Shiny Brites on Display

I have two more Shiny Brite ideas for you today. The simplest is to just pile a bunch of ornaments in a bowl or vase and enjoy!

When I spotted this hobnail bowl at an estate sale this fall, I knew it would be perfect filled with Shiny Brites!

Here is a sneak peak at some of the new living room decorating. I haven't forgotten about it! It has just been a slower than anticipated process. I keep reminding myself it isn't a race! Anyway here is a peek at the shelves. Much cleaner and brighter!

One of our vintage nativity sets is on the top shelf. I love the sweetness of their expressions! It has been a few years since we have gotten it out. I love how well they shoe up against the white.

And on the third shelf, my cardboard houses. They aren't that fragile and can withstand a bit of poking and prodding by a little niece's fingers. 

But I think this has been my favorite this year! It was a bit of a splurge, but well worth it!

I first saw one of these ornament trees at an antique shop (displaying Shiny Brites, naturally!). It was love at first sight and I was crushed to discover a not-for-sale tag on it! Well, I rushed home and started googling, sure there was another out there for me.

Eventually I found it at Crate and Barrel! Not somewhere I usually shop or would have thought to look. And right now they are on sale HERE! There are several sizes and colors, so be sure to look around. (Maybe I need another one?!?) 

We have been enjoying the ornament tree in the middle of the dining room table. But I thought pictures would be nice on the buffet. 

So those all my ideas on how to display Shiny Brites! Do you have a favorite? Or do you have an idea on how to display them? (I am always looking for more ideas!)

Shiny Brite Windows

 One of my Christmas crafts this year was making a Shiny Brite wreath. I was drooling over them on Pintrest this fall and finally decided I need to make one!

It was rather simple process. I wrapped an already owned wreath form in silver tinsel, wired the ornaments on and sat little elf on it. Done! Since I used one of my favorite wreaths (it is still wrapped in burlap ribbon under the tinsel), I secured the tinsel with straight pins and used thin wire to attach the Shiny Brites. It will also make storage easy as the ornaments can go back into their special boxes and the wreath can go in it's own tub.

 This elf is actually a new Hobby Lobby find. But doesn't he look perfectly vintage?

 How could I not have bells? I don't think these are as old as the Shiny Brites, but they have survived since childhood and are always an essential decoration.

 For those of you who have been here for previous Christmases, you will remember the second year in the little bungalow I hung ornaments in the two piano windows. They have been a favorite decoration each year!

I always find the piano windows especially fun to decorate! What is your favorite decoration or spot to decorate?

Shiny Brites on the Tree

Of course the traditional way to display Shiny Brite ornaments is on a Christmas tree. And we have plenty on our tree! When the tree looks sufficiently decorated, we stop putting them up and every year, we still have ornaments in the box. We haven't been able to find a big enough tree to hold them all yet! 

 I love how many shapes and sizes vintage glass ornaments in come it! This one is a bit more space age looking. Probably the late 1950s.

 This is one of my favorites. We have several identical ones. I was very excited to be able to capture the sparkle on it! During WWII, the materials to make the ornaments shiny was not available, so they make clear ones with plenty of glitter!

The tinsel garland is new this year from Hobby Lobby. It has a very vintage "tin-foil" look to it. Of course it has to become part of my Christmas decoration collection!

 I love flowers on this little side table. This year I was planning on putting something else there, but it just didn't look right. So the poinsettias went back, paired with a vintage Elf on the Shelf.

 We have a small collection sprinkled around of these little elves. They all have such sweet faces.

 More Shiny Brite pictures! I can't help myself! I also posted a short history two years ago HERE.

It is always essential to listen to Christmas carols while decorating the tree. This year a new favorite is the Louvin Brothers. I am not usually much of a country music fan, but after a busy day they were soothing to listen to while hanging ornaments. Hope you enjoy them too!

Shiny Brite Season

 Did anyone see November? I caught a small glimpse of Thanksgiving as it whizzed by. And now here it is: December!

 We are decking the halls with Shiny Brites this year at the little bungalow! There are so many ornaments in our collection that we never put them all on the tree. So I have been working on creative ways to display more of them. Hopefully, tonight we will be getting our Christmas tree and I can take some pictures to share! It always feels like Christmas once the tree is up. We are also suppose to get a bit of snow, so that will add to the cozy feel.

Have-Done List 2017

(Every year on the anniversary of owning my bungalow I like to create a Have-Done-List to celebrate all that I have accomplished on my house. I started this on my first anniversary and it is one of my favorite things to do each year!)

It is that time of year again! This will be the 5th year I have owned the little cottage and four years since we have lived here (it took almost a year to fix up). 

I am not sure if it is just time or the projects we got done this year or that life feels a bit calmer, but I am feeling "settled". You know that feeling of comfortableness, the knowledge when trying to recall an event that it took place in THIS house? Maybe it is just I am realizing we have lived here long enough to start touching up the paint on the walls....

Whatever the reason, it is a nice feeling!

Bathroom Trim and Windowsill

A Blank Wall

Even though I haven't finished re-decorating yet, I am hoping it will be done before the Christmas tree needs to go up!

Kitchen Trim

I think I was the most excited (still am!) about getting this one done!

Sewing Room Re-Do

I always like to look back at previous years. It is pretty amazing where it all started....
Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Year Four

1920's Bungalows

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Who doesn't love a cute house? For me the cutest and the ones that make me sigh the loudest are bungalows from the 1920's. Our town has a plethora of architectural styles from across the years and happily for me there was a major building boom in the 1920's. I love driving or walking the streets admiring all the houses.

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The word "Bungalow" is somewhat generic. According to The Bungalow Book by Charles E. White published in 1923: "The term "bungalow" is a misnomer when applied to many American homes. To the average householder the term suggests a low, single-story dwelling with or without a second floor. In the minds of American it conjures up visions of a squatty building hugging hillside or meadow, with windows divided into little panes, verandas or porches extending along one or more sides and a low, overhanging room in the shelter of which trellises clime from the ground, covered with creeping vines. A pergola extends outwardly from a diminutive white doorway spanning a brick terrace or irregular shaped stone flagging; little children run gayly about in the garden picking bright flowers with which the sunny rooms are to be festooned. 

      In America, the word "bungalow" is hard-worked, vacillating, meaningless but it has become so firmly rooted in American mind that the term is now practically sanctioned by good usage.

A bungalow should be a home with all the charm and individuality of the approved house of two stories.

There is something cozy about a bungalow, inside as well as outside, and this most desirable quality makes an appeal to many who, having viewed with satisfaction the better class of bungalows feel a tug at their heartstrings and a desire to create the same type of building for their own home. At the same time an architectural effect on attainable with any other type of building is made possible in the bungalow. Who can forgo the charm of the low, broad roof line, the little front entrance with it quaint door opening so close to the ground, the low outlines of the little building which seems to nestle to snugly in its setting and offers so little competition with Nature as it rests modestly against the sky line, instead of rearing itself aggressively above the horizon.

The diminutive seems to appeal intensely to humans; the little bungalow attracts all eyes even the eyes of those who, with ample means to carry out their most cherished wishes, are yet attracted toward the sweet simplicity of the bungalow types, its freedom from pretense, and the artistic manner in which it fits the landscape.

The adaptation of the bungalow from Indian to American conditions has so changes its design that it is no longer recognizable, but the word "bungalow: has remained and will probably always exist as an architectural term applied to the low, single-story or story-and-half cottages with which we are familiar."

I am not sure if Charles E. White really clears up the question of what a bungalow actually is, but generally they have no more than one and a half stores, have broad eaves with a low pitched roof, generous front porches and ooze charm.

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Recently I realized just how much I love bungalows! Several houses have gone up for sale in the neighborhood and I just had to go to the open houses. The ohh and ahhing I did in the bungalows! Even though the non-bungalow I went through was an old small house, it didn't have quite as much charm.

Somehow, those 1920's architects managed to get everything just right. The living space feels spacious without being enormous, there are plenty of sunny windows and just enough quirks to make it charming. The minute I step through the door I feel right at home!

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All of these floor plans have similarities to the floor plan of my little bungalow, but this one is the most similar.

I hope you have as much fun browsing these as I did! Do you have a favorite style of house that makes you want to cozy in?

A Finished Kitchen

 This post has been a long time coming. But as this room is a very hard working kitchen, it has been hard to find a time when it was tidy or close to being tidy, with no meal times upcoming, plus a nice sunny day.

Finally this past Sunday as I was getting ready to make applesauce, I realized it was the perfect time to take a few pictures! And a few beautiful red apples made a nice accent.

So here it is, a completely trimmed out kitchen!

(I had also been waiting to finish up the last of the kitchen baseboard. We didn't quite have enough time to get it done in June when we did the bathroom.)

Oh how I love my windowsills! When I bought this little cottage, the kitchen was rather sad. It's last update was about 1950. It had forest green carpet, wood stained cabinets, tiny ranch trim around the windows and no baseboards! One of my pet peeves is mismatched trim, so when I was ripping things out, out went the ranch style trim. Once the new 1920s style trim went back in, new windowsills were also needed to look correct. They are now thicker and wider. Which means they are perfect for perching things on!

 Doesn't it look like it has always been there? 

Of course, with all the beautiful trim I had to have new curtains that didn't cover it up! Since I already had vinyl roller shades, I took the shades apart and re-used the hardware to make fabric shades. Isn't the fabric the perfect shade of Pyrex aqua?

I am still working on gathering little things for the shelves. This was just what I could find around the house. The shelves were original to the kitchen cupboards and at first I wasn't going to put them back up, but I changed my mind. They add a very vintage touch, don't they! Unfortunately, the original boards where so stinky I had to have replacements made. (They smelled very much like cat, though I am not sure how that is possible. No amount of sunning, bleaching or priming could get it out of the wood.)

 This is the "other" side of the kitchen. It is very typical of 1920s houses to leave the refrigerator hanging out in space. Hopefully some day I can remedy that, but for now we are utilizing every bit of space around it the best we can!

 The kitchen has always seems "not quite right" to me. There was always something about it bothering me, it felt shabby and not pulled together. I wish I would have realized what it was sooner! The minute we trimmed out the windows I let out a sigh! This is what it needed. Trim! It is amazing how finished and tidy it feels now.

Here is the kitchen when I bought the house, Just after we moved in, last year with new door trim and basement door.

I also wanted to get this post up before the end of the month when I do my annual anniversary post. It will be five years since I owned the little cottage and four since we have lived in it!!