Junky Jug Christms Centerpiece

I'm so excited about the Christmas centerpiece I crafted up to decorate my porch.  It's even more exciting when you hear the crazy story behind it.  A long time ago, when Mr. DD and I lived in Nebraska, we would make the long drive home to Oklahoma to visit family.  And when I say long, I mean LLLLLLLOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGG.  Just across the border into Kansas was an old, abandoned farmhouse that fascinated me.  I always wanted to stop and look inside but according to my straight-laced husband, "That's trespassing" or "You'll fall through the floor."  Last month I made a trip to Omaha to visit my good friend Michaela from An Affair From The Heart.  When I drove by the house, it was still there but in very dilapidated condition.  I decided that I would stop and investigate on my way home, because frankly the condition is so poor I'm afraid the house won't be standing the next time I travel to Nebraska.  So on cold, snowy, blustery Saturday afternoon, I finally mustered up the courage to check out the old house.  The grass was waist-high as I wandered around the yard and out buildings.  I found a few old small glass bottles lying around.  Little Devil collects antique bottles so she was very excited by my finds.  Then I spotted this great big glass gallon jug just lying in the grass.  And I helped myself.  And I went inside the house.  Which was completely empty and had been stripped of all doors, windows, trim and siding.  I wanted to go inside the kitchen because it still had some fixtures, but the floor was completely rotted away and I could hear Mr. DD's warning echoing through my ears.  In true American Pickers fashion, I did find a couple of other things that I'm saving for a future blog.  All the way home, I knew exactly what I was going to do with the filthy jug rolling around my floorboard.  I cleaned it up and it's greeting my guests on the porch with a JUNKY HOLIDAY WELCOME!

Here it is!  Just as Junky and Festive
as can be!

I cleaned up my jug,
filled it with water and fresh cranberries.
(Don't you just love how they float?)
Added some burlap ribbon and a
strip of buffalo-checked fabric
and some greenery snipped from
a friend's yard.
The only thing I paid for was the cranberries!

Here's the house.
Isn't is awesome?
I wish it could talk and tell me
stories about the butter that was churned there.

Merry "Junky" Christmas
(Perhaps it doesn't come from a store...)