Happy Holidays!

Wishing you and yours a happy and safe holiday season!  I am excited that we should have a white Christmas this year – the foot of snow that fell here last weekend hasn’t done too much melting yet.

On to my exciting news that I have to share – I am honored to have one of my chenille angel ornaments featured on the cover of the Winter 2009 issue of Celebrate 365 magazine.   I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my copy of the magazine to get a peek at what is inside as well.  A picture of the cover is below.

I also have two new sets of two Valentine’s Day ornaments to share.  Both sets are available now in my Old World Primitives Etsy shop. These little Victorian ladies are made of chenille with crepe paper skirts.

A Primitive Doll Named Emily

I have managed to complete one of the work in progress dolls that I posted about last week, and get her added to my Old World Primitives Etsy shop yesterday.  Her name is Emily, and she decided that she wanted to wear an outfit with a bit of a festive feel to it for the holidays.  Here she is below, after her paint had dried, but before she was antiqued, getting ready to get dressed.  Her skirt is made from reproduction mid 1800s fabric.

Here is Emily all completed, demurely posing for her photo.

Her friends will be joining her soon… but for now it’s back to work on completing a few more orders first for me.   Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

New Kitties and Works in Progress

I added a new set of kitty themed chenille ornaments to my Old World Primitives Etsy shop this past week – a set of 3 calico cats with paper Victorian scrap faces.  I have some hanging from the feather tree on my mantel and looking quite festive.

This holiday season has been keeping me quite busy with wholesale orders, but I am determined to complete some new dolls that I have been working on by the end of the coming week.  Below is a peek at them as works in progress, sitting behind and beneath a small sea of Christmas ornaments that I will be packing up tonight.

I hope to be showing these dolls completed very soon.

Snowman Ornaments and Quilting

I added a new set of chenille Christmas ornaments to my Old World Primitives Etsy Shop today – a set of 3 snowmen wearing red scarves.

They are all ready for the winter weather to begin! I’m not quite ready yet though… there are still plenty of veggies hanging in there in my gardens that I am hoping will ripen before the first frost.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Halloween weekends!  I spent my Halloween with family and friends in beautiful Lancaster County, PA.   We made our annual trip to Cherry Crest Farm, did some shopping (I added the most wonderful new handmade folk art piece to my collection), and enjoyed our favorite local edible treats.  Lancaster County also happens to be the quilt capital of the USA, and during our visit we stopped into The People’s Place Quilt Museum. It was here that my husband Max finally came to appreciate the beauty and artistic merit of quilts… and decided that he just had to try making his own!  He bought a quilt kit in a local shop with the materials and instructions necessary to make a 22″ square wall hanging quilt.  I showed him how to use a sewing machine (for the very first time, believe it or not) and then he was off – and look at what he completed in his first day of both sewing and quilting.  I have to say, I am pretty impressed!

I can’t wait until he makes us a nice Queen sized quilt for our bed after finishing this one! Does anyone have any recommendations for designing your own quilt?

Chenille Christmas Cat and Dog Ornaments

I added two new sets of chenille ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop today, especially for cat and dog lovers (like myself!).

They can be used as feather tree ornaments for Christmas or everyday, and would also make nice handmade wedding favors.

While starting to create for Christmas, I am still enjoying counting down to Halloween!  Last weekend I went to a spooktacular Halloween costume party that featured some truly out of this world decorations and interactive displays.  Below are some of the photos that I took during the evening, including pictures of the *least* scary decorations. In one room, the walls reached out and grabbed me… twice!

Witch and Angel Ornaments

This week finds me once again busily preparing items for both The Witches Ball on October 10th in Mount Holly, NJ (can’t wait – it looks like it will be such a fun evening!) and the next Early Work Mercantile update on October 1st.  The fun weekend excursions of fall have also begun – if the weather cooperates this weekend, I will be taking a trip out to beautiful Lancaster County, PA to do some shopping, get lost in a corn maze, and soak in the beautiful sights in the countryside.  I am also looking forward to going to The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze again this year.

I have also managed to squeeze in two new additions to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop.  First is a set of 2 vintage style Halloween ornaments made of chenille, crepe paper, and vintage witch faces printed on card stock.  The set includes 2 of the wee witch pictured below.

Second is a set of 3 Victorian angel Christmas ornaments made of chenille and Victorian angel faces printed on card stock.  They can be used as feather tree ornaments for Christmas or everyday, and would also make nice handmade wedding favors.

Vintage Style Chenille Christmas Ornaments

Today I am taking a short break from furiously preparing Halloween orders and show inventory to share the newest addition to  the Old World Primitives Etsy shop – a new set of 3 vintage style chenille Christmas ornaments.

Each Christmas ornament is made of chenille, Victorian Santa and vintage Christmas images printed on card stock, and a mini frosted Christmas tree.  They are the perfect size to use as either feather tree or Christmas tree ornaments.  They also make great gifts, and come packaged in a clear cellophane bag tied with a bow.

Primitive Folk Art Crow Doll

I just added a new doll to my Old World Primitives Etsy shop that I am very excited to share – Cratchit the Crow! What a treat he was to make. He is all dressed up for winter, and just as I began his photo shoot it finally started to snow here in New Jersey – the first real snow we have had this winter at my home. Now it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I created this primitive crow doll using a Soft in the Head pattern, with permission. On to the photos…

SOLD, thank you!

There are a few more photos in his Etsy listing, go take a peek!

Christmas Home Tour – Primitive and Victorian Decor

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is getting to see how beautiful my parents’ house looks all decorated for Christmas. My Mom spends 5 days putting all of her decorations out, plus a 6th day for decorating the tree. This year when I was at their house helping decorate the tree, I took a bunch of photos of their primitive and Victorian Christmas decor to share here. One day, I hope that my home will also look this nice.

Their Christmas tree is filled with so many wonderful antique and vintage ornaments. I have been adding more decorations to my primitive twig tree at my home too – I will have to post some updated pictures soon. It also now has 5 strands of antique glass bead garlands on it that my Mom pulled out of a box of antique Christmas decorations from my grandparents.

December WSOAPP Shoppe Update

It’s time for the WSOAPP December 7th update! I just added the new extreme primitive angel doll pictured below to my Old World Primitives WSOAPP Shoppe. There are still a few days left to enter the free Door Prize giveaway that I am hosting in my WSOAPP shoppe too. The winner will be announced on December 10th!

This doll is SOLD and is getting ready to fly to her new home!

Don’t forget – WSOAPP is hosting a Holiday Open House through December 10th. Be sure to stop by and enter our giveaway for a $50 gift certificate that will be redeemable in any WSOAPP Market Street Shoppe (if you haven’t already!).