Under a blue moon

Tiara party

About four years ago I found a website that sells crown kits and ever since then have wanted to have a Tiara Party with my nieces.  I just never got around to ordering the kits or gathering my own supplies to do it. 

When the Crowns & Tiaras book came out I bought it for my more vocal niece - the one that asked every couple of weeks "so when are we having our Tiara Party" until my procrastination finally broke her spirit and she stopped.  I'm a terrible Auntie.   

Then I stumbled across a picture in Flickr of the most amazing crown made by Holly Doodle Designs.  When I see her amazing work and creativity I just want to roll over and give up - I could NEVER be that creative on my own.  Seriously - go look at her Marie Antoinette inspired crown on Flickr. 

After seeing her work I raided my jewelry box and I'm sure glad I hung on to all the crap, costume jewelry from the 80's.  I'm forever losing one earring from a pair but am optimistic that it will show up eventually (even after 20 years and three moves).  I can pillage my stash for new projects.  I may not be able to use it on a tiara but certainly in some project.

Now those earrings would be a nice element to a jeweled crown, don't you think? 

I have left strict instructions that upon my demise I am to be buried wearing a tiara.  I may not be a princess in real life but, my goodness, I am going to dress like one in the hereafter.

Okay Camille - get ready - Aunt Andrea may have a Tiara Party after all!

(Edited to add:  Go check out Hellomynameisheather - she had a crown party for her little ones and the results are adorable.)

Challenge!

I am participating in Beachy's Capecod Cupboard's Blogger Craft Challenge.  Louise (Beachy) selected a vintage photograph of a wedding party and each participant was to use the image in any type of artwork they wanted.  This is my offering.

First here is the original image:

I took a microscope slide holder as the foundation for my piece.  First I painted the cover and inside a light ivory color. I painted the slots where the slide go gold.  Then I printed an old wedding certificate on vellum and glued it to the inside, cutting out where the slides go.

I added some additional  images and a favorite quote* to the inside.  I cut up the orginal photo and put four members of the wedding party under the slides (which I had painted the edges with gold paint).

I even added some rhinestones (diamonds) for good measure.  And what's a wedding without some champagne?

Then I started on the front cover. Starting with the light ivory background I stamped the front with several different rubber stamp images.  Then I decoupaged some vintage ephemera images I had.  Then I started embellishing - keeping with the wedding theme - lace, pearly buttons, hearts, a cherub, millinery flowers and a bit of blue ribbon.

The larger flower in the upper right hand corner and the bit of blue ribbon actually came from Louise herself.  A while back I had ordered a vintage hankerchief holder from her and she included a lot of little extras including these bits.   See? It pays to hang on to everything - you just never know when it might come in useful.

*"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart.  It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul." ~ Judy Garland

Whacked out biorhythms and trading cards

If you see me walking down the street today you would be well advised to cross over to the other side of the street.  Don't make eye contact.

I have a major, and I mean MAJOR, case of the klutzes these days. 

It started out last night - I decided I would make grilled chicken Caesar salad for dinner.  I had all the ingredients for the dressing so while the chicken was grilling on the cook-top I plugged in the blender and started putting in the ingredients.  A little olive oil, some vinegar, the juice of a lemon, minced garlic, Dijon mustard.  I boiled the egg for just  minute and when it was done I cracked it into the blender, slapped on the lid and started it up, forgetting the metal spoon was still in there. 

There was an instant explosion of glass, olive oil, mostly raw egg and the rest of the dressing. 

It flat out shocked me but my first thought wasn't 'what the heck just happened' but 'oh crap - that was my last lemon.'  Then I looked around and could see that was the least of my worries.  Every single surface in the kitchen was covered in the mess and the broken glass had made it into three adjoining rooms.  My hands had itty bitty cuts and there was even a teeny cut on my lip.   It was a miracle the glass didn't make it into my eyes.

I really just wanted to go lay down and hope it all went away.  I had to toss the chicken that was cooking because there was glass in the pan.  I swept up and mopped up the best that I could but we were still cleaning up congealed dressing off of the cupboards this morning.

This morning I was making my customary piece of toast for breakfast.  I got out our toaster.  Put in the bread and pushed it down.  I sat at the table while it was toasting and when I heard it pop up I went over to the counter and the toaster was empty.  I looked on the counter; no toast there.  I looked around on the floor and didn't see it - I even briefly looked up towards the ceiling.  I finally found it under the cupboards by the toe-kick.  I've never had our toaster do that before.  It flung that toast out but good.

Then I'm printing some images for an ATC project and the output tray on my printer leapt off and went crashing to the ground.  This is when Rick started slowly backing away from me.

It probably wasn't wise to get on the road but I had some errands to do and while I was out I pulled into a fast food drive in for a Diet Coke - when the girl handed my extra jumbo drink I dropped the straw on the ground - while I was distracted I looked away as she was handing me my drink and I managed to whack it against the top of the door jamb, knocking the top off and dumping half of it on the inside of my door and lap.  Wow that was cold.  When I asked the girl for some extra napkins she handed me ONE. 

Later, at home, I was rinsing out the sink and I grabbed the sprayer and managed to get it backwards in my hand, drenching the entire front of my shirt.

Dare devil that I am I did get out my rotary cutter and X-Acto knives to work on my ATC.  I've never made one before but I signed up for a swap and wanted to do a few practice ones.   I like the way this one turned out.  I think I need to rethink my backing though.  I think it is too thick and stiff for an ATC.  I don't want to come out of the gate looking like an ATC imbecile so those of that have made these send me your tips.

Archeology dig

This post is probably going to be of more interest to my sisters, who grew up with these chairs, than anyone else.

As you can plainly see they are in sad need of recovering.  I actually recovered them in that maroonish fabric back in 1982 when my parents gave me the dining room set.  I think I've probably mentioned this set before.  I was with my Mother when, in 1965 or so, she bought the set from an elderly couple.  I distinctly remember the woman telling my mother that the couple had received the set as a wedding gift some 50 years earlier.  So by the time I got the set it was almost 70 years old.

In that 70 years the seats have been recovered several times.  Uncovering them is like an archeology dig through my childhood.

It's not really necessary to take off the old covers (as you can tell since there are so many layers still there) but for the purpose of this post and my own curiosity I uncovered one of them.

 

This must have been an early 70's cover.  It is gold corduroy.  Stained gold corduroy.  My goodness we were sloppy kids.

Now this one, for all its tatteredness, took my breath away.  If Marie Antoinette was in the habit of recovering dining room chairs this is the fabric she would pick.  The picture doesn't do the colors justice.  The background is a pale, greenish aqua with alternating pale gold and darker greenish aqua stripes - then the pink flowers. 

The fabric was so rotted it just fell to dust as I was removing it.  If I could find this exact fabric I would recover the chairs in it.

The next layer was a gold damask like fabric with dusty rose for the floral part of the design.  I don't remember this layer and it was the last one so maybe this is the original fabric.  There is some kind of horsehair like batting underneath it that I had no desire to expose.

I am toying with the idea of this pink floral on a light blue background.  I'm not sure though.  Especially after seeing the Marie Antoinette fabric.  This fabric isn't upholstery grade and I'm afraid it might not hold up.  We shall see...

Valentine Cupcakes

Valentine's Day always sneaks up on me.  I think it's a combination of being holiday'd out after Christmas and yet looking ahead to Easter (which, truth be told, appeals to me so much because of the colors).  So Valentine's Day rolls around and I make a mad dash to the store for cards and little gifts for the boys. 

Said boys are grown but I remember how bitterly disappointed I was to show up at my parent's house one Easter and find that there was no Easter Basket for me.  I was 22 at the time....

But this isn't about Easter.  It's not really about Valentine's Day either.  It's about cupcake holders.  There is a new Japanese dollar store that opened up near us and I went in looking for stationary goods and found what I thought were cupcake holders.  Sara tells me they are really meant to go into Bento boxes to hold little tid bits of food.  They have a bit of a plasticky coating on them which I do not think would hold up to baking.

The writing on the box they came in is all in Japanese but on one of them there is a picture of a microwave so I'm thinking they are microwave safe but not oven safe. 

So I baked the cupcakes in run of the mill American cupcake holders and then plunked them into the pretty wrappers when they were decorated.  I am kicking myself for not getting the teeny holders while I was at the store.

The teeny cupcakes turned out even cuter.

Bits and pieces

I think it might be the incessant rain that is making Spring longing rear its pretty pastel head earlier than usual.   Since the garden is pretty grey at the moment (except for the rosehips on the sadly neglected, unpruned roses) I am going to have to make do with a faux Spring.

I think my distate for Wal-Mart is pretty well known, if not shared.  But I will venture in, go directly to the kitchen ware section, keepng my head down and not making eye contact with anyone, and grab a few of these great Anchor Hocking jars.  They come in several sizes and all have screw top.  I have a couple of smaller ones for my newly acquired buttons and for my millinery flowers.  I have a larger one for scraps of lace trim and ribbon.

(The link is to Target but I've never been able to find them in store at our Target.  I love Target and would much rather spend my money there than Wal-Mart)

To console myself I headed to our little downtown Los Altos to a new shop called 151 Boutique and bought a few pink things that were on clearance (because they are technically Christmas items but to me they could be out all year long.  At least I think so.  I'm not turning into one of those people that leaves their Christmas lights up half the year and figures what the heck, as long as they are up I might as well turn them on.... Am I?).

Seriously, what is Christmasy about that?

Okay the glittery bird ornament might be stretching it but come on!  It's pink!

Craft challenge

I spent the weekend working on Beachy's Blogger Craft Challenge - The image above is just a teaser.   Let me just say that I had a vision what I wanted it to look like and the final result is pretty darn close.  Of course it took me two tries (little issue with some gluing...) but all in all - pretty close.

I hope I can wait until the 29th to unveil it.  And leave it alone in the meantime.  I had a moment of panic where I decided to do just one more thing to it and then thought I had ruined the thing.  Just can't leave well enough alone.

Roses

I have a reoccurring dream where I am taking the most fabulous photographs for my blog.  I cannot even believe my own skill and the luck I am having and I can hardly wait to get on line and start posting.

Night before last I dreamed I was taking pictures of my parent's living room.  It had bowers of pink roses growing inside and it was just beautiful. 

This morning, since I don't have pictures of a glorious, rose hued interior to show you, I worked on a little, super easy project.  I took the little print of roses I bought earlier in the week and gave it a faux oil painting texture.

I've tried doing this with regular Mod Podge with limited success.  Now Mod Podge has a product made specifically for this use.  It couldn't be easier to use.  Using spray adhesive I mounted the print on a stiff piece of cardstock.  This keeps the paper from wrinkling when it meets the moisture in the Mod Podge.  Then I just used a cheap paint brush and dabbed on the Mod Podge.  The consistency of the Mod Podge is very thick - not quite as thick as the jar paste we used to eat in elementary school - more like puddingish Elmer's glue.   I did a few practice strokes on a different piece of paper before trying my hand on the rose print.  Dab dab dab.  Done.

After it dried I took an inexpensive frame and took out the glass.  Using spray adhesive again I mounted a piece of scrolly looking green paper on the front of the glass and then mounted the print on top of it. 

Now I just have to figure out where to put it.

Oh - the box at the top of the post came with a candle in it.  I bought the candle because I liked the box so much.  I'm using it to store all the extra buttons that come with new clothes.  I got the idea from Nicki who has saved EVERY SINGLE extra button from her clothing since she was a teenager!  She has it in a pretty little tin.  First of all it's brilliant to keep them all in one place (mine usually get pulled off with the hang tag and tossed, either in the trash or in some random drawer) but more so what fun to look back and recognize a button from a cherished coat or sweater.  I could have sworn Nicki has a post about it but I couldn't find it on her blog. 

And finally - in a bit of news that absolutely made my day - one of my very favorite bloggers (and person) - has started up her blog again, after a brief hiatus.  A fabulous start to the weekend.   

Goose girl

I hit up a little antique store yesterday and found a collection of paper goods.  I love paper second only to shiny, sparkly things.  I can't resist.

This particular vendor had a number of postcards, promotional pictures/advertisements, prints taken out of old books, etc.  There were a number that caught my eye and except for one all were just a little, well, weird.

Take the picture above - I've cropped it but it had a number on the bottom, 70, so I assume it is an illustration from a children's book.  Page 70 to be exact.  Only what kind of children's story has a small child dancing around wearing the pelt of a skinned rabbit while surrounded by other rabbits?  Are they enthralled?  Planning to overpower the dancing rabbit impostor?  And what happened to the kid's shoe?

This next scrap was originally included with a loaf of bread.  I gather from the back of the picture that one could collect the series and even send away for a scrap book to store them in.  I'm hoping that this wasn't intended for children because if I saw this when I was little I think I would be terrified.

Actually it reminds me of a story - when I was about nine years old my family was traveling through Europe.  I forget where we were but we were staying at an inn that had a little working farm.  There was a young girl about my younger sister Trish and my age.  While she was showing us around her grandmother sent her on an errand.  She looked at us and said "Whatever you do - do NOT go into the goose pen.  They will get out."  So of course we went into the goose pen and the geese all escaped.  Trish and I ran all over the place, fruitlessly trying to round them up.  The girl was very cross with us when she got back and the next day I woke up with my eyes swollen shut because unbeknownst to me I was chasing them through a nettle patch. 

So I can actually kind of identify with the little girl in the picture.

I'm not sure where this next picture came from.  There is something vaguely sinister about the whole scene.  A cat playing the harp for giant rats?  And are the rats dancing or just steadying each other?  And what is with the little cranky cat sitting on top of the harp? 

I thought at first it was a prayer card because of the back:

But then I thought maybe these are testimonials from people that were cured of their ailments by some product rather than prayer.   What exactly is dyspepsia anyway?

Here's the not weird one:

It's smaller than shown here.  I bought a Mod Podge product that you brush onto prints that gives them a brush stroke appearance.  I think I'll find a little frame for it and it will look like a teeny oil painting.

Embroidery

1. small embroidery book, 2. Untitled, 3. Bunny Onesie, 4. Cherry Tree, 5. Embroidery lesson 3, 6. CupcakeGuru detail, 7. growing close up, 8. Tea Towel Swap, 9. cupcake embroidery, 10. little dear and ghost birds, 11. japanese embroidery book, 12. Embroidery lesson 2, 13. Bundt Cake embroidery, 14. sweet bird!, 15. embroidered bird onesie wip, 16. Girl With Bird Embroidered Pouch

I haven't made much (any) progress on my runner so far this week.  Probably because I've been so busy hanging out at flickr looking at embroidery examples.   I'm feeling the urge to get out my embroidery hoop again. 

I seem to be drawn to the simple, sweet designs.  I saw several pictures that were from a Japanese embroidery book.  After a bit of sleuthing (okay not so much - other bloggers are very intrepid and quicker than I am to find these things) I see I can buy it from Superbuzzy. 

While searching I went down a rabbit hole of Japanese crafting and I now I NEED some Japanese craft magazines.  So cute.  I'm going to head over to our local Asian shopping center and see what I can find.