It's all about the color

and there was so many lovely colors at Cedar Key...these are just a few that had me entranced. I want to create pretty things with these colors! Vintage doesn't have to be all browns, creams and taupes!

Vintage Groupings

In my opinion, lots can be learned from visiting vintage shops and mostly from the way the items are arranged. I come home inspired, not just by the aged sheet music, the laces and retro fabrics, the mink hats and stoles and the yellowed white ladies evening gloves and the delicate but deserted jewelery but by how the items are grouped. The color contrasts, the sizes juxtaposed one against another, the casual draping of cloth over table tops and chairs,the hanging of necklace of onyx beads over the dented frame of a hand mirror...amazing.

I come home wanting to arrange all my shelves but especially the one over my supplies closet. I want to 'present' my creations in a way that one showcases the next and that they are not fighting for space. Perhaps it is time for some of these things that overcrowd my shelf to find a new home or become recycled.

While the vintage stores have an incredible amount of goods on display, what might appear as clutter is actually, in most cases, an artistic arrangement. I have a new friend in Tenn. who may be able to offer me some guidance in this regard. The pictures of her store display this talent for groupings that I love.

Here are a few shots from some of the stores in Dunedin I took yesterday. Enjoy...I did.

A different kind of Valentine (ACOT reveal)

I made this Valentine for a friend and the papers and embellishments in SEI's Juliette line were perfect. I like the contrast of the kraft paper background of the multi fold card and the pretty glittery papers. This is for a friend and I plan to put snippets of some of our wild and crazy times together on each page...Forget Me Not!

You lucky people who live in Tenn.

A very kind woman posted on this blog a bit ago about how she needs a dress form like mine for her store and suggested a lovely name for my lady. I always try to visit new visitors to my blog when they leave a 'return address' and I discovered an amazing store!

Here is the link

http://www.thatssoshabby.com/

Be prepared for some serious "I have to have that" moments. Jennifer, my new friend, I love your shop and I swear, I shall come visit some day and see all your lovely eye candy!

Kicking it up a notch

I worked on my Childhood Summers art journal until about 8:30 pm last night and, anyone who knows me well, knows I am usually dozing on the couch by that time. I was like a woman obsessed.








I have no time to play more with this today and I am visiting a friend on Anna Maria Island tomorrow so it won't be until Friday when I can lose myself again in the creation of the art journal. Then comes the hardest part of all...the journaling!

Thanks for looking! Oh, and the tiny fairy is because as a child my grandfather told me several lived in my grandmother's garden.

Summers of My Childhood

I have never done an art journal but I think I have started one today. During meditation at yoga today, for some reason, I started thinking about how wonderful my summers were when I was growing up. I spent most of them at my grandmothers' homes in Waterloo, Iowa and they were so delightful. I want my children and grandchildren to know that I had a great childhood with picture perfect and very simple summers...the best kind.



So, this is just my start. I found these amazing pieces of fabric at JoAnne's yesterday for 2.oo each and they are so beautiful. They reminded me of the things I use to find in my grandmother's chest.

I am not sure where this art journal is going. I am taking it a page at a time when it calls to me, just like the dress form. I do know that I will journal after all the preliminary work is done on each page and tell the story that makes me such a summer girl!

To the nines

Gerri-anne Duke, my friend and owner of Knkclub.com, drew my name in a gift exchange and, knowing my love of torsos both paper mache and wire, went beyond the call of duty and gifted me with a full sized dress form. Her words to me were, "I can't wait to see what you do with this!".

Every day since then I've looked at the dress form, clothed in a cranberry colored over pinning and wondered to myself, how can I make this perfect, what do I really want this to become. And I looked and pondered until today...when I said to myself, if I wait for the perfect idea, I'll be 104. And so I've begun.





My vision shifted and changed as I rooted through my stash of vintage items, near vintage and things I could make look old. I hand glued all the bling to the tulle netting after I doubled it, gathered it and cut the fold. It was reminiscent of the wedding veil I made for my daughter's wedding but I had learned from those mistakes and really only took about 45 min. start to finish.
This is only Stage One and I am honestly not sure where I am going from here but the journey is the thing right, and sometimes it becomes our destination. I do know that I want to continue the opulence and look of the grand dames of the 1880s and who knows where I'll end up.

Oh, and now she needs a name!