Seeking Everyday Beauty & Velvet Strawberries

A Minor Setback

So, I lost the memory card to my camera. My beloved memory card. I've spent 3 days searching for it with no luck.

Among many other photos, all of the pictures of the sweets that were scheduled to make their One Hundred Wishes debut this weekend were on that card. I was foolish in not downloading them to my computer right away.

I'm fairly certain Mario got a hold of it and it's now buried deep in the toy basket or perhaps down the slots of the heat register.

Or maybe it's made it way into Thomas the Tank Engine's little town. Mario has always been intrigued by that little blue card and it was just a matter of time.....

The other possibility is that it's somewhere in the mess that I used to call an office/studio. I think this is a sign from God that I need to get organized and get rid of some STUFF. {why do I feel like this is a recurring theme in my blog posts?} I used to be so incredibly organized, but shop goods have pretty much taken over the house. We've been tossing around the idea of moving so I could have a proper and much larger studio and office workspace. I plan to be in this business for the long haul, and it has grown to the point where my space is bursting at the seams.

Anyway, I shall continue the search and let you know what I find. In the meantime, I'll start taking new pictures just as soon as the sun comes out again. {no pictures for this girl on gloomy days, since I don't like to use a flash.}

Happy Weekend to all!

Seafoam Somethings

A quick post to let you know there are some new seafoam-hued goods at One Hundred Wishes. I happen to love this color and the way these items all coordinate. These soft velvet leaves are now stocked in 10 sumptuous shades.

The seafoam Dresden are brand-spankin' new from Germany. There are assorted stars, bows, borders, and more. Click here to browse all 4 pages of Dresden foils.

Also, a new life-size Dresden tiara fit for a queen is in store. It's ready to be embellished, tied with ribbons and flaunted about. This is made of a very thick, sturdy foil paper, and meant to be worn.

You can always click the What's New page to see all the latest additions to the store. I don't always post each and every new item on this blog, as I'm sure that would get awfully boring!

Ok, I'm off to get the kiddies out of bed.....I hear Mario calling my name. Time to start this beautiful day!

 

It's Little. It's Lovely. It Lights!

Hello?

Yes, this is Andrea.

What? My voice sounds different? Well, I am talking on my swell new Princess Phone! It was a birthday gift from my friend Nicole.

You'd like one too? Well, just click here and get one of your very own! Talk to you soon.....

Apparently, I like Princess Phones more than I realized......I've been picking up these little ditties at flea markets for a quite a while now. They were promotional key chains that were given out in the early 1960's when every teenage girl had a Princess Phone. My mom had a pink one! Can you believe she didn't keep it??!!

Sweet Peek

Something sweet is happening over at One Hundred Wishes, and I thought I'd entice you with a few teasers. A brand new category is in the works and should be on-line by this weekend! It's something near and dear to my heart...... and my sweet tooth.

I've been hunting and gathering the sweetest of sweets for months now and it is all finally here.

I just have to finish up some labels and packaging this week. I'm am delighted and giddy to share this passion of mine with my customers. Stay tuned!

Art & Soul & Friends & Fun

Goodness, I didn't mean to be away from here for an entire week! It's been a week of playing catch-up from being gone last weekend at the Art & Soul Retreat. It's amazing how only 2 days away can set me back a whole week.

The retreat was awesome and Lisa and I got in some much needed time for ourselves. Time to chat and create and relax and have fun. We decided we need to do this more often and have already started thinking about another art retreat. We took Sally Jean's class, "The Girl's Got Gothic", and here we are proudly modeling the necklaces we made. Try to ignore the bags under our eyes.....we had been in class for over 8 hours by this point and were just so darn happy to have finished the project! After this, we headed to dinner and then wound up in the lounge where we met up with Dede, had some vino and relaxed!

It was fun to piece together random elements that I love into one necklace. I've been making new jewelry from old jewelry for years, but this was different. Adding the photo charms made it very personal and meaningful. 

I used pictures of Mario and Sam and a picture of George and I on our wedding day.

This rose cabochon necklace has been in my stash for a while, and I was happy to give it a home here. Pink and green, my old faithfuls. No matter what color trends come and go, those 2 colors remain my favorites.

Some bits of jewelry, worn out pearls, a Lucite button and some old lace were put to good use.

The main Gothic-shaped piece is a collage I made using my Little Andrea picture, some wallpaper scraps and a snippet of old ledger I found that says "Mrs. S". It's hard to see, but there is a tiny flocked flower under the glass too.

Then, I used a scrap of an old cloth measuring tape and some more bits of old jewelry.

And a little velvet strawberry to finish it off.

What a fun class this was! Sally is just delightful and seems to radiate positive energy and creativity. And, man, can she solder like no one I have ever seen. She makes it all look so effortless. It got me in the mood to solder again.....you know, in my spare time.

A fun time was had by all, and I can't wait to do it again!

Happy Weekend everyone!

 

Ready to Go {well, almost}

 

I'm heading to the Art & Soul Retreat in Hampton, VA with my friend Lisa. In fact, she will be here in an hour. Yikes! I have no makeup on and am still packing up my soldering supplies and a million little objects that I may or may not add to the necklace I'll be making in class. I'm taking it all....just in case.

Goody boxes for classmates. Check.

Gift for the teacher. Check.

Overnight bag. Check.

Purse. Check.

Shoes and jewelry. Check.

Got all the essentials taken care of. Now I just need to relax and enjoy the weekend! See you all next week! 

Ribbon Candy

Can you imagine taking hundreds upon hundreds of yards of seam binding and hand-painting it? Well, that is exactly what my friend Catherine does. It was love at first site when I discovered this candy-colored ribbon. She has truly taken seam binding to the next level, and I cannot get enough of this stuff. I have it hanging from pegs in my studio, wrapped around bundles of letters and tied around a special gift for a friend's upcoming birthday surprise. I think it's my new favorite ribbon.

Catherine owns the delightful web boutique, Pink Rose Pastries, where she designs, creates and sells myriad faux pastries, cakes, and a million other sweet decorations that you can't really eat but really wish you could! The amount of detail that goes into each of her confections is unreal. I mean, I can only guess how many pink piped icing roses she has made in her lifetime. Thousands? It's gotta be.

Yummy sugarcubes and bonbons. How cute would these be on display for a tea party celebration for a little girl.......or a big girl? Oh, see, now that I've said it, I want a tea party. Add this to the list of things-I-didn't-have-when-I-was-little. Right up there with ballet lessons!

Brownie anyone? Yes, please. Yummy, yum, yum.

This is a fun lollipop box (that opens) that I recently purchased from her. Click the picture to see more detail and get a better look at the piped icing. I love the stick with the pink sugared ball on the end of it!

Well, guess what? One Hundred Wishes is the exclusive on-line retailer of this gorgeous hand-painted ribbonery confection! (besides Catherine's own shop, of course.) There are 4 candy-colored combinations at the moment, all fitting in nicely with the aesthetic of the shop. Click here to be tempted into buying some of your very own. I think the hardest part is deciding which color.

And, oh happy day, I found more unused vintage stock of paper lace. This is a narrower style than the spools I have been selling (but I still have those as well), and makes a snap out of trimming a package, creating a border, wrapping a box or edging a shelf. You get the idea.

This new paper lace is available is pretty pastels (yay!) and is sold in 6-yard bundles. Click here to see all 6 colors.

Happy Creating!

Pretty New Things

Finally! The Wendy Addison Collection has arrived! I ordered these beauties months ago, and it seems like I've been waiting for ages. The collection includes fanciful door swags, wall decorations, ornaments and a beautiful crown.....all dusted in silver German glass glitter. There's just something about Wendy's enchanting designs and the way they magically transform a space.

This heart is one of 5 ornament designs. The others include: a key (below), an anchor, a Fleur de lis and a horseshoe (also shown below). Each one has it's own little tag with a special sentiment.

I took one of these crowns out of inventory for myself right away. I think I may even add some ribbon streamers and millinery to it to really make it my own. (I have a hard time leaving well enough alone.)

Here is the key ornament (hanging on the pretty wallpaper pouch I bought from Lori).

This is the horseshoe ornament, which I am particularly fond of for some reason. I wish I could say it was because I have a horse or ride a horse, but I don't. I just like horseshoes and the good luck they symbolize.

In addition to the pieces I've shown here, there is a very large glittered skeleton key that hangs from a ribbon and also a large hanging Fleur de lis. Oh, and a "Merci" door swag! This collection is just delightful and very gift-able, if you're looking for something special. You can see it all here.

In other shop news, I am now ordering larger quantities of the Petite Paper Posies and am able to get a discount. This translates into a lower price for customers. They are now $5 a bouquet. I've added 2 new colors to the palette of posies, for a total of 10 yummy varieties.

The seam binding line-up has 6 new members. All 27 colors can be found right here.

Two beautiful new shades of German glass glitter have arrived: Copper Blush and Vintage Bronze. Found here.

The tulle family is happy to welcome Peach Powder Puff and Mint Julep. Perfect sherbet hues for spring and summer. See all 12 colors here.

Oh, and the Coccoina Colosso is in stock! The queen of all glue sticks. I took this picture to show the scale of all three sizes. As you can see, the Colosso is huge. It's the biggest glue stick I have ever seen, in fact!

hmmm....let's see.....what else......

Petite Leaf Trim is available in 4 new colors: white, bright green, gold and silver. They are here.

And just in time for Mother's Day, some sweet new Cupcake Trinkets!

There are several more items that I still have to photograph and upload. Time, my friends, is the only thing I'm lacking. I know it will all get done eventually, but I could get so much more accomplished if only I didn't require sleep! Hopefully, by next week I will have the rest of the merchandise on-line. That's the goal anyway......

I don't want to go without saying thank you for the birthday wishes! It was a lovely day. (and no, I did not polish off that cupcake myself!) {wink}

32

Today is my birthday! To celebrate, I decided to bake myself a cake using the gigantic cupcake pan I bought a few months ago. This is one big cupcake, and with my husband out of town, I'd hate to think I have to eat the entire thing myself. Not to worry, Mario is a good cupcake eater too.....and some friends are stopping by so they can help me out as well.

It's 1:30 in the morning on April 22nd, officially my birthday, but also time for bed. Morning will be here too soon, but at least I'll have sweet dreams!

Happy Day!

A Hat Parade

I've been trying to carve out a path in my studio/craft room/dungeon so I can at least walk to my computer and back. It's gotten bad in there, girls. It's borderline dangerous. Things are falling from shelves and hitting me in the head. There are mountains of boxes, packing peanuts, tulle, paperwork (by the grace of God I got my taxes done this year), seam binding and far too many millinery flowers. I've got to get it cleaned and organized before George comes home from work and finds me stuck behind a fallen tower of Priority Mail boxes one of these days.

 

This weekend I took the first step. Well, the first step is admitting I have a problem. (and I do.) The second step is picking a place to start and actually starting. So, I started with the hats. I have old hats everywhere and still want to get them hung on the wall to free up precious shelf space. As I piled them all on the kitchen counter, I figured I might as well snap some photos to share with you here. They look so much prettier when they're not in amongst a disaster area! I placed each one on a cake plate since they remind me of fancy frou frou cakes.

 

Velvet berries are always a good thing (and I've actually got some berries to list in the shop soon).

 

Bought this one for $5.

 

Velvet strawberries. A favorite, of course. $10...no kidding! And I would've paid $80!

 

These enormous blooms are just begging to be taken off and used in art or shared with friends.

 

More scrumptious velvet berries.

 

I don't usually do too much blue, but I liked this one a lot. Nice floppy roses.

 

Pretty in white.

Tons of roses with velvet petals here.

Delicate strawberries. Lovely.

It's hard to resist pink velvet ribbon this wide!

Fun, flirty carnations.

Soft pretty whites.

More velvet berries.....this time in blue.

A very sweet hat that probably belonged to a young girl. My mom said older women wouldn't have usually worn a hat like this. I can't believe she didn't keep any of her flowered hats from the 60s!

Tattered and lovely.

Velvet pansies. This was one of the first hats I ever bought. I got it at the big flea market on 27th Street in NYC when I was in college. Sadly, I heard that flea is no longer there. It was fabulous.

This is loaded with miniature flowers studded with faux rhinestones.

The floppiest and most ready-to-fall-apart hat in the collection. One of my very favorites.

This elegant cloche hat was my Grandma's. I found it at the top of her closet when I was over there visiting last year. (note to my Grandma, who really does read my blog: Hi Grandma! Thank you again for the lovely hat. I will cherish it because I know you once wore it. Got anymore hiding in that house? Love to you and Grandpa. See you soon! ~ Andrea)

And finally, white flowers and puff balls. I keep this one in the foyer up on a bookshelf with some other white ones.

That concludes the hat parade! Hope you enjoyed the show. Sadly, they are all still sitting on my kitchen counter. I'm trying to figure out a proper way to display such lovely relics. Any suggestions?

On a different note, thank you for all the love on my previous post. You guys know how to cheer a girl right up. Thank you for your support. I am feeling much better and now I don't have to make a voodoo doll of the evil commenter and stick it with corsage pins. It's all good.