The Case of the Broken Vase......

Hmm, what a mystery I had to solve on Tuesday. On Monday, first day of Autumn I went out to purchase a vase and fall-scented candle. Got my goodies home, made my display, lit my candle, was good to go.
Speed ahead to Tuesday, I'm talking to bff on the phone, wander into living room, glance down at my lovely display and much to my dismay, the vase is askew (aka broken!). What could have happened? Did my cute puppy wander in, wag her tail, and knock it over? I thought that must be it, because if my dd (8yo) had broken it, surely she would have told me right?
So here's the convo in the car on the way home from school:
Me: "Katherine, were you playing in the living room yesterday?"
K: "Yes, I was in there for awhile."
Me: "You didn't happen to break anything, did you?"
K: "Oh no, Mommy, nothing glass got broken in there."
Guess I had my answer......

HAPPY AUTUMN!!!!!!!!!!

More Halloween goodies heading north to All-My-Favorite-Things, my bff store. BTW, she has the most incredible hand-made halloween house, constructed by her dh and foofed up by Melanie. You must go check it out.
I love the expression on the little witches face above, she looks so forlorn....
The goblin collage I may need to keep, it's looking pretty good in my hall....
This is the back, and below is the front, or vice versa. I like making them 2-sided, you can change them with your mood....
not that I'm moody, oh no, not me.......
Cleaned out my studio last night, yes that's right, cleaned it out again! What's up with that?
It's in a perpetual state of messy, but I guess that's a good sign right? If it never got messy that means I wouldn't be working in there at all. And I really need to be working to get ready for the grand opening of Lollishops, hopefully in November.
So excited about that venture, so many nice people over there.
Well, I'm off to go work on my photography skills, worked a bit on that today.
I hope you all had a great first day of Autumn....
Gail

Getting my "freak" on for Halloween.....

I don't know, is she scary? My bff thinks she is, so I thought I'd put a halloween party hat on her and let her greet everyone who comes over. Hope they don't think I'm too wierd, would you be afraid?
True to form I've already made some changes to this mantle, like putting black crows on top of the cat shadow box (they add just the right touch of eeriness. I'm all about the spooky this year.
The BOO letters are by Making Memories, I got them last year and covered them with the vintage looking Daisy d's halloween paper, then embellished.
I'll try to post more tomorrow, I've got so many projects in the works that I'm worn out mentally. Do any of you do that, kind of overload yourself?
I also need to learn how to take better photos, maybe I need to take a class.....
TTFN.

New vintage Halloween finds and a gift........

So I went to St. Vinnie's, and was so happy to find the 80, that's right, 80 treat bags, can't wait to use these somehow. Also in the same bin were two large bags of vintage halloween cupcake picks. I showed the different styles there, but can't wait to make cupcakes and put these on the top!
Then there was this very cool Halloween "book" that is supposed to hold candy, but I'll think of a different use for it, it's very cool inside and out.
This last item is for my SIL, (sure hope she's not reading this post!). It's her birthday today and I made her this collage because she loves Halloween (who doesn't?). Love you Heather and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!
Hope you're all creating something wonderful!
Have a great weekend!
Gail

Coburg or bust!!!!!

One more journal, thanks for looking...sorry for the disjointed post, I'm trying to hurry so I can take my dd to Tae Kwon Do. At the end of this post you'll see some of my buys from the Coburg show, although I forgot to show the 4 pairs of leather baby shoes that I got such a great deal on!
I have big plans for those, so stay tuned........
I've been a journal-making fool, knowing Melanie was coming to visit and wanting her to have lots of goodies to take back to sell in her store.
Two of my journals that I made for Melanie's shop....
Check out this old album page, it actually has cobwebs on it!!! How cool will this be for a Halloween collage?
First batch of Halloween tags going to All-My-Favorite-Things in Portland (thanks Mel!)
Halloween tag making it's way to Melanie's shop....
Love the beautiful amethyst colored bottle (thanks Mel for spotting that for me), she also spotted the little talcum bottle that I'll probably put glitter in. The clothespins are in such a cute old box, I'll cover those with wallpaper....
I love this tiny basket, it's like a mini version of my larger Harry & David baskets, but it's the perfect size to hold my vintage calling cards.
This lotto game had a price of $1 on it! Had to look twice at that one, thought the box must empty, but look what was inside.....so exciting.....



So my bff, Melanie of All-My-Favorite-Things fame came down Saturday night so we could go to Coburg Antique Faire on Sunday. We got up at 6am so we could grab a good parking spot and start shopping early (also to beat the heat).
We had a blast and here is some of my haul (don't know that you could really call it a haul, however, I was extremely frugal).
Love what I did buy though:
The red box of envelopes. Not too many people would get excited about these, but I sure did! I use a lot of old envelopes in my work, and I got this entire box for $10! The box itself is awesome too, with the really cool metal scallops all around the edges.

Back to school time, and this backpack is so very appropriate for my daughter (most days!). She loves school, and for that I am so grateful, knowing it could change some day...We fell in love with this backpack at Target last school year. We have loved the Mister Men/Little Miss series of books long before they were readily available here, so we were thrilled to see Target carrying so much of the product, really cute stuff!
Aren't these tally cards the cutest? I bought them on ebay and got about 8 packages (unopened) of the cutest designs, I was thrilled...good price too. They make great tags for gifts or for my journals. I really wanted to include more pics on this post but my computer is not cooperating for some reason, wouldn't even let me upload photos of my new Halloween tags that I just made. They'll be going in Melanie's store, All-My-Favorite-Things, in Portland soon.
She's coming down to visit this weekend so we can go to the Coburg show, should be a blast!
Our weather here is absolutely perfect, it feels a bit like Fall already.
By the way, my biggest news to date is that I got accepted as a vendor on Lollishops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you think I'm excited, oh yeah, just a bit over the moon....can't wait for them to be open for business. In the meantime, there's lots to do, starting with the gingerbread house challenge, I'll be starting that very soon...
Til next time..........hope everyone has a productive and fun day!
Gail

A new Halloween collage, made with vintage wallpaper, old ribbon, and thrift store finds.
This vintage scrapbook is so cool, totally unused, waiting for someone's pictures.


This basket is so awesome, just a beautiful old-fashioned look to it, will be great to hold all sorts of things in my studio, or make a great basket with gifts inside for someone else. The padded hangers will eventually be re-done with wallpaper and paint and vintage flowers.
I hope everyone has a great Holiday weekend!!

Testing for larger pics...

This is one of my collages that I did, using an old cabinet card and old buttons. The image of the
girl is from paperwhimsy.
Hopefully this picture will show more detail than my previous photos.......these are some clothespins I covered with wallpaper (didn't I tell you nothing was safe?). I use them all the time to help secure things that I glue, so much prettier than a boring plain clothespin!

Is it Halloween yet?!!!!!

I can't wait, just my favorite holiday....picked these goodies up today at Goodwill...and with school right around the corner, I thought these books were appropriate, very cute images inside.
I'm starting the Halloween crafting now, otherwise I'll get too far behind. It's not too hard to get into the spirit because all the stores have their goods out now, so get out there and grab those supplies while you can!!
Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!!
Gail

The end of summer.......

I can't believe summer is almost over, although Fall is my very favorite season. I'll miss the laziness (most days) of getting up whenever I want, and basically having my own schedule. I'm really not a morning person, so the beginning of school is always a challenge for me. Luckily my dd is a jump-up-out-of-bed-singing kind of girl, so I lucked out that way!
Here are a few pictures of some of my creations. I usually try to cover both sides of a collage so you get more bang for your buck...I didn't in this case however.
The girls on the middle collage and the bottom one are from the paperwhimsy website, she has beautiful images!
The first collage is actually an original vintage french postcard placed over one of my favorite wallpapers.
Go out and have a great Monday, hope you have time to create something beautiful today........
Gail

Bingo anyone?

I just love the graphics on these old games, and they're so great to use in collages or albums.
I have so many bingo cards I think I need to start making some collage greeting cards or something.
Went thrifting today (shocking, I know) and picked up two books of vintage sheet music that have the most awesome titles in them and also found some beautiful sheet music. I've never bought sheet music until very recently and don't know really what to do with it, but the graphics on them are beautiful, as are the songs themselves. My current thought is to use them to cover some of my journals.......
I'm so glad the Olympics are over tomorrow night, they're kicking my butt! I've stayed up until 1pm for about a week now.....very tired.
More pics soon.
Gail

Lollishops!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited about the possiblity of this website, which will be a reality soon.....it sounds so wonderful for all the artists and craftspeople who long for a wonderful place to sell their goods among like-minded friends.
Click on the lollipops link and read all about it, you'll be excited too if, like me, you've been wondering just where and how your goodies will be sold and seen. I haven't even applied yet and I'm excited!

Sorry for the double pictures!!!!!

Obviously this will be a work in progress (although fun work!) for a while. Last night I was uploading pictures that sometimes took quite awhile to appear and being the impatient person I am (at least I admit it) went ahead and uploaded even more pics!!!
Will keep trying to navigate this new land.....
Gail

Peeks around my studio.....

I took the doors off these shelves so I could see what I have. The clear hatboxes work great for storage....
I absolutely love this candy box I bought on ebay, it's huge and the colors are so beautiful...the hatbox is from my best friend, Melanie. I left the stripes on the bottom and covered the lid with my favorite wallpaper...
Isn't this little shoe shine box cute? It was found at St. Vinnie's for a song......
This little wire form is one I found at Home Goods. I don't have room in my studio for a large one, so I was thrilled to find this one!

This old pincushion was quite a find at our local fleamarket......
A barkcloth shoebag I've had for years put into good service in my studio.....
Lovely Nancy Ann dolls.......
This little chest was found at Goodwill and transformed with vintage wallpaper, the Nancy Ann dolls were all found at St. Vinnie's. It was so fun to clean their dresses and make them more presentable!!!!
This little dress form was something I found at Goodwill and covered in leftover bits of wallpaper. The little house is chipboard from crafty secrets....covered in my favorite wallpaper.
Here is some of my storage in my studio, love the clear hatboxes...makes it so easy to find what I need.
These items are in the window of my studio...clothespins covered with wallpaper, so cute to use for so many things, vintage lace wrapped around wallpapered holders, vintage french postcards, and antique calling cards.
This candy box is one of my recent favorites, it's huge and so beautiful! It's sitting on a hatbox that my best friend, Melanie, gave me. I left the bottom striped and covered the lid with my favorite wallpaper....
Isn't this old shoe shine box cute? Courtesy of St. Vincent de Paul! The suitcase is from Goodwill.
Here is a picture of my little wire dress form (thank you Home Goods) because I don't have room for a full size form. The little tags are ones I made from vintage wrapping paper and wallpaper.