Montage Montage

I cannot believe it is the end of November already.

Where has this year gone?

Hoping that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family.

I want to thank everyone for their kind thoughts on my earlier post ~

the one where I would not be with my daughter and grandchildren this Thanksgiving.

All of your kind words must have made a miracle happen,

as we were fortunate to have Michele, Michael and Mikayla to be there with us....

they were late, but a wonderful surprise nonetheless!!!

Now on to the Monday Montage for this week.

Decking my halls...

I picked up these cute little shoes on Saturday and decided to make a little vignette by our front door. The basket of Christmas greens was a last minute addition that I whipped together and added a sparkly snowflake. Does anyone else collect children's shoes?

Added some greens and a gold poinsettia to the 1800 glider horse.

This picture does not do it justice.

And the stockings were hung...

This is a reindeer made from leather.

I placed it in one of my trenchers.

I added some dried clematis vines and included some bay leaves and dried orange peels to make this scene look somewhat like the reindeer was in the woods. What do you think?

  Oh, I forgot...added mini white lights to this display too. ~smile~

That covers another week...more to come!

4 more days to the secret birthday giveaway!

Christmas Blessings to all

Janice

Birthday Giveaway

In honor of my birthday which is a week away,

I have decided to have a

Secret birthday giveaway!

All you have to do is:

1. Be a Current or New follower

2. Comment on this post

Bonus
 If you post my Secret Birthday Giveaway on your blog,
 I will add your name in 3 times.

What you will win is a secret gift package from me.

Something for Christmas is all I am telling you. LOL

I will draw one name from all of the comments

the night of my birthday;

which is December 2nd.

Good luck to all!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Janice

Thanksgiving Blessings

I do not normally talk about serious personal stuff that happens in my life.

I try to keep this blog more about primitive antiques and prim crafts.

However tomorrow at our Thanksgiving dinner,

it will not be the same.

My daughter has been going through

 a bitter divorce ever since Spring.

Because of this, it has even been quite awhile since I have been able

to have my grandchildren over....months and it is driving me crazy.

Now my daughter tells me that she has to work tomorrow

at one of the major chain stores in our area.

Yes, she works retail.

So now I get a double whammy.

Michele will not be with us for thanksgiving and neither will

our grandchildren.

So tomorrow, I wish everyone

A Happy Thanksgiving

and cherish all the moments you can with family,

because sometimes life throws you a big curve ball.

Eat lots of turkey, ham, prime rib or

whatever your tradition is.

Speaking of traditions,

 I would love to know what your thanksgiving dinner consists of,

and how you plan on spending it.

It would be nice to find out how everyone across this fine country

celebrates their thanksgiving.

Ours is turkey with all of the trimmings.

With every vegetable you can imagine.

My mom also makes homemade dinner rolls

 that are about 6 inches high and really good!

Well enough of my gibberish.

Next week stay tuned for my Christmas giveaway.

Take care and

Thanksgiving Blessings to everyone!

Janice

Monday Montage

More of our store decorated for Christmas is featured in today's montage.

Harvest Blessings everyone

Janice







This is what I have been up to

I don't have much time for crafting

with my full time job and then the store,

so what I make for the store is not much,

but I do what I can for my customers.

However it seems that mid week I caught the bug...

so after bowls of chicken noodle soup, Tylenol,

cough drops and some much needed rest, I feel better

So before I got sick, this is what I have been up to...

Vintage snowman pillows

This vintage snowman is holding a banner that reads Greetings

All off to the store tomorrow.

Some mini prim angels

Their halos are made from iridescent white ribbon.

I think these are so cute, I may have to make some for my tree.

These gals are also bound for the store tomorrow.

I started working on this guy before I got sick

My Santa's are usually in red.

However I had this sage green check fabric...just enough for his suit.

So I thought, what the heck...

Its a work in progress as I go.

Will show you the finished guy once I have completed him.

Next pic is one of the items I bought from the show a few weeks ago.

I know, you are all probably wondering why I would want this paper mache

Easter bunny so close to the holidays...

it's because I am a bunny freak.

Now its time for some much needed sleep.

Until next time.

Harvest blessings everyone.

Janice



Monday Montage

For today's montage I am featuring good old St. Nicholas himself.

Items from my personal collection and an item

that will be heading into the store on Saturday.

This is a cotton batting Victorian era St. Nicholas.

This piece is so fragile that I do not like to handle it very much.

This is my personal collection of Santa's

Spaghetti Santa on top shelf

An antique Santa tin on second from the top with a small spaghetti Santa

Third shelf has a dancing Santa and chalk ware Santa

The framed red stitchery that I made reads ~

If you stop believing in Santa, you will get underwear for Christmas

Other hand made Santa's are also featured

This red suited guy is one of my favorites that I made years ago.

This one has a gingerbread who hitched a ride.

New Santa pillows that I will be bringing into the store Saturday.

That is just a few of my Santa's that I pulled out yesterday.

More to come!

Harvest Blessings Everyone!

Janice

All About Me from A to Z and a few show pics

Alright I know I"m way behind on this one as many of you have already posted your A to Zs.

Better late than never.

If you all know, this time of year is really crazy for me.

I even have a craft show this weekend that I do with my sister, in which I have hardly anything made. Therefore she will have lots more table space.

Any hoot, here is my alphabet.

A. Age: 52

B. Back Porch Antiques is the name of our store

C. Crafter ~ Been crafting since I was 22

D. Daughter ~ Michele who is 30

E. Estate Sales ~ love the hunt!

F. Fireplace ~ great for roasting marshmallows or even hot dogs with the grandchildren

G. Grandchildren ~ speaking of which ~ Micheal (8) and Mikayla (3)

H. History ~ majored in history in High School...maybe that's why I became an a antique  collector and dealer. LOL

I. Ideal home would be on a 20 acre farm with enough money to build my gramma Husson's farmhouse..which I have embedded in my brain.

J. Jolly ~ I am a pretty easy going jolly type person 98% of the time. It takes a lot for me to get riled up and mad, but when I do, you do not want to see that 2% of meanness I have.

K. Kitchen ~ The heart of our home

L. Loving husband named Bob

M. Magazines ~ I am a magazine freak..let's just leave it at that. LOL

N. Never a dull moment in my life

O. Outdoors ~ love being outside in the Summer on our dock...is it May yet?

P. Prims ~ love finding early pieces for both our home and store

Q. Quilts ~ they just have so much character

R. River ~ live near the mighty St. Clair river which borders Michigan and Canada

S. Son ~ Matthew who is 27

T. TV ~ my favs are Pan Am, House and Grey's Anatomy to name a few

U. University ~ started out with a scholarship in Art to majoring in Business Management.

     I did not want to be a starving artist. 

V. Vacations ~ Ours are based on where we can go on a buying trip. Bob and I both love   shopping for ourselves, the store and our customers!

W. Winter Wonderland ~ I love being home decorating or making Christmas cookies with the snow falling outside. Really puts me in the mood..after Christmas it can go away...

X. Xtra time ~ never enough

Y. Yellow ware ~ love all yellow ware

Z. Zoo ~ When my kids were little our house felt like a zoo at times. Goldfish, hamsters, cats, dog, bunny, and even a turtle..if we had more property, they probably would have talked me into a pony or horse too... however zoning laws for ponies and horses were 5 acres for each. Whew, we only had an acre...so it was easy to say no on that one. I blamed our township officials, so I did not look like the bad mom.

Well there you have it. You all know a little bit more of me.

Feel free to complete your own little All About Me from A to Z.

Let me know you did, so I can find out a little more about all of my blogging sisters.

Now for a few show pics.

These are just vintage Christmas items that were for sale

I almost bought the paper mache Santa...but found something better that I wanted

Show you in another post

The tree was not old but the ornaments were.

More vintage goodies!

I believe everyone in the 1950's had this tree stand..

I have one like this and also a green one.

Plus I'm sure most of you remember these.

I was going to buy this one as it was musical too, but I forgot to

and it sold when I got back to the booth it was in.

Hope you enjoyed the pics of Christmas past.

Harvest Blessings everyone
Janice

Monday Montage

It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas

Well at least in our store anyway. LOL

Today's montage is featuring just that.

A few pics of what Bob and I did tonight after the store closed.

Whew, we did this in 2 hours, and we did not kill each other either.

That is an accomplishment in itself. Double LOL.

Oops, my last picture did not come out. Sorry

I will try again when we do more decorating on Wed. night.

Tuesday I have to drag down the Christmas trees from our house attic

for the store and try and add something to that WREATH!!

My work is never done.

Harvest Blessings everyone.

Janice



Work Work Work

Bob and I have been working...
packing up goodies for our antique show this weekend.
Then I go home and work some more on Christmas goodies for the store.

All this work is pooping me out...but the results are fun to look at!

I made these tiny blue knit stockings.

But I am not sure if I should add a candy cane inside,

add a sprig of holly, or some pine,

or just leave well enough alone.

What do you all think?

Decisions ~ Decisions ~ Decisions

Then I have this big ole Santa

Head...made from stained Onasburg and aged red flannel.

 

Plus I have been working on a wreath.

My brother had two huge plain pine wreaths laying around in his basement

 so he decided to give them to Bob and I for our store.

Not sure if it needs more ooompfh...

The middle has to stay open as this will be put in our window

and the center of the wreath will surround our store name.

Its hard to tell in this pic, but the colors are red and gold

and I added some huge Florida pine cones that I picked up years ago.

That little bit of white between our door and wreath is Ace our kitten.

His job is to inspect everything!

So what do you think ladies...I think it needs something else for that WOW factor?

I will be adding lights, but do you think it needs something else?

Oh and then I made this prim dirty snowman.

With his stove pipe hat and antique blue tick scarf.

However Houston we have a problem.

I did not check my inventory when I added that rusty snowflake,

as that is the only one I have left...not sure if I can get some more in on time.

So I leave you all to go to bed for some much needed rest....

unfortunately little Ace will wake me up to kisses on my face at 4 in the morning.

I have to get up at 6...and I am hoping soon he will sleep through the night

like his other brothers do. I swear its like having another child...LOL

Harvest Blessings to you all

Janice