Indulge Your Shelf

This was my favorite estate sale buy of the day, so I can't believe I left out a photo of it in the previous post: It was the last day of the sale, so I got it for half-price.   I joked that they might as well have put "for Laurie" on the little card!

 They just don't make them like this anymore... fun graphics on this old box of corsage pins I brought back from an estate sale!  Have you priced pins lately?  They are so expensive new that I often bring them home from such sales. One of the sales I attended was a house FULL of these molded plastic all hangings.  And I mean, several on the walls in every room.  I've never seen such a large collection!  I brought these home with me, because I love the swallow motif.  They look great painted a matte color. Not so odd: a couple of books.  I loved the photo on the front of Poemcrazy -- plus, it boasts a review on top from one of my favorite writers who writes about writing, Ann Lamott of Bird by Bird fame. The book on the right is a guide, How To Draw Trees , and I really liked the clever illustrations. It's from the 1950's and the author, Frederick Garner, really went to town with his drawings. I liked how he slipped in some amp...

This: By now, hopefully you've seen the Season 3 finale of Downton Abbey.  (If not -- spoilers! -- please skip this paragraph.)  Did you, like me, find  the entire  most of the season a buzz kill?   No pun intended. Cartoon via  Marshall Ramsey That: Karla is sold out for  Birdsong 3 , which takes place at her studio in Lawrence, KS on June 7 & 8.  But you can still get on the wait list, and I recommend it! I can't wait to go and be reunited with so many friends -- and meet new ones! The other thing: See if you can spot me in  this blog post  about the Old Glory Antiques Fair!  Hint: I'm not hard to spot! Another hint: I'm by my favorite number, 11. And: I went to some estate sales during a break in last weekend's snowstorm, and there were very slim pickings.  But I had to grab this game board for $1.   Just so you know, I went back and forth because I thought it was over priced.  Because, seriously --...

I found the other fabric book I'd misplaced (it was hiding in plain sight!) and spent Oscar night adding some embellishments: I remembered that I began this book back in July when Tami was visiting! So you get an idea how long it can take me to finish a project.   There, doesn't that make you all feel better? The base of the cover is a rusty vintage velvet.  The newest additions to it are the vintage flower, vintage button, and that cute egg textile assemblage made by another artist. Page two got a pocket made from a vintage ecru doily; to page three I added buttons, crochet, lace and ribbon trim. I played with mimicing the curved wave of the original vintage runner's embroidered design. On page 5, I sewed a border of white vintage buttons to set-off that cute button fabric. Page six features an embellishment by the talented Beth Leintz -- it's fastened with a kilt pin and so cute!  On the next page... I added a little sheer embellishment t...

I'm kind of afraid to say this out loud, but...I have been coming up empty at my area thrift stores lately.  I think it has to do with the downturn in the economy. The shelves are empty and I'm (gasp) losing heart. These three things represent my entire haul from about the last week of thrifting: first, this really great piece of fabric.  It's vintage, but not too. I am crazy about the New York skyline motif!  I wish I'd have found this when I was doing the Breakfast at Tiffany's book pages ! I can count the times on one hand that I've ever found an antique photo at an ARC Thrift Store...and one of those was the other day.  The matt is lovely -- water stains and all -- isn't it? She has an expressive face.  I like her fancy 'do, her eyelet blouse, and that (watch? chatelaine? locket?) clipped to it. On the reverse, it appears her name was Clara Dolle Statler. I thought this was an interesting find: a DMC book on cross stitch motifs, in ...

Rebecca called and invited me over to paint on President's Day.  I said, "Twist my arm" as I packed up a few things and grabbed pizzas (and son) for some creative fun. I took a few things to work with, including a sectioned box that had once held some pretty glass dishes (above). Several layers of paper later, I transformed the bottom of the box into this bird-themed shadowbox. I did a decoupaged base layer over all the box surfaces, including the divider, which I glued down into the box. Then I added some texture, like burlap in this square... and over all of it, bits and pieces of ephemera like book pages, wall paper, and words from an elementary school dictionary. This square contains an 1918 letter that I transferred onto contact paper for the background, and then rub ons, textured wall covering, and a bit of a bird on a branch.  I used some wonderful watercolor pencils to add color -- in this case, blue. It was a fun way to while away some holida...

My Grow Your Blog prize arrived all the way from Jeanette in Australia yesterday! Jeanette blogs at Scrappin' Happy  and she makes beautiful things with fabric... as you can see! Jeanette signed it in the heart she affixed to the back!  I was so surprised at the size of this piece! I expected it to be greeting card sized but instead it's the size of an antique scrapbook album! With layers and layers of crazy-beautiful lace and embellishments! This is just the kind of thing I find breath-taking! I know, I know -- I am too lucky.  I am not worthy!  But I am excited!  Thank you so much Jeanette!