Mind Wide Open Challenge #3

Would you like to swig on a star---carry moonbeams home in a bottle or a jar? OK, so I changed some of the words of that old song to fit my needs. Is that what they call "Artistic Licence"?

Provided with this beautiful image from Mind Wide Open,

I decided to do a little digital art, and make a label for this bottle of my "Moonbeam Elixir".

(You can click on the photo to enlarge it.) I got the great graphics for the plain labels at The Graphics Fairy, where Karen posts a FREE graphic for your use every day! As the back label indicates, you can sip it with your favorite desserts or add it as a flavoring to what ever that thing is there you've got bubbling up from the depths in your cauldron. I started with a plain brown (12 oz.) glass bottle, added the labels, popped in a gold cork (that has a mother-of-pearl button and a gold marble blob on top) and tied ribbon, lace and a pearl choker on the neck. There's also a handy, silver measuring spoon tied on, in case you want to be exact with the elixir--as it is pretty potent stuff! Did I ever tell you about the night I was in the forest and I, becoming parched while on the hunt for the elusive Fairy Shoes, drank half a bottle of the elixir, tripped over some exposed tree roots and ended up lead dancer in a Fairy ring?!?!? I actually don't recall much of that incident, but when you wake up the next morning with a daisy chain tattooed around your ankle, you just know those Fairies have pulled one over on you! Oh sorry, that's getting off the subject a bit...what I really want you to know is that there are 25 lovely entries from 25 lovely artists who have all used this hauntingly lovely image, in vastly different ways. You can see them all here and please vote for your favorite by midnight September 14!

Vintage Thingies Thursday--Postcards From Emma

I went to LA this last weekend to help clean out my late father-in-laws house. His mother, Emma, saved everything, and my father-in-law still had it all! Emma not only saved everything, but on the back of most photos she even wrote the time and place. I just about cried when I saw this album...





....and the 200 postcards it held! Thanks, Emma. They'll remain in safe keeping!

Vintage Thingies Thursday

Have you ever seen that video by Blind Melon? The one where the little Bee Girl has a hard time fitting in? Seems no one really "gets" her. They can't understand why she has an innate desire to just be what and who she is. I used to feel like that Bee Girl sometimes until a few years ago when I met a group of women who really "get me".


And the good news is that I keep meeting more and more of them! In fact, there's a whole group of them over at Confessions of An Apron Queen

They love the vintage,
pretty and
the silly stuff too.



Your average, unassuming little shiny box:



packed with a tiny little surprise

that made me catch my breath....



Go find your people, Bee who you are and Bee happy!

It's That Time Of The Month Again...

when we all get a little emotional, and our hearts palpate a little faster. We women expect it every month and are all in tune to it. And this month we're gonna eat some CHOCOLATE! I'm not talking about any one's biological rhythms here, I'm talking about the monthly opening at Room With A Past! August 21, 22, 23, & 24 mark the Grand Re-Opening sale days. Hope you come by to nosh on some sweets, meet the new owner, Susan, and see the changes that have been completed in the shop. There will be a drawing for not only $50 and $75 gift certificates to the shop, but a spectacular Grand Prize; the coolest birdcage filled with cottage accessories, and a $100 gift certificate included! Get one drawing ticket with purchase AND get two tickets just for bringing in a friend!

I brought in a few great vintage toys and doll accessories for this month's sale:


Love this spaghetti dog playing the piano!

and I assembled some ephemera packets (full of sheet music, labels, dictionary pages and lots more!) for you to use in your crafting! Send me a picture of what you do with any of the contents, and I'll post it in a future blog!

Do you see those cherries on the typewriter's keyboard? I made them! My friend Rosann got me starting on making pom pom's, and I can't stop! I thought they'd be cute on a gift package, or on either end of a fabric valance in a kitchen!



I also brought in some furniture in anticipation of the fall months ahead: a great vintage dresser with glass knobs, a red half-round table and two upholstered chairs in great autumn colors for your Home Sweet Home.

Fabulous Fifties Finds

Mind Wide Open Challenge #2

Here is my entry for the second "Mind Wide Open" artistic challenge. There are many beautiful entries to provide you with an insight on how one simple image can inspire different forms of making one's art. Please go look at them and VOTE for your favorite. You have until August 14th to cast your vote.

My entry is so very personal to me that I almost didn't want anyone to see it! It's based on my ever-tatting Grandma! She was my father's step-mother, but she was the only grandma I ever knew. When I was growing up, I was lucky to have her live in the house next door! My family would go over to visit Grandma & Grandpa every Sunday after church. I was greeting by a pink- speckled cup of warm coffee with half & half, and cookies wrapped in a napkin. During the week, I'd skip over to visit often. We'd settle in the rocking chairs with Grandpa to watch the "Edge of Night" and Grandma, always with a hankie in her breast pocket, would work on tatting her doilies.

Grandma's house held a collection of porcelain giraffes on the mantle, a box of "toys"; her old purses, powder compacts, Grandpa's old silk ties, wooden thread spools, vintage baby rattles and a few Little Kiddles for my sisters, brother and I. There was always something good cooking in the kitchen and always a TV Guide around with a crossword puzzle that needed finishing.

"All you can do is your best." She'd told me when I was 16 and I was nervous about my first job. She was always rooting for me in everything I did. When I was 17, Grandpa died and Grandma moved away to be closer to her daughter, in Mountain View.

We would write often. The letters were full of things about her grand kids, the weather, her thoughts on the world around her, and my then boyfriend who became my husband. She died shortly after finding out about my boyfriend, never getting to meet him. These letters became the background on the 16" x 20" canvas. The wood piece with peeling blue paint was a door panel from a house in Napa where they lived before I was born. On it is a glass doorknob like the one the door originally had, flanked by vintage millinery flowers. Under the knob, is the image of a door plate provided for the challenge, with a vintage key and an image of Grandma as a young girl in the keyhole. "SECRET" was the word provided to aid in further inspiration. Using Grandma's words from her letters, I spelled out "Her secret to life was to love always." under the door plate. The white edging is some fine needle work from a vintage hankie, and a green tatted doily peeks out from behind the sides of the wood panel.

This project really "hits me where I live" and I hope Grandma likes what I've created from the memories in my heart!

Finished and Sharing

It's a good day for sharing things I've been working on and finished up.


My new paneled headboard was formally a vertically-challenged door. Now turned sideways and given a fresh coat of paint, I mounted it between the posts of my existing king-sized (tired of looking at pickets) headboard, and added a piece of molding on top to cap it off. I love it!



Next is the pile of linens from the Fourth of July gathering I hosted at my house. Now devoid of mustard stains, folded and stacked, they are ready to be put away (and looking quite dandy, until someone actually does!). I like to "un-decorate" a little at a time I guess, letting the memories of the time I shared with family and friends linger for a little while.

Cute little green chair got painted today. It's a strange size--can't decide if it wants to grow up or not. Reminds me of a cat that's not a kitten anymore, but sure as heck couldn't be mistaken for an adult quite yet.


I just finished painting an old dresser in a semi-gloss black and added glass knobs today. Like the little green chair, it's one of my "backup" pieces; ready to go in my spot at the shop when some of the other goodies like the green drop-front desk or the floral love seat go to a new home and

leave me with a bare spot!

The sale at the shop starts on Thursday night if you'd care to mosey on down. And it looks like it's going to be a beautiful night for it, as the days and nights are (thankfully) cooling down now. If you can't make it Thursday, we'll be there Friday, Saturday & Sunday too!