Indulge Your Shelf

Are you a beach person?  I am, through and through. I'm a California girl, and miss everything about living near the beach. But, take a look at my happy face in this photo: Besides my happy smile, did you notice the necklace? It was a gift that I won from Betsy, author of one of my favorite blogs, My Salvaged Treasures , and junque queen extraordinaire!  She also has an Etsy shop by the same name. It's a beautiful necklace she made by filling a small box with gifts from the sea. This very necklace was featured in the latest issue of the exquisite magazine, Jewelry Affaire , and then she had a blog giveaway for it which I won !   You can read about it here on Betsy's blog .   And please do, because her photos are so much better than mine, and you can appreciate the true beauty of the necklace! When the gift arrived, it came with all this beauty, too; a Scrabble tile charm...   and BUTTONS!  Really special, exquisite buttons. ...

I didn't forget -- here is the lucky one chosen to get the BonnieAngela  jewelry giveaway! Drumroll, please: stitchfreakonline Please email me as soon as possible so I can get your details for Bonnie & Angela! indulgeyourshelf@gmail.com

I thought you'd like this pretty picture of a rainbow I saw on my way home from work the other day.  I've been loving our summer weather this month and find myself wishing it will last. I could use your help with something: this small storage stool I've had for a few years now. As you can see, I brought it home from the thrift store and have done nothing with it, yet. Here's the inside; it is paper lined.   And the top.  It's vinyl. I'm thinking a fabric cover, maybe with a ruffle on the bottom portion, painted legs, and of course new pretty paper on the inside. I'm still not sure what I'm going to store inside of it, and that might be why I'm stumped as to a color/theme. What would you do with it?  I'd love to hear your ideas. Don't forget: there's still a week to enter to win a jewelry shopping spree from BonnieAngela !  Enter on this post.

I'm such a big fan of Etsy, and all the great things you can find on that site, and the community of artists that come together to sell their beautiful creations.  Today I want to tell you about the latest shop opened by dear friends and artists Bonnie and Angela. Millefori Art Glass Bangle Bracelet in Saffron Yellow Millefori Art Glass Their shop is called BonnieAngela  and it's full of artisan jewelry designed and hand made by the two of them.   Their art tells a story. Because You're Somebody's Somebody Special ... White Glass Pearls and Oval Hoop Earrings Bonnie and Angela have been living the life of gypsy artists, traveling all over America with their wares and leaving their hearts open to inspiration wherever they go.   Their resulting beautiful creations are sold in galleries and shops all over the country -- and now on Etsy .  Each piece is made by their hands from high quality metals, stones, beads and jewels. Summer Sunlight ... H...

I was excited to hear that, despite cold temperatures and less-than-reliable postal carriers, Kelli received the gift I made for her for my 1000th post giveaway! Kelli told me she likes bright blue, the little bluebirds I show on my blog from time to time, and wanted something in fabric.  With that inspiration, I sat down and created a fabric block for her: The base was a heavy vintage upholstery fabric that has a lot of stability.  I layered a beautiful old hand printed fabric from San Francisco (the blue with the hydrangea) and then used a bluebird printed on fabric as the focal point. I make so much with neutral colors that it was fun to throw in some brights! I put this very old hand made doily over the hydrangea printed on the fabric and loved the way its shape and texture "mimicked" that.  I added some hand stitching in thick thread for extra interest.  It was so much fun to create this little square; why can't I do that for a living?

Thank you, everyone, for the love; I'm so glad you are all here in my little corner of blogland! Kelli is the one chosen to receive my giveaway gift! How fun -- Kelli, please send me an email and let me know what you would like me to make for you! And I'll need your address, too. Meanwhile...  I'm at it again with the pumpkins.  I showed you this one in progress in the last post so I wanted you to see it finished.

This is it -- the 1,000th post I mentioned was coming up! Time flies; I started this blog on December 11, 2008. It wasn't my first blog, but it has been my favorite. I started out here just talking about some of the fun stuff I made, and picked, for my Etsy shop, Indulge Your Shelf . Thus the blog's name. But it became so much more -- a place to find meet friends who visit, stay a while, and come back. So first let me say, Thank you for visiting...and for coming back...over these past almost-five years!  I have so enjoyed meeting you online, and, when I'm lucky , in real life, too! When I started writing this blog my son was just 11 years old... we're all a bit older now! If you've been around for these five years and 1,000 posts, then you know some of my creative and art-related dreams have come true: In 2009 I finished a long journey to finally graduate from college, with a BA in Creative Writing. Along the way I started ...