Christmas At The Corner House 2011

This Christmas has been lovely and quiet following a rather hectic lead up to the big day. The last couple of days have been spent relaxing in front of the tv, sleeping, eating and drinking.

Mr C painted his 'Christmas Twig' as decoration for the Vintage Fair just before Christmas. It came home with us and somehow stayed. Mr C used all of my most brightly coloured vintage glass baubles to decorate it and I think it looks lovely and cheerful.

My favourite vintage 1940s Disney decorations were brought out along with the vintage American Santa match box and vintage Steiff robin which was a charity shop find last year.

Vintage festive classroom prints were hung

and pretty vintage baubles displayed in old glass bowls.

I like my kitsch Cath Kidston reindeer decoration although Mr C is not so sure.

I love this gorgeous tin bought from Gail and her sister at our last fair. I really can't resist tins and seem to have them all over the house.

This is the fab vintage pop up book I bought last year.

The dogs joined in the festive fun.

I love the colours of this poinsettia Mr C bought me.

Yet another tin !

Little felt Cath Kidston dogs as well as the pretty candle my lovely girl bought me last year.

This year I stuck to pale colours on the tree and used all my crystal and vintage silvery and pale pink and blue vintage glass baubles.

The brighter colours looked great against the white branches of the 'twig'.

The lovely stocking I bought from Jo of Hesta Nesta last year was hung on the fireplace.

Mr C surprised me with this beautiful vintage book of dog drawings by an American artist. The quality of the paper and printing makes them look almost like the originals. The book was sold with the idea the prints could be removed for framing.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing break. I am off now for another slice of our home made christmas cake and another cup of coffee x

Happy Christmas

Sorry for not blogging for so long but like for everyone else life has been pretty hectic.

We finally found some time to decorate the house and I made my Cath Kidston paper chains. I used the Cath Kidston christmas gift tags too add a little extra.

We found a beautiful but enormous tree ! I decorated it with lots of different coloured vintage glass baubles as well as old family favourites collected over the years.

Mr C hung the beautiful cupboard he bought me in the hall. He painted the inside a lovely chalky white. I am using it to display my collection of Victorian painted and enameled glass.

Next to it we hung my £2 charity shop mirror. This is a lovely old heavy and ornate mirror. It was in a bit of a sorry state but Mr C has done his best to repair it and painted it the same chalky white.

Yet another cupboard ! Mr C found this at Brackley Antiques Cellar and it fits perfectly in our back room. It isn't really a cupboard but a glazed book case. I think we probably don't need any more cupboards as we are running out of space.

Finally a few more finds, the yellow Golden Dawn coffee pot was found at the local tip recycling shop and the Beryl Woods Ware yellow cups and saucers the same day in a junk shop. I was very pleased as yellow utility ware seems to evade me usually.

I guess this will be my last post before Christmas so have a wonderful time. I am off now to find my wellys and brave the snow.

Christmas Preparations

It has been hectic weekend doing last minute jobs for Christmas before I fly off to New York at the weekend with my lovely girl. Josh was quite happy to take it easy though in his new Cath Kidston bed I found for him on Ebay.

I have used mainly vintage decorations this year that I have been collecting over the year, they are so much nicer than new ones. I found this little angel in a bag of vintage baubles I bought for 10p in the Summer at a table top sale.

The tree is finally up and I have changed from the usual red and gold theme to use loads of multi coloured vintage glass baubles and I think it looks so much more festive.

The decorating in the hall, stairs and landing is virtually finished at last ! After years in a cupboard we have wired in one of a pair of lovely Arts and Crafts lanterns we bought a number of years ago on Ebay. These came from a house in Bournville and belonged to an elderly lady who was a member of the Cadbury family. They are really for an outside porch but for now I want to enjoy them inside. When I received them they came with some old unwrapped bars of Cadbury chocolate from the war.

I have really enjoyed decorating my kitchen dresser shelves with glass baubles, fairy lights and tea lights. I had these shelves this year as a birthday present and I love them. They came from a lovely old house in a village near Stratford upon Avon. I started off trying to be restrained with what I put on them but I seem to keep squeezing more on.

And finally here are my lovely Advent blocks from the talented Annie at Birdcages and Butterflies. I was so excited when I received these in the post , I meant to buy some from her at our vintage fair in November and didn't get a chance. They are displayed with my Christmas Stanleys and my vintage American Disney decorations. Hope you all have a lovely week and a special hello to all my family reading this up in freezing Scotland. x