Friday, July 24, 2009

Well, here they are...

Aren't they wonderful?
Vintage Dennison labels in three different sizes



These are HUGE!

And these are so cool...roundy index tabs...LOVE!




Sigh. I'm in vintage label heaven.

Warning: Lots of FAB Estate Sale Finds...

I left my girls with my mom today and hit the road. I totally needed a break and there were some good-looking estate sales in Seattle. I normally don't go all the way to Seattle for estate sales, but...like I said, I needed a break and I had the whole day to get it. So, I braved the traffic ( bad) and hit these sales (good). I found some **FABULOUS*** stuff.


Wanna see?
First, a vintage medicine cabinet with side shelves and an etched rose on the mirror:
Broken pearly-type jewelry (look at the clasps!)

vintage art supplies:


a pink jewelry box and an enamel refrigerator drawer:


some peices of fabric with embroidery and instructioons on them, some pretty blue thread and a scrap of a crocheted piece of linen...



A pink satin doll jacket I bought just for the buttons (I mean LOOK at them...!!), some fake pearls and (cue angelic choirs singing....) some vintage posies. I {LOVE} these posies!!!



a sweet feather pillow and some ceramic roses for mosaics...



Can I just say how HAPPY these vintage labels make me? I have been looking for these for sooo long. I got a few pieces on Etsy, and a box on Ebay, but I have looked and LOOKED at estate sales for a box of them and I found FOUR boxes today. OH HAPPINESS!!! I know...I'm easy to please, but seriously...look at these....even the boxes are cute! I'll show you the labels in a separate post. They deserve their own, I think...


A teeny tiny plastic baby (less than 1 1/4"!!) fully dressed in a teeny tiny dress, bonnet and panties (SOMEONE had a LOT of time on their hands, methinks!)
a bisque baby, a headless baby and a dismembered baby...awww, aren't they cute?


jewelry pieces: rhinestone pins, a crocheted pin thingie and one of those big safety pin kilt closures (I saw a super CUTE pin at Claires that I'm going to try to make a version of)...



silver Dennison stars and silver glass glitter

brass paper fasteners, otherwise known as brads in the original cute little box:
2 little flower frogs and a wee little nickel (?) scotty dog

Just LOOK at the colors of these silk and velvet leaves...pink, cream, white, gold and pale green...YUMMY! Oh, and there's some pink ribbon, too...
Here's a picture with some of it , including a cool journal-type book

Vintage Christmas: mecury glass beads...bottle brush wreath and a plastic Mary figurine




Whew! And it all cost only about $40. Not bad, right? And, I had fun...definitely a good break! Thanks for hangin in there with me.!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

More on keeping busy (a long-winded post...)

Well, I have been continuing my busy creative sttreak. It's funny, because I can go for WEEKS not doing much creatively, and then whammo! I'm hit with it...the NEED to create.
I've made some rather huge changes lately, life-altering changes. Unfortunately hard and difficult and often depressing changes, but good ones. Do you know what I mean?
So, I find myself needing to keep busy.

I have excess energy.

A bit frenetic, perhaps...

But, hey, it's my life right now, so I'm taking advantage of the surge and riding the creative wave, so to speak. (yeesh! corny, much, Tammy??)

Anyways, I've been breaking things. Again.


And making mosaics with the peices.


Did you see that movie "How to Make an American Quilt" with Winona Ryder? One of the characters finds out her sister slept with her husband, and in a fit of rage, smashes all her prized figurines. She then proceeds to plaster the peices to the wall in her laundry room as a reminder of her anger.
I don't look at my mosaics as reminders of my anger, however fun it is to smash those dishes. Once, during a particularly hard time in my life, I had a revelation. I heard God speak to me. I know there are some of you who don't believe in God, and that's ok. But I honestly believe He did speak to me. It's the one and only time it's happened.

I felt like my life had been blown into smithereens. Like it was in a kajillion peices. I was praying (well, really, I was sobbing and wailing "why me, God?What am I supposed to DO with all these peices of me?") and all of a sudden, I saw a picture of a BEAUTIFUL mosaic. It was stunning. Then I heard God whisper to me "this is what I can do with peices!"

So, that's what I did. I picked up the peices of my broken heart and made art out of them.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I've been a busy girl!

I have this THING for vintage train cases. I can't explain it. It's like my thing for chairs and hampers. (what does this say about me, I wanna know?) Anyways, I got this cutie at a yeard sale for $2. I lined it with vintage curtain fabric, added the mirror back and a bit of millinery. It even has a vintage luggage tag, and the original plastic tray. Oh...it's CUTE!!!
I have one that I did a couple of years ago. I keep various yummy trims and bits and peices in it so when I go to a retreat or to a friends for a crafty day, I can grab and go. It never fails to attract attention.


I was in a swap hosted by Danielle at thevintagedragonfly. It was a 5x5 collage swap with a bird theme. I got mine in the mail today. It was made by Heidi Gordon. It's so sweet!
This is my favorite part:

I LOVE a good caption! Thanks, Heidi!!!
Next in the line up is a vintage journal I altered on Monday while at Paper Muse.


Still LOVING these doll images from Retro Cafe Art
You will be splendid!


Next! Two new shopping bags: the first is pink and sweet....

The second is aqua fun and funky...(I think this is my favorite!)

BOTH upcycled vintage pillowcases, and lined (can you guess why I lined them? Come to find out...when you load up a vintage pillowcase bag with wine and fruit and cheese, the fabric can't handle it, and it'll split and leave you walking home from the store clutching said bag to your chest to keep said wine from falling to the ground and breaking, causing you to cry like a baby in the middle of the road...forget about the fruit...SAVE THE WINE AT ALL COSTS...Just a little something I learned...)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Welcome to Moo Card Holder Saturday!!!
It all started when I met Michelle. I was working at Paper Muse on Monday, and she came in. She has a shop near Olympia and was in the area, so she popped in to take a look. When she paid for her purchases, she had the CUTEST little clutch! She said it was melted plastic and that she had done a tutorial on her blog about it.
I was intigued...so I checked it out. Well, I decided right then I HAD to try it out. Melting plastic??? Oooo, it was fun! The only bag I had that wasn't ugly was a silver one, so I went with it. And, I decided to make a Moo card holder, instead of a clutch.
Here's the finished project, which took less than an hour, total! I used a scrap of vintage fabric I had been hoarding, and lined it with the melted silver plastic. Trimmed it with hot pink ribbon and little blue buttons. Cute, no?



Well, then I was on a roll and made the two above. Seriously...for those off you who, like me, suffer from the sad and debilitating syndrome called something like "if-I-cant-see-immediate-results-forget-it-I'm-not-doin'-it-itis", this project took hardly any time at all! Once I got going, it took maybe 20 minutes apiece. I also, decided to forgo the cool but kinda unnecessary step of the melted plastic liner. But, do go check out the tutorial and give it a try! It's fun!
Happy Saturday!









Thursday, July 9, 2009

Disconnected


blog banner close up, originally uploaded by littlejunkshop.

Hey, all!
I am having technical problems...my house computer won't connect to the garage computer where all my pictures are stored (don't ask why we have a computer in the garage, cuz that would require an answer that I am definitely NOT equipped to answer!). So, I can't get pictures, view pictures, upload pictures....sigh. What a pain. I"ll hopefully get it worked out soon. I have some super cute projects to share with you!