Andy Griffith Christmas Tree

the theme for this year's tree is The Andy Griffith Show.  We are HUGE TAGS fanatics around here. Pumkinbutt's first real hair cut was done by Russell Hiatt, the man Floyd the barber was based on.... We have visited Mt. Airy, the town Andy grew up in and Mayberry was based on, many times... all ate the porkchop sandwich at the Snappy Lunch....watch the show every night and quote the show on a daily basis. example: when someone is sitting around stalling i usually pull out the Malcolm Tucker lines on the bottom (see below) and insert whatever activities work, along with "going to Thelma Lou's". Here's the whole set up:

Barney Fife: [while relaxing on the front porch after Sunday dinner] You know what I think I'm gonna' do?

Andy Taylor: What?
Barney Fife: I'm gonna' go home, have me a little nap, and then go over to Thelma Lou's and watch a little TV.
Andy Taylor: Mmm-hmm.
Barney Fife: Yeah, I believe that's what I'll do. Go home... have a nap... and then over to Thelma Lou's for TV.
Andy Taylor: Mmm.
Barney Fife: Yep, that's the plan. Home... little nap... then...

Malcolm Tucker: [interrupting] For the love of Mike *do* it!
Malcolm Tucker [shouts] : Do it! Just *do* it! Go take a nap, go to Thelma Lou's for TV, just *do it*!

***

So enters the theme...

For the love of god! DO IT! Go make some ornaments, decorate the tree, go to Thelma Lou's for TV, post about the tree! Just DO IT!

i think i made about 8 different ornaments.  They were all from images i found on the internet, printed on cardstock, and embellished a bit.

on the left is a combo of two images, a vintage TV set and i inserted a still from the opening credits.  right, a christmas group shot, a bit of glitter on the wreath and attached to a round wrapping paper covered disk.

these are images of coloringbook covers with a bit of glitter.

left, cover of a TV guide, glitterfied. right, a autographed photo of Otis with a small bottle of hooch attached.

my fav episode, the pickle story.  an image of opie with "good ol' store bought pickles" flanked with images of homemade canned pickles.

barney as santa image.  i embellished the beard with some white yarn and put some snow glitter behind him.

  "Toot, Toot, Tootsie Good bye!" Aunt Bee's solution to becoming a spring chicken again... Colonel Harvey's Indian Elixer! these are those stocking stuffer sized bottles of liquior with handmade decals by my stepdad. We also had little silver sherriff badges (from the kids section for cowboy parties)  hanging on the tree as well.  for the over-all-pull-it-together feel, we used those large multi color lights and doused the tree in silver icicles. Silver icicles were very hard to located and we opted to use the shredded gift bag filler from $ tree. cheap and effective!

Of course, i came up with a few other ideas for ornaments after the fact; such as making Ernest T. Bass rocks, mini boxes of Mircle Salve, sticks of dynomite for Jimmy the goat to eat, plastic kids handcuffs, fishing lures, images of deep freezers with the text "Aunt bee, just call the man!" on them....

Look what i found on the side of the road last week! as you can see... FREE!

i painted it with some leftover house paint...

hmmmm.... what purpose did it serve in it's previous life?

oh... i see...well i was planning on using it exclusively for the displaying of nick nacks. i best keep a lookout for the sylvania rack police!

halloween decor

Decor this year ..... uber cheap..... most stuff from the dollar tree. tombstones and paper die cuts from $tree of ravens. something called "halloween hay" stretched across the top came from Joann's. i hung 7 of these tombstones on the wall instead of doing the graveyard deal outside.

A framed tombstone rubbing that i put up every year. added the oh-so-creepy halloween hay along with a foam raven perched on top. off to the left is a paper die cut of an owl from $tree.

here is a bit of a shot of the "wall cemetery". in the middle of the display is a graveyard print from Madame Talbot Victorian Lowbrow . Also seen in the lower right corner is one of those typically used for christmas plastic candle holder do-hickeys. i used orange flicker flame bulbs and put several around the house...it looked very haunted mansion-ish! (the next picture below it is more clear)

various displays of vintage halloween stuffs:

i think the only thing i purchased new this year were the die cuts (ravens, bats, owls, spiders). not pictured but hung on the windows were the spiders and bats on the ceiling. when the fan is turned on the wings flap for an extra added effect.

belated halloween wishes

i can't let halloween go by without at least some representation here, even if it's late and minimal. so here is the pumpkin for this year:

presented in "spooky-lit-vision":

and here is a last minute idea that pumpinbutt came up with that i thought was supercool: (it is on the back)






i had this idea to try random black paint rubbed all over the pumpkin but wasn't entirely happy with it... kinda reminded me of that cheesy faux wall paint technique of sponge painting that was so popular in 1992.