Happy New Year! (And a Wee Bit of Christmas!)

source:  Vintage Holiday Crafts

Wishing you all a year of adventure and fun and family time and good food and get togethers with friends and anything else your heart might desire! (Whew, I think I covered it with that last bit so I don't leave anyone out!)

We are having a mini-slumber party here at Sweet Bee Cottage tonight.  Most of Baby Bee's friends were out of town, but Baby Bee's BFF will be here and so will be Sewing Bee.  Just a quiet evening with pizza, movies, popcorn, crafts, and games.  Lots of games!

But, before we take down all of the Christmas decorations I wanted to share a few treasures with you.

Not only did we host my school staff party, but we also ended up hosting the church choir party too.  Well, our choir director's wife just enjoyed looking at all my vintage items and we shared our love of Depression glass.  She was so kind to loan me some books on all kinds of vintage glass.  

And...........

she gave me a little Christmas present!  

(I certainly didn't expect that!)

It's a copy of Good Housekeeping from December 1948!

 This is one of my favorite pages in the magazine.  

 And, my oh my, you wouldn't believe some of the advice in it.  I'll have to share that with you soon!  My MIL, the Quilting Bee, was out for Christmas and she was amazed (or maybe I should say flabbergasted) at the suggestion that you update your living room decor to make your teenage daughter love you more.  I was shocked by that too!  Would you do that today?

Not only did she give me the magazine, but also these oh so adorable embroidered rounds!  Don't you just want to pinch that doggie's cute little cheek?  I am envisioning making some cute things with these!

Now wasn't that sweet?  My Sweet Bee heart was very touched by her thoughtfulness!

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I also wanted to share one of my favorite little vignettes (under glass) this year.

I filled my apothecary jars with vintage ornaments and vintage Christmas light bulbs and a bunch of bottle brush trees I picked up at Hobby Lobby.   The ornaments are especially sweet to me because I have two of my grandparents Christmas ornaments in with the other vintage ones I've found.

And I'm looking forward to seeing what all of you are up to in 2013!

Thank you for all your visits during 2012!  Your visits are always such a delight!

P.S.  Be sure to come back in 2013 for some fun giveaways!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a most wonderful Christmas!

Something New This Christmas – Inspired from Pinterest

Found some sweet inspiration on Pinterest for my giant chalkboard!

Wanna' see?

This was inspired by this...

source

I still love the original and the artist

 and mine makes me smile.

Now what will I do for January?

Thanks for buzzing in!  

So very nice to see you here at Candy Cane Sweet Bee Cottage!

A Christmas Party for a Staff of Teachers

Aren't collective nouns fun?  

Like a murder of crows or a deck of cards or a parcel of penguins – I find them quite amusing.

So I decided to see if there is a collective noun for teachers (since our staff Christmas party was here at Candy Cane Sweet Bee Cottage) and the best I found was a staff of teachers or a faculty of teachers.  Kind of boring, don't you think?  Maybe we could come up with a better one.  Any ideas?

(Mentioned this to Worker Bee and he's come up with a scholastic of teachers.)

Well,

my BIG IDEA for the party was a hot chocolate bar.

I bought this great mug/glass rack at Cost Plus World Market and I just love how it displays the mugs.  

So many things to add to the hot chocolate.

Yummy little libations to liven up that hot chocolate.

Candy canes for stirring...

hand grated chocolate shavings...

and mini marshmallows were perfect toppings.

So.........can I interest you in a mug of hot chocolate?

Hope you feel welcome, warm, and cozy!

P.S.  For the sake of telling the whole story - I recommend not using a coffee urn that still has some coffee residue - there was a faint taste of burned coffee that was hard to ignore.  Oh well - the idea was good and I'll just do it better the next time.  

P.P.S.  I also should mention that the cute background in the little silver frames is from a wonderful etsy shop called Fudgy Brownies.  She sent me the digital file in record time.  Love the patterns and colors!

What's This? Stadium Blankets at Candy Cane Cottage (aka Sweet Bee Cottage)

Do you think I might win a prize for the longest post title ever????  A girl can dream, right?

So, I'll get to the point.  I have a thing for Scotch Plaid picnic gear.  I've got quite a few pieces and that addiction turned into an addiction for picnic tins and that addiction in turn resulted in an addiction to stadium blankets.  Did you follow that?

Well the collection is very slow growing because I won't spend much more than $5 on a blanket, but on Black Friday Baby Bee and I found a second red plaid blanket at an estate sale for (yep, you guessed it) $5!

I still haven't gotten to the point yet, have I?  Why am I so hung up on having a SECOND red plaid stadium blanket?  Glad you asked!

This is why!

  I just wrapped and tucked the blankets over our regular kitchen nook cushions.  

Originally I wasn't going to have the fringe hang down, but now I think it looks charming.  Cottage Christmasy Charming! 

 Next I had to pull out all the kitchen nook pillows!  

 I love my gingerbread pillow!  He was a fantastic find at Home Goods a few years ago.

 Baby Bee loves the candy cane and Christmas tree pillow.  I was thinking about not putting them out this year, but Baby Bee made a sad little face so there they are.

And there you have it – the extent of my Christmas decorating so far.  I better get on the ball.  We are having my staff Christmas party at Candy Cane Sweet Bee Cottage on Friday!  Yes, this Friday!  I know, I know – get back to work Sweet Bee!  I hear you!

Here's how the nook normally looks...

Thanks for buzzing in!

Hot Chocolate Bar - A Charming Way to Warm Up

I'm getting ready for another party at Sweet Bee Cottage.

My elementary school staff Christmas party is going to be at our house.  Oh boy!!!

So....while I was enjoying my lunch at school today that silly bee buzzed in and gave me the idea to have a hot chocolate bar at our party.  So of course, I had to start pinning ideas.  

(Doesn't everybody do that?)

 Love the lace table runner on that dark counter and of course, I'm totally drawn to the galvanized metal tray thingie.

Great ideas for toppings here and they're just in plastic cups with labels.  Too cute!  (Hello, my name is Sweet Bee and I'm addicted to labels. Especially cute labels!)

 Do you see the blue glass cake stand?  Yeah, you know that's why I pinned this one!  The snowflakes are pretty cute too.

 I think this one has every topping you can imagine.  Can you see the Peeps snowmen in the one apothecary jar?  Toooooooo cute!

 More deliciousness in jars and that aqua pop is cute too.

 And then maybe I could have Baby Bee open up her own little hot chocolate stand.  Would you stop and buy a scrumptious hot chocolate from my cutie?

And more aqua and red for Christmas!  Love it!  This is a printable set you can buy.

Well, I did pick up a little something to put all my Christmas mugs on for our party.....

Luckily it's much bigger than this picture!  

Thank you World Market once again. 

I'm really, really, really lovin' all the delights I've been finding at World Market!  Did you know Bed, Bath and Beyond bought them a few months ago?  

Well, I'd love to know what you would want to put in your hot chocolate!

  Any suggestions?

You can visit my Pinterest board "Let's Have a Party" for links to these ideas and more!

Been Buzzin' at Estate Sales Again

Wanna' know what I did for my Black Friday?

While Worker Bee had to go to his office for an hour or so, I dragged Baby Bee to a huge estate sale!  I have to be honest here.  I got the email about the sale on Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I dreamed all Thanksgiving night about all the aqua/turquoise/blue milk glass that was in the preview pictures.  

Seriously. 

(Should I be embarrassed about that?)

Wanna' see what we got?  

(And, oh yes, it was worth standing in line for 1/2 hour just to pay!)  

And, yes, you must suffer through my night time photographs.  

Ooooooo.......

 Ahhhhhh.......

Amaaaaaaazzzing........

 Okay - what do you think this tray was used for?  Can you help me out here?  

 Baby Bee picked this one out!  I might be turning her into a vintage lover yet!  

I think it's a jelly or honey jar, but Baby Bee loved the color.

And do you see this darling book rack?

Look for this on my etsy shop soon (I hope).

Now what would you keep? 

 Would you be able to part with any of it?  

Oh....wanna' see why I was dreaming about this estate sale?

Thanks for buzzing in!  It's always so nice to see you.