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A Country Christmas

November 28, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

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Tin Lanterns with the twinkly of real candle light.

Tin Lanterns with the twinkle of real candle light.

For the first time in twelve years, I won’t be decorating my little cottage for Christmas. So I thought I would dream a little bit and bring you Christmas style from others. These have a strong Scandinavian influence which is no accident…it’s my favorite Christmas style; simple and restrained.

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

A simple tree in an old galvanized bucket. My favorite kind of tree stand.

The beauty of the red barn with bright white trim just sings Christmas.

White table with a smattering of red for the Holidays.

Save for some candles, a plain tree that looks just lovely.

Lovely tree sculptures seem simple and are pretty as well.

Classic Swedish grey with high contrast red for a stunning display.

A few berries in a bucket and simple garland swag across the window.

Unfussy, barely there Christmas style looks effortless.

A simple make-do heart wreath from garland.

Simple. Simple. Simple.

Traditional candle chandelier.

Country stairs simply adorned that say “Welcome.”

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Uncategorized Tagged With: antique, christmas, cottage, garland, green, holiday, red, scandinavian, star, tree, white

The Christmas Haus 2013

December 15, 2013 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Fresh Greens in an Enamel Pitcher

I make a promise to myself every year: I pick a weekend to do my decorating, inside and out and what doesn’t get done on that weekend, doesn’t get done. This was the first year I kept that promise and it is largely because I kept things simple: fresh greens tucked here and there, a smattering of twinkly lights, my favorite Trapp Holiday candles and a few groupings of my favorite vintage ornaments. I found it refreshingly stress free…and that really was the point of the plan. Now I can coast and focus on baking!

When the weather improves, I’ll share photos of the exterior. For now, here are some vignettes from inside my home.

I hope your find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

xoxo

Winter quilts on the linen press are yummy!

The Christmas Mantle

Samantha’s toy Lamb Chop

Quilts with pillow covers from Ikea wrapped like presents with green velvet ribbon.

Plain cedar wreath with candle light.

Lovely Samantha

Guest room washstand ready for guests and ready for Christmas.

The Christmas Kitchen

Christmas Centerpiece

Antiques, ironstone, vintage glass and fresh greens

Lab beaker with thick glass that diffuses the candle flicker

A well used antique candle snuffer.

Evergreens in old urns.

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, My Home, Uncategorized Tagged With: antique, candle light, candles, christmas, cottage, fresh, holiday, house, lights, merry, tree, twinkle, white, wreath

A Scandinavian Christmas…

December 8, 2013 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Farmhouse Kitchen at Christmas

To those that know me, it’s no secret I am in love with Scandinavian style. In this post, I thought I would take you around the world to show you how the Scandinavians do Christmas.

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

xoxo

A simple tree and a chandelier of sorts.

A tree and a chandelier of sorts.

Simple red against white barn board.

A Wintery view from the Christmas Scandinavian table.

A Touch of Modern for the Scandinavian Home at Christmas.

Simple Fresh Holiday Greens agains a light pallete.

Fresh Holiday Greens against a light palette.

Scandinavian Christmas Market

Old textiles in the bedroom and cottage white bathroom – Nordic style.

Christmas Fireplace in Nordic style

The Christmas Banister

Holiday Welcome Wreath

Scandinavian tree with traditional red.

The Scandinavian Kitchen at Christmas

A simple statement of the Holiday.

Scandinavian Christmas Design Ideas with Minimalist and Cozy Style

Traditional barn colors with bright white trim.

A hearty Christmas welcome.

Just some greens against the white backdrop.

Nordic Bliss – a bed cozily tucked under the eaves.

Nordic Sweater Stockings over the mantel.

A simple welcome.

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Uncategorized Tagged With: beadboard, christmas, cottage, cozy, greens, holiday, merry, ornaments, red, scandinavia, scandinavian, tree, white

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

Christmas Craft – Faux Vintage Paper and Pipe Cleaner Candlesticks

October 28, 2013 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

This is the very first one I ever made. Sweet little petite pipe cleaner candle stick.

Oh yes…it’s time (past time, probably) for us bloggers to start sharing Christmas ideas. The first down the pike is a faux vintage candle stick using vintage paper, pipe cleaners and hobby store embellishments. I came up with these a few years ago when I was looking for a hand made way to decorate my small, table top feather Christmas Tree. These are actually fairly simple and a great afternoon project that doesn’t require much in way of materials. Here is what is needed:

2 silver pipe cleaners per candle
glue
strips of paper approximately 2.5″ by 8″, preferably cut with scalloped scissors on the long edges
Christmas themed embellishments

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

xoxo

Pipe cleaners, hobby store holiday embellishments, glue or glue dots and strips of vintage paper.

These looks so pretty in a vintage container.

Here is the general progression. You will end up winding the coil up the corkscrew portion of the pipe cleaner. It acts as the bobeche.

The vintage paper adds a nice mellow touch.

Many different ways to decorate the finished product.

Vibrant reds against the greens looks lovely.

Make each one a little different. That is the fun part!

A pretty little Christmas poinsettia as a holiday flourish.

A tableside vignette that includes holiday blooms in a vintage ironstone pot.

Found at Round Top several years ago, each one of the hand blown ornaments is shaped differently. Kind of like these little pipe cleaner candle sticks!

Another great use for a vintage candy dish.

Strewn about effortlessly makes decorating easy instead of stressful

Hand blown vintage Christmas ornaments.

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Projects Tagged With: antique, candle, candlestick, christmas, cleaner, cottage, county, feather, old, pipe, stick, tree, vintage

Shooting Rubber Bands at the Paper Christmas Stars.

November 6, 2012 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Christmas is on it’s way!

Several years ago, I was particularly industrious and decided I wanted mostly a paper, handmade Christmas. I had some really pretty Christmas paper and my brand new Sizzix machine with a star shaped die cut.

I had a fleeting thought that it would be interesting to sew paper with my sewing machine and as the idea evolved in my head, I decided to sew two like shaped pieces together, add a ribbon for hanging and stuff a little cotton between the two sheets of paper to give it some dimension.

A fairly quick and easy idea that can translate to many ideas and projects. If I do them this year, I will probably use simple Kraft paper and use a more decorative stitch. The idea is only limited by your imagination!

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Tinsel and Paper

Damask Paper Pattern

Pretty Pastels

Florals at Christmas

Christmas Inspiration

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Projects Tagged With: christmas, cottage, country, craft, evergreen, ornaments, paper, sewing, stars, tree

The History of Christmas…The Christmas Tree

November 2, 2012 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Gifts for the tree.

Did you know that the first police force ever created was created in the 1820’s at the behest of the New York City Council in response to a particularly raucous Christmas season riot the year before? Following in the footsteps of early forms of what would evolve into Christmas celebrations, there was a frenzied, criminal element to the celebration that carried over to the United States. While that eventually changed, one thing that has remained the same is the iconic Christmas Tree.

With it’s German roots, an engraving that was printed in London in 1847, then reprinted in a Philadelphia publication three years later in 1850 of the Queen, her husband of German ancestry and her children celebrating around a Christmas Tree, set the standard that remains today: