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WALLPAPER/VINTAGE COLLAGE ELEMENTS PACKS ARE HERE!

Hi! Hope everyone had a fun weekend. I'll bet it's warming up just about everywhere else in the world, but of course here in the land of 55 degrees....not much has changed. As promised, here are the pics of my craft booth this weekend. I did pretty well, especially compared to what other vendors around me were saying. It was interesting to watch people walking by. You know how it is; "windchime booth, jewelry, gloves booth, jewelry, kitchen towels booth, jewelry,  uhhh.....HEY! What's goin on in this booth?" It was surprising to me actually when a very few people just did not enter my space. Looked like it would've been hard. Here's a full on pic.

And here's a few close-ups taken inside...gives a better idea of how cozy it felt:

Big heartfelt thanks once again to the very kind and talented Larissa who I am proud to call 'friend'. She not only let me use all her furniture and props, she helped me haul it and set it all up! Beats the heck out of  throwing it all out on banquet tables, huh?

I  just spent most of this day putting together round two of the vintage wallpaper/collage elements. I think it's even better than the first pack! Also lowered the prices on the other two packs. Go check 'em out!

Sold out of the large wallpaper packs but am hurring to put more together in the next day or two. Thanks!

Where's those collage packs?

Hi again! If you've been led here via jenny's post and are interested in the new collage packs I've put together, you can click on the Etsy link to the left and go straight there. Check 'em out!

Well, I went back to the gym this morning after taking the last three weeks off. Everything was startin to ache&pain again, plus of course; this weight ain't comin off by itself! How's everyone else doing with their goals? John and I are still going on that cruise to Alaska in August, even tho the crafting bit of it was cancelled due to lack of responses, so I reckon if I start NOW and lose 2 pounds/week I'll be just fine!

Never did show you the pics of the antique show we did last week. Three of us shared this sunporch type 'room' along the main hall that housed 18 other vendors. This shot should give an idea:

That's my Hall china in the white bookcase. Most of it's headin for ebay now.

The wire rack in the center of the above pic is an old Frito's display rack. Has clips along both sides...I think if you click it and enlarge you can see how handy it was for displaying my carded rhinestone jewelry.

People walked in and paid their $1 admission right there at the beginning of our space. It was interesting to see their faces when they looked ahead into our room...if it was men only, they'd take one look ahead at all that pink and blue and fluffery and make a SHARP left turn in to the main bldg. HAHA! I'd say only about 5% of the people were really enthralled and OMGosh! about it. The same show last year was when I first came across Larissa. Thought I'd found a long lost sister! Anyway, the only problem with sharing a space with the 'cool girls' is looking at all that cool stuff! Before the weekend was over I'd def spent more than I'd made. I got this ladder and baskets:

Will use it for the craft show this weekend and my dream studio that we WILL be building out back before too long. Also got this sweet child's desk and chair.

Not sure if it'll stay pink, but it'll be part of a space devoted to visiting grandchildren in the new studio as well. I figure for now if I keep buying for it and talking about it it WILL happen. Oh. That reminds me...our Hancock Fabrics is going out of business..selling right down to the fixtures...they have a great space saving spinner rack that I need to go buy today.

One last pic and I'll close for now. Getting ready for the big craft show this weekend and having company as well so don't be surprised if this is my last post for the week!

 

I think I've mentioned here before that we have a parade in April celebrating rhododendrons. John was telling me about this fabulous peach colored one at Baywood (his golf club) between the 18th green and the chipping practice hill. Today we went and took a few pictures.

This first one is standing on the patio of the clubhouse. I took four shots and stitched them together so you could get the panoramic impact of how utterly beautiful it is there.

All that plus an ocean view. It's amazing to me that more people don't live up here! Here's the one that John was telling me about:

Wow. That really IS an unusual color. Here's a few more

Caleb standing in front of one to give perspective; Pretty huge, huh?

Startin' to make sense of why they honor these with a parade! I won't be able to take Caleb this year because it's the same weekend as the craft show I'm doing (next weekend). Oh well. Seems to me he told me last time that all that honkin hurts his ears anyway. {insert eyeroll}.

Here's the lake between the fifth tee and green. Tricky little hole for beginners. Gosh I used to just lob dozens of balls into that water before I finally got smart and gave up the game.

It's strange coming home after being gone for a week. It's like I forget I was gone and have to keep reminding myself that I've missed a whole week! I still don't even know what happened news-wise last week. Mom has it tuned to USA (Law&Order 24/7) whenever the TV is on, and when I rode in my truck the ipod played as opposed to the radio. Oh well. Guess I'd have heard about it by now if I missed anything too important.

Our trip was great. Caleb and I travel well together. I cherish these times 'cause God knows it won't be long before he won't want to hang out with his ol' grandma anymore! We stopped to see my friend Karen on our way out of town. I had to snap this shot of her holiday tree. Here's the funny story; her friend Don was heading out to cut a tree at Christmas and she said "get me one, too...but not too big!" He brought back a huge one, she had him lop off the top, she stuck the top in water and threw out the rest. Proceeded to decorate for Christmas. Well, she's busy, and the tree top just kept lookin so green and fresh as long as she kept water in it so she wasn't in any hurry to throw it out! I joked a couple weeks ago when I saw it that she oughta decorate it for Easter, which; as you can see, she did. I finally had to take a picture of it--seeing is believing. I'm starting to wonder if it'll ever die and in the meantime, we're planning the upcoming holidays to decorate it for.

By the way, some of you may like to see a close-up of that window. I put it together when I painted/decorated most of her house two years ago--we both got those same windows (mine is over the guest bed now) and I used mostly her own pics from her trip to France. They're printed on silver vellum--a nice effect.

Here's what makes the nine hours in the car worthwhile for Caleb:

Gosh he just loves my mom's dogs. Plays out back with them for hours. Most people say "You really oughta get him a dog!" but I'd just as soon drive down there to visit if you know what I mean! Only reason I have cats is because they don't need to walk to potty and they just about scoop the food into their bowls by themselves. LOW maintenance is about all I can handle. So the above pic serves as a decent 'before' pic for the paint job I did in there.

Three coats on the shelves plus painted the whole room. My clever younger brother built that room on the footprint of what used to be the outdoor patio. He has six children and they visit mom routinely so it's a really great room to have. Here's the corner that doesn't show in the above pic

 

I stitched those Holly Hobbie pictures for my lil sister in 1975. What an unusual stay-at-home 17-year-old bride I was, huh? My favorite part of giving stuff to people is seeing it in their homes many years later. Which reminds me, here's how mom finished off her window that I'd built a roman blind for last visit:

Was the perfect fix, huh? I loved seeing that monogrammed roll pillow...I made it for her in the early 80's when candlewicking was big. Woosh. Time flies.

My oldest girl Erica and her BF Brian came to spend Easter with us. No trip to the San Joaquin valley is complete for children without a little hands-on learning about where produce and such comes from. I remember years ago when we were visiting  from Palo Alto my mom took us to a cotton field where she'd worked at the age of 5 and made us pick a whole bag of it. I doubt we appreciated the connection to our mother's roots. At the time, anyway. So here's C and Brian in mom's backyard picking oranges off the neighbor's tree. Can't do that just any o' where, now can ya!?

Another big job completed while there was stripping old wallpaper from the main bathroom walls

and then painting it a nice soft pink.

We had fun collaborating on those curtains together. Here's a close-up of the fabrics by Robyn Pandolph.

So far she's let me paint her room yellow and her bathroom pink. Wonder where she'll let me take her next!

We also snuck in some antique shopping the day before we left. Here's a darling little vase I just had to have with my lovely millinery flowers that were waiting here when I got home.

Sweet!

I participated in a local antique sale today and have to go back tomorrow so I'll post more then. Wait til you see the space I shared with two very talented shop owners. WOW! I tell Larissa "I make stuff and you make the stuff look GOOD!" :-)  til then....

Caleb and I are headin south for the week. It takes six movies to get there! Wish us luck. Hope you all have a happy Easter!

First of all, before I forget, I've been meanin to post this clarification for days now. The FABULOUS Betz White pincushions shown in my previous post? My uber talented swap partner Debbie MADE THEM HERSELF! Blew me away when she told me that. And she says she found the embroidered towels at a second hand store for CHEAP. I want to shop where she shops! I still smile every time I walk in the kitchen and see my new lovelies from her. :-D I was asking her why on earth she's not selling her fabulous creations (if you've visited her blog you'll see what else she's been makin) and she said that she does have an intention to create an Etsy shop, but first needs to come up with her own patterns...doesn't want to just keep copyin what she sees others doing. I agree and totally understand, but I'm starting to think there's issues of note regarding *originality*. I remember a few months ago some gal out there in blogland took the time to email me a "shame on you" for having published a cookie sheet perpetual calendar that I "COPIED" from the wonderfully talented Teresa McFayden. I'd opened the article with a big ol shout out to Miss T and thanked her for the inspiration, and thought the acknowledgement was enough. Yes, I got the cookie sheet idea from her, but gee whiz; this person made me feel almost criminal! I couldn't imagine I'd offended Teresa, but just to make sure I emailed and asked if she was bothered by the article and she said 'no'. She'd apparently mentioned on her blog that someone had copied some of her work (an outright copy with no credit to Teresa that the copier was profiting from. Not good!) and this other gal just up and assumed it was me for some reason. ANYWAY, my point in recalling this story is that a month or so later my friend Karen and I were in an antique shop and she was flippin through an old craft book from the early 70's and showed me an almost identical calender idea saying, "Jen, isn't this like what you did?" You get my drift re; how many times can we totally recreate the wheel? I think if we put our own unique spin on something then it's original enough. Which leads me to my recent soldering endeavors.

For these I really did want to come up with something I hadn't seen anywhere. It was serendipity that the day I got serious about coming up with an idea was the day I got these old (30's) Anagrams letter tiles in the mail. So they're quite thick due to the letter tile, and it leaves room in the 'sandwich' for other bits like rhinestones and glitter and flowers. The pendants measure 1x1.5". I've stopped at six, am waiting for my vintage millinery flowers to arrive...I'm sure they'll be prettier than these new paper flowers. I have a ways to improve on the soldering but I've all but got it figured out. Now I just need to get some more practice under my belt. I could spend entire days chasing a lil jump ring around with a soldering iron so thank God I found these bales that I can super glue on (showing the backside in the inset).

Am scurrying to leave town on Friday for the whole following week. Caleb and I are going to my mom's house, where I'll be stripping wallpaper and revamping the main bath. I'm enjoying these periodic visits to help her update her house. I like feeling useful and enjoy visiting while DOing something, too.

Will close this post with a pic of....YOU GUESSED IT! Another cookie sheet calender. This one's for me! but I think I'm making three or four more for the craft sale I'm in at the end of this month. 

Here's a closeup of that fabulous Catherine Moore stamp that I used on it. I received it while I was workin on the calender and just had to use it then and there! The tag stamp of the number 25 is from the same set. LOVE them. OH, and the number 22 is 'in the mail'. :-)

Cheers!