Recycled Ornaments

Never throw out those broken glass ornaments. Instead, put them to good use. I mentioned my friend Tom who used to sell Radko glass ornaments. He moved to Phoenix a few years back and when he left he dropped off a box of broken Radko ornaments. I’m not talking scratch and dent here; I’m talking major chunks missing. Well, rather than just throwing them out, I put them to good use.

I bought an undecorated green wreath and glued the broken ornaments on to the wreath in a way that you could not see where a chunk of it was missing. Once I glued all the ornaments in place, I went back and hot glued in small pieces of glittered permanent greens so that any hint that these ornaments were broken cannot be seen. I’ve had this wreath hanging just inside my front door on a decorative metal trellis for a couple years and no one has ever noticed or known that any of them were broken – unless I pointed it out to them.

Make your day a good one.

Christmas Tree Time

As promised, here are some photos of my house. Yes, there are two trees in the living room – side by side, connected with glass garlands. One look at this and it confirms that I have been in retail for way too many years, snatching up ornaments at ½ price the day after Christmas and buying those that I love at full price before. It also helps that my very good friend Tom sold Christopher Radko ornaments for years and he let me buy some of his samples at bargain prices. Recently, my glass ornament purchases have been from the Inge Glas Collection.

Make your day a good one.

Deck the Halls

It’s the annual “Deck the Halls” event at my house this weekend. It will start with me driving to Southern MN to pick up my niece Kelsey who will come back up to Minneapolis with me to help decorate my house from top to bottom. Three trees - yes that is correct, three - two in the living room and one in the lower level.

When lighting your tree, start from the top and work down. It’s a lot easier to use up any extra lights around the bottom of the tree rather than at the top. Run a power strip up to the middle of the tree and plug the cords in to the power strip. If you mix colored lights and clear lights, which does look nice, keep the 60/40 rule in mind. Use 60% of one type and 40% of the other.
I’ll be showing you some pics of my house in the days and weeks to come.

Make your day a good one.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! There are 16 folks coming here. The tables are set with countless mini pumpkins and gourds running down the middle of each table. Good décor, good friends and good food – it does not get much better than this.

I hope your day is a good one.