My New Shop Location!

This is a previous post from last year 
when I had gone to Barrett St Antique Mall for a bit of shopping!
I DID put my name on the waiting list and am so excited to tell you that I am opening there tomorrow!!
If you think I might be wicked busy...you're right!
Back to work!
I'll leave you to enjoy the tour.....these pics were using my old point and shoot so forgive the quality!

Today I decided to take a jaunt to one of my favorite places in town.
Barrett St. Antique Mall
This mall is HUGE and less than 1/2 hr from my house.
THIS is where I wanted my little shop but alas
no spaces. If I am the least bit successful at this venture, 
I will put my name on the waiting list.
It's probably only a five or ten year wait......{sigh}
Here we go.....

sorry about the page break...I don't know how to remove it from the former post!
Just click "read more" at the bottom of this post!

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Vintage Hearts

I enjoyed picking through my vintage and antique lace stash the other day so I decided to make something else that I could use the damaged pieces for.

The intact pieces I set aside to make more pillows like this one.

But, the damaged pieces are perfect for these vintage hearts.

I just made a heart pattern from cardboard, traced it onto some striped fabric, cut it out and sewed around the edge...leaving a hole for some fiberfill...

Here it is before stuffing so you can see the long, pointy shape I made.

I stuffed it firmly, sewed it closed and then aged it a bit by painting on a mixture of coffee and glue.

The coffee darkens it and the glue stiffens it. 

I don't have proportions for you but there are recipes all over the web.

Once it was dry, I glued on some pieces of lace.

I added a vintage button to these two

They turned out very nicely and it wasn't a long project at all!

Sharing with
Embracing Change

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Vintage I Love You Pillow

I have a real love for fabric, especially any old linens.

Before there was as much machine made laces and linens, many were done by hand.

Much of it was pure necessity, like some of the coarse linen things that are all the rage right now. 
I was fortunate to find some affordable French linen in Paris last May. 

personal collection

apartment therapy

Some were done to teach sewing to girls, especially in convent schools and finishing schools.
It was expected that a "proper" young lady could embroider beautifully.
Finishing school girls may have married into society or royalty and would embroider as a pursuit, rather than a necessity.
Convent trained girls would become ladies maids, or governesses, or housekeepers, or seamstresses.
Their embroidery skills might be put to use for another girl's trousseau, christening gowns, or household mending.
Regardless of whose hands created these treasures, they remain lovely and special....symbols of another time and another lifestyle. Downton Abbey isn't a craze JUST for the storyline......the lifestyle is alluring to us....
Today, more often than not, we want fresh, new, modern, perfect and
 most sadly.....disposable.

personal collection

Elaborate, hand embroidered trousseau items were much more common then.
These took years to make and were begun when a girl was born.
Mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sisters....all worked together to create a houseful of linens for the someday bride.

hip paris blog

I can't imagine sleeping on some of these gorgeous lace edged and embroidered sheets...can you?

personal collection

Obviously, a houseful of servants was absolutely necessary to soak and iron and mend these items in order to keep them at their pristine best.

These days, we tend to cherish these items and not use them routinely.

I hate that.
Really, I do.

 I wish some of the beautiful linens I have could be seen more.

I often go through my stash and think about the hands that spend countless hours cutting and stitching these beautiful creations. I use bits and pieces for my vintage style clothing but the pieces that are intact are difficult for me to cut.....

Last week, I was looking at a pretty piece of handmade linen and suddenly visualized it on a pillow with some modern embroidery.

I drew "I love you" on the piece with a pencil and then embroidered it using an outline stitch.

Then, I attached it to a piece of rough linen which resembles feed sack material....

I think this helps these beautiful pieces to live on....
don't you?

I have many more....this is next in line...

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Mantel Makeover

One of the things I miss the most after the holidays are the lights.

I use LOTS of white lights and I LOVE to have them on in the evening.

Once I take them down, the house always seems so dreary and blah to me.

In snow areas, you can get some wonderful, reflected light that brightens interiors.

But here, winter often means overcast skies that neither snow nor rain.

I had taken down my Glory to God mantel from Christmas.....
I knew what I wanted though.....

A few months ago I scored a fantastic architectural piece at a thrift shop.

I LOVE this piece and I knew it would look wonderful on my mantel.

I usually have a mirror there in order to help the living room feel brighter. 

We have a living room with a large screened in porch through the French doors and those are the only windows. 

So, it tends to be dark in here.

Once I added the wood piece, it seemed even darker....

although it was cozy looking.

I decided that decorating with some of my silver collection was in order.

Silver reflects light like a mirror so well.

I started with just the wood piece...

then added an upside down sconce to hold a tray...

added a few more trays...

 and finally....candles......

It still needed something up high

Adding a heart shaped vine wreath transformed it into a Valentine's Day mantel and carried the white up into the darker wood area.

I love the change!

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Pretty Snowy Day

I know some of you have been living with snow for a few months already but here in Virginia Beach, we don't get much snow!

Yesterday we had our first snowfall and it was quite pretty.

The creek was frozen....

The boys began scrambling around for whatever they could find to wear....

We don't keep too many snow clothes here.....

I headed outside to take pictures.....

My husband built several of these birdhouses.....

Here is the one he gave our daughter...

It's always interesting how even a simple structure like a fence post 

can look pretty with snow on it!

How different the hydrangea walk looks in the winter. 

See it here in full bloom.

I love the rosemary bush with snow......so pretty....

Finally, the boys were ready.

Catching snowflakes is fun until your big brother drops a snow bomb.......

These are Florida kids....

I think they lasted a whole hour before they came in.........

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Easy XO Hearts

Today is our wedding anniversary!

My husband is a great guy and works so hard for our family. 

Many long hours at the office and then works around the house too! 

We have never called a plumber, electrician, carpenter, etc because he has taught himself how to do almost anything!

We built this house together and the work he has done is just amazing!

Check out the house tour in the sidebar to see some of his handiwork.

He reads my blog so tell him what a great job he did!!

 Happy Anniversary Honey!

I have a super easy, cute little project for your weekend!

I had some red linen I was using to make some pillows for the shop(s) and used the leftover pieces to make these XO hearts!

I traced a heart using a cookie cutter.......

Then embroidered an X and used a button for the O.....

Stitch them together using a small zigzag stitch and stuff them with a small bit of fiberfill.....

They'd make a great little sachet for lavender too!

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A Horse Of A Different Color

Of course you've heard by now

if you're ANYBODY that is....

the color of the year from Pantone is Emerald.

For a minute, let's ponder this Pantone thing.

I mean, this COULD be a think tank of mahvelus decorators all sitting around saying things like

"what a simply DIVINE color"

or

"this color just SPEAKS to me"

or

"it's so ORGANIC, so THRILLING, so PERFECT"

I didn't think of these things myself, I stole them from one of my favorite shows "Million Dollar Decorators"...
where everyone, especially Martin, simply GUSHES all over the place 
with statements like this. 
Regular people don't talk like this. 
When was the last time your hardware guy said your can of spray paint was a DIVINE color....and that it SPOKE to him...? 

So "PANTONE SAYS" suddenly becomes THE thing swirling around blogdom.

Pinterest boards are formed immediately

Bloggers start pondering how to transform their French foyer 
(which they JUST finished mind you) 
into an EMERALD paradise.

But...and I mean a big BUT (with one T, we're not talking about ME here)

What if.....Pantone is really a place like GAP, or APPLE or Anthropologie...

I mean, what if it's a bunch of twentysomething guys and gals sitting around in torn jeans and T-shirts

with skateboards under their desks

and tats all over

and piercings the size of Mason jar lids

and a little 'you -know-what' in the ashtray

throwing darts at a big board and counting up how many land on a particular color

and then laughing themselves silly as they watch boutiques and online shops and magazines and bloggers

transforming themselves to try and keep up with the RIGHT color?

Huh? What if? What would you think then?

They've done it before you know.....I was totally unaware of what a nerd I was all these years because I just found out about this IMPORTANT info last year....

I liked this one.....it worked out just perfectly in the Fall with all those pumpkins. If you squinted, the orange pumpkins looked sort of Tangerine....

I liked this one too....once again, Fall decor fit right in....think SQUASH here... even though it's called Mimosa...although Mimosas are quite nice to drink and it's the right color for that.

I wasn't too sure about this one.....I did have a pink honeysuckle vine before but that wasn't the first name I would have thought of for this.

I figured I could ponder a bit myself as to how, exactly, I could work this color into my life...aside from just going outside to enjoy my garden that is.

I'm pretty sure...make that absolutely sure that I will NOT be painting any of my rooms like this.
And, if I walked out in that total green suit there would be plenty of snarky comments..."found that pot of gold yet?" 
The chandelier isn't bad....

OK now...things are looking up.....I'll take THAT guy...

Green coat....no
Pencils.....do-able
containers of laundry detergent....that works
I won't even comment on the guy in the green pants.....

OK now....something I can really get into!! 
I can wear this when I go to the store early in the morning for milk....it will make a great impression......

Alright....I guess I'm fine with some Emerald green...

It will come in quite handy on St Patrick's Day at least....

Are YOU ready for Emerald green?

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Easy Picture Frame Hot Pad

I have a lot of corks....
I mean really, a lot....

Here's the disclaimer

I DID NOT DRINK ALL THIS WINE

at once

No, seriously I did not drink all this....honest....

A couple years ago I found this game board.

It was covered in corks!

I wanted a game board for the boys room and then I put all the corks in these jars and figured I'd use them later for something.

Two years later....
I began roaming around for the right project..

However, I did not want a cork wreath

fabhousewife

or a cork bulletin board

cutoutandkeep

I didn't really need a cork bath mat

homesessive

even if it did sort of look like the President 
and it was the inauguration and all.
Wouldn't that mean the President was looking up my hoo-ha?
I mean that's weird...just a little...

I pondered this chair but thought it was a bit too much for the 
new, leaner, simpler blogger that I just became...

although I suspect I have enough corks for this

thewinemaven

I did use three...yes, a whopping three....

for my candle sconce makeover in the Fall
which did reduce the number to, oh say, 1350 or so...

Then I saw this hot pad

urbanfarmhouse

Eureka!
I don't know why I said that...we don't say Eureka! in the South...
something more like 

"hoo-ee , now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about"
or a nice 
"there you go"
or even 
"well golly day"

but not Eureka!

I decided to use a great frame from the thrift.
It was all carved looking and I knew it would look nice with a faux stone finish.

It did have this unfortunate picture in it.

I almost left it there but I knew I would always think of them down there under the macaroni and cheese so I decided against it.

First, I gave it a coat of this MS paint I found on the OOPS rack at
 Home Depot.

Then I hot glued on a backer board so it would be nice and smooth and not scratch the table.

I added a few books for some weight.....

only the right kind of books, of course...

Then, a few pieces of cardboard to raise the level up a bit.

The corks need to be higher than the frame or someone will mistake that chemical smell of the paint heating up on your hot pad for some really bad cooking.

And, yet again, your kids will say 

"eww...what is that?....I'm not hungry"

So, raise your corks

(sounds like a drinking song to me)

Back to the hot pad....

Once the level is high enough, just hot glue the corks on.

Now, being a VERY experienced crafter, I laid out my corks first to make sure they filled the frame up well.

You should probably do this, unless you're the adventurous sort.

I don't have time for adventure...sorry...I'm too busy 

Then I decided that the frame was too white against the corks and added some MMS Antiquing Wax 
(which I just HAPPENED to have...remember, I sell the stuff) 
I also filled the small gap around the edge with some rope.

Now let's see.....only about a thousand corks to go.

Send me your cork ideas and I'll see if I like them.....

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