Christmas Part 1

 *Warning: Photo Heavy*

Sadly, I never did decorate for Halloween this (past) year, but I did fairly well for Christmas. Better than I was expecting, tbh. 

I had gotten this Christmas tree in some of my Free-finds, had cleaned it up and planned to offer it to someone who didn't have/couldn't afford a tree.

I didn't get around to offering last year, and ended up bringing it in the kitchen to decorate for use in my Gingerbread kitchen theme decor. The tree sat (in the way, mostly) on my carport all year.
I *almost* gave it - or one of the other three "garbage" trees I have piled up around here, but the person that asked for/I offered a tree to never contacted me back, so...Idk what was up with that. 

Anyway, I brought the tree back in and put the gingerbread-y decor on it.

 The majority of the tree decor was cinnamon-applesauce "gingerbread cookies", that still smell very cinnamon-y.  Every time I walked into the kitchen I got a craving for cinnamon toast.
Seriously, I bet I ate a whole loafa bread worth of cinnamon toast by myself, lol.

 On my Baker cabinet I just replaced my big, metal mixing bowls with a gingerbread house cookie jar, and added some vintage ornaments, Mr. & Mrs. Claus S&P shakers ($ Tree), a gingerbread candle ($ Tree), and cinnamon-apple liquid potpourri ($ Tree) in an old jar sitting on a candle or mug warmer.

 At some point last Fall, I got the idea I wanted to switch my living and dining rooms. It's one of those long stories about my house, but basically, my dining room suit was too big for my dining room.

I had previously had a comfortable den in the dining room, so I thought instead of a good-size living room and a too-small dining room, I would have a comfortable living room and a just-right-size dining room.
Well, the dining room idea worked out great!
The living room, not so much.

The room shrank when I moved everything out of it, so the two recliners doubled in size, the vintage 70's stereo in the corner suddenly took up half the room, and the couch wouldn't go through the doors into the room, at all, period.
The Christmas tree tripled in size when brought into the room.

So, I cried - because what else are you going to do? - decided the dining room would have a couch in it, and moved on.

This tree - another free-find destined for the landfill - is decorated with repro 70's C9 lights, vintage Woolworth silver garland, 70's lighted tree topper, and several but not all of my ornaments collected over the years.

I don't really have any vintage ornaments for the tree - unless you count 90's glass balls, which, it's getting to the point that 90's is going to be considered vintage really soon. Aaak.

Most of the ornaments this year were ones I pick up in our travels, for instance this year we vacationed, in our camper, at Jekyll Island, Georgia, and the Western North Carolina area.

I decorated the faux-fireplace mantle in this room with some of my vintage Christmas collection - which includes my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, although it's not vintage, but the cartoon is.

 I found these little Elf legs at Dollar Tree and wanted to use them, even though I wished it had been Santa Claus legs instead -

 I laughed at myself awhile back....Dollar Tree had witch legs like these, and I was like, Oh that's cool! and looked for some, but when I found them, the shoes were flat, and I didn't really like the look of them....and then it occurred to me, Wait a minute, witches don't come down the chimney anyway. LOL

I had a Dollar Tree sign I tacked up on the side of the faux-fireplace, facing the carport door, and another Santa sign someone had gifted me several years ago, I hung on the wall,

 In getting ready to switch up the rooms, I cleaned out all the stuff I had stored in my china cabinet...and came across this Santa incense burner again.

 I got him back in the late 80's/early 90's, when the Christmas Around the World home parties were a big thing (like Tupperware, and Home Interiors).

His chair lifts off the round platform and you put an incense cone, and smoke wafts up through a hole in his hot chocolate cup.

I can't remember where I found him again, cleaning out some things, but no way I was getting rid of him, no way!

I hadn't seen incense cones in years - hadn't looked, so Idk if they were out there - but I didn't know where to find any, so I checked Ebay....which led me to this beautiful lighted rustic cabin incense burner.
    The chimney comes off for you to put the incense cone in, then the smoke comes up out of the top of the chimney.

With the cabin, I pulled together some "rustic" pieces I had been collecting here and there, but had never really done anything with yet, on top of the old living room/now dining room fireplace mantel.
    It still didn't turn out great, but maybe one day I'll figure out how to display those two red lanterns pretty.

My sister and brother-in-law made the pallet tree as Christmas gift last year, from some fence wood that had been knocked down during one of the Florida hurricanes (*note to self, find out which hurricane and write it on the back. Won't be a good story, if I can't remember the story!).

I added the "rusty" star at the top...it's actually made out of a cereal box, and the lights and strand of red beads I found at thrift stores.

I made the cardboard Rudolph a couple of years ago.

I had this little tree - you guessed it, a free-find!

I cleaned it up and had no plans for it until awhile back I had saw an idea or ad or something, where someone had spray-painted a fake tree pink.
  Y'all know I'm all about spray-painting!

I saw some beautiful white trees with red and blue, America! decor, and *loved* that, and definitely wanted a Patriotic tree for my own!

But I never could bit the bullet and spray paint the tree white, so I ended up decorating with my "rustic" ornaments, most of which came from Dollar Tree.

So, now I'm on the look-out for a free, white tree...or, worse comes to worst, break down and spray-paint one I already have and hope I don't ruin it.

Because next year, I'll be looking to do a Patriotic Christmas theme (why haven't I already??). 

     These items were some of things I found while thrifting before Christmas.
I had meant to go Christmas shopping. For others, not myself.
     I didn't know what to buy others, but I racked up! LOL.
          I told my sister, we went Christmas shopping today and I bought a lot of gifts!...for myself.
    
The Patriotic Santa was $3.99, and the red, white, and blue oil lamp (missing globe) was half off, so like $2.50.

The other Santas I also got half-off so they were $2.00 or less, and the 80's era cross-stitch was 30-something-cents.

Also, I attempted to set up my little glitter houses in my china cabinet.
     I think it needs more.....something.

Anyway, I figured out to use stick-up, press-on, battery lights from Dollar Tree to light it up.
     Or light up whatever is in there to be displayed.  I've previously tried to display things in this cabinet, and it did not display well. 

I also finished some glitter-putz candy-gingerbread houses I had been working on for gifts.
   I was making myself one, too, but messed it up and threw it away. Hopefully I'll get me one made sometime this year.