The upstairs trees

I kept the decorating mainly to the living room, dining room and kids tv room but did put a small tree in the bedrooms.  

In our room I bought a skinny tree which I put inside a zinc pot I've had for ages and hung a simple white tin star from the top.  I also taped a small sign to the panelling on the wall.  

For the kid's rooms I bought bigger spindly 'Frech style' trees and I put Lily's inside a large pot I found at an antiques centre a while back (the one with the missing handle).  I helped her choose the decorations for it as she was drawn to huge baubles which were just too big.

Her little Maileg bunnies are sitting under the tree.

I put a picture of her looking 'angelic' in a lovely grey frame I bought in France earlier this year.  On the same trip I also bought her the little ceramic pot with the bird on top (my idea was that she could one day use this for earings however she has no desire to have her ears pierces just yet so it's empty!).

Seth couldn't drag himself away from the Xbox for long enough to decorate his tree so it's not worth photographing.  It's the same kind of tree as Lily's and covered with lights but just one decoration which I bought in Majorca earlier this month.

Dinner is served!

My husband is a great cook and as always our Christmas dinner was stunning!!

Excuse the scruffy garden - it's on our 'to do' list but pretty far down so I try to avoid getting it in photos as much as possible.

Hope you are all having a lovely and relaxing Christmas - I know I am.

xoxox

WE WISH YOU A

MERRY

CHRISTMAS

AND A HAPPY

NEW YEAR

{ THE JOHNSON FAMILY – DECEMBER 2011}

Christmas art from vintage flash cards

A few months ago I bought some vintage flash cards from this Etsy seller.

There were loads of words to choose from and I chose snow, sleds and mittens as I planned on using them as part of my Christmas decorating.  These are really big flash cards - bigger than I expected but I actually love the fact that there is a lot of off white card left blank.

I bought a simple black frame from Hobbycraft for £10 and used double sided tape to attach burlap to the back board.  I then used a small amount of the same (removable) tape to the cards and attached them to the burlap.

It's now hanging on the beadboard half wall which divides my kids TV room from my study area.

I love it in their room with mistletoe lights along the wall - I think it has a really vintage child like quality so looks great in this room.

 

xoxox

Linking to

Paper angel wings

I think this is my favourite ever Christmas decoration that I have ever, ever made.

I found some gorgeous angels wings on Pintersest but cannot find the source so if anyone knows let me know and I'll credit the photo.  They are such a simple idea but just beautiful.

 So, with these as my inspiration I decided to make my own.

I drew a basic 'angel wing' shape on one side of A4 then folded the paper in half and traced it onto the other side.  I then cut this folded shape out and traced around it for perfectly symmetrical wings.

If you want to make these just help yourself to my template below.

I then cut this shape out of thick card and glued a sheet of vintage sheet music to the front and then cut it to the same shape.

For Christmas my plan was to add a little German glass glitter to the edges but I didn't order it in time (I have ordered some but it'll have to be used for next years decorations). 

Instead I glued a little irridescent fake snow around the edges just so that it has a little sparkle.

I'm going to make one for the back of each dining chair and have bought little wooden letters for each of us so that we can have our initials hanging with the wings.

I love having the time to craft and create.

Dear Santa, for Christmas please can I have more hours in the day?

(and of course John Cusack in my stocking!)

Thankyou,

Samantha Johnson (age 45)

xoxox

Linking to

A new look for my gold mirror

After I took photos of my Christmas decorations yesterday I decided, completely on impulse, to paint the mirror.  I've had this mirror for years and bought it primarily for it's shape and detail.  I'm not really a gold or gilt person but have always had the intention of painting it one day.  Two coats of Annie Sloane chalk paint and a healthy dollop of wax (clear and dark oak) later and here she is.

I rubbed just a little dark wax here and there to break up the white.

This is how she started the day yesterday...

And this is how she looked at bedtime!

I was a little nervous that I was making a mistake and was going to ruin a perfectly good mirror but I definitely prefer it white.  We are going to paint the hall in the new year and I'm planning on using Farrow and Ball's Off White throughout the whole of the downstairs - we already have it in several rooms and it's kind of a greeny grey neutral so I think the white mirror will look much better with that colour than the gold.

Good night!

Sam

xoxox

Remember me?

Well, I can't believe it's been three months since I last posted anything.

Working full-time and running an Etsy shop leave you with little no spare time especially in the busy run up to Christmas.  My house has been neglected so I've had no nice clean rooms or finished projects to photograph.  We also had a little trip to Spain a few weeks ago to visit my new baby niece, my {extremely proud} brother's beautiful little baby girl.  We went plus my sister and her kids and had a lovely time - it was nice to see some sun.  This is rare for us Welsh and I'm not lying when I say it was warmer in Majorca in December than it was in Wales this summer.

We were late buying our tree as we went away so we only bought it this week.  The tree sits in our dining room which has double doors into our living room where we have a smaller (fake, but a lovely fake) tree on top of a unit.

The Santa decoration above I bought in Boston when I was 30.  He's a dried gourd, hand painted and I have an angel by the same artist too.  These are two of my favourite decorations.

I made the garland below years ago and although it's really simple I hang it every year.

My mantel - lots of birch, silver and zinc.

Some box leaves from my garden and a cute glittery deer I had on sale.

My mini tree in the living room.

Some angel wings I made after being inspired by some I found on Pinterest.

Since I took this photo this morning I've brought out the chalk paint and painted this mirror frame.  It's something I've wanted to do for ages but have never found the time.  I'll post some photos of the new look mirror soon.

And the best for last - my new vintage bottle dryer I bought yesterday.  When we were in France earlier this year I was hoping to find one of these - I went to loads of flea markets and never saw one.  Then yesterday I found this one at an antiques centre just an hour from where I live.  I knew the second I saw it it was coming home with me.  I've just hung a few mercury glass ornaments on it for now - it looks just perfect to me.

I'm more or less on top of things right now and of course, Etsy sales are slowing down this week, so I've had a pretty productive weekend around the house and have a few more decorations I'd like to share so here's to a relaxing week before the big day!

I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on too!

Sam

xoxox