Lookie! Look what I just bought for my husband on ebay:
Is that awesome, or what? These aren’t my pictures, they’re from the ebay listing. My husband is going to go meet a bunch of his friends in Vegas in a few weeks and he’s going to wear this there. It’s hilarious, I think. He’s a funny guy. Now, if you do NOT know what this is, then I have to say, tisk tisk! Where have you been?! Just kidding, this is a famous line from one of my all-time favorite movies, The Princess Bride. If you have not seen it, THEN GO RENT IT…. scratch that… GO BUY THE DVD because it is fabulous. Even my 5 year old son loves it. INCONCEIVABLE!
A quickie to let you know more millinery has been restocked, I’ve had lot’s of requests for this one and she’s back in the Millinery Shoppe now! Thanks, girls. I appreciate you so very much.
This week, keep your eyes peeled for more Lost & Found jewelry. Remember these from about a year ago? I’m making more, plus bracelets with beads and little what-not links, old rhinestones, stuff like that. Also making earrings, necklaces, etc. These will also have a lot of lighter pastels in them. Hope you enjoy them.
Have a great day, I’m off to the grocery store. Super fun. You know those baskets with the big plastic thing on the front so both kids can sit face to face? Well, that may as well be a boxing ring for my boys. Geesh. Later, taters! xo
Hello friends. I’ve been working on my little crafty room, trying to get it organized. Geez, am I a messy, unorganized little pig in my crafting. Seriously. I can hear my mother “This place is a pig sty!”. Ugh. Soooo, thought I’d snap a few pictures so you can see how it’s coming along! Don’t you love the little Nicole Sayre bluebird snuggled in his pink velvet flower nest? The blue bird is from One Hundred Wishes. She’s taking a little break until next Friday, but when she opens back up, you can see them on her site (I think she still has them, anyway). I LOVE HIM. He has a little clip on the bottom, so you can clip him on a lampshade, or just anywhere. Adorable. The other stuff is all vintage. Don’t you love that little Italian Tole soap dish?
This is my little ribbon-y, embellishment corner. I love the ribbon all color-coordinated, looks like candy! I also have so much fun with the vintage wicker bicycle basket on the wall, it contains millinery. The small vintage apothecary drawers should be good for organization, but right now they’re just stuffed willy-nilly. Sigh.
The same corner. The jar holds all my blue and green vintage velvet ribbons. I lucked into a stash of them, all different shades, and I love them. I really like storing things in pretty baskets. It’s easy access, and you can see what’s in them without having to open something up. I’m lazy, apparently.
Hey… see that prom dress hanging up? Remember when I told you how TINY it was, well look at it compared to the size 3 little girl’s tutus! IT’s almost the same size! But the dress has a place for boobs, so I know it had to be someone who at least was maybe a young teenager. My goodness, they were tiny! I’ve decided that either there were no fat girls in the 1950’s, or they did not go to prom! Since I’m a fat girl myself, this is causing me much grief finding a prom dress for Silver Bella! I may have to wear a tux.
a little jewelry corner. Mmmm…. sparkly.
I’ve kinda used my whole room as my “inspiration board”. I hang everything up. I really need a couple of dress forms. I love vintage tutu’s, dresses, etc. I had to pick up the vintage boy romper, since I DO only have sons! Isn’t it sweet? It has a tiny little puppy on it…. awwww.
I love vintage pearls and rhinestones, and this is a good way to keep them from getting tangled and torn up. See that tiny little circlet up there on the right hand corner? That is a TEEEEEENY tiny little pearl baby bracelet! SO SWEET! I’m all about sweet.
The other end of the room. The blue ruffly slip is from Pretty Petals Boutique. She finds the sweetest things. Also over here is art from Natasha, Jeanne, Jenny, and Kari. Yummy stuff. If you notice, I did not include any pictures of the floor or my work area. This is because it is so embarrassingly messy. Maybe next time!
Hope you’re having a delightful week. I’ll be back soon with some things I’ve been working on. Flea market friday is NEXT Friday, not tomorrow, so I’ll show you some pictures of GREAT stuff next week.
Also, my sweet friend Heather of Bluhm Studios is coming into town this week. We’re meeting at the flea market along with Donna Layton of Under The Red Roof. I’m so excited! Can’t wait to meet them both.
So I joined Heather’s Summer Card Swap, which I had absolutely no business doing. I’m so overwhelmed right now! But, I am plugging away on my cards, here are two that I hurredly snapped shots of tonight. Sorry they’re not that great, it was dark and I love natural light for photos. Of course, there was none, so you’ll have to believe me when I say they look better in real life!
The first one has a piece of vintage ledger paper on it that has columns that say “to whom” and “for what”. How cute is that? The other says “From Whom Is Received”. I love that they say things that are gifty already, and then there is blank space to write.
I am going to Walmart tomorrow and buying some bigger kid puzzles and a deck of Go Fish cards and a few other things. Getting in the spirit for FALL! Also have to buy the school supplies. Ugh. But, I’m looking forward to hunkerin down with my boys and playing a good game of Go-Fish next to a crackling fire….. Ahhh… fall.
It’s over 100 degrees every day here, but I still love summer. I just love the grilling every meal, hangin out on the back porch with a cool drink, summery cotton blouses, kids running through sprinklers, swimming, splashing, playing, all that good stuff. For a moment, every once in a while, life kinda feels like a Lemonade commercial. It’s so lovely.
Enjoy these last few weeks of summer! Chase fireflies and stay up late, make a wish and blow the seeds of those big poufy weeds, take in the smell of suntan lotion and just relax.
Don’t you love it? Is this the cutest for fall? You can’t tell well by the picture but it’s rusched and gathered and just so sweet. I got this new bag at PAYLESS shoes! Can you believe it? It was under $20.00. I love the chocolately brown with the polkadots, so fun for fall. Of course, I had to add a little pink velvet millinery rose to it, which totally pushes it over the cuteness edge, doesn’t it?
Speaking of millinery, I’ve restocked and added new ones. Here are the new babies:
This is my favorite! I love this one so much. It’s a ruffley SOFT SOFT silk pink open rose blossom. Or maybe it’s a Camelia? It’s so light, light as air, because the petals are made of real feather soft silk. It’s the perfect color combo, too. I am using these millinery everywhere. I won’t be using any Christmas bows this year, all millinery! For the girls, anyway. LOL… Not wasting them on my boys… A closer shot:
Also had to get some fun Christmas, Fall, Holiday colors for you. I know it’s early, but with Silver Bella and school about to start, I know I’m in the mood for fall already! Won’t these look lovely on your fall or winter blazer lapel, purse, or on top of your Holiday gifts?
This is a fun deep rasberry color, love love love. The next is a true Christmas red.
And I also restocked some regular pretties. Thank you all so much for loving them as much as I do. Isn’t it fun? Here are the newly restocked babies:
When these boxes come to my house, I feel like a kid in a candy store! I just wanna dive in.
What else is new… hmm…. Oh, the amazing Kari ArtsyMama asked me to be a guest designer for her Sweet & Sinister swap. I’m so excited! I think the swap is full, but she has a special blog that you can still join so you can participate in all the tutorials and projects that she will be having for the next couple of months. I am so pumped to get to see all the stuff she’s going to be showing. Hop over and join, it’s only $10.00 and you KNOW if Kari is doing it, it’s going to rock.
School is starting soon. I’m sad. My oldest will be in Kindergarten this year, which is ALL DAY now. I feel like he’s so little to be gone all day, and I will really miss him. SO will his little brother….. oh gosh, will he ever. But, I know that my big guy will have so much fun. He’s such a treasure. You should see him doin the robot to Mr. Roboto. OH my gosh. Pee in your pants funny. He did it at a wedding recently, not realizing everyone was watching him. HYSTERICAL.
OK, I’m off to do the never-ending laundry, which I pretty much hate. But, I have to remind myself how blessed and lucky I am to have clothes to wash! It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?
Finally! I’ve completed the last two pages in the last book for the Marie Antoinette international round robin that Heather, Natasha, Ginny and I have been working on for almost a year. This was a big project. We each did four elaborate “pages” (more like collages, really) in each person’s book. That was a LOT for me. But, I think they turned out to be really wonderful books. I can’t wait to get mine back. Thank you, girls, for inviting me to participate. It’s been so much fun.
You’ve really seen similar designs to these before. I repeated most of them at least once and some 4 times. It was too much to think of something unique for 16 pages, plus a cover! So, I won’t show you a million photos, but just to get an idea, here ya go.
Whew. Now I get to try to somehow BIND these huge, fat books of mine and Natashas! That should be interesting.
I’m off to the grocery store, which is such a joy with two boys who are in an arguing phase. Just poke my eyes out right now, would ya?
I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I enjoyed mine. Played with the kiddos, watched my two year old learn how to ride a big boy bike with training wheels, went skating and did not fall (the same cannot be said for afore mentioned two-year-old who did a kamikaze dive off the bleachers onto his head. ugh), went swimming, had a lot of fun. I also managed to sneak away sans kids to the flea market, which is always fun. Here is some of the loot I picked up. All of the stuff in this picture I picked up at the same booth for less than a total of $20. The hats are hard to see but they’re loaded with velvet flowers! Woo Hoo! I love those vintage jewelry boxes with the ballerinas and this one works great. Of course vintage bling and birdies are always a fun find.
But the star of the show in terms of flea market loot is this amazing vintage prom dress! Isn’t it beautiful?!
This sweetheart has only a 20 inch waist! Who could have worn such a thing? Perhaps it was a JUNIOR prom dress? I love the little details. I’m going to hang it as art. I have another pink ruffly prom dress that I’ve shown you before, but after I get my studio all pretty I’ll take pictures of both of them displayed and show you.
So that was my weekend. I hope you had a lovely one and are enjoying the carefree days of summer. Now, I have to go take some boys outside to ride bikes before the have a meltdown! Have a beautiful day.
It’s been a fun and full week around here. This week, my husband was on vacation so we did lots of fun stuff with the kids. Today we went swimming and tomorrow it’s ROLLER SKATING at Skate Fever! ha ha…. I’m sure that will bring back memories…. “the duck”, “couples slow” and “switch directions”. Memba that? So funny. I can just picture Xanadu in my mind right now. The kids will have so much fun and I’m sure I’ll fall and look like an idiot, but it’s all good!
This week was also our 13th wedding anniversary. Lucky Thirteen! We’ve actually been together 16 years and it’s really weird to realize that babies born when we first got together are now old enough to DRIVE. Geesh. I’m so grateful to be married to my wonderful husband. If you look closely at the comments in the last post, he snuck one in there. He is such a blessing. He is not just a fantastic husband, but a wonderful father, excellent provider, a lover of God, a keeper of promises, he keeps the cars running, builds me beautiful furniture, lets me decorate however I want, encourages me, is the smartest person I know, sends me to Silver Bella, and he can dance a mean two-step. Plus he’s so darn cute. Oh yeah, he rocks, and I am blessed. My cup runeth over!
Also, my beautiful little sister was in from California this week. Gosh, I miss her so. We had fun cooking out, playing with the kids, doing summery sister stuff. It was lovely. I miss her so.
So that’s why you haven’t seen much of me lately. But, today I have some pretty things to show you.
Check out the millinery gorgeousness that’s new in the shop today:
Don’t you just wanna dive right in?
LOOK at this. It’s a CORSAGE, people! A CORSAGE! A beautiful blushing pink corsage. Doesn’t it just say PROM to you? It is a lovely open rose with yummy crumpled petals in the center that make it look so real, surrounded by 4 trailing smaller roses and 2 trailing buds, as well as fabric loops and vines and 3 mossy green velvet leaves. It’s stunning. I’m keeping at least two of these to use on lampshades and one for jacket lapels. I’m SO wearing one on my pink cordoroy blazer when I go to Silver Bella this fall! It’s all made up for you already and finished nicely on the back. It will come with a pretty corsage pin so it’s ready to be pinned to any lampshade, jacket, curtain panel, basket or anything else you can think of!
I also added two new colors of the gorgeous velvet open roses. A beautiful buttercream color with pretty pinkish lavender stamens:
as well as this sugary snowy white with black stamens. Love these.
I also did two pages in Natasha’s Marie Antoinette book. You’ve seen these designs before so I won’t bore you with tons of photos, but I did do them in different colors so thought I’d show you.
Here is a close-up of the crown. I love the caviar pinks in this one. I think it needs some crystals in the centers of the flowers, so I will add those, but you get the idea:
And here is a close-up detail of a millinery flower on her other page. I was so excited to find a pale pink flower with pink and seafoam green stamens! It just screamed Natasha. I love it.
Well, I think that’s about all the news I have for today! I am going to the flea market tomorrow so I should have some pretty things to show you this weekend. I know I missed the Flea Market Friday this month. With the holiday it was just too hectic. Maybe I’ll do it next week.
Have a great weekend, dear friends! Enjoy the last half of summer. Drink some lemonade, run through the sprinklers with your kids or grandkids, buy some tomatoes from a farm stand on the side of the road and just relax. The chill of fall will be here before we know it.
I had a custom order for an all-pink tiara from the lovely Valarie. This was a fun one to make. It’s hard not to be happy when you’re surrounded by pink goodies to craft with! I’ve had these vintage pink swirly feathers for a while and new they’d be perfect in this pink confection. I hope you like it, Valarie. I still need to put the ribbons on, but other than that, it’s finished.
OK. I’m trying to get a picture of myself, but it is SO hard. I need a tri pod. This one is way too serious and just looks funny, but I was having a decent hair day, so I tried to get a picture for the website. No luck. The problem is, I’m the only adult around in the morning when my hair looks good! Maybe I can get Brian (husband) to snap a shot of me this weekend. Not that I really want a picture of myself plastered here, but people have asked me what I look like and I admit I really like to see what people look like on their blogs too. It helps me feel like I know them better. I’ll keep trying, but for now, this is me:
So yeah, I’m going to Silver Bella! Are you? I cannot wait. I was so happy to get into some amazing classes. I’m rooming with such fun girls and we’ll be close by so many wonderful girls. I don’t know who all is going yet, so if you are, leave a comment and let me know so I can check out your blog if we haven’t met and make a mental note of it!
OK, I’m off to get some plants for the sad flower beds. Ugh. I have got to give those babies some attention.
To my fellow US citizens, I wish you all a safe and happy Independence Day! Eat lots of grilled foods, play with sparklers, watch kids run through sprinklers, maybe have a margarita (or two!) and enjoy your freedoms. I know I will. Our town has a little parade and then we’ll go to the town park for the ice cream festival, where we’ll see this year’s Ice Cream Princess crowned. How cute is that? You don’t get more small town America than a parade on Main Street and an Ice Cream Festival! See you soon and be safe this holiday.
