Archives for November 2013

The Stars Come Out at Christmas

November 29, 2013 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Distressed red is right at home for the holidays.

Stars are apparently my shape this year for Christmas. I found some furring strip stars at a local antique shop for my holiday kitchen. (see post here). I found some wood stars on my trip to the Round Top Antique show (see post here) that I will use to decorate. Lastly, I found some wood star shaped trays in graduated sizes that I thought would be great for a Christmas project.

My project for this week is a tiered, star shaped tray. I imagine using it for every day display of seasonal fruits in my holiday kitchen or holding sweet treats and cookies for entertaining or perhaps holding silverware and napkin roll ups for a Christmas buffet. At any rate, a number of uses for the holiday and incredibly easy to make. It took less than fifteen minutes to make and that included the time needed for the epoxy to cure.

What you need:

medium and large star shaped trays from Joann.com

red, wood candle stick from Joann.com

five vintage glass knobs (optional)

epoxy

From Joanns.com

The assembly is pretty straight forward. I attached the candlestick to the smaller tray first and once the epoxy set, I attached the other end of the candlestick to the bottom, (or larger) tray and the vintage knobs for legs. I found that weighting everything down with a brick helps created a strong seal with the adhesive.

A vintage glass container helps top of the display with cheery candy canes.

Sweets are a natural choice to fill the Christmas Star Tiered tray.

Although optional, the vintage glass knobs are a great way to finish and refine the project.

This easy project can be used a number of ways while entertaining for Christmas.

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Projects Tagged With: antique, candies, candle, christmas, cookies, cottage, country, lights, project, red, snow, stars, stick, tray, tree, wood

Market Items for a Vintage Home at Christmas

November 18, 2013 by Cynthia 1 Comment

Not all of my inspiration comes from antiques and vintage items. My eye is always scanning the store aisles to see if something catches my eye. I have found a few market items that helped me create some vignettes for my holiday home. I don’t start the lion share of my holiday decorating until this weekend. But these little groupings are helping me get in the mood, along with a backdrop of the usual Christmas music.

Here are four projects that took less than five minutes to create using market items and some vintage.

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

xoxo

Easy Christmas Holiday Project #1 – Topiary with ornament embellishment.

A lovely Eugenia topiary from Walmart ($11.98) in an antique urn.

Against the worn surface of the urn, small acorn mercury glass ornaments from Targets ($4 for three). Simple rustic twine will do for hanging.

Easy Christmas Holiday Project #2 – Scandinavian Christmas Candles.

Zinc cache pots from Targets Smith and Hawken collection with a scalloped edge design and factory made patina.

Zinc cache pots ($12.99) from Targets Smith and Hawken collection with a scalloped edge design and factory made patina.

For a lower priced alternative zinc pot, click here.

The Scandinavian Christmas table. Simple and elegant.

Lovely cream antique china and mismatched silverware and napkin rings. The market item in this photo is an inexpensive kitchen towel used as a napkin from IKEA for .79 cents.

Easy Christmas Holiday Project #3 – Vintage vase cozy with market item embellishment.

A vintage paper vase cover for a holiday touch with a market item burlap flower embellishment from Michael’s ($2.50)

Simple Project #3, I found a holiday pick with this burlap flower. I just took the flower off the pick and pushed the stem in one of the holes in the vintage paper vase cozy. It stays in place via pressure fit.

I found a holiday pick with this burlap flower. I just took the flower off the pick and pushed the stem in one of the holes in the vintage paper vase cozy. It stays in place via pressure fit.

Pretty little table side touch of Christmas with little effort.

You can see the age and simple accordion pattern of the vintage vase cozy.

Easy Christmas Holiday Project #4 – Hemp Twine Tassel with embellishment.

Simple Project #2. Twine Tassel for antique armoire. Done simply by wrapping twine over and over around a piece of cardboard, cut one end and tie off a third of the way down with another piece of twine. Add an embellishment if you choose. Extra thick twine to make a statement, found at Joann’s.

Old houses have many armoires for storage. Simple white adorned with wreaths and a hand-made twine tassel with holiday embellishment.

Filed Under: Antique Finds, Holiday and Seasonal, Projects Tagged With: antique, christmas, cottage, decoration, holiday, items, market, tree, vintage, white, winter

The Change of Seasons

November 11, 2013 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Garden evergreens, fresh red berries and a mirror star tree topper for the transitional vignette.

Not quite Christmas and not quite Thanksgiving. My fresh Christmas greens don’t ship for another two weeks, but the white pumpkins I bought for Halloween are still fresh so I put together a transitional mantle that includes the white pumpkins, fresh evergreens from the garden and bright red berries.

I hope you find some inspiration.

xoxo.

Cindy

Distressed mirror star tree topper offers a vintage touch.

Vibrant reds against fresh garden evergreens.

The white pumpkins signal fall and winter along with a distressed star shaped mirror and winter arrangment

The white pumpkins signal fall and winter along with a distressed star shaped mirror and winter arrangement

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Uncategorized Tagged With: berries, christmas, cottage, country, evergreens, fireplace, holiday, mantel, mantle, mirror, pumpkins, star, white

Horse & Carriage During the Holidays

November 4, 2013 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Vintage pieces round out the presentation and are quick to set up.

It isn’t unusual for me to answer the door with my old french apron on and dusted in flour during the Christmas Holidays. I am usually baking either for guests that sporadically drop by, preparing the food gifts I give to neighbors or if I time it just right, I bake for the throngs of visitors to our little town that ride by the house in the horse and carriage. I had to come up with a way to send people on their merry way with a pocket full of goodies on a chilly night.

Paper pouches using leftover Christmas wrapping paper seemed to be a good solution. You start with an 8″ by 8″ piece of paper. I mentioned that I am using leftover Christmas paper but it helps if it is a kraft paper base. It just seems to hold treats better than typical wrapping paper.