We now move upstairs to the second floor. The staircase features a lighted garland decorated with ribbon. On the garland are life-like bird ornaments, with birdhouses I painted and glittered to match.
At the end of the second floor hall is the Hallmark tree. We will focus on that tomorrow.
We are now in the Dining Room. In this room we have two smaller feather trees, a white and a green one, both by Martha Stewart. The white tree features several sets of the Department 56 “Partridge in a Pear Tree” minatures set:
The green feather tree features small glass ornaments, including number of vintage ones.
Off the living room is the kitchen office area. Here in a nice, deep window I have a kissing ball decorating with a vintage-style garland by Seasons of Cannon Falls (I think). On each side are reproduction Shiny Brite ornaments by Christopher Radko. On the window sill are picture frame ornaments featuring some past pets, along with a set of Neapolitan angel pictures on card stock from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Finishing off the living room is a table with some nautical themed holiday items.
There is a ship’s captain nutcracker on the right, the sailboat model (which is in the room year-round) is decorated with a miniature light garland by Kurt Adler. The Santa Sailor to the left is by Jim Shore
At the other end of the living room is the space tree. This tree features Star Wars, Star Trek, as well as other space-themed ornaments.
The tree is lit in part with reproduction bubble lights, which brings back memories for a lot of our guests. Vintage English Dinky Toy spaceships share the bottom of the tree with cosmic-blue wrapped gifts.
Here are two close-ups of the tree:
Starship Enterprise with Star Wars miniature lunchbox in background, both by Hallmark.
An astronaut sitting on the moon, and a very creative alien, both by De Carlini.
Moving toward the other end of the living room, the fireplace features the majority of the nutcracker collection:
The nutcrackers come from Germany, as well as China and other countries. If you look hard, you can make out Henry the VIII, The Phantom of the Opera, Fife and Drum players from Colonial Williamsburg, Christorpher Columbus, and The Queen of Diamonds.
The curved garland above the fireplace (made with heavy duty wire and a lot of bending) features nutcraker-themed ornaments.
Reproduction Kugels hang around the fireplace garland, along with several ornaments and stockings from the “Vintage Modern” collection by Thomas O’Brien. The ends of the fireplace (you can’t see them here) feature the clear acrylic 12 Days of Christmas series by Hallmark.
Here is the view of the fireplace in relation to the main tree. You can see reflections of the space tree (tomorrow!) in the glass panes of the door to the right.
Back to blogging – it took awhile to put everything away! I thought for the next few days I would show you around the 2008 display. We start with the main tree in the living room:
This tree features the majority of my ornaments. It includes ornaments from Christopher Rakdo, Joy to The World, De Carlini, David Strand, Wallace Silvermiths, Debee Thibault, Patricia Breen, Inge-Glas, Old World Christmas, and many, many more. Ornaments date from the early 40’s to present day.
Here is a close-up of the main tree:
On top of bookshelves you can part of the nutcracker collection, most of it is on the mantel (that view is tomorrow). On the first shelf of the right bookshelf is the Fontanini nativity, which dates from the late 60’s, early 70’s.
On the first shelf of the left hand bookself is a hummel-like alpine village I made in the early 80’s at my Aunt’s Ceramic shop. Next to it is a digital photo holiday ball – it features pictures of my family’s trees from my childhood.
Over the doorway on the left (you can barely make it out) is a garland with vintage shiny-brite ornaments, as well as a collection of pull-toy ornaments.
