A Few of My Favorite Things

My most favorite thing?   Getting the house ready for Christmas.

 I love red and white wood ornaments, mushrooms, and wooden birds.

Ergebirge angels clipped onto branches.   Tiny red mushrooms.

 An elf making a list, a very vintage ornament.

 Reproduction Putz houses on the tree.  Especially if they have reindeer on them.   Steinbach bavarian ornaments.

 Clip on mushroom glass ornaments.  Paper birds covered in glitter.

 A Bavarian clock-maker.   A red-roofed Putz house.

 Any ornament out of old paper.  Garland with red bells.

 More paper houses.  Flocked trees.

 Globe ornaments with animals inside.  Wood reindeer.

 My red and white tree.

Pierre Deux Quimper stockings.

 Rows and rows of 30+ stockings in the hallway.

My second tree with pine-cone ornaments, plus glittered fruit for color.  The deer underneath the tree.

Globe ornament with deer and mushroom!

 Pinecone Owls!

Bird house with pine cone roof.   Stieff fawn in the tree.

 pine cone branches with ice crystals.

 Pine cone ball ornaments.  Scrap paper garland

 Glitter pomegranate.

 Bird nests with eggs.

 Bird ornament.

 More ice crystals on pine cones.

Reindeer wall hanging.    I think about how I hauled it across the country on an airplane....

Snowman Tree Toppers.

 German words in place card holders.

 Steiff animals on table.  More German words in place card holders.

The snow village barn with the cows.

Erzgebirge angels on staircase.

And waiting for my daughter and son-in-law to come home. 

Plaid Stocking with Vintage Linen

My daughter was reading one of  my favorite blogs Confessions of A Plate Addict, and loved this post on making stockings. http://confessionsofaplateaddict.blogspot.com/2011/12/tutorial-french-ticking-stocking.html

My daughter's version is:

She used a tablecloth from Home Goods, ($7) and raided my vintage hanky drawer for two monogrammed hankies.

Don't you think they turned out great!   It's not bad for an emergency room doctor who is better at sewing up people.   I did teach her how to cross-stitch in the 3rd grade.  I guess that gave her life skills!

Later in the day, we spotted these at Williams Sonoma

I like the homemade ones better!  Be sure to follow Debbie and her cat at Confessions of  A Plate Addict for more great projects.  Thanks Debbie!

Stockings, Nutcrackers and Mohair Snowmen

Some of our favorite things about this time of year is pulling out family christmas collections.  With a German background, we like collecting many handmade christmas items.  My favorite collection is our Steiff snowman collection.  They are the cutest mohair snowmen!   Steiff comes out with one almost every year.   Every time I get them out, I have to giggle about how it all started.....My husband left my daughter and I to entertain ourselves in Munich.  We were to meet up with him by taking a train to Paris later that week.  When he opened his suitcase of casual clothes...it was filled with teddy bears and snowmen!

Between a trip to Rothenburg and Katha Wolfart, and the huge sale at Kaufhof in Marianplatz, we wound up putting Steiff creatures in dad's shoes, and every nook and cranny in the suitcases.  It was great fun!  (My husband keeps saying, if only I didn't have to share my doll with my 5 sisters while growing up, I wouldn't have buy many toys as an adult!)

This year they are standing guard over the cute needlepoint stockings....

Russian Santas are standing on each stocking holder.   They were a souvenir from a trip to St. Petersburg.   

Cutest Quimper Couple Needlepoint Stocking!  I purchased at Pierre Deux
 in Carmel after Christmas last year.  (I'm so sad that they are bankrupt... )

My daughter wrote a guest blog about her nutcrackers that she pulls out for Octoberfest here.   I thought that I should try to limit my collecting to shepherd nutcrackers.   My favorite ones are by Ulbricht.

Shepherd Nutcrackers

My daugher has a collection of santas with reindeer.   Isn't this one cute!

She has this one on loan to me for the holiday--the beautiful white Santa

Ulbricht White Santa in Center

We were in Gumps on Sunday and spotted this nutcracker by Ulbricht.  Isn't he cute!  OK, maybe I need to start another collection!

And for my favorite wall decoration, who can resist this reindeer?   He is about 5 feet tall, and traveled half way across the country to settle at home with me.

I must continue my hunt for boxes of decorations.   We really enjoy all the handmade German ornaments.   It is a way to enjoy the holiday with craftsmanship reminding the family of the old country.