12/8/10

The Special Parts

All Smiles
The vintage Smiling Santa mugs that I started collecting last January exponentially grew this summer when my MIL gifted me a rather lucky thrift find including about 20 mugs with various expressions and styles. I've selected as many as will fit on my kitchen window sill for display this year. The one on the far right is my favorite.

Oh, Christmas Tree
Brett found another four boxes of vintage Shiny Brites in pink that I KNEW I had but couldn't for the life of me remember moving to the new house. Thanks, Brett, for being tall (they were in an unmarked box on the top shelf). I changed things up a little on the ornaments this year and added clip on white doves, rhinestoned birds, and some glittery swag. I'm not sure it's completely done until we find a new tree topper as my favorite vintage one broke and the other vintage one didn't make the cut this year.

Brett also found our modem this evening after two days of looking and our internet is finally hooked up and I am SO thankful! SO THANKFUL! I asked him which room was driving him most crazy with not being finished and he told me the living room so tomorrow I'm hoping to hit the unpacking hard. I told him I wasn't sure if I remembered what it was like to live in a house where everything is in it's place most of the time. He told me we needed to invite people over. It always does the trick. We'd talked about hosting a house warming party before Christmas but I wasn't confident we'd get it all taken care of in time.

It looks like we're setting a date.

Are you feeling festive yet?
xoxo,
Rachel

p.s. Speaking of festive...we've got some fancy new sponsors to check out this month!

21 comments:

ails said...

Those santa mugs are sooo cute!

and I love your Christmas tree! especially the doves on it. :)

Today's Letters said...

we've collected santa mugs ever since i was a little girl. my dad built a stand for them to go on top of our piano. over 75 and ALL different. thanks for reminding me of good things tonight mrs. denbow. xoxo

propriatress said...

santa mugs....those faces can be so darn funny.
I finally, decorated my crow...so I must be in the mood now...and yeah, cleaning the living room is now on the list.

Nicole said...

Ohhh I want those mugs!

Anonymous said...

i LOVE vintage shiny brite ornaments! i'm slowly collecting them as well. pink ones sound amazing.=) my mom has collected shiny brite ornaments for years, and her (10 foot tree) is covered in hundreds of vintage glass ornaments. pretty amazing. i'll get there someday =)

Nell said...

Beautiful tree and such awesome mugs. I love having little birds on our tree too. A house warming/Christmas party sounds so much fun - you should definitely do it! xx

Amanda said...

Yes...those Santa mugs! Ho ho HOW did you ever find them?? ;)

margot said...

can i come to the party?

Miranda said...

Those santa mugs are rad. I love the picture of them too. I've been wanting to start a collection of those for about a year but so far, no dice. Maybe I need to make a trip to the midwest to find some. :)

Mary Helen said...

That makes me want to start my own santa mug collection! And I understand what you mean about inviting guest over as a means of motivation when it comes to unpacking. It's become a trick of mine as well...

Anonymous said...

What is with husbands being heroes when it comes to finding things?! I LOVE it! And, your tree is oh so cute! Love the pink and red ornaments :]
xo. Shannon

Jenni Austria Germany said...

so cute! now following :)

Unknown said...

Congrats on a successful move! We too tend to need to have people over to get the house in proper order. Gives you a real reason to clean those dusty corners and put away those "to do" stacks! We'll be doing our own "having people over" clean up on Saturday :-)

Lyndall said...

I love your tree! The little birds are so sweet. I went with a vintage theme for my tree this year and used all my childhood ornaments :)

Good luck with unpacking! We moved about three months ago and we are still putting the finishing touches on everything!

MargaretB said...

I LOVE vintage santa mugs!! I totally agree about having people over--we try to have people over at least once a week (sometimes it doesn't work out). It always helps keep the house tidier!

becky said...

I just inherited a box of various santa mugs. They were given to my mom from an old neighbor who had an antique store and she just gave them to me this summer. I also have a bunch siting on my window sill in the kitchen...great minds I tell ya!

Crayonmonster said...

I have santa mugs too!! Mine are from my parent's era, so they're a bit older. But neat!

bohomamasoul said...

we just put up our decorations this week, and now i'm starting to feel all holiday and festive. i played pandora on our t.v. all day today, my indie christmas station, and it was so helpful in boosting my spirits. being 40 weeks pregnant with no end in sight, and trying to love on my four-year-old as much as possible, it kinda zapped my propensity for joy...but then i realized it should be feeding my joy. things turned around a bit after that realization. LOVE LOVE LOVE your pictures and decorations...and the santa mugs are fantastic!

meg duerksen said...

i collect those mugs too! :)

CREATEaTHOUGHT said...

I love your vintage santa mugs! <3

Geek+Nerd said...

Blast...this post inspired an Etsy visit which caused me to pretty must immediately buy these: http://www.etsy.com/listing/64405790/set-of-four-vintage-santa-noel-mugs?ref=sr_list_1&ga_search_query=santa+mug&ga_search_type=vintage&ga_page=1&order=&includes%5B0%5D=tags&includes%5B1%5D=title&filter%5B0%5D=vintage

Stop inspiring me to shop!

(Kidding, kidding, inspire away ;)