Christmas Came Early For Me!

Oh what fun I had with my friend at the thrift shop the other day! I always seems to have good luck when I go with her. She's my lucky charm I guess! We both got some good stuff! She was able to find some items for her daughter's log cabin weekend house--perfect! And I found a bunch of Christmas items, some retro, some not, that I just loved. My favorite is the vignette in the Christmas ball above. I just love it so much and decided to display it on a crystal pedestal that I added some glitter snow to. Here's an up close pic. It's pretty large. My favorite find of the day! Reminded me of some of our blogger friends' projects!

There were so many good things and the prices were perfect! $2 each for these cookie jars:

A musical Teddy Bear! He spins to the music and works perfectly. $2

A smaller ceramic light up for $2. What a bargain.

More great stuff!

And the items below were all $1 or less! 

                                                   

And last but not least, this homemade reindeer who stared at me the whole time I shopped and was sending me silent messages saying "please buy me, please buy me." okay, sure! hop in! 

When I woke up this morning, I was still  excited about my goodies. Sometimes I wonder how people can part with homemade goods from relatives. So many of the things I buy that are homemade and older remind me of my relatives that loved doing crafts who are no longer with us. I miss them so much.When I see things with colorful beads or beaded ornaments I think of my Aunt Jean. When I see afghans I think of my Grandma and her sisters who made them. Everyone made granny square afghans! My Mom made them too but can no longer hold the crochet needle due to arthritis. These items are treasures! 

If you've gone to Dollar Tree lately, they have had some unique stuff. I found these "chalkboard tags". I'm probably not going to use them for Christmas gifts but I was thinking of tagging different mason jars with them throughout the whole year. Even if you filled a mason jar with Christmas greens and ornaments, you could add a chalkboard tag that says "Seasons Greetings" or something....They are shaped like a plaque--not a sled. In the picture it looks like a sled...that's just cardboard holding them in and it even came with chalk. 

Our elf on the shelf, Merry, has found some unique spots to hang out....Caitlin has been good this year (well, for the most part...) so she should get just about everything she has asked for.

I bought this decoration  below at KMart to hang in the hallway by my back door since that is the door our friendly raccoon, Miss Raccoonie, comes to at night for her dinner...for the last five years! Seriously. She's our polite raccoon friend who waits patiently on the rear porch for her dinner. Then she quietly eats and goes away till the next night. She sits in the same spot and looks at us through the full view glass door until her dinner is ready. She's very sweet. Like me, she's turning gray now :) she's raised three litters of babies over our five years together though her babies, once grown, didn't stay here to eat. Just her. We're friends!

Have a happy day wherever you are!