Christmas Explosion! 12/09/10

When my sister-in-law walked into the house she said, "It looks like Christmas EXPLODED on your dining table!" It had.



But out of the chaos came shimmering order!



I've been working on using up all my vintage planters, ornaments and Christmas figurines from Lefton, Relpo, Enesco, etc. Above is a cute little woodland brownie.




Here are "baby" and Santa.



Baby's First Christmas, all tangled in mercury bead garland!

This is the sweetest flowergirl! Kinda like a pink Eliza Doolittle.

I bought her at a rummage sale then proceeded to drop her on the floor as soon as I got her home! :( Fortunately I was able to glue her backside together and use her in this cute Christmas tree collage. Some of her flowers got chipped so I just gave her a whole new bunch of vintage millinery posies.

Here is a cute "Spaghetti" Santa!

Here are some tags I made from vintage Christmas wrap. I just cut out the designs, glued them to cardstock with gluestick, scalloped the edges with scissors and sprinkled with glitter. A hole-punch makes for easy tie-ons.

How to Make a Crown from a Wastebasket 07/30/10

Here is my $1 Queen of Hearts Crown (and the King of Hearts Crown, too.)

My kids were recently in a production of Alice in Wonderland and I volunteered to make the crowns. (I actually had to beg to do it because it was supposed to be student-run ONLY!) Anyway, I saw the black wire wastebasket at Dollar Tree and thought it might work.

The king's crown was made from two .50 candle holders that I took apart and glued together. I used red glitter fun-foam for the hearts, fat chenille, red boa, and red ribbon to embellish so they really cost more than $1, but that's the price they started at.




Here are the Queen of Hearts, the King of Hearts and the Nave of Hearts. My son was the king.




My daughter was the Cheshire Cat. All the kids did a wonderful, professional job! The director was just 16 years old! He has a great career ahead of him!

The Mermaid's Mercantile 07/08/10

Our holiday in San Diego was wonderful! We spent most of our time with family at the beach house in PB (Pacific Beach).



The kids got plenty of Boogie-boarding time even though the last few days of vacation were wrought with "June Gloom."

But I wanted to tell you about one of the highlights of my trip: "Sister's Day Out!"



I made my invitations and sent them out before I even got to San Diego. I didn't want anyone to miss out on the fun!




Our first stop was "Out of the Blue" in Solana Beach. Owner Debi Beard hosts a gorgeous outdoor shopping venue called "The Mermaid's Mercantile." There were so many talented women showing their beautiful wares,.

Here are just a few photos of the day:

This bed was SPECTACULAR! The headboard and footboard were encrusted with polished seashells.

Here is a closer view of the footboard.




Debi is the sweetest, talented girl!!! Visiting her shop is like stepping into a fairyland! 


She makes beautiful shell covered works of art done with a meticulous hand.



My sisters Rosemary and Raymie and I had a wonderful day, along with our good friend Judy. (My vintage beach hat is courtesy of my sister, from her vintage collection!)

How to make no-sew fortune cookies

Don't these look good enough to eat???

BUT FIRST...



...I have to show you these incredible flowers that my sweet friend Glennette gave me. She came into my shop and told me she had all these "puff balls" in her yard, did I know what kind of flower they were. Then she used the word "snow ball" and I knew what she had! Next day I went over to her house to GET SOME! Aren't they beautiful? I took them to work today and everyone had to touch them and ask "Are these REAL?"

On to the How-To:



I found some skirts at the thrift store that had some nice colors and patterns. I cut them into manageable pieces.




Paired them up into contrasting colors and sandwiched a piece of fusible webbing between them (right-sides out). Ironed it.




I cut 3 1/4" circles from freezer paper and ironed them to the fabric.




The circle pattern facilitates cutting out the fabric.

I peeled off the paper, cut a smidge of fusible webbing to tack the edges together at one side.




I ironed it closed.

Here are my various fabric circles. (Please note these cookies have patterned fabric on both sides. The photo at the top of this post shows cookies with only the inside of the cookie having patterned fabric.)



I folded them into the fortune cookie shape and painted it with glue. I used toothpicks wrapped with a rubberband to hold them together while they dried.



I let them dry over night.



Hubs and kids brainstormed for these original fortunes. I printed them out on the computer and cut them into strips. (click photo for bigger view...)

When the cookies were dry, I stuffed the folded fortunes inside. I can't wait to hand them out to my sisters!



One last thing...Here are the invites I made for my upcoming "Sister's Party" that I am planning during my vacation next week. I am heading out to the beach to visit my family in San Diego. But I will have plenty to blog about when I return in 2 weeks! See you later!
Rosie

Saying Goodbye to Kelsey 06/01/10

See the dog in this picture? She is one happy camper! Look at the smile on her face. She is sitting next to her "best friend." (see the little round guy??)



She is our Kelsey. We've had her for 14 years and today we had to put her into a restful peace.

She was a faithful, obedient, loyal dog who gave us everything she had.

She loved to lie on the cool kitchen floor.

And when it got too difficult to climb the step to the kitchen, she was satisfied to lay and watch us from the back room.

She gave the world 8 loving pups, one of which we still have.

Thank you Lord for the gift of such a sweet life. We will miss her.

05/28/10

This is just a post about random thing...

While driving today my daughter and I passed a farm with this unusual horse. I've never seen anything like it... and I've been to 2 county fairs and a football game!

It was just gorgeous. What kind is it??

And then there's this...

I'll bet you don't have one of these festivals in YOUR town!

Happy Mother's Day! 05/10/10

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Mother's Day! I just have to brag on my kids and say that they are the BEST a mom could ever wish for! I was in bed all day with a toothache (root canal coming this friday...ugh.) but the kids made breakfast for me and still brought me gifts. The flowers above are from my two teens. They said they will plant them in my garden for me.

My "little" girl (18yrs and 4" taller than me!) made this beautiful crystal necklace for me in all my favorite colors...pink, pearl, silver and crystal. It SPARKLES!


My "big" girl (27yrs and 4" SHORTER than me...) made me this beautiful clock to hang in the cottage! She hand painted it from a photo of our Pondicherry Cottage. Isn't it perfect?

Here is the cottage, an old photo before we even had the porch redone:

And here is a close-up of the clock:

Didn't she do a great job?! She had to paint "around the tree" in the front yard to get the entire house in. It looks exactly like the real thing!