Tiny Treasures and a Cool Find

I woke up bright and early to shop! Estate sales, yard sales, garage sales...plenty of them. I didn't find a ton of things...many were way over priced, but I did manage to find a few tiny treasures for my shop, Country Tag Sale, which by the way hit 100 sales this week! Among them:
A tiny jade glass bear

A sweet basset hound

A very pretty and tiny tea cup and saucer (I might keep it 'cause it's so sweet...we'll see).

And last, this cool, industrial all metal rolling cart. I got it for $5...isn't it so vintage cool??? Okay, it's pretty ugly right now, but I plan on staining the top and painting it. Just not sure what color. Any ideas? What color would you paint it?

Linking to:

a href="http://www.freckledlaundry.com">

Wedding Work and a Thanks

Since I've been back from vacation, I have been busy working on a project for a client. She contacted me via my etsy shop for a heart box to hold two chocolates for her and her new hubby during the wedding. She also wanted matching wine charms. Her wedding's going to be beautiful...very romantic in pale pink and creme. It was fun working with her on this project and here are the results...I still have to add the vintage lace around the box...having a tough time getting it to stick!

I like the idea of the wine charms so much that I'm going to start offering them in my shop. Each one will be different, of course! 

I also want to say a big thanks to the DIY Club and Ali Richardson of Oohlalaco for awarding me with a prize this week! I won a sweet shamrock necklace from her shop. Here it is:

Thanks Ali! Can't wait to see it. Enjoy the rest of the week everyone...

Beantown, Beaches, and Being Back

We traveled up to the Boston area over spring break to watch my son play college lacrosse and take in the beauty of Boston's Northern shore area. I believe we visited every single seaport town from Boston to Newburyport. Breathtaking scenery... although cold and damp. Of course, I managed to get a little thrifting in, along with walks on the beach, hiking, hunting for sea glass, and exploring the city. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera -- so, I had to take all of these photos with my cell phone... not too shabby, I guess. Here are some shots of my favorite little town, Rockport, MA:

Don't you love this little ice cream store, tucked between two buildings? Too bad it was closed for the season (although at 40 degrees, maybe that's a good thing).

Lobster pots, everywhere...

A few finds from Rockport:

That's all...more to photograph when I really get back in the swing of things! 

Blog Break

I'm taking a little break from blogging over the next few days to spend time with my family, including my mother and father-in-law who are visiting. Enjoy spring!

By the way, you can now subscribe to my blog via email (see upper right hand corner).


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sisters and Secrets

Went up to visit my sister for her birthday (well, actually two days later) and we had a blast as usual! We started the day by creating a collage from the series of video classes we are both taking called, 21 Secrets an Art Journal playground.  There are 21 different teachers all sharing their experience and secrets about drawing, painting and art journaling. The class we completed involved starting with a face from a magazine page and a collage from paper scraps. We then transform the page via painting, drawing, and stamping. Here are the befores and afters:
This is Stacie's before:

This is Stacie's after:

This is my before:

This is my after:

It was incredibly fun! 

We ended the day with art, too. We went to a class put on by The Muse on making fabric paper, which I actually knew how to do, but it was so much fun just playing again with a bunch of creative ladies. Stacie's friend and neighbor, Allison, taught the class and did a terrific job. The class was held at an awesome art studio in Frederick, MD. The woman who owns it is a fiber artist and her husband is a potter -- unbelievable house -- very artsy and well done, so it was an inspiring place to create.

From Any Angle

Tracy from Tracy’s Trinkets & Treasures is hosting another photo party and this time it’s one that’s close to my heart…angles. I love taking photos from different viewpoints. In fact, most of my photography in my etsy shops features at least one angled shot, so it was a bit hard for me to choose. However, I did find a few favorites that I’ll share with you now, plus some that my oldest son, Houston took…he’s a master of this technique.

 The next two are looking up:

 Some photos of things that either are or were in my shop: These different angles actually help get people to notice my shop. I also include "normal" photos once I get them there! Below are some aluminum cups.

 Salt & pepper shakers:

 Plastic bowls from the 50's. I stood on a chair to take this one:

This one makes it look like my youngest is hanging on for dear life over the Grand Canyon:

 The rest of these were taken by my oldest son...I think they're awesome, but, you know, I'm his mom.

I really like this last one of the bike...it looks like it's hanging in the air, but it's not. cool beans, huh?

Flea Finds

Went to the monthly flea market this morning...big disappointment. It rained last night and was misty this morning so only a few vendors showed up. However, I did manage to find one thing and a few other things on my way to the flea market:

The frame will be painted and I love this thingie with the slots...I'm thinking CD storage? The brass candle sticks will be refurbished somehow. I paid three dollars total for the above lot of goods.

These are wonderful and I do have others like them...so, maybe they'll be in my etsy store soon ... or maybe not. Tomorrow, I've got a full schedule of lacrosse and soccer games, so that's all for now.

Journals & Journeys

My friend Claire is moving…all the way to Texas. We have been friends for many years…way back when our oldest children were just babies. She’s part of a book club full of wonderful, diverse, incredible women who I meet with monthly. We’ve been meeting for over 15 years…wow!

Anyway, we wanted to give her something meaningful from our group and I suggested a book journal. My sister gave me a book journal for my birthday and I love it. Sometimes, I just write down the name and author of a book I loved and sometimes, I write more. So, it seemed like an appropriate gift. I was commissioned to create it and I couldn’t have been more honored.

Claire is special so I wanted to make it equally as special. I created one and didn’t like it, but it helped me to figure out what works and what doesn’t. What I came up with is pictured here. I used scraps of mulberry paper and handmade papers and combined them in a collage fashion. I then stamped some words and images on it and added the words “book journal.” I added some embellishments … a little paper crab to represent Annapolis, a crystal (just because), a piece of cloth with the word "dream," some book quotes and a bunch of doodles.

Inside, I added a picture of our group at our annual cookie exchange with some quotes and embellishments and on the back inside cover, an inspirational quote and some girly stamps, tinted with iridescent inks. I also included a pen and a cloth book mark that I made.

Making a journal was such a fun project that I decided to jump into another four-month project or exploration called “21 Secrets: An Art Journal Playground.” I’m going to start my 'art journal journey' next week, so I’ll share some of my creations!

It will be so much fun to explore art journaling and I hope you’ll come back and join me on my little creative adventure.

Back to Earth

Greetings Earthlings!

I'm back from Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama...very tired and very knowledgeable about the U.S. Space programs.
My son and I really had a great time at the camp. We had a packed schedule with very little downtime. We had to sleep in the "habitat" (picture a gerbil cage- see photos to right) and if I wasn't so exhausted, I probably couldn't have slept at all. For example, on Saturday, we woke up at 7 AM, went to breakfast from 8-8:30 AM and spent the rest of the day until 9 PM going from activity to activity. While there, we performed a mission, learned about rockets (I can pretty much name all rocket parts and how they work), walked on the "moon," spun out of control in "space," built and launched a rocket, climbed a rock wall, went to Mars, made a superball and slime, designed a space patch, played "Space Jeopardy," and graduated from space camp...and that's probably only one third of the things we did. When I woke up my little guy for school today, he had bags under his eyes...now that's tired for a 10 year old!

Here are some other photos from our adventurous weekend:
Below: My son on his mission...he got the best job as a Mission Specialist." I got a boring one...I was a scientist stuck in the space lab making slime and superballs.

Below: My son and I spinning out of control on the Multi-Axis trainer:

And, finally, me "walking on the moon" in the 1/6 gravity chair:

If you want to go to Space Camp (I went with the school -- yes, it's a public school) so they have all types of programs, here is the link: http://www.spacecamp.com/camp/sc

If you go with a school-sponsored program, it's not nearly as expensive. But, be warned, you won't get much sleep unless you're used to sleeping on miniscule, hard plastic mattresses in a gerbil cage.