I'm a White Wednesday slacker!

It's been a very long time since I did a white wednesday post but I thought my wedding decor would be appropriate subject material so I'm finally participating. I hope to do better in the future although there is no way I can play each week.



When hubby & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary last January, it occured to me that anybody who has been married for 25 years should celebrate it like a national holiday. ;o) So this year, I pulled out all my wedding collections & displayed them along w/ my winter decor. I have several vintage wedding dresses but I'm only displaying this one as it is the nicest in my collection. I started collecting the dresses, years ago before I even had a granddaughter; for her to, one day, play dress up in them. Sometimes being an obssessive collector pays off! ;o) Caralyn is still not quite big enough to play dress up in them & I'm too big (if you get my drift! LOL) so it's nice to put such a lovely dress to use.



I also have a small collection of porcelain bride & grooms. I'm too cheap to pay the bucks for teh vintage wedding toppers but I do have several vintage couples....not sure if they're figurines are were just cheap toppers. Paired w/ a gorgeous, old lace veil used as a runner, glittered churches & a bottle of bubbly, they make for a nice display that goes w/ the creamy color scheme I have going for winter. Although the pictures suck...sorry! This spot never photographs well.

Thsi little chapel was trimmed out in baby blue (bought it clearance out @ Joann's)....I covered that in silver beads & glitter & then glued a cross to the steeple.

I've had this glittered church for several years now. It gets used frequently...@ Christmas, Easter & our anniversary. I should have gotten a better shot of the bride & groom...they were the first of my collection & are one of my favorites.

Love the fur wine bottle "stole" my sweet daughter-in-law gave me for Christmas! And I ADORE the bride & groom dolls....a recent thrift store find. They're handmade & very well done!

You can't see them but there are tiny little stitches that form her facial & then the features are painted on. This crafter had some talent!!!!

The craftsmanship is remarkable...I just wish they had used a better quality lace for teh dress & shirt.

A giant, "diamond" ring (actually a key ring) nestled in a box....wish I had a rock like that! ;o) Maybe for my 50th!

This is a Jessica McClintock veil I bought @ Halloween this year. Halloween is a good time to find wedding dresses & veils in the thrift stores. They used to be cheap, cheap, cheap but of course the prices have gone up the past few years.

Hope you all enjoyed my wedding whites....stop by Kathleen @ Faded Charm to see more beautiful white vignettes.

A wonderful gift from a friend!

Hi y'all...I wanted to share another piece of art work I recently received. This wasn't part of the art exchange or a swap...it was just given to me by a generous & thoughtful artist. An artist of a different sort; for words are The Muse's medium & she uses them well. I'm a woman of many talents but writing is not one of them so I particularly admire & envy her talent w/ words & descriptive phrases.

I love teh wintry feel of this poem & included it in my winter decor. Thank you so much, Muse...I treasure it & will proudly display it each winter.

Everyone is doing these fairy paper dolls now (Dawn @ The Feathered Nest was the originator, I think) so I jumped on the bandwagon. Doesn't it go well w/ the poem?

The windowsill vignette I created.

And the Muse is a multi-talented artist (as if her prose wasn't enough!) look at the altered tag she also made! It's very well crafted...w/ layers upon layers & w/ a wonderful, waxy feel to it. Thanks again Muse...it's just darling! *grins*

Have y'all heard about the Paper Romance Ezine?

It's put out by Teresa McFayden @ My Minutia.... 12 Valentine projects (one sent out every Mon, Wed & Fri) for $22.95...what a bargain! The first one came out today & I am very excited to get started on it. Today & tomorrow are "Noah days" though so it'll have to wait until Friday.

Come join me in the fun!

Wecome to another Show n Tell Friday!

I wasn't going to post any more Christmas pics but I'm so proud of the putz houses I made that I wanted to show them off, so I'm attending Cindy's Show n Tell blog party today. I bought the houses @ Goodwill (3 for $2.99! I got a BUNCH of them) but they were in dark colors & weren't decorated. (you can see a before shot of one in this post. )

I sprayed them white & then dolled them up w/ glitter, vintage wrapping paper & Christmas doo-dads. This one, I dusted w/ faux snow & trimmed out w/ mini-pompom fringe...hanging a chenille wreath over the front door. I created a Christmas diorama on the glittered cake pedestal I made...added a tiny Santa & sleigh, bottle brush trees & Rudolph.

I neglected to get a close-up of that one but here's Rudolph in front of it. I just brushed red polish on a baby deer's nose....isn't he cute?

The roof on this one is totally glittered but it doesn't show up in teh pic. I wish that I had also glittered the walls. The Santa boots & hats were intended as mini tree ornaments.... I just cut the hangers off & used them on teh house. The "frosty" branches I cut off a garland I no longer use. Sure am glad I hang onto everything! And check out the smoke coming out of the chimneys...it's just polyfill stuffing.

Instead of using vintage wrapping paper on the roof of this one, I covered it in that sparkly faux snow. I also swagged a chenille garland & made teeny, tiny metallic bows. I bought a whole herd of tiny reindeer awhile back & glittered one up to stand sentry at the front door.

Some of you may remember seeing the Halloween putz house I also made....it was featured in a previous Show n Tell post. You can see it here. I LOVE making these houses...I already have several more painted & ready to be decorated. I plan on doing one for Valentine's & several for Easter. And I want to make several more for next Christmas. This year, I'm being smart & packing up all my Christmas crafting supplies into one bin & keeping it in teh house. Having to wait until all the Christmas stuff is unpacked & put up to craft is a major hindrance....by then, the season is in full swing & I don't have time. I don't knwo why I haven't thought of it before. DUH!!!!

Also, several of you commented on the vintage battery case in my previous post. Isn't that cool? It was a $5 thrift find, several years ago. The only reason I know what it is, is because I saw one like it in a magazine. I always assumed it was for a car battery or something (hard to believe I'm married to a mechanic, huh? LOL) but recently learned that they were used for houses in rural areas (in the 20's & 30's) before electricity had been run out that far. They used several of them, kept them on racks & powered them w/ a gasoline generator. You learn something new every day!

Have a great weekend everybody! Stay warm....Texas normally has a very mild climate, even in January, but it's been down in the teens the past couple of days. BRRRRRRR!!! Wonder if my winter decorating had anything to do w/ bringing that on. ;o)

Christmas around my house....

I know I promised to keep the photos to a minimum & there's still a lot here but you should see how many I didn't post. ;o) I didn't use any of my close-ups & I didn't even get pics of lots of stuff. Either time or lighting conditions just weren't available. You can click on any picture & enlarge to see the details though.

Do you see the frame stands that I posted about in my last Junkin' Monday post...don't they look good? It's hard to read because of teh glare but I printed out JOY for them on toile paper. Red toile was the theme for this year, I used it a lot. Under the dome is a vintage porcelain Jesus from a nativity set. I kept the rest of the set packed up.


I put thsi nativity scene inside an old glass battery case.

I made an altered spoon featuring Rudolph but I never could get a good shot of it.

Some of you might recognize both these pieces from past thrifting posts. The candelabras were brass & the frames were a cheap plastic...both got make-overs.

The Christmas day dinner table. The only table I did thsi season...just didn't have the time.

I employed the glass battery case & filled it w/ ornaments as part of teh centerpiece.

Caeden gave me the silver tray for my birthday...he bought it at teh Christmas shop @ school. I will treasure it always even though it's just an el-cheapo one.

I made tussie mussies for the kids, filled them w/ marshmallows & chocolates & hung them from the chandelier.

I found the white Santa mugs right after Christmas last year.

This vignette doesn't look much different from last year's although I used shredded sheet music instead of red bead garlands in the apothecary jars. You can get a better look at the vintage porcelain angels (except for glittery signs etc all of my Christmas decorations are vintage) inside teh jars in this post from last year .

LOVE this Santa face!

Remember the champagne bucket from my last Junkin' Monday post...here it is. Made a mighty fine display for some vintage tree toppers, didn't it?

My vintage Santa collection. I scored a couple more since this pic ws taken & I've bought a new hutch to house them all, for next year. As soon as it warms up, it's getting a coat of white paint & I'll share it w/ you all.

I did find time to make some Christmas cottages this year. I love them & plan on making many more. Next year, my mantel will be a Christmas village....full of putz houses made by me. You can click on teh picture & it'll get really big & then you can see the details of teh houses. I didn't want to take up space w/ the close-ups. I used vintage wrapping paper for the roofs on a couple. Gee, I wonder how many times I will use the word "vintage" in this post. LOL

Somebody moved that bottle brush tree (made them last year) in front of the etched Santa portrait I received in the art exchange & I didn't notice it until after the picture was taken. It's been driving me nuts...I keep wanting to move it back. Like I have the real vignette umpteenth times over the holiday season. *rolls eyes*

I knwo I said no close-ups but I had to share Rudolph w/ you though...he's so cute!

I love my tree....I just wish the ceilings were high enough to put it in an urn. I'd fill the urn w/ overflow ornaments & it would be just perfect. *sigh* Anyway, I love the flocking (my mother always had one) & how it is laden w/ornaments...most of them vintage but some are new from The Old World collection. My kids give me some every year for my birthday (they have too...I insist LOL) but I never put the new ones on the tree the year I recieve them, since my birthday is only 6 days before Christmas. I forget what I have been given & then when I unpack them the following year, it's like an early Christmas present. :o) You can see close-ups of many of the ornaments in this post from last year .

Thsi was the everyday table, although I tweaked it quite a bit since this shot was taken. I added red bead garland & a cut glass candy jar, full of red hots. Again, you can see more of my vintage Santa mugs in this post from last year .

Ok, that's it....welll that's not really it, I still have lots of photos & even some vignettes that never got photographed but I don't want to take up any more of y'alls time. It really sucks that this year's decor was my favorite & I didn't get to share much of it w/ y'all. Oh well, it'll be even better next year! ;o)