My Vintage Christmas Tour

Welcome to my Christmas tour, hosted by Boomama.

Come in!

The entryway- sparkly letters thanks to JoAnn's, made even better with some old glass bead garland!

The table in the entry. This poor reindeer's antlers only stay put for about 2.5 seconds at a time thanks to a run in with our 75 lb weimaraner last year. That's okay, though- 2.5 seconds is long enough for a picture!

The dining room:

A closer look at the dining room table decor- these little vintage characters are so much fun to collect. Look at those ones on the right- they are full of mischief.
Part of my vintage Santa collection:

The garland on the mantle (made from the branch remains of an aluminum tree). I asked my husband if this was a little too crazy, and he said yes. Mabye I shouldn't have asked.

A closer look...

My vintage chalkware nativity set. If you look closely, you will notice that we have twin wisemen. When it comes to vintage decor, sometimes these things happen. :)

Our pink "Charlie Brown" tree! :) Oh, and some more of those crazy little characters.

My wonderful 12 Days of Christmas plates that my mom gave me last year.

Santa's watching!

Thanks you for coming and Merry Christmas!

Fun with Numbers

Numbered pillows:

Numbered chairs:
Numbered vases:

Match Your Room

Do you ever match your room?
I think my daughter needs this dress so she can match her room:
Makes sense, doesn't it? Does anyone else think that way? :)

What to do with a Niche?

One of my favorite bloggers, The Pioneer Woman, talked about a niche in her lodge remodel project today. We have a niche in our new house, and honestly, it kind of stressed me out. Since it's a niche, something worthy, special, and important should go there right? Well, honestly, I don't think so- it's my house, not a museum! I just arranged several interesting and old items together. I piled on a few miniature pumpkins and gords for the season, and it works. Worthy, special or important? I don't know, but at least it's one of a kind!

Things with Faces

I've always had a thing for vintage things with faces. Whether they be animals, statues, dolls, or even doll heads (see above), sometimes they just need to come home with me.
My mom knew I would love these, but she found them after they had already been sold. They were sold on Raised in Cotton, a neat online vintage shop. I do love them, and in fact, I have to keep going back to look at the picture and reminding myself that they are already sold.
They haunt me- not in a spooky beheaded doll kind of way (as one might think), but in a "why didn't I find them first" kind of way. Weird, I know.
I like weird things.
In fact, my Etsy shop is full of things with faces since I can't keep them all. And PS, I'm adding one new thing to my shop every day in October!

Back with More Mirrors!

As I get all of our decor settled into our new house, I realize that I have some holes to fill. Of course, I can't just go get everything I want at once. Besides, it's fun to be on the hunt for that perfect thing for a while. Last week, I did luck out on a couple of good deals for things I needed.

First: $2 Estate Sale Mirror...$2! It's old, with a slightly cracked and chippy frame, and the mirror has a scratch or two- perfect!

Second: My Michael's find. It was less than $40 with my 40% off with my coupon, and it reminds me of something Horchow would have (like this one for $395).

Mirror, Mirror, Not on the Wall

I like mirrors with neat old frames. They are so hard for me to pass up! Since we are moving, we just took down all of our wall hangings so we could patch up the walls. Do you think I have enough? (Never!)

A Perfect Tan?

I have been on the hunt for the perfect paint color for our new house. I am wanting a neutral, but not "blah" neutral. I want rich, perfect neutral.

I am an interior designer, and I think with paint, the safest thing is to go with a paint color that you have already seen on a wall and love it. That's not always possible though, and sometimes you just have to go for it.

Deb from the Curious Sofa recently mentioned on her blog that Hallmark comes to her house to take pictures because of her nice, neutral pallete. Oh how I would love to see her house- I bet it is wonderful!

I decided to e-mail her and ask her secret to the perfect paint color. She so generously wrote a lengthy e-mail back, and has agreed to let me share her tips here. I hated to keep them to myself:

1. Best thing to do is take anything from your house: (a plate, a
drawer from a dresser) of a neutral color you love and get it color matched.

2. When looking at a paint swatch, look at the darkest color to get a feel of the tone of the paint. Sometimes yellows are hidden in the lighter colors and you can't really see them until you paint an entire wall.

3. Avoid a neutral with a hint of yellow or pink. Look for hues in a true white- grey- tan family, These will work with your fabrics and accessories much better as any yellow tint can throw you off. Think Mother Nature: Colors of rocks, sand, seashells.

4. Buy a quart and paint a large area of your home. Especially if you are going to do this color in many rooms. Paint it against the
woodwork, in areas light will get to and look at it for a week or so before you make a decision.

Thanks, Deb, for your advice!
I think we've decided on Sherwin Williams' Latte.

THE bedding

I saw and fell and love with this bedding on my last trip to Canton. I'm a bit of a bargain hunter though, and I just couldn't let myself buy it. It was gorgeous, perfect for my daughter's room, and it haunted my dreams. In this case, the bargain hunting paid off, and I found it online here at almost 50% off! Hooray!

Birdies and Dollies

Not everything has to be vintage, but I'm so very picky about the new things. Birds and cupie-like dolls are two of my big weaknesses. Etsy is such a fun source for new but wonderful things! I love the birdie cake topper above (really, everything in her store is cute).

I purchased one of these sock baby rattles for baby L, customized to match the colors of her room and it is just so sweet:

And I just love these new prints on vintage paper: And my mom purchased and framed a couple of these charming birdies. They have such personalities, and apparently so does their creator- see his Etsy titles!

Whimsical Children's Rooms Blog Party!

I'm joining this party a bit late, but it's so much fun! It's Katydiddy's Whimsical Children's Rooms Blog Party. Our girls' rooms are probably my two favorite rooms in our house, and whimsical they are, so here goes...

I'll start with A's room. A is my first daughter and it was so much fun creating her room. For both of my girls' rooms, my husband and mom helped make my design a reality. They painted, sewed, built furniture, and dealt with my pregnant self ordering them around! :)

Now it's time to move to L's room. I drew much of my inspiration for L's room from this Home Companion magazine article. It showed pictures of HC contributing editor Trenna Travis Lange's daughter's room. I just LOVED the colors, and really everything about the room. I wrote her and she was so sweet to clue me in on just the right color for the walls.

Happy 4th of July...

...from all of "us" here at bellalulu

More goodies from the Market of Fleas

Everyone is looking at Peter...except little sweet doll-without-arms...she is wondering why they aren't looking at her.

Good OLD Mother Goose

I'm pretty sure that if no more stuffed animals were made, there would still be too many. At our house, they seem to multiply by the day.

Vintage stuffed animals, however, are different.

I just listed this sweet Mother Goose. Is anyone doing a nursery rhyme themed nursery? She's perfect!

Looking around my house, I realized just how much I love these vintage creatures...

and last, but certainly not least, my beloved monkey band...