Finding joy in hidden places…

Mr. T and I have a favorite ‘thing’ that we do.  It’s probably the closest thing to date night that we manage to slip in on a regular basis.

It looks a little like this.

We head out, generally in the late morning, to our  little town to the North.  He drops me off at Goodwill while he visits the shops that he prefers.  I shop Goodwill then I take a little hike several blocks down to my next little ‘stop’.  Sometimes he joins me there and we shop together.  There are a couple of other spots where we visit on our way up to town or on our way back.  I generally fill up my side of the car and he generally doesn’t fill up his side.

At times I fill up my side, his side and the back.  You just never know what kind of a day it will be!  🙂

On our last visit I picked up this perfectly~red suitcase.  As I was walking down Main Street {red suitcase in hand} I had an extra few minutes so I stopped for a quick visit to our wonderful, little-town shoe store {you know, the kind where they actually help you by measuring your foot, trying on shoes, [taking all your money], etc…?…and they carry some of the best brands}.  As I walked through the doors {red suitcase in hand} there were about three sales-gals who nearly gasped because they loved my little red suitcase and would also love to be seen walking down Main Street with one.  My heart smiled just a little.  🙂

Isn’t it wonderful when we can connect with like-minded gals?  This was just a short~yet~sweet reminder of how, even if just for a few moments we can find encouragement and friendship in hidden places…we need only open our eyes and our hearts to it.  This actually led into another moment shared with two of the gals who had, on occasion, taken opportunities to encourage and speak into the life of one of my girls….as I left {red suitcase in hand} my eyes were brimming with tears and my heart was full.

♥

There is another little joy hidden within the case of this lovely red suitcase, a satiny liner with shiny, yet subtle polka dots!  [smile, sigh….]

I wasn’t even planning on keeping this little number but my own post makes me want to!

i’m hopeless

Farm Chicks 2011

Hi Friends!

I’m here to share my own [somewhat limited] Farm Chick Experience.

it’s limited because i’m very attached to my booth…literally…although, i was very blessed to have my sister join me for the fun this year [thx. sis]

It truly was a great sale…better than ever!

♥loved the junk!

♥loved the people!

♥loved the sales!

I brought a little live chicken display that made it all the more fun! They are silkies…a ‘mom’ and her baby chick {farmchicks}. They were so, very CUTE!

I didn’t get a great picture of the full effect but they were contained w/in a rusty-wired skirt attached to a wire dress form.

…my favorite part?…the little cuties that would gather ’round!

I’m already looking forward to next year’s Farm Chick fun!

Vintage{y} Cuff…

We have a family wedding this weekend and my daughter said she was going to ask Trish to make her one of her fun, fun cuffs.  Well I asked her if I could {try to} make one for her instead.

sorry Trish but I know that you wouldn’t make much $ off of my girl because I’m thinking that you wouldn’t even take $ from her…

Last night I sat down and had fun with all of the hand-work that’s involved in making one of these.  It is so relaxing to me…to create something beautiful with my hands.

I used mostly vintage things to make it.

Now I want to make one for me…

I have made one other cuff and I posted about it here….

Valentines 101

Making Valentines will forever bring out the kid in me!

It ranks right up there with baking and assembling gingerbread houses and finger painting!

Oh, what glittery↔gooey↔shimmery fun!

When I was in school {just a few years back}, art class was my favorite!

So now, as I work with a variety of mediums, it turns into a joyful experience.

I had a day of ‘sickness’ this week.  The day after I began working on these Valentines.  It seemed the perfect remedy as I slowly began to heal and ease back into ‘normal’.

I laid out a variety of vintage: papers, pictures and wallpaper.  I added to that  fun words, glue, stamps, paint and inks.

I worked in layers accomplishing depth and texture as I went along.

I backed each Valentine with a piece of vintage wallpaper then iced each one with a shimmery edge of German glass glitter!

As I worked on these I was full of anticipation for the upcoming Art Retreat.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the workshops that will be offered.   ♥ 😉 ♥

I met a gal…

…and within a few short hours she became my friend!

We met at a baby shower…

She liked what I made for the mommy-to-be and I loved what she made for the mommy-to-be…

We visited our way through the shower and when it was wrapping up she invited me to her home which was just next door.

She and her parents have been friends and neighbors with my aunt and uncle for many years.  I had seen some of the exquisite tatting that her mother had done for my aunt several years ago and had thought, “if I ever could squeeze in the time, I would love to have her teach me how to tat”.  Unfortunately, I didn’t make that happen and she lost her mother at 95 just this year but it was so much fun to get acquainted with her equally fascinating daughter.

She showed me the treadle-turned-electric commercial sewing machine, which was the only machine her mother used. (I’m still drooling)

She shared  with me a hefty stack of  fabrics and pellon that belonged to her mother.

She gifted to me this beautiful, vintage coverlet which was given to her by one of her clients.

It’s simply exquisite!

We had such a warm, inspiring visit and I’m feeling anxious for our next!

I have a large collection of, what I call, china hostess snack sets.  She had two of these {hand-painted from occupied Japan} which belonged to her mother…she said “would you please take them?”

Oh my!  I would be honored!

The rightful owner…

I am writing this as a follow-up to this post.  If you haven’t read it please take the time to do so.

It’s a very sweet, heartwarming story that I feel blessed to have been a part of.

The album made it safely to it’s rightful owners. It belonged to the family of the gentleman on the left.  He was one of five children featured in this album and the only one that is still living.  His father was an amateur photographer, therefore explaining the beautiful and abundant photographs included in it.    There is no way to fully know the journey that it has been on over the years.  It possibly made it’s way to the Pacific Northwest via one of the older girls.

Because of how I am, I couldn’t help but get emotionally involved in this story.   The first time I looked through it’s pages I began to feel connected.   From the first e-mail that went out, my contact has only been with the grandson (pictured on the right).  It continues to amaze me that his was the name we chose to send that first note of inquiry to.

With each bit of correspondence I have looked forward to his response especially upon receiving the album ~ which was…

“the album has arrived. Beautiful pictures!!
My grandpa was very excited —
Thank you again so much for giving us a wonderful gift”

He has been gracious and appreciative from the beginning and couldn’t wait to have the opportunity to sit and view the album with his grandfather.

Here is a photo of his grandfather, Bill {the only one still living of the children},  November 1927 ~ age 2 years & 8 months.

You’re just going to have to try to picture the smile that is on my face… 🙂

Winner, winner, winner

It’s me this time…I’m the WINNER!

Karoline hosted a give-a-way that I entered {by leaving a comment}.  …and I won!!!

I just have to say it…”I don’t ever win” – I leave comments all the time…for two and a half years I’ve been leaving comments and I think that this may be my first actual win.

I won something early, early on but that was because she liked my comment so much that she chose to add one more winner.   *just another lucky day!

I really love my new scarf.  It’s more fun that I imagined.  I wore it to a HS b.ball game last night and I’m sure that I turned many-a-head…I’m even quite sure that I heard a few ‘gasps’!  😉

Thanks, Karoline!

Oh, but that’s not all…

As if that wasn’t good enough, she added 18 blocks from her collection of vintage chenille bedspreads.

That may have been what originally sucked me in to her blog…that, and her love of all things {beautiful, classy, sparkly} vintage.

I wish that my pictures showed the snow that is falling {my ♥ is singing}.  If you look really close though to the top, right side of the scarf you can see a little, tiny {melting} snowflake!

This girl is certainly one of my two favorite girls!

Bittersweet turned sweet!

Many of you understand the ‘thrill’ of the search for a treasure.

Treasures that come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, textures and values.

Some of these treasures have value that can be felt only by the new owner…a value that can’t be measured by the standard of anyone else.

I recently {Saturday} came across just such a treasure.  A family photo album dating 1918-1934. For most people it would seem odd to develop a connection with a family that lived so long ago, where there was no personal connection whatsoever.

It’s hard to explain.

It partly comes from my own love and devotion to family…that penetrates through many generations.

It also comes from a love and devotion to things of the past…clothing, shoes, homes, loving families, mannerisms as well as the colors and textures that come from the wonderful old black and white and sepia-toned photos.

As I have looked through this album over and over, dreaming of the wonderful creations that I could make with these beautiful photographs {scanned and copied, of course}, I began to feel as though this album didn’t belong to me.

With family names very prominent throughout the album, it took Mr T & I about an hour to find a possible family name with an e-mail contact.

It took just a short bit to receive a reply verifying that we had indeed found the right family.

♥ bitter sweet ♥

These two ‘tea-time’ pictures are some of my favorites.

Bill is the grandfather of the man who I am in contact with.

Here is a photo of all of the children from the family.

I’m sure that you can hear in my tone that it’s wonderful and difficult all at the same time to part with this new-found treasure but when it was mentioned in one of the e-mails today that this is ‘an unexpected Christmas blessing’, the bitter was removed from the sweet and it just became sweet!

Clipboards for your lists…

As I began writing this post the temperature outside was about 12°.  Oh Baby, it’s cold outside!…but I still did my morning walk ~ I just bundled up a bit more.  I told my friend who I walk with each morning that we should decide how cold is too cold.  Last year we had some mornings that were -25°.

That would certainly be too cold.

I finished my clipboards…Oh, I just love these.  I use one myself and it’s fun and functional all in one little package.

They also make a great gift idea!

My dad was recently replacing the metal measuring tape that he uses when he logs.  As he was throwing it away he said, “I suppose you’re thinking about something you can use that for” ~ I looked at him like, “Would I pull something out of your garbage to fulfill my own creative desires?”  Well, sure enough, I did start thinking and I’ll probably come up with a fun variety of options over time but I also thought it was a fun addition to these boards so I glued a strip to the side.

When Amber went to Paris this year, one of the things she brought me was a magazine that I scanned and used the cover for this board.

The postcard I used on the top of this and the journal page were also among the items she brought home.

It’s just so much fun to know that you can take a non-dimensional treasure and use it over and over again!

I would ♥love♥ any help in giving this board creation a worthy name!

Yesterday’s show was enjoyable…all of of the people there were fun, friendly and so enjoyable to work with…and I got a lot of knitting done!

These charms measure ½” square and can be worn alone {$15} or suspended in a silver circle {$20}.

I really love them and the young girls were going crazy over these.

These ‘sprinkle jars’ are ever so cute!

The next time I set up will be for A Vintage Christmas which will be held at Spokane’s Northtown Mall