Vintage Thingies Thursday and a Holiday Pie Recipe

This week for Vintage Thingies Thursday over at Colorado Lady I am sharing a vintage song sheet I picked up at a holiday bazaar. This November the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group I'm a part of hosted a holiday bazaar. One of the vendors specialized in antiques. She had a few of these cool song sheets. She said they dated back to her childhood which I believe would be the '50s. They were SO neat I had to have one (so did Grace!). I let Grace decide which one and she choose "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem". I wanted to use it in my Christmas decorating so I placed it behind my Nativity scence (fitting, I thought). We even got to use it and sang the song on Day #3 of our Advent Activities.






Every year at Thanksgiving and Christmas I bake the pies, a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie. This year when I went to bake the pecan pie I realized I had everything BUT the pecans! I did have walnuts. So I followed the same recipe replacing the pecans with the walnuts and YUMMY! I think from now on I will make it a walnut pie on purpose!

Walnut Pie Recipe



1 cup Karo® Light OR Dark Corn Syrup
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) walnuts
1 (9-inch) unbaked deep-dish pie crust

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla using a spoon. Stir in walnuts. Pour filling into pie crust. Bake on center rack of oven for 60 to 70 minutes, tap side of pie, it is done when center springs back. Cool for 2 hours on wire rack before serving.

Candy Cane Place Holders

Even though we will have a small gathering for our Christmas dinner, I thought it would be fun to have our own place holders at the table. Grace LOVES to have them too. I decided to make candy cane place holders, they are super easy.

I bought over sized candy canes, 3 for $1 at Fred Meyer. I already had, green floral tape, red berries, green leaves, thin green ribbon, red ink and white tags. I was going to use pre-punched tags but they were too large, instead I punched 6 tags using my Stampin' Up 1 3/8" circle punch.

I took three red berries, one leaf and twisted them together with the floral tape. I then wrapped the berries around the candy cane. After punching out the circles, I inked the edges with red ink, punched a hole in the top and wrote each persons' name. I took about a 2" piece of ribbon and tied the tag and berries to the candy cane. There you have it! Easy!






This Thanksgiving we did a kids' table for the first time (it was great!) I covered the table with white butcher paper. Grace helped me trace turkeys using a turkey cookie cutter and she hand stamped each child's name. I then taped them to a small pack of crayons. The kids felt special having their own place holders and got to stay busy drawing on the "table cloth". The same could be done for Christmas, using of course, a Christmas design.

Our Christmas Tree

Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted a really tall Christmas tree. The front room in our new house has a high ceiling so this year I told Jeremy, "please lets get the biggest tree we can find" and we did! 15 foot tree! It is bigger than I thought it would be, we had to rearrange the furniture, but that is ok. I love to just stand and look UP at it. It is SO fun!

Although I would love to have a themed tree my hubby loves the sentimental ornaments, the ones from his childhood and the ones we have collected over the years. So, that is the theme of our tree each year, a collection of this and that. However, you will always find green and red ball ornaments and many of the vintage feel I love so much. I don't really have a favorite ornament...I do love Nutcrackers (I danced my whole life and was in the Nutcracker a few times), so I have a Nutcracker ornament I really enjoy and have started a collection (those photos will be posted at a later date).

Merry almost Christmas!





All this week I'm participating in a Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash...join the fun!

A Handmade Christmas...Christmas Bloggy Party

I love to make gifts! This year I am probably making more than usual, given the economy we are on a tight budget this Christmas. Fortunately I have a surplus of crafting supplies so I'm able to make things without spending very much. This is what I worked on this week.

Each year I make our girls' Christmas dresses. Although it is one of their gifts, they do get them early so they can wear them to all the events, school Christmas program, visiting Santa, seeing The Nutcracker and Christmas Eve service. We moved this summer and in our new office were very long, burgundy curtains. When I took them down I realized that the material was a beautiful raw silk from Pottery Barn. Although the curtains were pretty, they weren't my style SO they became the girls' Christmas dresses! :-)



Two lucky ladies, can't say who (they might read this post!) are getting these this Christmas.

An apple spice hanging for the kitchen. I strung together dried sliced apple, cinnamon sticks and eucalyptus leaves. I thinly sliced an apple and baked it in the oven on 225 for a few hours to dry them out, I bought cinnamon sticks at the store for .99 cents (a package of four) and the eucalyptus leaves came from our backyard. I used embroidery thread to string them together.



A sachet filled with apple spiced potpourri. The potpourri is store bought but I sewed the sachet out of wide lace and strung it closed with ribbon.



I'm participating in a Christmas Bloggy Party all week...

Enjoying the season...

It has been go...go...go for the last few weeks but I sure am enjoying the season and preparing for Christmas. Our 25 days of Christmas activities are wonderful in keeping me focused on spending time with family, one of the most important parts of the season.

Day One: Make Christmas Ornaments - I made these when I was a little girl. Bells made from an egg carton.






Day Five: Cut down Christmas Tree, decorate and listen to Christmas music - a childhood dream come true, a 15' Christmas tree!







Day Ten: Watch Grace at her Christmas Program




Day Eleven: Make Christmas Gifts - a hat for daddy

Two for One!

and



This week I get a Two for One! I get to share my December Monthly Craft Challenge AND share my craft at Vintage Thingies Thursday!!

I LOVE vintage postcards! There is something about them that inspires me. Although I have never been lucky enough to come across originals, there are many great sources online to find copies of the originals. These days I've been using them in my crafts.

For Christmas I created a wall hanging using my favorite Vintage Christmas Postcards. I printed them on card stock, added a little bling and antiqued the edges. I attached them to thin green satin ribbon by using mini library clips (Heidi - *wink* *wink*). The hanging is in my front room. I have a big empty white wall. I have some ideas for it (my husband's idea, an Elk head, ah, NO!) but until I figure out what to do with it, it has come in handy for my crafty creations. Enjoy!



My three favorites...

Advent Activity Calendar

This year I am trying a new tradition, celebrating the season with a simple Christmas activity each day. I'm hoping these activities will be an opportunity for my family to STOP and enjoy each other and reflect on what this season is really about...the birth of our Lord and Savior.

I created a calendar of activities and made sure that the activity of the day fit into our schedule. For example I didn't plan on baking Christmas cookies on a school night after dance class. I want to enjoy this time!

Here is my list. I cut them into strips and placed one in each door of this great advent calendar my husband's Aunt gave us for Christmas last year.


1st Tuesday ~ Make Christmas tree ornaments
2nd Wednesday ~ Make Christmas train
3rd Thursday ~ Sing a Christmas carol
4th Friday ~ Make a popcorn chain
5th Saturday ~ Cut down Christmas tree, decorate & listen to Christmas music.
6th Sunday ~ St. Nicolas Day write a letter to Santa
7th Monday ~ Do a secret act of kindness
8th Tuesday ~ Read a Christmas story
9th Wednesday ~ Buy gift for Giving Tree
10th Thursday ~ Watch Grace in her Christmas program
11th Friday ~ Make Christmas gifts
12th Saturday ~ Take a drive at night and look at Christmas lights
13th Sunday ~ Bake Christmas cookies
14th Monday ~ Read the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke
15th Tuesday ~ Learn a Christmas poem
16th Wednesday ~ Watch a Charlie Brown Christmas
17th Thursday ~ Read a Christmas story
18th Friday ~ Build a ginger bread house
19th Saturday ~ Celebrate Christmas with extended family
20th Sunday ~ Go see the Nutcracker Ballet
21st Monday ~ Donate gently used stuff animals to hospital emergency room
22nd Tuesday ~ Learn new Danish tradition
23rd Wednesday ~ Bake Jesus a birthday cake
24th Thursday ~ Attend Christmas Eve service
25th Friday ~ Christmas Day! Honor Christ with prayer and thanksgiving