Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Eve

I was setting up the dining room for 
Christmas Eve dinner with my family 
and snapped a few photos along the way. 
The centerpiece: 2 Longaberger sleigh 
baskets on wrought iron runners were 
filled with fresh evergreens and ornaments.
 I extended the table with 4 leaves and turned
 it diagonally in the room so that it would fit.
 I can seat 12.
 I love that the extra leaves are stored in
 a compartment inside the table top 
that's accessed when we pull it apart.
 I also have protective table pads that 
are stored in a box in the closet. I needed
 to use 2 red tablecloths and covered 
the center seam with a holly table square.
 The place settings were Spode china, 
my sterling silver flatware, pottery Christmas
 tree napkin rings, and painted goblets.
 Each place setting got one of my 
Christmas salt & pepper sets.
 See them all HERE.
Lots of fresh tree branches lined the 
center of the table. We picked up bags of 
them every time we went to Home Depot. 
The butler's tea cart.
The silver stand has Porsgrund
Hearts and Pines china.
The 'Little Town Of Bethlehem'. I moved 
the three tiered etegere under the window.
It was in the dining room niche before I 
replaced it with my painted buffet
See the before HERE.
 Luckily it just fit. 
 I was able to set it up as I had in the past. 
Now at the other end of the room.
 Under the window.
Evening light.

Cheers!


Saturday, December 22, 2012

Christmas Counters

 The glass flour and sugar canisters get a
 little sparkle with a lighted wreath 
tucked behind them. 
The scoops are Spode tea cups.
 This year I added my Mother's old cookie 
cutters to the wreath.
This counter is to the left of the stove.
This is the right side.
I repurposed empty olive oil bottles and filled 
them with vegetable oil, olive oil, and vinegar. 
 Christmas wine stoppers on top. The old
plaid thermos was found thrifting. I think I
will fill that with hot chocolate sometime soon.
 I pick up hand crocheted pot holders 
whenever I find them in thrift stores. 
They are usually always under $1.00. 
Most of them are just 25 cents. I now 
have a nice little collection of Christmas ones.
Just look at how sweet they are.
 I sometimes find old Christmas tins too. 
A few of the Christmas cookie jars 
sit on top of the refrigerator. 
We've been eating lots of Christmas cookies,
the wonderful homemade kind. 
I know just who is sending cookies 
and I open that package right away. 
Larry takes care of any crumbs.
He sprinkles them on ice cream.
Cheers!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

More Kitchen Cheer

Continuing from my last post, there are a 
few more areas in my kitchen that have 
gotten a little Christmas cheer.
 The hot beverage station got mugged!
 A Longaberger sleigh basket holds cocoa
 packets in the back along with my whisk
 and coffee filters in the front.
 My little thrifted cream pitcher and the 
canister storing  tea bags.
Christmas mugs have become an obsession. 
Last year I used several as 'gift bags'.
I start using the Christmas dishes right after
Thanksgiving. I swap out the Fall dishes and
 bring in two sets; Longaberger Holly
and Spode Christmas Tree.
 I linded the back of the cabinet again like 
I did last year, this time using a large
white snowflake pattern on red.
 I saved the cut out trim from last year too.
 Some of my thrift store Christmas mugs
 are on the top shelf.
You can see a few more Christmas mugs
 hanging on the picket fence mug rack
in the back right side at the end.
The view over the chicken feeder dish rack
into the kitchen. My friends were easily able
to grab a plate last week at my annual 
'Tennis Girlfriend's Christmas Party'

Cheers!


Kitchen Cheer

I like 'A Little Christmas' in my kitchen. 
Fact is, I like a lot of Christmas in my kitchen!
It gives it some holiday cheer.
 On the the kitchen island I'm using a single
 red checked valance that I found for a dollar
 as a runner. The Longaberger lamp has a 
red sweater sleeve covering it's base 
and a Holly fabric lampshade. 
 The red snowflake canister is another dollar
 thrift store find. It's storing the doggies
 cookies. The cute fabric snowman wineglass 
'slipper' coasters were a gift from my niece.
A wreath hangs on the end of the handmade
picket fence tote  storing the bread boards.
Evergreen branches are added to the pot 
rack along with wooden bead and heart 
garland and large copper cookie cutters.
(the pot rack is a salvaged wrought iron
window security guard)
A gingerbread ornament.
Two wreaths hang on the chicken wire
dish pantry doors. Come back for more 
Christmas kitchen in my next post
Until then.......
Cheers!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

J-O-Y Vintage Music Banner

Make a J-O-Y banner using vintage 
Christmas sheet music. If you don't
 happen to have old sheet music you can
 find it on the internet and make copies.
I found free vintage Christmas sheet
music printables  HERE
 I chose three that were similar in design.
 'O Come All Ye Faithful' in image size 
432x640. I enlarged it to 110% .
'Silent Night' in image size 432x640 
enlarged to 110%, and 
 'Jingle Bells' in size 409x600 
enlarged to 115%. 
 Click on image to see more image sizes
 before enlarging and printing
 For printing I used the landscape setting.
 I wanted to get 2 on each page but couldn't
 figure that out as quickly as I wanted so I just
 printed them each on their own page using
 heavy stock paper. Then I cut them out.

I found a font I liked, Curlz MT for the letters.
 I printed those using regular copy paper
in size 450, outline.
 Using carbon paper, I traced the letters onto the music.
 I filled in the letters with a black Sharpie.
First using a thin one for the outline 
and a thick one to fill in.
 I decided to add a little snowy glitter. 
 I just ran a little white glue around the edges
 and sprinkled it with glitter. Let the glue dry 
 then cut 2 slits with a pointy knife and thread 
some sheer shiny ribbon thru the slits to hang.
 See my little silver JOY letters on the lower 
left window pane? I forgot to take those down
 last year...and may forget again this year.
A fun, easy, J-O-Y banner.

Cheers!