Thompson Family-Life

*55 Days of Vintage Christmas* - All I want for Christmas is Avon

1963

1952

1969

1960's

1954

1960's

1965

I'll take some, too, please.

See more *55 Days of Vintage Christmas* posts here.

Thank-you to everyone that purchased something from my Online Yard Sale! There are still some items left, I deleted all of the sold listings. Seriously, thank-you! They'll be shipping out this week.

New Online Yard Sale Items!

I've added loads of new women's & home accessories in my Online Yard Sale today! Are you looking for an inexpensive holiday gift for someone? Or maybe a cute accessory to wear to a holiday party this season? Well, you're in luck. Because I have a history of buying lots of accessories... and then never wearing them. Mostly because I've learned (the hard way) that hair accessories just don't look good on me. Or rather, on my head.

So most of these items have never been worn, or if they have, it's only been once! They are like new.

Do you love buying handmade? Well most of these items were handmade by artists all over the world. Which I also think is really cool.

And just between you and I? I'm secretly hoping to build up enough funds to buy an artifical white Christmas Tree to replace our green one this year, so your purchase will go towards a good cause. ; ) And save you money on your holiday shopping! Win-Win.

Last Call for Happy Mail Kit Printables & Customer Testimonials

If you are interested in purchasing one of these kits or printables for a holiday gift, the last day I'll be taking orders is this Friday, December 2nd. 

Details about this kit/printable:

This is a fantastic gift for those beloved kiddos in your life (I've also had a few adults purchase this for themselves!). If you're like me, you might often find yourself feeling overwhelmed by the amount of toys (and junk!) that your kids get for the holidays (or birthdays!).

What I love about this printable, is that it isn't a plastic toy they'll just end up not using. And this kit encourages so many positive things like writing letters the old-fashioned way, sending mail, practicing handwriting and learning about new cultures and people through pen-pal communication!

These can be printed at home or at your local printer. I include printing tips for both.

Here are some really lovely testimonials from customers:

"From the moment I saw Danielle's custom correspondence sets, I was in love! My nephew's birthday was just around the corner, so I quickly got in touch with her, and before I knew it, I had my set ready to gift. I packaged the set up in a cute box, complete with pencils & some fun rubber stamps. When he opened it up at his birthday party, it was a huge hit! He had just turned 6 and was excited to practice his cursive handwriting with his new kit. Now I am getting one for my daughter for Christmas! :) Thanks, Danielle for sharing your creativity with the world!" - Summer

"My daughter loved her very own personalized stationary set. It was a huge hit - she enjoys sending letters to her grandparents and even started a pen pal. Thanks so much!" - Trace-Ann

"I loved the printable stationery that I bought from you! It's easy to customize and print out. I got it for my 5 year old daughter and she is just thrilled about it! She writes to a little girl through the pen pal service you recommended. I put it in a nice folder to keep it from getting raided and she is always extremely excited when it's time to get it out. Thank you for such an adorable design and a lovely stationery set! It's perfect!" - Rachel 

"I love the printable set. It is so cute and not in a "too cute for a boy" kind of way either. The design is awesome and I love that it is custom for Hunter. I have to say that I love that you had plenty of instruction included and the information on where to get labels, etc. Hunter has used the papers to write his dad in Afghanistan and we've used the note card style for thank you's." - Sara
 

Hunter below writing to his Dad (heart swell!)
 

"This is one of the cutest things i have seen for the emerging writer. It has everything they need to create the perfect letter. The Pre-k sheets have lined paper to help the child. I am not very computer savvy at all and it was so easy to put together. We bought this as a gift for a friend and my own 5 year old could not help but create her own letters on her friend's stationery. Thanks again and i need to place my order for my daughter." - Susan

"We absolutely love the custom correspondence kit that we ordered from you. My son loves sitting down and writing letters to people now that he has his own stationary. Its so much prettier than plain old lined paper. I can't really think of anything you can do to improve it because the kit is so awesome to begin with." - Nakia

 

There are two options available for this printable:

No. 1: A Fully-Customized PDF with your child's likeness, name and address added to all the elements in this printable kit. It is ready for you to print at home or print at your local print/copy shop.

No. 2: If you are very familiar with Photoshop, you can purchase the Partially-Customized Kit in which  I give you the illustration with your child's likeness that YOU add to all of the appropriate materals. You also add name and address. This is the more economical version for those that are very familiar with Photoshop. (If you are not well-versed in Photoshop, I do not recommend this version.)

Go to the shop to see them both!

See this post for even more photos. Sorry, the Earlybird sale/discount has ended.

*55 Days of Vintage Christmas* - Flashback, Memphis, TN

Here are those photos I promised! Can you see how I was in Vintage Heaven? Swoon!

This is Flashback in Memphis, TN.. if you are ever in the area!

This is what I bought... (the two little elves sitting on cushions : )

... and this amazeballs wall hanging. In incredible condition. The time and love someone put into this - Love!

This is what was for sale... (it was hard to leave A LOT of it! I wanted to take everything home!)

These handmade vintage stockings are kind of to die for. I really wanted to take ALL of these home. It's so rare that you find handmade vintage holiday items and in such great condition as these...

I really love these old ceramic trees with the lights. She had an incredible collection of these. This would be a fun holiday item to collect.

I love that Elvis seems to follow you all over Memphis... no matter where you are. ; )

I love those tinsel/aluminum pompom flowers. I bought my first vintage aluminum tree off ebay a couple weeks ago.. can't wait to display it.

The owner has many things displayed around the shop that are part of her own collection - I love that! Although it does make your heart drop when you see how incredible all of the items are and you can't take them home. ::tear:: But I LOVE that she is kind enough to share these incredible collections with everyone. These are sitting behind the checkout area... see what I mean?

And here are the *fantastic* window displays outside the store. Like seriously, to.die.for. I would like to go back next year and get some photos with everything lit up at night. It was hard photographing everything with the window glare, but hopefully you get the idea. Maybe I'll get brave and ask her if I can walk inside the windows to get close-ups of everything (haha.. those that know me, know that I would indeed stoop to that level of embarrassment for myself! Knowing full well that she would probably answer that question with a resounding "NO!")

I have lots more photos to share from this store, non-Christmas-y, but still full of vintage eye candy. 

See more *55 Days of Vintage Christmas* posts here.

*55 Days of Vintage Christmas* - Wall Hanging Craft Sneak Peek

Wow, that Thanksgiving holiday really has me behind. What about you?

I had grand plans of having a super-duper-awesome Vintage Christmas post for you today, but I told myself I had to clean my house first and yeah... that took me all day. And what I wanted to post is taking me for-e-vah - so many photos to edit! But the good news is, it will be well worth the wait. I took photos at one of the most amaaazing vintage shops in Memphis while visiting family this past week - Flashback. I go to this shop every time we go to Memphis and I finally emailed the owner and got permission to take photos. This place is especially amazing at Christmas time and lucky me, she had all the decorations up the day after Thanksgiving.

The photo above is what I worked on while Ethan and I spent two days at a State Park cabin right outside of Memphis. It was pure bliss! We stayed in, had a fire going (and made s'mores of course), watched Auntie Mame (quickly becoming one of my all time favorite movies), Homeland (HOLY smokes, this show is SO GOOD - and I'm happy I get to watch my high school girl crush Claire Danes) and also the new season of Dexter. My parents watched the kiddos while we were at the cabin. (YES.) 

Can't wait to show you the finished wall hanging. It's come quite a long way from the photo above. It has been one of the most enjoyable craft projects I've worked on in a while.

More soon!

P.S. In case you missed them, some more of my posts over at the Lucky Kids Blog went live last week. You can see those here.