Indulge Your Shelf

I hardly know how to begin to say how special I felt when I opened a package that arrived from my friend Angela who blogs at Country Scrap Quilts and lives in Illinois.  Angela is what I call "a real quilter" (as opposed to someone like me who has never made a full size one); she makes and sells her quilts from her website -- and she is very prolific!  It seems like very time I turn around, she's finished another quilt!  She has also recently started a brand new blog that is solely dedicated to her journey as she makes two Dear Jane quilts.  And all of this while being a wife and mother to four children!  Including a set of triplets the same age as my son -- and a three year old! Angela's package was a surprise, and when I opened it my heart was pounding; do you know, I actually cried a little bit when I saw that inside was this GORGEOUS quilt!: I have always been envious of people for whom quilts were made, and I never thought I would be a member of t...

One of my friends, Michelle, is a gifted artist and photographer.  She's also a wife, mother, and lover of dogs.  Cats, not so much. But my cat, Kyra, is very special.  Kyra's shy and reserved but she really comes out of her shell (and out of the sanctuary of my bedroom) in the presence of a certain type of woman:  she likes gentle, kind-hearted, artistic women.  So, naturally Kyra loves Michelle. The first time Kyra met Michelle - and, like most cat non-lovers, Michelle kept her distance - Kyra insisted .  She jumped right into Michelle's lap as she sat at my kitchen table drinking coffee!  Kyra purred and gazed up at Michelle with her big green eyes; I don't think Michelle really stood a chance! Not too long ago, Michelle took some photos of Kyra, then she had the photos made into notecards: This is the front of the card. This is the reverse; she always puts a quote on the back of her cards. Don't you love how she put Kyra with her back...

I'm a member of the Etsy Bloggers Street Team and each month we are to blog on a theme for a blog carnival.  This month, the question was,  Do you have any special items in your shop to celebrate the season? I have!  I just finished uploading a whole bunch of new products in Indulge Your Shelf , and I'll show you some of them that I think are particularly Spring-like; click on the description to see the listing: Tiny vintage sewing kit - pocket sized! Part of a lot of 4 kitschy old patterns Vernonware - such a pretty blue! Shamrock shaped cut glass dish Cheery, shabby yellow shelf Sweet pair of birdhouse wall pockets! Here's a touch of Spring in Twice Shy Restored :     Trio of rescued linen wall hangings Button card St. Patrick's Day tag set   Alice in Wonderland tags Crazy Quilt mini   Small reversible pillow So, that's what's Springtime fresh in my shops!

Yesterday was one of those days. I had run out of business cards weeks ago and decided I wanted to add my examiner.com logo and page info to my card before printing out new ones.  I did that, it took about 10 minutes, and then printed them. For some unknown reason, the cards printed out improperly aligned.  I discarded the ruined sheet of cards, re-checked all the settings, and then re-printed.  Again they came out incorrect. I have no idea what the problem was.  I've been using these cards and template forever.  I discarded the ruined sheet, and then went online to the card manufacturer's website , and looked around for answers.  While I was there, I noticed they had a page for designing and printing your cards using their paper right from their website.  I thought, Well, then I could be sure the template was perfect and so I decided to try that. The only problem was, you had to recreate your cards.  Well, no biggie, I thought, it will o...

Hey, have you noticed the blue square button to the left over there, at the top of my left sidebar? Several months ago I applied to write for a website called examiner.com; I wrote a sample article and nominated myself to be the Colorado Springs Antique and Thrift Shopping Examiner .  It took many months, but they finally got back to me and made me exactly that!  What it means is that I write a minimum of 3 short articles per week for the site, which appear on my very own page .  I earn money based on the number of hits I get on my page, and it adds up slowly. I would be grateful to anyone who visits my page from time to time, and/or signs up to subscribe! For now, I'm focusing on local shopping, but in the near future I'll be writing on more general topics as well, that I think you'd find interesting!  I'll throw a link up now and then to my articles on this blog, just to remind you. Can you tell I'm excited about this?  As my pal Jenni pointed out, I get ...

I thought this cover from old German sheet music (from the '50's) was just marvelous:

It's time to play that picture game!  Linda tagged me with these instructions: 1. open your first photo folder 2. scroll to the tenth photo 3. post the photo and the story behind it 4. tag five or more people Here is my picture: It is a photo of a strange vintage item that I remember buying to re-sell.  It almost looks like a trophy.  Or maybe it's a holder, like for pipes.  It was well made and in great condition -- and it sold a long time ago, so it must have been a good example of whatever it was!  (Boy do I feel silly!) I'm tagging: Sandra   Barb Micki   Melinda   Jennifer Have fun!