Half off all Christmas!

Christmas is less than a week away!  WhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTTT?!?!  How is it that even though Thanksgiving was early this year, basically giving us an extra WEEK between then and Christmas; that Christmas has still snuck up on me?!?!  I have not even started wrapping gift yet!  sigh.  And to further ZAP my Christmas spirit, I have to go to Costco tomorrow . . .  because I use their pharmacy for my prescriptions.  Ug!

So to give my Christmas spirit a little boost and add a bit more “JOY” to my life; I’ve decided to put all my remailing Christmas product on sale for HALF PRICE, in my booth at Stars.

Many other vendors are offering discounts on their Christmas product too.  Instead of settling for the ‘slim pickins’ left over in the big box stores, come shop at Stars for unique vintage and upcycled gifts that they will really LOVE!

~::~

Still a great selection of gifts, decor and gift boxes in both of my spaces.

Show off your favorite Christmas treasures by topping them with a glass cloche.

Unique and collectible gift boxes.

I found some ‘itty bitty glass baubles’; just the right size for decorating your bottle brush trees!

Cubbies filled with collectibles!

Hand crafted vintage sheet music and crepe paper rosette ornaments or package toppers; regular price $1.50 – $2.00 . . .  NOW HALF OFF!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

to you all!!

STARS HOLIDAY HOURS:
Christmas Eve: 11AM to 4PM
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 11AM to 6PM
New Year’s Day: OPEN! 11AM to 6PM
11AM to 6PM ALL OTHER DAYS!

MORE Christmas in my booth at Stars

Took the rest of my Christmas goods to Stars this week.

Both of my spaces are fuller than full!

Plenty of vintage white Ironstone dishes in my wall space.

 Unique hand crafted gift boxes, perfect for that ‘little gift’ or gift cards.

Hand painted Christmas signs, red glass jar lanterns come with a battery votive and SO CUTE little vintage style car with tree on top ornaments.

Trees.  Trees and MORE trees!  Bottle brush trees in just about every size and color; mounted on unique vintage bases: candle holders, tart tins, glass vials filled with ‘snow’, spools of thread and cherub candle holders!

‘Snowfolk’ made from vintage salt and pepper shakers are making an encore appearance this year; but it will be their final year.  Get them while you can.  Bottle brush trees and snowmen are the perfect winter decorations to leave out after Christmas and before you decorate for Valentine’s Day.

Vintage crepe paper rosette ornaments also make wonderful package toppers.

Vintage sheet music rosette ornaments with classic Christmas color adornments of red, gold and silver.

Both Stars malls are open 7 days a week; 11am – 6pm.

Give unique vintage and upcycled gifts this Christmas.

I’m FINALLY going to do it!!

I have been wanting to do this for YEARS, and it’s finally coming to fruition.  When I moved 3+ years ago, I was hoping to find a place big enough to have an occasional craft sale in.  Alas, a place that big just wasn’t in my budget.  Then I considered ‘making do’ with what I had and just ‘moving things around’ a bit to MAKE room to do a little craft sale.

Alas and alack, I just had TOO MUCH STUFF (my collected treasures) and no place to move them to!  Since moving I’ve continued to pare down my superfluous stuff and re-organize how I store my supplies . . .  and I am finally to the point that I have room to do a little craft sale here in my home!!  woo~hoo!!

 

It has taken me the better part of a week to un-decorate my living room and find spots to stash decor items to make room for the stuff I want to sell.  But I did IT.  Now I’m just ‘tweaking things’ and working on how to display them.

 

The sale will be Sunday,

December 2nd from noon – 3pm.

20660 NW Lapine Way  Portland, OR  97229

Since you’ll be buying directly from me instead of a mall or show where I have to pay rent, registration and/or consignment fees; I can sell it at HALF OFF!  Everything $5.00 and up will be 50% 0ff.

 

 ~ Vintage ~ Upcycled ~ Hand crafted ~ Holiday Home Decor ~ Gifts ~

 

Enjoy some fresh baked Christmas cookies while you shop WITHOUT any crowds or cranky cashiers!

 

Please B.Y.O.B. – Bring your own BAG if you have a reusable shopping bag.

 

The thing I miss the most about no longer having our store is getting to see my friends and customers.  I really hope you’ll stop by and say hi and grab a cookie or two while you ‘shop local’ and get some unique gifts and Christmas decor at crazy good prices.

 

These are just a few pictures of what I have set up thus far.

I’ll post more pictures on Friday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Quick Change

Well, not really all THAT quick (it took me three hours), but a considerable change in my booth layouts.

My original ‘plan’ to put in a completely new vignette in my little wall booth has been abandoned.  I’m not abandoning the space, just the idea for changing it out.  Why?

My thought process in deciding to change it up monthly was that it was a small enough space and it would be fairly easy to do so.  It was a LOT more work than I had anticipated.    Not that I necessarily eschew hard work, but it was getting to be too much for my ‘bad back’ to handle.

AND the aisle along the back is much narrower than the central aisles.   It was next to impossible to move stuff around without blocking the aisle for shoppers to traverse.  So I decided to put mostly small items in my wall booth.  Small stuff is easier to stock without getting in the way of shoppers.

Fortunately for me, the owner scheduled a ‘dealer work shift’ Saturday, which gave dealers 3 hours to work without any customers.  I took advantage of that time to move the big metal rack from my big boot to the wall space.  Which sounds fairly simple, but it was a pretty big undertaking.

First I had to empty and move four shelves on the back aisle side of my big booth in order to access the big metal shelf.  Then I had to empty the metal shelf.  Move the stuff that was in the area of the wall booth where I was going to put the metal shelf; then move that big heavy shelf to the wall space.  Put all the product back on the metal shelf.  Figure out where I wanted to put the four shelves I had moved out of the way.  Then figure out where to put the stuff I had taken from the wall space!  Believe me, I needed every MINUTE of the three hours allotted for us to work without any interference.

Normally I have what I am going to do with my booths pretty well thought out ahead of time.  As soon as I decide to take a new piece of furniture in, I start thinking about where I will put it and how I will move things around.  So I had measured ahead of time and knew where I was going to move the big metal shelf to, but beyond that I just drew a blank.  Had to ‘wing it’ this time.  I’ll be changing this up again next week when I take the leftover Christmas product from the show in, and pull the last little bit of fall left.

It feels SO much bigger without that metal shelf in the middle!

Took these two cute little upcycled tables in last week.

The bottom photo here is the space where the big metal shelf used to be.  Haven’t quite decided what I want to do there.  This will do for fine for now though.

Some pretty vintage liqueur bottles.  Perfect for putting homemade liqueurs for gift giving in.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ready or not . . .

 . . . . Thanksgiving, the Christmas will be here before you know it.  I’m getting a head start and brought in a few holiday decor things to my booth at Stars this week.  Then tomorrow I deliver to the ‘Every Husband’s Nightmare’ show in Hillsboro.  After that show ends next Saturday, I’ll have even MORE holiday goodies to bring to Stars.

Here’s what I’ve done to start off the season:

I think my decorating theme for this year is ‘simple elegance’.  Lots of pretty vintage glass baubles in jars and bowls with mini fairy lights give off a truly magical glow!

It’s almost impossible to truly capture the beauty of the little lights in pictures and in the well lit store; but you get the idea.  Some of these arrangements are ‘all inclusive’ pieces, where I have priced the container with the lights and baubles to be sold together as one item.  The rest of them are priced individually so you can just buy what you need.  If you already have the glass baubles and just need the container to put them in, OR if you have the container and just need a few more glass baubles.

SO many different ways to display these holiday lovelies.  Think outside the box and use what you have to place your ornaments in.  Or buy something that will serve multiple purposes.

This is actually a cupcake stand!  Pretty little boxes with bows always add a festive touch to your decor, and you’ll have a gift box handy if you need one for a last minute gift!

I’m pretty sure that the white metal stand filled with ornaments was intended for this very purpose.  But you could also use it at Easter to hold your colored eggs.

Milk glass punch and candy bowls look pretty filled with ornaments too!

You can even fill the dome lid of your cake stand with baubles!  It’s a bit of a tricky process and you have to be sure that no one inadvertently takes the lid off ‘to see what will happen’.  A mess.  A mess will happen.  Which is why I didn’t fill the ones in my booth with glass baubles!

I’ve got some awesome vintage crystal snack plates with cups for you holiday entertaining.  And some beautiful silver espresso cups and saucers.

There is never a shortage of Milk Glass dishes or vases in my booth!  The milk glass vases are really pretty with vintage glass baubles on top of them too!

Always a plentiful supply and variety of stoneware dishes too.  Be sure you have all the serving bowls and platters you will need for serving your holiday feast.

I hate to admit it, but my wall space become more of a depository for ‘all the stuff I can’t fit into my big booth’, as opposed to a theme planned vignette.  A few bits of fall still available in my wall space.

Stop on by and get into the holiday spirit.

Stars is open 7 days a week; 11am – 6pm.

Carload of reclaimed fence boards.

Visiting one of my very best friends this last summer, and returned home with this!  LOTS of mossy grey weathered cedar fence boards.  I was literally GIDDY with ideas and possibilities of what I was going to make with these beauties.

My first project was some simple signs, using laser cut metal words glued to a piece of the natural weathered wood.

A few of them have gone to my wall space at Stars.  The rest of them will be going to the upcoming fall show at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Mid-November.

Next I decided to try my hand at making some BIG rustic Farmhouse style trays.  This one is the prototype.  LOVE these super long wrought iron handles.  They were an estate sale find, and unfortunately a ‘one time find’.  Well, I probably COULD find more like them if I really searched on-line, but they would probably be cost prohibitive for me to use on my trays.  I’ll have to find some other handles that will work.

Then I went on to make three more; one of which is an EXTRA long 38″.  The other two are 24″ and 25″ long; all are 11.5″ wide and just under 4″ deep.  I have taken ALL of these to my booth at Stars for the time being.  If I don’t get more of them built before the fall show, I may pull a couple from Stars to take to the show.  Priced $37.00 – 59.00.

On the extra long tray I used the ‘beefy’ black metal handles.  On the other two, slightly smaller black handles, on the sides of one tray and on the top sides of the other.

I’ve only made one of these little stools thus far.  It’s 11″ x 6″ x 5″.  I’ll probably make another batch of them a little later; graduated stacking sizes.  This stool has gone to my wall space at Stars.  $10.00.

I saw the idea for reclaimed wood shutters on Pinterest.  Adding the removable little boxwood wreaths with the metal words and red truck ornament is my own idea.  Making the embellishments removable makes it easier for the buyer to use them to decorate with year round, instead of having to pack them away after the holidays.  $29.00 with the wreaths.

Decorating with arrows is very popular right now.  I made assorted shapes and sizes of wood arrows with hangers on the back to hang on the wall.  I made a couple dozen of these.  They will be going to the fall show.  Priced $5 – 14.00.

This is my take on something ‘somewhat similar’ that I saw on Pinterest.  They measure 12″ x 13″; and will be going to my booth at Stars and to the fall show.  $29.00.

I forgot my camera last week, so I didn’t get pictures of all of these items in my booth.

 

It’s SHOWTIME!!

Every Husband’s Nightmare is now open at the Washington County Fairplex in Hillsboro.  Free parking and free admission.  HOURS: Tuesday, Nov. 14 – Saturday, Nov. 18.  Open 10am – 8pm weekdays and 10am – 5pm Saturday.

Some areas were still being set up when I took pictures, so there is LOTS MORE than what my pictures show.

 I had a LOT of left over hand painted signs after closing my etsy shop; so I’ve REDUCED SIGN PRICES by up to 75% at this show.  Signs that were originally $19.95 are now just $5.00.  The rest of my signs are now just $10.00 or $15.00.   And I stocked a lot of signs for this show!  Great gifts and stocking stuffers!!

Here is some of my additional product at the show.  The rest of my items are ‘blended in’ throughout the show, according to color or theme.

Three aisles of locally made food products at the show; with samples for tasting.

Aisles of hand crafted jewelry, hand made soaps, felted animals and lots of sweet things for baby.

Ornaments galore!  Not only on these displays, but also throughout the show!

Fall decor if you need a little something more for your Thanksgiving table.  Look at that FABULOUS set of vintage lockers!

Beach decor, red and turquoise Christmas decor and some fun vintage reproduction dish towels!

Neutral tones with black, metallic and glitter accents.

Traditional red and white Christmas . . . and cottage chis pastels.

And as always, lots and lots of fabulous vintage!  these pictures really only show a ‘snippet’ of what all you will find at the show.

 If you want to avoid shopping crowds, come in the evening hours.

Re-visiting burlap wreath making

It’s wreath making time for me again.  Yes, I am STILL trying to use up the supplies that I have on hand; and I’ve been putting off making the wreaths because they are so labor intensive!  Here is my previous post on wreath making.  I’ve come up with a BETTER way to make them this year though!

First, we have the wire wreath forms.  The ones on the left I got at a garage sale eons ago.  The one on the right with four rungs, I bought at Dollar Tree, but you can get them at any craft store if you prefer to pay a lot more for them!

The first few I started with were made using plastic mesh.  Again, I got mine at DT, but you can pay more at any craft store.  AND you can get wider sizes at craft stores.  this size worked just fine for me though.

(Pardon the puppy paw at the top of the photo.  I had Willow for the weekend and she wanted to help!)  The bigger white mesh wreath was made using a bigger 2-rung form that I had with the batch from the garage sale.  And the picture above shows my new method for making the wreaths: twist your chenille stems onto your entire piece of wreath material (whether it be mesh, burlap or ribbon) FIRST.  Previously I had added the chenille ‘as I went along’, which gets very tedious!

I cut up my chenille stems ahead of time, before starting on the wreath.  That way, I have them all ready to go and can get into a better rhythm when tufting my ribbon.

By doing it this way it’s easier to take breaks if you need them (which I do with my carpal tunnel!) between strips of material and attaching them to your wreath.  Also, the actual construction of the wreath goes by much faster this way.  Overall, it probably takes the same amount of time, from start to finish to make one; but this new way it feels less laborious.

And then it’s time for embellishing.  I actually made ALL the wreaths and left them plain for a bit; then went back and added the embellishments to all of them at the same time.  I just lined them all up and started sampling the different add-ons that I had on hand.  For the sale of continuity though, I will show each wreath, start to finish.

I went super simple on the 2-rung aqua mesh wreath, and just added a simple gold glitter ‘Believe’ ornament.  On wreathe like this, where I am adding minimal adornments, I do not permanently attach the added decor.   I note on the price tag that the ‘Believe’ is removable; and this adds to the value of the piece because it can be used  without the added piece after the holidays.

Next is the fluffier 4-rung aqua mesh wreath.  On this one, as well as the big white mesh wreath, where I am using a lot of smaller adornments, I glue them on with tacky glue.

That’s it for the mesh wreaths.  I wish I had written down how much mesh I used on each wreath, because I really do not remember.  I ‘think’ the big white one took 7 of the 5 yard spools.  The fluffy aqua one, 6 spools; and the smaller aqua, 4 spools.  When in doubt while purchasing supplies, buy MORE than you think you will need.  No harm in having extra left over.  But if you don’t buy enough . . . you might not be able to find more of the same when you go back!  Especially at Dollar Tree.  If you don’t buy ALL you want of think you will need at the onset, it’s VERY likely that you will never find more of it again.  And yes, I learned that lesson the HARD way!

On this one, I DO remember exactly how much yardage I used.  This is one of the 4-rung wreath forms, and I used a full 50 yard spool of Costco burlap ‘looking’ wired ribbon, and five yards of the ‘Merry Christmas’ ribbon.  The 4-rung wire forms pretty much take twice as much yardage as the 2-rungs.

This one is made from actual 5″ burlap on a 2-rung form.  Bigger, fluffier folds using 10 yards.

The printed burlap banner is just attached with safety pins on the back, so it is removable; allowing the wreath to be used year round.

Size comparisons of various wreaths.

Another wired ribbon wreath, on a 2-rung form.  This one took about 40 yards in total.  For the two colors, I first added the print ribbon spaced out; then filled in with the red ribbon.

This one was a real challenge!!  I only had 10 yards of the ribbon to work with, and no coordinating colors to fill in with if needed!!  Fortunately this printed burlap ribbon was wired AND very stiff, so I could really fluff up each tuft and space them out more than with the soft ribbon.  I have to very carefully position each tuft ‘just so’ to hide all the attachment wires, and they will shift a bit with handling; but once hung in place is will be fine.

The turquoise burlap ribbon came from DT, the cream colored from the craft store, and the little big of green in the smaller starfish wreath came from who knows where??!  It was just in my supply box awaiting use.  I did both of these on 2-rung forms; and glued on the starfish.  I thought about making the starfish removable, but couldn’t figure out a way to do that without tying them on; and I didn’t like how that would look.  These took about 20 yards each to make.

2-rung form with 10 yards of the printed ribbon and about 6 yards of the red.  The printed was very STIFF (like the music notes ribbon) so I was able to spread it out a lot more than the solid red ribbon.  The red glitter ‘Believe’ ornament is just attached with chenille stems, so it’s easily removable; making the wreath usable other that just for the holidays.

In the picture, this one LOOK like it’s all one color.  In fact it is two different shades of gold, because I didn’t have enough of either to finish it.   But I thought I had enough, so I didn’t plan ahead to intermix the two colors as I have on other bi-color wreaths.

The two different colors are just barely discernible, but you CAN see the difference in the picture on the left.  The ‘Joy to the World’ ornament is just tied on to one of the ribbon loops.

This one took 8 yards of the striped ribbon, and about 4 yards of the red.  Again, I didn’t have enough ribbon to complete the wreath and had to get creative.  I used some burlap ticking fabric to make a BIG bow at the top to cover up the area that I didn’t have enough ribbon to cover.

I’ve made a pretty good dent in my wreath making supplies!!  I still need to make a few more, but need to give my fingers a rest.  My right thumb is nearly raw from twisting chenille stems.

Ornament wreath #2

I was getting ready to pack away all my Christmas crafting supplies, and sorting the vintage ornaments I had by color to see IF I needed to look for more in the after-Christmas sales; and if so, what colors.

It ‘looked like’ I had enough on hand to make another wreath; and I decided to go ahead and do so while the steps were stiff fresh in my mind.

I elected to make this one using a slightly smaller ‘dynalite’ (that stuff that is denser and CHEAPER! than styrofoam).

Decided to cover this one with some tinsel garland before adding the ornaments; with the hope that IT would show through the ‘bare spots’ and I’d not feel compelled to fill every tiny nook and cranny.

Kind of cute even withOUT the ornaments added!

First layer.  (btw, the hot glue sticks MUCH better to the tinsel that it does to the fabric that I used to wrap the first one.  First layer; frosted white and rose gold med/lg ornaments.

Second and interior layer; shiney rose gold and gold ornaments.

Third layer; assorted med / lg ornaments ‘wherever they fit’.  The next few layers are assorted smaller ornaments to fill in the holes.

Alas, the gold tinsel ‘base-coat’ did NOT do the trick for me.  I LIKED it and will definitely continue to make the wreaths that way; but I still needed some ‘filler’ for bare spots.  This is where I had tucked in the snippets of white berries on my first one.  All I could find to use on this one was this mini star garland.

I clipped it into 5-6″ lengths and twisted the ends together and ‘flared out’  the ends to make a “Y” shape, so they looked like this teardrop shape.  I made a LOT of these!

Put some hot glue on the “Y” part and tucked them into all the bare spots.

And around the outside edge.

I just kept rotating the wreath and filling in the bare spots.

The more I added, the more I liked it!  I wasn’t sure about mixing the regular gold with the rose gold, but I like the combination just fine!

With tacky glue I glued a strip of fabric for it to hang from. It would probably be easier to add your hanger FIRST; but I find that the finished wreath looks better from a certain angel.  So I pick the best angel and add the hanger so it hangs that way.

LOVE how the color looks in this picture; almost a sepia tone look!

I think I like this one MORE than the first one.

Here’s a reminder of what the first one looks like.
And the newest one again, against a white background and ‘truer’ to actual color.

Just FYI, the second one took about HALF as much time to make.  Partly because I was more confident in the outcome and moved a little faster; and partly because the tinsel covered wreath from ‘grabbed’ the hot glue better and I didn’t have to ‘hold each ornament in place as long’ for it to set, before moving on to the next one.

I’m hoping to get brave enough next year to make some bright color ones!  And now, to figure out HOW to store them safely until next year!

Variations on a theme: Snow Folk: Styles B & C

You’ve already met my ‘original’ snow folk, below.

Assorted vintage salt shakers and clear bottles and with party hats made from vintage sheet music.

I started these guys a bit ‘late in the season’ for this year; so I’m just going to pack them away for next year.

I had a few extra ‘heads’ made up, but had run out of bottles for bodies. so I grabbed a couple of these salt and pepper shakers at the dollar store.

I decided to use the tops for the hats for these guys, and just added a chenille ‘pom-pom’ to them.

Then I made this little guy and glued TWO tops together for his hat.

I’m thinking I need to add ‘something’ to the top of his hat too.

Then I found a few more bottles and decided to give them little a NEW style of little crowns.

I’m trying to NOT use my ‘typical’ little sheet music crowns lately.  I made these new crowns from stiffened lace and spray painted them gold.

Even up close and in person, you’d never figure they were made from crocheted lace.

Since they are a little more elegant, I tied sheer white ribbon around their necks.

and tied on some little metal snowflake ornaments I had in my stash.
I gave the taller one a double snowflake.

A few more to stash away for next year.