Our Living Room at Christmastime

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's been a couple weeks since I've posted! I hope everyone's been doing well! It's been sooo cold here! I'm talking like -5 degrees! And then when you add in the wind chill factor it makes it a lot colder than that!

My R.A. doesn't mix well with such cold temps, so I've been spending a lot of time under my electric blanket, and using my heating pad. Decorating the house took me forever! I could only do a tiny bit each day. But I finally got it all done by Saturday, because that evening we had our annual Christmas get together with our high school girlfriends! We've been having a x-mas party since we were 15 years old and this year we are 35! I feel so lucky to have the same group of friends after all these years...and we still laugh so hard we literally cry! LOL

 

So, I thought I'd start by showing you our living room. These pics are dark because this is

 "An Evening View". lol

I did a table top sized tree in mostly reds and pinks.

 

Set on a mini felt tree skirt and there is my goofy felted Santa from Paper Moon Gallery. 

 To top it off I put a vintage corsage and my favorite old tree topper. Funny, I have several vintage glass ones but I realized that I like this plastic one best!

 

 I store some of my mercury glass garlands in these vintage men's tie boxes. I love the graphics of Santa peeking through the window and in a parachute. Candles are Gurley.

 

We have a sunken living room. I draped my vintage "Faribault Woolen Mill" blankets over the chairs and couch. They were all found at estate sales or flea markets for about $5 each and I just love them! Especially because my Grandma was born in the little town of Faribault, MN!

If you look for blankets like this, don't settle on ones that are scratchy.

Keep looking and you'll find soft ones!

 

 *I was really unsure of how to wash these. What I ended up doing was putting them (in a garbage bag) in the freezer for a few days to kill any dust mites etc. And then I washed them in the washing machine on COLD and DELICATE with baby shampoo. After that I laid them out flat to dry for a few hours. But wet wool smells disgusting. So I put them in the dryer on NO HEAT (just cool air), and that did a wonderful job! 

The vintage candy cane kids that I found last summer and a glass snowman (circa 1995) from the little gift shop that I worked at in my teens.

 Aww...The fire is slowly dying. But there is my Merry Christmas garland that I bought in Deb's (Garage Sale Gal) booth. And I happened to have two matching McCoy aqua icicle planters, so they worked well for my little trees.

 

 This table cloth is new. I mean...it's old, but it's new to me!

I found that huge frame in the garbage several years ago. So the other night I decided to white wash it and it became the perfect place to hang some of my vintage stockings!

 

I just have to show you a close up of this table cloth. I love the little cone shaped candy containers. Some of them have dolls in them, and some have toy donkeys! Pam (Virginia Retro) thinks it's possibly an earlier design by Simtex. It's huge! I can't find pictures of another one anywhere online.

Do any of you have this? With a tag?

 

This is the larger of my two aluminum trees. And I'm not going to put up the other one!

This decorating stuff is hard!!!

 

 It looks best in the day light of course because it doesn't have any lights and I don't have a color wheel. If you have a color wheel, will you let me know if you love it? Does it make a big difference? I don't even know what it looks like when one is on! lol

 

Remember the lady that wrote in permanent marker on my glass ornaments at the estate sale, and then SPIT on them? I think she was smoking something because nothing takes the marker off...unless it takes the paint off too! So there is a nice big $5.00 written on the back of this big indented one from Poland. Good thing I paid like .75 for it and not $5.00!  LOL

That glittery bluebird is a favorite. It's a candy container. His head comes off!

 

OK- that's it for the living room. Dining room coming soon! :)

 

Wellie and I would like to say a special Thank You to Donna! Donna and I have been working out a little deal between us. I need a couple of my vintage quilts repaired and so I've been sending her vintage Christmas things in exchange for her work! Well then the other day this adorable ice skate showed up at our door! Donna decoupaged the outside and filled the inside with greenery and a cute Santa! We love it! And I had the perfect empty spot to hang it on the wall! But the deal is for me to send Donna stuff, not the other way around!!!!  :)

Blogger friends are so good to each other.

 

Hugs to you all-

Erica :)