Merry Merry Christmas!

It never fails...Christmas is always this far away date. A tiny speck on your calendar's horizon. And then you blink...and here you are...it's Christmas Eve! You are at the finish line and you have no idea how you got there. For me and Aaron, and lots of other people who "make things" for a living, the lead up to Christmas is a blur of painting, cutting, gluing, wrapping, packing, and shipping. And then in the very last couple of days you're finally able to quickly shop for your family and tie up all those loose ends...such as putting the finishing touches on the tree! It wasn't until last night that I hung the final ornament...well maybe not the absolute final ornament...there's always room for one more. ;)

Being that we have so much more work to do on the house, we still have some blank walls and empty spaces. Lots of places that I have big plans for but as of now they are in a sort of limbo state. After we re-do the floors we plan on doing something special with this big white wall in the living room. For now its where we keep one of our favorite old chippy cupboards and our dollhouse. And we had plenty of space for our tree!

We have plans of re-doing the entire dollhouse, but for now we dressed it up for the holiday with some little bottle brush wreaths in each window. And how could we resist putting the perfect sized (and touched by Midas) Santa in the doorway? We also lit it up from the inside with a tiny set of Christmas lights.

This adorable vintage tree happens to be something that has been on my ultimate wish list for over 15 years! One of the few elusive white whales on my ebay watch list. Over the years I have bid on trees very similar to this one. Of course I was outbid many times when the stakes got too high. The closest I came to winning was back in 2008. I had birthday money and figured I'd finally go all in. But nope...I walked away once the bidding reached 125.00! Too rich for my blood.  

Well...guess what? I had birthday money once again this year...and I just so happened to have come by this one! And it had a buy it now price that was within my means! I truly couldn't believe it. Just too good to be true. And it gets even better. This tree arrived with a whole bunch more in the box. After the seller had learned that I was in the process of replacing all of the Christmas stuff that I had lost in the hurricane she included a whole bunch of amazing vintage ornaments as gifts...just because. So incredibly kind and generous! You do not come across ebay sellers like this very often. If you'd like to check our her auctions, her seller name is Jojorose.

In my searches for replacement decorations I had found a few great listings on ebay for vintage ornaments, and oh jeez the prices have skyrocketed over the past few years. Aaron and I have been collecting for nearly 19 years together, and our last tree was pretty darn full. So we had our work cut out for us if we wanted our new tree to live up to its predecessor's example. I did manage to score some absolute treasures...like the above box. Yes, that's the original box! There are some very special ones in this set! 

Our tree itself is a champagne tree! Which is not exactly gold, and not silver. I had been dreaming of owning one for so so long! Our last tree was white...which we loved! It was so sweet and bright and magical. And I had no reason to look for a new one...well, until we lost it. 

So began the search for a champagne tree, and ohhh mannn are they mega pricey! A 6ft tree can go for 800.00! 

So it was ebay to the rescue again. I found one for under 300.00, but I ended up missing it. So I took a shot and contacted the seller, which happened to be the company wayfair. They let me know that I could find the tree I wanted on their website. In the end I and got our dream tree for about 250.00 with free shipping! It is fantastic quality, easy to assemble, and we plan on using it for years! 

I had been picking up special ornaments here and there over the past few months. Unique things that are handmade are what I covet most. I love to support small businesses and artists, and fill my home with things that are made by very special people. This beautiful golden glass glitter star ornament is from Giant Dwarf.

Now this little pink angel absolutely floors me! Oh em gee! Her face! I nearly fell off the couch when I found her...yes, on ebay! I just couldn't get over how sweet! And in pristine condition! She came in her original box, complete with a foil tag on her wrist! 

Isn't she so pretty?! I was thinking I'd like a gold star up there, but I think having a cute muse as a tree topper is so much better. 

This darling little snowglobe style ball jar piece was a surprise a gift from our sweet friend Keri  who we met through Instagram this year. We love the simplicity! It is perfect! How charming is that pink tree?! She makes some really cute stuff!

So just when we thought that our tree was as happy as it could be, and filled with lots of love from all of our incredible friends...a big box arrives at our door. The box was filled with a bunch of smaller boxes...each filled vintage ornaments in the most perfect pinks and aquas. A totally unexpected surprise from a kindhearted blog reader named Sue! We were blown away!  Just totally blown away. The treasures in this box were exactly what was needed to take our tree to the next level! ha! If you've been following my blog and know what our old tree looked like, then you know what I  mean. We love to stuff our tree until it's fuller than a Thanksgiving belly!  

As always...this little guy was such a great helper. ha! He stood at my feet looking exactly like this and I'd let him give each ornament his sniff of approval before I'd hang it up.

And here are a few close ups of some favorite ornaments. We seriously started from zero with our tree this year. All was lost to Hurricane Sandy. Many of the ornaments you currently see hanging were sent to us from blog readers, art friends, and sweet souls we briefly crossed paths with online who followed our story. Me and Aaron are so humble in the face of such kindness.

This tin ceiling tree is by Bobby Boyd Designs. We love the color! We bought it at the Country Living Fair in Atlanta. 

We love these adorable indent balls. They're reproductions and just so incredibly cute! We ordered them from our friend Tricia Brink!

We adore these vintage turquoise mercury glass candlestick ornaments. They were a gift from our sweet friends Kitty, Daniel and Roscoe.

The little plastic house reminds us of Aaron's parents' house! A gift from our friend Brooke. 

This incredible piece is actually an art doll, but we thought she should party on the tree for the holidays! She was an early Christmas gift from Aaron, and she's made by artist Sarah Hand.

You may remeber some of these elements as part of my haul from the Country Living Holiday Bazaar in New York last month. I just layered the fab Seasons Greetings banner over the paper wreath and then tucked in the little putz house! I just thought it was so sweet and simple! 

We hung it on our chalkboard door. I love the contrast against the black. 

So thats about it. Just wanted to show you some of our little happy holiday vignettes. I wish we could show you more but the house is still under so much construction. We hope by this time next year we will have a Christmas tree in the kitchen as well! A small real one...that way I we can have the Balsam scent without even lighting a candle. 

For now, we are so so happy to have our tree, and our amazing friendships. Seriously...our hearts fill up every time we catch a glance of our tree in the corner. It glows with love from all the kind hearts who we connected with this past year. We can't thank you all enough!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Love from the Jersey Shore, 

xo Jenny & Aaron