The Cozy Old "Farmhouse": 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas Home Tour {Sort Of}

I say "sort of" becuase the home tour mainly consists of just the living room. I threw in 2 pictures from the kitchen, and 2 of the porch, but the rest are in the living room. I have a bit more decor here and there throughout the house, but it's not worth blogging about. A few of these you might have seen in previous posts, but I added them in just to complete the tour.

So this is the view, slightly to the right, when you walk in the front door.

We don't have a fireplace or mantle so this shelf that I've had for years has to make do. I found the semi-circular punched tin wall hanging at an antique store in NC when we lived there. Not sure that's it's actually antique, I think it's probably a handcrafted item someone was selling in their booth.

My mom got me both of the Santa's on the ends of the shelf, and the stockings were from Home Goods I believe.

I'm sitting here laughing at myself. Notice anything missing from the shelf? I "borrowed" the greenery to the right of the candle to use in another picture to fluff it up a bit more. Then later decided I needed to retake the picture of this area, and completely forgot to add the greenery back in. I'm ~~too lazy~~ under too much of a time crunch to retake the pictures a 3rd time. Just laugh with me and pretend it's there.

This little guy is one of my favorites.

A friend of mine gave me this set of mini frames a few years ago. Each one has a different picture cross stitched on it. She did good, I love 'em.

I changed the crates/end table up a bit at the end of the couch, and added my Nativity scene to it along with some fresh greenery, fake berries, and white lights. Two Father Christmas's adorn the ends.

I don't remember where I got the primitive star, I've had it for many years. But they're not hard to make, I made a larger one, out of sticks and fabric strips, to be a primitive tree topper for our Christmas tree a few years ago. The Nativity was a store-closing-clearance-buy I got the summer before I got married. Or maybe it was the summer after I got married. Who knows.

I love how the crates add a bit of authenticity to the humbleness and rusticness of His birth.

Then, to the right of the large couch we have this view.

A lady in our church in NC cross stitched the Father Christmas picture above the couch for me. It's amazing.

I tied a scarf that I don't wear much around one of the throw pillows to add some wintery festivity. And the kids' talking Christmas bear toy sits at the other end of the couch for easy access.

Our vintage themed tree sits in front of the main window to the right of the loveseat.

Go here if you'd like to see more detailed pictures of the tree.

Just to the right of the tree is this view.

I made this candle holder out of an old wooden firken type container that came from my grandfather's farm, a punched tin cylinder thingy-ma-bob I picked up at a yard sale for .25, and some greenery and berries.

Here's the coffee table. (You can read about it's makeover here.) I got the red truck from Hobby Lobby during one of their 50% off sales. It's on my "bucket list" to own a real one just like it some day. The picture frames hold a picture of the kiddos from last Christmas and a picture of their Meemaw and Papaw sledding.

This is my arrangement....

...and apparantly my 4 year old daughter has inherited the decorating bug becuase this is her arrangement, lol! She added characters from her Nativity set to it. It was so cute and it made me laugh when I discovered it.

On the other side of the room sits the computer desk. I enjoy using Christmas books as decor, and set up this little display on top of the desk. Notice that I cropped out the desk itself. No way am I showing that hot mess!

Above the desk....even Hubby's wild boar hog gets a dash of Christmas.

Beside the desk sits this vignette with a vintage tree that came from my husband's grandmother sitting on top of an old rusty-ish metal container that has sentimental value to us, and some reindeer I found at Home Goods a couple of years ago (along with fresh greenery of course.)

The tree gives off a pretty little glow.

This shelf is in the kitchen above the table. I took out the Cracker Jack tin that normally sits there and added the Father Christmas one. Also took out some of the normal soda bottles and added in an extra green one or two for some festive colorfulness. A dash of greenery and berries completes it.

This area is the top of the refrigerator. I covered up the yellow pot the geraniums are in by placing it down in a galvanized pail. I turned the RC Cola crate up right and added a vintage style sign to it. An old milk bottle with faux berries inside and some greenery finish it off.

I know I already posted about the porch decor, but I figure now I have all the Christmas decor posted in one place.

This bicycle basket "wreath" is on the front door.

Read about it here.

And in one corner of the porch I set up this simple, rustic style display.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

A Vintage Christmas Tree

Growing up, my family and my husband's family were very different when it came to Christmas. His family had the same tree every year, colored lights, all of their hodge podge of ornaments, and TONS of icicles/tinsel; and they weren't big on traditions. My family on the other hand ended up with many traditions, and we enjoyed changing up the theme of our tree over the years. We always had a few ornaments that were special to us that always went on the tree, no matter the theme, but overall it often looked different from year to year.

So, Hubby and I had to find a way to compromise. Our solution? He doesn't mind me implementing traditions from my childhood, as long as I don't become to uptight about them or get stressed out if they don't get done just right. He's a very low stress, casual kinda guy. As for the tree, we alternate years. One year I choose the theme, and the next year he gets to pick. It's worked very well so far for the 10 Christmases we've been married.

This year was my year and I chose to do a vintage tree.

Over the past year I've been collecting ornaments, most of them bought on the cheap at yard sales, estate sales, flea markets, etc. I found the vintage style light strands at a yard sale, and even have authentic vintage foil icicles.

The other addition that I am LOVING is the bubble lights. I found reproduction ones at Hobby Lobby. I can remember my granny having these on her tree when I was little and I remember just sitting and staring at them and being so fascinated by them. Actually, they were the inspiration for the whole vintage tree.

I never did buy a vintage topper, so I just used the one that we always put up when it's Hubby's year.

I didn't come up with a "vintage" type tree skirt either, just used one I already had.

See that little stuffed rocking horse in the back left corner? My grandma made those for me and some of the other grandkids years ago, and it's very special to me. It always has a place at Christmas time.

Here's a boat load of pictures of some of the more interesting ornaments I was able to find. If you love vintage, you'll get an eyeful here!

This is the one I paid the most money for. I found it at an antique store
while we were on a trip to Iowa. I think I paid $6 for it.

I got a set of 4 of these big ol' ones at an estate sale for about $8.
They're big, probably about the size of a softball or so.

These were part of a box of misc. ones I found at flea market for $1/box!

The beloved bubble lights!

More of the $1/box set.

My aunt sent me a box of ornaments that had several of these cute lil' guys in it.

This is one of my favorites, it has a little miniature winter wonderland inside of it.

More of the $1/box set.

I think this one was from the same estate sale as the large ones seen earlier.
I think I paid about $1.50 for a box of several different ones.

This one came from a yard sale for .10.

Authentic foil icicles - paid .50 for the box.

Oops, how'd this cute lil' guy sneak in here? : )
This is my 15 month old.

My husband asked me how much I think I have invested in the tree. I figured it up the best I could and I think it's around $30 or so. Not a bad investment for a fun, retro, memory inducing tree.

The one thing I wish I would have done differently would be to have sprayed the tree with fake snow before decorating it. I think the whiter tones would have been a better background for all the various colors of the vintage ornaments and would have made them stand out and shine a bit better.

But I've really enjoyed it and I'm glad I did it.

(The majority of the ornaments will be up for sale after Christmas, so if anyone is interested in them let me know!)

Linking up to:

A Christmas Tree Party - Thrifty Decor Chick

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday - Coastal Charm

Thursday, December 8, 2011

A Little of My Rustic Christmas Decor

Is everyone having a good Christmas season thus far? I know we are. Having small children really brings back the excitement and joy of it all. Our 4 year old is full of anticipation for the advent calendar each day and excited for there to be presents under the tree soon. The 1 year old is fascinated and entranced by the twinkling Christmas lights. It's so cute to watch him sit and stare and say his own little version of "wow."

Anyways, I wanted to share a bit more of my Christmas decor this year. (You can see my rustic "wreath" that I'm absolutely loving here.)

I put together this little rustic "junky" candle holder, and I really like how it turned out.

The old wooden firken type container came from my grandfather, it was from his farm. The punched tin thingy-ma-bob was from a yard sale, I picked it up for .25 or so. I have no idea what it was originally for, but I immediately saw it as a candle holder. I added in a few sprigs of fresh greenery, leftover from trimming the tree, and a few faux berries to add some color.

It's sitting on my vintage suitcase table, along with a Christmasy fabric coaster. A must have for all those mugs of hot chocolate and yummy holiday flavored coffee.

It gives off a perfectly rusty glow.

The other little bit I wanted to share is the corner of our porch where I put together this display.

The "gate" and the star were $1.50 for both at a church rummage sale, the skates were $1 at a yard sale, the mini-tree was .50, and the minnow bucket was $4 at the Restore. (I still have the insert that goes inside it that I want to use elsewhere.)