Category: Schutt Farms: Home Tour

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Schutt Farms: Christmas Holiday Home Tour

Welcome to the 2022 Schutt Farms Holiday Home Tour. I’m showing the spaces of our home decorated for Christmas. This is my favorite time of year because I get to showcase all of my vintage Christmas decorations that I collect all year long. Here is how I styled different areas of our home for 2023.

Check out other Home Tour posts on the blog .

Foyer with its Christmas touches.

Christmas Foyer

First up, the Christmas Tree. This is a new tree purchased from Ikea. I wanted something simple that was not too full, and this tree did not disappoint. It is styled with vintage mini candle clips that I picked up from an estate sale earlier in the year and used birthday cake candles throughout. To keep this tree simple, I used a red/white stripe thin ribbon as a tree topper. I placed the tree inside a croc and used white fabric scraps to keep it tightly in place.

Second, antique toy trumpets decorations. Using the same ribbon from my tree topper, I hung some trumpets in the foyer. I picked up a bunch of trumpets throughout the year for $1-2. I debated hanging them here or putting them on one of my trees.

Lastly, antique ornaments boxes to fill the space. I used antique ornament boxes to place under the tree. I love finding an antique shiny brite ornament box.

Christmas Nativity

Dining Room: Nativity Scenes & Elf Tree

Nativity Scenes

There are three nativity scenes on our dining room antique curio cabinet.

First, I was lucky enough to be gifted the main nativity scene from my mom this year. The Holy Family with Three Kings & camels were part of this set. I don’t have a manger for it, but instead I just placed the Holy Family on a tray and some pine trees behind the scene. These trees were found at Walmart this year. I had a lot of good luck finding bottle brush trees at Walmart this past year as well; various sizes ranging from $2-5 to use around the house.

Second, the mini plastic antique manager (bottom left corner of the picture) was found this year at an estate sale. I look forward to finding more of those this year. I set this in front of two angel ornaments that were gifted to me by my Grandma Jennie; they belonged to her mom. It was an honor to receive these heirloom family ornaments.

Lastly, I happened to stumble across these mini nativity ornaments at Hobby Lobby. I knew they would be perfect to place within my antique printer tray here.

Elf Tree

Other items I was lucky enough to be gifted: my mom’s entire lot of antique elves. With all the new spaces in the new house, I had a lot of ground to cover with decorations. My mom didn’t have room for her elves and let me borrow them for this Christmas. I dressed up the buffet in the dining room with all these elf friends for our Christmas Elf, Buttercup Bob.

Next, I added some bottle brush trees to help balance the space. Some old Putz bottle brush trees are pictured here, but I also supplemented with some new from Walmart, as mentioned earlier.

Santas in the Kitchen

Santa took over our kitchen shelves. I was able to find two antique Santa mugs this holiday season. They are a stand-out next to my newly purchased mugs from years past. I picked up a bunch of Santa mugs from the Dollar Tree a few years ago (hanging from my rail); these are the kid’s favorite for hot chocolate. I also added candy canes in ball jars, antique cookie cutters, and other ceramic Santa’s throughout he shelf.

Kitchen Santa Shelf

Holiday Home Tour: Living Room

Christmas Spirit in the Living Room

A few themes can summarize our living room Christmas decor.

First, Christmas Trees in Crocs. I picked up quite a few crocs from estate sales this past year. I was able to put them all to good use during the Christmas season. The trees are from 5 below and the Dollar Tree.

Second, Snowmen. I decided to highlight all my snowmen in this corner of the house this year. Using a stool to add height and places my snowmen around the trees.

Third, Mr. Christmas Decor. If you look closely, there are two Mr. Christmas decorations in this scene: a marching band and a ski lift. These are a fan favorite of my boys. They loved watching and playing the ski lift and listening to Santa’s marching band. I found these in estate sales this past year.

Lastly, I cannot not mention the dollar tree village makeover that I spread across the antique library cabinet. You can read more about how I did this here.

Last But Not Least, Our Christmas Tree

View of Christmas Tree in the Sunroom

This is by far my favorite tree EVER. It is our first real tree as a family, and it is the first tree in the new house. It is the most beautiful view.

Other Christmas decor in the sunroom includes simple wreaths on all the windows. I got these wreaths at Michaels and dressed them up with a simple red ribbon.

Also, I just HAD to put the kids rocking horse by the tree. I picked this up at an estate sale this past year for the kid’s room, and it just made sense to put it by the Christmas tree for the holiday season.

Other items not shown, my putz village and ceramic village in the other corner of the room. I plan to spend more time on those spaces next year – need to tap into my creativity to come up with the perfect displays.

I am excited to watch our Christmas decor evolve over the next few years. Thanks for following along!

Christmas Morning
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DIY: Christmas Village Upcycle

Before and After: Dollar Tree Christmas Village Makeover

It’s our first Christmas in our new home! I’m so excited to decorate our new spaces for the first time this holiday season. We have brought over all of our Christmas decor from our old home but wanting to decorate a larger space requires more decoration (weird, right?). I’ve had to get a little creative in decorating some of our spaces because unfortunately I do not have an unlimited Christmas decor budget. I’m sharing this DIY Dollar Tree Christmas Village in its simplest form, but then also outlining some additional, quick enhancements to take this DIY to the next level.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you purchase products through these links, I may receive commission at no extra cost to you

Finished product of the village displayed in our home.

I was inspired by the multitude of white ceramic village houses that you can find at almost any Christmas decor store (target, anthropology, pottery barn, etc.); however, I wasn’t wanting to spend top dollar or really any dollars at this point. I frequent the dollar tree to check out seasonal decor, so I knew exactly what I was going to try to finish this space in our living room.

Materials

There are really only two materials to create the bare minimum (village houses and white spray paint), but I’m also highlighting some additional materials that I purchased and may consider adding to my village in the near future. I decided to place my village among garland with my Mr. Christmas Marching Band, so the minimum works in this space.

First, I picked up some village houses from the dollar tree. They had a total of 6 different village options this year. I opted out of the gingerbread house, just because I didn’t think it would fit nicely with the other outlines of the houses once painted. I did, however, get multiples of the same houses to help build my village for 8 houses total. This village is the most affordable option, and the houses already come with a battery-operated light.

Second, this is a very small project, so it will not require a lot of spray paint. You may already have some left over from a different project. If you don’t, just pick up white spray paint when you’re out from any grocery/hardware store. Here is the brand I used.

Houses during spray painting.

This project in its simplest form, is applying spray paint to the village houses twice. That’s it. Once the paint is dry, this village can be arranged anywhere. I do have some other ideas for these houses in the future that I’ll share here too.

Other materials I’ve picked up from the dollar tree and may consider adding in the future are detailed below.

Finished product, styled in our home

Additional Materials

  1. Canvas: If wanting to create an antique putz house feel, hot glue the houses on a small canvas to create a platform bottom. You can purchase a three-pack of 4×6 sized canvas from the dollar tree. I do have these on hand if I decide to style these houses differently in the future.
  2. Bottle brush trees: If you decide to add a platform, you can purcahse these as a three-pack from the dollar tree to add in front of the houses. I also think adding a bottle brush wreath would be super cute (so I may add to some of my houses when I do go this route).
  3. Glitter: Some white glitter paint would really make these houses pop. I decided not to go glitter at this point in time, just to avoid mess. I usually avoid glitter when I can, but I do think it would be a great upgrade to these houses to create that snow feel.
  4. Wreath: Has anyone else noticed the Anthropology wreath DIY trend this year? I think these houses would be perfect to make your own Anthro dupe.

Thanks for reading my experience, and I hope you feel inspired to create your own upcycled dollar tree village. Please share your own village creations with me!

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New Vintage Christmas Decor

I am thrifting and picking up Christmas vintage decor all year, but that is not the only way to get a vintage Christmas feel come the winter holidays. There are many stores that have antique and vintage feel decor that you can buy brand new. I feel like I need to put a disclaimer that treasure hunting (thrifting/estate/garage sailing) is probably my favorite activity, but I wanted to put this post together because not everyone enjoys the hunt for vintage and some individuals don’t like to buy used. So here are some of the vintage finds I’ve found that you can buy new this holiday 2022 season.

Also, I wanted to call out that some of these items can be extremely affordable at the new price, but they aren’t “originals”. For example, if you want the Putz village for brand new, you will be paying hefty for these types of items – here are some options from target Putz Village : Target – these items I highly suggest you find used if you love the look.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you purchase products through these links, I may receive commission at no extra cost to you.

Christmas Blow Mold Decor

Here are my favorite blow molds I found this season.

Snowman Blow Mold at Big Lots
Santa Blow Mold at Big Lots

I picked up both the Snowman and Santa this year from big lots. Regularly priced at $12, but I got 30% off in store with the promotional sale they were offering. These have a definite vintage feel. Walmart has similar options, but these ones felt more vintage to me!

Walmart did come through this year with some amazing options, which brings me to my next finds.

New, Vintage Mr. Christmas

Walmart has an amazing line of tribute vintage Mr. Christmas ornaments at an affordable price. I had to snag some of the mini reindeer and snowman mug ornaments. I will likely put these on my shelf with my other mugs and not my tree:

Snowman mini mug ornament from Walmart

Reindeer mini mug ornament from Walmart

Santa mini mug ornament from Walmart

Christmas Mugs

If you opt for the ornaments, you probably want one of the real things.

Snowman mug from Michaels

Reindeer mug from Michaels

Santa mug from Michaels

Here are options that you can buy new at Michaels. You can also find these in other stores around the holidays like TJ Max and Homegoods.

Vintage Ornaments; Christmas Tree Decorations

Shiny Brites

Brand new Shiny Brites can be found at Menards in store. These are a hefty $25 for 12 mini ornaments. The ornaments are very pretty, but the new boxes just do not compare to the vintage boxes. I’ve received these as a gift last year, and they are back again this year. I’m always looking for these ornaments when I’m out and about. I don’t have a share link as I’ve only found them in stores.

Tree and Window Candles

Battery Operated Candles with Remote.

These are a must for a vintage look. I like to use these on my tree and in my windows. The window battery operated candles are nice, but they don’t have a timer and you will go through batteries non-stop. I suggest getting remote operated lights so you can easily turn them on and off with just the push of a button.

I also like to put real candles on my smaller trees. These I do not light as I don’t want to burn my tree and/or house to the ground. These are beautiful on smaller accent trees. I’ve purchased these clips at estate sales for a fraction of the cost, but here are some you can purchase new on amazon.

Thanks for following along on my new 2022 vintage Christmas purchases. These are items I like to supplement with my antique finds for my Christmas home decor. Stick around the see the final set up to see how I incorporated these items into my final Christmas look.

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Harry Potter Birthday: Hogwarts Great Hall Transformation

We recently celebrated our Auggie’s 7th birthday. Once I suggested to him that we do a Harry Potter birthday party, there was no going back. There are endless ideas and options for Hogwarts/Harry Potter Party theme decorations. I decided I wanted to narrow down what we were going to do so it wouldn’t get too out of hand in terms of number of projects and decorations. After searching Pinterest to get some inspiration, I decided to focus on making our dining room into the Hogwarts Great Hall for a sorting hat ceremony for the kids.

I was inspired greatly by Angela Rose Home on how I could transform our dining room into the Hogwarts Great Hall. If you are looking for amazing inspiration, DIY’s, and How To’s, I suggest you check her out! I was inspired by her DIY window transformation to drastically change the space, with minimal effort and money. I’ll show my results below but check her out for the most amazing transformation.

Here are all the details on how we transformed our dining room into the Hogwarts Great Hall to have our very own sorting hat ceremony.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you purchase products through these links, I may receive commission at no extra cost to you.

Great Hall Dining Room

Floating Candles

My first thought when thinking Harry Potter Great Hall is the floating candles. When Harry and his friends walk into the Great Hall for the first time the ceiling is breath taking for all the first-year students. I knew I had to do something to recreate the floating candle look. I found my floating candles on Amazon and decided to string them across the ceiling with fishing wire. There are endless options out there for these battery-operated candles, but I think the most important feature to ensure you get is the remote control on/off. You do not want to have to twist/put batteries in while the candles are hanging.

Window Treatment

This was 100% inspired by Angela Rose Home. She used electrical tape on her windows to create the diamond shape inserts; check out her Instagram and Blog for more details. This was such a simple DIY that makes the biggest impact. It took a single roll of electrical tape and 10 minutes. Everyone commented how great it looked and thought I had bought actual inserts. This is a no-brainer to add to really transform the space.

Hall Decor & Set Up

I bought the Hogwarts House banners from Amazon. Simple hanging decor that we decided to put up alongside the wall, again there are countless options when it comes to the different House Flags on Amazon, but you definitely need a little something for each of the houses when doing a sorting ceremony.

I bought the plastic wall “stone” covers from Dollar Tree. Luckily, his birthday is in October – so these were available in Dollar Tree’s Halloween Seasonal Decorations. I bought four of them to put along the wall to recreate the stone look of the great hall.

We used kid’s tables in the dining room to be able to fit two side by side and Nate made me some benches to have Great Hall seating, but most importantly – we needed Dumbledore’s podium and a stool for the sorting ceremony at the head of the room.

Harry Potter Accessories for Hogwarts Great Hall

Can’t have a shorting ceremony without a sorting hat! We decided to order one from Amazon that actually sorts!

We told everyone that they should wear their robes to our party! Auggie was Harry Potter for Halloween, so we already had ours ready! You can buy Hogwarts or specific houses on Amazon!

We had Hedwig ready to go for added detail since we are big Harry Potter fans already. Some other details for guests include wands!

It was hard to pick and choose which details to focus on for transforming our dining room, but I think we found a good balance to really transform our space with minimal effort. We successfully hosted a sorting ceremony and had many happy kids with their results! But seriously, look at those fingers crossed to not be put in Slytherin.

Birthday Boy being sorted
Auggie being sorted.

Thanks for following along, and I hope you feel inspired to host your very own sorting hat ceremony for the Harry Potter-loving kids in your house.

Follow along for more of my home tour and Schutt Farms’ events.

Madison

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Vintage Farm Birthday Decor

Birthday Boy
Birthday Boy

We recently celebrated our Theodore’s 4th birthday. Per his request, we threw him a Farm themed birthday dinner. Because of his love for the farm, we didn’t need to buy any decorations and just repurposed items we already had. I also borrowed some from my mom, who also has a love for Vintage Farm Decor.

I’m listing out my favorite vintage decorating must haves and what I paid for these items, and then I’ll list out my favorite barn specific items for decorating for a barn theme birthday in hopes you find some inspiration to bring vintage decor into your home.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you purchase products through these links, I may receive commission at no extra cost to you.

Vintage Decorating Must Haves

Treasure hunting for vintage items is my favorite. I love having unique pieces around my house that have a story all of their own.

I have a lot of antique furniture pieces in my house, but today I wanted to highlight the small finds that are practical for home decor.

Here are items I’m always on the look for when I’m out and about at antique shows, garage sales, flea markets, resale shops, and/or estate sales. You can also follow along on Instagram to see more of my everyday vintage finds.

Antique Flower Frog

Vintage Farm Decor
Vintage Farm Decor Display

First up is a flower frog. It’s perfect for holding and displaying photos/paper decor. Here I’ve used it to display a vintage sight word flashcard.

I use these for my everyday decor too. It’s easy to incorporate in every corner of your home.

Flower frogs can be purchased new on Amazon, if treasure hunting is not necessarily your thing. But there is something about a vintage iron flower frog that makes it’s hard for a new one to compare.

All of my flower frogs were bought as part of a $5 fill-a-bag sale. That means I paid a flat $5 to fill my bag with anything at the sale. To give you an idea, I’ve never paid more than $0.25 per item when I participate in this type of sale.

Vintage Pictures to Display

There are a lot of ways to display little pictures via frames or flower frogs to help bring a vintage feel to your decorations. Some of my favorites to tie into decor are antique flashcards and post cards.

Flashcards always bring a vintage feel. Another item that looks cute around the house with everyday decor, but they are nice to pull out for themed events to easily add decoration.

Post Cards are another one of my favorite items to run into. There is something about finding a post card from a place near and dear to your heart. I always look for seasonal post cards when I’m thrifting. Bonus if there is a note and date on the back from the original purchaser.

Again, I love the vintage look, but you can purchase both of these items new to display around your home. I never pay for than $1.00 for an antique post card. It needs to be really special if I’d consider paying more.

Risers & Platforms to Elevate Decor

Image of vintage barn party decor.
Vintage Barn Decorations for Dessert Table

Last on my list is repurposing items for platforms and risers. There are many creative ways to add height to a display. To get the vintage feel, using old printer trays and desk drawers are an easy and affordable way to add height.

Trying to buy these specific antique items online can be pricey when searching for antiques, but when you find them in the wild for a good price (I paid $1.00-$5.00 per item in the ones shown throughout this post), it’s worth it to add to your collection.

Vintage Farm Decor

Shifting to more of a focus on the Vintage Farm Decor for how we decorated for Teddy’s Birthday Party. The items described below can easily be used for other themes, but I’m narrowing in on the farm for this section and descriptions.

Vintage farm birthday decorations
Another look at the dessert table.

Vintage Books

For our farm theme, we pulled out all of our vintage farm books. I always look for used, old books when I’m out thrifting.

Teddy LOVES farm animals so of course he loves reading these books, so they have a dual purpose. Don’t we all love functional decor?

I’m always picking up vintage books that are on my kid’s favorite topics to display in their rooms. I also like to flip through all the picture books at sales because sometimes there are cute pages you may want to frame and display in your house.

It depends on the topic and how much I fell in love with a book, but I try to not pay more than $1.00 per book at used sales.

Antique Toys for Decor

We used all of our vintage farm toys for decorations. I always look for vintage versions of toys to display in my kid’s rooms on bookshelves, and these also end up being some of their favorite toys to pull down and play with.

Some items I’m always grabbing at sales if they are the right price are listed below.

First, are old wooden blocks. These are used time and time again to bring a vintage theme to our decor.

Next, wood or plastic farm animals. Teddy loves playing farm, so I know these won’t just sit on a shelf. He has over 5 barns, and they are constantly filled and organized with all the barnyard animals.

Third, are metal tractors/trucks/cars. These make great vintage decorations. Teddy loves a trailer tractor hook-up, so it’s hard to pass these up when I find them at sales. I pay anywhere from $0.50 to $5 for the items shown in his birthday decor for these tractors. These can get really pricey, even buying used – but I don’t splurge on these items and wait until I find good deals.

Fresh Flowers in Antique Blue Ball Jars

Vintage Farm Decor Flowers
Vintage Fisher Price Farm as Center Piece

Last on my vintage farm decor list is fresh flowers in ball jars. I had to borrow these from my mom because I have not come across the large vintage blue ball jars in the wild yet, but it’s something I’m always waiting to get my hands on for my own collection.

These make beautiful vases and centerpieces for parties. I stopped at Walmart the day before the party and picked up fresh flowers to create these centerpieces. I wish I had my own garden to be able to fill this many jars with fresh flowers, but I only had some wildflowers and stems from our yard to help fill my bouquets.

Thanks for following along, and I hope you feel inspired to bring some of these vintage items into your decor.

Follow along for more of my home tour and Schutt Farms’ events.

Madison