Vintage by Crystal

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Gifts from the Forest

I while back I posted about these amazing west coast acorns and pine cones sent to me from a very dear person and her friend, who collected these beauties in California and packaged them up so gorgeously for me. They sent some more forest floor treasures and I just have to share them again! Look how beautiful they are wrapped...

like in their own little cardboard shadow boxes...

...and two more boxes join the group!

Look at this large, pointy acorn! Here in New York and New England all the acorns are very round...not pointy or long at all. How unique!

And this past fall I collected some treasures of my own from the forest floor when we were camping at our friend Pete's property in Central NY.

Some princess pines and other interesting evergreens...that I'm pretty sure are maybe really large mosses...

I noticed that some of the vintage Christmas corsages I have include a sprig of real dried pine. When we were camping, I noticed these growing on the edge of a sandy dune and recognized some of them as the same kind of evergreen sprig they used in the corsages. I think they dried and dyed them. They were so abundant I didn't feel bad collecting a few to use for my own Christmas creations.

So far they are drying nicely and still have most of their green color. We'll see what they look like in about a year and if they'll need dying. Either way I'm "dying" to use them! :)

Friday, January 3, 2014

A Peek at our Christmas Decor!

With all the craziness that's been going on, I've been remiss in photographing and showing all the decorating we've done! Ben and I have both been working non-stop in the studio for months...with the exception of a couple of days here and there, two of which we spent decorating the house for the holidays! And before we take it all down, I wanted to show you what this year's display looks like!

The front hall mantel always gets a holiday treatment. Fresh Norway boughs harvested from in front of the house made the base for a small village of red houses.

A lead sledder that belonged to my step father in law says, "who needs snow when I have pine needles to slide down!"

I found these Santa mugs, all with different expressions, for a buck a piece at Brimfield this summer. I have more, but 4 fit nicely here.

The reading room got the biggest holiday treatment with white lights all around the windows, my big antique church on the piano, a village above the fireplace and of course...the Christmas tree!

A pair of antique bottle brush wreaths fit perfectly in these carved depressions on the piano.

Ben and I loaded the tree with almost every ornament I own....including this toilet paper clown...which was an early prelude to my spun cotton pieces.

The tree is drier than heck right down and the boughs have bent into a permanent downwards position from the weight of all the ornaments, but it's still beautiful!!

I didn't realize how many boots I had! It's rather ironic that Santa in the middle there is missing one of his boots.

My prized feather tree decorated with my most prized ornaments...

Even Mr. Squirrel helped to decorate...

I usually put my German feather tree in the space above the fireplace...but this year I decided to change it up and display my village there instead...

The brown backdrop bugs me a little...but other than that I think it looks amazing! The church in the middle had it's steeple come unglued (it's...ahem...Cody Foster after all), but it wound up working in my favor, since the whole church didn't fit on the shelf...I put the steeple on the shelf above...perfect!

The lead townspeople were happy to be out and about this holiday season!

I love gnomes!! And cotton bells too...

I used to use these two trees for shows...but now that they're retired, I can enjoy them all December long as they flank the fireplace!

The kitchen got some white Christmas love. Fabric scrap garlands and antique tin can snowflakes (very sharp and dangerous!) decorate the windows....

And I kept the kitchen mantel all white and silver too.

And hung a branch from outside above....we have high ceilings and it really draws your eye up! I wanted to hanging paper snowflakes from it...but....maybe next year.

A herd of white reindeer prance across the slate.

I put all my prettiest silver and white ornaments under glass. And I don't know why, but that handmade bird...clearly made by a child who is probably an old man or woman by now, is one of my very favorite pieces. It has wonderfully aged silver glitter blobs and a barely there feather sprig tail. Love it! And the wax Santa head is covered with cinnamon and smells AMAZING!

The dining room didn't get a ton of holiday infusion this year...just some vintage foil wreaths on the china cabinet...

And of course some felt mistletoe given to us by Ben's aunt Martha that elicited many smooches this year! :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Now...sniff sniff...time to take it all down...until next year! :)

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Our best creation yet...

Our beautiful baby girl, Olive Eleanora Sloane was born last Saturday, December 21st at 10:12pm. She weighed 7lb 7oz and measured 19.5" long. She has been the highlight of our holiday and will continue being the highlight of our lives. We love her so so much!! I've been recovering well and Ben, Olive and I are looking forward to getting back in the studio on Monday (Vintage by Crystal is officially a family business now!). So far parenthood has been awesome! :)

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Christmas Update!

The Deer Family - SOLD

Twas Eight days before Christmas, In upstate New York.

Not a creature was stirring, not even a spun cotton stork.

Crystal conjured her magic, to make beautiful treasures.

In hopes they would bring some joy and pleasure.

The studio glistened with sparkles so bright.

And out came these wonders of love and delight.

Their cuteness was strong. Too strong it's true.

Ben and Crystal can't keep them, what ever should they do?"

They thought long and hard, not but nothing was coming

These pieces will be homeless if they don't think of something.

When all hope was lost of sadness and dread

All of a sudden an idea struck Ben's head,

He cheered "Yippy!" and "Skippy!" and "Hip Hip Hooray!!"

"I have a solution. There's an update today!!!"

~~~~~

As usual, blog readers get first dibs on our new spun cotton one-of-kind figures. If you see something(s) you love, just email us at vintagebycrystal@yahoo.com and we'll let you know if they're still available. First come first served! we'll update item status in this post as often as we can to make it easier for you to know what's available. Items often get scooped up quickly, so make your selection as swiftly as you can, you can always add available pieces to your order later. Also feel free to include second choices in case your first choice is unavailable, but make sure you label them "second choice". Click on photos to enlarge.

Shipping is $3.50 for one item and $1 per additional item up to $6.50, then additional pieces are free. All paid orders will ship out immediately via first class mail and should arrive within a few days. We send Paypal invoices via email unless you specify that you'd rather pay via check. And of course email us if you have any questions!

Happy Shopping!