Creating a Nostalgic Christmas Village for the Garden Railroad, Decorating the Hydrangea Room

Good morning friends. Well, it's only about 7 30 a.m And i've already switched from coffee to coca-cola I couldn't sleep last night because I was having a dream about getting some more puppies So I ran that by my husband and he didn't say much But maybe there's more puppies in our future. Who knows? Anyway, what we're going to get around to today is we're going to be setting up the garden railroad and I want to create a Miniature christmas village on the interior of the garden railroad the other day when I was at the thrift store I got a whole bunch of lemax houses for really cheap So I thought i'd try to rewire those so that we can use them outside In the garden, but before we dive into this video, I wanted to share something really special with all of you One of you her name's terry sent me the elusive Christmas tree box that i've been looking for Desperately for years. I told you about this when we were setting up the vintage christmas tree the other day And about a week later someone named terry sent me this box. I don't know your address terry I don't know your email anything. I couldn't find you on social media But thank you from the bottom of my heart for this box and all the beautiful ornaments inside I really haven't done much with the garden library tree this year. Oh, sorry How can I stand so you can see it I just kind of wanted to Embrace the shiny bright ornaments this year So I just put red shiny bright ornaments on the tree a few burgundy ornaments and then my grandma's christmas bells Let's hit the play button on these so you can hear them sing Can you see how they light up as they play along to the music? Let me switch to the wide angle. You might be able to see it a little bit better We'll have to come back out here tonight so you can see it in the evening because it looks totally different I also put this beautiful wreath from jackson and perkins out in the library Truth be told this is my second time decorating this tree. I originally had ribbons pine cones magnolia picks Berries all kinds of stuff on the tree, but the bells were really getting lost and this year I really want All my christmas decor to be about the memories and here in the garden library I wanted to be about my grandma's christmas bells So on the day that I received those shiny bright ornaments, I undecorated the whole tree Restrung my grandma's christmas bells and then decided to just add only red shiny bright ornaments And I think it looks so much better that way because the bells Really stand out and I also wanted to be about wreaths because that's a big memory making wreaths with my grandma And giving them away so friends Speaking of memories. I grew up with tons of railroads in the basement Outside under the christmas tree. I'll tell you more about that during today's vlog But it is really really cold outside today. So i'm gonna quickly run outside Show you the track and we'll get it laid and then we'll come back in here and i'll show you the houses that I picked Up at the thrift store. We've got our g scale track our ladybug train Our power pack the track can stay out here all the time and it can get wet But our ladybug and our power pack can't get wet. So I have to house them Inside the library when they're not in use Yay What do you think gracey Say all aboard the north lawn express Hot cocoa and bones are always complimentary Grace is never really sure about the train She's thinking are you sure we're okay with this mom? I heard there was talk of bones And this train isn't stopping and giving me any bones I have the track all set up and now we can move on to assembling our christmas village Down in the basement of our home. My dad had this huge piece of plywood where he would have a massive train display So we had that display in the basement and I think that was ho trains Outside he had a big garden railroad and I think you've seen his garden railroad since he moved to this area And we also had a train under the christmas tree in the downstairs train display. He had lots of different houses Outside he had some houses and under the christmas tree. I don't remember there being any houses But what i'm thinking is that we build the village on the interior of the train tracks So the cryptomaria will act almost as our christmas tree will have the village All around the interior perimeter of the train track And then I want to create a snowy winter scene behind all the houses I just have some random trees some i've had for many years Some I picked up at target for five dollars some I got at a thrift store like this one I think I picked this one up for 50 cents Speaking of the thrift store you guys won't even believe how much I paid for all of these houses. Some of them were three Some of them were 10 We have all different ones To use for our christmas village and I could not figure out Why some were priced at three dollars and some were priced at 10 until I brought them home and started to plug them in Now i've taken out the bulbs and the wiring Because I want to use them outside, but I did have them displayed inside for a few weeks They have a light bulb that goes in here They plug into the outlet and then they do have an on off switch Well, some of them like these ones were flipped to the off position and those ones were only three dollars So I have a feeling the person that was testing them was just plugging them into the wall and wasn't turning them on So if they plugged them in and they turned on they were 10 And if they plugged them in and they didn't turn on they were three So I really lucked out I got I think maybe nine houses total for less than 50 I gave three to my parents or maybe four to my parents and I kept five I was trying to think of a way that we could take these houses Which are supposed to be used inside and use them outside And the main thing is I just don't want to use those indoor cords and light bulbs So I got the wrong set of bulbs. I got c9s I should have got c7s because the c9s don't fit into all the holes For instance, it will fit into the church But it won't fit into this one The gift shop and if I would have just got c7s, I think they would have fit I could also probably just shove some fairy lights in these but I really want to set it up So it's just easy breezy I have everything on a dawn to dusk timer and I want these houses on the timer too. So we'll head back to Lowe's We'll grab c7s and I also accidentally got cool white cool white No, never cool white. So I have to get warm white Anyway, so c7 warm white now, let's head back outside and get set up The ladybug seems happy on the track The true test of whether or not I set up the track correctly is whether or not I can get my antique Bps and drr train to run so i'm going to turn our egg liner off This type of train is called an egg liner and we'll see if we can get my antique very delicate princess temperamental princess train to work I did clean off all her wheels last night. So let's give it a go Say I think I can I think I can I think I can I think it's that area there needs to build up some No, she doesn't like it over here. Okay Nope It's not happy grace I bought this train at our local antique store. It's always given me problems and i'm so embarrassed But i've just now realized that a piece of tinsel Or maybe even straw something is wrapped around the one wheel I don't even know if you can see it in the camera right there That is probably why this train has not run properly for all these years. Oh my gosh There's a whole bunch of it. What is this? Gracie what is in the train? If this thing runs perfectly now I cannot believe that train is working perfectly fine now Now I have some passenger cars in the basement to go along with it that I haven't used in years I think i'm going to grab them and see if I can get them working, too But first i'm going to finish lighting up the hydrangea room because it's easy for me to get power to both sides of the hydrangea room By going over the arch with lights and then i'll just give you a grand tour this evening So i'll see you then I need to get warmed up again. It's so cold You