It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

After the Christmas Show last week...We were finally able to deck out the Soap Shop for the holiday season....

Wreaths are now hung...

Snowflakes dangle about in the icy cold ...

Even the goose has been dressed in his best Christmas attire!

Christmas cuties are scattered about...

 

Vintage Santa's tucked here and there...

and lots of soap, of course!

 

Did I mention Santa's ???? 

It's going to be a very Merry Christmas....Indeed!



Holiday Season

As the snow flakes settle down around us from the whirlwind  holiday season... Here are a few highlights from our Christmas Season

Thrifty Thursday Christmas

These frosty little darlin's were a big hit at our recent show at the Two Women Country Christmas Show in Spokane this past weekend.

 Made of thread rounds salvaged from local thrift stores, random Silver pieces, vintage bling, and old rusty tacks.

Better with Bling...a thrifty Thursday project

Here is a super simple thrifty Thursday project

 

I found a box of  vintage inspired Christmas Cards at my local thrift store, and wanted to make them just a little more special.

I love these little bottles of glitter glue by stickles....

Easy Peezie!

Everything is better with BLING!

:-)

Rescued Angel Project

Here is a recent project finished  for

The Two Women Country Christmas Show.

These long forgotten and abandoned angels were found in the bottom of the bins at a local thrift store.... begging to be rescued and taken home to be loved once again.



This white angel had certainly seen better days...

No longer able to stand on her own, and in certain  need of TLC.



This gold and green angel was adorned in out dated fashions and needed

a little help freshening up her wardrobe.



ugly wings and old ribbons had to be removed!

No wonder the white angel could not stand on her own...Her cone needed to be replaced!

Sporting their new feathers, handmade wings and vintage bling.

I love how these rescued angels turned out!



The Gift of giving

Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process. -Jim Rohn

Troy & I had the privilege of taking the boys shopping for a child in need this holiday season. We chose a 3 year old boy from the tree of sharing. My guys had so much fun shopping and finding just the right items they wanted to give.

Although, Levi and Corbin have outgrown playing with their own wooden trains they knew it was the perfect gift to give the young boy on our list.



A flood of cherished memories washed over me as I watched them pick and choose just the right ones...It really was not that long ago that little wooden trains meant the world to them. So many mornings I would wake to a menagerie of wooden clickety clack tracks constructed all through out the house and little boys in engineer hats with wooden choo-choo whistles.





We decided on warm footsie jammies, a new Christmas outfit, a toy train station with trains and a farm animal box car.



Giving is true having. -Charles Spurgeon




I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.-Maya Angelou

Little Santa's

Happy first day of December everybody!

I noticed while unpacking decorations this year, my small but ever growing collection of vintage pipe cleaner Santa's. They may have a more technical name but for now I will continue to call them PCS's.

I just love these little guys!



I love that they are an inexpensive collectible...you can find them hanging out at garage sales, thrift stores, & flea markets, etc.

They are small and virtually take up no room at all in my little, itty bitty, tiny cracker jack box of a house...

Frankly they are cute and just make me smile!

My latest Santa was found hanging out down at our local Animal Rescue Thrift shop, and was in need of a very delicate and embarrassing operation. Looks like he had an unfortunate accident with something very sharp. (((Ouch)))



After the removal, there was very little recovery time. This Santa can now live happily ever after with the other Santa's.

Someday I imagine I will have enough to do a whole Santa themed tree...



Hope you are having as much fun as I am, pulling out your decorations and getting into the holiday spirit!

Angel Surprise

This beautiful Angel has graced our family tree ever since Troy and I spent our first Christmas together. Every year she is placed upon the tree to watch over our family all through the holiday season.

This year she gave us a special surprise!


I have never seen it in Christmas's past, but this was the first time in all the years that I noticed a gentle tear falling from her eye. It's hard to see and the light has to be just right... or you would never even know it's there.



I would like to think of them as tears of JOY...Makes me love & cherish her even more! So, as our Angel gently weeps...Let the holiday magic begin!

;-)

Miss Kitty

Meet Miss Kitty... I just finished this super easy sewing project from the Sock and Glove book by Miyako Kanamori.

Miss Kitty is a soon to be Christmas gift for my sweet niece. A quick easy project that took about an hour to make and didn't break the Bank.

I found plain white railroad brand socks at my local craft store on clearance for $1.75 and all other supplies I had on hand.


This adorable book is filled with many more cute animals and simple directions that would even be fun for the kiddos to try.

I may just have to make Sock dog for my Nephew ;-)

Homemade Caramels

Celebrating Christmas with simplicity...This is the first time I have ever made caramels and they turned out perfect! First batch we made were Vanilla Pecan, second batch was Butter Rum & Pecan, and the third batch was Chocolate Pecan. It took some convincing to get all the boys to sit and wrap candies. For some reason they just wanted to taste!



The butter wrappers make perfect candy wrappers and are a perfect way to repurpose.



the Condensed Milk Cans from the recipe made a perfect no-cost container.





We had fun finding creative containers such as reusing canning jars, drink glasses from "Goodies" and the Condensed Milk Cans.

Peace, Hope, Joy & Love

Plain and simple, who could want anything more for Christmas than Peace, Hope, Joy & Love?We have it all wrapped up in these delicious, Christmas Apple Spice Soap Bars!