Some more Christmas pictures

The vintage bottle tree was moved to the kitchen window ledge.

Last week I did some decorating "switching around" and a little Christmas crafting with items I already had on hand.

Some items I have in the kitchen all year provided a Christmas-y touch, like the vintage cookie cutters.  Others had a little Holiday tweaking.

The vintage molds were first given a layer of rock salt (like used in ice cream machines... you can use Kosher salt) then a layer of Christmas sprinkles.  I set one of the peppermint tea lights in each.  I received a package as a Christmas gift from a sweet friend a couple years ago.  I only used them at Christmas so I had some left.  Even though they are small, they smell wonderful!!!

Don't they sparkle when lit?  Everything came from items I already had so they cost nothing but a few minutes of time.  I saw something similar done with dry green split peas and then two or three fresh raspberries, too.  That would be cute!

I saw something similar to this on a blog and wondered why I hadn't thought of doing the same at Christmas.  It's really a Holiday variation on a candle I've seen on emergency preparedness sights (easy to keep the items on hand and make in a power loss).

One simply takes a jelly size canning jar, put a layer of rock salt or Kosher salt on the bottom, set a tea light inside it, and then place a canning lid ring on it.  I happened to have one with poinsettias left over from a gift received years ago so this makes it even more Christmas-y.

The one I saw online had a ribbon around it and I think a tiny bell added to the ribbon.  Since the ring I used had a Holiday theme, I left it as is.  You would be surprised how much light it gives off and regular tea lights are cheap.

I've shown you the milk bottle that I keep salt in all year to look like milk.  The peppermint sticks were bought on clearance last year.  I love the simplicity and the natural kitchen theme the milk bottle brings to the party.

The two tiny Bonne Maman jelly jars have been sitting empty in my yellow pantry (they are so cute, I knew I'd find a purpose for them) so I filled them with Christmas sprinkles and such and just set them on the old Cuisinart.

I decided not to make Christmas yo-yos right now, instead I'm going to start working on them with fabrics I'll use all year.  The best time for me to make Christmas sewing projects is in July and August when it is so hot outside.  I did this when I made items to sell at craft fairs in Iowa, I just put Christmas music on to get in the Holiday mood. :)