Indulge Your Shelf

I'm having a lovely Saturday, and I hope you are as well.  Here's how I define "lovely": I slept until I woke up, lounged around with a second cup of coffee, and around noon began creating at my own pace, aka "slowly".   I'll show you what I've been up to soon ; it's for a swap so it will all need to stay under wraps for a while. But feast your eyes on what I won last week on shopgoodwill.com !  A vintage beaded evening bag...  made in Paris.  It has the sweetest pleats, and some delicate embroidery on the front and back. But I could not get over the beading. Even though it's not perfect/missing some beads -- especially on the clasp -- I just love what remains. In case you haven't heard, the Grow Your Blog event is happening, beginning today!  I'm not a participant this year but I am an alumni of previous years and I highly recommend you take some time to visit some of the bloggers taking part in the event!  M...

I've spent a smidgen of time out junking lately, how about you? You know how I feel about Vera. This scarf had a couple of holes but I rescued it anyway.  I've developed a weakness for Fitz and Floyd and normally I sell what I find, or don't buy it all.  But this pig did me in. He's going to stay with me. The funky basket I've used in my photos came from an antique store this weekend.  It was thrifty though -- just $9. I rescued these vintage paper mache tonalas dolls when they didn't get any other bids on shopgoodwill.com They just caught my eye -- so colorful, and detailed. This isn't F&F but it has a similar feeling.  I got it for a little kitschy update for my kitchen. For 59 cents each, I decided to bring home these clip art CDs; each is full of some very sweet vintage images. I indulged my plate weakness when I bought five dishes -- 4 Meakin, left, and one Wedgwood, right -- also from a shopgoodwill.com. ...

I know we are well into January... but my Christmas cactus has just bloomed.  Proving that the holidays were over far too quickly this year and some of us are still catching up. I received some BEAUTIFUL old things as gifts; look at the package above -- isn't that cloth gift bag AMAZING?  It has a series of To/From tags printed on the side, so you can use it more than once.  It's from Terri and I know it must have been hard to part with because I don't know if I will be able to myself -- at least not for a while.  I love the way she matched the seam binding/ribbon perfectly! It contained the linen bird-themed calendar you see in the background, and this beautiful card box with this Christmas corsage decorating it! Then, inside the cardbox: a green tissue holder with the sweetest birds-on-a-wire fabric print... this FABULOUS bird-themed transfer sheet that I LOVE; I'm going to scan it before I use it to make towels... and this beautiful blue bird ...

I'm back at work full time as you all know (seven months now -- can you believe it?) That means trying to eat healthy away from home, which, as much as I dislike using them, can sometimes mean buying single serving containers. Like these little yogurt containers. Have you seen them?  They're divided for yogurt in one side and something to mix in (nuts, berries, granola, etc.) in the other. So I'm at work, sitting in the break room, thinking, what a waste to toss this nifty little container. It seems like you ought to be able to do some thing crafty with it. But what? So I thought it would be FUN to get up a little challenge. Let's all try our hand at creating something pretty from one of these little divided containers. It doesn't have to be this brand...there are many Greek yogurts that are currently using the same design. Comment if you want to play along; I'll keep the "sign up" period open for a week or so. If I have ...

Welcome, 2014.  I am happy to see you! As always, though, a bit sad to be putting Christmas away for another year. ( bye-bye, birdie ) Santa Baby, it was all over too soon, wasn't it? We awoke to a new year's day dusting this morning. My Christmas cactus has one tiny bloom today (not pictured), and my paper-whites are going to bloom soon, too -- see? This week I finally finished one project: the embroidery above, which dates from the 1970s...I decided not to do the sunshine at the top because it's a little too 1 970s, even for me. And then I began another: this one I have decided to do all in red, like a red-work piece. Last night, I wrote works 3 and 4 toward my goal of 50 writings this year.  I also whipped up this camera cover for my trusty Sony.  I was inspired by my latest issue of Somerset Studio, with lots of Bordeaux-colored creations, so I made this with fabrics in those tones, lace, and a little bit of...