I'm a Gurley Girl!

I grew up in the 1960's and my Gramas had these little darlings, so did my Mom; Gurley Candles.  Mom had the Jack 'o Lantern man and the two Pilgrim people.  I remember the Christmas Santa too, all part of my happy childhood holidays.

Finding a Gurley candle still makes my heart beat faster.  Faded, slouching due to heat exhaustion, they peek out from thrift store shelves or flea maket tables and my memories run right back to those 'back in the day' times of simple holiday decorating.  I hate to admit that my folks didn't spend three days putting out their Christmas decorations like we do. 

On Saturday, entering into the sixth hour of decorating (my Mom came and helped us too) I walked up to Mr. Wonderful who was putting up the second tree and whispered, "I am so happy that you love Christmas as much as I do!"

 

My Dad gave this little sleigh to my Mom on their first Christmas together in 1955; it was stored in the original box with graphics as adorable as the tiny reindeer themselves!  The silver deer head is a hood ornament!  It has wiring to light up the antlers.  How's that for Christmasy?  Mister wouldn't put it on my car...boo hoo.

This vignette is full of family memories; my Little Grama, the cake decorator gave me the colored bells, deer and toy soldiers, the Santa and horn came from Mr. Wonderful's 107 year old Grandma, the angel with star is from his Mom...

 

 Ah, it is

 

The Hap-Happiest Season of All!



Christmas Craft-a-Palooza!

What do you get when you cross a couple of creative bloggers meeting in the Real World?  Eleven hours of glue sticks, paper crafts, Shiny Brites, glitter and precious outcomes.

Erica of Golden Egg Vintage inspired me with her ornament wreath.  I can cut and create banners telling stories; each of us wanted what the other could do.  A plan began to form; a marathon craft day teaching each other. 

I pulled out my stash of ornaments; I hit every thrift store I could find for more Shiny Brite darlings.  I piled them in the corner until the day arrived:  Craft-a-Palooza commenced!  Arriving with a huge gift wrapped present:  Erica gave me even more vintage ornaments and a big surprise that I will show you tomorrow...

Asking only that she bring a book we could use for her garland of story tags, we started at the craft table with choosing the graphics. Erica and I both love Little Golden Books and her book:  Santa's Workshop!  Too perfect.  Next up, picking paper from my newly acquired October Afternoon warehouse sale stash.  Sheet music or white borders?  Out came my button jars, Baker's twine, colored alphabet stickers and assorted garnishes.  Finally, four hours and two tired crafters later:  five adorable tags that I strung on a vintage tape measure! 

Santa truly did come to my house and read my wish list!  Christmas and Cute Counts!

Here's my completed bare metal tree adorned with vintage ornaments and a few leftover Shiny Brites.  Under the tree the most INCREDIBLE Christmas present ever:

A Cup of Kindness from Elizabeth my idol!  When Debby who blogs at Cozy Blanket set up her one to one swap, I joined not dreaming I would be matched with my mentor over at Creative Breathing!  Yikes, the MOST CREATIVE WOMAN ON THE PLANET would get something I made?!  I learned everything I know about paper crafting FROM HER!  This last week has been a tough one personally, but because of the love and friendship of these two amazing friends, I am happy beyond what I dared to dream. 

Prettiest Decorated House...

On the Whole Block!  Fibber McGee and Molly had a Christmas radio show where the classic comedy team had a bet that the first person viewing their Christmas lights would say, "You got the prettiest decorated house on the whole block!" 

Imagine my delight when I opened a package from Shirley Zetta's Aprons to find this pretty little Christmas cottage complete with candy, glitter and the sweetest details in each and every little nook!  I have 'the prettiest decorated house on the WHOLE block!'

Shirley sent 'incentives to craft', I mean sweet treats in the adorable specially made Santa treat box!  A vintage Christmas card, a candy striped Snowman tag...it made me so happy!  Look at the sugar cone tree!  Not missing a detail, Shirley sent a flameless candle to light up my house too!

The sweetest gift from a very sweet gal!

 

Tammy's in Love...Again!



In the Playroom...again!

Once upon a time there was craftroom, full of binders of vintage greeting cards and file folders of  calendar pages saved for years.  Next to that are tablets of scrapbooking paper and gluesticks and all kinds of garnishes.

I went into that room about a month ago, I started cutting and gluing and then all of a sudden, there were stacks of vintage redesigned cards for Christmas.  When there was an October Afternoon Warehouse Sale I found all kinds of new papers in adorable prints and embellishments to design with.

I played with paper and I took pictures that I wanted to show you!  But my laptop went on the fritz and Mr. Wonderful tried and tried and tried.  He put in a new part to connect to the network, he pointed in time (my words), he backed up the files on an external hard drive and then when he went to reload it all, IT DIED.  Insert the playing of "Taps".  This is not a good time for a computer to die (is it ever?).

I went to my blogs on HIS laptop and I replied to your emails but I couldn't POST!  My pictures needed to go in the file in MY laptop.  I was waiting, I thought I'd be right back to show you.  Instead, the piles of creations kept growing and I had lots of fun and now there are soooo many pictures!

 I was being very good, making sure I will be on the 'NICE' list.

 Because Santa Claus IS coming to town

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Oh, here he is again; he brought the good news that 100 Followers happened and as promised, drawing for the goodies from October Afternoon will be going to:

Renee of My Vintage Mending

 

Thank you all for your comments and for your friendship!  I didn't start this to collect followers, I started it to find friends, and I have!

In the Christmas Mood

The Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded a Christmas CD a few years ago that has been playing for the last ten days in my playroom!  I turn the tunes on and pull out the vintage papers, magazines and ephemera and don't come up for air till dinner! Well, there was a trip to the thrift store and more job hunting but that's just little stuff.

Remember the bare branches of my metal tree?  I had a vision and I made it a reality with about $1.50 worth of silver garland!  I do love those silver 1960s tinsel trees, Little Grama got one (at the time I thought it was hideous!) but it was gone from her attic when the treasures were divided.  So...here's my version.  It will be the perfect spot for vintage ornaments.  Let's start with some snowballs and just go from there, shall we?

While huddled at the craft table I have created more paper crafts than I thought myself possible!  I started with this WW II themed banner that is now hanging on a measuring tape (what else!?) on the wall.  Five year old grandson arrived last week, took a look at the papers and garnishes and said, "Hey!  Last time it was Halloween and now it's Christmas in here!"

I finished the Whitman's Candy Sampler ornament exchange boxes and headed straight into my binders of vintage cards and haven't been back to greet you for two weeks!  Not intentionally, the laptop needs a part to connect to the network.  Technical difficulties! After Mr. Wonderful ordered the gizmo I thought it would just be a couple of days... Well, wait till you see what I've been making, this is the TIP of the iceberg!

Merry Christmas Imaginary Friends!