Christmas things, quilts and trees...oh, my!

I'm finally (almost) finished with my Christmas decorating and its only taken me a week to put up everything. I still have to finish my dining room table and the kitchen table which is currently serving as my gift-wrapping area.

I've seen so many wonderful blogs with darling villages displayed that I thought I would try to put one together this year. Soooo I shopped after Christmas last year and I bought some houses at Joann's (pink church and white building). I also found some pieces at yard sales and estate sales. I was also lucky enough to find a whole bag of bottle brush trees for a $1.00 so I could include them in my village display. The following photos are the beginnings of a village that I hope will include "people" and other Christmas things next year.
I like the little bridge with the horse and buggy on it. The horse and buggy came from a movable display that I've had for a few years.

There is a horse and buggy in the following photo along with another one that can't be seen because it is moving behind the house in the background.


Here is the very beginning of my tablescape for Christmas. Everything in the photo was bought from a Craig's List ad or at a yard sale. The dishes are Paula Deen and I think they are so festive.
The vintage ornaments and the container they are in were bought at different yard sales. The entire box of vintage ornaments was a dollar as was the tinted glass container. The "golden" apples and pearpurchased at yard sales.s are sitting on a charger and they were all

My dining room hutch is adorned with festive garland that lights up along with two big Santas. The garland was found at an estate sale and the Santas were purchased from Dillard's after Christmas many years ago.My dolls consist of Apple Cheek dolls from Pic & Save (many, many years ago), Daisy Kingdom dolls, ballerinas from Dillard's (after Christmas), thrift store ballerinas, and some from Collections Inc., a mail-order catalog.

This pink tree is one of about 20 that I have in my house. Some trees are a few inches tall and the tree in our great room is 9 feet tall!!!!

Here is the 9 ft. tree with red and gold ornaments.

Here is a better view of the tree along with other Christmas delights.

Here are some of my Jim Shore Christmas items. Most everything was purchased at yard sales. The sleigh, the big Santa and the snowman were bought from a couple whose store was going out of business. The pieces were 75% off so I couldn't pass that up.

My entry table adorned with angels that I've had for years along with the candy-cane trees that I purchased after Christmas last year in Tucson.

Another photo of my new entry way table that was a Craig's List purchase.

This is a photo of a tree that still needs ornaments. It is in the guest bathroom.

Two little gold trees in the half bath or powder room as some people call it! Ignore the smudges on the mirror....I certainly have!

Of course the half bath toilet needed a tree too! Some of you might want to offer therapy right about now!

My mother passed away in August just 20 days shy of her 96th birthday so I'm more sentimental this year than ever before. These two trees are in her room decorated with all of her vintage ornaments and other things that she saved. Some of this stuff is older than I am so I already told my daughter to take extra care with everything when she gets the pieces.

My husband calls this tree the "Charlie Brown Christmas tree" because it resembles the poor spindly tree from the comic strip and television show. I recently bought it at Walmart because I still had an extra box of ornaments with some dating back to 1980 when my daughter was born. I have Hallmark ornaments and miscellaneous things on this tree. I taught school for a long time so I also have some darling ornaments from former students. My daughter bought me an ornament from Bloomingdale's one year...the one just to the left of the middle holding two bags that read "Born to shop". She knows me well.

Jim Shore angels sit on top of a curio cabinet in the hallway. The angel (cookie jar) on the left was part of the Craig's List purchase and the other two angels were gifts from my daughter. The purple tree and ornaments were from a yard sale.

This red and green wedding ring quilt was purchased at a yard sale along with another quilt. They were new in their original plastic cases so I bought both of them for $5.oo total!!!! The lady was moving and didn't want to keep anything that she absolutely didn't need. The dolls in the photo were made by my mother many years ago, and I put them out every Christmas.

This is the other quilt that I purchased. I think that this one has a bear paw or bear claw design. This one will go with us to our house in Tucson.

Needless to say, this next quilt is quite different from the previous quilts in this post. My father-in-law bought this while he was in Iowa a few months ago. I think that there was a huge Amish community near where he was visiting so he bought this wedding ring quilt made by hand by the Amish women. It is beautiful and it is on our bed.

The Amish quilt in all its glory!!!

Wishing you all the best for a Merry Christmas.