December 2012 | Vintage, Paint and more...

Sunday, December 23, 2012

New Traditions

 
 
Good morning everyone.
Only three days till Christmas
and
I can actually say
I am pretty much ready except for a little
baking.
Mind you, I did not think I would make it
only three days ago.
But,
things came together as they some how do
and we are there.
 
 
Our family had several
Christmas traditions
we had to leave behind when we moved here.
One was a
traditional Victorian Christmas Walk
and the other was
the city park all lit up with
festive Christmas lights and displays.
 
So, we have had to make
new ones here.
And,
one of those is
going to Brookgreen Gardens
to their
Night of 1000 Candles.
 
 
Brookgreen Gardens
is a statuary park that is absolutely
beautiful year round.
But, when they
add all the festive
Christmas lights
it turns into
a magical, mystical land.
 
 
The temperatures dropped here at the beach
so,
we had to bundle up for this
night of walking through the park.
 
 
The statues were absolutely beautiful
all
back lit with lots of little starry lights.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The majestic oaks
were draped with long strands of lights,
making a curtain  of dazzling glitter.
 
 
The tree trunks and branches
were all wrapped
with thousands of lights.
 
 
And,
playful displays of lights
were scattered
throughout the park.
 
 
 
 
What a wonderful new tradition
this has become for us.
Walking through this magical fairy land
with hot cups of cocoa
just enjoying
this time together as a family.
 
Does your family have any traditions?
What are they?
 
Love to hear your comments.
Would also love it if you would follow this blog
or my Pinterest boards.
Just click on the buttons on the sidebar.
 
 
 
 
Lovin' my life in Carolina
Cathy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 
 
 


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Touches of Christmas

 
 
Good morning everyone,
I trust that you are well on your way to being
ready for the big day.
I am beginning to panic a little.
Thought I was well on target
and getting everything done in a timely fashion
but,
now I find that I may have
be mistaken.
 
 
Today, I will share with you a few
of the
Christmas touches in our home.
Above you see a few of my Santas.
I am a
Santa collector from way back when
and have just a few.
These little fellows
along with their brothers
reside in our china cabinet.
Along with a few gold wire trees
and
red and gold balls.
 
 
I love these little guys...
 
 
Here are a couple of the larger ones.
But,
sitting next to them is
the book page tree I made.
I do not have a tutorial on that one.
It is simply cutting squares
in decreasing sizes with decorative scissors
and
putting them
on a dowel.
Very simple and just what I wanted.
 
 
Another little tree.
This one is made of silver threaded lace
and
silver bead garland.
The JOY sign is simply
a silver platter
(from the Dollar Tree)
painted with chalkboard paint.
The silver bird is an ornament.
And a couple of
nutcrackers
from my hubby's collection.
 
 
Another little tree
(brother to the one above)
sitting on a candlestick
along
with a snowman nutcracker
and
a cork ball.
 
 
A book page snowman
made from a paperback book.
Top hat made from black card stock
and
a felt scarf....
 
 
A few red poinsettias
placed in the burlap wreath I made this fall.
( tutorial here )
I just pushed the stems into the Styrofoam
so they are easy to remove
after Christmas
without
destroying the wreath.
 
 
One of the several pillow
I made this year.
This one is made from a drop clot.
The little stockings
were cut from a
Goodwill sweater and sewn on.
The string is just a piece of
hemp tacked on.
I fell in love with these little pillows -
they are a
Pottery Barn Knockoff....
 
So,
are you ready
or are you,
like me. starting to get that
panicky feeling in the pit of your stomach?
 
 
Would love for you to leave a comment,
and
follow me on this blog or Pinterest....
 
 
 
Have a great day,
Cathy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Monday, December 17, 2012

Copy Cat Version......

Good morning everyone,
It's an ucky, grey, stormy day here today.
Think it is a perfect day
to start my
baking marathon.
But, for you today I am going to share
one of my secrets.
I am a copy catter....
I see something on Pinterest and like it
then I have to turn it into my own version.
Pinned Image

I saw this picture on Pinterest
done by
funkyjunksisters.blogspot.com....
And,
fell in love with it immediately.
It looks like a fairy wonderland to me...
and
I love anything
that makes me daydream and think of fairies....
So, I set about to make my own version....
And here it is...
Not as impressive as the original pin,
but,
I do like the way it looks in our
living room.


I started with these little
houses from the Dollar Tree
(of course)


and painted them with white craft paint.
( You can see several projects
are going on at the same time...)
I also sprinkled them with glitter
while the paint was still wet.


Then I made the letters.
I used a roll of wrapping paper from the $1 bins
at Target,
8"x8" chipboard,
burlap,
and black letters cut out with my Cricut.....

I don't have pic of the process.
( I still forget while I'm working)
I covered each
square with the wrapping paper
(of course, it has words on it).
I cut out 6"x6" squares of burlap
and
frayed all sides
then glued them to the covered squares.
I then glued the letters
in the center of each burlap square
and
outlined the letters with glitter glue.
( Glitter everywhere this year...)


I used glue dots to adhere the letters to the wall
in a stair step fashion.
Then I placed some
branches from a tree in a crystal vase
and added twinkle lights
and
snowflakes.
( Both are from the Dollar Tree
10 snowflakes per package)
Then I placed some books on the table
for "hills"
and
covered the whole table top with a
snow blanket,
making sure I had little valleys
and  hills for our little village.
Then I sprinkled the whole thing with glitter
so it would sparkle like snow.


Here is a close-up of our little glittery houses
all nestled amongst
the snowy hills.
The trees are some of
the pine cones left over from my wreath
( you can find the post on it here ).
I sprayed them with a little white paint
and
then glittered them also.


I love these little white,
glittery houses
and
trees.


They are so fairy-like.


And the wore
B-E-L-I-E-V-E
describes it completely.....


Wouldn't you love to visit this village?
Do you think
fairies
live here?

Love to hear from you and would love it
if
you would follow me
on this blog
and through Pinterest.
Just click on the buttons on the sidebar....


Lovin' my life in Carolina
Cathy



Click here to see the parties I am linking to this week.
Please visit them and see all the great projects and inspiration found there.... 


Sunday, December 16, 2012

More Trees

 
 
Hi everyone - how is your day?
We are having one of those lazy days
as it is quite
cloudy, and drizzly here....
 
 
 
When I showed you our fireplace mantle decor
I told you how
I had fallen in love with those little trees
and
had gone crazy making them this year.
 
So, I thought today I would show you
a few more.
 
The ones I am going to show you today
set on top of our bookcase
along with a Santa from my collection
and
some red Christmas balls.
The "Tis the Season'
sign
was a gift from my son this year-
he got it at Hobby Lobby....
 
 
This little tree is made from a dictionary
and
sits on a book page column.
I love printed pages
and
script on anything.
So, a book page tree was a must.
 
 
The little tree in the
front of Santa
is made from scrapbook paper
and
then wrapped with some gold cording.
I had a little gold  snowflake
that I glued to the top of it.
Then I set it on another
book page column.
 
I thought I would show you how to make the
dictionary page tree in this post.
It is quite simple to do...
To start the trees
( make the bases you can find the tutorial here )
 
 
For this tree you will want to cut out a lot
of 2"x3" squares
from a dictionary.
It needs to be a dictionary page
as they are much thinner and will curl.
 
 
Then cut thin little slits in the squares
leaving about 1/2" solid.
 
 
Taking these little squares one at a time
and
using the blade side of a pair of scissors
very carefully
curl the paper
like you do curling ribbon.
Be gentle as the little strips can (and will) tear off.
 
 
They will look like this when you are done.
 
 
Then start gluing the little squares on the cone
with the "fringe"
facing the bottom of the cone.
You may need to overlap them just a tad
to make sure all your poster board
is covered up.
 
 
Continue to glue the squares in this manner
all the way up.
For the top of the tree
I cut a little square about 1"x1"
and glued it over the top tip
of the tree.
Then I glued the squares around that.
Now you may have to cut
your squares in smaller squares to get them
to fit around the
very top of the tree.
 
 
And this is what it looks like when you are done.
I love it...
so "frilly"
and
cute.
Another addition to our
tree collection......
 
 
And it's perfect for the
top of our book case......
 
Stay tuned
because I have tutorials for a few more.....
 
 
Lovin' my life in Carolina
Cathy
 
 
I love your comments so feel free to leave them.
I would love it if you would follow this blog or me on
Pinterest.
Just click on the buttons on the sidebar.......
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Friday, December 14, 2012

Little White Trees

 What a beautiful sunny day it is here today.  After all the rain the past few days it is glorious to see the sun again.  I have been busily making some Christmas decorations and want to show you these little white trees I just finished.

Vintage, Paint and more... Christmas trees made from poster board and lace

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Pine Cone Wreath Tutorial

This post contains affiliate links.

I love wreaths for every season of the year but, I especially love a classic winter wreath that can be used throughout several months - no matter the holiday.  I think this classic pine cone wreath falls into that category - can be used from Thanksgiving to Spring quite easily.  And, it falls into that ever trendy category of Farmhouse Decor for sure.

Vintage, Paint and more... a seasonal wreath made with pine cones, faux berries, white spray paint and glitter

For years I have wanted one of these.  I would see them in magazines, on the Internet, on other people's doors, everywhere and I really loved them and wanted one for our door.  The thing -I neither had the time nor the motivation to make one.....That's it - the truth is out about my lack of motivation most of the time.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Trimming the Tree

 
 
 
Through the years we have built several
family traditions around
Christmas
that involve our grandchildren.
 
One of the them is the annual
Christmas Tree Decorating Party.
 
 
This became a tradition when they were all quite young.
I set the tree up and in the first parties
had the lights on it.
( Now we have a prelit tree - what an awesome invention)
Then I would make sure all the
garlands were on.
The kids would all come over and decorate it
with all the ornaments.
 
 
These two - Miss K and Miss C were just toddlers
when we began this tradition.
As you can tell it has been several years....
 
 
 
They each have their own favorite ornaments
they like to put on.
And with each one they like to tell the story of its origin
or just why they like it.
A time of lots of memories
for them and me.
 
 
 
 
 
Each ornament has to find its own special place
on the tree for this year.
Sometimes this make for much decision making
on the part of the one
who places it.
 
 
It is a wonderful time we spend with
our grandchildren.
We play Christmas music and sing to it as we decorate.
Then,
it's pizza, popcorn and home baked cookies
and
of course,
our special movie
The Polar Express....
 
 
And,
this is the finished product.
How beautiful it is
and
another year of memories made for each of us.....
 
Do you have special family traditions?
Who decorates your tree?
 

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Cathy