Indulge Your Shelf

This week's Word of the Week hostess is Nathalie !

I don't know what ever inspired me to work with these colors and this theme, but I just got started and it was so much fun I kept going! There's a spot on the inside cover for a memo or title...and antique sheet music and vintage storybook illustrations on the first page Vintage wrapping paper and a pumpkin tag Vintage movie schedule and trading stamps More book illustrations and vintage paper ephemera... and wrapping paper scraps... vintage jeweled trim... It's 8 pages, decorated on each side, to make 16 pages to fill up and finish! The cover is decorated with a vintage doily, button, and antique black silk bow, plus an illustration from an antique storybook! I've just listed it in my handmade Etsy shop, Twice Shy Restored .

Yesterday, my friend and neighbor Phyllis and I took a day away from our families to celebrate our birthdays, which are coming up next weekend. She and I were born one year and one day apart (I'm the younger, ahem.) We both love antiques and decorating, with very similar tastes, so our day out typically involves going antiquing! This time we went to Denver, and every place we went was completely new to me, which made it exciting. We started off at The Ballpark Market which was an outdoor flea market kind of place. Would you believe I only spent 25 cents there? ( On a button, of course!) I wanted a lovely sewing box; it was one of those standing wooden ones, with the accordion-style foldout trays, but unique in that it had a sort of curved shelf below which would have been great for catching yarn. She wouldn't go down even a little in the price, which was annoying since she'd said "all prices are negotiable", and so I decided it wasn't meant to be -- and ...

I was born in the Fall, and so I feel the year begins not on a snowy January day, but on an orange-green September morning. As a child, the new beginning was marked by the smell of new shoe leather and the pain of the blisters that scraped my heels on the walk to school. It was in the smell of new wooden pencils and the feel of chalky pink erasers, and the itch of new school clothes against my skin. It was in the getting used to the status of our new grade, our new teacher, and each other ...and noticing how we'd all grown and changed over the summer, and who was missing, and who was new. In high school, my walk every day was more than a mile long, and the streets were planted with eucalyptus trees. Their fragrant leaves dropped early and crunched under my feet. Even today when I smell eucalyptus, I am transported back to being a teenager. It's early morning, cool and crisp, and I'm on my way to school. I'm crunching eucalyptus under my ...

As you may have guessed, I've been doing some work for my old employer again this week; it only amounted to about 15 hours, but that, and the Monday holiday, really impacted my schedule. Now that school is really underway, there are all kinds of activities, things to volunteer for, etc. I'm not lazy, but I'm also not the type to over commit myself. I've learned that lesson well! Still, the few extra things I've taken on make me feel rather harried so I'm looking for ways to scale back, sleep less, or find a miracle energy boost! This working thing is really cutting in on my leisure time to read all your blogs. Funny how that works. And, it just might be permanent, or semi-permanent anyway, as I'm looking for some writing or editing gigs, too. Time to put that degree to work! I have had little time for crafting lately, but am working on a Halloween-y little journal to sell (this is not like me! But I just got inspired!) I also made some more of those...

by Tracy Helgeson If you would like to participate by writing about and/or illustrating "begin" on your blog this Friday, September 11, please comment on this post. I will link to all participating blogs on Friday!

This sweet bird flew over to visit me from Quill Cottage ! It was singing a line from Emily Dickinson... Hope is the thing with feathers That perches on the soul And sings the song without the words And never stops at all I love the imagery of the nest on the topic of hope; it reminds me of the hard lessons I've had to learn on that subject after all the years of infertility we experienced. But, we got our boy and I know we are blessed. The bird was a gift from Sandy , in honor of her 2nd blogaversary! But that wasn't all -- Sandy in her generosity also included all this beautiful ephemera! Look how beautiful she packaged it all! The folder is a work of art in itself! How much fun will I be having with all this luscious inspiration? The lovely little bird now cheers up my entryway: Miss Sandy has made me blush with gratitude! You must visit her at the cottage -- you'll be so glad you did!