Vintage Christmas

Blending vintage items with modern décor is like sipping aged wine with a freshly cooked meal. Each lends it's own distinct character while enhancing the other. I've made new pillows from old fabric and photos, repainted furniture to fit my décor and combined wood candlesticks from the 80's with china from the 50's to make colorful serving platters. While I enjoy the fruits of my labors, it is the actual 'making' of the items that provides me with the greatest pleasure.
This Christmas I filled our home with old and new as we look back on the past with fond memories and move forward with dreams of projects yet undiscovered.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

My home is filled with 'earthy' colors that provide a warm background for the timeless, worn colors of  delicate glass ornaments from Christmas past. What stories these graceful objects would tell...if only they could speak!

 

 

 

 

 This chunky, hand carved (in North Carolina!) wood bowl with it's rough, uneven edges provides a dramatic contrast with the clean edges of  vintage 50's ornaments. Most of these were probably made in Poland, Germany or the good 'ol USA!

 

I like to sprinkle my vintage cards around the house as decorative accents. You'll find them propped up with the teacups in my glass-door cupboards and hanging from a red velvet ribbon draped across a large mirror in the dining room. Gosh, they're swell!

 

 

Last summer I found a few rolls of Christmas wrap at a garage sale. It was a lot cheaper than the new stuff and sooooo adorable! Looks like it might be from the 70's.

 

 

 

What else can I say? He's adorable. He holds the candy canes.Vintage 40's or 50's.

 

 

I got this very old (circa turn of the century), VERY heavy (25 lbs.) doll bed at a garage sale for TEN dollars. Repeat...TEN dollars. I painted it pink and made some new bedding. I was quite certain the four year old recipient of this gift was going to be fairly ecstatic when she received it for Christmas. Bingo. Nailed it.

 

 

 And since our little princess bears a striking resemblance to Shirley Temple, I got her the doll from an antique mall. It's not one of the expensive originals, but it is from the 70's. She was in pretty good shape so all I had to do was wash her clothes, hair and a little body scrub and she's just perfect for little hands to cuddle! The last time I looked, Shirley was sharing the bed with four other 'modern' dolls. What a hoot!

 

Lastly, a fond remembrance of a mom who rests in peace this Christmas. Her recipes for meatballs and manicotti has been a tradition for decades and surely will live on, as well as the potential for re-discovering some lost 'secret recipes' stored in her well-worn recipe file.

 

 

 

Click Here for the link to Spumoni Cookies!

 

To see more vintage holiday décor from a previous post, click here

 

 

and now it's time for a

HAPPY NEW YEAR!