Cute Winkin' Santa's

This past week I had some time to do a little thriftin' and I found something so cute.

As I walked through the door, I spotted Santa winking at me!

I just had to bring these adorable vintage mugs home - how perfect for egg nog, don't you think?

They were marked $1.99 each but when the clerk went to ring them up, she thought they were too pricey and changed the price to .99 cents - I couldn't complain. hehe

I think they look so stinkin' cute under this glass cloche in my kitchen.
They make me smile each time I see 'em.

Antique German Doll Ornament

A couple weeks ago I purchased two ornament kits from Beth Quinn Designs.

They were quick, fun and easy to put together. I love the little antique German doll transformed into an angel. These little dolls have most likely recently been dug up in Thuringia, Germany in a little village called Limbach. All kinds of neat old doll parts are being discovered and dug up because of the old doll factories that were once there. Even though the dolls aren't perfect, I think they are so charming. I think they are so cool considering they date from 1890-1910 and have been in the dirt this long...

I purchased the two kits from Beth so I could give one as a gift and keep one for myself.

I know this is terrible... but I now want to keep both!

A Must Have For Thanksgiving Dinner...

Today I made one of the most requested items for our Thanksgiving dinner. Our meal would not be complete if this jello salad wasn't included. It has been a family favorite of ours since the mid 70's. A few years ago I took over the duty of making it for our celebrations.

I'd like to share the recipe with you...

Holiday Rainbow Jello Salad

You'll need 4 small boxes of jello - lemon, lime, cherry and orange

For each package add 1 cup boiling water & 1/2 cup cold water to dissolve
For the white layer: Dissolve 2 packages unflavored gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water - set aside.
Bring 2 cups milk to boil & add 1 cup sugar
Add dissolved gelatin to milk mixture while milk is still hot (mix together with small amount of milk first so it doesn't clump)
Stir in 2 cups sour cream & 2 tsp vanilla to milk mixture and mix well. Set aside.
Pour first layer of jello into a buttered 9 x 13 pan.
After the first layer of jello is firm, spread 2 cups of the milk mixture over jello and let set until firm. Repeat until all 4 layers of colored jello are used.

*** I use my freezer to set each layer since it cuts down on time.***
(takes approximately 12 minutes per layer to set)

To serve, cut into squares and top with sweetened whipped cream.
Have fun mixing up different colors of jello.
It's especially pretty made with red and green jello for Christmas.
Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!!!!

Make Your Own Glittery Starbursts

Yesterday, my mom, the girls and I made our annual visit to Wight's Wonderland of Christmas. Wight's Home and Garden is a local nursery that is full of Christmas inspiration. For me, the Christmas season wouldn't be complete without a trip to Wight's...

I forgot to bring my camera with and I'm sorry about that cuz, I would have loved to share how pretty it is there.

I bought a couple little ornaments that I'll be using on the table I'm decorating for our church smorgasbord.

I also came across some super sparkly star burst like ornaments that I thought would make wonderful space fillers on a tree. My mom took one look and said she made a whole bunch like them back in the early 60's when my parents were first married. Well, I decided to make a few in my favorite colors instead of buying the red ones which was all they had....

I had the girls help me with the project. They are always more than happy to oblige. We started out with a 1" styrofoam ball and began poking round toothpicks (which we dipped one end in glue) into the ball.
I think we used approximately 19-20 toothpicks for each one. I think they would be even better if we would have used more tooth picks. I just ran out...
Next thing I did was spray paint them my favorite pastel Christmas colors.

Then came the fun part of glittering! Isn't glitter the best? My kitchen floor has never sparkled so much. hehe Anyways, I painted on mod podge and then sprinkled the glitter. I got tired of trying to paint on the glue that I ended up using spray adhesive instead. That was much faster!

All done...

I can't wait to put them on my vintage silver tinsel tree or add them to my tablescape, maybe just put them in a silver bowl. The possibilities are endless...

Going To The Women's Auction....

I finished up my last two auction items Monday.

Our Women's Ministries team at church puts on this Handcrafted From The Heart auction every other year. We always have a fabulous turnout. It's a super fun night of dinner, fellowship, and beautiful handmade creations.

Both girls wanted to "model" the vintage chenille jacket I made.

Here Sydney is being so vogue

and Daphne striking her pose.
Lastly, I created a Christmas pillow with vintage chenille and added a rose doily to the center square that my mom had crocheted.
I'm excited for the auction. It's really fun to see all the beautiful donated items.
Oh, and it's just as fun to bid and win!!!

Vintage Inspired Candy Containers and What To Do With Fabric Scraps...

If you haven't figured it out already, I think you can see now, how much fun I've been having playing with Fastmache'!!! Ever since I read Lori's tutorial on Joli Paquet, I've been hooked. Here are a couple of my latest creations...

Instead of attaching the snowman to a box, I decided to make candy containers. Always inspired by old paper mache' containers, this is what I came up with. I used a toilet tissue roll for the snowmans body, and then made a cylinder with a bottom to fit inside.
Now all he needs is to be filled with yummy Christmas candies...

Next week at church, we are having our women's ministries "handcrafted from the heart" auction. I'm busily trying to get a few projects completed for my contribution to the auction. I created this candy container like the other, and he will be one item going the auction.

I needed a way to use up some of my fabric scraps (which I have a lot of) and came across a fun way to do just that. I created this rag wreath using 1" x 7" pieces of fabric tied onto a wire wreath form using scraps from a couple of my vintage Christmas tablecloths and coordinating red and green fabrics. This is going to the auction also...

Here's a close up of the fabrics...

So fun to make, it's a wonderful project for kids too.

Now I can't wait to make another using scraps from my favorite colors of vintage tablecloths!

OK, I'm off to create some more goodies and I'll be sure to show you when they're completed.

Oooo, I'm running out of time... I'm so last minute... Yikes!

Sparkles Everywhere

As promised, here is the other snowman box I created.

I like this guy much better, his head is better proportioned with his body... I used an old wool sweater that I felted for his top hat and scarf.

For the tree, I used silver pipe cleaners to acheive a vintage tinsel look. It's a lot of fun playing with this Fast Mache' stuff. I even have a few more things drying right now. I hope to buy some Celluclay which Lori recommended using for the snowman. Hopefully my craft store will get some in soon...Don't forget to stop by the Joli Paquet blog. There are a few more fun tutorials already posted that I can wait to try. Oh, and they will be selling some kits this week too!

********************

Besides making snowmen, I been working on a cardboard Christmas town.

I've always been inspired by old Putz houses. I love this picture I found in my Grandparents photo album. A little hard to see, but if you look closely at the mantel, you can see Mrs. Ekblads beautiful display of Putz houses, bottle brush trees, celluloid Santa and reindeers. I tried to find a picture of my Grandma's Christmas mantel because she decorated her's very similar.

I just love pictures from the 40's!!!

I decided to try and make my own "Putz" like snow town this year. I found a couple unfinished cardboard ornaments at the craft store to play with and this is how they turned out. I started by painting them my favorite non-traditional Christmas colors. I then built the base platform for each out of cardboard from cereal boxes. I used cereal box cardboard to construct some fences too. After I added some bottlebrush trees I covered each piece entirely with mica flakes. You can never have enough sparkle!!! I really love all the new fancy cardboard houses that are out on the market, I especially love the ones by Cody Foster, they are truly delightful! I just don't have the budget to spend $50 to $100 on one, so for $1.99 I created my own. I think they'll be just fine...