Deb's Vintage Soul

Finding Vintage Dress Forms and a Painting Project

2012-02-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

I joined Carol's dress form party a few days ago and have been visiting and commenting on some of the posts. Over and over I see people saying that dress forms are hard to find and expensive. I don't know what other people consider expensive but my Acme form above was $75. I did try to get the lady down a bit but she wouldn't budge. I had to travel quite a few miles (about 40) to pick her up too, but since I had always wanted one, I made the effort. I have no idea how old she is but I know that she is at least vintage and she satisfies that urge in me to own a vintage dress form (with a cage). When I saw her a few years ago, the lady had another old form (without cage) also for sale. She was a dressmaker and actually had several of these older dress forms but only two were for sale.

Here is my secret for finding things at a good price: Craigslist. For those of you who blog and read your blogs on Googlereader, did you know that you can type your search terms on CraigsList and then paste the search term in the url space at the top of that window into the subscription box in Google Reader??

That is what I do. Use search terms "antique mannequin" "vintage mannequin" and also try using "dress form" in place of mannequin. I also found another one with the cage about a year before this one. She was $35!! She was also a little bit of a drive away and I was in the middle of some stressful times so I missed out on that bargain. At the time I found this one I wasn't even using the subscription. I just did a random search on CraigsList. My more contemporary black mannequin was an antique show find purchased about two years before the older one. She was $60 and the fellow had two of them -- a white one and my black beauty.

Vintage dress forms also turn up at antique shows/ shops and in thrift shops wherever you would go to find antiques or second hand goods. I once saw a beautiful one at an antique show and I don't even go to antique shows often because I hate having to pay to go in. She had a wonderful ornate base and was $125. She was also missing a wheel which I found out afterwards can easily be replaced by trolling eBay. I have also seen two dress forms at my friend Joel's thrift shop. Both were around $60. One was the type with the torso in several parts and there was also a full size wire form. So it may benefit you to tell your favorite thrift store and antique shops what you are looking for.

I would love to hear your other tips for finding things you love at a good price.

The piece that I use in the background of these pictures was one of my recent painting projects. The piece was brown, probably around 8 feet tall, bought from a thrift shop a few years ago for $20 and the nice fellow even delivered it for free. I love this piece. At first I thought it was a door but it has no door hardware so it doesn't qualify.

I am thinking now that it is some kind of decorative piece from a church. It was purchased from a church thrift shop that is sadly now closed.

It is one of the pieces I recently retrieved from storage and decided to paint. I started out using a brush and it took all night just to prime it. There are 36 of those spindles. I know because I counted them half way through the job.

After all those hours of priming, I decided spray paint was my friend and the next night when all my neighbours were hopefully asleep in their beds I took it outside on the balcony, put down drop clothes and spray painted the heck out of it. Finally I did some mild distressing.

I think it is destined to become one of my favorite photographic props :)

As always have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Dress Form Party

2012-02-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

I decided to join Carol over at The Polka Dot Closet for her Dress Form Party. I am a little late to the party but I always say "better late than never" so here I am Carol.

If you are not following Carol already, you are missing out. She is awesome. She operates a booth at a mall in Orlando and she is always so willing to share her tips and advice on what sells in her space. I love that about her.

I have two full size dress forms. One I keep in my booth at BKG Antique Mall and this one. She is a vintage Acme collapsible dress form Size 6. She has a cage at the base and is much heavier than my other more contemporary dress form which is wood painted black.

I have no idea how old she is. I have done some research online but have not had any success finding another one like her.

Here she is looking a little tipsy an hour into the party and just one drink, dress falling off and all ...

can't hold her liquor, much like her owner.

All pulled together now.

Here she is in another dress -a beautiful red ruffly prom gown with a vintage posy at the waist.

So perfect for a Valentine's Day ball.

This dress is so small that it won't zip up on her..

The man I bought it from wanted me to try it on for him. He must be blind or joking. I think my right leg would fit into this comfortably but I would need something else to cover the left leg. :))

Now she is "nekkid". Wow, what a party!!

Here's a picture of my other dress form in my booth. The dress she is wearing sold last December. Some fella bought it for his lady for a Christmas present. She is now wearing a 1940s or 50s green wool suit. I may try to get some pictures of that later.

Also Linking up with Suzanne for Vintage Thingies Thursday!!

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

To Paint or not to Paint -- Vintage/Antique Armoire

2012-01-25T21:43:00.000-08:00

To paint or not to paint ---- armoire/cupboard about 97

inches high, 54 inches wide handmade -- very old wood.

May be from early part of the twentieth century.

Separates into upper and lower part so relatively easy to

move. Awesome storage for a bunch of my craft stuff but

visually heavy as you can see, so tell me should I paint it ??

This is the base.

Inside of the base with doors removed. The drawers are above. You can see the middle drawer with the keyhole. No key. Missing knob or pull below the keyhole.

This is the drawer to the left. Upper part of cupboard removed.

Close up of drawer pull:

Back of base:

(Pictures were taken at night so not very good)

Close up of outer back panel on the base of the cabinet:

Looks like some rough carving:

Holes in upper back of the base (not sure why):

wooden plug in wood:

Beautiful wood:

Inner part of upper part of cabinet (doors removed):

Top of upper part. Made of planks of wood running front to back.

Latch on upper door of cupboard:

front of one of the upper doors.

Latch on upper door of cupboard:

This shows where the door was removed to make carrying the piece easier. Doors slots right back in.

Oddest drawers I have ever seen with a protruding part as can be seen in the lower right of the picture:

The whole drawer -- protruding part in the lower right of the picture again:

Fitted into cabinet showing how the protruding part fits with drawer into drawer slot on the base of the cupboard.

Pockmarked (wormholed ?? wood).

Can anyone identify the wood on this cupboard? This is definitely not a piece of fine furniture. Very rough construction. Drawers are very roughly nailed together and in fact the nails protrude in some areas. I just wonder if I am destroying something valuable and it is so old and the wood has so much character so I just don't know. Not an expert on antique furniture usually just buy pieces that are cheap, usually because they are flaw and I can repair and paint them without worrying about it). I think it is too dark for a space that is already small and no way am I moving it out of here again. I have too much to do in the next few weeks. Usually I am in no quandary about whether to paint a piece and in fact that is what I have been busy doing for the last few weeks as well as clearing out the storage unit -- made some good progress on that. So tell me what you think -- opinion required as quick as you can type them :) as my brother is coming over tomorrow to help me paint it. I wanted to do a white very distressed finished but was thinking of leaving the inside unpainted -- very rough inside though. Let me know what you would do or painting suggestions. (My investment in this is not huge: $145.00 including a truck and a guy to help us move it).

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Merry Christmas to all!!

2011-12-21T17:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas is in four days time. As usual Mama Procrastinator (me), let time run away from me.

This little tree is less than two feet tall.

It is vintage i believe, tinsel, probably aluminum.

The branches have that gorgeous heavy thick quality I associate with older trees. It may also be just the top section of a larger tree.

I put it in an urn with shells to keep it upright.

It was $2 at the Swap Shop some years aback..

It is covered with some handmade ornaments.

A few glass balls.

Love this lone pink indent..

Here are some "new to me" hand painted ornaments.

This bell jar is huge - more than a foot high. I have two of them, $4 each at a tiny thrift shop some years ago.

A trio of white feather angels. I love these so, I keep them out all year.

Close ups of the ornaments.

hand painted robin ornament:

I love these ornaments too. Children having a snowball fight.

Santa:

More snowball fights:

Santa climbing down the chimney.

Another Santa ornament. There are two of these marked 1978. This doesn't seem so long ago but these look so old and yes, they are officially vintage. I shudder to think what that says about me :)

Linking up with the Colorado Lady for VTT again this week. Also with A Creative Princess for her Thursday Party.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

More on the Button Floozies Ornament Swap

2011-12-11T14:54:00.000-08:00

I had a small box full of these awesome buttons :

A little powdery but in great shades of ivory.

Plus these awesome wooden discs that I got from a lady on Craigslist:

They are about 2 3/4 inch across and 3/4 inch thick:

Cannot remember what she said they were used for at the place she used to work. As a substrate for punching holes through something I believe, as you can see by the punch marks on them..

And some of these vintage Hong Kong acrylic cabs:

So I made the ornaments I have shown you before :

And this blue one too:

And received these ornaments in return:

This darling little owl is from Becky at Rebecca Rose Designs.

I had started out wanting to make some felt owls so this was a pleasant surprise.

This cute little moppet in traditional Christmas colors is from Marsha.

The body is a vintage spool. The skirt is crepe paper and the arms are chenille.

And this this pretty little stuffed pillow is from Donna at Brynwood Needleworks.

The soldier is machine embroidered and two teeny buttons were sewn on down his jacket. There are also vintage buttons at the base of the pillow.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Button Floozies Ornament Swap

2011-12-04T23:56:00.000-08:00

I joined the Button Ornament Swap over at the Button Floozies Blog with Laurie Jackson. I love buttons and I love ornaments so this was a swap I knew that I would enjoy.

Many moons ago, I received a bunch of wooden discs free from a lady on CraigsList. They are about a half inch thick and about 2-3 inches in diameter. I will take pictures of the unadorned discs to show later.

The ornaments were quite easy to make. The cabochons are vintage Hong Kong Plastic. I glued a strand of tiny pearls around them to form a border, then glued lots of pearly buttons on.

The backs are covered with vintage advertisements from a very old book that I cut out and glued on.

I adore the typography in old ads:

I added hooks for hanging formed from 14 gauge wire and inserted through holes drilled in the wood discs. I got the idea for these hooks from one of my partners, Marsha from the Oklahoma Button Club.

My other partners were Donna from Brynwood Needleworks and Becky from Rebecca Rose Designs. I will be posting pictures of the three ornaments in another blog post as soon as the last one arrives.

The discs were so thick, that I got to use one of my very favorite supplies, lots of delicious German glass glitter.

(This picture though not one of the best, shows the glittered sides well. Yummy!!)

All in all, a very fun swap. Laurie will be having many more such swaps in the future so if you would like to participate, add her to your Google reader so you can keep up to date on future swaps.
Meanwhile, check out this linky list for lots more button ornaments.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Button Love

2011-11-30T18:28:00.000-08:00

Oh buttons, how do I love thee ...

Let me count the ways.

Sorry, I couldn't choose just one or two pictures.

These awesome buttons came from the BKG Antique mall, where I have a booth. Approximately 75 beaded and rhinestoned buttons in a jar for $25.

How could I resist?

Could you?

Sent out the ornaments for the Christmas Ornament swap on Button Floozies this week. Pictures to come. So much happening around here. Redid my booth in the antique mall and so far sales have picked up. It is the season and everyone says it looks so much better. Painting quite a few pieces but they are not quite ready for their close ups yet. Another garage sale we will be participating in this Saturday. I have been instructed to just relax and have fun with this one. No stress and no expectations :)

Linking up today with Sweet Suzanne, The Colorado Lady for Vintage Thingies Thursday.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Vintage Thingies Thursday and Handmade Christmas ornament swap

2011-11-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

Joining in this week with Suzanne, The Colorado Lady for VTT. I haven't participated for several months now but thought that someone may be interested in my vintage Christmas Ornament swap, since we all have a love for vintage goods.
All the ornaments are made using vintage or vintage-style supplies.

I am looking for people who would be willing to swap ornaments with me. It would be a one-for-one swap. You send me one. I will send you back one for every one you choose to send me, so you could send just one or more.

I know this is kind of late but maybe there are still some people out there who would be interested in swapping. Ornaments would need to be sent out by December 7th so that I would have time to send yours out before Christmas.

I have shoes from last year:

Made with German glass glitter, old lace and crepe paper.

These clip-on ornaments also from last year:

made with vintage images, tinsel and vintage foil leaves and mercury balls. The images are two sided.

Ornaments made from vintage satin balls, German glass glitter and vintage posies and snippets of vintage ribbon:

These are smaller:

Also have some glittered birdhouses which you can see more of in this post.

Also working on some other kinds of ornaments because Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I love to make ornaments.

Please email me at deb2604 (at) comcast.net or leave a comment on this post or on Facebook, if you are interested in swapping.

Swap Details:
Sign Up Date: November 11, 2011
Ornaments Due: December 7,2011

One of my vintage-style ornaments for one of yours. Quantity is up to you. Please send ornaments that are nicely made and use vintage or vintage style materials.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Vintage Heirloom Sewing Box Swap

2011-09-09T00:52:00.000-07:00

Are you a lover of old sewing collectibles and flea market treasures? Does your heart beat faster when you discover a shabby old sewing basket with its treasure intact? Well if you are, here is an opportunity for you to share your vintage sewing treasures and also to create some vintage heirloom sewing treasures for someone else.

The requirements for the swap are these:
You will get an old wooden box, a vintage jwelry box, an old sewing kit or even a papier mache box. Decorate it nicely personalized for your partner in her favorite colors and style and then fill it with vintage sewing goodies.

Here are some suggestions for what should be in your box:

1) a pair of scissors with a handmade fob (if you are like me you have several old scissors collected over the years :))
2) a packet of needles, maybe in a decorative packet with the old advertising or in a handmade needle box
3) At least two dozen vintage buttons in some kind of decorated/decorative container.
4) pretty vintage fabric scraps,
5) several old spools of thread. (old thread is often brittle but that is OK for our purposes)
6) thimble,
7) vintage tape measure
8) pin cushion handmade
9) at least 2 vintage button cards - either crafted by you or original vintage
10) sock darner
11) some old lace/trim maybe wound on wooden spools.

The object here is to create a work of art, something beautiful that your partner will treasure.

All the colors of the sewing box you create should be geared to your partner's preferences in color and style, and if possible the box should be personalized with your partner's name.

Here are some examples of containers you could use to make your Vintage Heirloom Sewing Box

(old wooden box, can be painted over and embellished).

(vintage bakelite box. Again this can be embellished as desired. It has a tray for spools of thread).

(old sewing basket - can be embellished as desired)

(round quilted box)

(vintage tin. This may be too nice to paint over but the inside could be decoupaged or covered in velvet of a coordinating color).

(this is a vintage glove box, I decorated last year)

(inside the box covered with vintage wallpaper. The little pink fabric book on top is a needle book).

Here is a post with more pictures of that sewing box.

This swap will be open until October 7th when partners will be assigned. This is my first swap but I am hoping this is a theme that others will find interesting. Boxes should be sent out by November 14th, so they will arrive in plenty of time for Christmas. PLEASE do not sign up for this swap if you do not have the time to participate or are in the habit of not following through on your commitments.

If you would like to sign up, please send me an email at deb2604 at comcast.net with the following information

email:
Blog address (if you have one):
Flickr (if you have one): :
Name and Address:
Color Preferences:
Style Preferences: shabby chic, cottage inspired, neutrals, pastels, whimsical
Favorite candy:

Also let me know if you are willing to ship internationally.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Christmas Glitter and a Giveaway over at Door No. 2

2011-09-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Made this gift box for one of my son's friends to hold some jewelry I made her but my son did not think that she would like it..

(They both loved the jewelry though :))

Also started on some Christmas ornaments because Christmas is my favorite holiday.
Some bird house ornaments with glitter and cardboard:

Does anyone know how to create links to a post so that so that if you are writing about someone else they will be notified automatically without you having to notify them personally?

In other news, Linda is having a giveaway on her Door No. 2 blog to celebrate her 400th Etsy sale.

You can win either a $50 dollar gift certificate or one of Linda's beautiful journals.

Please go here to enter.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Dolls

2011-08-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

Toddler sized dolly from Penny at Mammy Stitches.

Her dress is a little big for her but I think she looks great in red. I just love this little girl but my son and his friends think she is creepy. They put a lampshade over her head grrrrr

This ragamuffin doll was a birthday gift from Cheryl sent along in the same box:

Look at those cute big feet LOL. Go visit Penny here on her blog to see more of her ragamuffin dolls.

And last but not least is this beautiful lady received from Linda Baker Hardy, on the Facebook group "Artistic Journey Dolls", created by Linda Grungey Baldock.

The doll that I was supposed to receive from my swap partner never did turn up so I was assigned as angel who sent me this personalized beauty in this lovely package, with a handmade bird card.

Linda Baker Hardy is a wonderful artist who makes art dolls and gorgeous bird themed and other mixed media collages. Please go to her blog, Door No. 2 or here to see her work on Etsy.

You can go here to see the doll I sent out for this swap

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

BirdSong Tag Swap 2011

2011-08-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

(Above are the tags I sent to Karla wrapped up in tulle).

I got my book back from Karla's Birdong Tag Swap.

(Above tag from Karla)
Her swaps are always so much fun to do and because the tags are sent directly to her, you know there is no danger that someone will not do what they are meant to do, so there will be no disappointment.

(Above tag from Becs)

Anyway no disappointments here :)

(Above tag from Marie)

(Above tag from Joanne)

(Above tag from Cindy)

(Above tag from Elaine Paullie)

(Above tag from Jeanelle Ricca)

These tags below are some of the ones I sent out:

I used fabric from an old blue blouse:

Silver lace from another old blouse:

Vintage images, many of them from The Graphics Fairy, printed on cotton fabric.

Plastic bird cabs.

A favorite quotes from Langston Hughes : " Hold fast to your dreams for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."

And part of a poem by Rachel Manley, a Jamaican poet "Bring this soft afternoon with you and don't forget a note of bird song".

Vintage floral trim and this wonderful upholstery fabric sample for the backs.

So much fun to make.

We have a lot of catching up to do so next I will share some some beautiful new dolls that I received recently in my next post.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

"Where Bloggers Create" Party!!!

2011-07-15T01:20:00.000-07:00

It is time again for the Where Bloggers Create Party with Karen at My Desert Cottage. I love seeing how other bloggers create a space for themselves in their home so I am thrilled to participate for the second time.

Now I have a confession to make: I still haven't done cleaning up my little space but Karen gave me the incentive to get a lot done. I hope to have it all in a condition satisfactory to me sometime this weekend. Right now I will just show you some pictures of my favorite things.

While I still have the open Ikea shelving, I recently added this hand painted Oriental Cabinet for more storage.

This is a piece that was in my house and then was in my storage unit for a while. Now I am working on clearing that unit out, so this came home with me..

As you can see it is jammed full :)

At the top are some of my birdcages which some of you may remember from last year. There is also a metal stamp holder.

This is another corner with my pink mirror that I need to move further up the wall, three Christmas feather angels that I love that are always on display, my hoarded German wired tinsel and jars full of other good stuff.

The green and white cabinet is a wooden box that someone made. They used old cigar boxes to create drawers. I bought it unpainted and then I added some plywood to the back as it was open on both sides. I also drilled holes in each drawer so that I could add the pretty green glass knobs I already had in my stash. Since I did not have enough of the green knobs, I also added some pretty gold and white vintage knobs also from the stash. This piece has 28 drawers. On top of it are some storage units from Michael's.

On top of the open Ikea units are more cubes from Michaels. My small collection of busts, another bird cage retrieved from storage and some celluloid cows. The beautiful large cloche with the base was won from the lovely ladies at Resurrect Antiques earlier this year.

The lovely lady in the middle is "Creepy Lady" from Carol at the Polka Dot Closet. She really does get around, but she is not creepy at all. In fact, I think she is quite lovely.

A cabinet with the narrowest drawers, some of which are divided. I almost want to think this is a printer cabinet. It is very old.

Some beaded baskets:

Another favorite piece. This appears to be the top of something but it is much smaller than the usual china cabinet size. It is also hand painted with smoked mirrored doors.

I keep some of my paints and glues in it:

Another printer cabinet, chock full of goodness,

Like this:

This:

this

and this:

Inspiration board:

Another favorite piece. I am not sure if this is a miniature dresser or if it is for silverware. It is made of beautiful wood.

It was very hard to get a good picture of it because it is in the corner. The top drawer has paper dolls:

Here is some of what else is in all those drawers and tins and boxes and other hiding places. Lots of trim:

Lots of lovely ribbon:

Velvet strawberries:

More ribbon:

And the makings of my latest project:

It took me a long time to come to terms with my creativity. It is what I am, an integral part of me and I would not be happy if I could not express who I am by carving out a space for me to create. To some my creative soul is chaotic but I prefer to think of it as untamed, wild and free. I love it!!

Go visit Karen over at My Desert Cottage to see other wonderful creative spaces and as always, have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Painting Projects and Pictures of my booth.

2011-07-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

(Chalkboard made from vintage mirror. I used Kilz primer and chalkboard paint and painted right onto the glass. This frame is about 30 inches high).

This will be a long post with lots of pictures to make up for being AWOL for so long.

I have been overwhelmed with moving and trying to make everything fit into a two bedroom apartment. It is actually quite a large place, about 1200 square feet but I am so used to living in a three bedroom with a back porch, a front porch, lots of storage space and a two car garage that it is difficult for me to adjust.

However, every time, I start complaining about the lack of space in this new space, I only have to go out onto the balcony and look down to the Atlantic Ocean on my right or to the IntraCoastal on my left and I feel a hundred times better. I love living near water. I am a Cancer after all.

I have been putting a lot of things into the mall space, as I try to empty out my storage unit. My brother and I went into it a few weeks ago and I was happy to find that a lot of what is in there is craft books (mostly cross stitch and embroidery) and old clothes that I will probably have a hard time fitting into now.

I also found some vintage clothing mostly from the 60s and 70s that I tagged and put into the booth today.

I love this dress, so I put quite a high price on it, hoping it will not sell

The craft books (hundreds of them), will be put on eBay soon. I hope I will make enough to cover a fraction of the rental on the darn storage space .

This lovely lamp was in the booth space opposite mine.

I would love a whole bedroom designed around this lamp, in pink and white and cream and gold. (I need to check my lottery ticket to see if I won last Saturday).

Other pieces in my booth include this desk:

It used to look like this (drawers removed):

I added a wonderful brown print thrifted wallpaper to all of the drawers:

This two tier table was recently shabbified as well. It has been in there since last October and nobdy was interested in buying it so I feel quite justified in painting it.

I had another larger one (also two-tiered), that I painted white and it sold in less than a month, so I have high hopes for this little one.

It looks really pale in this next picture but you can see that I painted it blue along the pie crust edge.

In this last picture, there is another painted piece of furniture on the right.

This is a kitchen cart/ kitchen island on metal wheels:

It used to be all white but I had to put something else in the space where it was here at home, so off it went with a new coat of paint.

The picture above shows a large cupboard on top of the island. That was sold over the weekend.

Lovely painting:

Love this painting of the little boy going fishing:

Lots of tchotckes:

A little spice cupboard/wall cupboard:

These two statues caught my eye today. They are amazing!! They seem to be made of some sort of coral-colored stone (marble?).

I think they belong to Bruce here and will probably be on auction soon.

Each is probably about three feet tall. (I definitely need to win the lottery).

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Altered Art Doll

2011-05-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

Linda has a Facebook group called the Artistic Journey Dolls that just started a few months ago. This is the doll I created for our first swap.

This is the first time that I have altered a vinyl doll and I must admit, it pained me to slice off his legs (yes the poor thing was originally male, but told me he needed a sex change).

I think he makes a pretty girl.

I was inspired by the dolls of Sandy Babb of Quill Cottage and Nancye's Doll Making Class here.

I am still working on the doll I am making for Nancye's class but we had a deadline for this swap so I did not want to start from scratch so I used the old vinyl doll to make sure I would get it out on time.

The quote is by poet Langston Hughes.

Most of the writing is hidden by the doll's skirt, when arranged properly.

This is a close up of what is in the bird cage.

It is a vintage plastic baby doll painted brown with an acorn cap on it's head glued into a little nest.

There is a tiny bird perched on her head.

from the back view:

She was painted with plastic primer, crackled and most of the crackle removed because I didn't like it. Decorated with silk flowers, vintage French beaded flowers, and wire.

"Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” --Langston Hughes

As always have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

OWOH Prizes and Swap Gifts

2011-05-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

The decorated box above was sent to my partner, Stevie in the Easter Basket swap hosted by Cerri at The Little Pink Studio. Whenever I join swaps I never make stuff in the expected colors. My brain doesn't work that way.
I also included some vintage German cabochons

Some white and pearly buttons in an altered spice bottle:

Love the butterfly:

And some other things including a tin of tea and some floral coasters.

In return Stevie sent me this cute stack of tiny pillows:

Very vintage in style:

a lovely milk glass vase to add to my little collection :)

some cabochons made from polymer clay I think:

Little printed cards:

some bridal millinery, a ceramic egg, a candle and the lace in the background:

Some altered bottles:

This was a Pay it Forward gift from Danielle . It is a soldered pendant with a plaited cord necklace, so different.
I love the little pink heart dangling from the base.

I was lucky enough to win gifts from five participants ( Day Dream Studios, Barbara Rosezweig, Lillian's Stitches, Maria and CBee), during the OWOH event held in February.

This was a OWOH gift from Karla at Day Dream Studios. It is a handmade key fob that you can attach to your purse or keyring for a little bling. I hung mine on my purse.

My other OWOH gifts include a copy of Barbara Rosenzweig's lovely sunset photo:

A stack of lovely quilting squares and laces from Mary at Lillian's Stitches:

And these two embroidered pieces:

I am sorry it took so long to acknowledge these gifts from OWOH but I was expecting two of the above OWOH gifts that have still not arrived. I will be sure to post pictures when and if they do.

Will also be posting pictures soon of the furniture pieces that I have been painting. Have also had to be doing some moving and rearranging around the house, so I have been super busy. Much love to those of you who still visit and I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Easter Eggs and Thrifted Treasures

2011-04-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

I am so ashamed of my lack of attention to this blog and to VTT. I always love to participate in this event with Suzanne over at the Colorado Lady. I must say it is nice to be back.

I am also participating for the first time in Treasure Hunt Thursday at Blue Creek Home. I notice that these parties have much the same links so it is double the fun :)

To those faithful followers who continue to stop by regularly, I want to say thank you. It is for you that I continue to post (and because I love to share my crafted and vintage treasures).

Today, I went into my booth to restock and move things around. I will be taking new pictures of the booth and posting them soon. Meanwhile, I have been crafting away and refinishing furniture. I will share pictures of those adventures soon as well.

I made these easter eggs last year. The eggs are styrofoam from a thrifting expedition. I spray painted them silver, added Martha Stewart glitter and then a final coating of German glass glitter which as you can see in the photos has tarnished nicely.

I also added strips of vintage book pages around the middle of the eggs. This year I decided to make them more colorful and glued on some pastel cherubs from the vintage EAS sheets I sell in my Etsy shop here.

The nice thing about using these scraps is that you don't have to do so much cutting out to craft with them.

The eggs also have strings on them so you can hang them on your Easter or Spring tree.

These fabric flowers are very interesting.

I am not sure if they are dress trims or trims for a hat.

These two still have the tags on them:

and

I wish I could have found more but there were only four pieces.

These buttons also came from my latest Flea market expedition. Something like 50 cents or a dollar for all.

Don't ask me why but I love old buttons.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Works in Progress

2011-04-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

This is one of a pair of porcelain cherub wall pockets destined for my shop space. The pockets are quite shallow but the pieces are oh so cute and a lovely creamy white color.

I made this necklace a few years ago using a string of Swarovski crystals from a second hand shop and brass plated charms from a bead shop.

It is being modeled my latest dress form; a vintage Acme with a wire cage from Craigslist. (My son says her name is Lucy).

A friend fell in love with mine so I promised to make her one and finally (after many months of procrastination) I finished it last week using leftover crystals from the same thrifted strand. The dragonfly pendant is from Vintaj Brass.

It is very hard for me to take good pictures of jewelry but here are closeup pictures of the latest piece:

The little crystal is inscribed with a "P" which is my friends initial. It is easily removed as it clips on and I may move it closer to the clasp.

I added red crystals to this one:

(The design of these necklaces are derived from a piece I saw in a Bead and button Magazine several years ago).

This desk is something else I have stripped and started painting. It will be white, unfortunately I have been brought to a standstill with it because the drawer to the left is missing a side panel. I have no idea what I did with it. I just know it was there when I bought it.

Also being repaired is this mirror which is beveled glass but is missing some of the decorative ornamentation. I have replaced those.

This frame is huge and is missing much of its ornamentation as well.

The white parts are where I replaced missing gesso or repaired cracks.

Still very much a work in progress as I am not sure how to replace the missing pieces at the end of each swirly piece. They are all gone and have been for quite some time as they were previously painted over so I will have to figure what was there and how to replace them. I tried making molds from a small picture frame that I have but that didn't work out too well. If anyone else has any tips I would love to hear them.

Another mirror in progress. This one has an etched mirror. Again it was missing some parts, which I replaced. I use a two part Loctite putty from the hardware store to replace missing parts.

Unfortunately many befores and no afters but hey at least I am trying right? I will post pictures of each piece when complete.

Tonight my son and I are hanging out while David works on his computer. We are watching lacrosse on ESPNU. I am looking forward to watching the Borgias on Showtime later tonight.

I saw the premier of Camelot on Starz Friday night. Did anyone else watch it? What did you think of it?

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Pay it Forward 2011

2011-03-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a month since my last post and I have been telling myself I need to post. I need to post but I have been working hard at keeping my booth stocked at the antique mall and you know how it is with old pieces. A lot of it needs work before it can be displayed. I don't try to fix each and every piece but I do try to make it presentable. I have been working on several chandeliers, a wall cupboard and several magazine racks. I have found that painting things white helps when trying to sell them. Everything is not white but for things that need help anyway, a coat of white certainly does elevate them.

I have more of the white millinery trim from Japan but it is going fast so get yours soon.

When it is gone, it is gone and you will never see any like this again since it is vintage. More available here on my Etsy.

I have so many things I would like to do. I want to start making more jewelry and have been stocking up on beads and other jewelry parts. I also want to start making dolls and have signed up for two online doll making classes at Nancye's Art Dolls. One of the classes starts on the 22nd. I am hoping to have some time very soon to sit down and start on the other.

I am also participating in Pay it Forward with Danielle at My Blessed Serendipity Life. I copied the text directly from her blog so you can get an idea what it is about.

It's a challenge. Really something we should incorporate into our daily lives anyway. It's about doing something good for someone else. Not to be repaid. Not to receive anything back. Not to receive attention or credit.

Unselfish love, simple as that.

I am making this challenge to all who read my blog but

the first five people

who comment on this blog post will receive a handmade gift from me.

After leaving your comment, you must FIRST write a blog post explaining Pay It Forward 2011 (and let me know when you post it). Then.... send out a handmade gift to the first 5 visitors who leave a comment on your post.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

OWOH Winners 2011 and more Booty on Etsy

2011-02-21T18:54:00.000-08:00

Sent out two packages of this fun trim last week.

More packages available here.

Also available are strands of these vintage beads in very limited quantities.

I have plenty of this blue grey color:

But all other colors are limited.

Now Announcing the Winners of my OWOH Giveaways!!

Giveaway #1: Kristin

Giveaway #2: E Makes art

Giveaway #3: Femmy

I thoroughly enjoyed OWOH this year and was able to visit all 876 participants. I have won four prizes so far and I will post when they arrive. The event was as inspiring as always and I met a lot of talented people! Thank you Lisa for another wonderful year.

I must be the last person posting her winners but as I always say "better late than never".

Congratulations Guys!!

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

New Goods on Etsy and a Beautiful Cloche I Won.

2011-02-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Just recently added this lovely trim to my Etsy.

Some strands still have the "Made in Japan" tags:

It comes in long 32 inch strands.

Five dollars plus $2 shipping for 192 inches of very unusual vintage trim from Japan available here.

This is not for sale but I love the presentation:

They are pottery/ceramic pendants. Have no idea how old these are but I love the color combinations.

I recently won this gorgeous LARGE cloche from Michelle at Resurrect Antiques in a give away with Rhonda at Blue Creek Home in December.

It is about 15 inches tall and the base is gorgeously shabby wood and about 6 inches tall. As you can see I have not yet learnt how to take advantage of its fabulosity but I will and I will definitely be posting more pictures when I do.

I was just complaining to the talented Tristan at Enchanted Revelry that I never win anything and when I do sometimes it never does arrive but I think my luck has been improving lately :)

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Today's cool Flea Market Finds

2011-02-03T18:47:00.000-08:00

A large bag full of these vintage pearl beads in lots of lovely colors. (The dark gold ones are larger with a matte finish, definitely plastic and not as nice as the others). I think these are the same pearl beads you often see in vintage multi-strand beaded necklaces.

I will never use all of these in this lifetime. I am contemplating offering some on Etsy or for barter. There are mostly shades of blue but also hot pink, white, yellows, white and a few greens and golds.

Will decide and update later. I have to figure out what to do about my Blogger. I am out of storage space.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

One World One Heart 2011

2011-01-30T22:06:00.000-08:00

Thank you for stopping by my little home on the World Wide web.

My name is Deborah and I live in Florida. This is the third year that I have participated in OWOH although the first year I did not have a blog. OWOH was one of the reasons I started a blog.

I was entranced by all the creativity that was being so bountifully shared by the blogging community and I wanted to be a part of that fascinating world.

(Yep that doll looks just like me, with its one wonky eye :))

This is the fifth and final year of this wonderful event which has grown by leaps and bounds in every successive year and I am very sad to see it go. I am hoping that someone will take up the reins of managing this awesome event and that it will continue on into the future.

I want to say thank you very much to our wonderful hostess Lisa Swifka for five wonderful years of sharing and camaraderie.
Last year there were over 1000 participants. I wonder how many will there will be this year??

My favorite thing to do is go antique/vintage/thrift shopping and I have been doing that for about sixteen years (ever since I moved here from Jamaica/Barbados in fact). I recently took a booth at a mall in Lakeworth, Florida to give me an outlet for all my cool finds.

Another thing that I love to do is make things and I do a variety of crafts using vintage or vintage style components.

One of my goals for this year is to make more jewelry. This is one of my jewelry experiments using an old metal tag, beads and brass wire.

Giveaway #1

The beads are tiger eye:

The clasp is a brass leaf which will dangle from your wrist as you can see in this picture:

Giveaway #2
Here is another simpler bracelet using one of the old brass tags with a simple gold colored clasp and chain:

****(I have been asked about the numbered metal pieces I used on these bracelets. I have no idea what they are from. I got a bunch of them at the Swap Shop about two months ago from one of my favorite sellers.)****

Since these pieces are experiments, I will be reworking both in the future so if you win, what you receive may be slightly different from what is shown here but they will be basically the same components and in the same style.

Giveaway #3
My next giveaway is a set of fun plastic pieces from my stash in a papier mache box .

These colorful plastic pieces are used on those vintage ceramic Christmas trees you see sometimes.

There are different types: birds, flowers, little round beaded plastic circles, beaded bulb shapes and butterflies.

I think they would be nice additions to whimsical type crafts.

Leave me a comment stating your first, second and third choice preference of my giveaways or just leave a comment to say Hello because I would love to come by and visit you. These giveaways are open to all active bloggers all over the world up to midnight on February 17th at which time I will make a drawing of three names and announce the winners in a future post. I will also contact winners by email so please leave me your email address or a way that I can contact you in your comment.

***** For all my Facebook friends (bloggers or not), you can also leave me a comment if you would like to be entered into this drawing. If you are creative, you may enjoy visiting the hundreds of other bloggers on Lisa's list! *******

You can sign up here to join in on the fun with Lisa up until February 12th and also to find a comprehensive list of all the participants in this event.

Now, what are you waiting for? Leave me a comment then go on over to The Whimsical Bohemian for some OWOH fun.

And as always, my wish for you is to have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Crafting and Copyright and my New Shop Venture

2011-01-26T19:11:00.000-08:00

(mine)
I read a lot of blogs for inspiration and I have noticed a very troubling trend. Several bloggers have been complaining about having their ideas stolen and their work plagiarized and I am not sure what to think of this complaint.

I have seen several people making lavishly embellished dress forms, teacup lights, bottle brush trees, Christmas ball wreaths, lace collages, decorated clothespins, stenciling pillows, crafting with vintage imagery and what have you.

(mine)
I am not sure how someone who adapts the same idea and makes a similar item can be accused of plagiarism or whatever the proper term is. Several times recently I have come up with what I considered a brilliant creative idea, only to find somebody else making something similar online and on some occasions I have even seen it in the stores.

Someone else posted about this recently saying that it was surprising to them how many crafty ideas are now being sold in retail stores. (I don't remember who it was. If it was you, please let me know and I will give you credit). This may be because our ideas are being borrowed or "stolen" from where we post them online by the design teams from those retail stores.

(mine)

If I try something I have seen someone else make, I always try to post the link and give that person credit like I did here and here on my blog. sometimes, though I don't remember where I got the inspiration.

I remember once getting some tiny jam pots from my mother and making button pots out of them. A few months later I saw one on somebody else's blog and also saw one which was submitted to one of the Stampington magazines. Do I believe it was stolen from me? It is entirely possible but there is also the possibility that other people were making them long before I did and I just didn't notice or I got the idea from them subliminally. I really don't know.

If I decide to sell the item, I believe that should be perfectly alright also but I usually try to sell what I think is original work. Most of my experiments I give away.

But seriously I don't understand the big hoopla if images and words are not being stolen, only crafty ideas.

Recently I found where an article written by one of my favorite bloggers had been plagiarized word for word and I pointed it out to her. She wrote the owner of the website to have it taken down. I think that is different from a crafting idea. I don't think anyone has a monopoly on crafting ideas and I think it is kind of silly to even try to enforce it.

I am going to suggest that if you don't want your idea stolen, then don't post pictures of your work online because if you do somebody, somewhere is going to try to copy it and if they do, maybe you should just consider it as a wonderful if back handed compliment to your creativity.

Drop me a line and let me know what you think about this. I am always open to other points of view.

In other news, We recently took a booth at the BKG Antique Mall on Dixie Highway in Lakeworth, Florida. It is a new mall attached to the Bruce Kodner Galleries Auction House.

Bruce has very high end antiques in his part of the building. I always say that going in there is like going into Aladdin's cave of treasures.

The pictures I included in this post are from our booth and from some of the other vendors in the antique mall.

For those who might be interested, BKG will be expanding into larger premises within the next few months so this is going to be a huge venture. We are so happy to be getting in on the ground floor.

(mine)
Those of you in South Florida, please come see us at 24 South Dixie Highway in Lakeworth. Tell them I sent you and you will get 10% of anything in our booth.

(mine)
Here's a lovely carved desk for only $145. This is not really old but I love the carving on it and think it would be lovely in white.

(mine)
A beautiful lamp with four candleholders and the sweetest sewing basket with a tiny puppy on the front.

(mine)
A beautiful unusual ink well with a lady bust:

As always have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Last of the Christmas Swaps

2011-01-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

I participated in two swaps over the holidays.Today I will be showing pictures of the Christmas stocking swap over at Joli Paquet with Cerri from The Little Pink Studio. My partner was Valarie over at
Glittery Daze and Nights. Valarie sent me this wonderful stocking embellished with sweet ribbons and trims, vintage mercury glass beads and pretty multi-hued green buttons.

She also sent me some candy in a little crepe paper stocking which unfortunbately burst open during shipping, and some doiles:

A star ornament:

A little ornament in a little tart pan:

On the tree:

An awesome glittered electric candle which I forgot to take pictures of. Some Christmas picks:

In return I sent Valarie this stocking which I actually bought already stitched but to which I added a liner,

another layer of lace which I tea dyed,

an organza flower and a pretty little vintage brass name tag holder:

I also included one of my button potsinto which I put these cute plastic thingies.

I found these at the Flea market before Christmas along with several other large baggies of plastic goodies for FREE!!

(More on that later).

I also sent Valarie this little wreath with this awesome little birdie:

I made this wreath a while ago but added some tinsel.

and the glittered tag before sending it off.

In other news, I recently bought this gold embossed box to use for storage.

Like most of you I am constantly searching for new storage options but I like interesting pieces which are not boring or bland and this was perfect. It is quite large 21 inches long, 13 inches wide and 11 inches high.

I cannot find another one like it online anywhere so I know nothing about it. The back is plain black wood but the sides are also embossed metal. It was half price day at the Bethesda thrift on Federal Highway in Delray Beach so it was 25 dollars. I love it!! Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Vintage Thingies Thursday: Vintage Ornaments

2010-12-22T16:16:00.000-08:00

Like all of you I suppose I am working on getting ready for Christmas. My brother and sister-in-law are holding the Christmas dinner this year. As usual I have been asked to bring only the macaroni and cheese which suits me fine. The more time I don't have to spend in the kitchen, the happier I am. My family knows me well :) For some reson they love my mac and cheese. My secret recipe involves lots of different kinds of cheeses, breadcrumbs on top, NO egg and never measuring anything so have at it you all. (Another closely guarded secret of mine is that I don't even like mac and cheese much).

I participated in a stocking swap hosted by Cerri and will be sharing pictures about it as soon as I receive my stocking from my swap partner Valarie. In the meantime I am sharing pretty pictures of vintage glass ornaments

I love the box on these silver ornaments:

Great graphics and Made in the USA. Such sweet words!

A silver bowl with small ornaments:

And a close up:

I love the colors in this set:

These are figural silver and gold from Sears' Imperial Collection:

Nestled in tinsel:

Boxes of pretties:

I did not use these this year. Our apartment is small and I wanted to use my tinsel tree and the elves this year.

But I love looking at these old ornaments:

Nestled in paper shreds to keep them safe:

These are gorgeous. Yes there are little white glass hearts to the left of the box.

Football shaped ornaments:

Please see here and here for more pictures of my vintage Christmas ornaments.

I am linking this post to Suzanne , The Colorado Lady. Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Thrift Shop Finds: Vintage Sewing Items and Lovely Surprises

2010-12-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I have ever told you how much I love thrift shops, garage sales and flea markets. Well if I haven't said so before I am going to make a declaration now: "I love thrift shops, garage sales and flea markets!!" Nothing else gives me such a thrill as walking into one.

I went thrift shopping today as I have not been in a while and since it is the week before Christmas, funds are rather short because of all the extra goods that need to be bought and because certain people who shall remain nameless and Thank the Lord are no longer in my life are tardy in living up to their obligations. I went to The Lord's Place Thrift shop down on Dixie Highway and saw this sewing box. It said $3.

Nice top but I am not going to spend $3 on an empty basket because I already have tons of sewing baskets, boxes and tins. Usually when I find these sewing boxes at thrift shop they are empty. I hope the thrift shop employees are not tossing the contents but I fear that is what they do.
I opened the basket and saw this:

Lots of old wooden spools. And underneath the removable tray this mess:

Interesting enough to cough up three dollars I decided. I managed to lug the basket and two stacks of French books up to the cashier with the help of two nice gentlemen who work in the thrift shop.

These were some of the nicer finds in the basket:

The red leaf like thing is a very interesting needle book with one leather cover and some green felt leaves.

It is difficult to see but it is marked "Needle Book, Contents 10 needles"

The other cover is missing.

I have never seen a needlebook like this before. Have you?

The round silvery thing is a small guilloche compact.

This is it opened:

The little black jewelry box has some religious charms inside:

They are so sweet:

There are seven in this picture, but there is also a pin fastened inside the top of the box, a blue one with a red star on it that says "Palmer Method, Primary Writing".

Here is a close up of that pin:

This pattern tracer was also unusual because although I have several of these I have never seen one in a box before.

I love finds like this basket because there are so many cool surprises when you are digging through and it was more than worth the three dollars as I am sure you will agree. It is like Christmas coming early :)

I also picked up a box of French language books which I will show you later but this one is my favorite and it is quite new, unlike the others:

The picture at the top of this post is the frontispiece of this lovely book.

It is full of pictures of petit point pieces and includes lots of charts like these:

It is written by Rafaella Serena who is well known in Europe for her needlework skills. Absolutely lovely and less than 50 cents, because I pointed out to the lady that it was in French and seriously who besides me ( and you guys ) would buy a book in French??

By the way I know a lot of people like the same things I do so I want to give you a heads up. Big Lots has these 12 inch cream/white (sisal) bottle brush wreaths at half off (four dollars each).

Also Sears has some lovely wide ( like 6 inches I think) organza ?? ribbon on sale in the Christmas section. The day after Christmas I am going to go get a bunch of the colors I didn't buy last year. They are great for crafting and come in some lovely colors. I saw two shades of blue this year.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Pink Saturday: More Christmas Finds and Ornaments

2010-12-18T00:03:00.000-08:00

Today I am showing some more of my Christmas finds and crafts for 2010.

I used some vintage tree candle clips (an idea stolen from Cerri at The Little Pink Studio) and some vintage diecut images to make some ornaments. They are on the little silver wire tree to the left that you can't see too well.

Cerri is wonderfully creative and always comes up with the most wonderful ideas. Who else would have thought of using candle clips in such a way? I have quite a few for some reason but never thought of using them in that way before seeing Cerri's little beauties. Cerri also has a darling little online shop with lots of fun finds that you can visit here.

Here are some close ups of the ornaments I made:

I used foil leaves and mercury balls to embellish the die cuts.

There is also silver bumpy chenille tinsel glued at the base of each ornament:

The wonderful vintage silver foil leaves and silver mercury glass balls were a lucky find at a thrift shop. A huge bag full for 7 dollars (cheered me right up :))
To see more of my vintage Christmas treasures, go here.

We were asked to share our favorite Christmas song. My favorites are "Baby, it's cold outside" and "White Christmas". Leave me a comment and I will come by your blog to find out what your favorites are.
Please continue your Blog Hop for Pink Saturday with Beverley at How Sweet the Sound
Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

This is my Christmas tree which was finally put up this week.

It is very difficult to get a good picture. It is a vintage 6 foot silver pompom aluminum tree that I got for 20 dollars at a garage sale. I recently found a rotating, musical, light up stand for it at the Flea Market for ten dollars. Now I just need to find a color wheel.

I covered the tree with my collection of vintage elves and pixies and many handmade ornaments I have received from my blogger buddies.

This little marble topped metal table was pressed into service for my vintage putz houses and some of my spun cotton figures.

And a lone green feather tree.

A Santa candy container in a sled.

They are all kind of jammed together because it is a small table.

I think I will look around for a glass top for it.

There is a Santa in a cart on top of this adobe house.

There are even some giant reindeer in this scene:

Here is a detail of the table's metal base:

I love cherubs.

A beautiful little plastic nativity:

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Creative Endeavors No. 1

2010-12-04T02:29:00.000-08:00

This is an old doll dresser/jewelry box I have had for a while. It was medium brown. I painted it and decoupaged some birds on it:

Stenciled on some numbers and replaced the missing knobs a little bit crookedly but I love it.

Something else I did recently is this cute little papier mache figure from the 1950's originally painted pink. I gussied him up with some acrylic paint then added some polyurethane:

He is totally naked with leaves strategically placed:

LOL. I just love cherubs:

Ornament Swap at Thimbleprims Studio.

2010-11-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

I joined Cindy again for this year's ornament swap. This is my second year in this swap. Last year I managed to snag a truckload of lovely ornaments which I posted about here. This year I did not have the time to make as many ornaments as I have something working on that I will share with you all later, that is taking up a lot of my time. However, I still manged to get some awesome ornaments that I will always treasure.

I love this mermaid that Cindy made. The faces on her adorable dolls are superlative and this mermaid is a wonderful example.
This is a snowman that Cindy also made:

See that darling little face.

Cindy also created this sweet Santa ornament standing on a drum:

This green bell ornament also came from Cindy:

I don't know how she finds the time to make all these wonderful things but I love it that she does.

This vintage inspired ornament is made with things that I love like silver lametta and vintage mercury glass beads. I love the way that Cari packaged it with the music printed paper:

This pretty pincushion with the sweet christmassy deer came from Rose at Pozey's Place Pincushions:

This lovely head ornament which I believe is porcelain came from dollmaker Fran Parrigan-Meehan. How awesome are those attached eyelashes and the pretty pink lips?

This lovely decorated felt stocking with the scrap Santa head and sweet candy canes is from Sue at Rabbit Hollow Prims:

To add icing to the cake, Cindy included these lovely note cards and the ribbon candy soap (so perfect for the holiday season):

And she also included a sweet little porcelain half doll made in Japan:

I am in awe of the creativity of bloggers. You will never find ornaments like the ones I have shown above in any store and it is the uniqueness, the creativity and the talent that is on display that makes me love bloggers and blogging.

Would you like to win a basketful of awesome stuff from Cindy at Thimbleprims Studio?

Go here, here and here to check out what is going to be in this Mother-of-all-Giveaway Baskets.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

A Box from Miz Mollye

2010-11-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

The last post I made was at least twice as long as it turned out to be. I only realized after I had posted it that half of it was missing. (I think Blogger ate it!). I wanted to post about the box I received in the mail from Miz Mollye as part of her studio destash.

For the price of postage Miz M. sent me all the wonderful stuff in the photographs in this post.

There were some old books:

The large yellow book is about television of yesterday. Here is a close up:

The book in the middle at the top in the photo called "Kiss a Mule, Cure a Cold" is a charming little book full of old myths and superstitions, most of which I have never heard of before.

There were tons of old photographs including this lovely one of the handsome young man in the first picture.

Included was a stack of old letters and envelopes with cursive handwriting:

And some scrapbooking goodies. I adore the K & Company buttons.

Thank you very much Miz. M. I do so love to get presents in the mail especially when it is from someone who likes the same stuff I do and understands me so perfectly :) I am going to put everything to very good use.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Swaps, Gifts from Friends and Crafting Fun!!

2010-11-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

Thursday is the day I usually go to the swap shop Flea Market. I don't like all the crowds on weekends but recently it has rained quite a bit so every time I get up to go on Thursday, it is cloudy or there is actual rain. Last Thursday I arose all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to go Flea Marketing. I wanted to find some vintage Christmas ornaments to craft with, but it looked cloudy outside and the weather report said heavy rain for Fort Lauderdale so I ended up staying home feeling very disgruntled. Later in the day I had an appointment to go meet an unreliable friend. At 12:45, while on the way, I called him to confirm our meeting time. No response which I have kind of grown to expect when dealing with this particular person. To cheer myself up and to keep from blowing my top, I decide to visit a thrift shop where I find good things every once in a while.

While browsing around, my eye fell first on this:

Five small boxes of vintage shiny brites at $1 each. I was so happy, I danced over to the register with all five boxes in my arms. Then I went back over to the shelves to see what else I could find. I looked up and saw these:

Five large boxes of vintage shiny brites at $1 each. I was so happy, I swear I heard angels singing. Sometimes when you put your wishes out into the universe, you find exactly what you need.

I wanted to make some wreaths inspired by the very creative Georgia over at GeorgiaPeachez. I had also found a box full of vintage Christmas light strings from which I salvaged the bulbs. The strings were in such bad shape I would be afraid to use them. This is the wreath I made.

It is huge about 18 inches across, probably not as nice as Georgia's but I like it anyway.

AS promised I am now sharing a swap I did since my Mom came back from her vacation with my camera. This beautiful altered canvas was received from Linda Kinnaman.

The skirt is made from vintage labels all cunningly folded and glued to make the skirt. Marie wears a cake in her head and the title "Tiara" is also a label. The background is also very textured and charmingly decorated. Linda also sent me some Marie stamps and Paris related magnets that I forgot to take pictures of but I am dying to try everything out as soon as things calm down a bit for me. Thank you so much Linda for swapping with me. I love my Marie.
(This post was quite a bit longer originally but the Blogger Gremlins were hungry and appear to have eaten half of it )

I am linking this post to both Suzanne at VTT and to Leigh at Thrifty Thursday over at Bloggeritaville.

Blue Monday -- Nov 2010

2010-10-31T17:37:00.000-07:00

I have not participated in a Blue Monday in a long time but I just had to join in today to share the beautiful box above. It is a brass box in two parts that is lined inside with brown velvet.
It is 4.5 inches in diameter and about 1.75 in height. This is a view from the side:

When I saw it on eBay, I realized that it was the same picture of Marie that I had used previously in an altered art piece a few weeks ago. The seller did not have it titled as such.

He had it as a Buy-It-Now and for 19.99 how could I resist? The top is a porcelain plaque and it is just beautiful. The description was "Vintage Antique Covered Jewelry Circle Box". What a perfectly awful description. Nothing about the porcelain inset in the top or the brass or that it was a picture of Marie. All the better for me. I am ashamed to admit it but I love bargains like this.

Go visit Smiling Sally for more Blue Monday posts and as always have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage Style.

Crafting and Playing

2010-10-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

Many moons ago Jan who is in England, invited me to do a private swap with her. I finally completed the atcs a few weeks ago and sent them off to her. I made three ATCs and a little case to store them in.

I used upholstery samples, vintage laces and seam binding to make the case.

The cards are fabric upholstery fabric, vintage laces, old quilt scraps and some small plastic cabochons.

The images are from Flickr.

This is another project I completed recently.

This piece is an altered hanging that I made for a Marie swap hosted by Paper Imagery Designs on Facebook My partner was Theresa. I have shown the piece on the blog before but now she has received it, I am free to actually talk about it.

I used vintage wallpaper, a vintage bird image and vintage trims.

Vintage seam binding for the hanging.

In turn Linda made me a beautiful piece of altered art which I will share as soon as I get my camera back. My mom borrowed it to take on her vacation and boy do I feel lost without it. I will also be sharing a sweet package I received from a blog friend as soon as that wandering camera comes back home.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Lundby Doll House from 1970

2010-10-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

I have been MIA for quite a while. There are a number of things I have been occupied with and there is no end in sight but I am still around and not giving up blogging. Why would I? It is so much fun :)

The other day I went to a community garage sale and first I bought a bag of vintage doll clothes then as I was walking away I saw four gift boxes wrapped in plastic bubble wrap and containing several packages wrapped in paper towel. They were leaning inside a very tired looking doll house.

(The above shows the doll house after I put some of the furniture inside it).

I picked up one of the smaller boxes and unwrapped one of the packages. It contained a yellow doll house toilet. Since I am always looking for doll house furniture and accessories for my doll house I asked the lady how much for the doll house stuff. She said $5. I have never dragged out $5 faster. If any of you have priced good vintage doll house items recently you know they are not cheap. Sure the doll house was in a terrible state but I figured there had to be some good stuff wrapped up in those boxes.
There was!!

When I was looking at the doll clothes I had asked her where was the doll who wore the clothes. She said the doll was not donated. So I get the impression that everthing else was also donated and that she didn't care what was wrapped up in all the little packages (all the better for me!).
The wooden Lundby Porsche alone is worth $50.

The dolls came with the house. The little girl is missing an arm.

There were also some little porcelain cats and a little dog:

This cool wooden dog toy which is articulated and dances and wags its tail when you push in the wooden button under the base:

This little patriotic figure:

A tiny wooden Raggedy Andy in a cradle:

The tiny plastic doll and his cradle is marked Western Germany:

A table tennis table:

This is the top with the cute little rackets included:

Here is a bunk bed in the far corner and a small chalkboard:

The kitchen:

See the wallpaper -- lol!!

I love the living room furniture:

I love the striped fabric on the couch and chairs and the corner cupboard.

This is a darling matching dining room set:

Here is the office furniture with an amazing swiveling office chair and low round table:

Here is the bed and two cute matching stools:

Bathroom furniture:

An awesome shower stall:

From the front (it even has a soap dish):

Some kind of porch swing:

This cute little spa ( poolhouse?):

A patio table and chairs:

I think what I love about these special finds is how perfectly seventies they are. The finishes and fabrics fit right into the period.

[In other news: Me and Blogger have been fighting again. My pictures are not uploading normally. I upload and they disappear and when I try to insert one picture I end up inserting several at a time ].

I am linking this post to both Suzanne at VTT and to Leigh at Thrifty Thursday over at Bloggeritaville.I will try to post again soon and show you what I have been working on. Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

A Week of Very Interesting Occurrences!

2010-09-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy lately creating, thrifting and doing some heavy duty introspection. I also do a lot of blog hopping because I love to see what everybody is doing and I get a ton of inspiration and creative ideas from the wonderful people in Blogland. Most people put their best foot forward and always have their "company" face on. When I started blogging that is how I started out. I didn't feel like anybody would want to hear about the lows and disappointments and frustrations that often darken my days and surely many of yours too. I have found it difficult to blog like that though because I have Blogger writer's-block when I do. My life is not all sunshine and rainbows and skipping merrily around my lovely cottage by the sea spray painting everything white and adding a little lace here, crepe paper ruffles there and a velvet millinery flower in that corner while sweetly humming "These are a few of my favorite things".

Recently I was on eBay and found this listing:

" OTC TUBES " Champion's / Mens Used Socks / "RIPE"

I added it to my "watch list" (yes I am insatiably curious or as Jamaicans say "fass"). I really wanted to see if someone was going to buy this man's crusty, dirty, smelly socks, RIPE socks and yep up to the time of posting somebody had put a bid on them (6.50 plus postage).

(I am making the picture small because I don't want to offend your sensibilities (too much!)).
He has worn them several times and warns that they won't whiten up any time soon when washed. He also noted in one of his other listings that he has regular customers for his items. It takes all kinds and I have no objections to this man's listings. I just thought it was interesting (and yes hilarious).

A day or two later I received and email supposedly from eBay.You can skip over this letter as it is all a crock:

<< We're writing to let you know that we detectedthat your eBay password was compromised. Your password was temporarily changedto prevent unauthorized access of your account.

To access your account, you need to create a new password:
1. Click the "Sign in" link at the top of most eBay pages.
2. On the right side of the page, click the "password" link under the"Password" text box.
3. Enter your eBay user ID, and then click the "Continue" button.
4. You'll be asked to answer a few questions to confirm your identity.
5. We'll send you an email (immediately in most cases) with a link you canclick to reset your password.

We strongly recommend that you also change your secret question and answer:
1. Click "My eBay" at the top of most eBay pages. You may be asked tosign in.
2. Place your pointer over the "Account" tab, and then select"Personal Information."
3. Click the "Edit" link to the right of "Secret question."For extra security, you'll be asked to enter your user ID and password again.
4. Select your secret question from the drop-down menu and enter the answer.
5. Click the "Change Secret Question" button.

We want to help you keep your account safe. Here are some tips on how toprotect your password from unauthorized use:
>> There was much more but I only included the first half. These scammers are so smart!! I forwarded the letter to eBay.

An hour or so later I tried logging onto my eBay account and could not get on. At first I was thinking I had mistyped or had the "cap locks key" on but nope it wasn't me, I had been locked out of my Ebay account! Frantically, while imagining all kinds of disaster scenarios I contacted eBay via online chat (Good luck getting through to them on a phone line!!). After a 25 minute wait I spoke to a very nice gentleman who informed me that an unauthorized person had tried several times to get onto my account and for my security they had temporarily changed my password. So then I had to go in and change my password (for the first time in too many years!) Then I had to change my PayPal, my email, my bank accounts, each one to something different.

You will probably see me on here again soon complaining about how I can't remember them all. I will have to write them down but we all know that is not safe either.

Then to complete my week of Very Interesting Occurrences I received this email yesterday purporting to be from a blogger, etsian and a very talented artist. The email was entitled "Trouble".

<< Hi (they didn't even bother to address me by my name)

Apologies for having to reach out to you like this, but I made a quick tripto London,United Kingdom and had my bag stolen from me with my passportand credit cards in it. The embassy is willing to help by letting me flywithout my passport, I just have to pay for a ticket and settle Hotelbills. Unfortunately for me, I can't have access to funds without mycredit card, I've made contact with my bank but they need more time tocome up with a new one. I was thinking of asking you to lend me somequick funds that I can give back as soon as I get in. I really need to beon the next available flight.

I can forward you details on how you can get the funds to me. You can reach me viaemail or hotel's desk phone, the number is +447045749898

I hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks

(signed with the artist's name followed by "IN GOD WE TRUST")

then followed a list of seven links to the poor artist's website, etsy shop,and a host of her professional affiliations.

>>

>>

You can't make this stuff up but I share all this as a firm believer in the maxim "the more you know, the more you can protect yourself".

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

I give up!! Falling down the rabbit hole.

2010-09-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

(Image by Elena Kalis)

(*****GG in this post means Gift Giver****).

6/23/2010 Hi Deborah, Congratulations! You won the Last Veil Doll on my blog. http://#########.blogspot.com/2010/02/owoh-winnerstime-to-fly-away-home.html. Please send me your mailing address so I can get her in the mail to you. I hope you had as much fun as I did with OWOH . I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Again, congrats GG – #######@gmail.com

Sent 6/23/10 GG, I am very happy about winning this but kinda confused too since the post was apparently up since February. Am I in the twilight zone ?? Please let me know. Deborah ******* 3475 WindJammer Road (Not my real addy) Palm Beach Fl 33499

About two weeks later: I posted on the gift giver's FB page saying how happy I was to have won and how much I was looking forward to receiving the doll. (For some reason I can't find that post). (NO RESPONSE).

8/4/2010 Hi GG, It’s been about 6 weeks since you contacted me about that doll I won on your blog. I tried sending you an email but I am not sure if you got it because i did not get a response. Can you please let me know what is going on with the doll. I am sending this through both your emails as I would really appreciate a response. Deborah

(Image from here)

8/4/2010 Deborah, I'm so glad you tried again!I don't know what happend, I assumed you didn't want it when I didn't hear from you. Please send me your address and I will get her in the mail tomorrow! Thanks :) GG

8/4/2010

Oh GG, I am so happy you responded. My address is Deborah *******, 3475 Windjammer Road Palm Beach Fl 33499. Looking forward to seeing her, Deborah

(No response).

8/19/2010 (from GG on her FB page to everyone) Good morning Beautiful. I had a bit of a leave of absence due to a family emergency. So I am a bit behind in my interactions with all of you. I came back to find some lovely new fans :) Welcome! feel free to share your links, and creations here anytime! Have a grand and glorious day

My comment on this commiserating on the loss of her MIL and mentioning not receiving the doll was quickly deleted but I did receive this response right away:

8/20/2010Deborah, Hi She's boxed. I'm sorry for the lack of interactions. My mother in law passed away in her sleep right after we talked last.I just dropped everything. Our family had to go out of town to arrange the service for her, and start settling her affairs. we've only been home since tuesday. I will message back after I go to the post tomorrow.Blessings, GG

9/8/2010 Facebook message)
Hi GG,
I hope things have calmed down a bit at your end and that you are feeling better. I am not sure if your email works so I am contacting you here. I still have not received the doll and am wondering if you had a chance to send her out. Please let me know.
Deborah

(No response even though the GG posts on FB almost daily)!

Curious and curiouser. I guess why this bothers me so much is that I really prefer to deal with people who keep their word. I can understand a little spaciness but I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole a little bit here especially as this is someone who seems to be trying to build an online reputation here selling wire and bead jewelry as well as dolls to customers online. I wrote to the organizer of OWOH ( Lisa at the Whimsical Bohemian) as it seems to me that TGG only signed up so as to get visitors to her blog and had no intention of sending out the prizes she offered. I wrote to the other winner of a prize on the GG's blog during the event. and she says that she never received anything either and her email when it never came was ignored.

(This whole thing really bugs me. I am so disappointed. I think I tend to trust and probably expect too much from people. I am beginning to realize as I have often been told but refused to believe that that is a naive expectation in today's world). It has been 7 months since OWOH and finally I have decided to give up with a very very bad taste in my mouth.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

I did It! Scroll Box and Clickable Button.

2010-09-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

I used the code for the scrollable box posted by Ally here in case anyone is interested.To make the clickable button I used this link: Jennie Shelland this one: Musings of a Housewife to try and figure it out. I uploaded a picture to this website www.picnik.com. It is free and then I use the edit button at the top in picnik to crop and resize it to 125 px x 125 px. I added text by using the "create" button. When you click "create" in picnik, it allows you to add borders and text. Try it out. That part is fun.Then you save the picture on your PC after making adjustments in Picnik, and then upload it to Flickr or Photobucket (somewhere online where you can get an url for your button). In Flickr if you click on the uploaded button and then click on "Share this", you will see a link for the HTML code (url).
Let me know how it goes.

(If you like drop me an email and I will just send you the code. It took me several hours to get something that finally works).

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Giveaway over at Rose Petals and Rust.

2010-09-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

Stephanie over at Rose Petals and Rust is having a giveaway of a lovely lace embellished box and a 50 dollar Home Depot Gift Card. She is celebrating gaining 500 followers!! Wow, What a milestone.This giveaway is open until September 25th so run over and drop your name in the hat.Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

New Blog Button - Playing around

2010-09-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Blog Guidebook

2010-09-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

I was just over at Laurie's blog, Indulge your Shelf where I found out about the Blog Guidebook. This is a directory for connecting bloggers and where you can find like-minded bloggers in several different categories. Some of the categories right now are: Home Style, arts and Crafts, A day in the life of, Crafting, Motherhood Babies and Children, Creative souls, Handmade, Vintage and White. I think I would like a Vintage and Creative link and I am going to suggest it.

Joining is free but right now Lyndsay and Sarah are offering the chance to add a free blog button in this directory ( a $20 value). This is for a short time only so hurry and join up if you would like a free button.

I think this is such a great idea for finding other bloggers in the categories that interest you. I spend an inordinate amount of time online looking for inspiration so I think this is a great resource.

In addition to joining the community there and gaining more exposure for your blog, there are several activities you can join in such as Blog How-tos, Giveaways and Linky Parties. You can check it out by clicking here.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.

Blue Monday

2010-08-30T06:48:00.000-07:00

I love Blue Mondays with Smiling Sally but have not had a chance to participate in a while. Anyway, this morning I got up feeling all bright eyed and bushy tailed (a rare occurrence for me on a Monday morning) and decided to join in.

The picture above is a painting. The lady I bought it from claimed it is a tapestry. She said that is what she was told but closer examination proved her wrong. It is not done on canvas but on some kind of fabric. She claims she was told it is worth 400 dollars but wanted 20 dollars for it. I paid a little more than half of that.
There are some holes in the fabric here:

and there:

anyone have any tips on repairing it? I would like to fix those and find a nicer frame for it.

Another odd thing that I have had for years is this very heavy rusty metal mold.:

The depressions are in fruit shapes.

Anyone have any idea what it was used for? I have another one knocking around somewhere. I don't think it was for food as it is too rusty but I like the shapes.

Thanks to everyone who commented to try and help me with my blogger log on problems. The fix turned out to be simple.nI had to simply delete my old bookmarks for the offensive Blogger pages and reset them.That took care of the problems I was having with looping when trying to log on. One person mentioned that my comment box will not load for her so she can't comment. If you are also having that problem, please email me using the link to the upper left on my page.

Go visit Smiling Sally for more Blue Monday posts and as always have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage Style.

Sewing Box Transformation

2010-08-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

I picked up this old sewing box over the weekend for $8.

What sold me on it was the fabric inside because the brown color and the metal trim were certainly not attractive.

I spray painted it heirloom white (my favorite Rustoleum color) and used stencils to decorate the front and top.

As usual I proceeded without a plan or measuring anything but I quite like the results and I can hide a bunch of stuff inside it.

The metal trim along the bottom and the top were painted the same green as the rose leaves.
This is the back:

I left the ends of the legs and the interior untouched, though in hindsight I probably should have removed the interior fabric and painted everything. Well there is always a next time. I decided to make all the letters black :

Decisions decisions decisions ...... This is what I like about crafting - you can't really mess it up and if you do it really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

I am linking this post to both Suzanne at VTT and Cindy at Show and Tell Friday and Liz at the Brambleberry Cottage.

Is anyone else having trouble signing in to blogger? I get signed out every five minutes and then it takes a while and multiple attempts during which my password refuses to work before I can get back on. Let me know if you are having trouble with this too and if so, what you did to fix the problem.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.Deborah

A Conversation with my Son and Life as it is.

2010-08-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Me: Ty, whatever happened to that girl who was missing last year?

Ty: Which one?

Me (in consternation): There's more than one??

Ty:Yeah, there was like three of them

Me: Wow, I didn't know that

Ty (unconcernedly): Yep.Me: So what happened to them?

Ty: Oh they all came back home

Me: Really, So where were they?

Ty: Staying with friends

Me (with surprise): And their parents didn't know? (because I remember Ty telling me the girl's mother had been calling all her friends asking for her)

Ty: Nope

Me: How is that possible?

Ty (still unconcerned): Well, they sleep in the closet or under the bed so the parents don't see them.

At this point I burst out laughing.

In not so pleasant news:

Last September, a 24 year old girl, Mitrice Richardson went missing after being released from the police station at 2 o'clock in the morning without a wallet, cell phone or her car (which was impounded). For months they searched for her and rumors abounded. Last week, August 12, 2010 her bones were discovered in a wild wooded area, two and a half miles from the police station where she was last seen alive. This story impacted me in many ways. I first learned that she was missing when I was doing research on another missing child: Jaycee Dugard who had turned up alive after being missing many years.
I have had Mitrice's father's website up on the top right side of my blog since October in the hope that she would turn up alive just like Teista Swain did but it was not to be.

More sad news:
My uncle also died this week. He was my aunt's husband and I have known him more than half of my life. RIP Mr. Ossie, We will miss you.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.Deborah

Pink Saturday - Aug 14th

2010-08-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

Today for Pink Saturday I will be sharing this brooch from my vintage jewelry collection with you.
The interesting thing about the brooch is the picture of this gentleman glued to the back of it. I wonder what the story is behind this.

Then there are these pink pipes we saw the other day in Boca Raton:

We were driving along when I spied them. I quickly grabbed my camera and asked my 10 year old nephew to snap a picture to share with you guys. He got two. I think he did an excellent job as we were driving past at the time.:

I have never seen pink pipes before, have you? I wonder why the pretty color for something that will just be buried underground.

Please continue your Blog Hop for Pink Saturday with Beverley at How Sweet the Sound and have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.Deborah

VTT and Show and Tell Friday.

2010-07-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

My contribution to VTT and Friday is this desk and chair. I forgot to take a picture of the desk before I started but I can assure you it looked quite bad but I could see it had good bones under the horrible paint job.
It had the cute little appliqués, the nice curved legs, the little triangular pieces under the middle drawer plus the lovely detail around the top edge.

After painting the desk, I decided I would need a chair to match it and at first I thought I would have to go thrift shopping for one (a very pleasant prospect, believe me :) ) but then I remembered this chair stuck away in a corner of our quite horrible 70's kitchen:

It too had very nice bones. I love the spindles on the back and the turned legs.

Here is an after picture of the chair:

The fabric was bought at Joann's. They had a 40 % off sale but it was still 13.00 for 18 inches. My mother will use the left over to recover a chair for herself.

The desk is missing one of these handles on the bottom drawers. They are false double drawers.

I have one handle but have been searching for another one to match. I am also considering painting something there but I have never done any decorative painting in my life. Since I know many of you do this kind of work, please let me know if you come across a matching handle. I do have the rosettes at the side that the handle (bail) slips into. The handles were originally dark grey. I painted them silver.

Here you can see the detail along the top a little better:

It was so hard to get nice pictures here. I ended up tacking up a dark colored sheet behind the desk as it faded into the light-colored curtains behind it.

I am linking this post to both Suzanne at VTT and Cindy at Show and Tell Friday.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.Deborah

Is it me?

2010-07-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

Being a terrible procrastinator, it often takes me two or three times the length of time I consider normal to do something. I have a bit of problem with lack of motivation and there are days I cannot leave the house to do things I know should be done. I am working on that problem but for now it is an ever present facet of my life that I have to cope with.

Knowing that I have this problem and that others may also have the same problem I do try not to be too judgemental and also am working on being patient (another failing of mine). However lately I have been wondering how many of you have won prizes on blogs and never received them. Last year I won a pair of pink pearl stud earrings. After weeks of never seeing hide nor hair of said earrings I emailed the gift-giver to enquire. She responded promptly and said the earrings had already been packaged up but she just hadn't had a chance to send them out yet but she would send them out that week. Well, like I said that was last year and I still have not received them, so draw your own conclusions.

This year I entered a drawing for a lovely doll on a blog in the OWOH Blog Hop. That was in February as you recall. More than a month ago I received an email saying I had won the doll. I was so happy but a bit perplexed. Why did it take so long to contact me? I went to the blog and looked at the doll again. Oh it was a beauty and I was so excited. I left a comment on the blog saying how excited I was to have won the doll and also emailed the owner with my address. I did not receive a response to either my email or my comment. A week or so later I left a comment on the gift-giver's Facebook page again expressing my delight and how excited I was anticipating the doll's arrival. I did not receive a response although I comment on her postings all the time. It is now more than a month since I received the first email. Now, I believe there is a thin line between being enthusiastic and being a pest. I do not want to contact her again as I fear it may look as if I am pestering her but what if she did send the doll out and is wondering why she never heard from me. What about you guys? What would you do?

Looking from the other POV, I must say that another pet peeve of mine is people who are winners of items from my blog and who do not contact me to say "Thank you". There have been several times I sent out items either as giveaways or in swaps and never heard back from the recipients. Granted they may never have received the item or if they did they hated it, so just what is the protocol people? In my point of view, it is just too much to spend time packaging up something that I may have invested time in making, paying expensive postal fees and never receiving so much as a thank you or at least the courtesy of a "yes, I got it when" I do email them to inquire about the gift!

Maybe someone should write up a list of etiquette rules for bloggers although I am not sure why that should be necessary.

On the other hand, the problem may be entirely with me. Please feel free to tell me if you think it is.

Now on to more pleasant things.

My birthday was a few weeks ago and I received a little box in the mail from Miz Mollye.I was so excited to see what Miz M had sent me. The first gift was this pendant/ ornament.

Isn't the lady just lovely?
This is the back of the ornament. I love the richness of the colors she uses.

The second item was an apron in the most gorgeous fabric printed with little ladies wearing big picture hats:

Right now Bella (my mannequin, named by my son) is wearing it.

It was so sweet of Miz Mollye to think of me with all that she has been through recently. Thank you my dear, I appreciate your kindness more than you know.

Have a wonderful day with lots of Vintage style.Deborah