Indulge Your Shelf

I hope this year will be much easier than the last one, for everyone I know.  I also want to say I'm sorry for not updating this blog since the end of October!  The end of the year was perhaps the worst of it; I'm not able to fake it very well, so instead of coming here and trying to be cheerful, I just don't come here! That's not to say we didn't have lovely holidays despite it all; we did! Here in Colorado January is off to a cold start; even though we get to see the sun on some of the chillier days, it's not possible to hang around outdoors. A frozen fountain I became ill shortly after the new year and continue to struggle with stuff (nothing real serious); I am looking forward to things being back to normal, so I can feel WELL and go back to the gym and have energy to spare! I don't think I posted about it here, but we did get a new kitten to keep Art company after he pined and paced over Paul Simon.  We thought we were getting a little boy...

I spent some time making some tags, to clear my head.  I enjoyed it so much, and it worked wonders.  I started by sewing together some fabric and paper scraps into tags.  That was a few days ago, and then last night I started embellishing them. There was not theme -- unless "use whatever I have at arms reach" can be considered a theme!  Besides vintage ephemera, I used new flowers and scrapbook embellishments that I've had for quite some time. Even just looking at them now makes me sigh in satisfaction and happiness!  I think my favorites are the ones that I used vintage photographs in.  How about you? Besides that, I'm working on this fabric collage.  Here it is just pinned together; so far I've stitched some edges and details, but it's long from finished. I also made this simple embellished runner, using new printed fabric, trim and then some vintage lace and crochet.  It was a gift for a friend, and she liked it!...

Precious time is flying away, here we are almost at mid-May!  Lots of happenings: Ben has graduated from college and is getting ready to move once more to a new apartment (his fifth move in as many years!) This graduation was more enjoyable for me than his high school graduation, but less comfortable as it was out in the blaring hot sun!  We were all happy when it was over, and had sunburns to go with our smiles! Dennis and I spent a couple of days in Ben's college town and had a few meals and visits with him, which were a delight!  The campus is very pretty. Above, I'm making fun of his stiff photo stance .  Just teasing him -- he gave us lots of "real" smiles during this visit. In other news... My friend Wendy and I have gone in together on a booth in a section of an antique store called, Citywide Garage Sale; we are sharing a table to sell off odds-and-ends, random antiques and vintage stuff we've collected that doesn't really go on ...