Happy 2015!! Stay warm with Greek bread and Cute Fox Scarves!

New Year's is pretty low key in our house.  Mostly we watch movies or marathons on TV (Breaking Bad this year - pretty good show!).  But we also baked traditional Greek New Year's bread - Vasilopita.

Basically it is just a bread with a coin wrapped in foil baked inside.  Whoever cuts the piece that has the coin has good luck that year.  You can use a variety of dough recipes or even make it a cake.  We took another stab at making Tsoureki.  It's a kind of sweet, slightly heavy bread.  It came out rather thick.  Smelled fantastic as it baked.

Here's a pic:

 

It's supposed to say 2015.  This one showed up the best, the other one looked scrambled.

 

 
So far 2015 has been pretty peaceful, but it is, of course, COLD!  Tomorrow is supposed to be 9 F at the warmest here.  Brrrr!!  We ended up making some scarves.  I put one in the shop as it is too cute not to share!

 

Who doesn't love a cute Fox face?? 

They are so cute and cheerful - put a smile on my face every time! 

 

You can get one HERE.

Stay warm!!!

Shabby Chic Holiday Decor and Etsy Updates

Even as I ready last minute Thanksgiving details, I can't help but turn to the next holiday.  I've been decorating already and, of course, added a few things to my shop.

My little French house...

I swore I'd keep this house for myself, but I can never help putting things up in my shop no matter how much I want it so it is for Sale.  Available in my shop.


I've made plenty of Silhouette ornaments in the past, but the little white tree I had was woefully inadequate to display them on.  I bought a much bigger one to better show them on.  I'm still fiddling with the tree, but here's a first look:

 

I've added a lot of new kinds of ornaments this year - some framed, some paper mache.  Different sizes and shapes, different backgrounds, etc.  It makes for an eclectic mix on one tree, yet rather interesting, too.  I'm selling them in pairs or alone for the most part. 

 

This is the first set of new ornaments I added a few weeks ago to my shop. 

 

They are available HERE.

 

They are Frames that are ornaments - beautiful to see in person. 

 

Check out the details:

 

 They look lovely together or apart.  Add a touch of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy to your tree...

 

 

Or if your favorite Austen novel is Emma...here's the perfect ornament for you!

 

This ornament has Chapter 1 page on one side - you can read the beginning of the novel on it. 

 

Available in my shop.

SOLD OUT

 

 SOLD OUT

 

 

A Parisian Set of Silhouette Ornaments:

 

 

Fronts:

 

 

Available in my shop.

 

 Backs:

 

I put the Eiffel Tower and an Antique Typewriter on the backs.  So cute!!

 

 

I'm not done adding new ornaments to the shop - here's a quick photo of what I have ready to go up.

 

 

 

I'll post more when I can...Happy Holidays!!

Silhouette Ornaments and Last Minute Orders

I've been so busy keeping up with listings for the shop and shipping I've been too busy to update ye olde blog, but I thought I'd take a minute now to do so...

First, I have new ornaments in the shop:

First up:

This is the loveliest, I think.  Making papered ornaments is difficult, especially the round ones.

This ornament SOLD just the other day.

 SOLD

These are lovely ornaments with two different couples stenciled on each side, the background is French Text.

 

The great thing about these ornaments is they aren't 'Christmasy' - they go well year round - make great presents and can be used as tags on gifts or special Valentines.  I love these.

This is a Custom order made for a customer who wanted facing silhouettes in 5x7 frames, but you'll note they face opposite of what I usually offer.  You can always request a custom order if you see something you like, but want it a little different.

SOLD

These will go on either side on the wall of above a bed - so cute!!

And to be different I made some beautiful dark red ornaments with white silhouettes this year - this is a set of three ornaments sold together with SIX different silhouettes - three couples all together.  They look much lovelier in person...

Available in my shop HERE

For those of us who like hearts...



Stenciled different ladies and gentlemen on each side.


These are the PERFECT Valentine!  ;)


The long promised last medium sized French Text house with a black roof is finally up:

Available HERE

Available in My Shop HERE

 

 

Happy Holidays!!



Fairy Houses for Holiday and Everyday Decor - Just in Time for Christmas!

EDITED to add:  As of 12/4/13, my banner of my blog shows most of the houses that are up in my shop (and one just about to post) all together on my fireplace mantle as part of a Christmas/Winter Display.  Aren't they adorable??

***

I promised better pictures, here they are:

These are the houses that are available in my shop as of today.

 

They make an impressive display on my book shelves in my bedroom. 

 

This is the largest of the houses - it's beautiful.  The paper on the front is the title page of the song - 'Savoyarde' by Carl Reinecke.  It has the same dark red roof that the other two music houses have - all three look beautiful together.

 

 

Available in my shop HERE.

This picture shows the medium sized house inside the large house - they fit each other perfectly.  You can put the small house inside the medium and then all three will take up the room of only one house.  Great for storage and shipping.  If you buy two or all three sizes I can combine your shipping.  Convo me for details.

 

 

I very rarely make these big houses - this is currently the only one available.  You can really show off the Antique Sheet Music with this house.  So beautiful.  You can store and play with some dollhouse furniture with this house.  It is not for small children to play with, though - older children, maybe.  ;)  I think it looks great on a shelf or above a fireplace.  Just about anywhere.  Great at Christmas and anytime.

 

The lighting kind of washed out the color of the pictures a bit - it is darker in person and better able to see the music.  I'm not sure why the pictures just don't do it justice.

 

Here are all three music houses together...

 

 

 Not only do they nest inside each other - you could even stand them on top of each other - they balance easily on their chimneys.  Not sure why you'd want to do that, but I thought it was cute so I thought I'd share it:

 

 

And don't forget the two little French Lit houses - they are still available right now, though the medium size sold out fast last month.  I am making one more medium French house right now before I stop for the holidays and I don't know when I'll make more - they are very labor intensive.

And if you want more details on your house - this is in my shop as well...

 

Available HERE

 

It's covered in pages from a Vintage English book on composers.  Very cute!  It has black shutters, a Floral vintage design paper door and a button door knob.

 

Maybe the Borrowers live there!  ;)


Don't forget to buy Homemade and Upcycled gifts for Christmas!  Support Small Businesses and give One of a Kind gifts...all available at 58Cherries on Etsy.  ;)

Big, Medium, Small - All the Sizes of the Fairy Houses Together

I'm going to be posting the largest sized Music Fairy House soon in my shop and I wanted to give a little preview/overview of how the houses look in relation to each other...



This is just from my camera on my phone late at night - much better pictures to come.  But on the middle shelf you can see big, medium and small houses in relation to each other - all red roof and Antique Sheet Music.  They look adorable together, no?  And bottom shelf has the two black roof Vintage French Book papered houses. 

Hope you all had a happy weekend.  Busy finishing up orders to ship and new items for the shop before Christmas.  Busy, busy, busy.  Orion is helping, of course.  ;)



Or maybe not...

Here he is around Halloween doing his Hitchcat pose:




And here he is just hangin'





If you look at his baby pics a few months ago you'll notice he's much fluffier and pretty!  He's growing up very handsome, indeed.  In fact, he's very smart and visual - he's watching me type this right now - sitting on my knee watching the letters go across the screen.  He's telling me to be careful with my spelling and my grammar is atrocious.  ;)

10 more days until Thanksgiving!!  Gobble Gobble

Inspiration Wednesday - Making a Cloche Miniature House Christmas Display

I was at Target on Black Friday after Thanksgiving and I saw a rather cute bit of Christmas Home Decor - this cute miniature winter scene in a cloche:

 

I thought it was a cute idea, but a bit on the modern (and a bit cheap) side so I thought I'd go home and see what I could do with what I had...

 

I made these little old fashioned glitter houses a few years back and I took the smallest one and put it in my cake jar with some very cute antique white bottle brush trees I just bought.  I think it looks better than the one from Target. 

 

 

I found the antique white bottle brush trees at Michaels, FYI.  

Whew!  I've been trying to blog about this for over a week now.  Blogger seems to be having problem uploading pics, but tonight it finally worked!  Yay!  Be back with more very soon unless another blogger problem crops up.  I've decorated my bedroom white tree very cute this year and I'm working on the major Christmas decorating when I can.  I pulled something in my back over the Thanksgiving holiday and it has really held me back from doing too much, but I'm feeling a bit better now.