Decorating With Heirlooms

I really can't afford to work at The Pink Cabbage!! But I CAN'T afford not to. Here's proof. I've had Paul's mother's beautiful hand mirrors just laying on my dresser and have always wanted to do something more with them that would be safe. Heirlooms are the most important material items to me and what I have decorated my the most with. All the other elements are mostly for displaying the heirlooms. Then when I was working at the PC yesterday I noticed that Jody and Marcie had put a couple of antique hand mirrors in a beautiful vase. The vase they used didn't have my new colors but I've long admired this pitcher with dried flowers in it. It's never had a tag on it so I figured it was just for display but since I discovered their brilliant idea I had to have it, called, got a price, and brought it home. It inspired me to do the last project left over from painting last week...cleaning and organizing my costume jewelry display on my dresser. Wadayathink? I think I nailed it thanks to Mar and Jo's fab idea, thanks friends!!!! And remember, DON'T keep heirlooms in a drawer, or worse, stored away, they should be out to see and enjoy...they are all we have physically from those who have passed on.

Then I added these two photos. My niece gave me this Swedish candlestick that used to belong to my grandmother and I think her parents before. My mom had given it to Maya but she could not imagine a time that she would ever like/use them and so gave them to me. They were traditional Christmas sticks painted red with hand painted decorative painting of green, white, and yellow. By sacrilege I decided I wanted to paint them cream color. I don't like bright red and green so I wanted to make them so I'd use them and have them out. So cream spray paint. Then embellishment? Candles seemed too boring and obvious, durrrrr. So today I stuck on two Nichol Sayre birdies, a nest, and a ribbon to the candlestick and have a cutie little bird vignette to enjoy.

Fun Things that Get Me through the Day

I have pretty good survivor skills. I have a terribly stressful day, I buy a pink feather wreath, hook it onto a wonderful green metal bird hook (both from The Pink Cabbage) then add an INCREDIBLE piece of collage art by Paper Cat Designs which I "stole" from her on eBay (when time permits THAT story will be told), and bottomed off with a sweet pink heart from Bayberry Cove then voila! you've really got something to hold on to! Just so you don't get the wrong impression, I'm not a constant consumer. I buy quite a few art supplies with the money I make after shop rent, etc., but I'm not the "bored housewife shopper" that some of my posts might allude to. I don't want to be obtuse or a tease but last week ended badly and I was unhinged. I'm just sharing this because when things return to somewhat stable that's usually when I collapse and then I look to those wreaths with beautiful fairys to remind me that there are fun, perky things around for me to look at instead of focusing on the negative. That's what I hope my art does, that's one main reason I do it...hopefully to keep someone a little more up when things are down.

Above and below are a couple of little items I picked up at P.C. today for less than a venti frappachino each. Above is a cup and saucer glued together pretty flowers coming out of it. It can be layed down flat, propped up straight or, as I did, hung by a (too long a story for now) pretty ribbon. Below, the little pink rose topiary, also from The Pink Cabbage (gag me with a spoon yet?) I had to embellish (well I didn't HAVE to but I have a hard time leaving things alone) with an Amy Powers paper flower, a Mel Lobdell fancied-up optician's lense, and a black and white of a brother and sister in the back yard.

Take my word, skip Starbuck's just a couple days a week and you too can have these permanent perk-ups in your world too. And count your blessings every moment you have them.

False Promises to Myself

I promised myself that, after spending the three days painting the bedroom and hallway, that I would spend the day today in my bedroom enjoying the new, beautiful color and look and feel. What I had envisioned was an hour or two doing Etsy, read a few mags, read the paper and do the crossword puzzle, then take a nice, long nap. I ran some errands this morning but was in the bedroom with my laptop, newspaper, and mags by noon. And here I am at 9 p.m. and just finished up listing all the things I'd been putting off for a few weeks and updating my blog. But I WAS in the newly pretty painted room even though I didn't look up many times to enjoy. I'll clean again Sunday night and try for Monday. Here are a few of the things I put on Etsy today. I actually have about 35, I think, listings...I told you I'd been saving up and procrastinating for a while. I did major purging in my studio work room and am listing packages of things mostly to just "pass along" things that I've forced myself to let go of because of overload. All us artists are alike when we get together and complain that we can never find anything in our studios because we've got too much stuff so I'm trying to rectify that plus list some of my new art that will be more appealing to the broader-minded, artistic customers on Etsy.

Catching Up...Last Week

Last week was all about "making". I had a week when I could spend almost every day (until Matt comes home) making art, so art I made. Pea Pie, above, and the collage below I have listed on Etsy. I gotta give all the people what they want, harrrrrr. The tag art at the top went in and out of The Pink Cabbage pretty quickly.

Below are items I took to the shop...

...I think we've all got spring fever 'cause everyone at the shop is all over Valentine's Day and Easter as though we can force our cold January and February along as fast as possible. Here are some of my profferings...

...the high Sunday was 25 degrees.

Catching Up From Way Behind

A couple of weeks ago I was doing a drop off at Goodwill (GW Boutique according to Nene) when I spied the above perfectly good shelf unit sitting next to the dumpster. I went over to investigate then back up and tilt in. It didn't look as perty as it does here as it was just your generic plastic wood bookcase with only the stationary shelves intact. I tilted it into the house and gave it a splash of cream paint and voila! Then I took it to The Pink Cabbage, forced Nene to put one of my dressers in her space, and began a major musical chairs spruce. I've always used my real estate to the hilt but when, a few weeks ago, I discovered a woman in the doorway of my room leaning over with her head between her knees and she explained that she had gotten dizzy from claustrophobia when she entered my room, I felt really bad. Stuffing is one thing but stuffing and tunneling is not for everyone. So, that's when I started my obsessive cycle of sprucege.

My mamma's monkeys chillin' in the stroller...they say, "Hey, dude, come in and see us!".

This week's plans

I've been a bit behind blogging lately and to let you know, it might be a little slow this week, too as I'm going to finally paint our master bedroom after 11 years of living with rice-paper-thin builder's paint (albeit several touch-up layers) and indecision. It and the master bath are the only two rooms we've never painted. All the other rooms have been painted at least once, a couple rooms 3 or 4 times. The white has been light and airy and we've like it but it's essential now as the over all color has faded and thinned so that we are just about down to dry drywall. One of the problems is that we choose the option to have the asymmetrical cathedral ceiling put in so it won't be an easy job, I'll be on the top rung in tip toes for the peak. We didn't know when we choose the ceiling option we didn't realize it would be asymmetrical. It's been an 11 year decorating dilemma, embarrassing for someone who fancies themselves and has even taken money for professional services. But it's so 1980's with the asymmetry. Okay, I'll shut up. But beware...I'll post pics of the new look. P.S. The above photo is of my motivation for painting, I put together this blue floral arrangement in advance for the new Restoration Hardware Silver Sage (robin's egg blue). Last week was all making art so I'll be posting photos of some of those, too...later...

The Queen of the Nile

Just in case you think I'm obsessed with my new antique storm door...well...what can I say in my defense? We were so blessed by a couple of spring days this week; one day in the mid 60's another in the mid 70's. I have nothing to complain about, NOTHING, but I don't like winter. My apologies to folks where real weather occurs. They are predicting snow Sunday and Monday so we'll have our comeuppance. But until then it's been easy to pretend that it's March this week. Until today, a cold front is coming in. Anyhoo, the other day I got to paint my front door a new color; from eggplant to Jamestown blue. The next day I got to paint my new antique storm door...same color as our existing trim...creamy white. Then yesterday Tammy of Sweet Finds at The Pink Cabbage had this pretty sign that's sweet collagey looking so up it went.

I mean, come on, look how happy my Vinca vine is! It's frozen and snowed some but this stuff is so hardy it perked right up during the recent warm weather as if it has no need to die back this year. I'm keeping the usual January weather a secret from it by now, why spoil it's fun?

But please allow me a small chin quiver and woe~is~me. I have a firm date now for my neutering surgery~February 25th. Doc and I were so hoping the lesser surgery would cure everything but alas no. I've got several stress points. Currently taking The Pill every single day I'm still having...ummm...symptoms. I have to go off The Pill for at least 30 prior to surgery and when I take the pill a little late in the day I'm required to have a police escort wherever I go. I'm concerned for the safety of the men around me or any car that pulls out in front of me or...also I have endometriosis...don't want to get too far into TMI...but without the pills there's a lot of pain and...ummm...symptoms. My doc tells me we can take care of that but I want to see what those pills look like. Maybe the pain will render me much less violent.

So, here I am now and I'm so hoping that I'll go from this to...

...to this. Tell me it's so!

The good news from this iron-deficiency, no energy, mentally and emotionally challenged funk I'm in right now means that I have just enough energy to blog, cut and paste. So far it's working out okay.

Latest Creations

All those magazines I read last week while I was sick filled my head with so many ideas that I was back in my work room as soon as I had the chance. I didn't grind out a load of stuff but spent real time on each piece. Here are some that I installed at The Pink Cabbage this morning:

It says on the collage, "Drella was given three wishes to which she replied, 'Paris, Paris, Paris'."

Close up of Drella and the interior of the nicho. Drella is only a little over an inch and made of paper. She's got her suitcase with her and a compass...just in case. One of the two nest I put together. The "egg" is an antique wood sock darner that's in an egg shape. I've had it for years; it's one of those things that I just know something perfect will come up for it; I thought this was the perfect thing and time. Rolled in glitter and snug in a dressed up nest, it's ready for spring and Easter. Another nest, this one with a glittery bird. We've had weather in the 60's and 70's this week and between that and the fact I hate winter I've had spring fever and am just acting as though we are going full throttle into spring when I know our real winter and snow are yet to come. Then when I had my clean out in my work room recently I found these maroon Scrabble letters and had to do something. This one above has a Stacey Bear button card added to the lettering. This one is pretty obvious. I love this photo and it seemed to be waiting for this vignette. And this extra fancy tag art. Pillow and photo not included. I hope you've enjoyed, I'm sure I'll have more to share again soon.

Productive Sick Days

I've was sick most of last week. I caught a cold that went straight to my chest~URI~lovely coughing. I felt so bad on Sunday I just slept all day but was just better enough on Monday to go through a big stack of long-awaited magazines. Below is the "save the best for last" stack. Yum. By Tuesday I was even better enough to do some "sitting down, low-impact" art making. Below are examples of what I made to get a partial cure of my often-for-some-reason obsession with tag/bookmark art.

Hey if JoAnn's can put out their Valentine/Easter items before Thanksgiving, is it wrong for me to get some Valentine inspiration in January? Well, shucks, I just went off and did it anyway...

...partly because I've had these antique Valentines for years and had just recently decided what I wanted to do with them and it was time. Come see 'em in person at The Pink Cabbage! Now that I'm really feeling better there's no telling what's coming up! Actually I've got a lot of ideas rattling around up there from late. I promise to share.