The Yellow Cape Cod

Holiday Home Series: Decorating With Grannies Vintage Jewelry

Welcome back to The Holiday Home Series.

My favorite Christmas decorating elements are everyday items with sentimental meaning.

Every year, I set up a vignette in the master bedroom using mementoes from our four babies.

This year, I put a different spin on the vignette by incorporating our Grandma's vintage costume jewelry.

Grannie is a very special lady.

Putting her vintage jewelry next to our babies first shoes totally gives me the warm and fuzzies.

It represents the generations of our family and our roots.

Not to mention, her stuff is really cool.

Some of the pieces I used on the tree were chosen for their color, like this white elephant necklace (my absolute favorite).

The clock necklace was chosen for the obvious correlation between Christmas and clocks.

The Matthew 7:7 pendant is a great reminder of the true meaning of Christmas and an inspiring example of Grannies faith.

I used a combination of new and vintage bulbs. The shiny brown and matte blue are from the Martha Stewart Collection. The gold vintage bulbs are from my Mom, an antique dealer.

I put the extra ornaments in a glass bowl with Grannies faux pearls and vintage button necklace next to the tree.

Each year I display the family Christening gown next to our baby vignette.

To anyone else, this vignette is pretty simple but to us, it's exceptional.

What personal items do you incorporate into your Christmas decor? Leave a comment below, I would love to know.

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Merry Christmas,

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Holiday Home Series: Christmas Menu Board Tutorial

Welcome back to The Holiday Home Series.

In the dining room, I usually have a round black mirror over the buffet. I moved it into the living room when I decorated our Christmas mantle.

To fill in the space I used an old mirror I had stashed away to create a Christmas menu board.

Here is what it looked like when I brought it up from the dungeon (also known as my storage room).

I gave the frame a quick coat of Krylon primer and my very favorite Krylon Cherry Red Spray paint, the same color I used for the Christmas Highchair.

After the frame dried, I applied Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint from the can, directly onto the glass mirror. They sell a primer that is recommended for adhesion but to be honest, I skipped that step and it turned out great.

It was a little early to decide on the Christmas dinner menu so, I hand wrote the lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas carols for the interim.

Since we have a faux tree, I like to use fresh greens throughout the house for the fresh pine scent of Christmas.

In this case, I picked up a basic fresh pine wreath and embellished it with glittered snowflakes from the Country Living Ornament Collection at Kmart.

I bought every last snowflake at The Dollar Tree so for this project,

I had to resort to the $2 snowflakes at Kmart.

My plan is to display our Christmas greeting cards around the menu board using double sided tape.

Hopefully, in the age of the internet, we will get a few.

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Merry Christmas,

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Funky Junk

Holiday Home Series: Thrift Store Dinnerware

Welcome back to The Holiday Home Series.

I have been keeping a secret from my friends and family.

I usually don't tell secrets like this just before a holiday however, this morning I had too much coffee and I can't stop talking.

Promise you won't tell anyone?

My entertaining dishes, silverware and serving pieces all came from thrift shops.

I am not embarrassed. I guess I never tell because it's fun letting my guests think I spent a ton of money on this stuff.

When I go thrifting for dishes and serving pieces, I gravitate towards solid white or cream pieces. Milk glass, ceramic, porcelain and ironstone. This allows me to mix and match styles and era's. It's also great because I can use the same setting for every occasion and holiday.

I found this entire set of white dinnerware for 8 at The Goodwill for $20. One of the plates had a chip in the corner as you can see here.

My rationale is once new dishes enter my home, they will get broke anyway so one little chip didn't bother me. I use them as my everyday dinnerware as well as my formal dinnerware.

I use the chipped dish all the time however, some recommend not using a chipped or cracked piece for eating because of bacteria that can get trapped in the exposed area.

If a piece looks like it is older than 1960, chips and cracks are bad news. Some older pieces may contain a high level of lead which is exposed when there is a crack or chip. I do not recommend using old pieces for eating and never heat food in the microwave on a vintage piece.

This set is brand new and was still in the box. It was probably given to The Goodwill directly from the retailer. Sometimes damaged or overstocked items are donated by big name stores and can be purchased in the original packaging.

The other day, I posted about my centerpieces that were created with goodwill finds. The table runner was a splurge from the Potterybarn outlet. It cost more than the sum of everything else.

The red votive holders were a thrift find given to me. The black buffet was one of the best Goodwill finds ever. You can read about it, here.

My stemware is also from a local thrift shop. Most of the time, I find glassware in sets of four. Therefore, I have an eclectic mix. I like it that way. I think it keeps the look casual and comfortable when things are not perfect.

After purchasing my "new" glasses, I studied up on how to clean stemware properly for maximum shine and spotlessness (did I just make up a word?) You can see what I learned, here.