"A Long Long Time Ago, But I Can Still Remember - - -"

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Others have been showing vintage Christmas ornaments that they have collected over the years.

These too are vintage ornaments, but I didn't collect them - - - Fisherhubby and I bought them brand new in 1975 for our very first Christmas tree after we were married. They were bright red.


As you can see, over the years they have faded to pink. And if you look closely at them - - -


You will see that their finish has become crackled. I no longer hang them on a tree. In fact, for about 7 years they have been hidden in storage until all your talk of vintage ornaments made me want to find them!


Now when I display them I put them in an ice cream tin with a little bit of shiny fru-fru and just let them speak for themselves.

I am not particularly a crafty person. There have been several times in my life though, when I crossed over into that nebulous world. I showed you the result of one such trip a couple of days ago when I posted about my paper bag angel.

Well, in the November of 1977 when our oldest child was one year old I decided to try my hand at making cookie dough ornaments.


Calling them cookie dough is a bit misleading. They are actually just four, salt, and water made to the texture of cookie dough, rolled, and cut out. After baking them at very low heat until they were completely dry I painted them with acrylics. After the acrylic dried completely, I brushed varnish over them.

Here are my results:


As I look back on this project, I'm a bit amazed that I accomplished it with a one year old tugging at my skirts, so to speak. I keep them stored in a tin with little desiccant packs out of vitamins and new shoes thrown in to keep them dry.

Because I was so careful with them when I used to hang them on our tree, people began teasing me and saying my Christmas Tree was my "Idol Tree."

Our children and their friends DELIGHTED in trying to MOVE them from one branch to another without me guessing that they did it. I USUALLY knew - - - I had them hanging "just so" on that tree and when they moved them, they messed up my "balance," which I could spot in a skinny minute!

Years after the fact, Keri and her friend Angie confessed to me that in ONE of those "messing with my ornaments" moments, Angie actually BROKE a star. They quickly threw away the evidence and did their best to cover their "tracks" on the tree. I never suspected.


Years later my friend Kathy and I decided to try a similar project with gingerbread. We BOTH had 4 year old boys at the time, but managed somehow to complete the project. I imagine we kept the boys busy with a video as VCRs had come on the scene by then.


That was in 1992 and I still have most of my set of those thanks again to storing them in a tin with little silica gel packs!


For this project we used puffy paint, ribbons, and sprayed varnish over the finished result. I don't think the spray varnish was as effective as the brushed on varnish because I've had a more difficult time keeping these from breaking.

I haven't used either of these cookie ornament sets in my decorating for the last 7 or more years - - - but I wanted to show them to you so dug them out this year. After I got them out, I wanted to enjoy them - - -


So I displayed them in this place of honor. I just hope they don't get bruised, crushed, or broken when people come in the front door!

To find and enjoy more vintage posts, please go visit Coloradolady.
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