Merry and bright

Hello! I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving celebration and is ready to move on to the next holiday. While Mr. B was home for five days he obliged by going up in the attic to bring down some decorations, so I started to put those out. In no particular order, then: 

the buffet in the dining room. On the left is a large tray and a wooden church under a cloche. The tray is a gift from middle daughter, Mary. The church is from a thrift shop, bought many years ago. The cloche over it was a Goodwill find last year and the little holly hedges along each side were found at the Bering rummage sale earlier this month. The terrarium has some cotton for snow in it, along with a paper and glitter covered house, also a gift from Mary. The rest of the display includes a red glass votive, a mirrored section of candle holder with a silver ball on it and a new small set of electric candles that were my only purchase at the Blue Bird Circle last week, new for $1.00. To the right a sugar cookie scented Yankee candle from Sand Dollar and a small flocked tree in a red felt box bottom that was a gift.

Here is the small chest my PaPa made, probably in the 1920s. On it is a wooden holder that contains some artificial poinsettia, a glittery winter bird nest and another tiny paper house. The flowers and bird nest were thrift store finds a couple of years ago. We can't have live plants or flowers of any kind indoors because the cats eat them. 

The peg rack inside the front  door  has a few seasonal additions, a wicker star, Santa hat and a wreath for the little bird house. Oh, and a fat felt robin sitting on one of my little chairs.

The front door has a swag on it, surrounded by some fake garland, with a red bell on the knob. 

To the left of the door is a big tin sign like a manilla tag that says Welcome. It had some metal holly leaves and I added the glittery pick. 

The back door is sporting another metal sign that says Merry Christmas made like individual tags strung on a curved wire. That and the red Peace  sign both came from Sand Dollar.

I used to wait till later to begin decorating. Recently it has seemed as if time is speeding by so fast it would be smart to start a little earlier and have time to enjoy all the color and lights before it's January 6 and time to put it all away. Do you have a specific time to start the process, or is more random, year by year? Are you an old favorites kind of person or new theme for each year kind of person? 

Happy holidays from Houston!

Michele

A project and a giveaway

Hello, and a  happy Veteran's Day to all of you who are or have veterans among your families and friends. After some unseasonal hot weather last week, we seem to be headed for a little relief in that area and very welcome it will be. 

This week I went to the second big rummage sale at Bering Methodist Church; I didn't do as well as in the spring, but got a few goodies that will show up before long. Also a long put off project was finally tackled. Some time last year I got this at Sand Dollar for less than $3.00. 

It's a nicely made  little wooden box, dimensions 10"x 6"x 4".  The soft green appealed to me so it was left as is. 

In a post written at the end of September I showed a box of note cards featuring stamps, script and butterflies. This is one from that selection, decoupaged to the lid. It has romantic French writing and stamps on it, as well as the butterfly and flowers. At this time I distressed the edges with sandpaper. Inspector Flossie checked to see if it  was firmly attached. Since it didn't move when she applied her  universal test--bopping it rapidly with her right paw--it seems we were good to go to the next step. 

It's hard to see, but in the upper right corner is a little button with a butterfly on it that used to be at the end of a paperclip. That was twisted off and the embellishment used by itself. Next pink baby rickrack was glued around the edges to finish it up. What do you think? The interior may be lined with felt if I find a color that goes with it, or the lid inside may be foofed up a bit.

It's hard to believe it's been over six months since this blog began. In honor of that, when my followers number fifty, the first AIT give away will happen. At that time everyone who is a follower and who leaves a comment will be entered to win a mystery box of thrift goodies, something hand made and who knows what else? It will be a surprise!

I'm going to list this in Susan's Met Monday party http://betweennapsontheporch.net/recipe-sharing-made-easy/tomorrow at Between Naps on the Porch. 

Have a great evening and start to your new week!

Michele