Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Hope you had a Blessed and happy day.

I couldn't resist this Santa! The face is awesome.  It's new to my collection. I went to work at the Carriage House one day and there he was.  He came home with me.

Here are a few more pictures of holiday decorating in my house.  I take the tree down around January 1st but leave the other decorations up until January 7 which is my Eastern Orthodox Christmas. 

The tree looks so nice when it glows.

There's one lone present under the tree.  The boys wrapped my present and then left it for me days before Christmas.  So sweet.

Love this blow mold Santa. He looks great on my front porch.

The weekend before Christmas there was an estate sale not far from me.  Of course I couldn't resist. I didn't get to any sales in December so it was time.

The sale was well worth it. I found many great items. 

I'm taking all the Christmas items out of my space at the Carriage House this weekend. The first week of January my items will be discounted 20% to clear out the space so that I can bring in fresh items. I love revamping my space! I have found so many great things that I can't wait to bring in. I spent some time today planning for it.

I will be updating my list of favorite flea markets with dates/times in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned....

Happy New Year! May your year be Blessed, full of happiness and good health.

Happy treasure hunting!

Some More Christmas Decorating

I keep finding ways to add more decorating to what I thought was my finished holiday decor.  Some of the pieces are just too nice to put away.

Santa looks cute next to the hammered aluminum and the floral basket is just too nice to not display. I keep the angel planter out all year long. (minus Santa of course)

I like the simple look of the silver tinsel tree with the hammered aluminum pitchers.

Here's another look at one of my aluminum tinsel trees with vintage ornaments.

This one is decorated with vintage figure ornaments. There's that awesome Santa that I found this year sitting nearby.

We have a real tree every year, that we purchase at Menards. The past two years the trees have been picked over on Thanksgiving weekend.  We managed to find this one that was really healthy still. I decorate this tree with craft ornaments, ornaments the boys made, ornaments from our vacations and just ones that I like. I usually buy a few new ones every year. This year I did get rid of quite a few.

Here's another angle look of my "trees".

A few weeks ago at an estate sale, I bought ten cement planters.  This is the one that I'm keeping. Sometimes I get ideas out of the blue and this was one of them. I usually display a pitcher/wash bin on my buffet but I decided that the planter filled with vintage shiny brites would look better. I put a ribbon decoration next to it for a more festive look. (The ribbon was a topper on a package that we just got. I like to keep the packaging to use in other ways. It's my favorite part of the gift.)

Another idea that I got was from looking at Facebook last night. This is my version of a gumball machine snow globe.  I had my mom's gumball machine put away for years in my cabinet. I used it for candy when the boys were young but haven't since. I had all of the decor displayed throughout my living room/hallway, so I just walked around and found the ones that I thought would look best inside of it. It's super cute and was so easy to make. I'm planning to use it for the other holidays as well.

Enjoy your decorating and keep looking for those sales. Happy treasure hunting!

Christmas Decorating

Hope you had a blessed and peaceful Thanksgiving.  This was the first time in a while that it was only the four of us.  So, I decided to begin my Christmas decorating and it turned out to be one of the best Thanksgivings ever.

I happened to see this dress form tree in a store but in a champagne color and knew that it would be perfect in my house.  Except I didn't know that it was sold out at Sam's Club and was selling for around $400 on Ebay.  At my local Sam's Club, they happened to have this green one in stock and I thought it was great also, so it came home with me.  It's super cute.  (I know I will find the other one at a garage sale next year). 

I am hosting Christmas this year and wanted to go way out (I always do anyway), but this "tree" was the perfect addition.

Up went my three miniature aluminum tinsel trees.

This one has vintage glass ornaments.

This one has figures, mostly pixies this year.  It was hard to choose a few to put on the tree but if I used my whole collection, the tree would have fallen over!

This is my Santa tree. It's the smallest aluminum tree that I have.

Over the years I have fallen in love with vintage Christmas corsages. What a surprise to see how many I had in my collection. I had them in different boxes so when I began to combine them, I was overjoyed at how many wonderful ones I had. They are so awesome!

I found fun places to put Santa.  I have a large collection of Santa's also and couldn't use all of them.  I didn't have enough room!

I added to my pinecone collection after visiting the Antique Shops of Ridgefield during their Holiday Open House this weekend. Douglas had the glittery one in his display which I just had to have. 

The Santa on the bottom is a revolving musical one.

Some of these trees were gifts and some of them I made. The green one in front is one that I made and one of my favorites.

I decorated the little cars. Each year I make a few and each year I keep one.

I could only fit so many on a shelf so the rest had to stay in boxes until next year. I try to put out different ones each year to enjoy.  It's hard to choose which ones to put out since my collection is pretty large.

This simple display is super cute! The sleigh is a Westmoreland milk glass sleigh.  I keep the miniature ornaments in it year round and just store it in my china cabinet. I love the plush reindeer and I have them in different colors.

Love that elf stocking. I have a hard time passing up those pixies.

I kept my fireplace mantle kind of simple. The mantle is really long so I try to make each section work together.

I really loved that Believe banner.  I found it at Steinmart in Algonquin. The plaid reindeer is a new addition this year from TJMaxx. I found that plaid dressform at JO-Ann Fabrics a few years ago.  They go together well.

We will be getting our tree in a few weeks. I like to do a pre setup before we get the tree so I'm not overwhelmed with decorating. It takes me two days to set up without the tree. So when we get the tree, I can just focus on decorating it.

As I was going through my collections, I came across a few bags of pinecone figures.  Those I decided to part with and are now in my space at the Carriage House.  (I actually parted with quite a few decorations this year).

They look so nice with the jalopies that I put together.

Dec. 2-3 is the Holiday House Walk in Union/Marengo. I have never been to this but it sounds like fun.

Happy treasure hunting!

Holiday Open House

This week has been a whirlwind of Holiday Open Houses. First was the Shops on Pepper Road in Barrington. It was so much fun with lots of holiday finds and food.

Then, I have been setting up all week for the open house at the Carriage House. Yesterday was the first day.

I had so many vintage ornaments that I filled up a bassinet!

There is a huge selection of vintage Christmas pins.

I put the pins on flash cards so that they were easier to handle and to see.  They fit nicely in a primitive carry all.

Here was my creative way to display the reindeer. Super cute!

Lots of vintage greeting cards. On the top shelf are trees that I designed. Below the shelf are jalopies with Santa's driving that I also designed.

That's a really cute Santa bobble head like decoration.

Another creative way to display Christmas picks. The reindeer work perfectly in the milk glass vase.

The vintage coat pairs well with the vintage dress.  My space is really packed with vintage Christmas but the customers loved it! Yesterday was the first day and it was so crowded. We couldn't have been happier that our tastes were loved and appreciated by so many. It's so much fun looking for treasured items that bring happiness to others as much as finding them bring to us.

I managed to fit it all in!

As items sold, I was able to replenish with vintage boxed ornaments. I find these treasures all year long and price/store them in bins. Opening each bin is like Christmas to me! I'm amazed at what's inside each one.

So tomorrow, a few friends are going with me to the 3 French Hens Holiday Market in Morris. I'm really excited for this one!

Happy treasure hunting!

A Few New Additions

I know. I said that I wasn't buying anything for myself.  Well, that all changed recently when I found this....a Westmoreland milk glass rabbit covered dish.

So, I rearranged my cabinet, reduced my head vase collection, and redisplayed the treasures that I was keeping. (for now) I had been collecting head vases for at least 20 years and felt that it was time to let go of some of them. My whole thing with my collections has been that if it doesn't bring me joy, out it goes. Otherwise, it just becomes clutter.

While at an estate sale in a Victorian home, I found this wonderful jeweled basket made from vintage costume jewelry pieces.

I had been looking for something like this for a long time that was reasonably priced.  It came home with me!

Once again, I rearranged my collections and found a nice prominent spot for it.  That's what is so nice about treasure hunting. You can mix and change constantly whenever something "new" comes along. I love that part of it!

My fun "new" finds along with my "old" finds.

Complete for now!

I can't promise that I won't keep any more finds.  Especially since I kept him....

How could I not? I had never seen anything like him and that face was too cute to let go. He will be a part of my vintage Christmas decor.

I have been really busy getting everything together for the Carriage House Holiday Open House November 9-12. 

This is always an exciting Open House. It is vintage Christmas wonderland!

This Friday and Saturday is the Christmas at the Farm with Nellie's Barn Sale in Belvidere IL. It is always a fun sale! 3 French Hens market in Morris IL is November 10-11. There are so many wonderful holiday markets coming up. I am interested in Jen's Fresh Vintage holiday market in Elburn, IL and Washington Street Holiday Market in Naperville, IL. I have not been to them but would love to.

Happy treasure hunting!

Reorganizing

Always at this time of year, I get the crazy energy to reorganize, or should I say to purge my collections. It happened again this week. Maybe it's because I have started volunteering in a local thrift store a few times a month and am busy filling their shelves with donated merchandise.

Of course, this was my busiest week so that's where the extra energy probably came from.  I really wanted to reduce my milk glass collection, so I started there.

There is so much more room in this cabinet for colored glass and more hammered aluminum. At least you can see the pieces now.

It really has been reduced from previous pictures. Before pieces were on top of each other. Now only a few small pieces are.  I purposely left some bare areas in case I find another piece that I just have to buy.

I have two cabinets filled with my milk glass collection.  This one was paired down too and some hammered aluminum has been added.  The bottom left side has a hammered aluminum covered dish on top of a milk glass cake plate.  I just found that Arthur Armour piece in Lake Geneva and was so thrilled! It's really awesome.  I am trying to limit my hammered aluminum collection to only certain makers so as not to get too carried away.  I have been really good so far but a few pieces have snuck in.

My tastes have been changing so I'm sure there will be another day of purging my milk glass collection. But for now I'm done.  Not with my other collections though.  I cleaned out my room of some vintage planters and even decided to sell my collection of dog planters that I had lined up on the basement window ledge.  I have kept that area with frog planters and a few farm animals.  Some of those planters will be regifted to friends I know would love them.

Garage sales are winding down but the Crystal Lake Antique Mall is celebrating their 5th anniversary this weekend with a flea market in their parking lot on Saturday.

Holiday sales are just getting started. There's a Country Christmas craft show in Crystal Lake this weekend.  I really like this one. There is a nice selection with a few primitive looking craft makers. There is a 3 French Hens Holiday Market November 10-11 in Morris. I have never been to this one but a few friends are making a day of it with me. I'm super excited about that! My favorite, Mistletoe Magic in Woodstock, is cancelled this year. I was told it will be back next year. Stay tuned.

Happy treasure hunting!