Friday, November 13, 2009

Vintage Christmas Spotlight: Jello Molds



Today I thought I would share a few ideas on how you can use vintage Jello molds in your christmas decor. In the picture above you'll see that they make fabulous tea-light holders (or if you're feeling crafty, you can even make them into little candles). They reflect the soft light so well, adding to the coziness of your decor. Plus if you use an electric tea-light, you can nestle them among your garlands and decorations! These round ones also make the perfect ornament holder to showcase a special medium sized (3-4 inch) shiny brite bulb!




Propped on its side, it makes the perfect showcase for little gems like this spun cotton elf ornament...



Or a tiny plastic nativity like this one. You can be creative and make tiny little vignettes of some of your smallest vintage Christmas treasures that might otherwise be lost among your other decorations. Use a little bit of wax or display putty to hold it in place!




They also make a great base for your vintage (or reproduction) bottle-brush trees. Wouldn't it be a sweet way to greet your family and guests to the Christmas brunch with a tree at each place setting with their names attached on a pretty tag? You could nestle some batting, garland or a bit of tinsel at the base to make it even more festive!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Hearth Warming Holidays Vintage Spotlight: Christmas Trees

We've gotten all sorts of wonderful vintage Christmas goodies in the shop right now and we wanted to share some of them with you. Here are some of our various Christmas trees.



This Christmas tree is the one that took center stage in Mom's childhood Christmasses. It is laden down with all of our vintage handmade and plastic unbreakable ornaments (after all, we do have to crawl under it to plug/unplug the lights!). The tree skirt is a vintage find as are the great funky metal tree stands.



Mom got the inspiration for this display in the December 09 issue of Romantic Homes (such a great magazine!). You can easily replicate the look in your own home with some polyester or cotton batting. We got a huge bag of it down the street at the Fabric Shack. The centerpiece is a FABULOUS gold and white ceramic tree. It has its original red lightbulb which gives it a faint rosy glow. The little plastic bulbs are actually clear candle shapes with gold glitter. This mountainous tree presides over a village of vintage putz-style mica covered cardboard houses.



This great vintage aluminum tree is covered with old handmade beaded ornaments and is kept company by some of our other ceramic trees. It's skirt features feathers! Underneath is a round Christmas tablecloth. On the green patio table are some reproduction creamy bottle brush trees.



The tree on our Stickley Brothers desk is a new piece but we just love the frosted look of the branches. It is decked out with pieces of Steph's Jewels handmade jewelry, made by a talented local lady who uses pieces of vintage jewelry and findings to make great new creations. We've put a lot of our vintage pieces as well as some of our other handcrafted jewels, pocket mirrors and hair accessories around it.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Hearth Warming Holidays Sneak Peek!


Here is a sneak peek at some of the fabulous vintage baubles we've been busy putting out for our Hearth Warming Holidays Open House which goes on through Sunday. Here we've assembled oodles of beautiful aqua and blue vintage glass ornaments. Don't you just love the old stencilled ones from Shiny Brite or made in Poland?

Here we've got some of our pink vintage ornaments, accented with some of our vintage jewels. We've put some of our pink champagne glasses to good use holding some "baubly"!


Here we've got some of our greens and golds...the old wire basket lends a nice contrast for display.

On our chippy white dresser, we've raided the shop's shelves for pretty compotes and dishes to hold some of our more spectacular ornaments. Those in the hobnail Fenton tidbit (front and center) are unsilvered WWII finds!