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~

Happy Anniversary Little Shoppe

This weekend marks the 1st anniversary of our little shoppe!  Last year we decided to open our own little place where we live and it has been an adventure.  Anyone who tells you that it is easy to open your own business is either lying or has a large bank account to help it along.  Since I tend to not lie or have a large bank account, I will tell you it has been hard work.  But, it is work I enjoy and I have a very patient and wonderful little family.  We have made many friends through our shoppe being open... people we may not have met without this wonderful thing of *vintage love* binding us together.  I have been asked several times if I would do it again.  If I would open my own little shoppe... and the answer is yes.  Yes, I would.  Even knowing all the work and running around it would entail.  I honestly worked harder for myself than any job I have ever worked... and I am a hard worker.... I get that from my momma.  I think that opening your own shoppe not only requires physical work hours, but mental work hours.  Sometimes there are so many ideas that I want to work on that I never get anything accomplished.  It is hard to focus on the big picture when you are wanting to focus on something small.

And, I think that opening your own shoppe/restaurant/boutique/salon takes a bit of bravery.  I am not saying that to say... oh I am SO brave.  But, when you put yourself out there (like in blogland) you put yourself up on display and are open to criticism amongst other things.

We wouldn't be here today if we didn't have such great support from our customers.  If you have ever been to our store, you know how very tiny it is.  You get to know people. And, I think that is worth all the hard work over the past year.  Having my own little shoppe has been a dream of mine for a very long time... I can't even remember how long.  I know that it is other people's dreams too since I get emails and comments asking shoppekeeping questions. I do try very hard to answer those questions, but I am sure I have missed some of you from time to time.  So, if you leave a comment on this post  I will try my very hardest to put together a post answering questions next week.

AND, most importantly, to say thank you to all of you near and far that have supported my little dream from day one or by a comment you left yesterday, here is a coupon for you!

Here is the link to print it out if you are local.  And, since many of you are far, far away, I also added my first ever coupon code to my etsy shoppe: HAPPYANN1 The sale is good until Sunday evening.

thank you, thank you, thank you!  you are simply the bestest!

bye for now~

Feeling Crafty

Hello all~  I realized what a blog slacker I have been lately and I totally blame that on 2 men... baby hughes and Don Draper.  baby hughes has left behind his naptime and started going to sleep a bit earlier which leaves me time to catch up on the seasons of Mad Men that I have missed since we got rid of cable.  That time was normally filled with blog time and I replaced it with Peggy and Betty and Joan.  I have been busy doing *stuff* just not blogging about it.

This time of year always has me feeling particularly *crafty* I have made some things for us and for the shoppe and for boxes of happy.

If you follow me on instagram (thevintagejunky) then you have probably already seen some of these late night crafty pursuits.

We are still shaking up the house and possibly making some progress.... it is always darkest before the dawn right?!  Things that were upstairs have found their way downstairs and vice versa.

be back soon with a sort of diy from yours truly (so terribly bad at diy s !)

bye for now~

Happy Belated Halloween

Hello there!  It is a little late to say it, but Happy Halloween! We have had a great week.  We had a family photo shoot on a chilly, windy night and I can't wait to see the photos!  Then, we worked together to make our little man a robot.

I was inspired by Jordan's costume from Oh Happy Day.  I found some random stuff to add for buttons and dials and we came up with this....

It is covered in foil, but the genius that the Mr is covered it in clear packing tape earlier that day... we knew that it would be taken off a few times for photos and bathroom breaks.

We decided to change the location of our normal Halloween photo spot to something more... powerful. I muttered aloud that it needed to be more industrial and the Mr. thought of this place on the way.

baby hughes and I mainly collaborated on the design (he wanted to be a *happy* robot) We actually had the dryer vent tubing leftover from his party.  I had the Mr. make the key and attach it.

He was able to peek out of the mouth  or the eyes, but he still wanted us to take the head off in between houses.  This year was so fun! Not that previous years weren't, but this year it really clicked and he had a great time and didn't want to stop.  He complimented other kids on their costumes which was so very sweet. 

I hope you made as many sweet memories as we did (if Halloween is your sort of thing!)  I will be back soon with some crafty types of projects... things have been shaken and stirred at our house and there is much to share if I could just get the place clean!

have a lovely weekend~

bye for now~


to see previous years' homemade costumes click here and here