Here I Am!

Been a while, hasn't it? Life is funny. It seems to have sped up to twice the normal pace lately! So many happenings- most of them really great!
First, there is Sweet Pete, my beau. Our first date was last October and we've been pretty inseparable ever since! He's such a fun (and handsome) human being and I can't believe my good fortune.

That's us on Thanksgiving.

Then there is the impending arrival of MY FIRST GRANDCHILD!!! Pretty awesome, right? I think I blogged about this back in February, but now we're really close to the exciting event. When I started this blog, Carmen was fifteen and an absolute pain in the butt! Not really, but she was at a very "trying" age. Now she is 22 and she and her husband, Jeremy, are expecting their daughter, Jamie Quinn McLaughlin, in July. Bonus- they moved out here in March from Tennessee so I get to have a front row seat for all the cute baby stuff. 

This pic cracks me up every time!

Lastly, I am now a real "vintique" dealer! A new store, Vintage N More opened up near me and I got a booth! It's super tiny- just 4.5 feet wide and 28 inches deep, but it's all mine! That's it at the top of this post. The shop also offers floor space for furniture and does a nice consignment agreement for that. I can expand my selling area that way which I think is great because if I don't have a lot, I'm not paying rent on a big empty booth.

Sadly, I'm still in my tiny apartment which is going to make my business rather "interesting". Last year after selling at the Magnolia Marketplace I told myself I would take a break until I had a place with a garage workshop. Mmmhhmmm.... well, that hasn't happened yet, but I think I better get on it because today I bought all this:

Two solid dressers, a toy trunk, and a beautiful, but battered display cabinet that still has its original glass AND original key! Wow! Right now they are in my office at work, but I need to get them home and start working on them. We're in for tight quarters! (But I love it!)

Pinterest Challenge - Custom Button Box

I'm late to the party, but I made it!!! After Plan A and Plan B didn't work out, I happily decided on Plan C which is this wonderful pin from In My Own Style by Diane. I love these colorful boxes!

And I had a real need for some organization as evidenced by my button collection below:

I had buttons in all sorts of containers, in different places. I rounded them up and came up with a plan that involved this Tony Hawk shoe box and the gingham fabric it is resting upon:

A quick coat of spray primer:

And then I covered it using Diane's very helpful tutorial:

I loved embellishing it! I used the selvage edge of some ticking and vintage rickrack.

I added a sweet little chalkboard heart tied on with more ticking selvage that hints at the contents:

And inside the box is super user friendly button storage! 

Each little cup / bucket houses a separate color of button and can easily be removed for whatever project I am currently working on:

I have to laugh though- this project contains a lot of similarities to my last project- the Valentine's Box! Completely unintentional, but amusing none-the-less!

Thank you so much to Young House Love, Bower Power, The Remodeled Life and Decor And The Dog for getting me to actually attempt one of my pins! A great exercise in getting something done!

Hugs to all!

Pinterest Challenge Update and a Lesson in Boundaries!

Yesterday I was so excited about my "pinspiration" that I didn't even consider that someone else in my home might have something to say about the whole idea!

You see, my son Max is the actual owner of our bottle cap collection! A few months ago he and his brother started teaching themselves how to play poker and they were using bottle caps for chips. I thought it was so cute and called it "hobo money" and started adding to the collection. For Christmas, my boyfriend Pete bought the boys a really nice poker set so I thought the days of hobo money were past us.

When I got home from work last night, I showed Max my post and asked him if I could make him a wind chime with his collection. Imagine my surprise when the answer was no! So, there you go- a boundary! He did not want holes drilled into his caps and he has some future plan for his collection. Now its up to me to respect that boundary. *sigh*

So I went back to my Pinterest Boards and started cruising for new inspiration for the challenge, a "Plan B", if you will. So far the only thing that I'd like to try for the challenge is a birdcage like this one:

Isn't this incredible? It's between 3 and 4 inches high and the gal who made it, Jennifer, did a whole series of cages inspired by a Charles Dickens' character. I did some digging and found her blog. You can see her and her collection here. I've written her an email and I hope she feels okay with me using her work for my inspiration piece. If it's not okay, I will move on to "Plan C"!

This is the part of Pinterest that I don't like. Obviously, much that is there is there intentionally, but there are also things pinned where the original creator probably has no idea that it has ended up on Pinterest. I'm uncomfortable with copying someone's artwork without their permission. So there you have another boundary! It's a boundary that Pinterest has really blurred, I think. When is something "inspired by" someone's work and when is it just plain stolen?

Anyway, there's my update! The one common element between both of my would-be projects is the wire wrapping which is something I've been doing a lot lately. Over the last few months I've watched a lot of You Tube videos and made a lot of earrings, bracelets and necklaces- it's so addicting and fun! Just about every female on my Christmas list received jewelry this year. I'll have to show you all some photos of what I've made so far.

So... until I hear back from Jennifer, I guess I better get back to cruising my pins for another inspiration project!

Hugs to all!

Pinterest Winter Challenge

Okay, I've been watching other folks' Pinterest Challenges for a while now and I've decided that I have to participate! I'm a crazy Pinterest addict so its about time that I put my money where my mouth is... hmmm, that doesn't make any sense, does it? Put my glue gun where my mouse is? Well, anyway, you get the idea- I'm in!

I've found my "Pinspiration" and I think it is awesome!

One of the things that really is appealing to me about this one is all the color and the caps with the arabic words on them. After following my original pin back to flickr, I discovered this very talented artist who made her own version WITH TUTORIAL that you can see here.

Here's Trina's beautiful version:

Pretty awesome, right?

The method for putting this together isn't much different than making a rosary style necklace, so I think that is going to be where I make a bit of a departure. I've made a few necklaces this winter and I always love the actual wire wrapping, so I think it will be fun to combine the "junky" bottle caps with a few other treasures and see where I land.

Check back with me on the 27th- that's the big link up date. I'm super excited to get started on this!

Hugs to all, 

Kiss and Tell, Item 1

I get so mushy around Valentine’s Day! Not for romance (although I do have that again in my life- can I get a Hallelujah !), but for sweet, handmade expressions of love. I've always enjoyed making little things for the kids for Valentines. Little plushies, decoupaged Altoid tins… you know, not full-on gifts, just little…tokens.

Last Friday when I got home from work I was determined to put some little gifties together for all of my sweethearts and I was going to use materials that I had on hand. I am that crazy hoarder lady with the Pringles canisters and tin cans piled up in the closet! I figured this was the perfect time to challenge myself to do something with all this trash… um, treasure! I’ll share my creations over the next few days.

First gift had to be for my daughter Carmen and her husband since it had to get out in the mail to make it there by Valentine’s Day. I started with a Whitman’s Sampler box which seemed fitting, right? I also had little paper nut cups and I thought I could make a “sampler” of my own. Seems like all my crafts begin with book pages or sheet music!

I tore up some vintage book pages into strips and decoupaged them over the box lid.

While that was drying, I pulled out my stash of scrapbook paper and found this beautiful pad I’d purchased a few years ago. This page with the wings seemed perfect for the box interior, so I just cut it to fit and used double-sided tape to adhere it.

Now it was time for exterior embellishment- the best part! I remembered these gorgeous gold paper doilies and placemats and started playing around with them. The border around the bottom of the box is from a placemat and obviously, the top is just one doily glued over the top and down the edges. LOVE!

Although I loved the way it looked at this point, I knew I wanted it to have more dimension. I have a jar of these button flowers that I have made over the years- I offered them for sale at last year’s Magnolia Marketplace. They’re made of vintage buttons (of course!) and are just so sweet. Plus, adding the bouquet to the top of the box with a heart shaped “vase” gave me my opportunity to add glitter- an absolute necessity for every craft project! This is German glass glitter- my first experience with it and it is lovely.

I tinted a bit of Mod Podge with burnt umber acrylic paint and gave the whole exterior a coat to cut back a little on the super bright gold shine- I love how the entire box is now softer and more aged looking.

The interior is fun too- full of little surprises and treats for Carmen and Jeremy and…. my soon to be GRANDCHILD!!! The baby is due in August – so exciting, right? Anyway, we have a cup full of stick-on mustaches from Dollar Tree- so fun. Some Kisses, of course. A chocolate tart candle and some lip balms, also from Dollar Tree. In the cup for l’enfant I put in a sweet paper doll that Carmen made for me back in 2008 (I’ll bet she doesn't even remember!), a little Piglet and I made a small “A Book of Parents” which is modeled after a tiny book Carmen made when she was 9.

For my sweet girl, I included a necklace with a charm that I made from a china fragment. I used gift card money after Christmas to purchase a soldering iron and I've been having so much fun with it! You’ll see more soldering in the next “Kiss and Tell” post. This is one of the easiest pieces of jewelry I've ever done! The china fragment, encased in copper tape and solder, a little yellow bead charm and a slightly tarnished silver chain that I already owned, but I think she’ll like it just fine.

And there you have it- an extravagant expression of love for only a few dollars! Next up, a one-of-a-kind candle holder!

Linking to 

Embracing Change's Creative Inspirations Party!

Stormy Monday! Welcome Autumn!

I ate my lunch at my desk today- some yummy leftover taco chili. Afterwards I was pretty sleepy so I decided to take a little walk to wake up.

I'm fortunate to work right next to the beautiful American River and just two buildings down is the entrance to the Guy West footbridge. It connects over to Sac State University. 

The view looking south.

And looking north.

The bridge itself.

The walk put some nice roses in my cheeks and definitely woke me up!

Now back to the salt mines!

There she goes again!

That Miss Mustard Seed! On her blog, Marian often writes about running a creative business and last week while on vacation she had guest bloggers write about their creative businesses. One of her guests, Jamie, bravely spoke about her "pie in the sky" dreams, reasoning that if speaking the dream helps it to happen then she would do so. After she wrote her dream of having some of her pieces being picked up by Anthropologie, she said, "There. I've said it."

Marian's post today invited her readers to share their big dreams too. So, I did. But since I seem to all about full disclosure around here lately, I thought I would put it here on my own blog too.  So, here is what I wrote:

I want to own a suburban farm- one that is accessible to the public. I want to invite community groups in to experience a little bit of farm life- spin wool, help with the honey, harvest the walnuts and pumpkins, etc. I also want it to have a big beautiful barn to serve as a venue for weddings and other special parties as well as hosting a couple of amazing barn sales every year where local artisans could come and sell their wares. There. I said it!

A few people in my life know about this VERY "pie in the sky" dream. I can recite all the obstacles to my dream (I know there are many), but that is not what this post is about. This is about putting it out there and celebrating that I have a dream! It means I am still a hopelessly optimistic dreamer and I really wouldn't want to be any other way!

These images are from two of my Pinterest Boards- "The Venue" and "Green Acres". So you see, I've had my little farm dreams for a while!