Saturday's Finds...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This was the first year, in more years than I can remember, that I had both my sisters and my brother (and their families) here for the holiday. My oldest sister lives in Virginia but recently bought a house two streets east of us so they moved some of their belongings in on Wednesday. Since she doesn't get to do much treasure hunting, Saturday I took her to a few shops Tom and I discovered last summer...for those of you in MN there's a stretch along highway 8 between Forest Lake and Taylors Falls with quite a few really good shops...My sister filled up my truck with her finds and this is what I brought home... Never can have too much vintage lace and millinery! I'm a BIG collector of religious (christian) memorbilia and my niece, Madison, surprised me with the vintage crucifix in the bottom right corner. I've been looking for a composition doll for quite some time and found this one in a box with another doll and 5 doll heads for $15...she needs a little work but the price was too good to pass up! Some of the doll heads will be perfect for spooking my niece Jordan...one of them just might end up under her bed (don't worry, she's 14 so it's not as mean as it might sound)!

And here's another journal I made for myself. I've got about five of them now (one of my New Year's "plans" is to keep journals)...I can't decide just how I'm going to do it, I might use one journal for each quarter of the year. It would be nice if I could just wing-it but I must have a touch of OCD because everything has to be carefully thought out and planned. We'll see what happens!

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday break. Sebastian and I got out to play in the 14 inches of snow that fell over the past couple days...it's back to work for me for a few days before the New Year's celebration.

Journaling

I wasn't lucky enough to attend Silver Bella but I was lucky enough to find some wonderful blogs with pictures showing all the treasures that were made during some of the Silver Bella 2009 classes. Since one of my goals for 2010 is to journal more I was happy to find these and these and decided to make my own...here are the final products...

Hopefully one of these years I'll actually get to attend Silver Bella but for now I'm content just dreaming about it.

Well there is only one day left before the festivities of Christmas begin at our house so this will be my last post until then. Merry Christmas to you and yours! I hope Santa brings you everything you wish for!

More 25 Days of Christmas...

Shelby took her last two finals yesterday and I'm waiting for her to finish up at the University so I can make the two-hour trip to pick her up. She doesn't start her next term until the end of January so she needed to give her dorm room a thorough cleaning since she'll be away for so long (and knowing what a messy girl she is this may take a few hours!) While I'm waiting I thought I'd post days 11 through 18 from my 25 Days of Christmas album...
On day 13 I baked...and baked...and baked. I did something a little different this year and used an envelope as the page...I put the picture and the journaling on the front and tucked all the cookie recipes inside for safe keeping. If this album holds up for a few centuries it'll be fun to think my great great grandchildren can bake the same cookies I did.
On Day 14 I addressed all the Christmas cards and used an extra one for that day's "posting"...journaling is on the back of the card.
On the 17th we went to visit Santa...the year we all got our picture taken with him (except for Shelby who was preparing for finals at the University). I didn't glue the picture to background paper, I just punched holes in it and used it as it's own page...here's the back...

I still have 7 more days to go and this album is so thick I think I'm going to need bigger rings to bind it!

It's Beggining to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Thought I'd share a few pictures of my holiday decorating...

This is the advent calendar I made last year with all the little baubles I've collected from flea markets, garage sales and antique shops.

The tree is trimmed, the stockings are hung, the cookies are baked...all that's left is the wrapping. I wonder if Santa can send a few elves over to help with that?

And The Winner Is..

Thanks to all who participated in my Christmas giveaway. The winning name, drawn by my 8 year old, is SHE DREAMS BIG who left a comment on December 5th.

Please email me your address and I'll get your goodies shipped out to you right away. (rrydel68@yahoo.com)

Thanks for playing along!

The First 10 Days...

Here are the first 10 days in my 25 Days of Christmas album...

The only reason I have two covers is becuase I got these great vintage luncheon plates at an estate sale and wanted to use one somewhere in this album...it ended up on top of the original cover... Day one was Sebastian's Lego Advent Calendar...which is turning out to be well worth the money...he's getting some really cute little goodies each day!

For day 5, I used some clear sports card holders (from Tom's vast collection) and slipped two vintage tags into the pockets...this is a view of the front of the tags...

and this is a view of the back of the tags...
The journaling for Day 6 is on the back of the Merry bingo card...

We're off to get our Christmas tree at the cutest little tree farm in Lake Elmo...my family ALWAYS had a real tree when I was growing up and Tom's never wanted one but this year he really didn't get a say. I can't wait until the entire house smells of pine!

Finally...Virus Free!

Whew! Three computer gurus and four anti-malware/virus software downloads and my computer is finally virus free. Now I have to frantically play catch-up with my 25 Days of Christmas album since I haven't been able to print my pictures...I'm hoping to post pictures of the first 10 days of my album on Friday (however that might be wishful thinking!) Here are some pictures of Tom's and my weekend getaway to historic St. Charles and Geneva, Illinois...love the houses in these two little towns (not to mention the antique shops)...

In St. Charles they've converted many houses from the 1800's into shops...like this one.
And there were gorgeous churches literally on every corner (couldn't avoid the ugly powerlines in this picture)

Geneva had quite the Christmas festival going on all weekend, Santa Lucia arrived by horse drawn carriage and Santa Clause arrived soon after she did. These old time carolers were roaming about singing Christmas carols and many home owners opened up their historic and festively decorated houses during the home tour. We really had a good time!
On Sunday we headed to the Kane County flea market and antique show...got there an hour after it opened and many vendors still hadn't arrived (hope we didn't miss anything good)...unfortunately, this flea market was rather disappointing.
Here is what I came home with...

Christmas ephemera...

And I can never pass up a vintage Jesus...

Check out the sequined mushroom ornament, reminds me of the ornament kits we used to make when we were kids...
I found a few great valentines to add to my collection.
And a couple of bottle brush wreaths with great tarnished glass ornaments. We also found a very unusual vintage mahogany standing humidor with a little door that opens to a tin inside which used to house the tobacco and cigars.

Infected Computer...

I'd love to post some pictures for you...Tom and I went away for the weekend, left the kids home alone (for the first time) and someone was on a site they probably shouldn't have been on and infected my computer...We've downloaded two different anti-virus softwares but nothing seems to be fixing it. Tom's in Detroit at his friends funeral so my computer guru isn't here to help, we're trying to communicate via text messaging but I'm at my wits end. I printed a copy of the warning I'm getting that's blocking me from every website I try to access so I'll bring it to work tomorrow and see if our IS Department can help me. We literally just bought this thing and paid a pretty hefty price...if it's ruined two of my children are in serious trouble! In the meantime, I can post from one of Tom's work laptops but that's about all I can do. Keep your fingers crossed!

Sick Days...

My 8 year old and I have been feeling pretty crummy since the Saturday after Thanksgiving...his cold seems to be fading while my seems to be getting worse, I've even lost my voice which isn't any fun at all. Here are some things I've been working on in between naps(although the progress has been very very slow!)...

A blue knitted bear for Sebastian...all I have left are the legs but I think I'm going to attempt to knit the clothes that the bear is wearing since those patterns are also in this fantastic book. A Christmas album for all the "Pictures with Santa" my kids have taken over the years...I'm making this from an old vintage file folder that I found in the "free" bin at a garage sale...
and this mini album showing pictures of Christmases past...these pictures include the ones from when my grandparents were young children, when my mother and uncles were young and when my siblings and I were very young. I love these pictures because it's so fun to see all the old decorations, the trees that were just swimming in tinsel and how my mother used to hang the stockings on the wall...with a nail...just pounded in the middle of the wall...it's so funny.

With all the concentration on getting rid of this awful cold I have I almost forgot to begin my "25 Days of Christmas" album but I remembered just in time. I'll post pictures of how that's coming along next week...Tom and I are off for a little weekend getaway, just the two of us. Hopefully I'm feeling better tomorrow!