Day number 6

Whoo Hoo, I was lucky enough to get a matchbox from our hostess herself, Linda Smith aswapforallseasons.blogspot.com. Inside there was this sweet little tiny bottle full of green and red glass glitter and marked 'Christmas Magic' attached to some vintage lace. I love it. I am thinking of attaching the little bottle to the bracelet I received on the first day.

And on December 6th I finally finished putting up my North pole village. This year I decided that I would not put up the whole thing. That is over 30 buildings and close to 100 accessories. I thought I would put up enough of it that the grandkids would get tickled.  Elsie's Gingerbread house has scented magic smoke that comes out of the chimney.

And on my Mantel, I have the buildings put up that spell out the 'North Pole' along with Santa's sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. My granddaughter Breya loves to point to them all as she names them.  All of the little elves, and reindeer, are porcelain.  Those antlers are just so fine and delicate.

Anyway, I am glad to be done with that part of it, I also finished the downstairs tree, and I will post that later. Isn't December a wonderful month!!

Here is the winner of the Retro Chockful Christmas Stocking!

My winner is Linda Sargeant of Wonderful Life.  Congratulations Linda, I will be sending you the Retro Stocking full of vintage and vintage look goodies.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!
                                                                              

DAY 5 for the 25 days of Christmas swap

This one is from Hope Griffin from England of pixieponderings1966.blogspot.com I love receiving from another country. It is so fun to get to know someone else from other places so far away. Thankyou Hope.

Matchbox day 4

This adorable little box is from Michele (I am sure she is a
kindred spirit with her name and spelling like that!)
at scrappycatsx3.blogspot.com

Inside was a wonderful button ring made by her!

Got one of my own!

For the 3rd day of Christmas matchbox swap, I got one of my
very own matchboxes. That was really fun for me and inside,
I had made a little tag with a very vintage sticker on it. I added
a tiny bit of gold glass glitter. I am wondering how many of us
got one of our own bit of artwork back? I liked it very much!

When I made up my matchboxes, I did numbers 1 through 13 just alike with all different little things inside,

and numbers 14 through 25 were done up Victorian and all differently.  It was fun splitting it up a bit!
Thankyou to Linda Smith for hosting this most interesting and fun swap full of surprises!

She is back on the top!

 

My lovely Victorian angel has been packed away for about 6 years.  I made her in the late 90's and got her out again, and decided that she should be at the top of the living room tree again.  I put her away, because every year my tree was evolving and I would try doing something different to the top each year.  I have had a Victorian tree for about 21 years now.  Even this year I said, "I am not putting those bows on the tree," but I just couldn't help it.  They were the last to go up on the tree.  The angel was the first thing that went up there, and it feels like this is where she belongs.

 

 

I made 12 of these ornaments with the scripture in Luke.  They come out every year.

 

Another handmade ornament from the 90's, but I still love these ones.. I would love to make more of
these even now.
This is the first of my trees to be completed.  I have another elaborate one I do downstairs.  Don't exactly know then I will get to that one.  

Day two

Not a very clear picture, but isn't this unique.  The beautiful little crystal inside is a snowflake, and I am going to attach it to the bracelet from day one's box.  This box comes from shawneett.blogspot.com             

25 days of Christmas blog hop Day 1

Here is my first matchbox for December 1st from Ruth Graham, from Through my Gardens Gate. I was so excited to get one of her boxes. She has become a good blogging friend, however, she has disapeared from the blogging world. If anyone out there knows anything about her please leave a comment. We are worried about her. Isn't this so cute to start out my 25 days of Christmas? I love love love the little bracelet she put inside.

Aprons for my twins

For my twin daughters birthday in November, I sewed these flirty aprons. They turned 26 and are both
mommies and homemakers. Both wanted me to make them aprons. So I made them each one to match
their kitchens. I finished these the week of Thanksgiving to take them up to our get together for the Holiday.
Tucked inside each pocket there was a chocker designed by me also. Some time I will put
these kind of aprons on Etsy, but every time I make one I am giving it away for a gift.

Our Thanksgiving Holiday

We stayed at the most gorgeous winter
wonderland over Thanksgiving. Here
is our little cottage at the Homestead resort
in Midway, Utah. It was 2 degrees when
we got there , and for desert people, we
had a hard time handling the walk from
the car to registration.
It took us a while to get warmed back up.

My husband is from Minnesota, and I
am from Utah. But we have lived in
the desert for to long now.
This picture was from the Inn
across the road from our resort.
Most of the buildings and homes
have murals painted on the sides
and have a very Switzerland look
to them. This little town even cele
brates swiss days in the summer.
It is a very wonderful place to stay.

This is another view from the main
building at the Homestead. We actually
spent some time here on our honeymoon
32 years ago, so we like to come back
occasionally.
I just had to post these most Christmasy
photos. At night there were many lights
all around the entrance and resort, but they
did not photograph well. Merry Christmas
Season to All my blogging Friends!

More for the Retro stocking giveaway

I have been away for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I
did not post anything else for the Retro Stocking
giveaway, until today. Hurry and enter, I will be
drawing for this next Saturday. This plastic ornament
filled to the max with retro fun.

The things that are in the ball. An old Christmas light reflector.

Another ornament, vintage napkin ring, with vintage stocking
package tie-ons. And a pretty little crochet doily.

Add one full sheet of this vintage look wrapping paper.
This will be lots of fun!

Announcing the Retro Chockful Christmas Stocking giveaway!

I found this retro linen
table runner at an estate
sale a couple of weeks ago,
for 50 cents. I didn't know
what I would do with it, un-
til a couple of days ago.
I made it into a lovely Retro/ Vintage Stocking
circa 1960's. Thus my newest giveaway has
been born. "The Chockful Christmas Stocking
Giveaway"


As the next few days of November pass by, I will be
posting more things that will be added to this Retro
themed stocking and the Drawing will be held on Sat.
December 4th.











Here is the first item to be added into the
stocking. This set of 4 blown glass ornaments.
Very retro and very pretty. These little babies are approx. 4 inches long.

















All you have to do is
comment on this post, be a follower and for another chance to win post it on your
sidebar to advertise it for me. Just save as. . . the picture which is on my sidebar.
If you like Retro, then you will love what is coming! I love CHRISTMAS!

A giveaway win! Yes!

I recently won a giveaway from Vintage Dragonfly (Joanne Balaz) in her Celebrate Sisterhood Giveaway. I think it is one of the greatest happenings for me to win a giveaway from a blogging sister's giveaway. It is not like a sweepstakes, where your chance is beyond "0" But in these little drawings one has hope, because the odds are so greatly reduced. It is fun to imagine maybe if you won, what you might do with the items. This one was her choice based on the person's taste and blog likes and dislikes. She did superbly and I will use it all. I have not been really lucky in my life, but winning this one was such a nice surprize. I did win one other bloggers giveaway. I darling little book she was published in.
When we got the mail today, I was so excited to open it, I just can't tell you. Above is all the loot. There was so much in that flat padded pack, I was just drooling at the first site of it as I peeled back the old tissue patterns. Wow, was my reaction. My husband even thought some of it was cool. But he did say he likes the fact that I like this kind of stuff!

Here is Joanne's own personal little bits of artwork. She sure did seem to know what I like.

AH, this bit of vintage goodness. I love the old buttons and little candle holders. But the bingo cards
were to die for. Old spools wrapped with trim, and the neatest old photographs of two people. The
language on the back suggests a scandinavian country I think.

And also this very fun butterfly/dragonfly stampset, cute worn snowman ornament, an ornament to decorate myself. Wonderful beads, stickers, felt teddy bears, candle etc. Thankyou thankyou to Joanne, you are a jewel!

2010 Christmas season first.

This is the first Christmas decoration grouping I have done this year.
Since I am not hosting Thanksgiving at my home this year, I thought
I would get a jump on all the decorating I do. When I got home from
work tonight I put this together.

These little card holders were given to me by my dear friend
Camille Leavitt, a couple of years ago. I like them so much I
keep them up all year and just change the cards I have them
hold. They usually are Vintage cards.

These two Reindeer were purchased here locally, a couple of years ago,
and I bought one and wanted the other one at the shop. My daughter
ask me what I wanted for Christmas, and I suggested she get me the other one.



This buffet in my dining room is a family heirloom. It was in my husbands
family for many generations. Some of the lead is missing on the sides, but
I love it anyway. I painted the details a long time ago on the bottom drawer.