My Holiday Home!

Merry Christmas!

With all of the shopping, wrapping, cooking, eating, 

cleaning, and other goings on mostly done, 

I finally have some time to sit and post some pictures 

from around my home from this Christmas!

 A beautiful vignette from atop my 
entertainment center....

Sweet angels faces, all aglow....

Vintage ornaments in soft pastels.....

Lovely, Victorian inspired mantel 

decorated in pinks and greens

 A pastel tree with pops of 
hot pink and emerald green...

Cute little stowaways from the North Pole....

Darling winter display on my living room table.

 Pippa, looking cute, wanting to be 
in the tree outside the window

A beautiful, whimsical sideboard...

Adorable Estate Sale Santa!

 A plate of pretty faux sweets and a broken ornament

that was too pretty to toss out yet!

 A precious snowman gumball snowglobe hand made
by my dear friend, Jennifer Hayslip of

Eye Candy Creations.

Nativity scene, sweetly glittered by Analise Sledd of Sugar*Sugar. 

 Bright and fun dining room tree!!

Sweet handmade mittens by Julie Ann Hood.

  Beautiful ornaments made by 

talented friends...

 My Mom's pink flamingo Beanie Baby!!

A few years before she died, my mother had her best friend's front yard "flocked" but was too embarrassed to tell her she was behind it!  For Christmas that year, I gave them both Beanie Babies and made them open their presents together. Her friend guessed the "secret" right away!

 Homemade ornament from my late Aunt Helen.

 Cutie pie pixie gift tag!

A pretty gift tag...

Sparkling and festive glittering snowflake chandelier!

A Colorful, kitschy kitchen!

 Of all my decorations, I look forward to bringing these angels out every year!

I purchased them on Christmas Eve of my son's first Christmas at a consignment shop in Florence SC, 18 years ago!

My mother and grandmother, Bitty drove up from Georgia to be with us for a week!  It snowed on the 23rd!

  I have so many happy memories of that Christmas!

 Adorable child's vintage Christmas apron!

  Fun wreath made with kitschy thrift store finds!

 Cute vintage finds....

 Winking Santa cup hanging out with baking spices....

My son, Richard gave me this Reindeer Beanie Baby when he was little.  It was our tradition to visit a Secret Santa Shop each year.  I would give him $5.00 for each person on his list.  One year I got so tickled because I gave him $20 for 4 people and he brought me $12.00 change!!  I think I got a bookmark that year... LOL!

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED A FEW SCENES FROM MY HOLIDAY HOME!!

From my family to yours,

Merry Christmas to All,

And

To All A Good Night!!

With Love, 

The Grenkos

(Jennifer, Richard, Pippa, Sadie and Orangina)

Share the Love Wednesday!

A good friend contacted me Sunday night.  It was getting close to Christmas.  She'd been working so much out of town that she hadn't had time to buy and decorate a tree this year. 

Somehow , she had found time to buy presents.  She has two kids, both young adults.  She wanted it to be Christmasy for them and decorating time was running out! 

She asked if I had any trees left.  "Two pink ones I said, not decorated yet.  What do you like?, What do you hate?"

 "I trust your artistic instinct!" she said. 

Emerald green, hot pink and silver were the most beautiful colors that "jumped out" at me when I was planning the tree.  

I've had a thing for pink and green this Christmas.  I decorated it as if it would be mine (even though I have a tree!).

 I added patinated vintage ornaments and shiny bright new ornaments, a few sweet vintage angels, a little silver garland and an angel corsage on top.

 Thanks Candace for asking me to help make your Christmas complete!  I loved being able to help! 

Christmas Crafting Day!!

Happy Saturday!

Christmas Eve is only one week away and I still have so many projects to work on!!

I started out this morning to work on some specific things that I felt I had to finish before Christmas

I was dying to finish this beautiful pair of embellished ice skates.

 

 

I contemplated some of the very creative mixed media skates I was seeing.  I LOVED the oh, so artistic creamy colored skates covered in old sheet music, holding greenery... 

In the end, I decided they ought to be pink and aqua and be displayed in my dining room with the other pink and aqua whimsies there!!

These are little girls size 2, Katarina Ultra Ice skates.  They started out like this!

 What little girl (and many big girls) didn't want to be Katarina Witt in the 90's??  

 

She was beautiful and graceful and looked great in pink and aqua!! 

I have always thought of figure skaters as being akin to ballerinas...

 

To begin my project, I taped the blades and heels of my skates as best I could and then I primed.

Karla Nathan of  Karla's Cottage swears by Zinsser Cover Stain spray primer and well, so do I! 

It will cover anything and is totally worth the $8.00 bucks and trip to Home Depot!

 Cover Stain is an oil based spray primer that blocks stains and bonds to anything.  "Bonding" is the key word.  Because these skates are made of synthetic material (like plastic or vinyl), I wasn't sure if spray paint would adhere to them without primer and didn't want to make a mess finding out!

Use a coat or two, whatever it takes to cover it good.

I don't really recommend it but it was cold out the day I did this, so you can see that I worked inside.  I was really careful not to make a mess but the primer smelled BAD!  I moved the cardboard and skates into the kitchen and turned on the exhaust fan until they dried, overnight!

I  spray painted my skates in "Ballet Slipper Pink" by Krylon 

 I used a hot glue gun to add some lace, crocheted snowflakes and a couple of blingy vintage snowflake pins.

I laced them with seam binding in aqua... the nice thing about this is that if I decide to, I can change the laces to another color. 

I wanted to add snow to the blades... I asked some crafters and got answers for products that look like snow.  To save money and a trip to the craft store, I opted to glop on some white craft paint and sprinkle generously with a couple of different white glitters I had on hand.

Lacing seam binding into the tiny holes without unraveling it was the trickiest part.  I used the hole end of a very large needle to help me stuff the ribbon into the lace holes and then used the pointy side to pull it though the back. Estimating how much ribbon to use was impossible so I cut off way more than I needed!

T

I love my new decorated skates!

That's the only project I have time to share now but I expect to work on several more this coming week!

I find it so relaxing and satisfying to just immerse myself in a project that I want to work on.  I wish I had more free time for this!!

I hope everyone is in the Christmas spirit and having fun with it!

Hugs,

Jennifer

Joining in the linky party fun with:

Cindy for Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

and Beverly for Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

And The Winner Is!!!!!

I apologize to everyone for being so late in my giveaway announcement!!

A shot from my kitchen last year to give you something cute to see!!

I want to thank everyone who both commented and signed up to follow my blog!

The winner of the fluffy tree 
is Rose or Clubskulit!!

PIPPA!!

 I notified Rose last weekend, as soon as she was picked.

She wrote me back to say she wants a good old fashioned green and red tree!!  

My two fav Santas!  You are seeing my old dining room wallpaper, btw.

 I had another custom order tree to finish, a house to decorate and a typically busy December week, so I haven't even begun to work on her tree yet but hope to start it tomorrow and finish Sunday to be ready to ship it out to her Monday so she can enjoy it for Christmas this year!!

Dear Orangina.  We had just gotten her last Christmas!

 Goodness, this month is so crazy.  Every year I get a little too ambitious with all my plans but this time I have bitten off way too much!!

Since Thanksgiving, I have painted my buffet, sanded all my dining room chairs, nearly finished decorating for Christmas, made some trees, oh yeah, worked (took a couple of days off too though ;), shopped, read alot of blogs, watched Christmas movies, hung out with my kitties, had lunch and dinner with friends a few times.

Kitschy Christmas candles on my Christmas kitchen counter. ;p.

 Is everyone going crazy like me??

Goals for this weekend are to have the house pretty enough to photograph for my blog, organize my craft supplies so I can make a few things, do the usual housework, attend a party, attend church, paint my chairs, enjoy myself , etc., etc. (Gasping for breath!!)

One of the vintage ornament box assemblage ornaments I made last year.

So, off  I go hoping to have more pictures to share very soon.

I hope everyone has a wonderful time this weekend!! 

In spite of the way I sound, I am very much in the Christmas spirit!

Sadie Claus!!

 Wishing You All Peace and Joy!

love,

Jennifer

Pink is optional this Pink Saturday, because Christmas is the thing!!

Go on over to Beverly's blog and celebrate!!

How Will You Decorate Your Tree ??!!

REMEMBER MY GIVEAWAY??
 

 TODAY IS THE DEADLINE TO SIGN UP AND ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LEAVE A COMMENT AND FOLLOW MY BLOG!! 

THE WINNER GETS A 12" UNDECORATED RETRO NYLON NET CHRISTMAS TREE OF THEIR OWN TO PERSONALIZE!!

YOU CAN MAKE YOURS AS KITSCHY, SHABBY, ROMANTIC, COTTAGEY, ELEGANT OR GIRLIE AS YOU WANT!!

THE WINNER HAS A CHOICE OF COLORS, BUT SO FAR THE WORD PINK HAS BEEN MENTIONED IN MY COMMENTS SECTION MOST OFTEN!!

 COME ON MY CRAFTY FRIENDS,  YOU CAN DO SO MUCH WITH A TREE LIKE THIS!!

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS, LIMITED ONLY BY YOUR IMAGINATION!!

I LOVE DIPPING INTO MY STASH TO DECORATE THESE TREES!!

THEY ARE JUST SO SHABBY SWEET, KITSCHSY CUTE AND RETRO FAB!!

SO SIGN UP AND TELL ME WHAT COLOR YOU WANT IN THE COMMENT SECTION!!

GOOD LUCK!!

XOXO, 

JENNIFER

P.S. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SHOW AND TELL ABOUT YOUR BEAUTIFUL TREE!!

JOINING CINDY AT ROMANTIC HOME FOR ANOTHER SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY!!