Living Room at Christmas

We spend most of our time at home in our living room. And of course it's the hardest room to photograph in our home. One day I'll get over apologizing for how photos of it turn out, but I had to let you know!

Here is the view from the door. That is Travis' medical collection in the white cabinet on the left. And our sweet scratching post on the right. You can spot our Hank Williams bust in there too!

A little closer. That little train case is full of the pugs clothes. Can you spot our color wheel? I'm so happy we finally got one last year. It makes the pom pom tree even prettier!

Speaking of the pom pom tree! This thing is one of my favorite finds EVER! I feel like it was meant for me! It was left on the third day of an estate sale, pristine in the box for almost nothing! The balls belonged to Travis' grandmother. How perfect is it that she just had them in our wedding colors! I've broken THREE red ones this year! Ugh!

The cookie jar Santa by the lamp is Travis' grandmother's too. He loves it. I had my karaoke cds out because I had a little karaoke get together this past weekend. Sorry I forgot to put it a way for pics! I love hanging up as many stockings as I can fit on our mantle! The two on the right were made by Travis and I for each other when we were dating.

Pine comb gnomes! I added a couple to my collection this year. The box in the back is a drawer from Travis' other grandmother's sewing table. And that awesome card is from Eartha Kitsch! Her husband made them and I LOVE it! I'm going to put it out every year!

Santa mugs of course. And that gorgeous plastic feature/celluloid reindeer creation.

Vintage Christmas photos stuck all around of course. I've added a few great vintage photo cards this year, I'll have to show you soon!

Even my monkey tail got in on the decorating!

The built in gets a little love too. The bottom shelf stays Harry Potter year round though. Duh.

Top shelf a little closer. That match box on the left is one of my favorite things. Someone decorated it with felt and sequins.

And nothing says Christmas like a felt faced jar full of old candy!

Behind the couch we have a beautiful sequined card holder! I pulled that out of a garage at an estate sale last year. And someone recognized me from my blog because I was dorking out over that tacky thing! Ha! I couldn't resist putting a hat on our 1970 fox dude, too. I like to pretend he is caroling. (My love of vintage taxidermy still stands friends, I hope I'm not creeping you out!)

Travis put that little elf on the frame and it made me laugh. I love it when he tucks little figures away like that for me to find.

Phyllis, her first Christmas with us. We took her to see Santa at Petsmart and her little worried face makes me laugh every time!

And here we are all cozy with a fire! This was very early in the process, I definitely got some more height going on the mantle. I had to show you the fire though, and our cute owls with marble eyes!
It's Christmas Eve and I'm probably at work when you're reading this. I hope you are cozy at home with the ones you love! We're going to my in-laws house tonight to hang out with our nephew on his first Christmas! Have a good one everybody!

Kitschmas Explosion!

Well, I had some big plans for a month of Christmas posts this year. But the month got crazy and just got away from me! So I'll have to cram it all into a few days! I hope you don't mind. I actually started decorating pretty early in the season this year. I still didn't get all of my vintage holiday collection out. I think I need a bigger house! I'll start by showing you what I've got going on in my dining room!

Dream Pet and Dream Pet Like reindeer are one of my weaknesses! My collection is getting pretty big! I decided to group most of them in this room. I have four other ones that I like to put a long the top of our tv.

I store some of our serving pieces and most of our cook books on the cabinet. It usually houses my poodle collection. It is so hard to put it away to decorate for holidays!

I love that candle! It is crochet over a toilet paper roll. So creative.

My best friend brought me that little skeleton back from Maxico. He gets to stay out year round! I want to find a cool way to display my spun head collection. I have a BUNCH I didn't get out this year.

I love those two reindeer, I feel like they look gossipy. You can see some tiny flocked deer, a ornament hook box with sweet graphics, and a sweet little nativity set that my grandmother gave me. I put it under the dome because the cats seem to excel in breaking things that actually mean something to me.

Some little Santa bits. And of course the photo of me and Stephen Colbert never gets put up. He took it himself, selfie style! One of my favorite moments ever!

Our house is from 1939 and has tiny little rooms. Here is a photo of our table, taken from right in front of the hutch. The table belonged to Travis' grandparents.

This is a small tree skirt and one of my favorite vintage Christmas items. The print is so beautiful! It is a little stained by I don't mind.

I found these funny little candles this year. I can't resist any decoration that includes a tiny elf!

I've been looking for a set of glasses like this for years! My grandmother has a set just like them, but they say Merry Christmas instead of Seasons Greetings. As long as I can remember they have used them on Christmas morning to make mimosas. We don't go to my grandparents for Christmas anymore, and I love having a set of these glasses now to remind of when we did. I've already used them for one party this year.

I hope you are read for Christmas! One more day! We've got everything wrapped, cookies baked, our Christmas dinner ordered, and the pugs stockings stuffed!

Decorating for Kitschmas!

 You guys, I might have a vintage Christmas problem. These are the boxes Travis pulled up from the basement. I then found four more in the front room.

 It is fun to pull everything out though! So many things I forgot I bought during the last year! That box is mostly full of supplies for making Kitschy brooches and decorations. Maybe next year. I'm on my third day of decorating right now. I worked on it for a few hours the first days and just got worn out!

 Putting together the aluminum tree is kind of a pain. But it is so beautiful I don't even care. I spend at least 10 solid minutes a day staring at my beautiful pom pom tree. I'll show you the finished product soon!

My little elves didn't help very much. They got bored and fell asleep about 30 minutes in. Hopefully I'll finish it all off today! Have you started decorating yet? Is your house a kitschmas wonderland? I love seeing all my blog friends posts about their decorations this time of year!

Hay Day!

On Saturday a local group, the Middle Tennessee Pet Resource Center, held their annual Hay Day event! The idea is to deliver cold weather supplies, coats, food and toys to chained dogs in the Nashville area. I wasn't sure if I was going to post about this because I don't want it to seem like "Look at me, look at what I did!". But after the experience we had yesterday, I knew I had to share it.
I knew it would be a hard day for me. I'm obviously a pet lover,  and I don't want to see a dog chained out in a yard in the freezing cold. (Like most other places in the country, the temperatures have been super low here lately). The idea of Hay Day is to go in with the spirit of giving for these people and their pets. It is a non-judgemental day where you just want to help give these dogs some comfort, and establish relationships with the owners so hopefully you can help them make more lasting changes. Volunteers go back later and walk the dogs, bring them more supplies, help the owners get them spayed/neutered, help them get assistance in building a fence so the dogs can be off the chains, etc. I was worried people would turn us away, but the houses we went to were super receptive and thankful for the help.
I volunteered to take photos so here are some of the ones I sent over. The before photos from the first house:

The brown dude is Bullet.

And the grey is Hawk. His chain was all tangled up, so that is as far as he could get from the tree. You can see if if you look closely to the left. And look at his house!

We got to work putting down hay around their houses to keep them dry and to give them something to cuddle down in. They put cedar chips in the houses which help insulate and keep away nasty critters. For bullet they bungee'd his house together so it wouldn't come apart anymore.

Hawk got a new house that he can actually get inside of!

He LOVED the squeaky toy we brought him. Both of these boys were sweet and friendly and were reveling in all the attention they were getting.

Hawk and his house.

Bullet wasn't as interested in the toys, he just wanted attention!

Getting some good booty scratches from Travis. I'm so happy Travis came with me. I wasn't sure he would want to spend his Saturday out in the freezing cold since this is his busy time at work and he has been working 12 plus hours a day, but he didn't hesitate to say yes.

After! Two boys with a much cozier home!

This is Diamond at our second stop. She lives at the bottom of hill so when it rains all the water runs down to her home.

I don't think I ever heard this handsome dudes name. He is at the top of the hill. Somehow every before picture I took of him features him peeing on something. Oh well.

A third dog lives in here. She just had puppies so was thankfully on the back porch in and enclosed space to keep the puppies warm. We worked on her home too, so it would be more comfortable when she gets put back in here.

Diamond was VERY sweet and rolled over so I could rub her belly almost immediately.

Big buddy was so happy for the attention! He ran around like crazy!

Putting a tarp up to provide some protection.

After! Look at him posing for me!

Even though it was hard, I am so glad we were able to help out. I really admire the mission of the MTPRC. It isn't always possible to get every dog out of a less than ideal situation. They talked about how when you ask someone to surrender a dog, they usually shut down and don't allow you to help at all. It is hard for me to understand, but some people just don't KNOW that they should be doing more for their dogs. Education is so key. I look forward to being able to help more with this organization in the future.

Tattooed Santa!

Nashville friends! The pet photos with tattoed Santa event is happening again this year! This Saturday they'll be set up in East Nashville and we'll be there with Phyllis and Priscilla for sure!

I was going to take the girls to Petsmart for their photo, but I'm so happy I finally found a listing for this. Not only is it cuter, but the money goes to a good cause! Here are some of our photos from last year. The photographer sent me a TON! I can't wait to see how they turn out this year!

Do you take your pets to see Santa? Or do you just think I'm crazy!

Rare Bird Antique Mall

I don't go to many of the local antique malls with the frequency I used to. I prefer the prices at estate sales or the flea market. BUT there is one place here that I LOVE. It is Rare Bird. It is located in Goodletsville, about a 20 minute drive from our house in South Nashville.

Last time I was there I came back and looked at this guy three different times. I loved the little metallic detail in the corners. And he is so cute! I still might have to go back and add him to my photo collection.

I was hoping for lots of vintage Christmas (like I need one more thing!) but this booth was really the only one with anything out! I talked to the owners and they didn't thing much more would show up. Such a bummer.

One of the best things about Rare Bird is the TONS of vintage packaging and NOS they have! The front of the store is set up like a general store, with different sections for food/cleaning/beauty supplies! All that old packaging looks so good together!

 You could stock a vintage vanity for sure at this shop! Look at all the cute pin cards!

They had a bunch of these little deadstock dresses. How adorable is that? Can you see the little ponies around the skirt?

If you are nearby or coming to town I highly suggest Rare Bird! It is a little drive out of town, but worth it! The staff is amazing too! Very helpful and seem to know where everything is in the big mall!