Christmas is coming or Op shop hopping

Well Happy Day for me yesterday when i ducked into my favourite Op shop (ok ok they are all my favourite how can you choose between children or Op shops) . October i have come to know is the start of the great Christmas Op shop hunt, Every year bags of decorations get put out the good the bad the down right revolting. Usually each bag contains a bit of all.Yesterday on my first hunt of the season i scored these, a few are  new most are vintage and very heavy and i sang all the way home.With me it has to be vintage and after having a family of four sons you do wonder how any ornaments outlast several childhoods.Anyway its an auspicious start to the hunting season and i haven't been this excited since i found a gang of chenille Santa's in the same shop two years ago.Anyway good luck to those on the hunt for vintage as long as you stay away from my shop.

Craft Catch up new projects

Just a believe tag i made using an old measuring tape the tag is huge,

Apron cards i made using vintage card pics off pinterest

Sneak peak at this years Christmas cards im working on ,

Vintage themed atc for a swap

Moon with face themed atc love how the glossy accents pop the silhouettes

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Its beginning to look a lot like christmas PHOTO TOUR

Well its here December the first,Like every Christmas it comes with its memories and its hopes and dreams,It comes with a year of life as always and loss , A year in which i lost a favourite uncle ,a  grandmother,and my favourite Author,A year where my mother for the first time in her life had no fixed address but thankfully now she does, But also a year in which i gained a grand daughter who fills me to the brim with love and light,Like all years there has been news from friends of hardships and loss and i feel it all.Still Christmas is here and i will welcome it with all the joy i reserve for Christmas. Part of me is still very much a child at this time of year,Searching op shops for4 those treasured ornaments of xmas past,I look forward to making a gingerbread house and cards with my god children,And annoying my son who doesn't realize how much Christmas means to him but it does.My eldest and his partner are at this moment in the Amazon and will be someplace strange and exotic for this Christmas,Fir the first time i am going to be visited by an elf on a shelf.So there is much afoot in my apartment that pretends to be my cottage.Welcome to the Christmas tour,

I love to decorate my dresser here which sits in an alcove on the loungeroom,

My space is smaller than it looks see how close the dresser ,hatbox tree and my two bookcases are,

My favourite tree inside a hatbox found some 15 years ago at the dump.

I love collecting vintage candy dispensers although you wouldnt fit much candy in these !

My new feather tree sits in a top hat above the TV unit amidst feathers and lights

My tiny bedroom come craft room has a tin pram that sprouted a tree

I like lights in unexpected places like this drawer that says believe

 I like trees in unexpected spots too like out of tea cups and in this case a candle holder,

Vintage jars displaying vintage baubles and mercury glass beads,

Iike to use the doors of my linen and bookcase like tiny windows

love the new swag i bought this year atop my cabinets

I made the santa fan and my friend cheryl made the believe tussie (Poppy get out of the lace shelf)

 The kitchen is tiny so just the window sill and top of my plate rack are decorated love my primitive santa hanging here,

 NO cats here nothing to see
Never one to miss an opportunity my Poppy is a most excellent Christmas cat she never touches any of my ornaments although she can climb to any of them,Here she is above my dream drawer on the lace shelf.

My tiny feather tree the old pamphlet holder will house xmas cards as they arrive,

love this little wooden stand with drawers got it at the op shop the other day for $3

Bedroom tree again note santa skipping rope

My 100 year old bed i used a table runner as a bed runner

My latest idea a baby tutu $3-99 ebay becomes a lampshade

Christmas crafting (or Why I am covered in glitter )

.I was up with the birdies this morning and made 20 Christmas cards before breakfast.I was on a roll so i kept rolling,now even after a shower and breakfast i am still covered in glitter.Pralines and Cream Fairy Dust Glitter to be precise it comes in a little glass shaker and I highly recommend it,I had already  done the printing and cutting out of my images and last night i glossy accented them,So this morning was just all fun.Just have one to make my grand daughter and a Dora card for my god daughter and one with a car on it for her brother.So its Christmas central here in my apartment that i pretend is a cottage.

i love using small doilies

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I glossy accented the windows in the houses

 

This is the Christmas hatbox i made for myself  usually i make them for others,

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Glittering up a storm.

A glittered snowman peeks from a tin cone!

A broken tassel end becomes a tree stand,

Yes there was a glitter blizzard in my craft corner (situation normal ! ) I have been crafting up a veritable snow storm of glittery Christmas Projects, I love Christmas i guess i never lost that childlike wonder.How i never lost it is beyond me Christmas for mothers is a lot of work,When my children were small i was often still wrapping their gifts rather badly on Christmas eve . Santa had a lot to answer for and i felt like his slave manys the year,I wouldn't change it for the world 1 loved to create Christmas for my boys and i wpu;d do it again in a hearbeat,Anyway i have many many projects on the boil and here are a few things i just wanted to make for no reason except Christmas and glitter are two things i love,

HELP ME !!! I am a crafter

Love my memory pinboard if its on there I LOVE IT

Ugh Blame the blokes who built the Internet in their cute little old garage ,Yes blame them for I am a crafter a little crazy a tad obsessive and a mite out of craft control. Yes i blame those men for leading me astray (and god alone knows how easily and happily led i am)they led me to EBay and etsy and made it and a zillion craft sites and craft groups ( enablers,addicts all ) who then linked me to other websites and daily craft deals and facebook groups tell me where does it end ,Can one ever have too much stash,too many supplies that you just know one day you will need,Then theres the stuff thats just too good,too sweet too special to use.You know the stuff I'm talking about,that vintage french seam binding in just the most darling shade of duck egg blue, I mean it looks lovely on a card but then someone else would have it and you couldn't look at it and love it as i do. So you know i use one of my other pieces of ribbon of which i have a drawer and a jar and a box hehe.Its all organized oh my goodness yes ! You see i am not just addicted to buying supplies and making things ands swaps,i am addicted to sorting my stash and organizing every little bit,I used to have a whole craft room(sigh oh how i miss it) now i have the space between my bed and my windows a chair and a half wide,
I have found ways to fit things in small spaces,The overload is in 3 Rubbermaid's under the bed,
Okay okay i confess maybe it isn't the fault of those clever men in their blokey shed maybe it was there all along and like most addictions it grew, There were signs when i was small always making puppets out of egg cartons and doll houses out of boxes,But imagine folks what would happen if a drug addict could just pop on line and search thousands of sites for that perfect drug deal.See its not my fault you see My name is Jullie and i am a craft addict. !! Help me before its too late and i am found dead under an avalanche of supplies,Remember she who dies with the biggest stash wins.

Inspiration tag minus a frozen charlotte and a tiny encased chair (now in my printers tray) by far  my favoutite inspiration tag recieved cant bear to pull more off it (from cheryl Jones)
The hanging heart pocket and a delightful fill of trims and treasures rec from Helen Bonnor)

Se who wouldnt love arranging and rearranging my potions of german glass glitter and mica flakes etc
I get the bottles at the local thrift when i see them,the little wallet i keep my address labels and stamps,seals etc in is just a fav of mine (made by christine ) The little watch case was altered by My Alex when we moved here ti cheer me up )

Altered mcroscope slide mailer

Inside the slide mailer (believe in your heart something wonderful is about to happen )

Card from my cousin (yes i know how rude but i like it hehe) also gorgeous altered cigar Box from chrsitopherpines on swapbot filled with treasure loooove it) Vintage cloak room tickets gotta love em (from my darling sister jen)
and lastly a photo sent in a swap ages ago, I  just love it,

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Christmas decorating small space big ideas ...

This small tree in a vintage hatbox is the perfect apartment tree it sits atop the TV unit amidst a sprinkling of bells.

I made the little Christmas door after being inspired by similar ones on a blog/
Love using these display cupboard doors like mini Xmas windows,

Of course small trees are apt to appear everywhere here at Christmas even cups sprout some tiny trees.

I never put lights in normal places these ones just wanted to be in a drawer that is opened a crack
so the magic comes peeking out.I looks much more magical than the pics came out.

Ahh my Christmas forest is back ,This year it grew in the alcove on the buffet and hutch,
poppy of course is totally spinning out with all this decorating but she has some bells and plastic ornies all her own.

i love the moon that is battery operated behind the forest.

vintage apothecary jars hold many many vintage glass baubles and the feather tree has garlands of mercury glass.

This tiny cloche and stand house a changing scene and mica flake snow,

Cant believe how much i love my bedroom decorating
vintage vintage vintage
My 100 plus year old bed looks fab with vintage Dec's.

Here are many vintage Santa's and angels on a tree that is sprouting from a top hat.

don't you love this pic.

I made this swag years ago it has my boys names on the stars