A Forest Of Aluminum Christmas Trees

How did you spend Black Friday?  I spent it assembling aluminum Christmas trees and watching my favorite football team lose (again). 

But, (on a thankful note) I am grateful that an amazing FIVE mid-century aluminum trees came my way this year. 

The smallest is a little "wall tree", which means it only has branches on one side.  You can shove it against a wall and it doesn't take up much room.  Big bonus on such a little tree:  pom pom branches.

Tree #4 is almost a pencil tree, made by Noma.  Noma was a local company known for lighting,  and really didn't make many aluminum trees.  Bonus for it:  it is in one piece, no assembly required.

The largest tree is a seven foot beauty.  100 plush branches.  A real show stopper.

Sold the 7 foot tree on ebay for $220.

It took me about five hours to get them assembled and priced.  I wanted to make sure that everything was really in the box for the next owner.  Plus, there is nothing like seeing them in all of their glory to make someone want to buy them.  The plan is to get all five fully-assembled trees (and their boxes) into my van and transported to my vintage booth on Tuesday.  After seeing the size of the seven footer, I may have to make 2 or 3 trips.

Four Refurbished Vintage Christmas Bells

I had four slightly bedraggled vintage Christmas bells.  All of them needed some help.

I added a couple of vintage Christmas boutonnieres

and a great old glass bird ornament to each of the

plastic glittered bells.

It may be Christmas over-kill but

I kind of like that look.

But these are my favorite.  They were covered in

peeling foil.  I removed the foil and found the great

Asian newsprint underneath covered with a little glittery mica glue. 

Might be my favorite Christmas item now.

  

Ugly Christmas Sweaters For A Cause

Through this year I've kept my eyes peeled for really ugly Christmas sweaters.  I also got a few given to me by people who know my cause.  Click HERE to check out my ugly Christmas sweaters from last year.

Every Tuesday I donate a few hours at a "Free" Thrift Store.  They give away everything at no cost, to people who can't afford to pay at this point in their lives.
They give away children and adult clothing.  Household items, hygiene items, towels, bedding.  They give away many coats, mittens and gloves this time of year.

Many of the items are donated by individuals, churches or organizations.  But I can't tell you how sad it is when someone needs gloves or socks desperately and there isn't any in the store.  The proprietor and all of her little minions frequently reach into their own pockets to buy necessities. 

December is just one of those times in the year when so many people need so many things, and money is tight for all of us.  That is where the ugly Christmas Sweaters enter the picture.  I donate all of my profit from the sweaters to this organization.  It is fun for me to "enhance" the Christmas sweaters, and then I get a second rush when they sell and I can donate money to a cause I love.

Katie's Christmas Booth At The Rusty Chandelier

These are a few views of Katie's Christmas booth at the Rusty Chandelier.  Her style is so relaxed and natural.

 

Tiny Christmas Drawer Dioramas

Last year I made a couple Christmas dioramas using old clock bodies, click  HERE  to view them.  I had a couple little putz (German for "around the tree") Christmas houses that were not in great condition hanging around, and thought they would be good for this project.

 It did not break my heart to remove the little houses from their little damaged cardboard platforms. 

I am drawn to little drawers, and I think this one may originally have been from a coffee grinder.

Line Up Of Vintage Sleds for 2015

Last year I went a little crazy with whole sled thing.  I had stashed away nine by the time Christmas selling time arrived, click  HERE  for that post.  I wasn't able to break that record this year, but still managed to pick up eight.  And now, without further ado, here is our line up of vintage sleds for 2015:

Here is the "before" photo.  I decided to paint several black to look like chalkboards.  I purchased some vintage window stencils from ebay to make the job easier.  (So much to do for the holidays!)

These two are my favorites, I love the worn surface on the white one. 

I ended up selling the blue one without any stenciling.

But I loved how the stenciling enhanced the

vintage beauty of the white one.

Already sold, of course.

 

Here are some "after" group pictures.

I ended up doing two of the snowflake sleds.

The sled on the right was a vintage stencil.

This little sled was the only actual chalkboard

sled that I did this year.

And some more close-ups.

I purchased the "Bless This House" stencil at Hobby Lobby.

The border stencil was a Martha Stewart.

I think a mistake people make when decorating sleds is doing

a horizontal design (long ways on the sled).

People almost always decorate with the sled standing upright

so you should be able to read any writing without tipping your head..

A lacy all-over stencil on raw, aged wood.

The ornament stencils on this sled were done with the vintage

window snow stencils that I had ordered off of ebay.

Long story, but it took over three weeks for me to receive them.

I'm in love with the vintage stencils.

They were worth the wait.

  

TWO Framed Christmas Chalkboards

I have to give it to my husband, he is the chalkboard master.  So, even if I have to wait a few weeks for him to get "back to the old chalkboard", it is worth the wait.

I had these two matching framed chalkboards ready

for an autumn greeting, but it took him awhile

to get to them...

so now they are greeting winter.

Christmas Vintage Booth At The RUsty Chandelier

My antique booth at the Rusty Chandelier doesn't usually merit a posting.  But last week I brought in the Christmas bling.  WOW factor.

The ornaments look so great bunched together.

And they have been flying off the shelves.

I sold tons before I thought to take photos.

Here are some of my bleached bottle brush trees.

They have also been selling already.

I have more in a bleach bath as I write this!

I always have a Christmas area for the people

who only do whites.

 

I saved the best for last.  I managed to corral a huge population of blow-mold

Santas this year -- I decorated my booth header with the smaller ones.

 

2015 Edition Bleached Bottlebrush Trees

Last year I used a lot of rusty hardware on the bleached bottle brush trees.  This year I incorporated zinc canning lids, porcelain insulators, string balls and some kitschy ceramic pieces.  Here is the end result:


I did find a few more tin star reflectors, so I used them both last year and this year.  They are probably my favorite base for bottle brush trees because they have such a primitive look.

The deer are candleholders,

I stuck corks in the holes and

drilled holes in the cork to insert the trees.

Baby shoes crammed with a doile,

mercury glass bulbs, an angel

and a little bottle brush tree.

These I glued wooden spools in the bottom

and glued the trees into the hole of the spool.

Candle huggers now are tree huggers.

I have already sold so many of these that I have

had requests for more, but I have moved on to other projects.

Snow Shovel (Hoarding) Stenciling

Last year I was surprised at the end of the "buying season" to find I had hoarded sleds.  They just slowly accumulated, one at a time sneaking into my shed until I was an honorary member of Sled-Owners Anonymous.  This year it seems to be snow shovels.

I think I didn't even get started until mid-summer.

I just considered how cool (one of the green) shovels looked.

Like a blank slate, just waiting for some winter inspiration.

Then I started finding all sorts of  other "blank slates".

 

My only prerequisite was that they be metal.

 

And then I got to work stenciling them...

For the above two I used a top from an old

Shiny Brite Box as a stencil for the Christmas Tree.

 

I thought a snowflake design was

the most appropriate.

Love the wear that this one shows.

This is my favorite,

I love the yellow peeking through.

 

I am scaring myself a little --

I caught myself admiring a cool looking rake the other day....