I soldered a jump ring on the top to hold the ornament hanger and also on the bottom, where I hung a pretty iridescent bead taken from a vintage earring. I tied on a bit of matching red seam binding and tucked them into organza bags. I love how they look and hope the recipients like them too! I definitely feel a bit more confident in my soldering abilities now as well.
I've never seen anything like this and I probably never will, as it was handmade. It's a bouquet made of all different shapes, sizes and colors of mercury glass beaded picks, tinsel, and vintage glass ball picks. Oh, it is glorious! I love it so, so much (like everything else I've ever bought at Patina) and I'm not sure I'll be able to bear to pack it away after Christmas--it might have to stay out for a while so I can look at it more!
They were stuffed in a bag with some other ugly (new) beaded garland but when I flipped the bag over and saw these I think I might have gasped out loud! This might be just the prettiest vintage glass bead garland I've ever seen and certainly the most elaborate in my small collection. Wow! What a treasure.
Vintage glass bead garland is one of my Holy Grails of thrifting. I find it so rarely that every strand I've managed to turn up is absolutely precious to me and I hoard it jealously. The problem is that I don't have a good way to display it--it doesn't work on my tree and when piled in a bowl or on a cake plate it just looks like sparkly spaghetti. I've seen so many neat handmade items embellished with these glass beads that I'm trying hard to get over my hoarding tendency and my fear of actually *using* it. I'm trying to remember that I'd get a lot more enjoyment out of the garlands if I used them (even if that requires cutting them apart) as right now they're just tucked in a plastic tote out of sight. I did manage to unstring a few beads from one to use on a project I'm working on right now. Baby steps!
(Sorry for the lousy photos--it's hard to get a good one since there's always light coming in) Making the garland couldn't have been easier--just measure the ribbon, find the center and string on the cookie cutters! I knew I wanted to hang mine on the curtain rod over my kitchen window but the valance I had up, cute as it is, didn't match. Luckily, the same friend who lent me the other valance also gave me this cute gingham curtain trimmed with fat white rickrack, which turned out to be the perfect background for displaying the garlands.
I started out by making the bottom garland but when I finished I still had plenty of cookie cutters left and another spool of ribbon, so I made another! The only thing I did differently from the tutorial was leave off the buttons, for no other reason than pure laziness!
I love how the garlands turned out! What a fun, easy and satisfying craft project and a cute decoration!
This was torn out of a BH&G Holiday Decorating special magazine from 2003.
I used double-sided tape to attach the ribbons to the top and bottom of the frame. I used a small square of the same tape to attach the cards to the ribbon--there may be a better way to do this but I wanted to get it done.
The greeting cards are all thrifted. The round card on the bottom left is gorgeous--all lovely Victorian embossing and soft green velvet ribbon (that was from an antique store and was more than I usually pay for cards but it's just beautiful!). The round item on the bottom right is an old coaster, and the two Santas in the middle are vintage die cut decorations. On the top of the frame I have three vintage bottlebrush wreaths I found at a thrift last month. Two of them needed new ornaments but that was easily remedied with tacky glue and a few items from my collection. I had been looking for a way to display them and this was just perfect!
These went straight on the tree. My favorites are the ones with pale green and pink stripes and sparkly old glitter. I do profess a certain secret love for the ornaments made of styrofoam and sequins as well...I gotta have my sparkle, and I've never met a sequin I didn't like!
These were also waiting for me back in the craft section. I can always tell when they've had a donation of someone's old sewing supplies because they have several bags full of vintage goodies at once (the rest of the time it's bags of old zippers and that horrible 'craft' ribbon from the 1980s). Those are my favorite times! I love the button cards with the lovely ladies in the minty pastel colors.
all images from Hallmark Magazine December 2008 issue
It makes me so happy to walk in there and see the glitter! Now that's done, it's time for the rest of the house to get festive.
Thank you all for commenting and entering to win the cute Mickey puzzle! I consulted the Goblet of Fire and it said...Here are your random numbers:
6
Timestamp: 2008-12-02 21:20:09 UTC
Comment #6 was left by Mabel! Email me at fraulein_h at hotmail etc. etc. with your address and I'll get it in the mail post haste!
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A few more words about Thanksgiving...so many of you left me wonderful advice about how to cook a turkey, which I appreciate and will put to good use when I finally get around to cooking Birdzilla, which is still in my freezer. :) Once I got to Costco and saw the price of turkey breasts (as much as a whole turkey! Sheesh) I marched myself over to the meat case and bought some lovely filet mignon instead! Not traditional, but I didn't get any complaints from the menfolk who ate it so I think it was a fine substitution.
Everything else turned out pretty yummy with the exception of the rolls--but then yeast breads and I have never gotten along well, so I shouldn't have been surprised. That may have been the Lion House recipe but those weren't no Lion House rolls, let me tell you! Lion House hockey pucks was more like it. I know that I just need to practice more to get good at making yeast breads but really, who wants to "practice" making something that takes all day and leaves your kitchen a floury mess, without the promise of a yummy payoff for the work? Not me, and that's why my rolls were terrible!
My rolls might not have been great but at least the Chocolate Silk Pie was a winner! It was easy and SO yummy; very light but with a very rich chocolate flavor, and perfect for breakfast. ;) Here's the recipe in case you want to make it for dessert (or breakfast!):
Okay, nevermind. I've tried and tried to post this darn recipe but Blogger is having a temper tantrum so I'll try again later. Boo.
While going through some boxes I found this fun Mickey Mouse Christmas puzzle. I had originally bought it to sell on eBay but instead, I thought I'd offer it up to y'all as a giveaway! I've worked it already so I know it is complete. I was attracted to it because of the darling vintage Mickey Mouse memorabilia in the photo. It has 500 pieces but it wasn't difficult at all--just fun! I love sitting and doing puzzles with my family, and what better time than now when it is cold and blowy outside. If you'd like to win the puzzle, just leave a comment on this post--let's say between now (Saturday afternoon) and Monday at 5 pm MST. I'll pull out the Goblet of Fire on Monday night!
This is it--my first year to make Thanksgiving dinner all on my own. Would you believe I've never cooked a turkey before? Really! The last two years we had T-day dinner here at my home but my mom took over the big bird duties. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous about getting it all figured out. I have a turkey in the freezer but I'm going to Costco this morning to see about getting a turkey breast instead. If they're all sold out, Plan B is to hit the fancy butcher for nice steaks and crab legs! LOL I'm only cooking for three adults and a picky three-year-old, so I'm not feeling the need to make an entire turkey. 
(this illustration always cracks me up--nice dead turkey neck dangling there.)
And here is the top of my china cabinet. I'm loving the different white Haeger planters contrasted with the red walls and other deep colors. My little bro gave me the turkey dish a few years ago; I think it might be California Pottery. It looks perfect with the other colors!
Time to get going--I know I'm nutso to be braving Costco the day before a holiday but maybe if I get there when they open it won't be so bad. I hope!
I made two different types of items: rickrack dahlias with vintage buttons and vintage ribbon corsages, (both brooch and wrist style) made with gorgeous ribbons and vintage jewelry.
The corsages were either wrapped and place in a large rustic bowl or pinned on my old dress form.
I am happy how my items and my displays turned out, and the items that don't sell will go into my etsy shop. Speaking of which, I'm going to start working on getting some things listed tonight--I've got lots of fun vintage Christmas goodies just waiting!
She even fell asleep in my arms during halftime, if you can imagine! It was a long day (left the house at 10:00 am and didn't get home until well after 6:00 pm) but it ended up being really fun and I'm glad I didn't chicken out.
*visiting Melrose Vintage. Oh my golly, what a store! I had somehow forgotten that it was also a scrapbook store and was absolutely overwhelmed by the gorgeous papers and crafting supplies they sold. They only carry items that fit their shabby, vintage, romantic aesthetic and they stocked a lot of really neat things that I've been unable to find in my local stores. Add Melrose Vintage to the list of My All-Time Favorite Places to Shop!
*The divine crab cake salad at My Florist. The perfect lunch to refuel us after shopping at Melrose Vintage! There's a great story about how rather than tear down the gorgeous old sign that once advertised an actual flower store, the cafe took its name instead. The crab cakes were absolutely the best I've ever had.
*The classes we took at Blissful Living Studio. First was the beeswax collage class with the lovely and fun Tricia. I've never worked with beeswax before but it was so easy and so fun and I've already bought my supplies so that I can do more! We made the cutest vintage-style Christmas canvases.
Next was the soldering class with the very talented Beth Quinn. Somehow I was hoping that between now and the last time I put down my soldering iron in July that I would have magically gotten better at it, but alas that wasn't the case. ;) It was still really hard for me, although I did learn a new technique from Beth that I think will make things easier once I get the hang of it. No pictures of me smiling with my final products from this class because I'm still not very happy with them, although I think with a little fiddling I can make them better. Still, it was a great class and I really enjoyed it. After our classes at Blissful Living we walked across the street to Mystic Paper, another amazing papercrafting store that I wish I could pick up and plop down in Denver so I could shop there and take classes all the time!
*No girls' weekend would be complete without cupcakes! We went to the Scottsdale branch of the famous Sprinkles to see if they really lived up to the hype. My milk chocolate cuppycake was absolutely scrumptious--moist cake, rich chocolate flavor and yummy frosting! The lemon cupcake I bought for Maren was not nearly as good, but the only reason I chose it was because of the pink dot (like many 3-year-olds, Maren chooses food by color and not necessarily flavor). Sprinkles' website says that a Denver store is in the works so I anticipate more taste testing in our future!
In all it was a great weekend! The weather was gorgeous, the shopping plentiful, the food delicious and the company was superb. Can't wait for the next one, Mom! :)
Bleh.
Living in Savannah gave me a soft spot for magnolias and I adore the soft pinks and greens of this print. I even have the perfect place to hang it!
this is the look we got when we told her to "smile like a princess"
And mommy dressed up too! I knew last year that I wanted to be Mary Poppins so I've kept an eye out for costume pieces for months. The hat I bought early in the summer from this webshop. I did have to paint it black and add the daisies but I think the effect was good (although now that I see the photos I wish I'd painted the underside too, whoops). 
I already owned the blouse but the jacket, skirt, scarf and bag came from the thrift store. White gloves were from a costume shop (although forgotten in this photo) and I made my own parrot head umbrella. I used my vintage umbrella and found a photo of the parrot head handle on flickr. I enlarged it on the computer, printed, cut it out and taped it to the handle. Not too bad for homemade! 
The likeness was good enough that everyone at the church knew who I was supposed to be (even kids) and I got so many compliments! :) It was such fun and I'm already know who I want to be next year!
Oh, my pretties. :) The thrift stores now have their Christmas items out and I have already found several great vintage goodies! Good thing, as the garage saling haul this year was meager and I was feeling a bit sad about not having more to add to my collection.
