Vintage Junky Christmas 2015

2015 has come and gone and I think I only managed one blog post last year.  How can that be?  I am sure I can come up with lots of excuses.  The big one being the word "go." I didn't choose a new word for 2015, but I think one was chosen for me and it was "go." And did we ever!  We traveled so much with the husband's job.  It was amazing!  We made so many memories this year.  Some great and some not so great (I'm looking at you "spending the night in the Detroit airport" and "flu in New York.")

This year we made a some great new friends and saw almost all of our old ones.  We adopted a puppy after nearly 7 years of being dogless. My boy and I survived our first year of homeschooling and decided to take on another one.  We had a great 7th geology birthday party (why didn't I blog that?!?) 

Other than visiting family, we stayed home in December.  We did almost all the usual traditions for our family and added a few new experiences.  It was great!  I will have to carry that around inside now that it is actually cold now and the twinkling lights are packed.

2015 was a year of us going and learning and trying new things.  It was a year of firsts: first grade, first cookie decorating parties, first knitted sweaters (and second and third.) It was a year of finishing (mostly) the interior of this little bungalow that I love so.  It was a year of celebrating and puppies and water balloon fights and bonfires.  2016 you have a tough act to follow.  Even if we don't get the flu.  Or spend the night in an airport.

p.s. Thanks to all of you who have commented on past posts or emailed  to check in since I have been noticeably absent from my blog this year.  I hope to blog more in this coming year, but even if I don't, you can usually find me on Instagram.  My handle is thevintagejunky.  Rumor has it the pup has her own account too.  *wink*

Vintage Junky Christmas 2014

Two sleeps until Christmas and I managed to pull together my first blog post in months.  I have been sharing progress on our new old house on Instagram  quite a bit and Facebook as well.  I just haven't had the whole house photo ready when it has been decently light in awhile.  Usually, we have our dining room table covered in books and projects which is okay.  I, for one, would rather see a semi clean room.

One of the best things about moving is finding new homes for your old stuff and loving it all as if it was new again.  And, it was no different pulling out our Christmas things.  I had purged a lot of extra stuff last year, so I didn't have much to sort. 

The place got snowflaked as usual.   I made a few new things, but I really tried to keep things super simple.  It is easy to overwhelm this smaller space with stuff.  

We weren't near my favorite place to buy mistletoe this year, so I made a little felt kissing ball to hang in the arch between the living room and the dining room.

I made some new stockings this year.  I loved our old silhouette ones, but I also love change! I recently learned how to knit socks, so I decided to knit some giant socks!

I bought very little to decorate with this year.  The poinsettias and the tree were just about it.  I foraged the yard for red berries and some cedar clippings to put in beakers and birch pots.

 We finally managed to use our drum over a tree stand.  It wasn't easy.  It wasn't pretty getting it up.  It may be tilting ever so slightly at the moment, but my whim was fulfilled.

I made some letters out of felt for the wall above the mantle and I also made some slightly larger ones to pin on our stockings.  I "borrowed" or "shared" the magnolia leaves from an empty house on our street in order to make the wreath around the letters. I like the way the green has faded now.

I decorated the kitchen just a bit and the bedrooms too, but I haven't been able to get a good photo of them.  I will post more progress house updates after the New Year.  I have to be honest, Instagram is my outlet of choice right now, since my Mac has been under the weather.  We have done a lot to the house, but there is quite a bit to go, especially the small details.

I hope you all have a wonderful, cozy holiday!  Happy Christmas Everyone!

The Day After

It is pretty unlike me to not post a little Christmas tour of our home, but this year felt different.  I kept things pretty simple for me and just put out the most important things that make it Christmas for us.  Things like as many snowflakes as my hands could cut.  I did minimal ornaments on the tree, but left space for all those that we picked up this year and some great ones that my kiddo made me this year.  I found my idea of the perfect lights and made some wrapping paper that made me smile. The Mr made me a couple of wreaths from free trimmings that I will hate to trash.  We made a few kinds of cookies over the month and made a few fun crafty things.  We had visits with family and lots of snuggly days.

We are hoping this will be the last Christmas in this home which is partly why I kept things so simple.  Soon, I will not only be packing up ornaments and stockings, but other stuff to get this place ready to go on the market.  It is getting ready to be pretty busy and hectic around here, so a simple Christmas is just what we needed.

Hope all of your holidays were merry and cheerful!

A Vintage Junky Christmas: 2012

I am sitting here all nice and cozy like.  The baby fell asleep on the sofa next to me.  The lights are on and not much feels wrong... not even that dripping faucet... drip. drip. drip.  Okay, maybe that is a little irksome.  So, since there is nothing that needs to be done (Christmas cards out, shopping is almost completely done, Christmas activity checklist is being checked off) I thought I would share a few photos of our home this year.  I almost didn't do a post this year.  We have been so busy lately and the house has been kind of a wreck with us changing some rooms around. But, when I got home today, the house was still relatively clean from frustrated cleaning last night (when I am most productive.) I decided to snap a few photos with my phone.  It is simple and festive and glowy to us.  So, here we go...

I haven't changed much stuff except that I have gotten rid of it or used it in different ways.  In the dining room I just used a simple little terrarium like centerpiece with some vintage ornaments and a cutting off our tree.

Over the past few weeks, we have slowly been moving my home studio downstairs to the dining room and the little man is taking over my old studio with his train table to give the Mr an entire big studio that he won't be stepping on Thomas trains and legos (hahaha... I am sure they will still sneak in there.)  So, all that to say that this mirror was moved from the entry area to over this piece.  Boy, am I wordy!

This is one of the things I was pretty excited about... the photo does not do this little tree justice.  It is trimmed pieces from our tree all decked out in glitter felt stars and flocked and has a little bunting garland.  It is cheery and I like to look at it when I am eating.

I just used a very shabby vintage quilt as our tree skirt.  I still have quite a bit of wrapping to do. We hand stamped a design for the shoppe and I wrapped some of our gifts in it as well.

I made some fun birch ornaments this year to add with a very collected look.  We have been picking up ornaments here and there... we are particularly drawn to the owls still, but baby hughes really likes the 2 little houses that he has found this year.  We cut a different tree this year and I love the lacy, wayward look of it.

Like everyone else in the world, we made a few little faux snowglobes with trees and teeny reindeer.  Mine has a little vw beetle in it!  That little flag in the mini tree also makes me pretty happy too.

My poor Wagoneer has seen better days, so it needs to be out of reach of little hands.

The Mr gets these crazy "have to stop what I am doing and do this right now" hairs just like I do.  This little sign was one of his. He used some nails and some old barn wood to create this little string art sign.

Love pom poms... another trendy little crafty craft this year...

We rarely (as in zero times in the past 4 years, 4 months) use our fireplace.  So I wrapped the gas logs in some fairy lights.

I added some new old ornaments this year... I bought some for the shoppe and I got first dibs on the cream ones with the aqua stripes and the vintage glitter. Oh the vintage glitter!

And, I didn't hold back on the snowflakes.  It is perfectly snowy in here.  They are so magical and I just don't get tired of them or tired of making them.

So there it is.  Our home this Christmas.  Pretty simple and not too fussy.  This view from my kitchen sink is one of my favorites... especially with the halls all decked and the little man reading quietly on the sofa.

I hope you are enjoying your holiday season!

bye for now~


if you would like to visit our Christmases past here are some:
2011
2010
2009

Christmas at the Shoppe

 

Hello there!  We did some decorating at the shoppe this week to get ready for the holidays.  We obviously like the vintage and handmade, so that is what we used...

like vintage skates on the front door....

and a whole bunch of vintage inside!

We picked up these vintage pants stretchers ages ago because we liked them.  We had no idea how we were going to use them.  The Mr played around with them the other day and made a HUGE snowflake with a banner.

I am having a hard time saying goodbye to these sweet little fawns

I have the fence awnings on 2 windows, so on a whim I decided to wrap a frame in fairy lights for a little bit of whimsy.

The Santa masks were handpainted by the Mr and were inspired by one that his dad had when he was little.

I knew I had more ornaments than branches so I attempted to chalk a tree... then I called in the pro and then I simply placed carpet tacks to display some of our favorites.

I adore the colors and shape of vintage ornaments!  They really don't make them like they used to...

This year we decided to create our own recycled gift wrap line.  The Mr hand lettered some designs and hand stamped them on some paper.

He also carved some blocks to create a few festive cards.

We got our aluminum tree early last spring and the little man and I were super excited to put it up finally!

It is hard to choose favorites, but this sweet little snowman is perfect!

I always seem to have extra tissue paper decorations around from various things, so I used some with paper snowflakes, of course.

We used a vintage quilt with a pleasing patchwork design as a tree skirt.  The Mr. designed a little Vintage Junky christmas logo for my bags and gift boxes and snowflake bags.

and they look pretty sweet all nestled inside.

So, now that the shoppe is all ready for Christmas it is time to go get the house ready this week.  

bye for now~