"O, Christmas Tree - where are you?"

We've been waiting for a while now - a bunch of angels and cherubs expecting to see a Christmas tree appear.

We're getting a little bored passing the time reading your decorating books.......................

.......................hanging about up here in the heavens playing music on ancient instruments

......................playing guardian angel over the potpourri

..........................keeping the peace with the doves


.............................and taking long naps on the hard dining room table.

Oh, we see it now. Our Christmas tree is in the gazebo!

The perfect solution to that question we all have when our nest is a small cottage - where on earth to put the tree? Many years we squeezed a narrow fresh Fraser Fir into the corner of the dining room but, since the gazebo graced our back deck, we've put a tree out there. We enjoy seeing it from the windows of several rooms........and sharing it with our neighbors.

With the door closed, and as it's screened, the birds, squirrels, raccoons, possums, foxes, cats and whatever else comes through the night garden, cannot bother the tree. I only use my natural looking ornaments out here to blend with the garden - the more precious glass and delicate things which might be damaged by damp are saved for indoors.
We'll enjoy it this year - perhaps next we'll decide to bring a tree inside again - have a lot more beautiful ornaments just longing to come out of storage!

A Rose is a Rose

Another find from my Replacements Ltd. visit. Could you resist these? Napkin (serviette to the Brits) rings just being unpacked as we stepped inside the front door of the showroom. Made of fabric and quite beautiful at just $2.99 each!

Of course I couldn't resist, neither could my friend. We both brought half a dozen to our respective homes, saying we would share if each of us does a dinner party for 12 some day! Meanwhile mine will sit in a bowl - just cannot bring myself to hide them away. In fact I'm thinking of many ways to use them other than napkin rings.

And among the many amazing porcelain art figurines costing thousands of dollars, this one was stunning. Bet these muses never saw a kitchen stove or donned an apron, and can you imagine baking in those dresses......................let alone cook a dinner for twelve! The picture I'm conjuring in my mind is reclining on low sofas being hand fed grapes, and sipping wine from silver goblets.

Pieces of Silver

I missed posting yesterday as I took a 165 mile round trip to Greensboro, North Carolina to meet a wonderful friend for a pre-Christmas lunch and a visit to Replacements, Ltd., the world's largest and most amazing china/silver/crystal repository.

If you break a dish, smash a glass, or put one of your Grandma's silver demitasse spoons down the garbage disposal - as I did - most likely you can replace it here.

The story of Bob Page, Replacements founder/owner, is wonderful in itself. An auditor for the NC State Government, he started collecting odd pieces of china at yard sales and flea markets, and then friends asked him to search for pieces they were missing. Within a few years, with no space left under his bed to store stuff, he gave up his daytime job and went into the business full time. The annual sales have gone from about $40,000 to something like $30 billion - yes that's billion!! Beside spending an hour viewing not only the china, we enjoyed "oohing and aahing" over the fabulously decorated Christmas trees, holiday table settings, and the thousands of decorations for sale.

We also took the guided tour of the gigantic warehouse and watched the entire process from merchandise arriving, to shelving, then wrapping and shipping. Among the hundreds of employees, who by the way are allowed to take well behaved dogs to work (and we met some cute ones), are silversmiths (apparently a dying breed) from many countries who work restoring and repairing the beautiful silver culled from estate sales worldwide. Below, a magnificent solid silver tea service........................I'd put it on my Christmas list but don't want dh to have a heart attack when he sees the price!

My silver bits and pieces are being mixed in with the touches of gold I showed a few posts back. This sweet crumb tray (brush was missing) I found at SuzAnna's, along with the silver and crystal cruet.

Love this mica silver star year round but it looks really pretty at Christmas.

A silvery ribboned tassel - always a place to hang one of these.

Some vintage looking silver backed crystal drops which are tree ornaments.


The tarnished silver look I'm liking, bugle ornament found at Replacements, Ltd. yesterday. I wish I could, I wish I could - play it for you - instead I'm sending each of you Christmas WISHES and hope your holiday decorating is fun at your house.

Porch Pleasures at Christmastime

Early yesterday morning, peering through my snowflake collection at the dining room window, I decided it was time to head for the front porch.

Despite strong gusty winds, once the sun appeared, Christmas mug of coffee in hand, I was out there breathing fresh air, hanging the white lights, which you can't see twinkling in the brilliant sunshine, and having a fun time. We are fortunate here to have so many sunny days in Winter........................even when it's chilly the legendary 'Carolina Blue' sky shines forth and lifts one's spirits.

My favorite wreath at the front door - several years old - faux has redeeming features like staying fresh looking all through the holiday season.................................................

...................as with this wall display, new this season, and which for some reason is attractive to passing birds who perhaps check out the faux berries. Sorry feathered friends, take a right and head for the feeders - I filled them!

The moon and stars ceramic globe is Vietnamese and looks lovely with a lighted candle in the evening.

The tiered baskets are stuffed with white lights..........

.......................tied with a simple bow and guarded by one of my sweet ceramic wrens.

Both the center hanging chandelier and this glittery candolier have fresh candles ready to light on calm evenings.

I love having a front porch, small though it may be. With a few floodlights placed out on the lawn, at night the cottage is bathed in light to celebrate this special time that is Christmas.

Better than an 'Oscar'

I've been all pink and glowing the past couple of days because I was given a much appreciated award.

Nancy at Knitting Paths of Life took time off from collecting more snowmen to add to her collection to award me with this Friendly Site Award. Thank you so much Nancy.

Anyone who visits Nancy gets a huge bonus........................visits to her fabulously talented, always friendly daughter, Heidi who lives in Holland, and her two very special Granddaughters, Mandie here in North Carolina whose husband has just been deployed to the Middle East - please keep him in your prayers, and Kristen in upstate New York, also a military wife. These four gals have a wonderfully close relationship and share decorating, crafting and sewing skills. They are a real inspiration and it's refreshing the way they support one another daily with laughs, giggles and family memories via their blogs. I really enjoy you gals.

It's difficult to pick someone to pass this along to - everyone has a friendly site and I love visiting all of you. I feel if one isn't a friendly person one wouldn't be blogging to begin with.

So, I will pick Pat at Back Porch Musings because she shares so much elegant beauty on her blog in a downhome, friendly way, and she's always ready to give technical help which I definitely need. Pat, I want to be on the list for the next Open House, will you, can you, squeeze in another person and make it three hundred and one invitations? Please!

Touches of Gold

Welcome - come on in and enjoy some of my golden touches for the Christmas season.

I was reminded today that there are just 3 weeks until Christmas so it's time to decorate, if that's your thing. There are many really beautiful homes dressed for Christmas being shown on blogs - and the most spectacular has to be sweet Pat's at Back Porch Musings.
Pat's gorgeous home has been chosen for the Old Painted Cottage 'Cottage of the Month' award - go here to see it. If ever a warm and loving home deserved this award, Pat's certainly does.

The runners up are wonderful too - be sure to visit and view them following Pat's pictures - perhaps they won't mind if we borrow some decorating ideas!

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly,

Fa la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la."

Christmas Collections

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Why do we sometime turn head over heels to collect certain things? Who knows why a certain something grabs our fancy and before we know it, one turns into two, two into half a dozen and suddenly we have...........a collection. Now I don't have anywhere near a collection such as blog friend Nancy - do visit her if you are into snowmen - they are memorable and utterly adorable.

A few years ago I started collecting what I call my "little uglies". These jester guys are always smiling and I just love the details of their clothing - that's what caught my eye. Being a seamstress, and loving fabrics, brings admiration for even small items such as ornaments. I bring them out at Christmas to hang out with Morgan le Fey and Santa - see previous post - and they make me smile too!

This year other ornaments and glittery things seem to have taken the place of these characters - I've not come across a single one in a store........................looks like my collection is complete!

Now, I won't even start on the Dicken's Village houses..................................that's the collection so many of us started about 20 years ago. They were adorable but drove me nuts trying to figure out the wiring configurations to get them all lit up without having them fall off the mantle, china hutch, or the top of the armoire - I have horror stories to share over hot chocolate if you want to pop over! My little cottages (guess that's why I really liked them - they were cottagey) are worth more now than when new - real live collectors want them, especially the discontinued ones.

They are packed away for now, along with the bottle brush trees, the mirror ice rinks, the town gazebo, the faux snow hills, and all those people scurrying back and forth doing whatever Victorians did at Christmastime - someone else can decide their fate in years to come. They will perhaps become that someone else's collection.