Still reveling in the holidays

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was definitely baffled as I stood in the grocery aisle today looking for a carton of eggnog. "Could it be," I wondered, "that they are done selling eggnog for the year?"

I know that many have already (gads!) tossed their tree by now, but I'm the kind of person who drags it out as long as possible. Perhaps it's because I grew up my first few years in Mexico City, where kids enjoy receiving gifts on January 6, the Epiphany, known as Día de los Reyes (Day of Kings). Whatever the reason, I'm not done celebrating yet, as I told my husband who hopefully asked whether I was ready to throw out our tree during trash pickup in a few hours.

Nope. I'm going to continue perusing my favorite holiday magazines.



I even have plans to bake cookies and a cake with the kids. I blame those devious supermarkets putting their chocolate chips and cream cheese on sale this week.



And we'll definitely enjoy reading more from our collection of kids' Christmas books. A favorite book of mine this season has been a $5 library store find, "Babar and Father Christmas," one of the few original stories written by Babar creator Jean de Brunhoff. In the book, Babar searches for Father Christmas in the streets of Paris, among other places. It is a beautifully illustrated book, which my son has enjoyed browsing again and again.



On New Year's Eve, we're planning to stay close to our fireplace and play board games. Perhaps we'll review the photos and video footage of the festivities in our home on Christmas Eve, during which my daughter received another set of beloved Legos.



A trip to the mountains for some snow fun is in the works, but I have my fingers crossed we'll somehow be able to pay another visit to a historic missionary church near our home that has a spectacular light show and horse-drawn carriage rides.



Whatever we end up doing the next few days, you can bet I'll still be lighting our Christmas tree and tiny tabletop village. I hope your year-end activities are just as enjoyable.

A Christmas village with a touch of vintage

Once again, I'm joining the party of Vintage Christmas Mondays hosted by Joan at anything goes here.

She is having such a lovely party! I'm having a great time discovering many new blogs and peeking into the homes of so many creative people with a talent for injecting vintage touches into their decor. And I have many more to discover yet since the list of party-goers is long and I'm guilty of spending too much time plumbing archives when I find blogs I like.



This week, I thought I'd show you my little Christmas village decorated mostly with vintage objects that I found at thrift shops and antique stores.

Most of the items are vintage buys from thrift shops, but the big house which is "Santa's Workshop" is an advent calendar that I bought at a 50 percent off post-Christmas sale at a Sur la Table near my house a couple years ago. The green knitted wreath I placed above the tiny door was originally an ornament I found for 35 cents at a thrift store (the same store where I found two of the reindeer and the little blue sledding boy, who is actually an Avon perfume bottle with perfume still in it, all a bargain at 35 cents each).

My kids, ages two and four years old, are a little young to enjoy opening all the tiny drawers and compartments on the house without eventually giving way to temptation to use the advent house as a dollhouse that they throw around and break. But I still wanted them to enjoy the house, so I decided to create a little village for them with it. As it turned out, my kids enjoyed helping me put it together by shopping for items for it and putting the little pieces in place. And because they helped create it, the village has mostly stayed intact for three weeks (well, except for an incident during which they lost Santa for two days).



My two-year-old daughter gets the credit for finding these carolers with adorable freckles on their faces while shopping with me at the thrift store. I keep forgetting to put batteries inside the bottom platform to find out whether their candles will light up.

As for the wide-eyed elf watching the carolers, I fell for him at an antique shop. He seemed like he would be a good helper for Santa, who in our village scene is perched above the chimney, perhaps practicing for the big day.



Yes, that would be a Coco's sandwich toothpick attached to a tiny wooden house I found thrifting earlier this year. My family and I enjoy the occasional French toast breakfast at Coco's, so my son adored the idea of creating a tiny Coco's in our village. The cow usually lives in my kids' toy box and I've had the tiny nativity scene made in El Salvador for about a decade. Undoubtedly, my favorite part is the vintage angel watching over Baby Jesus.



At the beginning of December, I had just a few items for the village, but I was fortunate to find many of the little people and other tiny goods in the stash of Christmas items that thrift stores take out during the holiday shopping season.

Little by little, the village has come together the past few weeks, becoming the main attraction in the family room where my kids, husband and I spend most of our time.



I originally got the idea for doing a small village after seeing the above vignette at an Anthropologie store and another at a Paris-inspired tea shop.



I created the two vignettes above with containers and items I had at home, but it seems my excitement got the better of me. Next thing I knew, I was busy hunting in thrift stores for little people, ornaments and other items to create a complete village.



I found these two sweet-looking kids at two different antique stores. I couldn't pass them up and I'm glad I didn't because my daughter pretends these are "brother and sister" just like her and my son.



Here she is, saying "hi" to the villagers. In all, I would say I spent many more hours than I ever expected putting all this together, but seeing my kids' faces fill with excitement each day when we light up the village makes it all worthwhile.

Remember to visit anything goes here for more Christmas vintage fun.

Treasury of Christmas Ideas

I found this vintage gem during one of my recent thrifting jaunts:



Though I bought the book for the eye candy, the text oozes with the kind of can-do spirit that has made Etsy such a success for crafters and buyers alike:

"Use whatever is handy and seasonal around the house. Use fabric remnants, Christmas ribbon; cover shapely hatboxes; cut tin can lids into shapely flowers ... make paper trees from last year's gift paper. Tasteful designing need not entail buying numerous new items," reads part of the introduction to the section on decorating doorways.

I think I might have actually clapped a little while standing in the middle of the books aisle thinking how much fun I was going to have poring over the book.

I was not mistaken.



As someone who appreciates handmade and unique items, I got a wealth of ideas about new ways to reuse and recycle ordinary items around the house, since most pages contained detailed instructions on creating the featured decorations.



The Better Homes and Gardens Treasury of Christmas Ideas, published in 1966, provides a visual feast of Christmas decorating trends at the time, including ...



... handmade ornaments ...



... intricately patterned baubles ...



... fun-looking Christmas trees ...



... whimsical items typically destined for the recycling bin ...



... three-dimensional wall hangings and decorations ...



... colorful wreaths made out of paper, felt and other simple materials ...



... simple, but elegant handmade cards ...



... and a small city made out of empty ice cream cartons.



Other fun sections included a selection of poems, stories and carols, in addition to gifts to make for the little ones and ideas on how to wrap these gifts.

Not bad for a $1.50 book.

Dreaming of a (vintage) pink Christmas

This week, I thought I would join the Vintage Christmas Mondays party of bloggers incorporating vintage items into their Christmas decorations, if only in spirit since we only have two Mondays left before the big day. It is being hosted by Joan at anything goes here.

After planting pink poinsettias in my backyard, I couldn't resist the lure of adding more pink to our seasonal decor. I never thought a bowl of Christmas ornaments could make me so happy.



I lucked out and found these ornaments at a couple of different thrift shops. It was such a thrill to finally incorporate a yellow-and-pink color scheme into my home. This has been a goal of mine ever since the talented Leslie Shewring of A Creative Mint blog posted her beautiful photographs in a series of compositions she aptly titled "Pink Lemonade" last July.



Somehow my pink Christmas vignette all came together with a few other vintage odds and ends I've picked up through the months:

A pink metal bowl turned upside down to serve as a stand for a former Avon talc powder container and applicator shaped like a drummer/majorette girl with her baton or drumstick. A metal bowl to hold the ornaments that originally came with a matching glass Pyrex bowl. A sweet-looking Christmas card I plucked from a basket of old cards at a thrift store. And finally, a pink towel holder that I use to hold letters and small notes on my desk.




I actually have two copies of this old Walt Disney book that I love and I picked up the ceramic choir singer at a thrift store after Christmas last year for less than a dollar. The tree was a little more expensive at five dollars, a compromise since I really wanted a larger pink or white tree.



But I cannot complain. I mean, just look at the sweet faces on my majorette and kids on the Christmas card.



They fit in perfectly into my pink office and match the futon I painted pink last spring.

Remember, don't forget to hop on over to anything goes here for a full viewing of the vintage creations of talented and inspired bloggers.

Finding seasonal inspiration in shops

A tightened economy means tightened purse strings, but that doesn't necessarily mean one has to stay home. Quite the opposite, I say. If ever one needs inspiration for ways to make our money stretch further, the time is now and what better place to get ideas for ways to repurpose and get crafty than by visiting those shops where stylists are known for their inventiveness.

Take a look at this shop window of a Kate Spade store:



Notice the cardboard chandelier. I don't think this would fly at my next dinner party, especially with a pair of my shoes hanging from it, but I take this cardboard chandelier as a reminder to lighten up and add some humor in decorating my home.

I especially adore the wallpaper of oversized flowers on the back wall of the store. It was late evening and I didn't have time to go inside to see everything close up but I enjoyed the window shopping nonetheless.



The dazzling display of purses, jewelry and other luxurious goods at this store in Pasadena, Calif. is made up largely of simple materials, like the chain which appears to be made out of shiny wrapping paper.



Here's a closer look at that chain. What a great idea for something to adorn a Christmas tree, a mantel or a bookcase.



Paris in a Cup in the city of Orange is a shop after my own heart! You may remember me gushing over everything French and pink in previous posts, so you know this Christmas display had me gasping for breath.



The shop was closed when I passed by, but the tiny glass ornament on the bottom left corner inspired me to create a similar vignette at home, which I hope to show you in a future post if Southern California weather lavishes some great sunny light inside my home in the next few days so I can take some photos. (Right now, the wind is howling and rain is beating furiously against our windows.)



Of course, the store where I could spend hours and hours gathering inspiration of all kinds is Anthropologie. The rest of the photos in this post are ones I took at Anthropologie stores in Irvine and Corona in Southern California.



Another paper chain! What a cozy spot for a child and an easy craft to make to adorn a space for your kids at home. The shapes of the figures for the paper chain could be something simpler for younger kids or of little people like the ones here for the older kids who are better at cutting paper.



Let's talk containers. Anthropologie's stylists are amazingly creative in displaying their wares in vintage containers. Here they're using giant (oil?) funnels to display Christmas ornaments.



I can never tire of the traditional pairing of red and green ...



... though I enjoy seeing fresh combinations of colors for Christmas or winter decorating, like the yellow and white here. These numbered, white containers are similar to a set of three I recently bought at a thrift store.



All those tiny jars would be a bear to clean regularly, but what a lovely display of nature set amidst rustic and vintage materials.



Something about those mantels crafted of simple wood planks makes me want to pick up a hammer and head out to my nearest hardware store. Notice the crafty use of sweaters to make the clock. You may remember in the funnel picture above, the letters crafted from sweater material.



White paired with rustic wood. Need I say more?



I'm fortunate to live within driving distance of at least five Anthropologie stores in Southern California so I've seen this guy at all five, but I've yet to understand the significance. In any event, he's a remarkable looking fellow in all his giant white splendor. This scene actually reminds me of my kitchen when I'm trying out a new recipe, with my nose buried in the cookbook and loads of ingredients and other whatnot on the countertops.


Strangely, the photo above is similar to the one here of the beautifully romantic white duvet cover.



Here's a crafty display rulers/yardsticks arranged to look like the skyline of a big city after a major snowstorm.



The window display that first lured me into the shop (not that I need much incentive). I fell head over heels in love with the tiny snow village vignette inside the big glass jar.



I went inside to take a closer look at the glass jar. It's like a microcosm of a cozy mountain village or a skiing lodge.



Here it is again from a different vantage point, next to the plant decorated with a sweater cozy. Don't tell me you're not yet cutting up all your old sweaters.



Here's a photo of me right at home in the clearance room at Anthropologie. I was actually trying to photograph my two-year-old daughter, who loves looking at herself in the mirror, but she ran off before I could capture her image and instead took a photo of myself with only a blur of her pink and lime green outfit on the lower left corner.

I hope you enjoyed looking at some photos of my recent forays to a few favorite shops and maybe gathered some inspiration of your own to decorate your home or craft some gifts this winter season.