It's always sad to put away Christmas goodies, but even sadder to put away all the little houses. (Like going through putz "withdrawal" for me!)

So every year, when all the Christmas has been packed up for another season, out come the loggies for my mantle "Winter putz". Composed entirely of loggies made by Howard Lamey and Karl Fey, it has few bottle brush trees and instead bare branch trees I've picked up from Lemax throughout the years.
I'm attaching a photo of the middle of the mantle. You can see another shot here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22283683@N ... hotostream

And you can see fellow collector Linda S' 2011 Christmas mantle--blogged about here: http://everythingcroton.blogspot.com/20 ... -putz.html

I love the loggies being created by Fey and Lamey. What a privilege is to know two such wonderful putz artists--keeping the cardboard house tradition alive! The one in the center is by Lamey. The others by Fey.

Maria, thanks for sharing. Karl and Howard, great work as always!

Maria, thanks for the link to the everythingcroton.blogspot of the mantle pix.

That's a great way of keeping the spirit going. Just swap out a Christmas theme for a Winter theme!

Here's another from the current display; it's by Karl Fey

Maria, can you tell me something about the trees in your display? I mean the ones (not bottlebrush) with the straight "branches" that are thicker than the bottlebrush branches. I have two trees like that and I'm trying to learn more about them. Thanks. I'm tempted to try a log cabin.

you mean these trees?...the "non-bottle brush" ones?...

http://littleglitterhouses.com/paul/set ... pieces.htm

my very best regards...

howard

I'm having a deja vue attack. The second photo shows a deer w/tree decoration. Why does that look so familiar? Did we have one of those when I was growing up? arrrrrrgh! It's wierd how a wave of nostalgia can just slam into someone over the slightest thing huh?

These were sold as souveniers back in the day at national parks.

I couldn't access your website, Howard, for some reason. The tree I'm referring to is on the immediate left side of the center loggie posted by Maria, at the top of this page. I posted my examples under "Tell me about ..." as Unusual Trees, in November, and that's still up.