Christmas tree?
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Whatever happened to tinsel? Remembering as kids we always blinged-up the tree and other things such as mirrors and paintings with it.
Tastes change? -
@AndyD said in Christmas tree?:
Whatever happened to tinsel? Remembering as kids
Putting the tinsel on was one of the highlights of decorating the tree when I was a kid, too. I loved the shimmery sparkle. And filling in the spaces so the tinsel was evenly distributed.
My mom had some really vintage tinsel stored in the ornament box (you saved everything back then), but it was discolored/tarnished with age. Not sure what it was made of. Probably lead, or something else toxic.
I continued the tinsel tradition in the wtg house after we got married, until we caught one of the cats eating the stuff. Managed to stop him before he became what our vet used to call a "string cat" requiring surgery. Had never lived with a cat before, so had no idea of the hazard.
I just checked and tinsel is still widely available. No dogs or cats in the house this year for the first time in a very long time. Who knows? Maybe I'll revive the longstanding family tradition and do a tree with tinsel this year....
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I miss tinsel, too, although we distinguished between the shiny garlands that went around the tree, which we called "tinsel," and the long silvery strips that dripped down, which we called "icicles." (Not that I ever saw a real icicle in all my growing-up years. Come to think of it, though, maybe that's why we were so enthusiastic about our tinsel icicles.
We could never have tinsel icicles while having two cats and a dog. We could probably have tinsel garlands, but I think I'm going to give the tree that special horizontal sparkle with some wired ribbon I found tucked in among the ornaments. You'll see whether I did that when I post a photo, probably tonight, if I feel up to a little light decorating after the meds from this here dental work I had this morning wear off.
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I caved. Turned out our artificial tree, which we haven't used in years, is just the right size to put atop our free standing gas fireplace (which we don't use, because we have three other fireplaces and it would dry out the room too much and hence the piano). I deep cleaned the living room, even reconditioned the leather sofa and club chair using a spray-on product I use on my cavalry saddle, and did lights as well as decorations. All ready for the neighborhood party on Sunday. OK, now how do I post pictures again?
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The chair and sofa are from the 80s and Mr Pique is very attached to them. I want something more mid-century modern--like an Eames lounge chair and a very different kind of sofa in a bright color, maybe eggplant velvet or deep burgundy. Next house, the leather stuff will live in the man cave. We're not buying any more furniture until after we've moved. For now, this stuff works okay; it's a 70s house and could really use some updating.
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Thanks, SK.
And thank you WTG for the link to the Christmas playlist. That looks like a great collection and perfect for what I have in mind, but unfortunately it wouldn't arrive before the party. And $40 for a used CD .... hmmm.
I guess I'm going to have to mine whatever I've already got on hand. I'm not too great at planning ahead. Oh well.
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That ripple afghan in those colors must have been a kit. My mom did this one many years ago, and it was mostly used as a decorative throw and shows very little signs of wear. I'm guessing 1970s...
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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Love your house and Chrismas decorations! Very iniviting. We had a sofa like that up until half a dozen years ago when we found this great deal on Craigslist for an Ekornes sofa and loveseat. The old sofa was very comfy. While I love the Ekornes, part of me regrets getting rid of the other sofa.
There are other people selling used copies of the CD set for a lot less than $40. Click on the "Other sellers on Amazon" below the "Add to Cart" button to see them. Delivery times would be an issue regardless.
There is also a companion hardcover book (originally sold through the Metropolitan Museum of Art) that contains arrangements of carols. I found it on the Internet Archive. Sign up is free. Just in case you want to noodle around on the piano before the holidays...or just take a look to see if it's worth finding a used copy of the book.
The preview is useless (doesn't show any of the music), but the download gets you the entire book:
https://archive.org/details/carolsforchristm00will
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Here's our Christmas tree!
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/XGgtfFrb/Christmas-Tree-Closeup.jpg[/img]Here's a longer view of the living room, so you can see the piano in situ, plus some of the period details like the ceiling medallion and woodwork. [url=https://postimg.cc/9wFKJM9q][img]https://i.postimg.cc/9wFKJM9q/Christmas-Tree-Piano.jpg[/img][/url]
And here's the dining room with a few Christmas touches here and there. It shows the medallion in that room, one of the still-working original double pocket doors, and some of the woodwork, but you can also see the stone (maybe slate?) mantelpiece. There's a matching one just out of view in the living room. They're both faux-painted to look like marble. There are similar ones in the rooms directly above, our bedroom and my office, but the design is much simpler. The chimneys have been closed, so they're just for looks and historical interest these days.
[url=https://postimg.cc/fts6S5TC][img]https://i.postimg.cc/fts6S5TC/Christmas-Dining-Room.jpg[/img][/url]We still have things to do--you can see that we've hung nothing on the walls--but we're making progress, and it was so fun to decorate for Christmas!
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