Bonus -- It's time for the Christmas windows!

So I know I've been a real slacker when it comes to the blog, especially with the window posts.  We've still been doing the windows at Collector's Antique Mall in Asheboro, North Carolina -- we just haven't been sharing them with you.  So for that, I apologize, offer as a gift to you our newest window, just in time for Christmas.

If you've read our blog before, you know that the Christmas window is not necessarily our favorite one to do.  We have more parameters and limitations with it than we do with a normal window design (the tree goes here, it must be rich and full, blah blah blah).  But we really enjoyed this one.  It came together quickly, there was tons of silver tree junk in storage at the store, and we could use our trusty black and white tiled "floor".  And there's always lots and lots of glassware at the store to use. 

We suspended plastic glittery snowflake ornaments in silver and white from the ceiling, and filled the wall with black, silver, and white framed mirrors.  We wanted it to SPARKLE! and SHINE!  And it does. The effect doesn't translate all that well in photographs, but standing outside at night looking in, it really twinkles.  So pretty.

Balls and tinsel and picks galore!

The tree is so full of stuff, I was afraid it would fall over.  We found a gajillion silver picks and we used them ALL.  We also had tons of that cheap silver tinsel garland (can you see it?  it's kind of buried in the tree), and we debated about using it -- will it look like cheap silver tinsel garland?  But it's kitschy, and I LOVE KITSCH, so we went with it.  And I swear, it made that tree looks expensive.  Who'd have thunk??

We didn't go overboard adding presents under the tree.  Just some carefully curated items, mostly chosen for their colors and designs.

We loved this doll for her white hair and patterned dress.  And the dominoes are freakin' cool!

So we've done a Christmas kitchen, a traditional living room, our Hipster Cabin Christmas last year -- but we'd never done a table and chairs.  We found this great white iron and glass mid century patio table and mixed it with two traditional black chairs.  We were selective with our red accents, and mixed crystal, painted wood, milk glass, and steel for the other pieces.  We think it looks pretty awesome.

We've wanted to use this checked bedspread for a while now.  It was perfect here.

Crystal Christmas tree and Santa says "Hi!"

This has deer heads for handles!  Perfect!

We finished the whole window with angel hair tinsel -- another kitschy classic.  But it's so sparkly, and delicate!  We put it EVERYWHERE.

And the piece de resistance is my disco fringe silver tinsel wreath I made.  Did you see it?

You can make one too!  I started with a Styrofoam wreath base, and used silver bead garland and angel hair tinsel from the dollar store.  I used my handy glue gun to glue random lengths of the bead garland to the top, and I did two layers.

Then I took hanks of angel hair tinsel and wrapped it around the form, hot gluing the ends in the back.  I kept adding it until it was full, then I went back over it and teased out some loose ends for that fringe-y effect.  It was very messy, but you know, whenever I make anything, I make a huge mess.

Messy, but sooo sparkly!

And here it is installed!  Merry Christmas y'all!!

Bonus -- A Cabin Christmas

As previously discussed, the Christmas windows are never usually our favorites.  Mainly because we have parameters that are set by someone other than ourselves.  We're not divas -- we promise.  It's just that we like to challenge ourselves to approach each window differently, and make every one special in its own way.  But with the Christmas window, we know that the tree goes there, there must be presents under it, and it needs to look "rich and full".  (Don't ask.)  But it also needs to feel a certain bit of tradition, coziness, and usually, a fair amount of sparkle.

Well, we skipped the sparkle this year.

This year we decided to do a New England cabin/camping/fishing theme, based on our love of Rock Hudson's movie, Man's Favorite Sport?.  Made in 1964, Rock is a published fishing expert who actually doesn't know how to fish.  He works at Abercrombie and Fitch, and when his boss enters him into a fishing tournament, he gets outfitted with all of the coolest gear.  It's a feast for Blackbird eyes between the sets, clothes, and camping gear!

Our other inspiration was my obsession with Hudson Bay blankets.  I wish I could have stacks and stacks of them.  I recently found a red Pendleton one at an antique shop, and I thought the other Blackbird was going to have to drag me out of the store.  I wanted that blanket to live with me -- and since I couldn't afford it, I almost decided to just stay there and live with it.  It was a red Hudson Bay blanket, people!  And made by Pendleton!

Anyway, we used the stripes and the colors as a jumping off point for the rest of the window.  We found a great wrapping paper with trees that made for an interesting background, but wasn't overpowering.  We had the brilliant idea to make our own ornaments -- it's expensive to buy new ornaments every year, but it's very limiting to use the same ones over and over.  So we went to a thrift shop, bought some ugly 1980s glass balls, and spray painted them in green and cream.  We then painted the cream ones with Hudson Bay stripes.  The tree needed a garland, so we made a traditional paper chain, but updated it by using brown craft paper cardstock, and making the loops a little skinny and more delicate.  We made wooden plaques with animal figures cut out of scrapbook paper, and little wooden house cutouts got painted with houndstooth and plaid patterns.  We raided the fishing section at a discount store, and got all kinds of brightly colored lures and spinners.

We created the artwork on the fireplace mantel with a spare canvas we had at the house, found at a thrift shop for $1 and stashed away for something like this.  Several layers of cream paint went down first, and then we taped off stripes and painted them the Hudson Bay colors.  We needed a few more decorations, so we made a wooden plaque with a deer cutout in bright scrapbook paper, a string art monogram, and a lovely scrapbook paper covered wreath with handmade paper feathers.

The presents under the tree were themed as well.  We included fishing gear, toy boats, a tiny folding sling chair with a teddy bear, a vintage plaid flannel shirt, flashlights, and a sled.

We had been stashing away cabin merchandise because we knew we wanted to do a cabin window.  And we love the way it turned out.  Rock Hudson would be proud!

 

 

As a final note, we also decided to make our window charitable for the holiday season.  Collector's Antique Mall is hosting a food drive, and we've donated 50 handmade ornaments that coordinate with the window.  While supplies last, for every 5 cans of food you donate, you can pick out one of our ornaments to take home with you.  It starts today, November 29, 2013.

 

Bonus -- Window Surprise

We mourn for the windows we don't have a record of-- designs we did for Collector's Antique Mall that live on in our minds, but for some reason or other, didn't get photographed.  Or got photographed with a cell phone, that then got lost -- can anyone say Under the Sea window? SIGH.

But while working on a project for the Antique Mall tonight, lo and behold, on someone's Flickr account, I found this:

 

It's not a great picture of the window -- but it is a photographic record of our Christmas kitchen window!!  We thought it'd never been seen again!  This was Christmas 2011, and you can read our blog here for more about it.

Yay!!

Junk Love Monday: Wrap It Up!

I was fortunate enough to have plenty of grandparents to spend my childhood with. Of course, I had my father's parents, and a great grandmother on that side. On my mother's side, I had grandparents, 3 great-grandparents, and one great-great grandmother. This meant plenty of love, and pre-dinner cookies, and secret quarters slipped to me when no one was looking. It also meant vastly different variations on Christmas.

We always had a green artificial tree at home, covered with homemade ornaments, new and vintage ornaments, multicolored lights, and tinsel garland. My dad's parents did a 1950's tree with angel hair tinsel and colored balls. Another house always had a real tree with delicate German ornaments and birds. And then we have my great grandmother Irene's house, where the tree was not quite as full, or as tall, but covered trunk to tip with ornaments painted by my mother and uncle when they were children. There was tradition and ritual to the decoration of each of these trees, but a lot of years, Irene's tree was dressed by just the two of us. We would dig out the ornaments, wrap garland around the porch rails, hang the mistletoe, and then select from decades of stored Christmas cards that she had received (she never threw a card away, a habit that I still struggle to break free of) to prop around the house. Then came my favorite part--the paper.

Both available on etsy.com

As any well-trained pack rat knows, you should never waste something that you know you're going to need again next year, especially holiday items. This extends to wrapping paper. The old paper, that came folded in a neat plastic package, is much easier to store than a roll. It is also cuter than a lot of modern paper. And, if you're careful when you unwrap your gifts, you can re-fold it to use again. Our presents were always wrapped in paper from the 1950s and 1960s. We were all aware of the importance of saving the paper, so at Irene's house, there was no rip-and-tear enthusiasm. You start at the end flaps, carefully separate the tape along the main seam, and then trim the sticky bits off with scissors. Bows go into a paper grocery bag; the paper gets flattened and put into a stack.

flickriver.com

Yes, the paper got incrementally smaller over the years, but it also meant that I got to have presents wrapped in my favorite papers every year. I also got to be the one to re-fold and store the paper after Christmas was over (one of life's little joys...). The bottom two drawers of one of the dressers in the house were devoted entirely to the storage of vintage paper. Sometimes, when I should have been napping, I would get on my knees and carefully ease the drawers open to look at the paper.

etsy.com

Occasionally, we would find a pack at the Salvation Army, or a dime store that is still operational in a nearby town, and it would get added to the stash for next time. I still look for it, even though it is getting harder to find the cute patterns. And, I'm not sure that I could bring myself to use it on an actual present. But it has made me a wrapping paper snob. The annual choice of paper is just as important as choosing the ornaments for the tree, or the presents themselves. I'm still drawn to vintage-inspired patterns. And I still use it to the last scrap (seriously, I save 4-inch pieces of paper that I really like, because you never know when you'll need to wrap something small...). This is a problem, because I want (need) to buy new paper every year, but I feel like I shouldn't if I still have paper left over from last year (and of course I do). Luckily, I have lots of presents in need of a good wrapping....

etsy.com

The Skinny -- A Christmas Memory

From Parisian Prairie Charm on Etsy

Everyone has certain holiday memories that stay with them throughout their life.  My most favorite memories of Christmas are the goodies my mom used to make (and still does...), and the time we spent together baking.  We had a double sided bar in the house where I grew up that was between the dining room and the kitchen. Most of the year it was a catch-all for all the things a busy family needed, but at Christmastime, it became the resting place for the goodie smorgasbord! We would have cookies, cakes, and candies enough to last us through to New Year's.  We each had our favorites -- mine are Gooey Butter Bars. 

I always knew that when she pulled out her stack of worn, stained recipes, that the fun was about to begin.  She would stockpile all the ingredients on the bar before baking, buying pounds and pounds of flour, sugars, nuts, and chocolate.  There was also, inevitably, a glass filled with candy canes and a gumdrop tree.  Her recipes were gathered from family and friends, neighbors and little old church ladies.  But the most exciting to me was when she pulled out this book, the Farm Journal Christmas Book, published in 1970.

This book has the recipe for my sister's favorite in it -- Seven Layer Cookies (without that icky butterscotch layer -- we are NOT butterscotch people!).  But I loved it because of the fun, bright pictures of gingerbread houses, candies, cookies, and best of all, crafts.  I looked at it for hours. 

My mom still uses her copy.  I never remember seeing the dust jacket on hers, it was probably lost before I was born.  A few years ago, I was able to find two copies of it -- one for me and one for my sister.  And there are copies that can be found very reasonably (like the one above, available on Etsy for $8!). 

So for today's post, beyond the reminiscing, I thought I'd share some great paper decorations shown in this gem of a book.  They may be designed in 1970, but I think they look pretty current!

  

(The measurement on the bottom lantern for the height of the divot is 1 7/8" and the width is 1 5/16".  Sorry, the scanner got blurry!) 

Junk Love Monday: Holy Silver Tinsel Tree, Batman!

applenapps.com

So, you watch Charlie Brown struggle with the meaning of Christmas. You take that journey with  him when he finds the lonely little puny tree. You fall in love with that single red ball. But let's back this thing up. Was that a smorgasbord of shiny tinsel trees that Charlie passed up? Why, Charlie? Why????



Part of the danger of working at an antique mall is the fantastic items that come in, and instantly go out, before a lowly sales clerk has time to count the pennies in her piggy bank. One of those items is the silver tinsel Christmas tree. Every year, we get a few. And every year, they get purchased before we have our chance. The top predator in the tinsel tree food chain is...the pom pom tree. The Blackbird girls LOVE silver tinsel pom pom trees. But, they usually sell before we even know they were in the store. So, imagine the gasp that issued from me when I turned the corner and saw one the other day. There was no question. We had to have it. And at just over 5 feet high, it's just the right size! (Size matters plenty in a house as packed as ours....) At the store, we tested a color wheel on the tree, because you have to be scientific about these things. Our procedure involved 1. plugging in the color wheel and aiming it at the tree; 2. pulling up the two comfiest chairs we could find; and 3. gossiping in the glow (as we would at home--you have to be realistic about these things) for approximately ten minutes. The colors were great, but the wheel got so hot that it burned our fingers. We had visions of the cat knocking over the wheel into something flammable, followed by me running through the yard with a flaming silver pom pom tree in search of the nearest hose. So, we just got the tree. Now, let the assembly begin!

In a laundry basket for transport purposes.

Sorting time!

Assembly, part 1 and 2.

Our plan for tree domination is nearly complete!

We had plans to purchase a colored light bulb to put in the lamp nearest the tree, but found something so much better: a color changing LED bulb. Because it is LED, it doesn't get hot. Also, it has a remote control (cue bluebirds of happiness). And...(drumroll, please)...it slowly rotates through 768 different color shades (which is more colors than even exist in the world!!!!). Okay, so it was the most expensive light bulb we've ever purchased (and is now a treasured fragile object), but a $35 light bulb is still cheaper than  a vintage color wheel and new house after the old one burns down, so we still feel justified. Plus, just look at it!         

    
We pulled out the vintage ornaments, plus some cool newer ones, and put on the the Charlie Brown Christmas Album for the decorating of the tree. There are some particularly special ornaments that got prominent spots, and we stacked ornaments down the branches to make the tree look rich and full. We also tested the fancy light bulb periodically, for scientific reasons, of course. Then came the moment when the cat crept up on us and tried to jump over our miscellaneous piles of tissue-wrapped ornaments, causing an avalanche and three heart attacks in the process (the cat wasn't happy with the end result of his maneuver). Luckily, there were no casualties.

The light bulb is in an inexpensive clip light fixture that plugs in, but the bulb is a little heavier than a standard one, so we had to use our brains to engineer a very rigged, and currently un-pretty, setup that would allow the light to aim at the perfect spot on the tree, without being too close to anything breakable, and clipped in such a way that it is less likely for the cat to knock it over and break our $35 light bulb (or something else, like pottery, which we have a whole lot of). So, the light is clipped to a stiff cardboard tube that was in a roll of fancy wrapping paper. The tube was inserted into my vintage metal cage hat stand, and the hat stand is tied to the end table, the chair, and the metal record stand, and then wedged in between the sofa and chair. Don't you love our fancy ribbon? As I always say, if you've gotta rig something, you might as well make it sparkly and blue....

And so, Christmas time is here. Happiness and cheer. And an awesomely sparkly treeeeeeeeeeee! (I'm pretty sure that's how the Peanuts gang sings it.)