Indulge Your Shelf

How could I pass up the chance to swap vintage ephemera ? It's a short turnaround (due June 1) but it looks like there may be some spaces left if you hurry on over!  (Click on the button to visit Jessica's blog.) Whee!

I had a pretty nice weekend, since we're not in tornado alley.  My heart goes out to everyone suffering, and worrying about loved ones.   Ben was on a hiking camp out with Scouts, so Dennis and I had a couple of date nights; I also worked on taking apart broken, vintage books for ephemera journals.  Whew, that is a messy endeavor! I spread a sheet over the guest room bed and went to town with it, though. I also finished embellishing the kitty pillow. This weekend, our community had its annual garage sale weekend; there were something like 50 garage sales, so I went out with my buddy Rebecca and her daughter on Saturday morning.  It was a bust.  I managed to find just a couple of treasures, like the hankie above...  and this lovely Alice in Wonderland book.  I'd never seen this version of the book.  I love the sketches, which are pressed into the pages... and the pretty, glossy color plates. Here's a pretty, old McCoy vase that I found at a thri...

I've been playing with decorating some pillows I made last month. I never get tired of white linen and pearl buttons, do you? Pretty buttons I got from an estate sale...all in a row. Here's one that's a work in progress; I just sewed this print-on-linen to the front, then will decorate it with lace, ribbon, and buttons.  I used remnants of an old towel as well as the bottom ruffle of a vintage dress.  I love how there are two different shades of neutral/textures put together. Above is a photo of something that's been living in my craft room that I'm getting rid of; it's a collection of sea shells I picked up on California beaches in 1992, which I them assembled in this frame.  One of the principles of getting rid of clutter, as you may know, is photographing something you don't want to part with, then keeping the photo, not the object.  I'm very sentimental, and it works well for me. The next step in my craft room clean-up is to take the covers off of b...

What have you been up to?  I've been working on my craft room, and trying to come up with some family summer plans, business summer plans, and trying to figure out how to make time for writing.  I've also been supporting friends who are going through hard times, which can be time-consuming as we all know.  And, doing a little bit of creating. Here's what my work desk looked like this morning. I've been experimenting with glues and stuff; the journal cover above has a base of an old primer, which I embellished with crochet lace, seam binding, a cute Fleur de lys jewel, and a paper linen motif of a knight and lady.  I used the paper linen because I liked the way the texture was similar to the linen book cover.  But I've since decided it's kind of a waste of the (expensive) paper linen; first of all, it bubbled a little underneath from the medium I used, and, secondly, it turns out looking just like paper anyway.  See, I learned something.   For this j...

You know, it seems like everyone I've talked with today had a bad week last week. I found this cute little guy irresistible at the Sparks flea market in Kansas. He has some pretty good advice! Let's all have a better week, y'hear?! OH, AND: if you've been having trouble commenting on my blog lately, can you please take a moment and let me know?  You can email me here - indulgeyourshelf@gmail.com, or click on the email link on the right sidebar. Thank you!

Did anyone notice that Blogger was down for a couple of days?  I guess you get what you pay for, huh?  I've missed writing posts! It's been a tough week for me; at the beginning of the week the sun was shining and I was working on my flowerbeds, finally!  I had planted some geraniums and, since we have just about skipped Spring altogether here in Colorado, it was so nice to finally get out there a little bit.  My very first tulip was just up when the weather took a turn for the worse, and it snowed. Uh huh.  Grapple, sleet, lows in the 30's.  It was so depressing . Then, I learned that my mother's brother, Marcus, had passed away.  We used to always call him "Chickie" -- I don't think I ever knew why.  He was a Vietnam Vet, and I think that war affected him profoundly and for the rest of his life.  The news of his death and my inability to fly to California to attend the funeral has made me, truth be told, a real basket case, for the last ...

Karla's class at Birdsong was a beautiful wall hanging with a nature theme.  It gave us a chance to be so creative and spell out anything we wanted to express; I decided on "Nest"! Karla provided us with a magnificent package of papers and embellishments, plus a whole bunch more we could choose from.  I was in paper arts heaven ! You should have seen some of the vintage wallpapers coming out of her kits!  Swoon !   While Karla came around giving us great tips and pointers on making beautiful altered pieces, I went to town with all the beautiful papers; here is a photo of me using Karla's very own palette to paint a little wooden egg -- I felt very privileged!   I think you can tell from my smile that I was having a blast! Here's a shot of the same wall hanging, this time hanging on my wall at home; I love it like crazy! And, here is some close up detail... ...the little tag underneath the "E" in "Nest"... ...and the bling-y "S" wi...