A bit of winter decorating

 

 Just popping in with a quick post to share the small bit of winter decorating that I've done.  Most of it's on my hutch.  I found this gorgeous snowflake plate at our favorite local thrift store.  The blue mug is a Fire King mug in the "Kimberly" pattern; I found it at my childhood home and fell in love with it.  The little "Snow Day" cross-stitch is from the Prairie Schooler January sampler leaflet.  I'm working on the sampler, but I simply could not resist stitching this little piece also.

The log cabin plate was also a thrift store find; the vintage Gurley snowman candle was a gift from my friend Cyndy.

This shows more of that shelf.  The snowman plate was another thrift store find; think it's from Walmart originally.  The little cardinals were gifted me by my friend Lynne.

A closer look at the snowman plate.

The shelf below looks pretty much the same every winter: lots of glittery houses and little trees.  This year I added in a Christmas card from our friend Steven.  I thought it fit so well with the trees and houses.

 I already showed you this bookcase top from the living room, below.  It looks exactly the same now except I removed the "January" garland.  I decided I loved everything else just as it is!

 Oh, and this is an older photo but I have also hung these banners over the dining room windows:

And there is some of my super-simple winter decorating that I'm enjoying so very much.   Probably in March I will transition to a maple sugaring theme.

A little bit of decorating

 We still don't have our tree, but I thought I would share the small amount of decorating I have done so far.   Above is one of the hutch shelves, with vintage jadeite plates and in the center a melamine plate from Wal-Mart.  There are tiny cardinals, a teapot votive holder from Yankee Candle, and a meaningful little wood sign.

Another shelf holds Christmas plates  from Wal-Mart and some jadeite tea cups.

A closer look at one of the plates, which I absolutely love

I didn't get a photo of the top shelf.  But this fun vintage shadow box is gracing the top shelf as it usually does at Christmas time.

This December cross stitch is on the wall in the hallway.

Above is a little display in the living room.  The "I'll Be Home for Christmas" art is new.  To read how I did it, check out my Christmas blog for December 8. 

A bit of winter decorating

Just popping in with a quick post to show some winter decorating in the dining area.  The hutch has been changed up a bit.

 The very top shelf, nearly out of sight in this photo, has some jadeite teacups with bottle brush trees in them, and a glittery yellow house made by my craft forum friend Les a few years ago.  Below you see a clearer photo of this adorable creation.

The lovely tray above (now on my winter hutch shelf) was a Christmas gift from my daughter.

 This shows a closer look at that shelf.  The green glass sugar and creamer are new, by Pioneer Woman, and were also a gift from my daughter.  She asked for ideas and I was quick to supply them!  I love how these pieces coordinate beautifully with my vintage jadeite.  Little red cardinals were a gift from a friend.

 Glittery houses and icy trees!  Cross stitch in the back is one I did from a kit years ago.  White plastic reindeer are vintage.

This shelf didn't change much at all; I just removed the peppermint sticks and milk bottle, and added a couple of snowmen and a sprig of red berries.

 Above, the winter hutch in its entirety.

Lastly, I changed out the dining table by adding a simple, small handmade table cloth, plaid place mats, and a large glittery house and snowy tree for a centerpiece.

There you have it -- some simple winter decorating.  Do you decorate for winter?

From the November archives, part 1

 (The gorgeous photo at top is from my 2001 Autumn in the Air booklet, a freebie from Cracker Barrel.)

November has been a busy month and I hadn't found time until today to look around in the archives for posts to share with you all.  This is the first of three posts concerning links from the archives that you might enjoy.  The posts I chose seem to be mostly recipes, so enjoy!

Green and white dishes, a post from 2008, shows some of my favorite dishes to use for Thanksgiving table settings, but they would look nice during the Christmas season, too.  If you enjoy seeing old dishes, you will like this post.

This Soup and bread post, from 2010, is billed as fall comfort food, but it would be an enjoyable menu during December or any of the winter months.  The soup is an unusual creamy lentil soup and the bread is an herbed oatmeal pan bread.  Mouth-watering!

 Lastly, Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are an interesting and different variation on traditional snickerdoodles, and are very tasty.

More from the archives tomorrow, so stay tuned!

A simple and fun after-Christmas buy

I did very little after-Christmas shopping this year.  Did find a couple of things which I won't show that I have put away for next year's gifting.  Bought a couple of bags of New England Coffee in holiday flavors like Eggnog and Gingerbread Cookie.  About the only thing I found that I thought unique enough to take a picture of is these pretty bowls.  I bought two of them.

Probably the only reason I found these is that I noticed them while doing my regular grocery shopping at our local Hannaford supermarket.  These pretty bowls with their pine cone motif are a sort of plastic, like melamine, I would say.  They were 79¢ each!  They are sort of an odd size, not really large enough for serving bowls, but too big for cereal or desserts.  We found that they did work well to hold a salad for two people, and I'm sure I will think of other uses.  Decorative uses, if nothing else! 

A berry sweet gift

Our kitchen has strawberry-themed wallpaper, and I have somewhat of a collection of strawberry items.  I've always liked them, and once people realize you collect something, they tend to find things for your collection.  You can see some of my strawberry items here: Vintage Strawberries, or just click on "strawberries" in the label cloud to the right to see even more.

Interestingly, I have no duplicate strawberry items in my collection.  One would think it would become harder to find unique things after awhile, but that hasn't been the case.  Recently, my mother-in-law gifted me with the little set pictured above.  She was so worried that I probably had one just like it already.  But no, I don't.  This is a very pretty mug, and the set also includes a little tray, which is a nice idea for enjoying a mug of tea with a few cookies or a muffin.

The set also included a coaster, seen under the mug in the photo above.  A berry sweet gift that I am enjoying so much!

Vintage strawberries

It's been awhile since I shared any photos of my strawberry collection, which seems to just grow and grow.  People very frequently give me strawberry items as gifts.  A few things in my collection could be classified as vintage (and one or two are antiques) so I thought I would share some of those today.  (I'm realizing there are yet more I haven't taken pictures of yet!)  To simplify my post and save time, I will just post pictures and captions.  These are all older photos.

Little vintage dish given me by a friend; vintage doily.

I use this mug, probably from the 1970s or early 1980s, to hold pens and pencils.

There are a few items in this photo, but the antique bowl is what I wish to show you.

Years ago a friend gave me this antique cookie plate that belonged to her mother.

This pretty strawberry crock holds utensils.

This tray is from the 1960s or 1970s

Little vintage sugar bowl with the same red doily

I think this ceramic cookie jar is vintage too.

My sister-in-law found these McCoy items in cleaning out a house.  They match a crock that I already owned!

The back of a hot pad made by my friend J. using a vintage pattern and vintage feedsack fabric.

Front of the same hotpad

This hot pad is not vintage, but the embroidered design may be.  My friend Ruth found the partially stitched design and used it to create a gift for me!

I have several of these linen towels from the 1950s

Hope you've enjoyed these vintage strawberry things as much as I do.  Linking up today with Share Your Cup Thursday andVintage Charm.

Simplest spring decorating

Yes, it was time to change some things in my decor.  I kept my maple sugaring themed items out for a long time, clinging to the fact that a friend who does sugaring as a business was still at it.  But finally I just had to change things, though I had no idea what to change them to.  The snow was gone (though it came back!) but really, no flowers, or even buds, and no leaves on the trees yet.  Flowery spring decor seemed out of the question.

Since I had seen a few daffodils, I decided they would be okay.  (I'm wondering now what has become of the drifts of daffodils I saw Monday.  They have been thoroughly snowed on!)  So for the dining table centerpiece, I simply swapped out my sugaring scene cake dome for a pitcher of silk daffodils.  Kept the little brown birds.  I like them.

On the hutch, I thought the simplicity of the jadeite and milk glass together was quite pretty.   I've had the sugar and creamer for eons, since the 1970s, I think.  Just located the jadeite plates in a box of old dishes  rescued from our family's little vacation place.  (Sometime I need to blog about this cottage in the woods.  It was not my idea of a vacation -- no plumbing, no running water, although there was electricity and a phone and even a TV set that may have gotten one channel.  Now I look back on it with nostalgia, although I still wish it had had plumbing.)

Don't remember where I acquired the little oval platter in the center, but it looked springlike to me.  All of the little birds (intended to be salt & pepper shakers) were gifted me by my friend Lynne.  Next shelf down holds some pretty teas for one, plus an antique card and a quote from the poem "The First Spring Day."

 

The bottom shelf holds a lustreware sugar bowl, a chintz mug from a thrift store, my silver baby mug, some of the family transferware, more daffodils and green & white Fiestaware salt and peppers.

And then you see the hutch in its entirety below.  Simple, but I like the look for this in-between time of year.

Hope you have enjoyed this look at the simplest spring decorating!

(I'm sharing today with  Sandi's No Place Like Home and Bernideen’s Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party.)  Also sharing with Share Your Cup Thursday and Vintage Charm.

A bit more winter decorating ...

This year's winter hutch

I haven't done a lot of winter decorating this year, but thought I would share just a few more things.  Busy day ahead and lots to try and schedule into the day, so I will just do some quick photos and captions.  Enjoy!

Winter ribbon board in the front hallway

A tag I made a few years back

Upper shelf on the hutch.  My friend J. made the "snow" card; my daughter sent me the sparkly "Winter Wishes" one.  Love that lamp with its snowballs and the hanging snowflakes.

My glittery houses, a snowy cross-stitch, and a few simple figurines

Family heirloom ironstone; my silver baby cup; sparkly red snowflakes

And the hutch in its entirety.  The mugs on the top shelf were handmade Christmas presents from a granddaughter.

Hope this simple post has been fun to read (even though there are precious few actual words in it)!