DIY Barbie House:Moving IN with Vintage

Well this is it, Barbie and Ken's moving week. I have been gone from blogland for a couple days, finishing up the furnishings and getting the plumbers, electrical, and appliances all hooked up. Such a lot of coordination to be done, somethings are still not ready. THIS is a totally OLD< NEW < GREEN>REDO>!

Let's see how Barbie and Chrissy like the new digs. Just listen to where all the furnishings came from!

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DIY Barbie House, almost all moved in.

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Chrissy: I love the rug you got at HL, and this little Goodwill settee is so comfy. And this awesome chest of drawers made from an old jewelry box. Neat paint job, a real REDO on a $3.99 jewelry box from Savers.

Gee, Barbie, what else do we have to do? My feet are killing me.

Barbie: Thanks, Chrissy, and for helping me hang the pictures and setup the bedroom and bath. Well,

 I still have to move clothes in and finish the bedding. There's lots of sewing left here. Don't you just love the pearl $1 'B' from Joann's and that's where I got my $1 green mirror. They're so classy, though.

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Chrissy: Sure is. What's the purple fabric for and are you going to do something with your Michael's headboard?

Barbie: The purple will be padded on the headboard and sewn for a bedskirt, and the pink and stripe will be cool sheets and comforter.

Don't you just love the lamps made from purple umbrella ornaments and wood candlesticks from Walmart and Michael's?

Chrissy: Sure do, can't wait to see the chandeliers you ordered. When are they coming? I love all your IKEA frames too---really an inexpensive, unbreakable for kid's artwork or photos.

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Barbie: Chandeliers are coming on Sunday, and hopefully I will sew the bedding by then. There is room under this custom bed made by Grampa to hide most of my clothes. I have a closet in the bathroom, but it isn't big enough for everything.

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Chrissy: Looking through this cool window---with the Barbie logo design. You are so lucky,  I bet your little girlperson will be so happy to see your new house on Christmas!

Barbie: Oh, I hope so, but we still have to decorate the livingroom tree, wrap presents, bake cookies, and I need to wash up and change clothes for the supper, tonight.

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Chrissy: Let's go see what you have in the closet.  Wow, the bathroom is so big and bright, and I love the window---it matches the window in the bedroom. Love the tub and the tiled planter. Plants will look great in there.

Barbie: I have some hot pink in here, I had to have it somewhere, LOL. I have lots of storage.

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Cabinets by the toilette, and I did find a box of small Christmas trees. The wood cabinets were on sale at Michael's for $1.00 each, I spray painted them and glued them together.

Chrissy: Love the cabinet, and bottle trees are so in now, they look great. Show me your closet.

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Barbie: My closet is FAB! and was a DIY-- REDO of a Mattel Barbie Vending Machine that was broken. I found it at GoodWill for $1.99 full of all these shoes and purses! Now, it has great shelves for towels and stuff. Gramma even made me a clothes hamper and the vending machine part makes a great closet. (And the bathroom window and bedroom window were made from the plastic back---REALLY!)

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Chrissy: I love the hamper and you have all this great storage for towels and sheets. Where's the TP?

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Barbie: I sent Ken out for TP and bread for supper. Speaking of supper, I'm hungry, let's go downstairs and grab a snack.

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Barbie: Good thing we came down...the cupcakes for dessert are ready to come out of the oven.

Chrissy: I love the kitchen, it's so cozy and the dropleaf on the table really works. You have everything you need right there. And so much storage in your cabinets and shelving.

Barbie: Grampa built the cabinets, but the shelf was $1.99 from Savers. It was too big, so he cut it.
I made a great batch of cupcakes, don't you think! My favorite thing is the dishwasher...Never had a DW in the apartment.

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Chrissy: I love your shelves and the stove--- a custom-made stove is awesome. Your Grandpa is so handy!

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Barbie: The Farmer cookbook and all the food stuffs were from goody bags at Savers, or from Gramma's craft stashes. The cute strainer was from Great Grandma, and was an ornament.

Bing! Two more trays of cupcakes, I'm getting hungry for supper! Help me whip up a salad to go with the spaghetti.

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Vintage Christmas Kitchen Deux

Welkommen og Gladelig Jule, or Welcome and Merry Christmas from our small house. We live everyday with generations of family antiques and personal finds. 

Everything in this post is OLD NEW GREEN REDO,  and loved.

 One of the advantages of being old, is everything I own is vintage, LOL. The Cookie tin is a recent find from a thrift store and filled with pumpkin cookies. The coffee pot is Danish and my grandmother's it's a drip coffeepot with a little white cloth bag to hold the grounds.

Have a cup of coffee from my Wachtersbach cups...I have no idea--20years old maybe. I have some white ones that are from the 1970's. I loved the wine snowman---he just fit in here---late in the afternoon we can share a sip of wine.

Center of the table right now is the fish poacher filled with my jello and tart tins, with some vintage napkins I found a few weeks ago, in this post Vintage and Holiday Finds. 

Christmas pig is still fattening up on his trough of acorns. 

Will he or won't he find himself 'on' the Christmas table this year?

The tablecloths are all cotton and vintage--the blue faded topper is from Denmark from 1969-70.

 I use it every year as our everyday tablecloth during the holidays.

 Here is the dining room area from the counter side of the kitchen. The blue plates are Bing&Grondahol and Royal Copenhagen Christmas plates that are up all year long. 

My oldest is 1914 and inheirited from my great-grandparents.

I use holly and mini lights across the top of the room, 

and it pretty much stays up through the winter months.

 The corner hutch I snagged about 25 years ago at a thrift store, it had been in a fire...

but the the glass was intact. Hubby scrapped and sanded it down to bare and we painted it. Underneath is great storage for big platters and bowls.

My windows have vintage jello molds, and a spongecake springmold 

used as wreaths with a sprig of ivy in them.

 Peppermint striped ribbon is added to my normal blue and white for Christmas color. 

The television is Vintage too, lol.

The spinning wheel lamp was my grandmother's summer cottage.  I have Vintage Santas in a variety of materials: a pressed wool German Belsnikle, resin Santa's from around the world-from Carson Pirie Scott years ago. My small wool Danish elves (Tomte or Julenisse) are very small and mischevious and will show up in the strangest places closer to Christmas.

 Part of the magic of the season.

The bottom of the cabinet: these wonderful candlesticks handpainted by an artisan from the 80's and some porcelain Santa's from around the world, I have had forever.

A closeup of the other Santa candlestick  

shares the stage with the Laplander Santa and reindeer from Carson's. 

An old milk pail filled with handmade antique and vintage wooden spoons from the family. 

More bits of Ivy for green. The plate behind is the last plate

 I have from my first set of dishes, 1968, Johnson Bros...I forget the pattern name.

 My Cookie tin tree from this post, Vintage Christmas Kitchen  

and all the vintage baking goodies spread around.

Center of the kitchen dining room is the island with a small Christmas tree. 

The white chair is Ikea and a cutdown bar height chair used for the Grand at the dining table. Hopefully after the new year, all the cabinets, floor, ceiling will be replaced. 

The needlework hearts are traditional Danish after the paper heart pockets called, Julehjerter.

 Great tutorial here, Danish Woven Paper Hearts.

My great aunt, Gudren made these when in her 90's, along with the small baskets you see on the tree. 

The gingerbread guy is my hubby's with his Christmas-'Honey Do List'.

I used a spring-form cakepan for the base of the tree.

My three year old grandaughter chose the ornaments and where to place them. 

She put them on and I spun the tree around to get some sort of balance. 

I didn't change any, well maybe one or two...but, she is a born decorator. 

Cookies, hearts, mushrooms, red enamelware, and Scandinavian wooden ornaments

 or special ones made by crafters. Nothing is NEW on here now...everything is vintage at this point.

Cookie tin is from IKEA a few years back...

crock was a gift says, "Executive Grandma's snack jar for VIP grandchildren," 

which I love and gets plenty of use.

Covering the end of the island and the electrical works of the tree, 

is a cross-stitch Santa on heavy cotton probably a 12-count cloth. 

As another great-aunt in Denmark became older she worked larger because of her failing sight,

 and this was a treasure she sent to me in the 1980's. 

Tante Dagne would have been in her mid-90's then.

Granddaughter's white chair is covered with a child's (mine) 1950's Danish homespun apron. 

The colors and cloth just echo all the colors in our ktchen. 

so Tak!-Thank-you for stopping by, and don't forget to have a cookie or two, 

it's Christmas afterall!

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own or I am in possesion of the originals, 

I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or products used. 

Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 

Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle 

 As always I appreciate your comments and questions, 

I will be partying at these fine blogs:
Creating Christmas the Old-Fashioned Way
Friday Features
Feathered Nest Fridays
Shabbilicious Friday Christmas Party
Vintage Charm 

Best of the Weekend
Sunday Showcase
Pink Saturday
Show and Tell Friday 

Funky Junks Party
Share it One more Time
Something to Talk About LinkP 

Vintage Bliss Party

Sandi

Junkin' Finds:Christmas Arrangements for the Porch

Sunday Showcase

This is a thrifty post, antique post, vintage post and holiday post with a tutorial at the end. 

Back in May/June I did some fabulous Junkin' in the garage and our neighborhood garage sales and snagged two things I'm using on my front porch for the Christmas season. 

Here's the old post,  Junkin' Finds. 

The sled was a steal at $10.00 works really well, and I decided to just add a simple swag REDO for the winter season.

First I purchased nothing for these arrangements. I had all the product and tons more in my basement workshop. I haven't done a show or sale for 7 years...someday I will explain. 

So.......

 

We are going with a casual look on the front porch...my granny's  OLD 1950's rusty chippy white patio table is topped with a GREEN artificial wreath and a twig wreath on top and an OLD glass lantern--Super Simple. We inserted NEW flicker light bulbs inside the lantern. I actually had these for my gourd pumpkins lanterns. There are three patinaed brass lanterns on the porch 

and they give a welcoming warm glow in the dark.  

The plaid covers for the chairs are a REDO with thrift shop Christmas tablecloths. 

I used 4 table cloths to do the settee, swing and one chair. 

When I find another I will do the other chair.

For the OLD sled, I chose huge pinecones, a bit of white faux birch branches, 3 different kinds of artificial pine and spruce boughs, and a gold string of brass bells. The final touch--a muted plaid ribbon I bought years ago at HL.  I went back to by more last week, 

and they still are carrying it NEW now.

 The wired swag is loosely attached so I can remove it to use the sled

 with the Grand when we get snow!

 The OLD Flexible Flyers were made in Chicago and a musthave for a kid of the 1940-60's, I can't wait to try it on our hills here down by the lake. They go so fast and really steer well.

   

In the same post Junkin' Finds  was this great rusty window box frame. I used this throughout the Fall season filled with pumpkins, gourds and sunflowers. Now I want to REDO it for the front porch with a Winter/Christmas theme.

 Products used were 2 large stems of long flocked grass, 1-large dkgreen ivy bush, 1-large snowy holly bush, 1-one small ivy bush, 2 cedar bushes with red berries,  one huge ornament/red, 3 smaller ornaments/red and 6 assorted sized gold ornaments.

A Quick tutorial follows.

 View of the bottom of the window frame. Three blocks of foam taped with heavy water proof tape, (you can use thin cuts of duct tape with same result) and using the same tape to attach foam to frame.

 Generously cover your foam with moss. I would normally use green, but gray was what I had. I use U pins to attach the moss. The plan in my head is pretty loose. A slightly off set arrangement viewable from all sides that will fill up a good size space. My work table is 5 foot long to give you some scale.

Cutting the fronds of flocked grass stems into 2 pieces each...place two pieces at the 10 o'clock (1 up and 1 to the side) position and the 4 o'clock positions(both low). 

This sets the length and heigth of the arrangement.

Taking the large Ivy bush, I cut the longest pieces (8) and arranged them clockwise from the center point, bending and adjusting the entire length of the ivy vine. This is the back view. 

Next cutting the cedar bushes with the berries into single long fronds, I placed one in the middle high,

 

and then alternated between the long ivy branches. in some places,

 two branches of cedar are between the ivy pieces. 

Next, I cut all the stems of of the holly off the bush stem. I always pick or hot glue every single stem, never using an entire bush inserted. Each branch/vine/stem is bent into a natural position and leaves/fronds adjusted.

Here you can see the curves downward of all the stems. The holly has red berries at the ends, I adjusted those to all show up.

Front view, you can still see bare moss...so all the smaller bits of the bushes

 are worked in between the larger pieces to fill in. 

Still needing some sparkle, I chose large plastic ornaments for accents. 

These were hot glued and wrapped with wire to long sticks and old flower stems 

to insert into the foam securely. (It gets windy here!)

 Don't forget to add interest to the back for the folks sitting on the settee.

Back view pretty much finished. Finished length is about 4 1/2 feet long and 24" deep.

Front view finished, and outside on top of the makeshift table of an OLD upsidedown galvanized tub. Rustic and casual with a little bling. I skipped adding ribbon because of all  the plaid on the chairs/settee would compete. I love all the texture and the HOLLY AND THE IVY

 ...makes me want to sing the carol.

This morning we had a typical windy Chicagoland day and the long vines and fronds were moving and waving in the wind, but no fear---glued and picked, nothing is going to take flight. 

I did one more arrangement last night that is displayed below on the swing. 

A vintage creel basket filled with faux spruce and pine, some wonderful real looking holly stems, big pine cones, a glittered (rubber) fish...this was taken from an arrangement given my husband when he retired.) We live in a lake community and are avid fishermen/women, 

Finally added big HL ribbon plaid bow. 

The creel is destined for a large grapevine wreath on the garage front.

It looks pretty comfortable on the swing, but we use the swing to watch the birds

 on the birdfeeders, so it will go to the front of the garage.

I hope you enjoyed my arrangements, it's been ages since I have done anything and it felt really great to burn my fingers and glue up my clothes. And every retired floral designer needs a little glitter in her life, just for old-time's sake.

From our house to Yours,  Merry Christmas!

Thanks always for stopping by and any comments or questions, I will  be happy to answer.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

I will be sharing at these fine blog parties:
Let's Talk Vintage 
Vintage Inspiration Party
Christmas Mini Home tour and Come as you Are
Wow Us Wednesday
Creating Christmas the Old fashioned-Way
Share Your Style Party 
Handy Man Crafty Woman 
Vintage Charm 
Shabbilicious Friday Christmas Link Party 
Feathered Nest Fridays 
Friday Features 
best of the Weekend 
Sunday Showcase
Pink Saturday
Show and Tell Friday
Funky Junks Party
Share it One more Time
 

Sandi