Here is a picture of some of the artwork that will be gracing our dining room as we eat our Thanksgiving meal, courtesy of my dear daughter, Katherine. She's 9 yo and made this in school....her rendition of a Thanksgiving meal!
This is my starting "pile" of tags, they need to be inked, then sparkle added...that's the fun part.
well, below is the new and improved version, complete with labels (of course I haven't gotten around to labeling the drawers yet, but soon, very soon :)
BTW, those adorable labels came from Cathe Holden of Just Something I Made. Love her blog and all her creative ideas!
I'm happy to say that I have items in just about every drawer! What a perfect organizer for my studio.....love this sooooo much, thanks Mel!
For those of us with young ones at home...I know my dd asks every Halloween and every Christmas..."how many more days until_______", so I was searching the web for countdown calendar ideas and came across one that was perfect. This idea came from the very talented Lori at mudpiestudio.
Go get yourself some little pieces of thin wood (about 1.5 in.) also at Michael's. Right next to the wood pieces you'll find little thin magnet squares to fit on the back of the tiles you'll make.
Then I had some leftover stickers that I applied to the calendar....my dd loves getting up every day and seeing how many days are left until Halloween. And next year we'll pull it out and do it again...
This will be fun to decorate with, I have soooooo many old books and vintage sheet music....
Aren't these boots just the "witchiest"? Thank you Etsy.....where all things cool can be found.
I've been really busy decorating the house for Halloween, or as my dd calls it, "Hallowed Halloween", she just loves it to pieces!! She's going as a bee keeper this year...do you ever get tired of going to the stores and seeing the same old costumes, year after year? Well, that's where I'm at this year, really needed something a bit more "out there" and clever. So hopefully she'll be the only bee keeper at her school parade. Trying to find the bees is a bit tricky this time of year though, so I had to go online, but found some today so will anxiously await them and then start applying them to her costume.
Found this ledger on ebay, I really do need an intervention when it comes to these....I adore them! This one is large and just stunning with cool writing inside.....at least it wasn't expensive so I can't feel guilty for "winning" it.
It's been beautiful weather here, sunny but getting cold, 28 degrees tonight! Love it that way.
I've got so many ideas for Halloween goodies that sometimes I feel I'm spinning my wheels!
It will be listed in my Etsy shop soon.....along with some other Halloween goods.
Well, here they are, my HUGE haul from the flea yesterday :). Ok, I didn't get a lot, but what I did get I absolutely love! These two books are so awesome. The little one is leather bound with gorgeous endpapers inside. It's called Petits Sermons by Bertrand. It has the most perfectly aged pages within, all in French, mais oui!
The larger book is a giant! It was *gulp* $5! I grabbed it quick....it's all about Egypt, Greece, and Italy....history, etc. and has lots of steel plate engravings inside...just beautiful. According to a signature in pencil in the back of the book it belonged to a Miss Malia Bell in 1888.
The tin and a half were just cute, I'll try my hand at making something with them.
It's open ladies, and it's gorgeous in all it's shabby, chippy, worn- in spendor.....that's right, I'm talking about Colby Cottage here in Eugene. And I was the first customer to walk through their doors on Tuesday! (Not that I was anxious or anything:))
My darling daughter and I will be heading north on Friday morning to see Melanie at her darling shop, All My Favorite Things, then we'll all head over to Monticello for the big sale that starts on Friday morning....I'm beyond excited to have a great day with my daughter and my best friend both..... what could be better? 
O.K., so I don't get to post very often, but I AM trying...my dd doesn't start school until Sept. 9 so until then, she's my priority!!! That being said, I have been working on creating for my favorite holiday...Halloween.
I love creating Halloween goodies, they're just the best...and now is the time to shop for Halloween, all the stores are putting out their goods. But we all know that the best items are those that are handmade, in other words, ONE OF A KIND!!!! I love knowing that some of the decorative items in my home can't be found anywhere else....because they are handmade, unique.
So here is a small sampling of what will soon be in my Etsy shop...just check the upper right side of my side-bar and you will be whisked away to my Etsy shop.
I've made some journals, some small Bingo cards, shadowboxes, collages, etc. for your enjoyment....
Have fun and I hope you're all getting "in the mood" for Halloween. I know I am....
Friday a.m. dd and I happened upon an estate sale sign, so we followed it. It led us into a trailer park. The aged oak trees were so beautiful....we got out and went in...the woman obviously had come from means at one time....there were several fur coats and fur stoles for sale, and lots of very well made and (at one time) expensive suits. She also had lovely china and curio cabinets filled with interesting things. The signature above is found in the lovely birthday book below,
it's so tiny and pretty, with a proverb for every month.
The ration book above was in a curio cabinet and is filled with interesting information....and tokens, not sure what those were for. The case is buttery leather.
I couldn't pass up this tiny leather Bible....
This woman had several card sets, like the Canasta set above, how cute are they?
The box above is my favorite find of this sale, I can only imagine what treasure was inside...at one time....but the fact that she saved it is so touching....
The box below intrigued me as well, I just wonder what it held...I have no idea but look at the stamp on the back of it...
I think this woman was well-traveled at one time (at least I like to think so.) I also bought a beautiful black cloth umbrella with a carved wooden handle for $1.
Thanks to Pam's article in Green Craft magazine (from the publisher's of Somerset Studio) I was so inspired to make my own coffee liner garland. I'm sure most, if not all of you, have heard of Pam Garrison by now, artist extraordinaire. She became somewhat obsessed with these garlands that were hanging in Anthropologie stores a few years ago and set about to create her own.
I have to admit it's not really something I would have thought up on my own (wish I were that creative!) These have such an ethereal quality to them, especially hanging on a window with light coming through....they're just lovely.
This was such a FUN project and a great way to use up the various supplies that a lot of us tend to hoard....vintage music books, ribbons, flowers, fabrics, etc. 
The skies the limit here as far as your own creativity goes, look around your space and see what you'd love to put on your garland...you could even put photos of your family on the ends, how cute would that be? Mine is currently hanging on my laundry room window, may stay there a while, may move....who knows?
Today we took a trip to the Enchanted Forest in Salem and then went to Silver Creek Falls. What a lovely day....and a big one for dd, who is almost 9yo. She's never been one for rides at amusement parks, and we've never forced her....and she's still a bit afraid of the dark....but today she went on the log ride and loved it! We were very proud of her for even trying it....but she still didn't like going into all the weird little fairy tale houses that were there, and I can't really blame her. This is a child who wasn't raised on the scary Grimm's-type fairy tales but on the more benign Disney stories....
