and a snoring Vintage Modern Boy). i jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera, and snapped away. i realize the black tapers are a bit non-traditional...especially for the Christmas season. but i really love them!

and yes, that poor pink tree has been moved...again. (things rarely stay in one place around here!)

i hope you all had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving! i sure did! i had plans to share a pre-Thanksgiving post, but it never happened. but i want you to know how thankful i am for all of your encouragement and inspiration!

the Christmas decorating is mostly finished...photos coming soon! but for now, it's hot tea and Meet Me in St. Louis in the glow of the Christmas tree. and maybe some Candy Cane Joe Joe's (Trader Joe's!).

a good night, indeed.

trimming...

while i try to wait until the day after Thanksgiving, it's inevitable that some Christmas decorations will manage to find their way out of storage in the days..er...weeks before. such as what happened last night, shown in the photo above.

i started looking for vintage mirrors after falling in love with the awesome arrangements in Found Style and Flea Market Style. i've had the little silver hand mirror for a long time...it came from the estate of my great great aunt. the oval mirror at the bottom is from my local flea market and i got the bigger mirror on Etsy. i think they look just fabulous with those 1930's vintage ornaments and the mercury glass trees.

this cute little bottlebrush tree was a compromise between Vintage Modern Boy and i. you see, i really wanted a bigger pink table top tree. unfortunately, that idea didn't go over so well. i think the actual words were pepto bismol, barf, and hideous. so i settled for this teeny tiny pink tree, found on Etsy. (and it came with a little baby pink tree, too!)

so that's it for today. i'm trying to keep my mind occupied so that i don't end up getting the rest of the decorations out today, so i think some thrifting and a little Christmas shopping is in order!

have you started your Christmas decorating yet?

rearranging

hello everyone! thank you all so much for your well wishes! i am feeling much better today...though i was home sick from work the past two days! yikes! lots to catch up on. ugh.

so this weekend, while i was still feeling okay, i decided to do a little rearranging...


i mentioned this painting before in this post, but i decided to move it to this wall where it would be more visible. my great great Aunt Leaflet painted this canvas in 1911, and there are so many things i love about it...the horse, the grey hues, the wintry landscape, perhaps most of all, because it was painted by a beloved relative...who happened to share my love for painting. i really like how it looks with the velvet pumpkins, tarnished silver pitcher, and the "hydrangeas" (yep, their fakeness warrants quotation marks).


and the silhouettes were where the painting now hangs, but they too are in a better place. they are still just as visible...maybe a bit more so. and they look less cluttered than when they were above the DVD stand. (sorry...i don't have a before photo...and sorry this one is so dark!) unfortunately, none of these are my actual relatives...but i've adopted them in to my family! i've even named them...is that weird? of course, you may remember Hazel in the center from this Vintage Black Friday post...i believe that is her actual name since it is written just below her silhouette. and then starting at the top, going clockwise, we have: Harold, Ethel, Frances, Mary, Edith, and Susan.

what about you? have any of you named your inaminate "friends" (or "relatives"), or am i the only one?? actually, i know some of you have, so you better be speaking up!