Decorating with Family Treasures

The holidays always bring in a flood of childhood memories for me. I find it comforting to incorporate family heirlooms and heirlooms "to be" into my holiday decorating. As a newlywed I had a garage sale with my new mother in law and discovered a small box of shiny brite ornaments she had marked to sale for a quarter. When I asked her where she got them she said they were her first ornaments as a newlywed and upon closer inspection I discovered the box was stamped 1969 not only were they her first box of ornaments they hung on my husbands first of many childhood Christmas trees. I imagine my in laws carrying their son to his first Christmas tree to watch their tiny newborn open his eyes to focus on the bright lights and multicolored ornaments. Needless to say that box of shiny brites came home with me, along with their first tree topper. Every year I display these fragile ornaments in a footed bowl that once graced the table of my husbands great grandmother. This year I have draped it with a strand of pearls that my grandmother wore to church on Sundays. There is much history tied to so many wonderful memories in that small holiday display. My cloche holds a tattered book, a baby photo of my father and my prized ornament that my best friend Amy bought for me on her trip to Curious Sofa. This is sure to become an heirloom as time passes and the shine fades. Draped on the book is a vintage rosary. This is the rosary my father carried with him on his tour in Vietnam, if only these heirlooms could talk, what would they say? What have they seen? I would love to hear how you incorporate vintage pieces into your holiday decor.

Old World Christmas...Done!

I have finished decking the halls at Oliver's. My wonderful husband/chief financial officer/best friend/heavy lifter came to my rescue and helped me with the hanging and moving and I have to say I could not have gotten it all together without him. And just in time. The Market is hosting a Holiday Open House on Friday Nov. 13th. If you are in the area they will be serving refreshments, have live entertainment and hourly drawings. Now I just need to re-coup so I can deck the halls at home!

The Old and The Beautiful!

I often wonder if I ever built another house "what would I do different"? I go back and forth between nice traditional cabinetry or something like this. I have a friend who saved antique pieces for years and had her builder "build around" them. I can see this round corner piece as a great coffee/tea bar in the corner of a kitchen or breakfast nook. And this red piece as a place for fine linens, formal dishes, or even used casually as a pantry. The large blue/green piece would look perfect in a master bath as a linen closet with beautiful towels, and vintage apothecary bottles, sitting next to a slipper tub of course with a big fat chandelier hanging above it. I would use these pieces exactly as they are, the patina is priceless.