Show & Tell Friday Noel In Her Christmas Best

Welcome to Show & Tell Friday where Cindy our hostess has us share treasures we have in our homes. Back before Thanksgiving (HERE) I showed you my new doll in all of her Autumn finery. I promised all of Cindy's viewers a delight in seeing her how I bought her from Marta. When I found Noel she was a display in Marta's shop. Sitting on her vintage sled with her white rabbit fur hat & muff. She is wearing a vintage Christening gown as a dress & sporting a winter white wool coat. Sharing space on her sled is a stand with a wonderful bottle brush wreath. And Noel is holding her Christmas Star. She is sitting up high on a large piece of furniture that holds a lot of my dish collection. So as you walk in the room you will see her sitting up in the soft glow of the lights off her white tree. The tree is bare of all decoration accept for some beautiful white doves that I sprinkled with a dusting of glitter. They make the sweetest addition to this vignette. There is one large dove sitting on the back of the sled with Noel.

Below is a close up of one of the glittered doves. Come back soon to see the beautiful children's ice skates that I found in an Antique store last week. I glittered them & think they will look wonderful on my wreath.

I hope you will go to the previous few posts to see some of my other photos of more of my Christmas decor. Also, I hope you will join the others over at My Romantic Home as Cindy hosts yet another Show & Tell. Hugs! Charlene

Ornament Party

I had such good intentions today to finish my hand made ornaments for this Blog Party but, LIFE got in the way. The trip to Geriatric Doctor with the 87 year old father in law could not be put off & being at my 4 year old grandsons school Christmas Program I WOULDN'T MISS for the world so...... you will have to view close ups of my ornaments that were already on the tree. Thank you Kate of Censational Girl for hosting this Ornament Party. In my previous post you can view both my tree & some of the other Christmas Vignettes I have already shown but, let's look at the tree a little closer for today. To view the photos in a bigger scale double click on the photo & it will enlarge.

This is my tree topper. The theme of my tree is VINTAGE WOMEN, feminine items such as hats, hat boxes, signs saying Chapeaux(which is French for HAT), shoes, buttons & other wonderful girlie things. The tree topper starts with a fabulous metallic blue/silver WIDE ribbon that makes a HUGE bow. The ends of this then wind down through the entire tree. Stuck in the HUGE bow is a feathered fan, a snowflake and a black velvet shoe with beautiful silk ribbon roses. Also found through out the tree are little black velvet & ribbon rose heart & square shaped pillows. One of those is also stuck up in the topper. Coming further down you will see a blue satin beaded shoe, a cameo photo of a vintage lady, a clock face & right next to it is one of my paper dolls that I got from Marietta (I was lucky enough to win one set of 3 & ordered the other 3 from her) Sorry the paper dolls are not easier to see. To see a better photo of them got HERE

Below is another one of the black velvet shoes & a close up of a button card & button ornament.

And above you can see one of the pretty glistening snowflakes, to the left of that is a large button ornament & part of a blue hat. More button cards & in the left lower part of the photo is another little velvet pillow with ribbon embroidery flowers. And the blue bead garland runs through out the tree.

The above photo shows a closer shot of the vintage cameo ornaments of the beautiful women. At the bottom of each of those ornaments is a mother of pearl button that dangles so daintily. A better photo of one of the paper dolls, the clock & the gold & pearl button ornament.

Two more paper dolls, a large section of the ribbon shinning at you & at the top of the photo is part of a hat box.

There's that blue hat on the left.

And this IS a handmade ornament(just not made by me). I bought this pattern piece paper flower when I went to the Open House at Winnie & Tallula's in Athens TX. I just loved it so I bought one LARGE one & a smaller one which is shown below. I thought of Dawn at The Feathered Nest when I saw these.

I hope you could see some of the things I tried to describe. Again, I am sorry the photos were not better. The tree is sitting in a kind of dark corner & the room was dark due to cloudy skies so..... we had to do with what we got. Be sure & go visit the other girls playing.

I HOPE YOU WILL LOOK AT THE PREVIOUS POST IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, TO SEE SOME OF MY OTHER DECOR. ALSO, I WILL GET THOSE OTHER ITEMS I'M WORKING ON DONE SO COME BACK SOON & SEE WHAT ELSE I WILL SHARE.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

ENJOY THIS BEAUTIFUL SEASON!

Bellas Dreams Blog Party!

Denise & I want to welcome you to Bella Dreams Share The Joy Holiday Decorating & Craft Blog Party! WHEW that was a mouthful! I think I need a little refreshment before we begin.

Welcome to my little coffee station. Every evening I prepare the coffee for "Mr Clause" & I in this little area. One of my favorite things to do is add a DASH of cinnamon right on top of the coffee grounds when I make it so, you see the giant COSTCO size cinnamon jar next to the coffee grounds all ready to go (also you can see the pretty glass jar with orange Tang Drink Mix to add to my cinnamon spice tea for my evening enjoyment)

A close up of the mugs I bought this year. Just made me smile! Don't you think Mrs Clauses shoes are a hoot? And that adorable old jar that has tiny ornaments in it & JOY on the top was purchased last year at my friend Tiffany's Open House & Sale. I just LOVE it!

Alright let's get started but, let me tell you that this Christmas I have decorated very different from my "normal" Christmas decor. This year we will not be hosting Christmas (all those little GRANDS will be going to their mothers side of the families for Christmas) so there will be no big showing of Santa, the elves, the candy tree, or any of the other things we would usually be hauling out of storage. On our off year we often don't decorate at all but, this year I wanted to have a Christmas Tea for my girlfriends & I have decorated for the girls & MYSELF!

Believe? Yes I DO!!!! And the sign tells you so (besides... I saw a pillow that said "FOR THOSE WHO DON'T BELIEVE....YOU GET UNDERWEAR") Here is my wonderful old vintage buffet next to my wing back chair that is right near my kitchen & breakfast nook. I decided to put the tree in that little nook by my Grandmother's old farm table. I used my 7' slimline tree to save space & it fit perfectly in that little area.

A closeup of the top of the hutch. It is a little hard to see but, I have a pine garland with tiny white lights across the top. Also you can see my beautiful beaded shades & some family photos. I will take a better shot of that during the holiday season & post it another time.

Here's my tree all done in blues & silvers. My theme for the tree is women & items we love. It has a WIDE silvery blue sheer ribbon bow topper that then winds down through the tree. There are beautiful shoes, hats, buttons, & wonderful paper dolls. I will share close up details of the tree with you on DEC 8th for yet another Blog Party. BE SURE & COME BACK (sign up as a follower & you will be reminded to check back... ALSO I am nearing my 200th Post & I will be doing a drawing for all FOLLOWERS) So, here you see the tree & my table which is set with blue snowflake placemats & there is a sweet Dept 56 scene with houses & children playing in the snow.

Moving on to the top of my refrigerator is none other than The French Bear which was made by my friend Margaret of The French Bear. He is nestled in a snowy pine bough & reigns high above near my vintage oil lamp with the most amazing fluted chimney. Also, you can see the magnet Margaret made me hanging on the front of the fridge. It say BELIEVE!!!!!

Isn't he adorable? Can you believe she made that sweet little thing? And his crown & his little box he is sitting on. LOVE MY FRENCH BEAR!

Stepping away from the kitchen we look into the Living Room. It is really all one BIG area. So as I look out of the kitchen I see across this room & look into the backyard & at one of our fireplaces. This one is a bit unusual because it does not have a chimney... it vents out the back so we have a big window over it. Also in this photo you can see "Honey's" much loved vintage bar (& into the back yard where you can see it still has green plants out there)

Over the fireplace I have put a beautiful poinsettia plant set among my crystal pieces, my bird feeder with the perky little red bird gazing out into the room (I love to change out the little birds on display on it). Also I love my stained glass angle blowing her trumpet. She really is pretty when the sun shines through her.

As you span around this area you come to a LARGE cabinet that holds bar ware & dishes. I took this picture from a distance so you could see the size of this piece. It is huge. On top of this piece is my prize decoration of this season.

Yes, meet Noel! If you missed the story of my finding her go HERE. For the post where I introduced her she was wearing a Fall outfit but, now she has her winter finery on. And she is riding on her vintage sled while holding her shinny star.

At the end of the big hutch is my vintage bird cage which I have changed up a little bit for Christmas. I did a sparkly bow on top & inside I added some silver stars & a sweet card showing Santa & his reindeer amidst sparkling snow.

A peek inside & you can see the card (& a tiny white candle).

Well, that is where we will leave off for today. I hope you have enjoyed my little peek into our home this Christmas. Please come back on December 8th for the next fun event which will be Kate's Ornament Party. Have a wonderful weekend & be sure & visit all the other girls participating in this event. Thanks for all the fun Denise!

Gifts I Made for Swap with Margaret

In late October Margaret of The French Bear & I did a private Fall Swap. I showed all of you the goodies that she had sent to me HERE but, I forgot to do a post to show you what I made for her. So, here are a few photos of the items I made/got for her. I made her three pairs of earrings all in Fall colors. I put them on a card I made with an image I got from Dawn of The Feathered Nest (THANK YOU Dawn). Also, I made her a necklace with a charm that could be hung from either side. The first side is again an image from Dawn. I love the image of the girls playing in the leaves. When I soldered this charm (which is fairly large) & used a thick & textured look for the solder.

And the beveled side of the charm was a Fall image (again from Dawn) that I thought was very pretty. I used natural stones & strung them in a long necklace so that the soldered charm would hang low on a pretty sweater. I loved the colors in the stones that hung on the bottom of the charm.

Next I did an apron for her. I used a poem that she had written called The Needlewoman & did an image transfer & stitched this onto an apron. I then used part of a cute hankie that I had been saving (that had sewing machine, needles, thread & all sorts of sewing items on it) which I put at the top of the apron. I did a pink breast cancer ribbon & put Margaret's sisters name on it (in memory of Karen).

For pockets I used two vintage doilies I had bought from my friend Pat of My Tattered Elegance (she has some of the most wonderful lace) & I then used some wonderful charms of sewing items & stitched them to the poem & pockets.

Here's a close up of the bottom of the poem with the sewing machine & scissors charm.

A thimble charm tied onto one pocket with black & white ribbon.

Next, a set of photo albums & a journal in beautiful Fall colors & tied with a pretty ribbon. Again, that same photo used for her charm with some cute glittered clothes pins (with magnets for the fridge to hold photos or reminders)

And being a seamstress & having read her blog I knew that Margaret loved buttons. So, I made her a button jar with this wonderful vintage image of a woman dressed in a bat costume (after all Halloween was during the time frame of the swap). I then ruffled crepe paper around the image & glittered the lid with BLACK glitter.

The finishing touch on the jar was a little sign which read "BATTY FOR BUTTONS" which was tied on with black netting.

Here's a few of her goodies all tied up in black netting & ready for the box for mailing. I hope you enjoyed seeing a few of my hand made goodies & Margaret did say that she loved all her things. Postal Love is a marvelous thing. Right now I have a few more things sitting on my work table waiting to be finished & mailed. Have a wonderful week my dear friends.

New Doll

Today is Thanksgiving evening & Cindy at My Romantic Home is getting us all ready to play Show & Tell. I told you the other day that after visiting Amy at Bloom & Be Swanky we went on down to Belton, Texas to visit a shop Amy told us about. The name of the shop is Marta's Room. While there I fell in LOVE with this sweet vintage doll. When I saw her she was part of a Christmas display & she will be again soon but, in the mean time she had to be ready for Thanksgiving. I set her in the entry hall by the piano. She is perfect sitting in the rocker my sweet Granddad built for me when I was a little girl. Do you love her white wool coat & hat as much as I do? I simply added a sprig of fall colored hydrangea petals to bring in the season.

Below, you will see her sitting on the bed in the guest room prior to getting her fall flowers & finding the rocking chair.

In this photo you can see that Marta had dressed her in a vintage dress with wonderful lace on the hem.

A close up of the dress detail.

And here she is up close. Her eyes are the most beautiful green. Sorry the flash was a little bright but, you can see the sweet details of her face.

I want to thank Marta for letting me adopt this sweet girl. She had been in Marta's personal collection for a long time & I think she was surprised when I agreed to pay the price she asked. In fact, I think she almost changed her mind. When I got home she sent me the sweetest email saying "Take care of my baby". Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh I will. One of the first things I need to do is come up with a name. Since she was bought as the highlight of my Christmas display I am leaning towards something with that in mind. But, I would love for you all to send me ideas. Please leave me comments with your input.

Be sure & go & visit the others participating in Show & Tell this week. Also, I want to thank Tiffany Marshall for the banner I am using right now. I have not had a chance to get a Christmas one done & she had this one for free on her site. THANKS Tiffany! Don't SHOP too hard on Black Friday!