I have to apologize for the shameless shop plugs lately but since it's "black Friday" I can get away with it right? But really, Christmas, as usual, is sneaking up quickly and I still have so many items to list and make and then suddenly this happens...We've been planning on renovating our bathroom and when the contractor came to look at it, well, you usually expect them to say, "in a few weeks or months". This guy shocked us and was able to get to it right away. So now the house is in complete disarray...just in time for the holidays! So I figured I better get a move on it before I'm too consumed with decorating, shopping and baking.

I've been making these snowballs for the past few years as gifts and I keep a lot around the house in bowls with some greens tucked in. They are so Christmasy and really do look real!
I also bleached these old bottle brush trees and added some mercury glass beads and crystal glitter. After I was done I hated to give them up but a girl can only have so many bottle brush trees!

Well thanks for letting me plug my shop and I'll be back with some bathroom "afters" soon.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday!!!

Christmas shop update

I was on a creative Christmas roll yesterday. All day long, I couldn't stop and I was loving every minute of it! I have so much more to finish and alot of other ideas I would like to get started. I was going to have a special Christmas opening in my shop, but then realized that I had more than I realized. So I figured I better get started.
I had some loose beads and couldn't decide wether to sell them loose or make something out of them. So what I did was both... shape them into this heart but it can easily be taken apart for the beads to be used in other projects. The same with these vintage bells below. They are great together and can be hung from a door, but still, can easily be taken apart to be added onto a package, etc.


And of course some vintage wallpaper stickers in shades for Christmas!

I am also in the process of making some of these. Last year after Karla's Christmas party, I had alot of requests for them. They are a bit time consuming so I've gotten a jump on them for this year.

So stay tuned...there is more to come!

Me!

After a few requests and knowing how I also wonder what the face behind the blog looks like, I did it! I took this crummy, blurry, off centered, self portrait of myself. But you get the idea! Really though, it has been so fun reading about and seeing so many pictures from Silver Bella! It has also been so nice to finally see some faces and think, "that's just what I pictured her to look like!" Is this how you pictured me to look like?

Family Heirlooms

Last night I was going through some of my mother's jewelry and came across her charm bracelets. One silver and one gold. Both she had as a teenager but the gold one she added some charms to over the years. Including that little picture of me when I was four. A while back I had ordered some charms from Andrea planning to make a charm bracelet for myself one day. How lucky am I, that I can now add them onto my mothers old bracelet!!?? So I started thinking about old family pieces and wanted to share these pins. When I was little my Aunt and Granny started this collection for me. Antique baby pins. I used to just keep them in a box untill a few years ago when I found this neat frame. I knew it would be perfect for some of my pins. I cut out small pieces of styrofoam and wrapped them in silk...TAH DAH! I wore some of these growing up. My mother would pin them onto my shirt collars.


This little floral one is the only one I bought for myself. I found it in an antique shop while on my honeymoon in CapeCod.

Isn't it great when you still have these kind of things that you hold so dear to your heart? For me, it's always comforting to have these reminders of what a lucky girl I am to have had such a wonderful mother and childhood!

Reindeer for Sale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just wanted to let you know that I have listed these neat little vintage reindeer today. They are being sold as a set of six and come in this little sack tied up with some boxwood. Enjoy!

My own Silver Bella

Since almost everyone seems to be at Silver Bella and I am totally jealous, I am making it a point to get as much work done as possible and I'm enjoying every minute of it!

I'm just getting started on some Christmas projects...
...and found some really neat little reindeer! Hopefully in another week or two I'll have everything completed and listed in my shop.

But for now, all Bailey wants to do is lay on my keyboard so I'm going to leave him alone...how can I disturb that face?!

Happy Fall!

I'm starting to get into Christmas mode so I thought that before I do, I would share some Fallish photos from around the house.

Isn't this basket neat!? I think that it used to be used as an old knitting basket. It's pretty big and what I love about it is that it's black!

This sour cream bottle is rare because the lettering is orange. Most milk or cream bottles are red.

I think that I posted this little orange basket last year. It's a small golf basket!

This round braided thing (I don't know what it's called) is on a tray on my dining room table. My grandmother made it. She used to make her own braided rugs so it's sort of a miniature version of that. The fabrics used in it were whatever textiles she had around the house an no longer needed..included some of my Grampy's old shirts!

That's about it for now. I am hoping that while all you lucky ladies are going to Silver Bella this week (and yes, I am jealous of each and every one of you!) I will be trying to catch up on some of my own crafts as well. I'm looking forward so some fun Christmas projects I have in mind!

FROU-FROU

I was never really sure if frou-frou was technically a real word. Well, I looked it up and it is:

\ˈfrü-(ˌ)frü\

1: a rustling especially of a woman's skirts

2 : showy or frilly ornamentation

I am so not a frou-frou kinda girl so I really don't know what happened here. But I started making some of these rosettes and was having a lot of fun with it. I'm pretty tempted to put one on my denim jacket! I also found some neat little frou-frou snowballs that I think will look cute as bowl fillers for the holidays!

All listed here!
Happy Friday everyone!

Halloween!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween! We sure did! Although my boys have been drinking more medication than candy! I guess it's that time of year when colds, ear infections and asthma attacks begin...even had to make a trip to the emergency room last week. But I think that we now have things under control (I'm knocking on wood right now!).The Hulk wouldn't take his costume off all weekend...even slept in it!

We are very lucky to have a witch in our neighborhood! This wonderful woman gets on her roof every year and sprays the kiddos with silly string and throws candy and some other goodies down for them. So great!

A few weeks ago, my boys asked why I don't decorate for Halloween. I said, "Of course I do!" and my oldest responded, "you just decorate with a bunch of leaves a pumpkins...we mean scary decorations." So we all agreed to put a graveyard on the front lawn. I don't think I've ever seen them so happy...I mean really happy! I think my problem, even after all these years, is that I have to stop thinking like a girl and start thinking more like a boy!