We have finally put together a few videos of some of the theme trees that we decorate around our house.  It just goes to show you that you don't have to wait until Christmas to decorate a tree and because these trees don't have that Christmas look, you can keep them decorated year round.  This video is a Patriotic themed tree.  Everything is red, white, and blue and we used a white feather tree instead of a traditional green tree.  I hope this inspires you to think outside the box and decorate a tree that you can display through out the year.

April showers bring May flowers

Summer is almost here and the flowers are in bloom all around my yard.  But why should I let my yard be the only place with flowers?  Afterall, I have a pretty good collection of flower ornaments that I have collected over the years...and a few bug ornaments too.  So I have a few options....I could use my tree that held my Easter ornaments or I could lay a bunch of flower ornaments in a pretty glass bowl.  Do you have any ideas for decorating with flower ornaments?   Here are a few of my favorite flower ornaments.


Lady Slipper



Pansy

Rose

Hyacinth

Easter Time

The arrival of this adorable set of Easter ornaments from Germany has me so excited.  They are even packed in Easter grass.  Do you decorate and Easter tree?  I put a small pink tree up every year for Easter with all of my favorite bunny, egg, and baby chick ornaments.  They always put a smile on my face.

Thought I would share a photo of my Easter tree too.

Sweet Treats

This fun display of ornaments would make a great conversation piece at your next party. What about giving your guests a Piece of Cake ornament to take home with them after a wedding reception...you could even write the wedding date on the bottom of the ornament to remember the special day.

Dinner Table Dressing

Having a dinner party any time soon? We found this easy way to dress up your table and provide a party gift for your guest. Wrap the back of your chair with festive ribbon and a bow and then fasten one of our beautiful ornaments under the bow. It will provide glamour to your table and your guests can take an ornament home with them at the end of the night.  The chair in this picture was decorated for a fall dinner party with pine cone ornaments hanging from the bottom of the bow.

This idea could be used for any party theme.  I think this would be a great idea for a baby shower and hang our baby bottle, pacifier, and baby's first Christmas ornaments.  Instead of the guest going home with  the ornament as a party favor why not give it to the guest of honor so that she has a set of baby ornaments for their first Christmas.  This would also work for an engagement party and the soon to be newlyweds won't have a Charlie Brown Christmas. 

The possibilities are endless and won't your guests be impressed!

Ornament of the Month

Tomorrow kicks off the start of our ornament of the month.  Each month we will feature an ornament that we think is special.  It may have a fun legend or symbolize attributes that we find interesting.  We may feature a special ornament that represents a holiday or a theme.  Check back every month to see what ornament we have selected.

New Opportunities

We are so excited to be a proud new member of Shabby Cottage Shops...a great online shopping mall.  They offer great links to a wide variety of shops featuring everything from home decor, clothing, antiques, collectibles....and now Christmas ornaments. We have already received a warm welcome from many of the current members and look forward to sharing ideas and finding new opportunities. 

Please head on over to Shabby Cottage Shops and check out all of the great shops.  Stay tuned as we start providing some new links to some of our favorite shops.

Let us know what some of your favorites links are

December

December is here and I can't believe it.  Time to start getting all of the Christmas decorations out and decorating the tree. 
Our family will be spending Christmas at Disney this year.  Has anyone experienced Disney during Christmas?  Would love to know if you have any tips or advice.

Market Days

Heading toward Houston, TX for our first big show in Nov.  We will be in the Woodlands for the Jr. League Christmas Market.  This is our first time at this show but we have heard nothing but good things.

Then on the 8th of Nov. we are on to Houston, TX for the big daddy of all markets.  The Nutcracker Market is in the Reliant Center in Houston, TX.  Hundreds of vendors and more than 95,000 shoppers attended last year.  This year promises to be an ever bigger success.

If you are in the area be sure to stop by our both!

Getting ready for madness

One more week and we will be full force into the holiday season.  As crazy and hectic as it gets in November and I think I can't go on a second more, the month ends and I am wishing November was here again.

I think it is a combination of putting up all of our displays, meeting new people and the excitement of all of the people shopping.  Let's hope this year is the same or better than last year.

Halloween Ornaments

Some of my favorite Halloween ornaments that I wanted to share with you.  We still have most of these available on the website but they are going fast this year.  Everyone must be getting into the spirit early.  Which Halloween ornaments are your favorite?

Spooky Trees

How do you decorate for Halloween?  My mother and I put up Halloween trees.  My tree is a standard 4ft black vintage style Christmas tree.  My mother's is a tree that we made years ago by taking different lengths of heavy guage wire and coverd them with brown floral tape.  I love the way it turned out.

I decided to go to a local Halloween shop and picked up a plastic skull that was a chip bucket for Halloween parties.  I filled it with Plaster of Paris, put a piece of pvc pipe in the center and let it dry.  Then I just stuck the base of my tree into the pvc pipe.  I stretched that packaged cob web stuff around the base to cover the plaster.  I think it makes a really cute base for my tree. 

Tree Stands

I don't know about you but I always find myself trying to cover up the plastic or metal Christmas tree stand that comes with my artificial trees.  They are so ugly so I try and find anything I can to cover them up.  I use old quilts or table clothes...anything to hide the unsightly stand. 

Last year we decided to get a little creative and replace the stand that comes with our tree with something that complimented the ornaments we have on our trees.  We found that you can use just about anything to add pizazz to the base of your tree.  A quick trip to our local Hobby Lobby and we came home with a cute resin elephant and a pair of resin cowboy boots.

Both of the resin statues were already pretty heavy.  You will want to make sure that the item you pick for your base is heavy enough and wide enough to prevent your tree from tipping over.  We purchased a small piece of pvc pipe...circumference big enough to fit the base of the tree.  Using a drill we carefully drilled a hole in the center of our statues that was wide enough to accommodate the pvc pipe and deep enough so that the base of the tree has stability.
Mix up a small amount of Plaster of Paris and drop it into the hole you drilled.  Push the pvc pipe into the hole and leave it to dry.  This should hold the pvc in place nicely.

Once the plaster has dried you are ready to insert the base of the tree and decorate.  Aside from these statues I have also used a cute galvanized pail (fill with Plaster of Paris and a pvc pipe in the middle) and decorative urns for my fancier trees.  If you don't like the look of the plaster at the top of your urn you can always sprinkle with glitter while the plaster is wet.

This elephant was used for our animal themed tree.

The cowboy boots worked great for our Western themed tree.

Our girly tree with a decorative urn.

Mantel Garland

This is a great way to decorate your mantel or to simply show off your favorite ornaments.  We have taken some inexpensive garland that you can pick up at your local hobby store and draped it across our mantel.  Then we selected our favorite clip on bird ornaments and clipped them into the garland.  You can use any clip on ornaments or even hanging ornaments for your garland.  Just be sure that your hanging ornaments are properly secured into the garland.  This project only took a few minutes to do but really makes a statement for the holidays.  Put as many ornaments as you like or even add ribbon for some extra color.  You can find birds for your garland project on our website along with other clip on ornaments.  Bird Ornaments

                                         

Market Dates

The days are fast approaching as we are getting ready for our holiday markets.  We are doing more shows this year than we have done in the past and we hope they are all a success.  Our first show starts in Oct and then we  have one every weekend in Nov. 

You wouldn't believe how long it take to hang up and display around 5,000 ornaments.  The real trick is to break fewer ornaments than the customers.  As time consuming and tiring the shows are we just love doing them.  We enjoy hearing about all of the theme trees that people decorate.  We have customers who decorate trees with nothing but doctor and nurse ornaments or airplane ornaments.  I decorate a tree with nothing but fruit and vegetable ornaments and my mother has a patriotic tree.  You name it and we probably have it.  I will never forget the look on a customers face when she walked into our booth and said that her son wanted an octopus ornament but who in the world would have such a thing?  I dangled a beautiful octopus ornament in front of her and her jaw dropped.  Those are always fun moments when we can find the impossible for someone. 

If you are in the Oklahoma or Texas area please be sure to check us out at these up coming markets.
Market Dates

Website facelift

We have spent the last couple of weeks giving our site a little facelift.  Just like a fresh coat of paint can make and old house look new again, a few tweaks, and some new pictures has made our website look like new.

Hopefully everyone likes our new look.  We think it turned out great.  As we start heading into our busy season there will be more updates.

Would love to hear your comments or suggestions.

Bedroom tree

This just goes to show you that you don't have to wait for Christmas to have a beautiful tree.  This is a tree that my Mom keeps in her bedroom all year round.  The pink tinsel tree makes it fun and not seem like Christmas (ignore the fact that when this picture was taken it actually was Christmas and thus the Christmas package).  The tree is covered in glass ornament flowers, hearts, and all things girly.  Do you keep a tree up all year long?  If so, let us see a picture.

Nutcracker Market

We are in our 7th year of attending the Nutcracker Market and we just love it! This market is worth the drive if you don't live in the Houston, TX area.  You can find us in booth 549 this year.  We hope to see you there.

Special preview night starts on Nov. 9th.  Open to the public Nov. 10-13, 2011.  Go to their website for ticket information and times.

Victorian Scrap Ornament

How to make your own Victorian Scrap ornament





We started by buying some Victorian paper scrap on line.  The sheets usually have multiple pictures on them.  Select the picture you want to add to your ornament.



You can use old or antique ornaments or you can buy a box of small to medium sized glass ornaments.  I prefer reflector type ornaments or shaped ornaments but you can certainly use a ball shaped ornament.  In the picture you can see some of our supplies.  Curly tinsel or angel hair, Victorian scrap angel, silver wired tinsel, and silver paper trim.  The silver trim can usually be bought from the same place you buy the scrap.



Before you start assembling your ornament you can dot glue onto your scrap and then sprinkle with glitter to add extra sparkle.  Using a glue gun, glue some angel hair and curly tinsel to form a "cloud" on top of your ornament.  Glue your scrap into the cloud of angel hair. 



Arrange wired tinsel in a horseshoe shape with the open ends facing downward.  Grab the arched end and give it a twist to form a small loop.  This will be used to hang your ornament.  Attach the open ends to each side of the ornament with glue.  You can add as many decorations as you like.  There is no right or wrong way to make these ornaments. 

Another picture of some of our completed ornaments. 

 



Have you ever wondered what to do with that box of ugly old ornaments?  A box of old ornaments don't have to stay in your closet anymore.  Breathe life into them by dressing them up. 

My mother had a box of old ornaments from her mother.  The paint was flaking off, they were a bit tarnished looking but they were very old and were a remembrance of my grandmother so we couldn't get rid of them.

My mother and I ordered some Victorian scrap and some tinsel trim on-line.  Victorian scrap is only a few dollars a sheet and each sheet has several pictures on them.  After getting our supplies in the mail we bought a glue pen and some glitter to add a little sparkle to the scrap.

You don't have to be a designer or have any skills other then being able to handle a glue gun. 
Take an old ornament and start gluing tinsel, ric rac, and scrap to the ornament.  There is no wrong way to do this.  Have fun and let your creativity come out. 

What you will end up with is a beautiful "new" old ornament that anyone would love to hang on their tree.

Starting to get the holiday itch

With all of the record heat here in Texas it has me yearning for the holiday season.  A slight relief from 100 degree weather even if we don't have a real cooling down here.  We have received almost all of our merchandise for the year and are starting to get organized for some upcoming events.  This year we have expanded to the Oklahoma area and have added a few more shows to our list.  We hope that if you live in the Dallas, Houston, or Fredricksburg area that you stop by and say hi.  You can find more information about our upcoming shows at our website.  Vintage Treasures