Redeeming the Season

I wanted to take a minute and show you a project from a friend of mine, Jodi from the Gresham Barn Sale. She calls this the "Jesus Tree", and it's a great way to "Redeem the Season" for you and your kids. I've copied most of this post from her blog and you can read more about it over there.

What is a "Jesus tree" you ask? Well it's a tree whos only ornaments are tags with various names for Jesus from the Scriptures. Attached to each tag is an ornament to represent that name. "Above you see a Jesus Tree decked with new tags and fun suggestions for ornaments that represent the names of Jesus. People told us all the neat things they did with them, some hung them on the tree in their sunday school rooms, class rooms, used them as an advent with their children, divided up the tags and had each family member come up with an ornament...the possiblities are endless."

"These are some pictures of items we came up with to represent some names of Jesus! He is our Ruler over All!"

"Light of the world!"

"Our precious Redeemer!"

Here are some of the tags close up!

"This is a great way to "redeem" the season of Jesus birth and to learn the names of Jesus with scripture reference." The tags are available for purchase on her site, in packs of 30 or 60 (did you know there were that many names for our Savior?) and even a starter pack with ornaments.

The Jesus Tree was the inspiration for my Symbols of Faith Necklaces, seen below. Now available in two-tone versions as well.

No longer available

Old School Christmas

Decorating for Christmas has become quite a chore for me in recent years. I start in November at booth space #1, then help at show #2 and then it's off to Booth #3 for the final Christmas Open house. B the time it is truly the Christmas Season, I'm tinseled out.

The tree is the hardest part for me, First there is the hauling it down, then putting it up and stringing lights. By that time my family has pooped out and abandoned me.



So this year called for a change in strategy. Mom and her DH came over for Thanksgiving. I had already decided to do an old aluminum tree this year, just to mix things up. The tree was easy as pie to get down and put up. They need to make all trees this way, all the branches the same size, and a single branch. 1 box, a center dowel and voila you are done.

So after TG dinner I hauled all male members of the family up to the attic to help bring down the boxes of orns. Task #1 completed!!!!



Then, knowing that most of the orns I would be using would be the old ones, I began to choose them, put hooks on them, and handed them over to the guys to place evenly all over the silvery branches. Being a small tree this task was finished toot-sweet before everyone pooped out.


Gradually the tree came to life and even Mom got in on the act.


This "outside the box" strategy seemed to acheive it's goal and I think it may be a new tradition. Now the tree is up, and the season has just begun.
This tree was actually saved from a dumpster from a friend of mine who works at a storage facility (thank you Vicky). So it's not just an aluminum tree, it's a "green" tree. (Chuckle)

I found the rotating wheel only recently and I knew that it would be a keeper. The limbs really do pick up the light from the rotating wheel, especially at night.

Now for my favorite part, decorating the house :)


Time to get into the Holiday Season with
Winnie & Tulula's Christmas Open House Tonight in Athens Texas. See you there.

A Thanksgiving Exercise for you

This is a yearly tradition here on Margo's Junkin' Journal



Challenge: List something you are thankful for, BUT it cannot be the usual stuff.
You cannot say family, kids, health, happiness or any of that stuff, we are all thankful for that. You must think outside the box for this one. Think of all the stuff of life that makes it a better one for you.

My List:
The Wheel (think about it)
Air conditioning
The Phillips head screwdriver. If you've ever tried to get old flat head screws out you know why I'm thankful for the Phillips.
Modern household machines that make my life so much easier
Freedom
Creativity
Ice
Dates to the Movies with popcorn for dinner!
Everyone who donated or prayed for the Greyhound 28 that were rescued back in July. You can view their wonderful progress here

the list could go on and on

Let's see what great stuff you can come up with.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

Some Great recent Finds.

Last week was the week for scales. I love the old baby scale above.
And kitchen scales, all white and shabby

A retro coffee thermos
And some vintage Christmas too
Some old lead toy soldiers
And a lot of Post office clerks convention ribbons


I love old light fixtures, the one above has a great art deco look, and the one below has some beautiful colors.

And you know what a sucker I am for old store displays. This one is beautiful and each of those display wheels turns.

All these items and more are available in my Etsy store.

Whew!!! 2 down 1 to go

The Gresham Christmas in the Country sale wrapped up today and it was a huge success.
The barn was practically empty when I left today at 5:30. Lots of furniture went on the last day, all the lockers are gone, and fun Christmas items went out the door one by one.

Next stop...Winnie & Tulula's Angels in America sale starting on Friday evening. Ya'll come on out for what is sure to be a great time.

Images from last year





Margo

It's Christmas At The Barn

It's time for vintage Christmas Fun at the Gresham Barn Sale and...

We are having a ball!!!!

Hope to see you there, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Gresham Barn Sale Starts Tonight

The Gresham Barn Sale starts this Wednesday Evening.


I was there to drop off my Christmas treasures today and WOW!!!! The Barn is full again and it's sparkling for the Holidays. Vintage Christmas everywhere, with fun Vintage finds and gifts to.

There's a whole section of hand crafted items and you can read more about that
on Jodi's Blog.

I'm loving this clock tree.

See you there.

Found Around Friday on Sunday...Storyteller Shelving by Isabel Quiroga

Storyteller: Repurposed Furniture by Isabel Quiroga

A friend sent me this great idea and I was able to track down the source. I love it, hope you do too.

What a cool idea. I've cut coffee tables before to make a shelf, but never thought to combine them together like this.
click the pic to read more.

Car Part Christmas

Tis the season to start thinking about christmas Decor. Being in "the business" we actually start this process in the Summer. Seems by the time Christmas actually rolls around I am just about sick of it, but right now is when the ideas really start to hit me.

A Friend of mine, who knows me real well, found me this stack of beauties



Some sort of car part, I don't know exactly what they are but don't they look like snowflakes.

We had the idea of painting them and making them into tree ornaments, but before I do that I thought of this little idea.



What do you think?

Have yourself a merry little car part Christmas!!!!!

Don't forget about the upcoming shows on my left side bar. Click pictures for details of each sale. There is one every weekend for the next 3 weeks.

Christmas Open House this Saturday at Our Little Corner-Noonday TX

Dealers are already bringing in Christmas mdse and new items for Saturday's event.
See you there!!!!!

Treasures-Good things come in Small Packages. And What's it like at your house???

I decided to get in my workroom and try to organize my itty-bitties. I love small little treasures. My usual mode of operation is to have them dumped out on a tray and to rummage through them, but I decided that using one of my old letterpress stamp trays would be a more efficient way to keep my treasures organized
I keep organizing the work table, but it ends up like this in no time. I guess creativity = mess!!!

And that brings me to my next issue. Do any of you have trouble with your guys. I mean do they whisper things under their breath about your junk, refuse to turn to a good garage sale saying things like "when you get rid of what you've got I'll take you to sales" or imply that you are a hoarder when you are not even close to one!!!! Well this is my life right now. I love Mr. R but I told him to QUIT last night. I said "I've got the message and "I'm working on getting all of my "inventory" out of the house so you don't have to look at it, so just hush about it". Haven't heard a peep since. The difference between my junk and his, is
Mine is all for sale!!!!

His is... well lets just say, not going anywhere soon.
And this is only 1 bay of our garage. This little restoration project now takes up 2 bays and part of the driveway.


He's got no room to complain.
What's it like at your house?

Open House~

My Friend Ann is having a sale, she's located just outside of Nacodoches Texas

Information and photo's copied from her blog.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Open House~

It's just a tiny little shop...
maybe 800 square feet...
not a grand store,filled with tons of things...
but it does have...
a few new things and
some pretty cool things...
unusal things....

And handmade things

recreated things.....

And people that think they are "queen things"

Pretty things

And some old,old things....


Christmas Dream things ...



And lots of lace things...

And all these things

will be for sale at the
The Tin Rabbit Open House
Melrose Texas
November 6th
10-4