A Bit of Christmas Decorating

 So this year I changed up my tree.  Normally, I decorate for the kids with toys, and candy colors, but I was in the mood for something a little more "grown up."   I took one of my thrifted doilies and set it on the table for the tree to sit on instead of the traditional skirt.  I stiffened a collection of smaller crocheted doilies and pieces of battenburg, a couple of white cotton angels with crochet trim, glittered spent light bulbs (FUN recycling project), made some paper ornaments, fabric roses, a 6 yard strand of faux pearls instead of garland, silver icicles, and the darling little candle lights clipped to branches were a Christmas in July gift from a friend two summers ago.

 The basket the tree is sitting in has for the last ten years has been a natural color.  Part of my change included the basket.  I painted it a rich chocolate brown, hit it in spots with black spray primer, then lightly sprayed over the entire thing with white.  For whatever reason, it came out this GORGEOUS blue-gray and it was the best as far as happy accidents go! :)  On the table, I have a mercury glass angel and two bottle brush trees that are normally part of my winter forest.

 A peek at one of the ornaments I'll share with you this weekend.  I found a set of 6 apples at one of my thrift stores for a whopping 50 cents.  I didn't want them red, so painting was called for.  At first I tried a soft aqua, but the red came through & made one purple.  Then I tried white...it went pink, which wasn't terrible, but it wasn't really what I was going for either.  Finally, out came my trusty can of Rustoleum metallic spray paint in CHROME and I ended up with these absolutely darling faux mercury glass apples.  I'm in love!

 This is the winter forest on top of my entertainment center.  I try to add something every year.  This year it's the milk glass cup with silver & white berries wrapped in pearls, a stacked paper tree (not shown), and that darling memory/tag book on the tripod.  I'll share a VERY detailed tutorial for that with you another time.

 And finally for today, this is the top of my microwave cabinet.  The glass collection is always there, I simply put my glittered bird and some pretty miniature blue ornaments under the cake dome, and put some pearl sprays in one of my hobnail milk glass cups.

I also made a really neat garland for my front window...I'll share that tomorrow with details on the ornaments.  Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Darn It!!!!

I know it's been a few months since I've been here, but the one time that I absolutely HAVE to come in & look for something from one of the blogs I've followed for YEARS and I find my reading list.....completely empty! :(   Google & Blogger have removed me from all of the blogs that I loved to visit.  I'm all for improvements and I understand that over time things happen, but this...something so simple and innocuous as a reading list of blogs....so frustrating. 

Has anyone else had this happen?  Did you have to spend days going back and trying to find all of your favorites or did you just resign yourself to starting over? 

I want to share some Christmas posts with you, so I'll be back later on.  If you're in the mood to flip through pictures and not worry with the hassle of reading posts, please feel free to stop by my Tumblr, House of Roses, any time you'd like.

*sigh*