Oh my goodness! How much fun can two best friends possibly have?

What a time we had! I went to Portland last Wednesday to have my car serviced, but more importantly to see my best friend, Melanie. Of course I had to bring her some goodies, and she said I looked like a bag lady waiting there for her to pick me up...thanks Mel!

All of these items were either purchased or gifted to me by Melanie! I love it all, but more importantly we had such a great time, a leisurely (for us!) lunch, and laughed until our stomachs ached! It's a wonderous thing that happens when two best friends get together, we were even saying the same thing at the same time I tell ya! We just need to do it more often, for both our sakes.
Ladies, I know you treasure your friends, it's so important....it's amazing the things I say to her that I don't tell anyone else! She just "gets" me....and I feel so grateful for her friendship.
My last stop, before picking up my car, was to her shop, "All My Favorite Things", and I just have to say that I've NEVER seen her shop look so inviting, so bright, simply fabulous. I was actually jealous of her shop! I want one too! Do yourself a favor and go check her shop out, you won't regret it...she has so many fabulous items, and everything was so reasonably priced, important in this economy. I know you'd find something to love.
I hope you all have a great week, and go out and support your local shops. We all want a thriving community.....

Let's talk Valentine's Day, shall we??????

Well, friends, these two little items were just added to my Etsy shop today...sure wish I had a bit more time to create as Valentine's Day is one of my very favorite holidays.....oh well, when I do find the time I think I'll make some smaller items, such as tags, etc.
Tomorrow is my trip to Portland to see Melanie, can't wait! I always have the best time with her, hmmm, guess that's why she's my best friend, huh? We all need someone we can just completely cut loose with and laugh until liquids come out your nose, right?
Wonder what it will be tomorrow, coffee or tea....ah, the great mysteries of life!
Will post pics when I get back........ttfn:)

"The Vintage Table"...........

Oh my goodness! Have you seen this book yet? I first saw it advertised in "Romantic Homes" magazine and all I can say is *Wow*!

It's full of beautiful dishes, linens, and ideas for setting a gorgeous and vintage table. Over the years I've collected some really pretty platters and miscellaneous dishes. I don't have much room for storage so I kind of have to reign myself in, but if I had a huge hutch of any sort I'd be a collecting fool I tell ya!

I get weak in the knees for old, chipped, crazed dishes......do you have any you'd like to show off?

What do you do to celebrate New Year's?

It's almost that time....New Year's!!! I've started taking down a few of my decorations, how about you?
We always leave our tree and nativity up through the Epiphany, and my snowman mantle will stay put for awhile since it's so Winter oriented. I usually leave them out until Valentine's Day and try to combine some valentines in with the snowmen :).
Hopefully you all had a wonderful Christmas...ours was fabulous, time spent with extended family and time just on our own on Christmas day, playing with our new toys, reading new books, watching movies, eating....all the good stuff!
I took down all our Christmas cards we received and decided to display all my vintage New Year's postcards....I really dislike hiding them in a drawer somewhere, they're just too pretty!
Dd and I hit Target this a.m. to see what was going on, they have lots of Christmas items left, all at 50% off. We didn't buy much at all because we really don't need anything.
This will be a relaxing week with dd still on vacation...love this time with her! Hope you're all doing well and have a great New Year!

Wishing you all a heavenly Christmas......go spoil someone you love and do something nice for a stranger.....you have no idea what they may be going through right now....you might even make their day :).

Cheers!

Gail

What is it about creating something?

It's just that feeling that you've done something that satisfies your soul.....you've accomplished something, something that isn't cleaning the kitchen, or finishing your laundry. After all, anyone can do that. Now I know creating a banner isn't rocket science, but what makes it fun is that you use the unique supplies that you have so that it's original...I'm big on that.
To create something is to take stock of your supplies and to reach inside and think of what would make you happy to look at.......something you can keep.....or to give to someone else.

I purchased these photo holders on Etsy......just love them for their possibilities. Right now they are holding Christmas images, but I've just slipped them in, so when Christmas is over I can change the images to whatever I want. So it's essentially a one-of-a-kind banner. I added the stars (also purchased on etsy). These are the kinds of things I like to create for my home because they're unique....I'll just bet no one else on my street has a banner like mine, and I love the thought of that!

I'm making a lot of gifts for friends and relatives this year as Christmas presents, what about you?

The biggest dictionary evah!!!!

I had to laugh out loud when I saw this "beast" at St. Vinnie's....I mean, come on people, could this be any BIGGER? It measures 5 inches from cover to cover, printed in 1946....hilarious, I had to have it.

pretty endpapers....
Then I hit Goodwill and saw this shiny brite box, I don't collect them or anything but because the bubble wrap was hiding what was inside...I had to take a peek.....
and found these adorable nursery rhyme ornaments! Aaackkkk!!! Have you ever?

I was also smitten with this little hanger, I'm sure you've all seen these before, but I just love the color of the little plastic clothespin hangers....
I think this will look great at Easter without the red cord, maybe a pastel seam binding ribbon?

So those were my meager finds for the day...not much but since I was going to the thrift store to drop things off I figured I may as well walk in and see what's going on.

Have you found any thrifty finds lately?

What I want for Christmas.....

A photography class!!!!! I've taken about 15 pictures of this little guy and they all come out fuzzy! Frustrating to say the least....and no, I didn't use my tripod because I'm just lazy!

In any case, this is the little guy I made last night for my dd's advent calendar. Since I've been sick all week I finally got out yesterday to do a little shopping but for the life of me I couldn't find anything cute to put in her calendar...so, what's the saying, "neccessity is the mother of invention", or something like that. She was happy with him so that's all that matters, right?

I'm very smitten lately with these little chenille ornaments so I'm going to make a few more, they have such a charming vintage feel to them.....

What have you made lately?

I want to live in this house....

don't you? Doesn't it just look magical and cozy and peaceful? Just like an enchanted village, no?
These sugary houses must speak to a lot of us because I see so many of them in most of the blogs I visit. Mine aren't old, but are charming nonetheless. I bought them at Home Goods last year and I just added some bottlebrush trees I already owned. I set this little vignette up in my foyer so I see it first thing when I come home....and I can see it from my kitchen and family room too. Hope your decorating is coming along well, I'm home with a sore throat and trying to take it easy. It's hard to be sick any time of year but seems so much worse around the holidays when there's always so much to do!

Oh well, c'est la vie, right? I'll keep eating my soup and hopefully will feel good enough to go out tomorrow........hope you're all well....

Let the festivities begin!!!

Hi friends, I finally got around to decorating one of my mantles! Woo hoo! Big accomplishment of late...before Thanksgiving I made some "ledger" flowers that you can see in the arrangement above. I love anything made with old ledger pages, and these have velvet flower centers and velvet leaves as well. The picture below is an angel (can't remember where I found her) but her dress is luscious, silk...but what made me unable to resist her were her angel wings...she's so soft and Christmasy to me!
I'm slowly easing myself into Christmas this year...I think because we hosted Thanksgiving for some of dh's family I'm a bit slower on the uptake than last year! At least I start my decorating for Christmas with a cleaner than normal house.

Yesterday we went to get two trees, one for the house and one for dh's office. I finally got rid of the pumpkins in front of my house (thought it might be time since our neighbors already have their Christmas lights and wreaths up!) oops....hate being that one weird house on the street, don't you?

Today will be more decorating inside and some crafting for me, I have some unfinished projects just calling my name...it's freezing here so a good day to stay in.....I hope you all are having a great start to the season!

Happy Thanksgiving friends!!!!

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!

I hope you all have a fun and relaxing day with family and friends....I'm so blessed to have both!

Christmas tags anyone?

This is my starting "pile" of tags, they need to be inked, then sparkle added...that's the fun part.

I'm really trying hard to get a few items in my etsy shop, why is that so hard for me? Guess it's just finding the time...when I started my shop I had visions of grandeur like "How fun, I'll get up every day and craft, then just list my items and away we go!" Well, then real life intervened (we all know how that goes) and I just really struggle with finding the time. So I've decided to quit pressuring myself and just list things as I have time, after all, I'm lucky I don't have any deadlines to meet and (thank goodness) am not having to make my living based only on etsy.

Moving on...please note the photo below of the green metal cabinet that I got from Melanie a while back that I said I was going to make over......
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!

I'm smiling at you with really, really white teeth!

Love you my friend!

Cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning some more.....

if I ever get my computer back and running the first thing I'm going to do is update my Etsy shop!

It looks so forlorn and lonely and unkempt to me...as I've been cleaning my studio I've found so very many items to list in my shop, things I'm now ready to part with.

No more shopping for me for awhile, I just have too much "stuff" right now! When it's cleaned up I can't wait to start creating for Christmas...................hope you're all having a great week!

Not to whine but.....

I'm still without my computer.....the "fix" was short-lived. When the computer tech tells you "I tried but I couldn't get it to act-up for me", well that's never good news now, is it? Because you know that the minute you get it home it's all downhill from there. And well, I'm unhappy to report that this time I was right, it lasted for a while and it was so nice to have my computer back........at least for a bit. Tomorrow back to the shop.

I'm using dh's tonight so I can actually update my blog. I want to show you some before pics of my wonderful (only one of them mind you) present from Melanie. Just the coolest metal cabinet ever! It was a green color but I painted it and you'll just have to be patient for the after photos. I love it to pieces and look forward to fixing up the inside drawers and then filling it with all my stuff.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween, our holiday was somewhat "hijacked" because of a local football game, in other words most kids went trick or treating Friday night instead of Saturday. Made me extremely unhappy but nothing I could do about that. Dd had a wonderful time and what's more important than that? Nothing I tell ya! We have tons of leftover candy too, yikes.

Right now I'm exhausted because I took down ALL my decorations today, inside and out, and lemme tell ya, I have a lot of decorations. Just pooped but it feels good to get my house cleaned up and ready to stage the next holiday!

Have a great week everyone, hopefully the next time I blog I'll have a fixed/new computer.....

Computers can be a pain!!!!!

Wow, it's been a frustrating couple of weeks from a technology standpoint...and right before Halloween. I would love to have offered more items in my Etsy shop, but since my 'puter wasn't having it, it's too late now!

Oh well, onward and upward, there's always that little holiday called Christmas! And besides, I don't really need a holiday to create something cool, right?

I've been really busy cleaning and organizing my studio and getting dd ready for the big night on Saturday....she can't wait!

I did get up to Portland to see my best friend, Melanie. That was a blast and she gave me some of the coolest stuff yet! As soon as I get some photos I'll post them....meanwhile I hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween :).

A fun holiday project.....

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 a tin sign, one that will take magnets...mine was originally a Bar type sign, so I painted it black, and luckily the corners already had the lovely white scrolls. Bought this at Michael's. My fun images on the magnets were from Lisa's Altered Art, you must check her out! FAB, is all I can say!
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.

Buy your images, cut them out, glue onto the wood tile, age them with inks, stick magnet on back of tile, then I used old orange game pieces from a lotto game for my numbers on each tile.

Then I used copper color stickles to outline my calendar days.....super easy and sparkly!
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...

On a thrifting note, look what I found at Goodwill yesterday. Now I know not everyone wants an old beat up music stand, but I did and I was lucky enough to find one for $4.99. It's the perfect amount of chippy, adjustable, and lightweight...what more could you ask for?

This will be fun to decorate with, I have soooooo many old books and vintage sheet music....

Go create something fun people.......