A Merry Little Christmas...

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season, and we leave you with a little laugh, from us to you!

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A Very Vintage Christmas...

Vintage and retro:

Two buzz words you hear floating around the flea markets and thrift shops without fail.

The holidays are no exception. Here is a round-up of some of our favourite nostalgic holiday decor items you can find if only you look. Every good flea market worth its salt should offer the possibility of finding vintage holiday decor, don't you think?

Vintage tree ornaments:

Vintage Santas:

Vintage Christmas trims and ribbons:

Mercury Glass:

Vintage red and white linens and table cloths:

And I pass along to you this glorious website I just found that sells the most beautiful vintage-inspired wares for those of us who don't have access to great flea markets, don't have good shopping karma and who don't really mind if our holiday decor is authentically vintage ..as long as it looks that way!!

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(blogged by Linda MacDonald)

No Ordinary Wreath...

I was born to make wreaths. I taught myself - just out of high school - when I took care of my elderly grandmother. We would gather items from nature and make up beautiful homemade wreaths to sell at a local crafts fair. It was something special I shared with my grandmother and what truly got me started in styling. I created a small business from it, and for many years people from all over my small town came to me to buy seasonal wreaths. When Jenny and I first met, we made a wreath together of twigs and dogwood blossoms; and while it faded many years ago, she still speaks of it fondly. I don't even have one on my front door yet (we've been extremely busy) but I did make these holiday ones last year for Country Home and sadly they never ran. Here are two great ideas for holiday wreaths photographed by Helen Norman and crafted with the help of my assistant Lisa Bisson.

Here are two more that I hope are crisp and refreshing in their design.  I hope they inspire you to make beautiful decorations out of easy to find supplies.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

(blogged by Matthew Mead)

Ki's Renewed Christmas Cheer...!

I must admit, I wasn't feeling very Christmasy earlier this month...

We recently sold our house and I have been overwhelmed with the duties of packing and moving. I had scheduled a junking trip in the midst of this craziness and was determined not to cancel. Last week, I packed my bag and headed on a junk journey that took me through dozens of small towns in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. Because I am not fond of chilly temps and snowy roads, I usually schedule my outdoor junk jaunts in the spring and summer months. Not so much in December. Brrrr!

Temps were in the single digits, winds blew through the barns where planks had been missing for years, and the milk cans strewn in piles in the fields were painful to sort and carry. Oh my, it was cold....but oh so fun! Despite the freezing temps, the people we met were warm and lovely to visit with. Lunch was always at the local bar and menus weren't necessary. The special was the only and best choice. Chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and a slice of white bread - all for less than a meal at McDonalds! I learned what a tavern was, (similar to a sloppy joe) and that dinner was the same as lunch where I come from.

The towns were charming and decorated to the nines. I have never seen as many town square gazebos so beautifully lit. My favorite was the giant tree smack dab in the middle of the brick paved street in downtown West Point Nebraska.

To give you some perspective on just how large this tree really is, take note of how it towers over this car:

Small towns really know how to celebrate the holidays! My holiday spirit has been restored!

Hope yours is warm and wonderful!

Ki

We're almost there!!!

While the entire Flea Market Style team moves on to different ventures (and adventures) and the business of Christmas, the magazine will be in the hands of the publisher and put to the presses and shipped out, ready for its February 23rd debut.

Meanwhile, Matthew has embraced the holiday season over at his website. To get a "taste" of his holiday spirit, head on over here.

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(blogged by Linda MacDonald)

Shave a Little off the Top!

Why I, Matthew Mead,  am on the "no-rent" list for Budget, Ryder, Uhaul, and Penske trucks:

Most things in life should require a special license. In my state, and I think most in the US, you must have a proper license to drive a motorcycle. It just makes sense. But there is always an exception to such rules; and I guess private citizens moving large objects in a 30 ft long box truck is one of them. But I am here to assert that it shouldn't be.

Comedy and outrageous hi-jinks seem to play out in my life, whether I go looking for them or not. On many days, these elements seem to intersect with things like renting a box truck to move props and supplies from my studio to a location. Often times, it is only minutes from the studio (and that is scary enough) but on this one occasion it meant a trip to a metropolitan location nearly 5 hours from what I consider "safety". Suffice it to say, by the end of day two I narrowly averted an incident that involved a 26 foot truck, a "too small bridge" and a commuter rail into one of the major US cities on the eastern seaboard.

Now I always imagined that an international incident could bring me much needed press for my work, but I know in this case that real damage could have cost me a great deal of money in damages and fines and perhaps put me on a list of terror suspects. My parents have an inkling of this story because I often talk briefly about it when I open my lectures. But they don't know the whole story - and they think I am joking - so it really is on the D.L. as far as they are concerned...

I normally drive a Chevy pick-up trick (which my wife says I don't do well) but when big photo shoots with locations come along, I am a candidate to rent a vehicle which I would consider "heavy equipment" - without any special kind of proof that I can handle a big rig on the road. Now, I have had plenty of experience with mishaps involving these vehicles in the past: I felled a small tree upon arriving at one location; got the truck stuck on a narrow, sandy slope along the side of a homeowners barn; left the lights on in a blizzard in a parking lot in winter, where the truck was plowed in and the battery died. While you would think that would be enough for a lifetime... but WRONG!

There are three things to note when renting such vehicles: buy all the insurance, though there is not insurance to cover the roof of the box truck. Second, the height of the truck is both clearly written on the inside of the cab and posted on the exterior approach to a bridge. Make darn sure there is clearance for passing under! Third... listen to your instincts; and if you think you won't fit under the bridge, then back up and turn around and find another way.

On this one particular morning in New York state, my assistant and I were in the rental truck and Jenny followed behind in our pick-up, all while keeping in touch via a shaky cell phone connection. We were lost for sure, but we were also nervous and anxious about staying on schedule and not being late for the shoot. Jenny kept saying to my assistant, "stay on the line" which we both interpreted as perhaps I was drifting too far to the right and should be using the middle line in the road as a guide to keep on the straight and narrow. What she really meant was, keep the cell phone line open. It got worse from there. Approaching the tiny bridge opening. I asked, "Does Jenny think we will make it?" to which my assistant said, " I guess so". All the while Jenny says she was screaming," You are not going to make it, stop." I continued under the bridge, the roof of the truck scraping against the top of the bridge and sounding like the TITANIC splitting in half. At one point we were clearly stuck (with onlookers all agasp at the sight). I said to my assistant, "we are making it through" and I pressed on the gas and pushed that truck through the opening with all the screeching, scratching and scraping you could possibly imagine... onlookers now truly in utter disbelief. Jenny said the back of the truck sprung six feet into the air upon exiting the underpass and you could hear an audible boing, boing, boing - like the bouncing noise Tigger makes in Winnie the Pooh - emanating from the truck's shock absorbers.

I was glad to have made it through the bridge opening but wasn't prepared for how angry Jenny was about my miscalculation. I have never, ever seen her so angry with me! I am still apologizing for this horrible mistake and vow never to put myself in that position again. Obviously, the angels were watching over me; because the bridge was still standing and the roof of the truck was unscathed (and it honestly sounded like the roof was being pried off like the rolling top of a sardine can). The funny thing is that we didn't need to use that street after all... we never even needed to "go down that road".

But I guess that is now "water under the bridge".

The moral here:  like flea market items, we just aren't all perfect...not even close. I can arrange flowers because of some genetic instinctive gene, but am not good at operating heavy equipment. I learned a lesson which I might be still waiting to learn if I hadn't been behind the wheel of a big rig. I have been leery of renting trucks ever since, and have really tried to avoid driving them all together. But what I know for sur, is that truck sizes and bridge heights are posted; and I can always check the postings and make educated decisions as to how to proceed. In essence, it's just like our new magazine - giving you all the tips and tricks to make the best and most educated purchases at your next flea, auction or occasional sale.

(blogged by matthew Mead)