We all know this Christmas Poem. Many of us may know it completely by heart. Others may be able to recite portions of the poem. Surely we all know the first two sections like we know our own names!
This poem has been long-attributed to Clement Moore. However, it was originally published anonymously. The mental picture evoked by the first two parts of this poem are likely quite vivid for most of us. Whoever wrote the poem definitely had a way with words.
I look forward to many things at Christmas, the tree, the warmth, the baked goods, the family gathering, Santa (I really love Santa!) and the framing of a glorious roaring fire with warm and beautiful stockings.
As a child I really looked forward to the stockings. See, my grandmother made a personalized stocking for each member of the family. My mom’s stocking was light blue felt and shaped like a fancy high-heeled boot with a plush rabbit fur cuff at the top. Mine was light pink felt and was sewn together with dark pink yarn. Each stocking was special in that there were trinkets sewn on to each on to represent each person. I loved my stocking….it had a tiny baby doll sewn on to it, a patch shaped like alphabet building blocks, a gold metal heart charm and felt applied balloons.
When I was finally old enough to have my own family and start our own family traditions the old family stockings were a little worse for the wear so we could not really use them. As a result, I tried my hand at making my own family stockings. I did not inherit my grandmother’s gift with the needle!
So, as of now we have a mish-mash of felt, and satin and needlepoint (not family heirloom quality) stockings in over sized shapes and sizes. They are nice enough stockings, but they are not perfect. They don’t hold a candle to the enchanting stockings of my youth.
So I was looking around for some new unique, personal and special stockings to perhaps start our family tradition. You should see some of the wonderful ones I have found…the run the gamut from fancy to whimsical to downright odd. If you want to purchase one, you can click on the photo and it will take you to the sellers website.
Please stop by our shop for many wonderful vintage gift items as well as vintage Christmas decorations and items.
www.BestFriendsStudios.etsy.com
Merry Christmas to all
And to all a good night!
I found a good and very easy recipe (see end of post for recipe). Basically you blend everything in a an old-fashioned blender. All ingredients can be mixed ahead of time except for the liquor. When you are ready to make the ice cream, just add the liquor before adding to the ice cream machine.
Since my first give away, hosted by another site, was such a huge success, I decided to try one on my own.
So in anticipation of the big Holiday Gift-Giving Season, I am offering a set of ten (10) darling Vintage-Inspired Silhouette Holiday Gift Tags.
Prize:
Holiday Gift Tags - Vintage-Inspired Silhouette Christmas tags. A set of ten (10). There are three designs to chose from -it'll be your choice as to the combination of styles.
To Enter:
Go to www.fineline-antiques.com, take a look around and find a favorite item. Then come back to this blog post and leave a comment mentioning your favorite item and why you like it. Please also leave your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner! If you have already commented, please post your email address now. Thanks.
Additional Entries:
You can do any of these things for an extra entry. You can get up to six (6) extra entries!!
Fine Print
As I made my daily Starbucks run, I was listening the radio. There was an interview with a person from the Greater Chicago Food Depository. They were talking about the need for donations, particularly in today's economy. Apparently more people are turning to soup kitchens and food depositories for help; people you wouldn't expect, even those with college degrees.
Here are some stats from the Greater Chicago Food Depository:
In the past my daughter and I would do a door-to-door food drive in our neighborhood that I would then take to a local food pantry. As the kids have gotten older, life has taken me in every other direction and we have gotten away from that tradition – it’s time to return course.
So I have decided to hold a Virtual Food Drive with Greater Chicago Food Depository (a charter member of America's Second Harvest national food bank network). You can:
When you click on the link, you will be taken to a secure server where you can shop for the foods you want to donate. You money goes a long way because the The Greater Chicago Food Depository gets a special rate on the items you select; your money goes farther with this process that it would if you shopped for the food yourself.
So if you, like me, have a very crazy life, but long to help others, together,let's get out the virtual wheelbarrow... please consider donating to the Greater Chicago Food Depository with me. Tis the season.
However, she is young and she is my daughter, so I don't want to put any personal information out there, particularly her name. So we talked about a pen name. I asked he to come up with a pen name that reflects something about herself with out being too personal. While she was hhhmmming and haw-ing, her 6-year-old brother shouted out, "Mrs. Um Um Like".
she has a difficult time explaining things or verbally telling a story orally without every other word being "Um" or "Like". Her brother was brilliant when he said her pen name should be Mrs. Um Um Like. FineLine Antiques is Announcing it's First Ever Give-Away!
I just learned about this online phenomenon called “Give-Aways” in which many online stores and blogs participate. Give-Aways are essentially akin to entering a contest or drawing in order to win a prize. But instead of getting a ticket to be placed in a hat to be drawn at said time, you have to enter an electronic comment to be added to the drawing. Many Giveaways ask that you go to a particular website (usually the Sponsor’s site) and find a favorite item. Then you are to come back to giveaway website, log in to a special form and post your favorite item along with some comments. When the contest time is up, a winner is drawn randomly from all entrants and the prize is awarded.
Online stores host it’s giveaways (like Martha Stewart Living used to do), blogs may offer a giveaways, and there are even websites that specialize in running giveaways. Bottom line for you is that you get a chance to get something for free. Well almost free, really all you pay is your time to peruse a cool website. Sounds like fun…. So, my first foray into this is on a giveaway website called www.the-giveaway.com. FineLine Antiques’ giveaway starts today and runs until November 20th.
The winner gets a $25 gift certificate to www.fineline-antiques.com.
So head on over to the-giveaway and enter!
Be sure to tell your friends!!
As I was setting up attractive vignettes to showcase these tables, my family would walk by and say how nice it looked. What is interesting and unusual about these comments is that they were coming from a 10-year-old girl, a husband who hates when I drag home more stuff that ends up in our house and 6-year-old rough-and-tumbly boy!! Since when
do they compliment me on my purchases and creative decorating? They never do this!
Well the overall effect was fantastic. But better yet, I thought it would make for a great Fall project for me and my kids. Plus it would make for a beautiful decoration to bring the outdoors in during one of Mother Nature’s biggest shows! Indeed, I was right on both assumptions!
We had perfectly beautiful Fall day here the weekend of Halloween. We went to the wooded pond near our house and hunted for leaves. What a great time we had! We found Linden leaves, Maple leaves, Oak leaves, Birch leaves, and even Ginko leaves! Believe it or not, we even found wild raspberries still putting out fruit with a vengeance! We even found a dead raccoon! Yikes!
The kids collected until their Halloween pumpkin buckets were full. Then we came home to begin the project.
First We Dried & Pressed the Leaves.
We made our own leaf press by using paper towels, old cardboard boxes and bungee cords. Here is the “how-to”.
1. Take a piece of cardboard and place two paper towels atop it.
2. Then the carefully arranged one layer of leaves, being careful that none touched and none went past the edge of the paper towel.
3. Place a paper towel on top of that layer and arrange more leaves.
4. Repeat until all leaves are accounted for.
5. Take another piece of cardboard and place it on top.
6. Secured the bundle tightly with bungee cords. You could also use a large heavy book, rock or even a canister of flour!
7. Leave alone for several days until leaves are dry and pressed.
Then We Made the Decorations.
I believe the Martha Stewart directions called for some fancy glue and “mono filament” (fishing wire). But we didn’t have either. So we just used good ole' Elmer’s school glue and embroidery floss.
1. Gather your mono filament, embroidery floss, yarn or dental floss…. whatever! Cut it to the length you desire.
2. Find two like-sized leaves. Lay one face down on table. Add a dollop of glue to its back.
3. Next take your mono filament, embroidery floss, yarn or dental floss and place it in the dollop of glue.
4. Then take the other leaf and apply to the first leaf with glue and string.
5. Press down gently to adhere.
6. Move down the string to your next leaf grouping.
7. Repeat until desired length is reached.
8. Put aside to dry.
Finally, We Hung the Leaf Decorations.
We placed the decorations in our door jamb to bring the outdoors inside; to make it look as though leaves were falling in the house.
There are some really great vendors online that are also offering ways to celebrate Fall.
Take the Fall beauty indoors again with these great handmade soaps. These chocolaty-brown soaps with maple leaf and acorn adornments look almost good enough to eat!
by www.Missing6.etsy.com. Made of 100% non-toxic recycled wax based crayons, these almost look like Raku pottery and embody the color and beauty of Fall.
Simple yet abstract, creative and wonderfully brilliant!!
The Pot Luck Dinner - Not your usual article about hosting a potluck. 
This year we are entering the tunnel of winter during one of the darkest economic moments in recent history. Feeling insecure about the future, many of us are beginning to tighten our belts and think of ways to cut corners. However, in the midst of this economic stress, it is more important than ever to eat well and find ways to feed the soul. In order to do this, we need to remind ourselves where there is abundance in friends, family, and food. 
Mid October, just about when the leaves are at their peak of screaming fall colors, I start thinking about what I call the “End-of-the-Year Slide”. This is the time when we get pummeled with holiday after holiday after holiday. At times it can make us feel exhausted, overrun and not very festive and cheerful. But just remember, while we are driving to yet another holiday obligation or errand, we are doing all these things for a reason: We are trying to making memories for ourselves and our families.
tradition! This year we are going to add a new Thanksgiving tradition; the main chef will be wearing my Thanksgiving apron, which you can view on www.fineline-antiques.com under holidays.
Check out www.fineline-antiques for some darling, vintage-inspired gift tags for your holiday hostess gifts or your Christmas gifts. While you are there take a look at our Holiday category for Thanksgiving decorations and supplies.
