A Christmas Vinyl Village

I am so excited to show you our vinyl village in the main bathroom!  While out and about on Black Friday one of the treasures I found was a cricut lite Jolly Holidays cartridge on sale for $20.  I scooped it up as soon as I spotted it. 

(cricut.com)

It is so cute!  I love all of the images you can create with it.  I couldn't wait to use it so I got out my cricut and some vinyl and went to town.

Here is Santa on his way to deliver packages to good girls and boys.  To make two different kinds of deer I used the deer and the shadow of the deer.  And to make Santa face the right direction I had to flip him. 

I used all of the houses that were on the cartridge.  I love the little deer on the roof with her little hoof prints, tehe.  If you look close you can see Santa's foot prints and little legs sticking out of the chimney.

Each item has four layers to it.  The first layer is the background color, then the house color, then a silver color and on top of the silver went the white snow.  It took most of the day yesterday to create this scene but I had so much fun creating it that I didn't realize the hours going by.

Merry Christmas!

 



A Sweet Blog Award

Tanya from Sew Many Dreams has given Whispering Christmas Dreams a blog award!  She is such a sweet person and an extremely talented seamstress.  Please take a moment and visit her sweet blog.  This is my first blog award and I am very excited!  

In order to accept this award I have to share 7 things about myself.  Let's see...

1.  I start counting down to Christmas the day after Christmas

2.  If my house was big enough... I would have a room just for Christmas decorations

3.  I listen to Christmas music all year long.  It makes me happy when I am sad and helps me clean better ; )

4.  I am fascinated with homesteading and own many books on the subject

5.  My favorite animal is a chicken.  We have 10 and I LOVE them! 

6.  We have a big garden in the backyard.  Midway through the summer the weeds and I get in a huge battle and the weeds always win

7.  My dream job would include a farm, Christmas, and animals... What that would be I have no idea, lol.

   

Now I am supposed to pay it forward to 10 bloggers whom I feel are deserving.  There are so many great bloggers out there and I would love nothing more than for you all to get this award.  To accept this award please grab the picture and state 7 things about yourself.  Please accept this award and let me know so I can read 7 things about you!

People who have accepted this award:

Lila

Dorothy

Jenny

Christmas presents from Lily

(This is NOT what is looked like when I received it, lol.  I just got ahead of myself)

My sweet friend Lily has sent me another beautiful package from the UK!  She is so sweet to me.  This time I was not prepared to get such a package and I immediately started to open it and then remembered to slow down and enjoy everything.  I stopped and grabbed my camera. 

My heart was beating so fast with excitement.  My youngest helped me open each and every special gift. 

So many special gifts from afar.  There are 4 cookbooks *squeal*, 2 books on the area she is from... sigh, to die for toffee, creamy marzipan, candles, a cupcake stand, cupcake liners, hot chocolate, diva Christmas gloves, and a beautiful card.  My heart is so happy.  I feel so blessed!  My youngest has set up the cupcake stand and we have nibbled on the toffee and marzipan.  YUMMY!  The recipes are beautiful so I thought I would share one with you.  I typed it exactly as it was written.

Christmas Cake

8 oz. butter

8 oz. soft brown sugar

4 eggs

9 oz. flour

1 level teaspoon each ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 oz. sultanas 8 oz. currants

3 oz. glace cherries, quartered and rolled in flour

5 oz. chopped mixed candied peel

2 oz. whole almonds, chopped

2 tablespoons brandy or medium sweet sherry

The caption for this recipe says: This is a proper, fruit filled Christmas cake, but with a somewhat lighter texture.

Set oven to 275' F or Mark 1.  Line a 7 inch square or 8 inch round cake tin.  Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl, then beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Sift together the flour, spices and salt and fold into the mixture.  Add the dried fruit, cherries, mixed peel and the almonds and then the brandy or cherry, a little at a time, mixing to a dropping consistency.  Put the mixture into the tin, making a slight well in the centre, and bake for about 4-5 hours.  Test with a skewer; when the cake is ready it will come out clean.  Cover with kitchen foil if the top browns too quickly.  Allow to get cold in the tin before removing.  To improve the flavour, pierce the top with a skewer and feed with brandy or sherry.  To ice the cake, brush all over with warmed apricot jam before applying the almond paste.  Leave to dry for  2-3 days before finishing with Royal icing, as desired.

Favourite Christmas Recipes

Traditional Seasonal Fare

Salmon with illustrations by Charles T. Howard

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Isn't that sweet?!  Thank you for stopping by.  Only 30 more days until Christmas!

Christmas finds and my debacle

Yesterday was my lucky day.  I went junkin and found this!  I fell in love with the box and then I opened it... and found a full box of silver ornaments.  To make it even better, I only paid $3 for it.  I looked the name Shiny Brite up online and found that these were made from 1937-1962 *squeal*.

The box is in such good shape.  Somebody must of cherished these babies... either that or they ended up in the attic somewhere.  Woohoo! 

I also found this...

It is a cast iron muffin pan!

I added a little Christmas sprig and some bells to it so I can leave it out.  Right now it is sitting on an old basket by the Christmas tree.   

For some fun I made these snowballs

I saw the idea on the Bienvenue blog.  They were so easy to do.  All I did was hold the ball in my left hand, spread glue all over one side, dip it in a bowl of "snowflakes", then do the other side.  Instant snowballs that sparkle!  They are sitting in some white dishes on our bar in the kitchen.

Today I finished decorating the Christmas tree for the last time, lol.  It was decorated once by my sweet little girls.  They did such a beautiful job of decorating it with all of their handmade ornaments, pine cones, and candy canes...  Am I the only one that wants to put that tree in the kitchen, laundry room, or my bedroom?  I was really feeling proud of myself for letting them do it all.  I had to force my older child to participate but she did.  They just kept hanging ornament after ornament after ornament after ornament... you get the beautiful picture?!  Gosh, I felt like such a scrooge for wanting to take it down.  I debated for 5 days!  It really did look sweet.  All of those special memories dangling from each branch.  Mind you they have a tree of their own in their rooms.  My oldest has hers shoved in a corner because it isn't Thanksgiving yet.  But she will put it up Thanksgiving evening and decorate it the way she wants to.  We even have a tree in the bathroom that my youngest decorated in a southwestern theme.  I just feel so bad. 

Is it bad of me to want to decorate the Christmas tree in the living room?  Do you have a kid tree and an adult tree?  Please be kind! 

A touch of Christmas on our piano

To continue with the white theme and using near and dear items to our heart I was able to add a touch of Christmas to our piano.

 

The sight of carolers is a sure reminder of Christmas to me.  As a huge lover of history I often envision carolers in their nineteenth century attire walking the Norman Rockwell streets of snow singing Silent Night.

Another stack of Great Grandma's white linens make me smile.

Here is the snowman I couldn't wait to show you.  I found him at T.J. Maxx all alone.  He only cost $8!  I made sure to scoop him up and hold him close.  He now stands very proud and happy next to Great Grandmas linens.

Here is another very dear thing to my heart... it is a picture of my dad on Santa's lap.  This is a picture I keep up all year long.  It is just too precious to put in a box.

A musical bird just seemed fitting on top of the piano.  There are 3 tucked in this silver glittered tree.  And one sitting peacefully at the base.

I found these beautiful white balls at Hobby Lobby half off last weekend.  I haven't decided what to put in the other jars.  I am trying to find white and green striped sticks of candy for the front one but not too sure about the back one. 

I couldn't get a really good picture of the entire piano so I am using this side view shot. 

Decorating for Christmas has been so much fun! 

Thank you very much for stopping by and leaving such kind comments.  It makes my Christmas heart skip a beat! 

A little more Christmas...

This year I have tried to decorate with the color white.  This has been challenging because I want to use things that are vintage or things that mean a lot to us and not have to buy new. 

Here is a glass jar filled with bead garland and a wreath that usually hangs on the front door.

A stack of old and special books.  The top book came from my Great Grandmothers house.

Here is the old scale that the beautiful church my hubby bought is sitting on.  I tucked some sprigs next to it  to make it a little more Christmasy.

Some more scales with a little Christmas cheer.

Here is the top of our kitchen buffet.  This buffet is very special to me because my hubby made it in high school.  It was his first big wood project.  I am sure this "buffet" was originally a shelf unit for books and such but I have renaimed it : ).  I LOVE it so much!

And here is a full picture of the kitchen buffet.  The old window came out of my in-laws house and the folded linens came from my Great Grandmothers house.  All things that are special or vintage!  I made another bunting.  Do you see it?  It says NOEL and is hanging on the old window. 

Thank you for venturing through the decorations on my kitchen buffet!  I have been working on my piano and found an adorable snowman from T.J. Maxx that I can't wait to show you. 

Only 40 more days until Christmas!!!!

 

Have you started decorating yet?

I have been!  This is the first decoration that I put out.  It is a beautiful church that hubby came home with on Friday.  He surprised me with it!  You see... we are both Christmas fanatics.  He may not be over the edge like me but he is right there holding my hand.  God love him! 

I set the beautiful church on an old scale I found junkin.  It is a heavy cast iron scale in white... my favorite color to decorate with as of this year!

Christmas Bunting

Have you seen bunting lately?  It is so cute!  I have seen bunting made out of burlap, fabric, and paper.  I love it soooo much I thought I would try my hand at making some.  The first time I used scrapbook paper and it turned out pretty cute...

I think it looks so happy

Now I have gone bunting crazy!  I love it so much I made a Merry Christmas one out of fabric. 

I am glad I made a paper one first.  By doing so I was able to see that I wanted my triangles closer together.

I picked 4 different fabrics out.  I had envisioned only using 2 but I just couldn't decide between them so I went with all of them, lol.

To break up the Merry from the Christmas I embroidered a snowflake.  Have you made any Christmas crafts yet??  If you have feel free to link up to this post with Mr. Linky.  That way we can all see what you have been up to.

I am new to this whole Mr.Linky thing... will you link up with both of the Linky tools?  I want the Mr. Linky where a picture pops up but I am thinking it is not the free one?!  LOL

Thank you for stopping by and Merry Christmas to you!

I have linked this post up with Deck The Halls

Colonial Williamsburg - Holiday Decorations

This is a little over 6 minutes long and well worth the view.  Such beautiful decorations.  This video is different from the one I posted a month or so ago.  I love all of the decorations for Christmas time!  You will have to turn my music off to hear everything.  Just press the pause button on the right side where the playlist is.  Enjoy!!

The Farm Chicks new Christmas book

Do you remember this book?

I did a post about it last week.  I had asked my mom to get it for me for Christmas and couldn't wait to see what was inside so I went to the book store and it was GONE!  Well, Serena Thompson is doing a book signing!!  You can be there in person or you can purchase a book this Friday November 5th and she will sign it.  She will be at Chaps in Spokane.  Even some of her friends that she often talks about will sign it.  *squeal*  Since I can't be there in person I will be there virtually.  I love it!  The book can be purchased at http://www.thefarmchicks.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/jewelry.html

Here is a very special recipe for you all to enjoy

Jane's Sugar Cookies

Cream together:

1 C. butter

2 C. sugar

(Correction, there are eggs in this recipe)
Add and bet well:

2 eggs

Stir in:

1 C. sour cream

2 tsp. vanilla

Add:

2 tsp. soda with enough flour to make a soft dough (about 5 to 5 1/2 cups)

Refrigerate dough.  Roll out dough and use cookie cutters.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Jane's Frosting:

1/2 C. soft butter

3 C. powdered sugar

3 Tbs. cream or milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Blend butter and sugar.  Add cream and vanilla.

A good recipe is like gold and I can tell you this is JUST like gold.  In fact, I just got the frosting recipe yesterday from my sister-in-law!  She happened to see it and wrote it down, wooohooo.  Thank you Melissa!!  We always fight over these at the table.  Jane (mother-in-law) keeps these jewels in the refrigerator and they are soooo refreshing when she takes them out! 

Blessings to you and thank you for stopping by!