2009!

Seems like if I make a resolution, it's doomed from the beginning! LoL! There are a kazillion things I should work on! That sortof stuff just goes 'round in my head ALL year! Y'all know what I mean. I will say that last year I was in a painting slump for about 2-3 months after the Holidays. I do not want that to happen again, so I will paint some things right away!

Looking forward to more blogging and painting and especially enjoying the simple things. I want to say thank-you to the wonderful folks that have visited my blog over the past months, and the nice comments that you've made! I am truly grateful for all my online pals! Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed 09!!

Would love to know what New Year's Resolutions that you've made, if any. Just post in the comments!

Check out the webcam from Times Square!!

Vintage Ornies

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

We had our annual get together at my childhood home. I have 5 siblings, so with spouses, their kids and spouses, grandkids and some spouses, and great-grandkids....well, that's a buncha family!! We try to keep it to a dull roar so as not to disturb the neighbors! LoL!

The food is the best! Everybody brings their favorite items. My mom passed almost 8 years ago, so I've taken over making the family favorites that she used to make. I must fix her potato salad, can't vary in the recipe! Fudge is a big deal, too. She made the Karo syrup fudge, but I fix the Kraft Microwave kind. Just never could get the hang of the Karo recipe. My kids would end up eating it with a spoon! My brothers said that we used to use a spoon when Mom made fudge, too! LoL!

Here's some photos of the tree and ornies at my Dad's on Thursday. I remember these from when I was little.

This glass ornament is from around the 50's.

My Dad thinks that this Santa was on my Mom's Parent's tree ! That would make this Jolly Santa at least 70+ years old!

This tree is pretty old too! Growing up we had one of those Silver Aluminum Trees. I was allergic to the real stuff! LoL! The silver tree is still in the attic, almost mint condition, box and all! My dad still has the old Color Wheel that went under it! Remember those?

I found this link that tells about those "Space Age" trees!

50's Aluminum Christmas Trees

This link has Vintage Ornaments up to the 1950's

Christmas Lights and Ornaments Museum

This teardrop shaped glass ornament is so pretty in person! It's very old, too!

I plan to go back and take more photos before the tree is down. My camera battery went out, before I could get any more.

Hope that y'all enjoyed the pics! Thanks for looking!

Noel

May all the blessings of Christmas be yours.......

Track Santa's Journey!

I found this great link on another blog, and just had to pass it along! Track Santa's trip around the world via Norad Satellite!

Click on the Santa Tag to go to the Norad site!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Holiday Lights

Gotta have a great big beautiful light display for the Pretty Little Christmas Blog Party! These are the lights displayed on the square in Fayetteville, AR They used all led lights this year to save on energy. It's a spectacular sight to behold! The full moon was the most georgeous of ALL!! Also note the Arkansas Razorback in the photo before last! Go Hogs! :)

The full moon was wonderful!

We're in Arkansas! Gotta have a Razorback! :)

1940 Sniffles Christmas Toon

Vintage Santas

Happy "Pretty Little Christmas "Blog Party!

Here's a couple of my Christmas collectibles!

I will be adding more all day...when the grandbaby is asleep! :)

I love these ceramic pieces...the adorable Santa on the right is my favorite! The label on the bottom has "Parma by AAI" made in Japan.
If anyone has info on these, I'd love to know more!

This is a roly poly Santa. He jingles when he rolls around! :)

Hope you enjoy these!
Remember to look around at the other Christmas Blog Party participants!

Christmas Blog Party Starts Today!

Today's the day for the Christmas Blog Party!

Heather over at Pretty Petals is the hostess of this get-together!
To have a peek at all the participating blogs or join in....just click on the logo.

I'm starting off the celebration here at Oakleaf Hollow by showing you a few photos. These are ornaments that I made 30 years ago when my oldest was a mere toddler! She will be 32 her next birthday!

The idea of course was to sew up some safe ornaments that wouldn't break! She was almost 2 and loved to check out the tree. These were sew n stuff ornaments. So easy to do! I still have some unsewn ones from way back then!

Great Cookbook for gift giving!

These wonderful cookbooks are still on sale for your Holiday gift giving, or ANYtime! They are such a bargain at $10 each!! ALL the proceeds go to the Northwest Arkansas Share group. My daughter and son-in-law belong to this support group for parents that have lost a child.

I am very happy to have designed and drawn the cover for this great collection of recipes in honor of loved ones lost.

Click here for more info:

"NWA Share" Cookbook

There's still time to get your copy before Christmas!!

Today's Primitive Home

Good Morning ALL!!!

I am so blessed to have some of my items recently featured on

"Today's Primitive Home."

If you enjoy Early American Folk Art and Crafts it's the place to be! They are devoted to spreading the word about Primitives and Folk Art. I've found some old favorites and discovered some new great artisans as well!

The links go right to the artist's site or Etsy shop.

My items are on the Dec 5th post and on the
"Gift Picks under $50" list. :)

Have a look at their site! You may find something that you just gotta have!
Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy!
Thanks!

Christmas CD Favors

Y'all gotta go check out the latest tutorial from Char at The Pickled Pepper Patch!

A great gift idea for family, friends, etc. I love to make photo and music cd's, so these cd covers will be perfect for Christmas! You can even download the Vintage Christmas images to use for the covers.

The Pickled Pepper Patch

Have Fun!

Bottlecaps!

I am in a recycling mood! Here's a few of the bottlecap magnets and ornies that I just finished. They are SUPER-easy to make and I really enjoyed all the glueing and glittering....kinda like being back in grade school!

Hung a few on a 2 ft. tree in my craft room.

Close up view of the ornie.
The vintage Santa images are from Deena at

Ewe-N-Me Printables.

She is having a sale on some of the bottlecap images now!!
I used a rusty tin snowflake for the back. I left off the trim around the edges as it hid the snowflake.

An assortment of magnets!
I've collected trims of all sorts for quite a while, so I just played around and tried to make them all a little different.
I used crepe paper to make the ruffled backs. I started out by sewing and gathering....BUT.....this proved to be very time consuming! I ended up just gathering the crepe paper accordion style, and then tied it in the middle with string, and fanned it out.
This was lots easier!!

I love the old tinsel look. Bought this trim at Hobby Lobby in the Mini-Tree section.
I used Glamour Dust and Glass Glitter for the sparkle!!
Hard to see, but they look so pretty with the glitter!
Hope that you've enjoyed these.
If anyone has some bottlecap ideas and tips to share, would love it if you'd post a comment ! :)


Next time I hope to show you some cones that I'm doing!

Hope everyone is having a good week!