I've been going to the St Vincent's Thrift Shop once or twice a week since Thanksgiving because they have an amazing amount of Christmas decorations and I don't believe I've once come out of there empty-handed. When I was down there in Old Town yesterday I also popped into a gift shop and came away with these

Mercury glass candlesticks and a bottlebrush tree. Which; come to find out after looking on ebay and other sites last nite, is all the rage this holiday season. Well, being the nut that I am I've been busy ever since making garlands and ornaments and banners in antique-y pastels with lots of chunky silver glitter. Fun! I may just work on Christmas stuff off and on all year and do some local shows or put them on my site for sale toward the end of next year.

Here's a fun crafty idea for all of us fabric-scrap-hoarding gals. I bought this at the Thrift Shop for 49 cents (for the pattern/reminder more than anything).

You just cut a bunch of 3inch squares with pinking sheers, pinch each square in the middle, use the end of a paint brush as a poker, dip in glue then push the glue tipped fabric middle into a styrofoam wreath. In this next picture I'm actually pulling one OUT to illustrate. This particular wreath is a bit too I-Heart-Country for my tastes but I think one could pull off a nice shabby version with the right fabrics.

Tonight is the Kindergarten-First-Second graders Christmas performance at Caleb's school.  I made him and his best friend Isaac matching sheep costumes. Can hardly wait to see them and take pics, which I will def share here. Back to the elfing as John called my work this morning. :-)

Oh. One more share. A lot of  the holiday grooviness I'm seeing online also includes lil cardboard village houses all covered in mica snow and vintage charm. I can't find the site I saw them on...they were selling for $60-70. I found this generous site this morning and think I'll be using my hot glue gun again soon!

Comments

[Lisa Renea]

Jen, cool finds. I haven't thought about
those fabric wreaths in years--used to make
them for gifts-years ago--everyone loved them. I used the straw wreaths & left on the plastic. Just used one type of fabric & made matching, bow. By the way your feather tree is AWESOME! Did you make it??

[Barbara]

What great finds!!! If you want the pattern for the churches I recently made, just drop me an email!