Trying to Get Ready for Christmas

I had a very sucessful "get ready for Christmas" weekend.

The shopping is 97.4% done.
The wrapping is 94.7% done.

Our "big" present to Kevin this year is that George & I are paying the installation fees for hi-speed internet in his house. I don't know how we're going to wrap up the technician who is coming this week to install it. I'm thinking he is probably going to want to go home and spend Christmas with his own family, so I don't think he will let us keep him in a box.

The Christmas cards are in the mail as we speak. I heard on the news this morning that today (Monday) is the biggest day of the year for the post office. The report said that their volume is up 40% today.

When did I mail mine? This morning. Sorry Mr. Postman (Ms. Postwoman). I didn't mean to add to your burden today. I appreciate what you do. I really do.

The house is 81.2% clean. Still working on that. Sorry family, it won't reach 100%. But maybe we can shoot for low to mid 90's.

Oh - don't worry, I didn't spill the beans on Kevin's present. He knows. It didn't seem right to let someone in his house for a couple hours without his knowledge.

Merry (there's only a few days left to get ready) Christmas!!!!!!!

More tabletop Christmas trees

I've been decorating more table top trees, & taking quick pictures as I go.

I need to do some "tweaking" on the pictures, but no time for that now. The trees look much better in person, but maybe you can get some idea of what they look like.

Vintage Warm Morning stove

How fun would this be for a porch decoration?

Not a great picture (batteries were dying), but you get the idea.

I can see this as a porch centerpiece...surrounded with pine in winter...pots of flowers in summer.

Or out in the yard.

Or, tucked in the corner of a den or living room.

Or.......

I thought about painting it black.

Or red.

Or, rust is cool.

So many possibilities!!!



Vintage Christmas tree

I'm don't know how old this 3 foot tree is...I have the original papers that came with it, but there's no date.

If I were to guess, I'd guess 1970's.

I grew up on a small 'cut your own' Christmas tree farm.

How fun it was to see folks come pick out, and cut down their own tree.

Dad always warned them that trees had a way of "growing" when you took them in your house.

They didn't seem that big in the field...but once in your living room, they were suddenly huge!

Dad called artificial trees "bottle brush" trees.

At the time, it was bit of an insult.

I chuckle now when I order artificial trees for the store, and some of the most popular trees are indeed called

Bottle Brush Trees!

I wish he were still with us to share in the irony, and to chuckle about it too.



Table top trees

These trees are all under 24 inches.

Decorated and ready to go.



Our PT Cruiser met its Demise on a Snowy Morning

This is a picture of the parking lot behind the shop this morning:

As you can see, there is just a skiff of snow.

This is a picture of our lane this morning:

The track through the snow is about 5 inches deep.

The drift on the side is about 2 feet deep.

There was a better picture of the drifts on out the lane, but it was cold & I didn't want to get out again to take the picture.

Why am I showing you this?

To give you an idea of why I sometimes close the shop due to snow. Many, many times, there is not much snow in town, but 5 miles from town, up on the ridges, it's a different world!

To further illustrate my point, I thought I'd share these pictures with you:



 

This is what happened to our PT Cruiser 2 years ago.

George came in from midnight shift and said, "the roads are bad, maybe you better close the shop today"

I said, "I'll be fine, I can't close the shop just a few days before Christmas"

Obviously, I should have closed the shop.

Instead...

I slid on the ice.

I hit a tree.

I hit a fence.

I totaled the car.

I almost hit a house while totaling the car.

I sheared off a natural gas line while totaling the car.

I prayed that there wouldn't be an explosion from the gas line.

I prayed for the workers who had to crawl under the car to stop the gas leak.

I spent the next 2 years paying for a new car.

(Did I mention that we had just paid off the PT Cruiser when I totaled it?)

And...........

I had to close the shop that day, because...

I had totaled the car and had no way to get to the shop, even if I could have got my legs to stop shaking enough to open it.

The moral of the story?

I now close the shop when it's that snowy.

Had to learn the hard way didn't I?

Oh - I wasn't hurt in the accident, just a little sore.

Some "new" old stuff

Love, love, love old crocks...

And old benches



We have 4 of these chairs



This little child's ironing board works just like moms!

It folds up, and has 2 heights. Unfortunately, 1 leg is cracked, so it's wobbly.

The long box would make a great shadowbox.



Wood box, sad iron and miscellaneous

These pictures are BIG! Like you would buy in a furniture store. Where oh where am I going to display these?



I'm not normally a big fan of  blonde furniture, but I like the legs on this table...



Just what every woman needs - she puts her feet up on this shoe store stool, and her husband gently puts her shoes on her in the morning. Well, a girl can dream can't she?



We got some other things too, another old fashioned popcorn popper, bar stools (they need some work),a box full of glass insulators, a coffee table (I may distress it) and a few other treasures.