Merry Christmas

Just want to wish all of you a merry happy wonderful Christmas! I´ve so much enjoyed reading your blogs and your nice comments and it has been a wonderful year in blog world for me! I´ve met so many lovely, excentric and inspiring people from all over the world that I didn´t even know existed! Getting in touch with you has been both a great source of inspiration and very encouraging, and I´m looking forward to see what you´re up to in 2010!

Here are some Christmas pictures, we actually have a white Christmas this year - wonderful!

Our Christmas tree with vintage American baubles from the fifties, crocheted flowers, Christmas owls and pearl garlands

Handmade cards for friends and family to give with their presents


Notice the angel - I made it when I was 5 or 6 years old ;-)

Vintage pink dresser with old birdcage, hortensia, fil de fer angel and candles, of course

In the evenings the conservatory looks like a place from a fairytale with lots of lit candles, shiny baubles and fairylights!

You can call this white Christmas I think!

Our train carriage in winter wonderland

Enjoy Christmas and see you soon!

My Creative Space.....

My creative space this week is not so much about my work but more about decorating the house for Christmas, because I finally got around to making some nice little Christmas decorations.
I have decided to abandon the classic Advent-wreath this year and instead use some nice trays to display my favourite Christmas items. Here you see the decoration on our dining table, I have used a vintage Russian tray and filled it with nostalgic baubles, golden deers, a hyacinth in a beautiful porcelain cup (Marco Friis of course), a cone in a little vase and candles.


A little close-up of the deers, I love them - they have just the right kitschy appeal!


Over the dining table we have a vintage chandelier and obviously it needed to be decorated, too! Opulent baubles and a little colourful Christmas owl! I have bought lots of these owls in different colours as they are going to adorn our Christmas tree this year, together with vintage American baubles and crocheted flowers (which I still have to make..... lol).



This is the decoration on our coffee table. Baubles, another hyacinth, a nice glass with a tealight and a little Christmas tree made by an English artist who turns scrap metal into sculptures and small pieces of art. I was given to me by my friend Tracy and I´m looking forward every Christmas to get it out of the cupboard and use it in a decoration. I´m sorry that the picture is so dark but the weather is awful again - no chance to get a decent picture!


To see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces visit Kootoyos blog .


And then... slightly delayed... I want to announce the winner of the last give-away! The beautiful mother of pearl ring goes to...

Sandy Mastroni

Congratulations Sandy! And I´m happy she won as she is such a lovely person and makes the sweetest things! I bought this pillow of her recently, it is based on one of her drawings and features all kinds of vintage materials such as lace, buttons, trims and doily snippets. The cat in the little dress reminds me of my own cat Frasse, and I smile every time I look at it. Along with the pillow she sent a lovely bookmark and two postcards.


Please visit her Etsy shop and take a look at all the nice things she has for sale.

The next two give-aways are first taking place after Christmas as I´m simply too busy right now to keep on top of it all ;-)

Last thing I want to show you are these colourful brooches I made a while ago and which I´m going to list in my Etsy shop later this evening!


See you next thursday when I´m going to tell you more about the Christmas market I attended last weekend.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week is mainly about getting things ready for a forthcoming Christmas fair this weekend. It takes place at an old castle not far away from where I live and I´m really curious how it´s going to be as it is the first time I participate.

One of the big challenges when you go to those fairs I think is how to present your work in the best possible way. I´m really struggling to find a good way to display my rings and finally came up with this solution:


I have used a vintage gold frame bought at a local car boot sale, lined it with pale pink silk and voilà - a new display for my button rings. What do you think?

As I told you a while ago I got this big bag full of the most beautiful mother of pearl buttons from a craft friend in Germany, the soft and subtle colours and different textures are simply amazing:


I thought I create some more rings for the craft fair, as the ones I have already made are mostly vintage bakelite buttons, and here is one example:


The pattern and colours of the mother of pearl are so intriguing, and I´m sorry that the picture doesn´t do them justice, but after two beautiful days with frost and sun it is raining again today and simply impossible to get good pictures! So typical!

I even re-vamped some giftboxes to make them look christmassy with a hint of nostalgia, I had bought these oldfashioned labels a while ago (I´m not sure if you would call them labels in English but can´t find a better word) and now glued them on my boxes and sprayed the boxes with goldglimmer.


Now my wares can be giftwrapped in the right Christmas style and make their way under some nicely decorated hristmas trees I hope!

I´ll better go now - I still have to finish off some brooches, clean the shelves and tables which I´m going to use to display my stuff and start packing everything! To see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces visit Kootoyos blog .


And, please, don´t forget this weeks

Blog Give - Away:

Another beautiful ring, three vintage mother of pearl buttons embellished with seedbeads and adhered to an adjustable silver-plated ring base.

To play along and have a chance to win you have to do the following:

1) If you aren´t a follower of my blog yet, join the follower list

2) Write about/mention my blog give-away, link to my blog and leave a comment here to let me know you have done so

3) Make sure I can contact you in case you´re the lucky winner - if you´re not commenting as a blogger leave your e-mail address

You can comment until next sunday evening. The winner of the second give-away is announced on monday, December 7, and the next give-away starts the same day. Good Luck!

And one last thing - pop around my new blog Extravaganzza Vintage Treasures dedicated to my love and interest for all things vintage, in particular fashion, jewellery and accessories. You will find beautiful pictures of vintage treasures as well as features about vintage related shops or topics and the newest items from my Extravaganzza etsy shop for vintage clothing and jewellery.