Christmas in the Gazebo

The Gazebo is now decorated for Christmas, so grab a cup of hot cocoa and let's take a tour! 

While the Camper Christmas is a fun mix of trees with lots of pink and turquoise parked along the driveway, the gazebo is tucked in our yard and has a more traditional color scheme with red, white, black, and grey.

 Natural greenery and berries, red trucks, a couple of fun gnomes, along with some buffalo plaid ribbon decorate the setting. Of course our rustic gazebo has plenty of galvanized buckets and containers, along with a dishpan snowman! 

I painted a red truck with trees and snow on a old chicken feeder. I picked cedar, pine, berries, and pine cones at the farm and added it to the buckets and the grapevine garland. Once the holidays are past and the greenery dried out, it will go to the compost bin. 

I had previously declared that I would never purchase used Christmas lights again, but I did. I found the old fashion big bulbs at the thrift store for $2 a strand. In my defense, several strings were still in the boxes. I did buy a couple of extra strings, in case I needed to change out a few bulbs.  I mean, $2 for this style lights is a steal of a deal! 

The youpon bushes are about to overtake the old bicycle. When I planted them, they were so small in 1 gallon containers - they sure have gotten big! By next spring, I may have to rescue the bike, until then, the basket on the front has more cut greenery and a string of solar lights. 

 Mr. Dishpan Snowman has a plaid scarf and consist of 3 old enamel pans. The holes were already in the small pan and make the perfect face!

I had to make a few gnome trees! (You can find the tutorial on how I made the gnome trees, here.)

This red truck was a Christmas gift and is actually a bird feeder and house! In the past, I've had a cardinal family spend a lot of time in the gazebo and even raise their babies in the bushes beside it, so I'm hoping they come back to visit. 

Miss Gussie, the Glamper, and the Tree Farm Lit Up for the Holidays!

Hey Y'all! Miss Gussie is all lit up for the holidays and we couldn't wait to share pictures! We decided to have a "Tree Farm" theme this year. Our tree farm has some fun and non-traditional colors. We have 16 trees in shades of pink, aqua, silver, white, and a couple of green ones! I already had several of the trees, since I've used them in past displays and shows, although we went thrift store shopping and found a few more to add to our collection. I've been told pink trees are supposed to be the color this year, although I didn't know that, till after I was working on my decorating. I simply decorated the trees with tinsel and lights and it's made it a fun and happy set up.

We actually lit her up one night last week on a Facebook Live Video!

 

You may remember me talking about the ugly garden makeover, earlier in the summer. There once was a garden fence and bricks outlining forgotten raised beds. The briers had taken over and it was hard to mow. I was tired of looking at the ugliness, so I pulled it all up. I never really showed the after picture of what we were planning - well the spot is now "The Campground."  The camper is closer to the house and that's the greenhouse in the background. It makes it a better place to hang out and of course I take a lot of my product pictures outside by the camper. Nothing is attached permanently in this spot, so that we can hook up and move her, if needed. (although it will take some careful maneuvering to get her out!)

All of the trees are in tin buckets, old wash tubs, milk cans, or even vintage chicken feeders - you know, the things I had flowers planted in, until frost killed them. So as we cleaned up the yard, the containers got moved to the camper for the tree farm. 

We were at the Swap Meet  in October. I ask about a couple of items and somehow I came away with a truckload of things including some porch rails / post. They were unloaded by the camper and I was trying to firgure out what to make of them. Well, I've always wanted to be able to hang a chandelier by the camper, so those three pieces were wired together, so we could hang the chandy and a sign and of course covered in grapevine and Christmas garland! 

The chenille bedspread covers the metal bench and just makes it cozier this time of year! 

The night before I was planning my photo shoot, I decided we needed a couple of flamingos. Living in a small town, I didn't know where I could find any by the next day and I really did not have time to travel to a larger city to look. So I ask my Facebook friends if they specifically knew anywhere I could buy a couple of pink birds, locally. A couple of my friends tagged the local girl scout leader and I was loaned a couple of flamingos the next morning! As one of our friends said - only in a small town can you ask for pink flamingos on Facebook and within two hours of networking find what you are looking for! (The Girl Scouts use them for a fall fundraiser flocking people's yards, so they have a lot on hand.) I would have gladly purchased the birds, but I was thankful to be loaned them on short notice. Anyways, I put Christmas wreaths around their necks and they they added a fun touch to the display! The t shirt has a couple of flamingos and deer on the front, so that was a couple of elements that tied in with the graphic.

The same day I got everything decorated on the camper, I went to sign up for the Gilmer Yulefest Christmas Show. I was planning to just use my tent, but in conversation at the Chamber Office, Miss Gussie was invited to go to town, so we will have to take it all down next week, as we prepare and go to the show. It's December 7, 2019 on the Courthouse Square in Gilmer and we will have our shirts and Christmas decor for sale. We will be open from 9:00 am till 7:30 pm and there will be vendors, food trucks, carnival rides for the kids, Candy Cane Lane crafts for the kids and the evening will end with the Christmas Parade. It's also designated as a Shop Local Day in Gilmer. We are excited for next week, so come out and see us - we will be taking some of the trees, but not all 16! 

Of course, if you aren't local, we can always ship the shirts to you. Shop online at gypsyfarmgirl.etsy.com or www.rustandromance.com

Christmas in the Gazebo

I always love decorating the gazebo for Christmas! 

Christmas decorating usually comes around the time of first frost here, so it's time to clean up the yard and give it a more lively look. New lights always help! We leave the lights up all year round and it's been dark the last few weeks, therefore it was time. After Christmas I call the "fairy lights" or "party lights"! 😉

We prefer our Dish Pan Snowman, since it won't melt and it doesn't have to be freezing cold and yucky to have a snowman! Win-win, right?!? 

Cleaning up the yard, there where a few watering cans that needed to be put away for winter, but I decided to hang them on the tree instead! 

I added a few burlap poinsettias, twigs, and a red check bow and the tallest tree was decorated! I'm all about keeping it pretty simple this year  - we are on a cleaning spree and these items were all laying around in my workroom, so on the tree they went. 

The old crock and water cooler became tree stands! The rest of the trees are just prelit trees I've picked up at thrift stores over the past few years. I took the plastic stands off and they set down in the old containers. 

The bicycle basket (actually a gym locker basket) needed something. Usually I add fresh greenery or a plant, but I've been sick and just haven't gone to the woods to trim trees... Now back to the cleaning and decluttering my workroom - one garland sitting in the floor, a sign, and a scrap piece of ribbon made their way to the basket! 

There you have it, simple Christmas decor in the yard and gazebo, using items found and repurposed. If you're new around here and haven't read the story of our gazebo, you should go back and see some of the old post - the gazebo was really and truly rescued from a trash ditch and we've had fun giving it a makeover the last few years. The only thing that is ever purchased new is the lights. 

Christmas in the Camper

Miss Gussie's Christmas Decor - 

The week after Thanksgiving, I found a little pink Christmas tree, while at our favorite thrift store. I didn't know what I would do with it, but it just called out to me and I couldn't pass it up. At first I was like "Christmas show next year... or booth space next year." Later that afternoon, it hit me - the camper needed the pink tree! The quilt I have in the camper has lots of pink in it and of course all the lace... so that's where it went! It was just the right size to fit on the tray that I leave sitting on the bed.

 As I was rearranging the camper, I was reminded of the white rag / ribbon garland / bunting / whatever you want to call it and wrapped it around the tree. It instantly made the little tree fuller and give it that shabby chic look. Another white tinsel garland and a few gold ornaments (purchased at same thrift store) and I was almost done.

  For my tree topper, I gathered a few feathers from my workroom and tucked them in the branches. I already had the pink doilies and scarf on the tray and they work great to hide the tree stand. Simple and less than $5 spent on the tree (since several things where already on hand and I've already had to rob a few feathers for a wedding bouquet!)

 Now to the front of the camper  - while it still has burlap and lace, this area has a little more color. This is where the table would have been, but it was missing when I got Miss Gussie, and I've been leaving it made as a bed, instead of the two separate benches. The front quilts have more red and blue in them, so it worked with this Texas flag I found. I originally thought about hanging the flag over the back window as a curtain, but it just didn't fit back there. I finally settled on this corner and was able to drape it without having to staple or make any permanent alterations to hang it.

A few fresh cedar branches were tucked around the camper in places. (I won't be lighting this lantern with the cedar attached.)

 Miss Gussie serves as the " Gypsy Farm Girl World Headquarters!" Sometimes (OK, a lot of times) extra inventory gets stored in the camper and such is the case with the silver platter turned Christmas wall hanging.

Because we all need LOVE...

 and to DREAM...

I've failed to get good pictures of the outside lights and tree, so here's a phone snap shot. If you saw my earlier video, you know that I prefer white Christmas lights and Jeff likes colored. We compromised and I've got white in the gazebo and inside the camper, but we've got colored lights on the outside of the camper. I've been meaning to do a camper Christmas video, but haven't got around to it, yet. Maybe tomorrow... (it's raining today)

Merry Christmas Friends! Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season. 

I know many of you are suffering the loss of loved ones, sickness, and other problems and we send our love and prayers for all of you, that this time can be the best possible under the circumstances. 

A Gypsified, Country Christmas

It's a gypsyfied, country Christmas at our place this year! 

We parked the Farmall H tractor so it looks like it's pulling my glamper and lit it all up. 

I went to the woods and cut a few cedar trees and anchored them in old rusty buckets. 

All I really want for Christmas is to get the outside of the camper painted. I ask a few paint and body shops  and said they wouldn't do it. I know it would be expensive anyways, so really, I just need the time to dive it and get 'er done! 

I played with the manual camera settings to get the twinkle look on the lights, etc. this is what happens when manual settings go wrong! You set everything on fire! Oops!!!