:: it came, it came

F I N A L L Y

Our new faux tree was delivered last night. I couldn't wait to get it up & in it's place, so on went the Christmas music & out came the decorations. I generally like to make more of an event out of decorating the tree, but this year it felt just fine to let it happen organically, no fuss & it's done.

Whew, checking that off my list feels good.

I have to say I'm really impressed with this tree, it went together easily, it has a great shape & is so full. I especially like that it has two types of branches, including lovely pinecones. As far as decorating goes, we're sticking with our traditional ornaments we've collected over the years....you know...the special ones. Do you have a special ornament tradition?

It's our families tradition that every year we each pick a new ornament for the tree. It's lots of fun to pull them out, remember why we picked them, and place them on the tree once more.

This years picks

Papa : A wise owl ( they didn't have anything Carolina Panther's  )

Mama : A little house ( in honor of our new nest )

Phoebe : A little knit fox (our animal lover)

Noah : A video game controller (our gamer)

Ashley : A little bird ( leaving the nest & flying across country today )

I still have more holiday decorating to do, bows to make, presents to wrap...how about you? 

Are you all set & ready for Santa?

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

FAUX TREE

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:: do you keep it real?

So tell me.....do you keep it real?

Or do you Fake it?

This is the question I'm asking myself this year. We've always had a large real tree, don't you just love the smell of a live tree....I sure do.

What I don't like is having to water it every day, ruined floors from a leaky stand, and crazy little black bugs for the whole month of December.

Yes, all of these things have happened to us over our years of real Christmas tree use.

So, call me crazy but I'm really entertaining the thought of a fake tree this year. I want the most realistic pre-lit tree, and I think it would make me happy to put up my tree Thanksgiving weekend and leave it up until after New Years with no worries of a fire hazard.

The tree above looks pretty amazing to me, can you tell it isn't real?

Yep, I think it's decided....

I'm gonna FAKE IT this year, 

and many more to come.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

TREE VIA: Ballard Designs 10% off & Free Shipping

If you are so inclined to join me in the fakery this year ;)

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:: christmas house

 The Santa's are out....

the table is set...

the stockings & wreaths are hung,

and letters to Santa written....

We're getting there....

but I have a little more to share 

so stay tuned for more Christmas decor.

{peace, love & hugs}

Mary {Grams} this post is for you : )

Carrie

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:: natural wreath giveaway

Happy Weekend!

I'm so excited to have the opportunity to give one of you 

a beautiful 20-22" natural Fraser Fir Wreath 

from Green Valley Christmas Trees {America's Most Popular Christmas Wreath}.

How fun to win this beautiful natural wreath and decorate it to suit your own decor.

TO ENTER:

1. Become a friend & follower of {the vintage wren}

2. Leave a comment telling me where you would place your lovely natural wreath

3. Share this post on Twitter or Facebook for another chance to win {let me know in comments}

That's it...super simple

I will draw a winner on Tuesday December 12

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie 

Good Luck : )

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:: Merry Christmas

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and thank you all for your wonderful support here on my little ol' blog. It means so much to me that you take the time to visit me and comment. I've made some wonderful friends, and I truly treasure each and every one who visits. I can't believe I'm coming up on my one year blogiversary soon, it has been a fantastic first year, and I love this blogging community.

Now, I'm off to do some cooking, wrap some more presents and get ready for this wonderful whirlwind of activities. 

:: peace, love & hugs ::

Carrie

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:: vintage putz houses

Hello there my sweets. Hope you are all doing well. I've been to0 busy once again to get here, and today I have a sick child at home...don't you hate it when someone is sick and you can do nothing to help them. My sweet Miss "P" has a little stomach bug, and I can't stand to see her feel so bad. She's resting now on the sofa watching some of her shows, so I thought I would slip away to share some of my Christmas crushes with you.

I adore these vintage Putz houses, and would love to have a collection of my own. Maybe after Christmas I can start my collection for next year, because right now all of my extra cash is going for gifts, and I don't mean gifts for me {this is very hard}.

Aren't they just the sweetest thing. I'm especially fond of the turquoise and red ones, I just love that color combination. Of course I would be pleased as punch with any of them.

I could live like a queen in this sweet Christmas castle with it's lovely white bottle brush trees. That's another crush for another day...bottle brush trees.

You can find the lovelies pictured above at these shops Vintage Junk In My Trunk, bubblepipe vintage, nina in ruffles, and efinegifts.  All of these etsy shops have lovely vintage Christmas decorations, you should check them out for yourselves.

For now, I'm off to snuggle my baby girl who needs some lovin' from her Mama.

:: peace :: love :: hugs ::

Carrie

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:: a few of my favorite things

Hello again my sweets. Oh my gosh I cannot believe it is Thursday and this week is nearly over already. I also cannot believe how busy I've been since Thanksgiving. I was finally able to get the majority of my Christmas decorating done yesterday, and thought I would share a few of my favorites.

First we have my sweet vintagey {don't check the dictionary for that} woolen Santa who greets visitors who enter our home.  I love his rustic homespun look, and I'm so glad I found him many years ago. He holds the same position of greeting each and every Christmas, I can't imagine dethroning him.

Isn't he sweet...makes me wish I had a grandpa with a long wooly beard. I haven't seen many Santa's I love more than this guy.  Do you have a special Santa?  I would love to see what he looks like, leave me a link if you do.

Of course Christmas would not be complete without some cute glittery caroling snowmen spreading lots of Good Cheer. I love the vintage look of these fellas. I wish I were lucky enough to find some really great vintage Christmas decorations, but I'll have to fake it until I do...I picked these guys up at TJ Maxx. I think they are really cute and add a bit of fun and whimsy to my home. I adore that sheet music hat. 

More glittery snowmen & women atop trimmings from my tree adorn the mantle in my keeping room. I might just have a thing for snowmen & women. Because here's the guy on the other end of the mantle.

I wanna go ice skating with him....doesn't he look sweet. Look, he even brought you a beautiful wreath. I just wanna go ice skating period....can you believe I've never been. Have you? I guess I would even settle for some good sledding, which leads me to my next favorite.

This old Champion sled I got at a yard sale this fall for 2 dollars.  I haven't quite figured out how to work him into my front porch scene yet. I would love to find an old pair of ice skates, and I really need to knit a big fluffy pair of mittens on strings to hang on him....If I can ever find the time.  I do like my bucket filled with clippings and those vintage ornaments on top will hopefully someday have a coating of snow and look more like snowballs. I wish I had thought to make some when it snowed the other day, no doubt they would still be sitting there as cold as it's been. My neighbor's kids even had a snowball maker I could have borrowed...what was I thinking? Oh yeah...I wasn't.  Oh well, this'll do for now.

I know I've already shared these ornaments I made with you, but this year....this is my absolute favorite decoration. I love how they turned out, and they look so lovely on my tree.  I tried to get a photo to share with no great success, so I'll be off to try it at night now....maybe I can share it with you tomorrow. Our tree decorating skills aren't going to land us in Better Homes, or Country Living by any means, but I think she's quite lovely. I started off thinking I would do something different and special with it this year, but when I started pulling our decorations out I couldn't bear leaving off all those special ornaments we've collected over the years in lieu of some kind of special new {trying to be old} theme. The memories they hold are worth more to me than a photo worthy tree...who knew. I really have enjoyed seeing all of the trees popping up in all of your blogs and around the web, so much inspiration and beauty. I could almost have left my tree bare this year she looked so beautiful when we brought her in and wrapped her with all those lovely little lights.

Soooo, anyhoo....I think I'm done with my holiday decorating unless you count gingerbread houses that still have to be put together and decorated. Okay, so I may never be done....but I'll be sure to share each decorating idea and craft project with you along the way.

Speaking of sharing....

This is what was happening at my house today. Lots and lots of pretty new trees. I'll share the end result with you tomorrow, but I couldn't be more excited. Pretty soon in a year or two I will look out my kitchen window and see nothing but beautiful evergreen trees hopefully filled with tons of sweet birds.

Thanks for reading along, I know this was a long one....I keep having to play catch up. Hope you all have had a wonderful day today.

:: peace :: love :: hugs ::

Carrie

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:: paper ornaments

Hello, sweet friends I have been dying to visit you here, but life has certainly gotten in the way the past few days. I have taken on a few jobs that continue to keep me busy and otherwise occupied. I am now taking a much needed break to catch up with you, and to share a little project I worked on last week. I love how these turned out.

I got the idea for these lovely paper ornaments from my sister, she sells her version in her shop on etsy... Petits Metier. I've been long admiring the look of the vintage paper wreaths around the web and thought It would be so pretty to have something like them for my tree. I plan to make my own real paper wreath soon....whenever I get the chance.

Being the huge book lover that I am made this project a little difficult, it killed me to pull a book apart...especially a book from 1915. The only way I was able to justify this crime is that the poor book was already falling apart on it's own. I tried to keep the pages with poems intact to scan for use in other projects, but the other pages were fair game.

Here is my little crafting basket...I can take this with me when I sit down to watch television and fold away. Here you see all of my little pages folded up ready to be glued together into a finished ornament. My ornaments start out with a full book page that measures 5"x7". I begin by making a one quarter inch fold at the bottom, and continue to fold accordion style till the whole piece is folded up. I then fold this piece in half...it takes two pages to make my ornaments.  I simply glue each of the edges together to form a circle, including my twine inside the last for a hanger. Then I add a little glue in between the pages toward the center to hold it together.  I continued by adding a paper circle punch topped with a pretty button to the center of each one.  I simply used old catalogs for my paper circles {fossil keeps sending the best ones for this project}.

I adore this little poem, and wouldn't dare consider folding it up. I'm keeping these together in another folder to scan and use in other ways. I just love the sweet poems and stories in this old Fourth Grade "Studies in Reading" book. The poem is so perfect, for we had our very first snow of the season this Saturday. I guess it worked out that we didn't get our tree sooner because we got to drive through the beautiful snow on our way to pick it out... It was like driving through a beautiful Christmas card. 

Saturday morning I was cleaning and getting ready for the tree procurement festivities while "White Christmas" played....I looked up and Oh my goodness...there were snowflakes flying through the air. You would have thought I was 10 again the way I screamed and got my children to join me for the snow dance {come on, you know you have a snow dance too...don't you?} Isn't the snow just gorgeous. Nothing makes me happier this time of year than a good snow fall and hot cup of spiced cider.

Anyhoo, on with the scheduled programing. When I made my first ornaments I didn't think about a hanger, so I decided to add them to a compote filled with trimmings from our tree. I love the simplicity of this arrangement on my kitchen table. It also allows me to keep out my collection of stacked vintage china. 

I will have to be super careful with these little beauties in the future because they were already in such a fragile state that they nearly fell apart as I folded them. I really love them so much and I think they are so lovely, it will break my heart if they fall apart. I'm thinking I will have to store them in an airtight container, and wrap them with tissue paper so they don't abrade each other.

So, there you have it....another super simple inexpensive Christmas decoration or gift...wouldn't they be lovely on a special package, or all wrapped up together as a gift. 

I hope it won't be so long before I can get back here, but if you like you can sign up for my posts by e-mail...then I can come to you automatically each time I post. I just signed with some of my favorite blogs recently, and I love when they pop up in my e-mail because often times I can't find time to get on the computer so this helps keep me up to date without having to remember to check in. Okay, Okay I've yakked long enough....see what happens when I can't check in here.

:: peace :: love :: hugs ::

Carrie

Linking up to The Shabby Nest for Frugal Fridays projects.

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:: day one

So after reading all of your sweet comments yesterday, I think I was being a little hard on myself.  After all, there is no set time frame for when these things are to be done, just so long as it's done in time for good old Saint Nick. Right.

After finishing up a few custom fox hats for a client yesterday I decided it was time to work on my Christmas gift tags. I've already gotten most of my shopping done for Papa, and I really need to get his gifts wrapped up before he finds them accidentally on purpose (just kidding, he wouldn't do that).

Over the weekend I did some crafty shopping with all of the great coupons available. I purchased my very first big shape punch a lovely 3" scalloped square. I got it for half price, and last night I used it for the first time....I love it.

 

I started by looking around online for some digital scrapbooking paper for the background of my tags. I found the loveliest papers at Design House Digital I then played around with the papers, fonts, and placement until I came up with some super simple tags...I'm very happy with the way they turned out.

I also found my wrapping paper at Target over the weekend.  I wanted the look of kraft paper without the thickness, and this paper is just perfect. 

One Christmas I wrapped all of my gifts with hand painted kraft paper, double stick tape, and ribbons...the packages were lovely, but none of my nieces and nephews could tear them open. That was many years ago, and they are all teenagers now, but I wouldn't live it down if I did it again (chuckle).

With some of my left over paper from wrapping this morning I decided to embellish some of my wonderful balsam fir candles from Target....I love the way these candles smell, and at 2 for $7.00, I can burn as many as I want. I think they turned out really cute, and it was oh so simple. 

I've decided that my theme for this season is Simple & Homespun, this is perfect for me and my family. I just love bringing in nature and using it in my decorating.

Whew, it feels so good to have some gift wrapping under my belt, and ready to go under the tree. 

Okay, so I have day 1 of a Crafty Christmas covered { handmade gift tags }

Come back tomorrow to see what I come up with next for Christmas Decorating.

:: peace :: love :: hugs ::

Carrie

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:: getting there

It's out, It's out. The first decoration of the Christmas season to be out in my home.  Not because I've had a chance to get up in the attic and pull everything down yet, but because somehow it never made it up after last Christmas and has been hiding out in my pantry ever since. It was so easy to pull this little guy out, now I've got to get myself in gear to bring out all of his buddies....and that's a job I'm not quite ready for.

I'm feeling like quite the slacker seeing all the lovely pictures of your beautiful holiday decorations and Christmas trees. My goal is to start pulling things out tomorrow, to get ready for the tree on Saturday. I'm trying really hard not to get frustrated with the fact that I'm not where I wanted to be in my decorating process {I still have pumpkins on my front porch for goodness sakes}. I really wanted to have it done last weekend, but after hosting Thanksgiving I just didn't feel ready.  Not to mention we had birthday parties and sleepovers last weekend and we just couldn't get everyone in the same place long enough to go pick out our tree.

Is anyone out there like me?  Are you struggling to find time to get it done? Please, please tell me I am not alone. Believe it or not, one year I had my house decorated for Christmas at Thanksgiving, and everyone actually got to see all the hard work I put into decorating my home. The next year, I went super simple on the decorations....this year I'm not sure what direction I'm going....I need a plan.

This year I think I'm going to try to hide things in the rooms where they belong after the holidays just like this little guy...then decorating for the holidays will be a breeze...now to find the space to do it.

Tomorrow the countdown begins.....

:: peace :: love :: hugs ::

Carrie

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