It's a Give Away!

I've decided to have a give away a week until Christmas!

For this week, I made these little matchboxes full of tiny goodies for a give away to get into the Christmas spirit. Please leave a comment about what gets you into the Christmas spirit and you'll be signed up for the give away. I'll pick 2 winners on Wednesday! It's pretty amazing how much you can stuff into a little bitty matchbox.

Box #1

Box #2

This bottle cap Santa pendant is also up for grabs if you visit the Spooky Time Jingles or Jingle All The Way Home and tell me what your favorite piece is you'll be signed up for it! It hangs from a 16 inch silver ball chain that comes with it.

Christmas Shopping.......

Hey kids! Head on over to Jingle All The Way Home to check out one of a kind pieces of decorative folk art! What else do you have to do today????

Red and Green ATCs.....

ATCs in RED and GREEN

3 Pines in the Moonlight..........

Believe in Him......he believes in you so be good!


Dorthy's Very Own Rudolph...........



The Mistro's Merry Fro......

The Mistro drank a little too much brandy before the holiday concert and decided to do "a little something festive" to his hair. He insisted that everyone call it his "Merry Fro". All concert goers enjoyed the holiday chamber music but where only able to see the tuba players due to The Mistro's Merry Fro.


Peace on Earth........if only......

The Old Boy of Joy


Rejoice!
Percy was not in the rejoicing mood as his brother Reginald ate his candy cane, broke his new motor car toy and tried to give him a wedgie!

Constance and Meridith Wish You A Happy Holiday!

Yes the ladies went hat shopping and I believe they found what they were looking for....jaunty, no nonsense, holiday hats that screamed "pour me an eggnog, I'm ready to party"!

Holiday Vogue Style

Simone thought she was the hippest Holiday cat around even with her eyes stuck to the right!

Christmas in California 1939.....

The wreath is made with a new product called "flower soft".

Snow predicted........time for a sleigh ride?

So it's going to get colder this weekend and we might see some snow! In the spirit of traveling in the snow, open air style, I created these tags. I've never had a ride in a sleigh pulled by a horse, but I'd like to give it a try someday!

Let the decorating begin..........

I started decorating on Sunday and finished the pie safe tonight! This is the earliest I've ever decorated. I won't put up my tree until after Thanksgiving.

I made foam core board collages to line the back of the pie safe shelves to give the display a colorful backdrop, then I can remove them when I pack away the decorations.

The inside of the safe is filled with a collection of celuloid Santas, some things I've made and some things I've bought. The 3 paintings on the inside of the door were done a few years ago by me and the top one is an exact replica of my mom and dad's barn. I did the paintings on pieces of poplar wood with acrylics. Decorating the pie safe is the highlight of my seasonal decorating because I love everything that's in it! I hope you enjoy the pictures of it!

I'm feeling Christmasy.........

This is Max the elf and his black lab named Jingles. They are a team. Max is in charge of stuffing the envelopes with Christmas cards and Jingles licks the envelopes to seal them with his giant red tongue! The image of the little boy and the dog are from the George Edward Anderson Collection. He was a photographer at the turn of the century working mainly out west in the Salt Lake City area.

Hey look! I started to decorate for Christmas already! This is the earliest I've ever started to decorate.

My mom and I went to a neat little shop called Time and Again for the Holiday Open House on Saturday. I got this bling-bling...........

this cool old coffee can....................

and this children's book from 1951..........

Aren't those illustrations just precious! I love childen's book from the 50s and 60s. Look at the price of the book, it was 29 cents! I payed $2 for it.

Those Crazy 1950s!

I know, I know.......2 posts in one day........that's crazy! But I've been using some crazy images in my new set of tags. I love the two colors of aqua and red together for Christmas......it has such a 50s retro look and I use those 2 colors a lot in my paper art.

These tags are available at Jingle All The Way Home.

The "space age" Santa is from the cover of a Capital Christmas album. Isn't he cute?!


Oh my! Wouldn't you just love to know the real story behind this picture??!?! Here's my rendition.....Trixie from the steno pool had one two many Harvey Wallbangers at the office Christmas Party and mistook Donald from accounting as Santa. She confessed that she really believed in Santa and then forced him to dance the Christmas Cha-Cha with her cheek to cheek. You can see in the background that Trixie's friends, Marilyn and Dorthy were not only happy for her, but were also plastered judging by their goofy smiles. There how was that for a story? Believable?Icy the Fridge Boy! He's from a 1950s fridge advertisement..........This is my favorite vintage image. I just love the joy expressed on her little face. I've used her in many collages. To me, she just screams 1950s with her beret, swing coat, fur muff and leggins. I call her Mary Belle!

Vintage Santa Tags........

Santa looks like he means business in these tags! This is a copy of a 1910 photo of the old boy. The backround of these tags are gorgeous as they have a slight coppery shimmer (it's difficult to see it in the photo). I used Pearl Ex powders mixed with water in a tiy squirt bottle to achieve the effect. I used Tim Holtz stamps with black and brown inks to stamp the designs. They are available on Ebay.

Handmade Vintage Style Recipe Book

We always think that we have time........time to someday write down your grandma's coconut cream pie recipe.......your aunt's mac and cheese recipe........or your husband's aunt's calamari in sauce recipe. But the truth is, time passes swiftly, you're busy living your life, people pass on and treasured recipes are lost forever. No matter how hard you try to reconstruct the recipe it never tastes the same as when the person you loved made it. So my point......and I do have a point to this blog entry is: WRITE RECIPES DOWN!

All the recipes for the food that I listed earlier in this post have been lost. I've tried to make these things over and over but they never turn out like I remembered them. A lot of great holiday memories in our lives have food associated with them so take some time this Sunday afternoon, call some people and ask them to give you the recipe for that favorite thing they make and........WRITE IT DOWN! The recipes don't have to be in a fancy recipe book like the one I made below but they sure would look cute in it, wouldn't they?

This is a really cool book! It opens from the metal latch in the middle and is 10 inches long. Each side of the covers are 5 inches each and made of chipboard covered with decorative papers.

Inside on the left side there are 12 original vintage collages. On the right hand side there are 6 manila envelopes with 2 hand stamped recipe cards in each envelope for a total of 12 cards. There are also little tags to tuck into the corner pockets in the collages. It's wire bound on each side with ribbon embellishments tied to the wire.

This book is a real treasure for treasured recipes! It will be available at Jingle All The Way Home.

Inside the front cover............Tags to tuck into the little pockets.........
The hand stamped recipe cards to write recipes on............

Here it is opened up.................









Remember.............write those recipes down! If you've lost a favorite family recipe leave a comment and share what it was!