Thursday, November 29, 2012

Christmas Decorations

This is a picture heavy post. I haven't been in the mood to dig out my holiday decorations yet, I keep seeing the Christmas lights and other people's decorations, but I couldn't get myself to do it. Yesterday, I decided it was time. Most of the reason I didn't want to get them out is that I have over 300 snowmen in my collection, and it's a lot to bring out. But, then I got smart, why not just get out my favorites? So, I did:
 This is a button tree I won last year at our Festival of trees, I got a few owl ornaments last year for Christmas, and it has become an owl tree. It actually never gets put away, I love looking at it all year round. I bought the blue and orange owl on the right top at a fundraiser this year, it's actually a coin purse. The owl at the top is actually a cell phone holder. My other new addition this year (as of yesterday), is the blue one on the right side, it actually says "Baby's first Christmas", but it was just too cute to pass up.
 I'm sorry this picture is blurry. If you can see, the tree is one of those porcelain ones with plastic colored lights, that you put a light bulb in. My grandparents had one of these when I was growing up, so when I saw one at a garage sale last year, I had to have it. I never plug it in because I think the bulb is too powerful for it. It's decorated in Merry Moos, they're from a swap I did last year, they measure 2" x 1". The white girl at the bottom is one of the ornaments I received last year in the button floozies swap.
 This is the top of my DVD case, you can still see the painted pumpkin I bought last month, it's so cute, I can't throw it away. There's also a hippo ornament in there that I bought yesterday, too cute.
 This is where my old TV sat, I have a hard time finding tall items to put in it for every season. You can see the tree stump birdhouse guy I bought this summer, I dressed him up with a top hat ornament I found at Walmart yesterday (can you see a little theme, I went Christmas shopping yesterday). I also love the hot air balloon ornament I got in the vintage stocking swap last year. The snowball I bought this year, I was trying not to buy more snowmen, but he's so cute, under his hat is a candle. The cup next to him I got in a trade at an antique store this month.
 This is the top of my DVD case. The little black tree I got a couple years ago at Borders. I love how my snowmen pop against it.
 This is on top of another of my DVD cabinets. The poinsettias are clips I got last year.
 These are on top of my radiator. The nesting dolls my parents gave me a few years. The bird is from my shopping trip yesterday.
 In this picture, is another of my trees, it's actually a part of a tree in our yard that we had to cut out, because it was dead. I stained it and have been using it as decoration for awhile now. Most of these snowmen are kinda heavy. I had to put them here to hold the sewn decorations onto the scarf on the book shelf. To see more of the sewn decorations, go here. There's also a seahorse keychain that I got when we went to Hawaii a few years ago. I love the "world's greatest crafter" ornament hanging next to the seahorse. My best friend from high school gave that to me.
 This is the top of another bookcase. My favorite snowmen here, are the "peppermint" candles. I also couldn't bear to put away the velvet painting in the background.
 This is further down on that bookcase. I love the stocking holders, even though I don't hang stockings on them.
 This is my radiator in the kitchen, my kitchen snowmen stay out all year long. I guess they're my favorite favorites. The one on the left is a singing one, it came with Hallmark cards one year. There's also a cute praying snowman, I got last year. I love the unhappy frog, he was a present from a former employer. There's a couple cookie jars there, I looked in one of them the other day and it had candy I totally forgot about. There's also one in the front that has a beanie on, I always thought of him as an "artist" snowman.
 These are on the top of my refrigerator. They're mostly ISU snowmen. Iowa State University is located here in Ames, IA. The university used to come out with a new snowman every year, and my parents would get them for me, unfortunately they stropped do that. These mostly stay out because it's so much work to get them in and out of their packaging.
 This is in my entryway. I sprinkled some of my smaller snowmen throughout my vehicles. I love sailboats, the one on the right is made out of foreign Coca Cola cans that I found in Washington, D.C. one year. There's also the USMC's 250th anniversary commemorative silver dollar, I'm very proud of that. On the left, you can see the glass bottle I altered.
 Here's the top of the cabinet, with more snowmen around my vehicles. The fighter jet on the right is also made of foreign Coca Cola cans, I found it in New Orleans. The Mustang, is my favorite version of that car.
 Here are the stockings I made this year, they started out for a swap, and then for some reason, I didn't want to use them, and my partner decided she wanted a more traditional stocking. To read more about them, go here.
 This is also in my entryway, on the other side of the above doorway. The letters spell out collector, with snowmen being the "O's". On the left side are a dress form ornament that I got in last year's button floozie swap, and a tag.
These are mostly this year's button floozie swap, the stocking is from last year. I'm still waiting on one more from this year.

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