Indulge Your Shelf

Have you ever altered a bottle?  I just finished my first one: it's for a Bird Song 4 swap. It's a raffle drawing-style swap so who ends up with it is anyone's guess! I decided to stick with a low-color palette this time and it was an adventure from start to finish. First I had to find an old bottle.  Bottles are not something (believe it or not) I collect, so finding just the right one was a challenge.  I finally found a true vintage one at a street market a few weeks ago. I chose this one because if has a rather flat front that I knew would take well to altering, as well as some interest in the ribbing on the reverse, above. The hardest part for me was figuring out a stopper or cork for the bottle.  I actually bought some glass bottle stoppers online from an Etsy vintage seller but neither fit in the bottle I'd found.  Since I was pretty attached to the bottle, plan B was to make my own. I fashioned the bird's nest from silver 'angel hair...

Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my last post with words of comfort.  I so appreciate it and, in an effort to post something on a cheerful note: here are some more photos of me, at work, playing with stuff I'm listing: vintage hats! Yes, my coworkers think I'm a little nuts.  ...but would you LOOK at this stuff?  How could I resist? There was some other dressing up going around her last week as well: it was prom night -- Ben's first.  He's a Junior this year. He went with his adorable girlfriend, Cora; a whole group of them got together for dinner and the main event. Ben's the one in the grey suit -- second from the right. Cora was beautiful in a sage green dress. They had a great time and I know it's an evening he'll remember all his life.

Today there is a memorial service in California to celebrate the life of my friend, Sharon Nyssen.  I know just what it will be like: hundreds of people gathered together to talk about how important she was in their lives and how much they loved her, and she loved them. I am not physically there but I am remembering her, too. This is one of the very few photos I have of the two of us together. It was taken in 2002, shortly after we moved from CA to Colorado.  See how my hand is wrapped up?  I had to have surgery to remove a bone tumor and was nervously awaiting the results -- benign or malignant?  Dennis was in between jobs and I was not covered by health insurance at the time.  It was a crisis for sure, and Sharon was there to be my rock.  Although she had four young children at home, she flew out to sit and panic, and pray, with me.  (It ended up being benign). And that was my friend Sharon.  The photo above shows her with the lov...

I created a wreath for Birdsong 4; it will be a raffle prize given away sometime during the weekend.  Yes there are raffle prizes too!  One of the many fun perks and wonderful treats in store for us as we enjoy Karla's hospitality. It's exactly like the one we made during Lori Oles ' class at Birdsong 3 When I was there last year, my wreath was in the theme of pretty women using scraps provided by Lori.  For this wreath, I used the others she'd given us -- birds themed, of course -- and added many of my own. This one has modeling paste applied over a doily as a stencil. It's an unusual shape for a tag, I know -- but I didn't want to lose a single one of the pretty birds! The second one from the left, above, is a playing card with more modeling paste as an embellishment. I love the "song" themed paper behind the lovely bird scrap; I think my favorite is the woman on the far right from a vintage glove advertisement; I gave h...

I recently wrote a short article on the story behind the well-known Blue Willow china pattern. I thought the story was interesting, but I don't like Blue Willow myself. (I don't care for Asian or Asian-inspired art, for some reason.  It's just not my taste.) But...I LOVE blue and white china that's not Blue Willow! I decorated our home's master bedroom in blue and white, with hints of yellow. This morning I took down all the bedroom china to give it a good cleaning.  Above, a yellow Goebel bird that lives with the china. I decided to photograph some of the pieces to show you, including the backmark:  This one is a small commemorative plate (smaller than a saucer.)  This is a small, espresso-sized cup and saucer.  The Finlandia is the first blue and white china I ever purchased.  More from Myott The inside of this cup is particularly pretty! This is among my most favor...