More Christmas displays in the house

Time to change over from Thanksgiving and fall and get into the Christmas spirit.  I don't put up a tree anymore since my husband passed away 7 years ago.  But I do like to put up small trees in displays around the house.  Here are the first two I finished yesterday.

I replaced the red southwest runner for this old seed bag.  The glittery tree and the little cloche on the silver stand I bought yesterday at FOUND in Mesa, AZ.  This store has wonderful things for decorating and they were having a sale this weekend.  So I took advantage!

These candles are battery operated.  Love their nice glow in the evening.  I also put out two of my clear crystal rosaries around on the mirror.

And finally this display I put together yesterday as well. 

The little white tree was a great find at My Sister's Attic.  Had to tuck the branches up a bit so it would fit under the tall cloche, but it works!  Now I think I need a few glittery stars to decorate the tree.  Yes, that's just craft stuffing around the base of the tree.  The bottle on the right is an empty Patron bottle decorated with pearls.  The other bottle has a wonderful "Dream" collar with a rhinestone crown -- also a find at FOUND.

November weekend at Sweet Salvage on 7th

The theme for month of November is:

The gals and guys of Sweet Salvage on 7th have done just that!  Decked the Halls!  Check out some of the fabulous finds that were available Thursday morning!

Trees decorated with tiny lights, soft feathery angel wings and burlap gift bags with plenty of ribbon wrapped around!  Snowflakes hanging from the ceiling!

A tree decked out with gold and silver birds, gold and silver bird nests, plenty of twig balls and burlap ribbons strewn through it!  Love the green garland to add an outdoorsy touch!

A mantel decorated with greens, an old clock, a Canada goose decoy, twigs, and a huge mirror to reflect all the lovely decorations!  Did you see the silver tray on top that had the bottom painted with blackboard paint and "Joyous Noel" written on it?  You could do the same and change the words or sayings to fit your own occasions!

Silver trays, white milk glass, silver balls, salt and pepper shakers, and "snow balls".

Cupboards filled with wonderful items to celebrate the holidays!  Plenty of white and silver, gold and white, plumes, lace pieces, clocks, candle holders, you name it! 

 Cupboards topped with old wood sleds, rocking horses, buckets of Christmas greens, a green scale, white pieces to shine in the black cupboard, and that red wallpaper!

Great deer head and a wonderful posted of skiers!  Wouldn't that look great in a mountain cabin?  Even skis and a red and white striped stocking!

 Green wreaths, green Christmas balls, holly, and a jolly Santa!!

 Another tree, cute reindeer with backpack baskets, an old file sorter, wonderful old books and a great crate on top of an old cupboard.

I love the "25" numbers put on the sides of the old wooden boxes.  Great clock face, and gold statues and decorations! 

 I LOVE shapely storage jars on pedestals with wonderful tops.  These are filled with game cards and a little angel!  Check out the vintage ornaments!!

I love these repurposed glass vases turned into cloches!!  And that great rusty bedspring holding a glass punch cup with a pear!  Too cool!!  Way outside the box!!!

My personal fav was this vintage dresser in gray with the pink velvet chair, pink toe "pointe" shoes, and old books and pictures.  The fluffy shower curtain behind it -- I so wanted that but it wasn't for sale!!  

There's that pink shower curtain filled with twinkle lights over the dresser and that fabulous chandelier!!  That curtain was just like a gorgeous, soft pink cloud.  Love the ideas!  Love the decorating!!  Love everything!!

Even a cute outfit by Magnolia Pearl was adorning one of the vintage dress forms!

Celebrity sighting!!!  Do you know who this is???  Leave me a comment if you do!!!

Christmas favorites!

I love the glitter deer!  A little embellishment and they turn into something wonderful, don't you agree??

I recently redid my booth at Merchant Square.  I had two of the glitter deer in the display.  One under the cloche and one outside on the mirror.  Someone had removed them already this morning.  They aren't sold yet, and may return to my booth this afternoon.

Also love the white feather trees!  Added a part of an ornament to the tops to give them a finished look.  Love the silver balls in the big glass jar.

I added lots of clear glass containers of different sizes and shapes.  They make great display pieces, candy holders, ornament holders, etc. for a Christmas display! 

Also cloches to cover tiny Christmas trees.  Have been collecting silver trays all summer and they are in my booth, too!  The pink ornaments look special under the cover of a cake stand.  More pictures of my booth are on my Facebook page, Judy B's Shabby Chic.  Check it out!

Click on the pictures to enlarge.  Enjoy!

This was a great find yesterday

I hit a few thrift stores yesterday and came across this:

Someone lovingly and probably laboriously put this Christmas tree picture together by gluing down bits and pieces of vintage jewelry, vintage beads and lots of green glass shards.  It measures 16"x20".  Now I truly appreciate all the work that went into this.  But I bought it to take it apart.

It is so old that the glue had completely dried out and a flat blade screw driver pops most of them off easily and cleanly.  I bought it for the jewelry for my artwork.

It would take a very long time for me to find broken rhinestone pieces, beads and earrings.  This saved me a lot of time hunting -- especially for the rhinestones.  However, I still look for vintage jewelry to sell in my booth.



After I take all the bits off, I plan to take the background piece out and paint the frame white and sell it separately.  Will also bag up some of the beads and sell them separately as well.  Nice find! 

More little journals added

This week I have been making more little journals but with a Christmas theme.  Also put in a new cowgirl collage done on an old log cabin cutter quilt piece.  You can check them out on my Etsy site, Vintage Recycled, or just view them by watching the Etsy badge on the right side of my blog.  Here is a sample for you.  More are ready to be listed very soon!

This is one of my favorite images.  A mother and daughter in front of a white Christmas tree with the new doll that the little girl has just received.  So pretty!

Here is the Kris Kringle journal I just listed.  I have more of these and will list them soon, too.

Lucketts Design House photo

The only time I wish I still lived in Virginia is when Lucketts General Store sends me an email telling me about their next open house in their Design House.  What a wonderful house it is, too!!  I try to visit each time I go to Virginia to visit my family.  What I love about this photo are the old paint brushes in that turquoise colored bowl.  Also love the feed bag pillow and the picture with the bird and bird cage.

Lucketts Design House photo

This industrial look is beginning to grow on me.  I would LOVE that storage unit!  What a great thing to store fabrics in and you can see it all!  Also love those two hats on the dresser as well as that great painting behind them.  Wish I could "beam" myself over there this weekend and take a look first hand.  Where's Scotty when you need him??

Christmas journal give-away

I promised the readers of my blog a give-away. And here it is. This little journal is so sweet and would make a great gift for a dear friend or for you! The vintage photo says "Joyeux Noel" at the bottom and depicts a mother and daughter and a very pretty doll she probably received as a Christmas gift.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this December 10th blog, and on Tuesday, December 15th (by noon), I will pick a winner's name out of the hat and post it on my blog. Then as soon as I get your mailing information, I will put your Christmas journal in the mail to you! And you should get it before Christmas. Be sure to check back with me by Tuesday, December 15th!! So leave your comments and check back! Good luck!

Favorite Christmas Photos

This is one of my favorite Christmas pictures. This sweet little girl with the pink flowers and the holly. Please feel free to save her to your computer to use in future projects.

Please be sure to visit the new backgrounds website I found this morning. The Graphics Fairy has just started to provide backgrounds for blogs called The Background Fairy (you can click this link to get there). I like this Christmas background. In the future you will see my backgrounds change. The Background Fairy has really nice ones to choose from. Check it out! You can click the link in the upper left hand corner of my blog or the link is on the left in "Links to Explore."

Sneak peek!

Here are some pics from a project that I have been working on through my cold-ridden, fogged-up mind. Yesterday, with a clearer head, I did more work on this altered book project and am getting closer to having it finished. I am going to offer it as a class, but first it has to be finished.

This is an altered house book. The idea for it came from the most recent issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. I decided to do a wintertime book. As I progressed through getting the pages done, it suddenly became a "flip book" yesterday. Trying to figure out how to view the entire book and not see some of it upside down, I knew it had to flip. As in once you look at it from one side, you can flip it over and look through it again and get a totally different book.This is one of the finished pages in the altered book. I know it looks washed out, but the flash did that. If I don't use the flash, the colors wash out. Hmm! Time to get out the owners manual for the camera and do some research.

Lots of techniques used in this altered house book. Collage, fabric, plenty of gesso, plenty of sparkly things, plenty of recycled vintage things, Pearl Ex (not shown), hearts, angels. The flip side will feature more Christmas items to become a Christmas book.

Of course, I am not leaving those awful red rings on this book. It needs slightly larger, regular binder rings on it. I hope to get to Staples today to remedy this.

Working on shadow boxes

I have been working on a couple of new projects. Lots left to do, but I thought I would give you a sneak peek at what is going on in my work space.

I love these small shadow boxes. They are perfect for vignettes! Since I am a big hoarder of tiny antique and vintage treasures, this is the perfect way to display them!This is the first one I did using several vintage items -- lace, tiny pearls, spoon, perfume bottle -- and an old picture. The lace edge on the glass is actually a stamp and Adirondack snow cap white ink (thanks, Mike, for putting me on to that wonderful product!). This shadow box is in the "nearly complete" stage. I just want to stick everything down and add some "snow" at the bottom of the box. Also want to embellish and decorate the outside edges. I had a vision of seeing this Christmas angel through the frosty pane of a window. Did I succeed??

I hope the angel will be part of a three-projects-in-one class to be offered before Christmas. My idea is to create three quick Christmas projects to be taught in one class. Things to give as gifts or to decorate the home. Since we are all on a "budget" these days and have to watch every penny, many of us are going to be doing more "homemade" things for gifts and decorations. I know I am!!