Indulge Your Shelf

I wished for a quiet and productive beginning to the year, and it would've been just that -- except for losing my job last week. It was a day like any other until my boss told me that my job had been eliminated and sent me home, with no severance.  I'm so sad.  Most of all, I'm not up for another year of ups and downs, employment-wise.  I spent the last week trying to ignore the situation as best I can, and crafted, got projects done around the house, and shopped for buried treasure. I had my friend Karen over to craft on Martin Luther King Day and we made vintage fabric hearts.  Above was the spread on my dining room table -- lots of fabric and fun things to choose from! Mine started with a layer of felted wool, then velvet, then some lovely brown netted lace, then some novelty painted fabric, more velvet, and, finally, a lovely antique millinery rose.  I added charms, buttons, and lots of trim and hand-stitching.  I'm happy with the result !...

I had the most wonderful Christmas, and I hope you did, too. First, just before my husband's birthday he was offered a permanent , full time job as a technician with a successful and busy company.  They asked him to begin immediately, and so within days he was on a plane to attend a two-week training in Los Angeles, California.  Mind you: my husband has not had a permanent, full time job in more than 3 years.   It's a huge victory, and I couldn't be happier for him. I hatched a plan to fly to LA for the weekend, since Dennis couldn't travel home in between his training weeks; it was a way to punctuate this awful year we've had, and celebrate his new job!  I was very pleasantly surprised to find extremely inexpensive flights for me and my son at the last minute!  And so, the weekend before last, Ben and I hopped on a plane and spent a wonderful, joyous couple of days basking in the sunshine of California's beaches, and my husband's happiness!  It was t...

I love vintage ephemera, but especially vintage HOLIDAY ephemera.  This Thanksgiving, in quiet moments, I took the time to make this little book.  What can I say?  It was so very satisfying, and peaceful -- blissful, really!  I took a photo of every page, and, at the end of this post I've included a link to my Facebook page, which has a video that Ben helped me shoot and edit, showing the whole book, too! Did you have a favorite page? Here's that video link: https://www.facebook.com/laurie.jackson2 I hope you had a lovely holiday!  We did.