My Christmas Glitter House Village

It is now officially Christmas Eve Day!

It is 1:25am in SoCal. I just returned from shopping at Walmart. Still lots of people. What kind of person goes Christmas shopping at 1am? ME, that's who. Still better than it would have been earlier today or tomorrow.

At least I am officially done. I now need to start wrapping. But I think I'll try and get a few hours of sleep first.

I did finally get photos of my Christmas glitter house village.


I purchased all my houses a couple of years ago on clearance from Grandin Road. They usually have great prices when clearing out their seasonal stuff.

I think I only paid about $5.00 for each house. They were originally like $20-25 a piece.


I just got the white picket fence from Kohl's online on clearance for $2.00 after my discount. I did most of my Christmas shopping this year online. Got free shipping from every store. And the best part about shopping online. You can do it in your Jammies. And even in the middle of the night (if you are so inclined to stay up late like me).


I added a bunch of bottle brush trees that I got on sale at Michael's the other day.

I added a bunch of angel hair I found at the thrift store. I love this stuff. Reminds me of when I was a child. It does say to be careful as it is spun glass.

I found this vintage angel a couple of weeks ago at the thrift store. She was in a box of vintage ornaments that I picked up for 75 cents. For the whole box. Most of the ornaments were trashed, but I found a few treasures. Like this angel. Isn't she so sweet?

Look, a cloche within a cloche.

This was actually an ornament I found a couple of years ago. I am a sucker for anything that looks vintage. I just don't like paying vintage prices. That is why I usually by vintage reproductions. Or vintage style.


Every village needs a church.


I added a couple of vintage wooden soldiers to guard the church entrance. They were found in the 75 cent box of ornaments from the thrift store.


And we must have a little red schoolhouse. The bottle brush tree on the left is vintage. I found it last year in Phoenix at an antique store. Got it for a dollar.

The "Merry Christmas" sign on the cloche is an ornament from Target (this year).

The last house in my village.

A vintage sled ornament (from my 75 cent box of ornaments)

And finally another group of bottle brush trees under a cloche. These trees were clearance items from Grandin Road a couple of years ago. I love the green color of these trees. I wish I had purchased another set. You can never have too many bottle brush trees.

A final look at my village. There are holes in the bottom of each house. I sometimes place a battery operated tea light candle in each one to light them up. But this year I was too lazy.

I finally got up a few strands of lights outside. I had found 3 sets of vintage C9 colored lights at the thrift store. All of them worked when I plugged them in while inside the house. I put up 2 of the 3 sets last night (all by myself). I just couldn't reach the peak on the garage. So I asked hubby to put up the last set today while I was at work. But tonight when I turned them on, the set hubby put up won't light up. Boo hoo. So the lights didn't turn out so well.

But you should see my Christmas tree!

That isn't my Christmas tree. Those are the trees from my Christmas village.

Here is my Christmas tree.

OK, you caught me in a lie. This is last years tree.

You will just have to wait for this years version . I still haven't put one up. And tomorrow is Christmas. I'm still debating on if it is worth the effort at this point. Probably not. This will be the first year in 53 years that I haven't had a tree. (I'm trying to guilt myself into putting up a tree).

The good angel (put the Christmas tree up) vs. the bad angel (too much effort) is waging war in my head. I'll let you know who wins.

Until then, Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!



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I finally got it done!!!

Did I tell you that I was the queen of procrastination? Well I am. And here is proof.

See this bare wood trunk? I've had it for over 15 years. That is fifteen years!!!! 15!!!

I purchased it from JC Penney online in it's unfinished state for about $100.00 plus free shipping. I had always planned on painting it. But year after year, after year, after year, it sat in it's unfinished state. Getting dirtier, and dirtier and dirtier. You get the picture.

If not, here is the proof of how dirty it got. Fifteen years is a long time to go neglected.

I finally decided enough was enough. I had procrastinated this project long enough. Plus I had a little motivation from Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors. She is having a "Gitter Done" party this week. So I had to "gitter done".

So I got to work getting hubby to sand it down for me to get rid of the 15 years of neglect. Looked like new when he was done sanding. Too bad I didn't take a photo.

Then I started painting it white. Did you notice that I said that I started painting? Hubby didn't like the sloppy way I was painting, so he took over. Works every time! I'm good at getting other people to do my work.

Once it was all painted white. I thought it needed something (it was really hubby). He suggested we add a wood applique. I thought it was a great idea. Why didn't I think of that? So off to Home Depot we went.

This is the one we picked out. They don't have much of a selection. I think this was our only option. We glued it on the front and added some new wood plugs as a few had gone missing over the years. Painted the brass handles ORB and had hubby finally put them on. I then distressed and antiqued the entire trunk (yes, I did do this part of the project).

And here is the pretty lady now.

I'm pretty happy on how it turned out. What took me so long?

The wooden applique was just what this trunk needed. Thanks honey for suggesting it!

The back.

The handles were originally brass and had never been put on the trunk. I spray painted them Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB). Much better than brass.


This was a pretty easy project. Why did I procrastinate it so long? If I had known how fabulous it was going to turn out, I would have done this years ago. Like fifteen!!!!

On top I placed a little vignette of some thrifty finds.

The subway art tray came from Target a few months back. I got it on clearance for around $10.00. Clearance has to be one of my favorite words.

I would love to travel to all these places some day. The only ones I have seen are the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Ben, Vatican, Roman Colosseum (hubby's favorite), and the Eiffel Tower (my favorite). Someday I hope to see all the rest.

The urn was a recent thrifty find from an antique store in Riverside, CA. It was only $2.00!!!

My fleur de lis finials also got a mini makeover. They were originally brown and came from Dollar Tree for a buck each. I spray painted them Heirloom white & then antiqued them. I love how they turned out.

I still need to make a burlap runner for the top of the trunk. I hope that I don't procrastinate that too much longer. Knowing me, burlap will be out of style by the time I get around to it.

Thanks for stopping by & taking a look at my long awaited trunk makeover aka: "Gitter Done" project. And I hope that I won't procrastinate the next project as long. Do you have a project you have procrastinated? Can you beat 15 years?



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Thrifty Finds

It's been awhile since I posted any of my thrifty finds. So today you are going to get "thrifty overload".

I found this cute plate on clearance at Target a couple of weeks ago. I got it for $5.00!!! I think it was originally $10.00. Isn't it cute? It goes perfect sitting on my china hutch.

When I saw this tray at my local thrift store it was love at first sight. I had to have it. It was $17.00. More than I would normally pay. But it was love, love, love!!! And did I tell you it is huge???? I'm going to paint it Heirloom White & probably distress it. It will fit perfect on top of my old trunk with the uneven top. This tray will make displaying objects on the trunk so much easier. Hubby can't see the beauty in this piece. And he thinks I paid too much. But it was love!!!

I love the frenchy handles. I'm not going to paint them.

I've started a new collection. Like I don't already have too many collections. But I've been bitten by the vintage flatware bug. I've seen so many of you with them in displays, I had to jump on the bandwagon. Here are the knives I got a few weeks ago for 25 cents each at the thrift store.

These spoons were 50 cents a piece.

The forks were 50 cents a piece as well. I choose all my vintage flatware for the pattern on the handle as that is the part that is going to show when I display them in my little white pitchers.


Every time I go to a thrift store I always look for a Scrabble game or Dominoes. But have not had any luck until last week. I found a Scrabble game for $2.00. Still had every single letter. It was like brand new.

I also love collecting urns. Found this one for $1.50 a couple of weeks ago at the thrift store.

I picked up these ugly brass candlesticks for about $1.00 each. I'm going to spray paint them. Not sure what color. I'm thinking blue for summer. I need candlesticks like I need a hole in my head. But I don't have any that aren't silver, crystal, black or white. I'm looking to add some color to my life. And I won't be afraid to paint these some wild color. Or some not so wild color.


I paid $1.00 for this silver candlestick. I just love the shape of the base. I am probably going to glue this to a silver tray to make a pedestal tray. I'll be sure to share it later if I do.

This is something I got this past Saturday at the thrift store. I think it is a towel or napkin holder. Not really sure. I just loved the bird on it. It was $4.00. A bit pricey for me, but again, it was love at first sight.

I'll probably paint this heirloom white as well & then antique it. Then I'll add a vintage print to the frame part. I'll use it for holding my dinner napkins. Isn't that birdy just the sweetest?

I got this little shell dish to use in a summer vignette. I'll probably paint this heirloom white as well. It was $1.25.
I found this 3 tier dessert stand at a thrift store for $5.00. I have a couple of reproduction ones from Tender Heart Treasures. Paid a lot more for the reproduction ones. I think this silver one is the real deal.

I passed it up a few weeks back as I already had a couple of the repro ones. But I couldn't get this beauty out of my mind. So lucky for me it was still there on Saturday.

At this same thrift store I found this vintage rooster for $3.00. Yup, roosters is another of my collections. There isn't much I don't collect I'm afraid.

I also found a bag of vintage clothes pins for 50 cents.

And I found more vintage flatware for my newest collection. Each piece was 25 cents.

Another new collection for me is vintage milk glass vases. I saw on someones blog, where they had about 5 milk glass vases sitting on a round silver tray with flowers. I loved it. I have a silver round tray and some flowers. All I need are the 5 milk glass vases.

So I started looking for milk glass vases. All the ones I saw at Goodwill were like $2-3.00 each. Yikes!!! I can do better than that. I found this one at my local community cupboard thrift store for 50 cents. Much better.


And these 3 were only 25 cents each. I just need one more to make my silver tray display. But until then, I'm using 3 of them in this weeks tablescape. Be sure to come back Thursday to see more.

I'll try & show you later how I used my thrifty finds around my house. So stay tuned.

Oh and I almost forgot, I found the most spectacular crystal chandelier at Lowe's on clearance for $32.00!!!! Once hubby gets it installed, I show photos. I am so excited, I can hardly wait. I've always wanted a chandelier.



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