The Weather Outside is Frightful & Giveaway

Brrrrr! It's 18 degrees outside right now! You may be hovering in the teens too or colder, but in our neck of the woods, North Carolina, this is about 20 degrees below normal! Brrrr!

My big boy Latte doesn't mind the cold temperatures because he's got a thick fur coat and a sunny spot on the couch where he's taking his morning nap! :)

Over the past couple days I've been sharing our holiday home with you and today I'd like to show you one of my favorite spots in the family room. Apparently, it's Latte's favorite spot right now too! ;) This is the couch I sit on each morning drinking my Starbucks Christmas blend, checking e-mails and gazing at our beautiful tinsel tree.

I love how the sun makes this tinsel tree and ornaments sparkle and casts speckled light on the ceiling!

This snowman and children figurine found at a second hand shop is actually an ornament, but I like to use some of our larger ornaments for decorating. Notice the square milk glass dish below? That's a lovely recent find at a local antique store. Plates like this are harder to find because of their fancy edges that are susceptible to breaking.

This a simple and inexpensive holiday decor idea...a vintage Ball jar filled with jingle bells.

This white doe was a recent purchase at another local antique shop. I believe I only paid about $5 for her. She had a bow around her neck that was too narrow and in bad shape so I replaced it with this silver bow complete with a couple jingle bells.

I made this snowman bottle last year with an empty Prima Flower bottle, rub-ons, and vintage sheet music. If you like him, I have one for sale in my Etsy shop! :)

I love this tiny white wagon. I found it at a flea market for $1! It looks adorable on my table with a couple vintage tags I made placed inside. There's a recipe for Apple Pie Cider on the back. I would love to give one to one of you who leaves a comment on this post. I will draw that name tomorrow morning and announce it on my post!

Here's one of the holiday cards I created this year. I enjoy using my cards, tags and other handmade items to decorate with.

This silver glittered 'JOY' sign was found at Target last year in their Dollar Spot department and I made the little blue snow box from an unfinished birch box you can buy at your local craft store.

As you can see, decorating doesn't have to cost a lot when you use things you make. Remember that thrift shops, flea markets and after holiday sales are a great places to find inexpensive decorating treasures. Another thing to  keep in mind when looking for decorating items is to look for things that will work for all holidays, like ball jars, glass and white pieces, etc.

Now, to announce the winner of yesterday's Helen Keller tag....Sandra Correale of Daily Re-Creation! Congratulations Sandra! I'll be in touch to get your mailing address. Thank you for visiting my blog!

I hope I've helped give you some fun crafting and holiday decorating ideas today. Do you have some you would like to share on your blog? Please leave me a comment and I'll come take a look. :) Kathy

Holiday Festivities

Hi! I hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed some holiday activities. I took the weekend off from crafting and blogging to do some shopping, have a little girl time and run through our first snow! Like a kid I stood there with my tounge out, catching snowflakes. Yummy! They were wet ones!

Here in North Carolina, we get an average of eight inches of snow a year which means that some seasons we don't get any and when we do get some snow, it almost always falls in January and February. This weekend, however, we were surprised with our first snow on December 4th! My girlfriend and I made a little trip to Hillsborough, North Carolina, a quaint little town with some antique shops like The Cottage photographed above.

Here's a photo of the downtown area with the city Christmas tree in view. It really feels like Christmas when snow is falling all around you! When I look at this photo I think of the holiday song, City Sidewalks!

During the past week, while visiting some of your blogs, I've enjoyed seeing your Christmas decorations. I love that blogging and technology allows us to 'visit' one anothers' homes and share our holiday traditions and decor with each other. So today I thought I would share some photos of our Christmas home with you.

Our lovely tree is an eclectic mix of old and new, Hallmark and a few finer hand blown pieces with a Lenox and Waterford or two mixed in. I have one ornament on the tree from my childhood. In 1984, I bought my first Hallmark ornament. Since then every year we've collected ornaments as gifts, we purchased some and I've made many. It's a history of all our Christmases combined.

This year we have an antique sled under the tree. This photo was taken weeks ago before the tree was up, but it shows the sled at a better angle. I can't wait to fill it with some pretty packages. This weekend I found an adorable old metal xylophone to place under the tree too. Isn't it precious? Having old toys under the tree that my husband and I would have played with when we were children evokes magical Christmas memories!

Here are some antique mercury glass ornaments I've been picking up here and there. Some of these are so old they feel like fragile tiny bird eggs!

I thought a photo of them would look appropriate in an old silver tray that needs polishing!

On the top shelf of this built-in bookcase, we have all nine of Christopher's photos with Santa. I love to see how he's grown each year and how he reacted to Santa each year. The middle shelf on the left hand side houses the five plaster buildings I hand painted in the early 1990s.

Here's a close up of the train station. I put many hours of painting into each of these wee buildings. Such fond memories!

I hope you enjoyed visiting with me today as I enjoy having you stop by. I'll be browsing your blogs this week to see your projects, decorations, recipes and activities. Enjoy every minute! :) Kathy