A very merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate Christmas!

I wasn’t planning on having a blog post today.  In fact, I was actually planning to take a bit of a blogging break from Christmas through New Years.  But as it turns out, instead of running out of blog posts over the holiday season, I had too many.  I was so absorbed in my 12 days of giveaways that I never found time to blog about some of the projects I finished.

In addition, this year most of my friends and family have decided to move the Christmas celebrations to after the holiday.  Last night was just a quiet dinner at our house with my sister and my niece.  Today we have a family brunch with Mr. Q’s side.  But over the next week we have three more dinner parties and another brunch.  So, aside from the brunch, I actually have a little down time today so I thought I’d go ahead and post something.  Plus, I wanted to make a last ditch effort to share some of my holiday projects that didn’t make the cut.  So, get yourself a beverage and kick back, because this is going to be a long post.

First up is this pair of ice skates that I picked up at an estate sale.

I added sections from the re.design with prima transfer called Royal Burgundy to dress them up.  I posted these on some Facebook groups and on Instagram and several people asked if I sealed them.  I did not.  These are old skates, not skates someone would actually wear anymore.  At least I assume so.  I don’t actually ice skate, but I’m guessing that modern technology has vastly improved the ice skate since these were made.  So I meant these to be used for decor only, and therefore they don’t really need to be sealed in any way.

Next up is this vintage pink dust pan.

My picker found this for me a while back and as soon as I saw it I wanted to turn it into a holiday decoration.  The rusty, chippy pink finish works perfectly with vintage pink Christmas ornaments and some evergreens lightly dusted with snow.

Another project I worked on, and took lots of pictures of, but never really shared here was the galvanized bin in front of my carriage house.  When I put it together, it looked like this …

But it wasn’t long until it looked more like this …

Hmmm.  Most of the contents were completely buried in snow, but it still looks really pretty lit up at night.  One of the items I included in my arrangement was this …

I wanted to add a pop of color and I didn’t have a branch with red berries or anything like that, so I grabbed this … hmmm … do these things have a name?  This is one of the arms that would have held the mirror on a dresser.  I have a few of these lying around since I tend to take mirrors off dressers and not put them back on.

Anyway, I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Honky Tonk Red, sanded to distress and then waxed it.  Wax is not a durable enough top coat for outdoor use on a regular basis, but I don’t really care if the paint job on this doesn’t hold up beyond the holidays.

Another post I was planning to share, but never found time for, was the new way I found of displaying my non-collection of vintage glass tree toppers.  First, I was going to show how I store them in my vintage suitcases.

In the past I’ve displayed them in the window.

But they were literally held in place with some Stick-Um Candle Adhesive wax which wasn’t terribly secure.  I realized I was living dangerously and it was only a matter of time before one fell off (or, gasp, even several at a time).  So I needed to come up with a better plan.

I did a bunch of searching on Pinterest and found several ideas, but none that I loved.  It occurred to me that putting them over some kind of pointy stick that was somehow secured to something would be the best option.  So I decided to go with wooden skewers and floral foam.

I secured the foam in my wooden tote, added some silver platters and some greenery, then poked the skewers into the foam and placed my toppers over them.

It was easy to get the toppers to sit at just the exact angle I wanted them to.

I put the wooden tote back on the window ledge in my dining room.

After the holidays are over, the toppers will go back into their suitcases along with the floral foam and the skewers.  Easy, peasy storage.

I’m still not done with the rejects folks.  Next up are these sled ornaments.  Here’s the ‘before’ …

I purchased these after Christmas a couple of years ago for just a dollar each.  They looked pretty cheap and tacky, but I knew I could dress them up.

I painted them with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, then I added various segments from some of the re.design with prima knob transfers.

I had initially planned to share these on the re.design with prima Facebook page as part of their 12 days of ornaments, but I was overcome with self-doubt.  I just didn’t think they could compete with the amazing ornaments that others were sharing.

To be honest, I often feel like my more simple, not so embellished, creations pale in comparison to other projects out there being shared.  I have to remind myself that I’m not the only one who loves a more simple, clean look.  Right?

Plus, it’s not a competition.  At least I hope it isn’t 😉

This brings me to my last reject for today, our Christmas tree.

You’ve normally seen it in the past filled with my huge non-collection (I swear I’m not a collector, remember?) of vintage ornaments (and there are those toppers in the window too).

In the past I haven’t had a great spot for the tree, and I also didn’t have a lot of room for a large tree.  So I have a slender, silver tree and I placed it in the corner of the piano room (above), and I also tried tucking it beside the pine cupboard in the q branch one year.

But now that I’ve changed up my living room, I’ve opened up some space in one corner that seemed like the perfect spot for a Christmas tree.

Unfortunately, my slim silver tree looks completely lost in this corner.

I have to confess, I am totally envying all of those big, full, flocked trees that everyone seems to have this year except for me.  I’m still debating whether or not I’m going to hit the after Christmas sales to look for a new tree.

But in the meantime, this year I decided to change it up and keep my tree monochromatic.  I also decided to play around a bit with some less than traditional ornaments starting with the brass horns that I purchased at a garage sale last summer.

I borrowed this idea from my friend Amy who creates the most amazing Christmas trees.  I simply tucked them in place throughout the tree.

Another unique addition was this old framed black & white photo of my mom.

Quite a few of my vintage ornaments made it onto the tree as long as they were silver or gold.

The sleds were added as well.

Well, that’s a wrap on the holiday season.  I hope you enjoyed seeing the projects that didn’t make the cut today.  Once my social calendar slows down a bit, I hope to get back to painting more furniture.  First I have to find some though, so I’m off to Facebook Marketplace to see what I can find!

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima marketing for providing the products used for some of these projects.