We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog for.......HALLOWEEN

BOO!

On angel's wings~~~~~~~

A serendipitous find today.....I certainly wasn't "looking" for them.

But isn't that typically when things 'find us'?

I had an errand on the other side of town. Since I was over there I checked out the thrifts (c'mon, wouldn't you too?)
They had racks of interesting apparel for costumes for Halloween and these beauties flew out at me....I think I screamed (at least in my mind).
I love them in all their tattered glory...they'll be so perfect for Christmas.
Has anything special found you lately?

Just when I wasn't sure what I'd post about next~~~~~~

I received this lovely bundle in my mail today~~~~~

Now we all know that there are many lovely shops on Etsy.....many, many of them. But surely we all have our favorites, right? I know I do....I stalk  shop some of them daily.....

But my lovely friend Noel at redstripevintage 
truly has some of the most delectable french goods in her store.
They're hard to resist.
And when I received my package today I was so blown away with her care of packaging and presentation of her wares.

This spectacular crochet trim had to come home to me, but Noel surely did not have to package it as brilliantly as she did.
The lovely 'Hot Rolls' wrap and the pretty red and white striped ribbon.....all are reasons I love to spend my money with those who really care and have such pride in what they do and how they present themselves, their shops, etc.
It speaks volumes, and is just so much more enjoyable than running down to the Mall and finding nothing but mass produced merchandise.
No, no, thank you very much!
So do yourself a huge favor and go check out Noel's lovelier than lovely shop....you'll be so glad you did!

A happy Autumn day........

We've had a lovely Fall weekend so far....went to celebrate our families many September birthdays up in Portland yesterday.
Today my sweet dd and I headed for the flea.....we had some good luck and I'm sharing a couple of finds that we found....
check out this amazing floral victorian mail box! It's listed in my Etsy shop already.

As are these lovely books. Can't resist antique books with floral covers.....can't, can't, can't!
These are in my shop as well. As the week progresses I'll add some other gems that I found.
Happy week to all!!!!!

Some new pretties.....

Went back to the flea yesterday for the first time this season...my heart skipped a beat (get it?!) when I saw this heart-shaped beauty of a pin cushion. I have a small collection of them now but am so incredibly picky with what I choose. This one is large, shabby, has ruffles and velvet....in other words, it's perfect. I added the very old embroidered sacred heart that I found on ebay. I won't be using this pin cushion for it's intended use, it has a small loop on the back so I'll be hanging it in a prominent place where I can gaze at it every day and even pin pretty little things to it that have meaning for me. Sort of like my very own tiny inspiration board....:).

I also found this lovely piece (from the same vendor) that was made in Italy. My dh wants me to keep this, it's very old and will look great with my other religious artifacts that I've collected.
Another heart-shaped item, isn't that how those things seem to go?

Check out this cute little box of envelopes, it has 11 of them left inside.......I'm loving the graphics on this. It's listed in my Etsy.

This beauty is listed as well, I love the pansies on this pretty album, and the pages inside are the most beautiful shade of robin's egg blue.
It was fun going back to the flea again, I've missed it!
I also found a wonderful set of Singer sewing library booklets that are from the 1930's......also in my shop.
Hope you all had a marvelous weekend and are ready for the busy week ahead!!
Thanks for visiting!

Do you ever think that maybe you've missed your calling?

My dh sent me some images today that completely consumed my entire afternoon......the thing is, sometimes we never really know what will inspire us until we actually see it!

These are images that 'speak' to me for Halloween. I love everything about this holiday, but I REALLY love these antique images from the 1700's.
I've made some tags with them and they are available now in my Etsy shop.
Perhaps graphic art should have been my major? But then, these soooo remind me of my anatomy classes that I had in college!

My love for Autumn..........

"I meant to do
my work today

but a brown bird
sang in an apple tree
&
a butterfly flitted across a field
&
all the leaves
were calling me
&
the wind went sighing
over the land
tossing the grasses
to & fro

& a rainbow
held out it's shining hand


so what could I do
but laugh
&
go"

How I love this season with all it brings....crisp cool days, longer nights, colorful leaves,
hearty soups, football games, pumpkins, Halloween......I could go on and on.
Let's make the most of it. Let's enjoy NOW, and not wait for 'someday'.
Let's appreciate what we have, not what we don't.
Let's be happy and content. Let's build a fire in our fireplace (if we're lucky enough to have one).
Let's bring out our warmer blankets, our darker rugs, our Autumn decor, our Fall wreaths.
I have an elderly neighbor who I plan on bringing a pot of soup to....Autumn makes me happy!
How about you?

A most thoughtful friend~~~~~~~~

A while back a blogging friend was lamenting the fact that she doesn't have many thrift stores where she lives....she was looking for something specific.

She was looking for embroidery hoops. I thought, "Wow, I see those each and every time I go thrifting....they're everywhere".

So the next time I went thrifting I picked some up for her....and she was sweet enough to make me one of her oh-so-beautiful dream catchers! Using an embroidery hoop, of course!

Now Amy and I have been blogging friends for awhile now and she has the most creative mind. She just sees vision in the most ordinary of items...like the lowly embroidery hoop.
Amy, I can't thank you enough, I love owning a work of art made by your own talented hands.
If you're lucky my friends you can own one too. Amy has a beautiful Etsy shop and you can access it from her blog right here.
Go ahead, click on my link, you'll be so glad you did!
Thank you my friend!

The search for a new....smaller....tree

This was frightening to say the least......

this huge limb came crashing down from our humongous sweet gum tree in our front yard....it crashed into our neighbors yard.

clearly it had "issues".....

I'll spare you the photo of the stump waiting to be ground down........:(.

This tree was about 80' tall.....it's been there quite awhile.
We'll be putting in a cherry tree that blooms with white blossoms in the Spring and I'll plant bulbs at it's base.
Time to move on.....

Family is everything..................!

Totally blessed to have my sister and her sweet dh staying with us for a few days..........here is Katherine helping her Uncle try to figure out the best new campground for them to stay at when they leave here........me? I'm feeling slightly (o.k., totally depressed!) that they're gone.
The good news? They'll be back in October. I'm counting down the days.......we had so much fun with them! My goal is to find them a new home here so that when they come back they won't be able to resist moving here....:).
The fact is that I've NEVER had an adult sibling who lives near me throughout my adult life.....I've always envied my friends who have their family near. I'm not one of those people and I do hope they know how lucky they are.
We had all kinds of freaky things happen while they were here....our huge tree in our front yard lost a huge limb and today (my relatives last day here) they got to see a real huge tree come down. It was scary and sad. But the tree was dangerous so we'll put in a safer, smaller tree.

Can't wait til they visit us next month!
School starts tomorrow for my dd, Disneyland visit next week, lots of stuff happening here!
Bring on Fall!

Getting back to finding the shabby.......

I can't even begin to tell you how busy this week (right after our vacation) has been.....crazytime. I have been fulfilling orders and, well, fulfilling orders. Today I got to do some much wanted thrifting. Surprisingly I found some books......:).

Loving this Michelin guide to France.

I can't wait to explore this falling-apart book some more, it's just beautiful.

And this book, exploring three Arctic expeditions, written in 1898.....really? May need to read this one first.

This one may be my favorite. I love antique religious books, especially those I've not seen before. This one is in that category.

Amazing graphics, and someone actually used this book.

And of course, on the quest for the elusive and weird office supplies, I found this beauty. The Acme visible file, obviously an early bookkeeping or file system that could be so very useful today.
I can see putting favorite business cards in this cool folder.
What have you found today?

The friends you make online~~~~

Before leaving on vacation I purchased some french trim from my friend Rhonda's awesome Etsy shop...her shop is so incredible and things of beauty are made by her talented hands. Seriously, this is one awesome artist! I had commented on her fabric strips with the wonderful images on them and lamenting the fact that I was too slow and someone else bought the one that she featured on her blog.

Swoon worthy canvas bag~~~this is what my goodies came in.

This is the gorgeous fabric strip with french images sewn on....it's stunning! And Rhonda added it to my package because she's so sweet...she made one just for me.

This is the amazing french trim that I purchased from her shop, all wrapped up with a pretty metal tag.
Rhonda creates beauty with items that she's found in France and she is just ever so talented.
You will definitely want to check out her etsy shop......but you have to be really quick to purchase, do NOT hesitate or you'll miss out, that's how quickly her items sell!
She's a true blogging friend and one that I'm so glad I've met here online.
Thank you so much Rhonda, I love my goodies!

A great time was had by all.......

Our vacation rocked! The only down side was having it end....:(.
Here's a shot of the trolley in Astoria....we didn't ride it this time but we did make a couple trips to this gem of a city. I absolutely love Astoria's charm. Did you know that it's the oldest city west of the Mississippi? Well now you do!

Here's a photo right before we left on the front steps of the house.
It was bittersweet for sure. The weather was mixed, as it always is at the Oregon coast but that's all part of it's charm. You can visit in the summer and have a fire in your fireplace!
The cherry on top with this trip was my sister and her dh visiting us and spending a few days with us, relaxing, eating, beachcombing, shopping, and laughing! We had the best time!
Luckily we'll be seeing them again in about a week as they come through town so I hope they can stay for a while and visit some more.
This is the winding down time of summer and I can't wait for Fall, as usual.....it's my favorite season.
I've been blessed with great sales in my Etsy shop and this has been a banner month for me.....so getting back home has been a lot of work but I'm so very grateful for each and every sale that I get in my shop. I should go on vacation more often, for some odd reason sales seem to pick up when I'm away......!
Hey, it's retail, it's really hard to find any rhyme or reason to selling, right?
Hope you are all enjoying summer's waning days.....I've noticed the days getting shorter and it's starting to get dark a lot sooner than just a short time ago......til next time!

Off to the beach.......

So happy to be off to the beach for an entire week!
What bliss....and to make it even better? My sis and her dh will be joining us. To say I'm thrilled would be an understatement. I haven't seen her in years. They've been traveling around this summer in their new camper and look forward to spending time with us at the beach house, home cooked meals, the ability to do some laundry, sleep in real beds, etc.
Not to mention all the fun things there are to do at the coast.
Mostly I see us sitting on the front porch, sipping wine, and just talking into the night.
I'll be back in a week or two with some photos of our adventures....stay cool but enjoy the heat while you can because it will soon be gone.