A perfect day

Last week, I had a wonderful day.  In was just about perfect.  I had a chance to get together with a new friend, one of the Colorado Silver Bella gals named Suzanne.

 

She is one of those rare people that, from the moment I met her, I felt like I'd known her for years.  We have so much in common, not the least of which is that we love the same things, and love creating.  She lives far away, so we each drove about 90 minutes and met in the middle, in Littleton.

First, we had coffee and celebrated Christmas.  Look at the beautiful package she presented me with!  Notice the vintage bell -- since my silver bells swap, I've fallen in love with Christmas bells!  Of course, Suzanne picked up on that right away!

And look at what was inside!  Suzanne made this wreath for me!  I haven't found the perfect spot for it yet, but I think it will be in my living room.  I absolutely love it!

Suzanne got the bird.  She loves birds!  Do you see that big paper bag on the bench next to her, above?  It was full supplies and inspirational things she picked up because she thought of me -- imagine that!   There were vintage ornaments and trims, paper ephemera -- you know, all the stuff I love!  I was overwhelmed, and touched.

After our coffee, we struck out into the chilly but bright, beautiful day, armed with a list from one of Suzanne's friends of the best antique stores for what we love.  We found one on the way that wasn't on the list, and it was our first stop.  It was called the Sketchbook and it was a gallery shared by three artists that also sold vintage items, including ephemera.  We met one of the artists, Ruth Fiege, who worked with altered art and also created hand made journals.  Here's what I picked up there:

Ephemera, including those delicious Dennison labels!!

And the above is one of Ruth's small sketchbooks, made from a Coke package...

which I couldn't resist because of the Beatles paper inside!  Yellow Submarine forever!  There's a 'ole in me pocket!

I had a nice little conversation with Ruth; I commented to her that I would love to be able to create the kind of assembled art she does, because it looks so fun (she uses the good stuff, with wild abandon.)  She gave me a tip I've been thinking about ever since: she said you have to use a sketchbook, and fill it up with all of your ideas.  Then by the time you've spilled it all out there, you have refined your ideas and you're ready to start working.  Sometimes it takes a whole book full to get to your art piece.  She said, start with a short sketchbook, so you don't sketch forever, but fill it up before you ever start creating.

You know, it made perfect sense to me, because I've heard the same thing about writing.  Sometimes you need to just write 90 pages before you find that one character, or that one anecdote, that is your beginning.

Be sure to check out Sketchbook's website, which also links to Ruth's blog so you can see her awesome stuff!

Suzanne and I already felt as if we'd found a real treasure, but it was only our first stop.  We went on to Prince Street Dry Goods.

Have you ever walked into a place and thought, this is me?  That's what this place was like.  "Me" (and Suzanne), everywhere you looked!

The owner kindly allowed us to take photos inside.  We were both really charmed by this display of wedding cake toppers...

Everywhere you looked, beautiful things -- the exact antique china I love, ephemera, fabric, lace, and BUTTONS!

Yeah, I was in heaven.  Three rooms full of heaven.

Everywhere you looked was a little vignette...

And they even had a dollar bin!  Here's what I bought at that store:

Wonderful flashcards!  I'm going to use them for journals.

Beautiful antique millinery flowers

An amazing tin -- in the dollar bin!

"Trade stimulator" cards -- a whole stack -- also in the dollar bin

French woven ribbon

Pretty antique papers

This medal, above, was my big splurge.  I just could not pass it up -- the medal part is about 2" across and the key in the middle is similar to a typewriter key.  I love it.  I think I'm going to make it into a special piece of jewelry.

Antique postcards - 10 for $3

We also went to Pink Cat Attic, which was a DARLING store.  I found some fun stuff there, too:

Silver bells...

I am in. love. with this rick rack!

Christmas napkins -- just a few, but SO MUCH FUN!

more ephemera!

Dresden foil!

Vandel was a bust.  But right next door was Littleton Antiques -- wow, that place was full of wonderful stuff! 

Lots of handmade art mixed in as well.  And tons of sewing notions.  I think by that time, though, I was saturated with beautiful, fun stuff and so I didn't buy anything except this cute little vintage ornament there:

We were both tired by then, and it was 5 pm, and so our day had come to an end.

But, oh boy, it was a good one!