Everyday Beauty

Happy Earth Day and Happy Birthday {to me}!!!

 

I know I'm suppsosed to be taking a blog nap.....but today is my birthday! And I really wanted to show you what my friend Holly surprised me with.

Gosh, I just love it to pieces. I gasped when I opened it. She doodled all sorts of little pictures of things that are meaningful to me and wrote Italian words {mother, friend, wish, rose, family, love, baby, home} all around the center oval. So much thought and detail and time was put in to this gift.

 

I'm going to put a picture in the middle and frame it for my craft room. I really can't even tell you how much this means to me. It's better than anything that could be bought. Thank you Holly.

On a slightly different note, since I share my birthday with Earth Day....I wanted to just say one quick thing:

BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD. {Gandhi}

I never really blog about these sorts of topics, because the last thing I want to do is come off as preachy or as if I'm an expert in this area {I'm NOT!}. That is not my intention, and I am a big believer in "to each her own" and doing what is right for you, in your own time. But I am very passionate about this, and since it's Earth Day, I thought it was appropriate to post this simple little paragraph here. The more we spread the word and the knowledge, the better off we will all be. We are what we eat, plain and simple. And we only get one body and one life to live.

Would you like to know that the food you're putting in your body and in your precious childrens' bodies has not been sprayed with toxic chemicals and laced with antibiotics and hormones? Of course. Who wouldn't? If we want to see a change, we have to be willing to make a change. Start small. And the laws of supply and demand will go to work for all of us. The more we demand and purchase whole, organic foods, the less they will cost, and they will become more readily available. Maybe eventually the government will overhaul the FDA so it actually protects and informs consumers. Wouldn't that be something?

Try and do just one small thing today to make your life healthier and our world a little cleaner.  If we all made a tiny change, the impact would be enormous.

Happy Earth Day!

And now, I guess I should get out of my pajamas since it's 11:30 am. George and I are going on a date tonight. Dinner without kids...what's that? Can't wait!!!!!

Broken, Tarnished, Rusted, Frayed, Corroded, Dingy and Lovely

 

I know you guys share my love of old things, right? There's a just a certain something about them that draws us in. These are some bits and pieces of less-than-perfect details around my house. Corrosion produces the best shade of aqua!

 

A favorite old Venetian box from a flea market trip a few years ago. The chipped paint makes it all the better.

 

Frayed, pleated flowers on a hat.

Pretty chipped pearls.

A dingy old cube of pins. I like that some are missing.

I have no problem loving old rusted bits or jewelry with stones missing. I don't generally incorporate them in to the pieces I sell, but once in a while I do. I like the look.

Love this antique pendant with the Opal heart stone, even though it's lost most of it's other stones.

 

This is a new {but made to look old} sconce I have on the wall in the hallway. Pretty rusty flowers!

 

A good dingy shade of pink velvet, with a ripped veil.

 

We can never have enough old laces and trims. The more dingy the better. If it's too white for me, into my leftover cup of coffee or tea it goes! George always asks, "should I dump the rest of this coffee or do you want to dye something?"  ha ha...

 

Old doll shoes to be used in an upcoming project with some friends. I love the frayed edges!

 

A 1940's wedding cake topper with discolored flowers.

Well, I can hear that Sam's just woken up from his morning nap, so I'll sign off now. Time to go be Mama! :)

Streamers, Pleats and Rosettes

Well, hello! So, that was a fast week. I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a week! Jeez, I'm such a slacker. All of the prize ribbon hullabaloo has had my head spinning. {not to mention 2 sick kids and an out-of-town husband}... Calgon....where are you?

The Daily Candy feature brought a whole new batch of customers outside of our crafty blog world, mostly from the New York City area. There are some prize ribbon-lovin' girls out there! Who knew?

So, I thought I would show you some of my vintage prize ribbon collection since they sort of started the whole thing for me. It all began with one lone ribbon years ago and just kept growing. I mean, what's not to love? These old 1950's and 1960's ones are so silky {unlike any you will find these days} and the old typefaces they used were wonderful. Frivolity at it's best, for sure. Nothing deep and meaningful here today folks, just plain old fashioned I-think-these-are-pretty-and-thought-you might-like-to-take-a-peek-at-them-too.

 

The ones with horse shoes are my favorites. They seem to be much harder to find than the ones with horses on them.

This one in particular is my absolute favorite. Pink, cream and gold. Love those 3 colors together. And the pointy rosette is so unique. Those satin pleats are SO soft.

  

Here it is with streamers and all.

   

And the one below holds a special place in my heart because it is from the city where I grew up! I had purchased several ribbons that were all together in a box and didn't even realize they were all from horse shows in Ohio. Good old Greensburg, Ohio. The name has since been changed to Green, but when I was growing up it was Greensburg.

 

And looky here. Designing prize ribbons must be a genetic predisposition. My mom is a member of her local Orchid Society, and she's in charge of the prize ribbons for their annual Orchid Show. She gave me one for my collection.

 

Here you can see the orchid embossed on the button a little more clearly:

 

So, that's my show and tell for the day. Show and tell is fun. We don't do it nearly enough as adults, do we? Mario gets so excited to bring a favorite toy to pre-school every few weeks when it's his turn. He loves sharing the fun with his class. I know I always enjoy seeing other people's collections, and I hope you've enjoyed seeing this one!

 

Strawberry Surprises

   

Some very sweet and thoughtful friends and blog readers sent these treasures to me this Christmas. With the shop being closed, I haven't been checking my P.O. Box too often. So, you can imagine my surprise when I had a stack of boxes waiting for me! Yay! Fun mail! Of course, who doesn't love getting surprises in the mail? Thank you Holly, Jane and Rachel for these beautiful vintage strawberry ornaments. I love them. And thank you to everyone who was so thoughtful and generous. I enjoyed opening all of the Christmas cards and unwrapping the special gifts you took the time to make and select and lovingly wrap up to send my way. You guys made me feel so special! Thank you.

Dino & Harry

I added a Playlist of some of my favorite Christmas tunes over there in the right-hand column. {It's not set on auto-start, in case my favorite tunes are not your favorites as well. So, you have to click the play button to listen.} The lineup includes Dean Martin and Harry Connick, Jr., among others. What more does one need?! They can serenade me any day!

In my book, no one is a cool as Dino. The song Baby, It's Cold Outside is played over and over again in our house this time of year, and even Mario knows most of the words now. It's our little tradition that we play it whenever we're all in the car together. George and Mario sing the part sung by Dean Martin, and I sing the part sung by the women. We were a little rusty this year, but after a few rounds, we got our groove back.

If you have this CD, then you must have seen the picture inside the booklet where a very handsome Harry is dragging a Christmas tree through the forest. Oh my tinsel and stars!

I also added Celine Dion's version of O Holy Night, because I get teary-eyed every time I hear her belt out that final high note with such strength. It's amazing to me. And then there's always the classic and beautiful Ave Maria.

I'm always looking for more tunes to add to my holiday lineup. So please share with me, what's your favorite Christmas song?

My Christmas Colors

 

I had made a decision to decorate with only silver, gold and cream this Christmas....

And then I opened these boxes and changed my mind. I love the colors and all the chipped patina, and I simply cannot keep these beauties hidden in boxes!

 

I'm going to leave these 12 mini pink ones in the old Shiny Brite box and display it somewhere, just as it is. I think the box itself is an interesting little decoration.

 

Some other fun ornaments in pastel shades.

 

This vintage little lambie was found at the bottom of a box of junk at a flea market.

 

I don't know who I'm kidding thinking I'll only use silver, gold and cream. I'm bored now just thinking about it!

Repurposed Ruffles

 

Q: Do you know what this is?
A: A shower curtain turned tablecloth!

I had been thinking and thinking and thinking about what to use as a tablecloth for my Silver Bella vendor table. I have nothing in my tablecloth stash that includes a floor-length table skirt, so I knew I'd have to make something {somehow} to achieve the look I was going for.

It was serendipity when I stopped in to see Abby at The Blissful and remembered she carries these gorgeous white ruffled shower curtains {pictured below right}.

 

{photo from www.TheBlissful.com}

It was a light bulb moment. "This is it! I can make this into a table skirt!" After measuring, I knew I would need two of them. I made my purchase, chatted with Abby and was on my way. Once I got home, I filled the bathtub with very hot water and added 100 tea bags. {I bought the cheapest ones I could find... tagless, generic tea.} After the fabric had reached the desired shade of time-worm cream, I drained the tub, wrung out the enormous ruffles and threw them in the dryer.

Then, I began measuring and pinning and pinning and pinning. I should have take more pictures of the process, but I was on a roll and didn't want to stop! But, seriously, I think I used 200 pins.

 

I had to go buy a pack of heavy duty sewing machine needles and some extra-strong thread. This fabric is heavy, and working with it was not unlike wresting an alligator. Once I stitched all of the panels together to form the skirt, I sewed the skirt portion to the tabletop cloth {a cream tablecloth I already had}.

Several days, many pricked fingers and a few curse words later {forgive me}.....TA DA!

 

The best part is that my kitchen table is a 6 foot farm table, and the vendor tables for Silver Bella are also 6 feet long. So, I'll be able to use it at home too!  Here is it in our kitchen, just before I packed it up in a big box and shipped it off to Omaha. Whew. That's enough sewing for me for a while. But I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!

Prom Pretty

 

I'm getting so excited about the Silver Bella Prom!  My friend Holly was sweet enough to let me borrow her fabulous flea-market-found vintage prom dress. Layers of pink poofy tulle and ruffles....what more could a girl want?

I've got a crinoline all fluffed up and ready to go, thanks to a friend of a friend who let me borrow one. I think I'm going to need an extra suitcase just for the gown and slip!

 

And I figured since this is The Prom, after all, I should go all out. I even have a sash to wear on vendor night!

 

Since the Miss America Pageant is not in my future {sadly}, this is surely the only time in my life I'll ever wear a sash. I just couldn't resist...

  

What fun we're all going to have at the prom! I can't wait to see what everyone wears and how the event unfolds. I'm sure Teresa has so many fun things in store!

Things I Accomplish When the Shop is Closed

 

This mini shop break I'm taking has been quite productive! Boy, did I ever need this time to regroup and recharge. I've been puttering around creating little vignettes in my home and studio. {something I could easily get carried away doing all day long if certain sweet little boys didn't keep me on track.}

It's been fun gathering trinkets to use in my Silver Bella workshops.

And I even baked Natalea's Chocolate Sheet Cake. {and unwisely ate 50% of the pan myself. It's so delicious, although not so good for the waistline...oh well! Yum is an understatement, girls.}

Been photographing lots of new items for One Hundred Wishes. Like this sneak peek below {which is my new favorite thing and I can't wait to show you!}:

And this:

And this:

And I've even been making jewelry. I know! It's been a while, huh?

And I crafted a couple little paper projects too.

 

There is still so much more to do this week, so I guess I'd better get busy!

Favorite Fabric Finds

  

I've been scooping up some pretty things in the form of fabric lately, and thought I would share my finds with you. I spotted this beautiful pillow in Teresa Sheeley's shop, and couldn't click fast enough to buy it. How great are those frayed ruffles and the tea-stained fabric? And then I spied these flour sack kitchen towels in her shop as well. Click, click. click, said my mouse!

 

I just love Teresa's style and her original designs.  Not to mention that my kitchen towels had seen better days, so I needed new ones anyway. If these don't inspire me to dry the dishes, I'm afraid nothing will.

The cheery fabrics below are from Tanya Whelan's Ava Rose collection. I bought them from Ruth at Sew Love Fabrics. They look so pretty and crisp all stacked up like this, I {almost} hate to use them.

 

But I think I'll take some of these to Silver Bella to embellish one of my fabric projects.

 

And for Sam, I found these incredibly cute bibs from Pearly Grey! All of the fabrics in this collection are vintage inspired. These are great quality bibs and they're nice and big to cover the messes that one-year-olds tend to make.

He wore the yellow and red 1950's party theme bib for his birthday party last weekend.

 

Sock monkeys! Too cute!

All of these goodies are from etsy shops. {just click the green links in this post to take a peek.}