Momma Needs a Binky

Today the family and I went to Target. Oh,my God. I am so not a retail shopper. At least not a full priced a week before Christmas retail shopper anyway. Too many people and nothing on sale - not on sale by my standards anyway. When we got to Target I realized that I was wearing a red shirt. Every time I go to Target, I tell myself not to wear red. I have a retail kind of face. People ask me where things are all the time. So, I try to at least not dress the part. The saddest part of this whole story is that I usually can help the people. I worked in retail for 10years and I understand the layout of grocery type stores. I know the marshmallows are by the pie crusts and pudding. I know the honey is by the peanut butter. I know the maple syrup is on the cereal aisle, but corn syrup is by the baking supplies. Some people just don't know that stuff.

Oh, I forgot. No one ever did ask me where anything was today. I think it had something to do with it being a week before Christmas and nearly everyone was wearing red. Ho Ho Ho.

We have sort of a family tradition to do something funny around Christmas. When I was a kid we had a phone book for Topeka, Kansas. One year we opened it up and randomly pointed to a name. Then we sent them a Christmas Card. Every year. For ten years or so. One year we got a really nice card from them. "We have wracked our brains and just cannot place you, please remind us. We do so look forward to your Christmas Cards each year." Well, that just made it even more humorous to us. So, we just kept on sending those cards. Terrible, I know. Terribly FUNNY!

When we left Target, there was an identical red Saturn VUE parked next to our red Saturn VUE. So, to carry on the funny Christmas thing, I wrote out a Christmas Card from our VUE to their VUE wishing them a "Merry Christmas". It would absolutely make my day if someone did something like that to us, so I hope they thought it was funny.

On the way to and from Target, the family let me make a thrift store stop. The thrift store stop before was to pacify me and the thrift store stop afterwards was to console me.

Thrift stores are my Binky!

I have been looking at this old window at the thrift for a couple of months. For some reason, I decided to buy it today. I don't know why I wouldn't buy it before, but today I did. It was $5.00. I was secretly hoping they might consider it Christmas and give it to me at 50% off.

When I went to check out, the lady at the desk said, "Oh my God. Thank you for buying that &^%$ (she mouthed the word) window. We have been kicking it around forever!" It wasn't Christmas, but since she was glad to be rid of it, she only charged me $3.00. I'll paint those stars or replace them with some rusty stars and make it more "me".

I stuck it in front of my window with my elves and Shiny Brite laden lamp. The tabletop is a bit full, but it is too close to the big day to be re-working the decor. I do like the way I was able to get the trio of old bottle brush trees up on the "sill".

I usually avoid the felt/sequined ornaments, but this package with the big pink poinsettia on top was a keeper for 25¢ and the 25¢ itty bitty Nutcracker is for The Bean's Nutcracker collection. He is less than 2" tall. The Nutcracker that is, not The Bean.

Well, geez, that's a blurry photo. Hmmm. Anyway, I got enough Shiny Brites for 50¢ to fill up my cloche. I'm on the hunt for basic colors to make a few more wreaths by next Christmas. (Yes, I am already planning next year!) But, I plan to sell the wreaths and not keep them.


The thrift store after Target netted this sweet vintage tablecloth. The colors are nice and bright. It has a few stains, but I can tell they are the "I can wash it out" type and not the "Crap, it's stained forever" type.

That thrift is one I rarely shop at due to the fact that nearly everything is $8.00. Seriously. A coat? $8.00. A statue? $8.00. You can't just willy nilly go in there and gather up five or ten $8.00 items! And, the "Antiques Corner" is a big No-No. A piece of matte white Haeger (plain square dish) caught my eye. $8.00 NO! So, finding this tablecloth was a great find. And especially when it was only $8.00. Ha ha. I jest. It was $2.00.

Yesterday we braved the frigid 26 degree temperatures to hit the Super Cheap Thrift. Only to find it CLOSED DUE TO COLD TEMPERATURES. Bunch of woosey old lady volunteers anyway. Kidding. I mean, they can close, that's fine. But, how about an Inclement Weather policy so we know the rules and don't drive out of our way next time? One side of the thrift is an area to go for groceries, bills and financial help, so I do hate it that it was closed a week before Christmas when I know people are needing assistance. I plan on going in the morning, but it is supposed to be COLD again. What to do, what to do?

Tomorrow I have a new blog to share with you that will make you all drop to your knees in Vintage Christmas Amazement. Seriously!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Really cold. It was 17 degrees when I got up and I never saw it go above 21 degrees all day. We rarely ever go below the freezing mark for more than a day, so this is pretty darn cold for Arkansas. We had sleet last night with more falling as I speak, or rather write. Every single school district was closed today except our town. (Another reason to count ourselves lucky that we are no longer a part of that B.S.). The cancelled schools are scrolling across the bottom of the TV for tomorrow already tonight.

I bought this vintage Knickerbocker Gingerbread Man several years ago. When you wind him up, he plays music and his head and arms move. He moves very slowly and is slightly creepy, yet cute. I found the Gingerbread Man book in my old toy box awhile back. It even has my name written in pencil (largely, I might add) and my entire phone number (including area code) so that if I lost it, it would be returned. It seems I did that to most of my belongings.

They are forecasting freezing rain and freezing temperatures through Friday. I am glad that I finished my shopping, got my baking things and am ready to hunker down and enjoy the holiday season.

This is my vintage tree. The tree isn't vintage, but the ornaments are all vintage - picked up one by one for 5¢ to 25¢ each.

Today The Bean and I finished wrapping presents. I normally wrap them all up the day before we open them, so it is nice to have it done now. We exchange a lot of gifts at our house. One item might cost a good amount of money, but then the next two or three are thrift store finds, garage sale items or fun things we picked up here and there. So, there is always a lot of wrapping to be done.

I noticed this year that many of my ornaments are house shaped and most of the ornaments are red. I adore those little composition headed guys. I bought 17 of them in an old candy box for 25¢.

I still have to wrap The Bean's gifts. Once upon a time all his presents were ginormous, "Some assembly required" and require wire cutters to get them out of the &#*& box. Now most everything fits in the palm of my hand - video games, DVD's, CD's and the only asked for item - an I-POD Nano in a horrifying ugly orange color. So ugly, it had to be special ordered because stores don't carry that color. I can see why. Actually, it isn't that ugly. The Bean has loved "Don't shoot! I'm not a deer" orange his whoooole life. He will be beyond happy. I did have to buy a few big items and some Dollar Store junk to fill up the ridiculously huge stocking that I bought him his first Christmas. "Oh, he could fit in it!" we joked. Well, now that he's 13, he could still almost fit in it. What was I thinking??? It takes a ton of crap to fill that thing up. But, I will do it until he's 40 if I choose to do so.

The Statue of Liberty ornament is the only new ornament on the tree. When you turn the lights on the tree, the Star Spangled Banner plays. I think it just starts our day off right.

Later this week will start doing some baking. Not a lot of variety,but we have to make toffee and a couple types of fudge -or it just won't seem like Christmas. Last year we made these wonderful Coconut Snowflake Cookies. You put coconut extract in the dough. Then you made a glaze with coconut extract that you poor over the cookies. And, then, you make icing with more coconut icing and pipe on the decoration. We discovered last year that these cookies intensify in flavor after about three days. The longer you have them, the better they get. We joke that they are so good that you never want to eat them because, "They'll be even better tomorrow".

The mercury glass candles were a find that I had for quite awhile before I even knew what they were. I had them in my crafting supplies and then one day I found the candle clips and wah-lah, I put two and two together and figured it out. Doh!

When I went shopping last week, I was sure to pick up flour, sugar, etc. so I would have everything I needed to make the Coconut Snowflakes. Today when I found the recipe, I noticed the first item on the list was a roll of prepared Sugar Cookie Dough. I seriously do not remember cheating and using prepared dough. I remember them being a big darn deal to make.

I hope it doesn't get bad again tonight. I have a hankering to hit the Super Cheap Thrift in the morning. They will be closing on Saturday for two weeks as will most of the thrift stores. This is the only time of the year to find vintage Christmas, so I want to go do some digging. As you can see, my tree is really bare and needs a few more ornaments. ;o)

Shara Lee's Thrifty Finds

Today I made my annual Last Shopping Day of the Year trip. I buy my groceries at the Wal-Mart Super-Center up the street from my house. It is on the very tippy edge of town, located near the Interstate. It is the closest store in town for all of the outlying areas. Now, I am from Arkansas and I am a strong supporter of my state. We have Wal-Mart Corporate Headquaters, Tyson Foods Headquarters and JB Hunt Headquarters within 15 minutes of my house. I am two miles from the University of Arkansas. There are more million dollar homes in the area than you can imagine. There are wealthy doctors, businessmen, University hobnobbers, etc. It is a very nice area. But, that Interstate I mentioned leads to Nowheresville. Land of tiny towns without a thing but a gas station with a mini mart inside. $3.00 cans of Alpo, $4.00 loaves of bread. And, in those towns live some hicks. Lord. have. mercy. Hicks. There are some people that choose to live out there because it is quaint or charming or whatever. But, most of them live out there because their parents live in a house on the land, and their gandparents lived there and so on and so forth. These type of people choose to stay where they live, grow their food, raise a cow to eat, hunt deer for the winter, have some chickens for eggs, etc. They pretty much do with what they have and get by fine. That is until Christmastime. Time ta load up the whole hillbilly family and head to the Walmarts for some Christmas Shoppin'. Woohooo! Roadtrip. Between the hillbilly hillfolk, the regular grocery shoppers, the Christmas shoppers and lord knows who else - I avoid that place like the plague. So, that is why this was my last shipping trip of the year. I finished my Christmas shopping, bought all my holiday baking supplies and enough groceries to last until 2009. I spent more than I've ever spent in one trip, but if it lasts us until New Years - then I did okay.

I couldn't just go grocery shopping - I had to have a little fun too. So, some thrifiting was on the menu for the day. The best part about the thrift stores right now is the vast array of Christmas merchandise. But, the even better part is now that is is pretty much all 1/2 price too. I never go looking for anything in particular when it come to Christmas items. I just look at every single item and make my decisions as I see something cool.

The first item to make the cut today - a wooden tin soldier ornament for 25¢. The odd thing is that he is 12" tall. It would take a heck of a tree for him to hang on. He is cute and marked JAPAN on the bottom.

A fun vintage fringed, what I am calling a tablecloth, but probably is a tree skirt, for 50¢. (Did anyone read the joke in Reader's Digest about the lady that received the beautiful sparkly wrap for Christmas. She loved it so much that she wore it all day long. That is until her sister in law informed her that it was a tree skirt. Bawhaha)

I think this interesting banded bowl is old. It looks like some of the old barware I have seen. Regardless, I like it and it was only $1.00. I suspect it will hold some red, green and gold ornaments eventually.

A pile of old sparkly pink Shiny Brites with a couple silver thrown in for fun along with one Poland narrow necked pink ornament, a vintage pink gift embellishment and a fun pink glass pick. All for 50¢. I've really embraced the whole pink thing this year.

A sweet Santa with a paper mache head for 25¢. He is standing in a nice big basket with a liner that I got for 25¢.
I was very excited when I spotted the big Gurley Santa siting on a table. He was 50¢. He is tall - about 9" or so. My sweet Aunt Dorothy sent me one just like it this summer, so now I have twins. The two smaller one (and older) Gurley Candles with in a big Bag o' Christmas crap for 50¢. There was actually one more that I swore I had in my basket, but I didn't make it home with him. ;o(

There is a Habitat thrift that I went to a couple of times, but they barely ever had anything other than building supplies. And, anything else they did have like furniture or housewares was just priced too high. $1.50 for a coffee cup was one example. So, I just never got here anymore. Today, I whipped in there for no reason at all and decided to just see what they had. I walked in the front door and sitting on the table right by the door - thisclose - was this!!!!!!


An Annalee Santa! I love Annalee dolls. But, then I panicked, because I remembered the high prices. I gritted my teeth and peeked - $1.00. Yahoooooooo! Sharalee got another Annalee! I was pleased to see that they prices had come down. A lot. Almost too much, in fact. Stuffed animals and baby dolls were 5¢ and 10¢. I saw a lady buying a armful of babydolls - Dora and others and she only spent 60¢. Coffee cups were 5¢. Pillowcases were 25¢, sheets are 50¢.

Needles to say, the Habitat Thrift store is back in my good graces and is now on my thrift rounds. Much to the dismay of the Husband and The Bean.

*My name really is Shara Lee. Lee is my middle name, but everyone called me Shara Lee until we moved to Arkansas.

Very Vintage Christmas Swap

I recently participated in the Very Vintage Christmas Swap at Foxgloves, Fabric and Folly . I had participated in Heidi's Vintage Halloween Swap, so I was excited to sign up for her Christmas Swap. (She now has sign-ups available for a Vintage Valentine Swap - so go sign up now!).

I was paired up with the lovely Ms. Peacock in San Diego. She doesn't have a blog, or rather, she has a blog, but doesn't remember the address of it. I have greatly encouraged her to blog, blog, blog so you can all be privy to her absolute generosity and kind spirit.

I received my package today and I swear to you, it was one of the absolute nicest most thoughtful gifts I have ever received from practically anyone. It amazes me that a stranger from across the country can send me a gift that makes me tear up with joy because it is so completely perfect, yet my Grandmother will give me one of those "As Seen on TV" donut makers. It really is astonishing that someone can take the time to get to know you and really, really try to please you.

When I opened the package I was greeted by this fabulous sight. An absolutely fabulous huge handmade stocking. It is divine. Tanya had a very good friend of hers make it for me. Love, love, love it. Yes, it is on my front door for the photo, but fear not - that was only for lighting purposes.



Inside the front pocket was a sweet silver spoon engraved with the monogram "S". "S" is such a popular initial that I rarely ever find it. And, since my initials are "SS" - I am pretty much out of luck if I can't find my first or last initial!

Inside the stocking was a plethora of goodies including this old slide ruler. I told you she knew me, right?

Other fantastic goodies included a huge can of old fashioned hard candy just like we always had in the candy jar at my house when I was a kid, some Nutcracker tea, a box of vintage glass ornaments, a vintage poinsettia apron, a vintage poinsettia tablecloth and a sparkly glittery banner kit that reads HAPPY HOLIDAYS. That sounds like plenty, right?

But, wait! There's more!

When we signed up for the swap, we had to answer a few questions. One of those was "What craft would you like to try?" I answered felting because I see these fantastic creations on blogs that were felted with roving and I just think they are fantastic! I don't even have any idea what on earth you need to start or how you go about it, but those little felted bluebirds just call out to me..."Make me! Make me!"

So, what did my lovely swap partner send me?

Everything you need to felt! Can you believe how sweet she was to send me all this fabulosity?????? Three nice pieces of handmade felt, roving, a felting tool and a wonderful book chock full of felting projects. I am just in awe.

So, thank you Tanya, thank you so much!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll leave you with a quick little project I made the other night. It took me about five whole minutes, but I really like it. I had purchased a box of very old Christmas Cards a few years ago. Usually I clip them on an old window frame or on a Christmas Tree shaped card holder that I have in the living room. We have a bay window that stretches across the width of the living room and it has a weird wall that sticks out above it. I was looking for something to fill up that space. 'Cause you can't have any blank wall space, ya know.

I sorted the cards by size, color and style so they were laid out big, small, big, etc. I used my trusty hole punch and punched two holes in each card - one on either side at the top. Then I strung a ribbon in and out of the holes until I had a ten foot banner. Very simple, indeed, but I like the look of it and how it fills up that weirdo wall. (Those are the curtains that I only put out at Christmas. They used to be our everyday curtains, but we got new ones several years ago. But they don't match the Christmas decorations, so I whip out the trusty old gingham curtains. Why am I telling you this? They probably look normal to you, but they look outdated to me since they are the "old" curtains.) I digress. But, what else is new?

Out of Control

I'm finished decorating. Finally! Woohoo! We got the tree up and decorated today. That's my least favorite task and my least favorite item. I think it's my lest favorite becuase I do it last and by the time I get to it, I am exhauted and tired of all things Christmas. Not tired of them, just ready to be DONE. And, I am. Woohoo! Yesterday we finished up the outside and it was a good thing we did. Today turned up horrific winds, cold temperatures and a call for thundershowers tonight and snow tomorrow.

I knew I was getting borderline crazy with my decorating on Saturday. I was looking at my little pink glittered house with the bottle brush trees and the glittered garage out back when I realized it was mising something. A car!

What good is a garage without a car? I raided The Bean's Hot Wheel collection and put a car there. But, it just didn't look right. Hmmm. What to do, what to do...... I know!

Glitter! Sparkly blue glitter!

Ah, much better. Please, don't tell The Bean that I glittered one of his Hot Wheels. That is just between you and me and the glitter jar.

No one at our house looks forward to the Christmas tree more than our little girl kitty. Little Lady. Oh, how she loves the tree. She will sleep under it from now until I take it down after New Year's.

When she isn't asleep, she just curls up under it and gazes up at the lights. I swear, she swoons. We think it is just the sweetest thing ever.

The cat basket is sitting under the tree too. Our big tubbo cat, Tiger has taken over the basket now that Little Lady is under the tree 24/7.

And, here is Pity. My Mom said I never put Pity on my blog. Pity is a loner. She stays in the back of the house most of the day. She comes out in the venings and sleeps on the arm of the couch.

That Monkey Cake

I think all of you remember (or maybe even still have nightmares) about my terrible awful horrible monkey cake.

Remember how The Bean requested a cute, Curious George-ish cake for my birthday this year?

How the assumed it might look a lot like this cute Curious George cake? A happy sweet funny cake?

And how horrified we were to discover this in the box?

Ack! That's not Curious George! It is Curious though!

I decided to submit it to Cake Wrecks and it became an instant favorite. In fact, it is listed #1 on the side of the Cake Wrecks Website as a Fan Favorite.

I thought that was the end of the story. But then......The Geek Squad over at Comedy.com found Cake Wrecks and decided to write a jingle for the site. You can skip ahead to 1:27 on the video just to see the Cake Wrecks jingle. They only featured about 20 or so cakes in the video, but my hideous monkey cake made the cut.

Then the creator of Cake Wrecks was a guest blogger at Cupcakes Take the Cake where she featured once again, the monkey cake as a fan favorite.

And, then inexplicably enough - people started Wreckplicas the monkey cake. On purpose!

Holy Moly. It's perfect. If a terrible awful monkey cake can be perfect!

Does the story end here? Let's hope not. Yesterday, I released the photo back to Cake Wrecks for possible inclusion in the Cake Wrecks BOOK! *Cross you fingers!* (I'm just happy my age wasn't on that darn monkey cake!)

Pinhole Glasses

Recently I was contacted by a company asking me to try their pinhole glasses and review them on my blog. I accepted the offer and received the glasses from Italy about two months later.



Here's what the company has to say about their glasses: Pinhole Glasses are the modern and affordable alternative to prescription eyeglasses, pinhole glasses consist of precision-manufactured lightweight perforated plastic lenses, inset into standard metal or plastic spectacle frames. They are ideal for sufferers of refractive eye disorders, the elderly and computer users as the pinholes - accurately formed by laser technology - allow only direct and coherent light rays to pass through into the eye. Read here to see how it works.


I was anxious to try these once they arrived. I waited until night when I had taken my contacts out to try them. I have extremely poor eyesight. My contact prescription is -9.50/-8.50, so seeing clearly without contacts or glasses certainly sounded like a great idea. Once I had them on, I tried to watch TV. I could see the colors brighter, but I couldn't make out the words or faces. It was still a blur to me. But, like I said, I have very poor vision. I decided to try them on some other family members. My Stepfather tried them. He has poor vision too, but not as bad as mine. He was able to read the TV and make out faces. So, for him, they did work. But, for me, they did not work. I think if your vision is off a bit, but not as badly as mine, you would find these useful for watching TV at night before bed. Or they would be useful to keep in your purse for an emergency.

Here's the website for the pin hole glasses if you would like more information.

Thursday's Thrifty Finds

Today was a very cold day. We seem to be having an unusually harsh winter so far here in Arkansas. It was only in the low 30's all day with wind chills much lower than 30. A perfect day to be snuggled in at home. Or was it????

See, I heard the thrift calling to me. Honestly. It was the furthest thing from my mind, but suddenly I knew I had to go. So, I did. I wasn't int he door five minutes before I knew why I had to go rightnow.

No, it wasn't another dip into the 5¢ ornament bin. Although these little baubles made me happy too. The unique Shiny Brite box was a nice 25¢ score too.

It wasn't a this vintage Christmas tablecloth either. Although, for $1.00, it was a nice find.

And, as you can clearly see, I really needed another Christmas tablecloth!

No, it was this 5¢ find that made me giddy.

A 1961 Annalee Angel tree topper. Now, I now some people don't like Annalee dolls. Some people even hate Annalee dolls. But, I just love them. Their little hand painted faces are so comical. So, to find one for a mere nickel was, well, priceless.

Has the thrift ever called to you? And did you know why when you got there?

Can You Spot The Difference?

Do you remember those Hocus Focus cartoons in the comic section? Can you spot five differences in the two photos? There would be a drawing of a room, and in one picture there would be a picture of a bowl of fruit on the wall, and in the other picture there would be a picture of a goat on the wall. Remember?

We are playing Hocus Focus around here everyday. Well, I am anyway.

Would you like to play along? We'll start with an easy one.

Yesterday.......

Today......
Okay, that was an easy one.

Let's try another one.

The clock cabinet as photographed yesterday.
And today.


Hmmmmm. What about that greenery? And that vintage bottle brush tree? Did you find all three? Yeah!

So, now you are feeling pretty confident, aren't you? Not so fast......

Yesterday's Dime Store display....

Today's display.

Let's just say, I found a LOT more stuff to add to it. And, now I think it's perfect!

Until I find something else to cram in there.

Let's see...I added the cupcake picks, wind-up Santa, candy containers, lollipop holders and the funny old Nativity sets.


Here I added the candy container boots, Shiny Brite ornies in the boot and the Melodee Christmas Bells box. I got those bells in a swap box a few years ago and I was floored to get something so fantastic. The bells are aluminum and the same colors as those old ,metal tumblers that froze to your lip when you drank out of them. I put the bells on my vintage tree, but I am thinking they might look better int he box. (But, I won't photograph it if I do. Maybe).

What did I add here? More candy containers and a little plastic Santa and reindeer in the tree.

Do you add to your displays and rearrange them? I reconfigure and change it around and then *suddenly* it's perfect.

I realized why I love my Christmas things so much. Actually all my holiday items for that matter. If I get them out on December 1st and box them up on January 1st - I have only seen my pretties for a total of 31 days. I see my regular stuff 30 days a month for 11 months out of the year, so that is equivalent to 11 years in Christmas months. So, no wonder I am anxious to see it each year. But what if I saw my Christmas stuff all year long? Would I be longing to see my regular stuff?

*A note to Barbara at Oodles and Oodles - your comment about my Dime Store Display absolutely made my week. To think that something I did impressed you - the Queen of vintage, the Queen of Holiday.......Yowza! (And to the rest of you that liked it too - THANK YOU!)

It's beginning to look a lot like, well, you know.

It snowed last night. Not much, but enough to consider it snow in Arkansas. I took this photo as proof to The Bean that it has actually snowed. He's taken to sleeping late on Mondays. (If 8:00 can be considered late.) That's okay, it gives me time to get my morning chores done before we start school.After I took this photo, it snowed quite a bit more, but then it all melted again. It was just enough to make it cold and for it to be the perfect day at home, learning about the American Frontier and doing some more Christmas decorating.

Last night I made this wreath out of my less desirable Shiny Brites. By less desirable, I mean not figural or the ones with indents. With every squirt of hot glue, I fully expected each and every Shiny Brite to explode in my hand. But, luckily, that never happened.
I kept adding one here and one there to even it out and make it round, but I really think you could add ornies all day and make it as big as a tractor tire and it would never be completely symmetrical. Finally I pulled out a box of my treasured smaller Shiny Brites and filled in here and there and it came out pretty well. I took the photo at an angle, so it still looks a bit off on the right side, but it's basically round - ish.

I filled my big glass jar lamp up with the smaller Shiny Brites. Pardon that pile of roadkill Santi on the side there - it is all still very much a work in progress at my house. I was just happy to have enough little ornaments to fill up that big jar this year. The thrifting gods have smiled upon me this year and let me find plenty of little ornies.

I've had this old clock case for quite awhile. I usually have a carved rooster in it, but that had to go for Christmastime. This is one of my favorite Santas out of my humongous collection of Santas, so I decided to showcase him. He is hand-sculpted out of clay, hand-painted, his clothes are handmade, etc. He is really cool and I found him for only 50¢ at the thrift. The "Santa Collector" sign was a no brainer purchase at a thrift a few years ago.

My happiest finds this year and in the past few years has been vintage Christmas packaging. I love it when I find anything vintage still in the box. But, the truth is, I usually love the box with it's colorful graphics far more than whatever lies inside the box. Several times this past year, I have purchased items and handed the item inside back to be resold. Especially when there is some random item in a cool old box. That vintage gift wrap box was full of cut sewing patterns. I bought the box for 50¢ and handed them back the sewing patterns to be sold again.

This year I was determined to use the packaging, but I wasn't sure how to display them. When I saw this post on My Vintage Soul, I knew I had my answer. The Dime Store. I gathered up all my packaging and a few things that you could have bought at the Dime Store and put them all on my Holiday Shelves. There's Shiny Brite boxes of every size and style, various light bulb packaging, candles, tree stands, ornament hangers (a favorite of mine due to their size and graphics), a fruitcake tin with a cool old Santa, Santa themed cigarettes (yes, you read that right), a tabletop aluminum tree and a box of vintage tinsel garland to round it all out. I know my fellow blog buddies will like it, but not so sure if any real life people would "get it". You get it though. Right? I thought so.