Where Has Charlene Been? SHOPPING!!!!

Have you heard of Round Top Antique Fair? Well, that is where these two HAPPY girls were headed! Lisa showed up at my house bright & early Sunday morning & this is what the back of the van looked like. A case of water & a shopping cart!

Our first stop... THE FIELDS! Yep, you heard me right... COW FIELDS turned into Shopping Nirvana. Lisa THREW OPEN HER DOOR & JUMPED out of the van. Ran to the back & pulled out the cart. She's heading for the road. I was trying to lock the van & it wouldn't beep. I said "Hey Lisa does your van beep when it locks"? She says "Yes" I say "It's not working". She turns around, comes back & checks... She left her door WIDE OPEN when she bailed to get the cart. We both LAUGHED SOOOOOOOOOOOO HARD!

As we walked from the parking lot (field) this is one of the first food vendors we saw. CUTE isn't it? A coffee hut VW trailer. So made me laugh! This field was in Warrenton, Texas.

We were walking (no running) for...

One of the first booths we took a photo of. A little of this & a little of that.

Lisa already on the HUNT! She & I both dropped a bit of cash here. The owner was from Dallas & had a wonderful stash of silk seam tape that is so the rage right now. We bought so many beautiful colors. And also, vintage Christmas treasures.

We were really on the hunt for Carolyn Westbrook's booth. Lisa had her hardback first edition book & we were ready to shop with Carolyn & get her autograph.

Here is Lisa in front of one of Carolyn's fabulous beds! Her linen pillows & bedding are amazing!

Again, Vintage Christmas. Don't you love the framed shelves?

Mission Accomplished! Book signed! Thanks Carolyn! Now we're hungry so let's head to Royer's Cafe Annex at Zapp Hall. Royer's Cafe is FAMOUS in Round Top. But, it is tiny & they put this second venue at Zapp Hall to help the crowds.

The menu... is below. I had chicken-apple sausage with grilled onions, potato salad & Texas caviar (black eyed peas with onions & jalapeno peppers). Lisa had a shrimp poor boy. YUM!

Some more shopping & then it's time for dessert.

On a WING & A PRAYER! Boy, I can relate to that!

Is that the cutest little Shasta trailer or what? Hey Britney (my friend Laverne's daughter who also has a Shasta trailer & is a member of Sister's on the Fly) where's this baby's wings? Anyway, this gal had fixed up the trailer & was selling cup cakes. CUTE!!!!!!!

Day TWO we started at CLUTTER! Isn't that a cool name & sign?

This little treasure is only open for the shows (one spring & one fall). Clutter is owned by a mother/daughter (below) team that go to England on buying trips & then ship all the "clutter" home for these shows. Bought some great stuff here.

And then back out into the SUN in the fields. Believe me when I tell you it was gruesome! 98 degrees with horrible humidity. Only a die hard shopper could endure! But, I wondered about us more than once... Everyone knows I have a weakness for stained & beveled glass. Well, do you think I found some?

And let's talk some crystal chandi's

And some more doors & chandi's... A WHOLE HUGE TENT FULL!

No, I didn't buy a door or a chandi. But I darn sure wanted to! I was like a crack addict in a meth lab!

And did you need some beads?

Would be perfect if you were a cowgirl!

A very popular mode of dress for this show is a dress or skirt worn with cowboy (EXCUSE ME COWGIRL) boots!

Both Lisa & I loved this look of the old chairs covered with printed linen. (Linen chair, pillows & stool).

Another look at this shop & you can see other goodies in there. This is where I bought a fabulous black & white transfer ware plate with shells. I'll show you my goodies later.

Well that's day One & Two! I am pooped & headed for bed. I have lots more to share so be sure & come back soon! Gotta Love Shopping with a girlfriend in such a little piece of HEAVEN! We did share camera's & photos...kind of who could find there's at that moment. But, the stories will be different so be sure & go see Lisa's Blog too (& she has names of some of these great vendors because I didn't have pen & paper).

September Art Group - What a Bunch of DIVA'S

Is this Assemblage adorable or what?

This week was time for our Art Group to meet at Collected Treasures again. Our theme was Halloween. But, none of us worked on the same thing. Below you can see JoAnn & Cami working at their side of the table. Cami is new to our group & was such a great fit with everyone!

JoAnn & I9of course I loved them but, had forgotten about them until she reminded me) had seen a project in Sommerset using vintage photos & old spoons to create darling little Halloween Goodies. She is doing these for her daughter & granddaughters.

Look at that little cutie! It's JoAnn as a baby!!!!! Her girls are gonna love these!

This is an image that I printed off & gave her. This baby looks a little scared & wild eyed. Perfect for Halloween.

And here's the third one she finished. Again, it's baby JoAnn. The first one she did was done on an old spoon that had a black Bakelite handle(see it in the photo below). These other two were on old silver spoons.

Below is Carolyn's adorable Halloween House. She had this ready to bring to show us. She said she has GLITTER all over her house from making this & the Christmas Houses. She plans to sell them at Trade Days Oct 24. She also had a really cute wreath but, I didn't get a photo of that.

Carolyn was not going to work on anything when she first came in. Said she was just there to visit. But, Lisa brought her the sweetest photo & I asked her if she wanted to use my soldering stuff & do a necklace. She said YES!!!!!!!!!!! So below is the finished piece. So sweet! Pat gave her that old pearl from a stash of goodies she got at Cleburne's Antique Alley.

Here's Carolyn hard at work. I forgot my tile I like to work on so we improvised with an old tin Jana had. The girls from the Beginner's Solder Class I taught last week would laugh at that one. A bit rustic but, it worked!

And here's Rochelle working on her yarn project. I can't remember if it was knit or crochet but, she wanted over in the corner so her yarn would be on the rug & she had a bird's eye view of every one's "stuff: going on.

Ant there is Pat cleaning off her charm that she worked so hard on. She was dying to learn to solder & is planning on ordering her "Kit" next week. So, we had a little quickie class & she got the hang of it really fast. But, she's been watching me for weeks.

Here's Jana & Lisa at their table. Jana worked on pumpkins made from old chenille spreads. She thought she wanted white ones this year but, decided she wanted to tea dye them instead so, she just kind of watched everyone else that night. Ms Lisa was working on an assemblage also but, I didn't get to see much since I was at the other table.

Well, that's it for Art Group this month. We're still talking names for the group. Here's the suggestions so far 1. All By Hand 2. Sisters of the Sacred Glue Guns 3. DIVAS Diverse, Imaginative, Vivacious, Artistic, Sisters. What's your vote? Leave me a comment & let me know. Happy Creating Girlfriends!

Transfer Wear Apron Class by Lisa

September is a month for learning! On September 10th I took the Transfer Class at Collected Treasures. This class was taught by my amazingly talented friend Lisa http://tarnishedandtattered.blogspot.com/ This darling apron was the finished product (click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see the details better). I wanted to learn this technique so badly prior to class & have so many ideas to come from it. Lisa did a wonderful job teaching, explaining, helping, & brought awesome trims & vintage photos for us to use.

This is an example of Joann's Goody bag from Lisa. We had one at each place when we arrived.

Here you can see me in the fore ground... working away on my apron. And then Joanna ttp://sweetfinds.typepad.com/sweet_finds/ is beside me & there in the back is Carolyn

http://thenandnowatcollectedtreasures.blogspot.com/ Here's Lisa using the computer to help one of the students with her images.

Picking through Lisa's treasure trove of goodies is Joanna, Carolyn & Jana (owner of Collected Treasures ). Lisa had vintage lace, doilies, buttons, ribbons... TREASURES I'm telling you good stuff & she let us use things from her stash! She is the most generous giving person!

Here's another class photo where you can see some of the tools used in the class. Her wonderful sewing machine & the most HEAVY DUTY IRON I think I've ever seen.

Carolyn SURPRISED Lisa with the completed shopping cart liner she had made for her basket. Lisa & I will soon be going to go to the HUGE BIG FLEA MARKET/ANTIQUE FAIR in Round Top/Warrington, Texas. And Lisa will use this shopping buggy to haul her treasures around the fields. It was a plain wire buggy (yes I have one too with the ugliest plastic mesh liner so now the race is on to make myself a liner too) before Carolyn (Carolyn is an amazing seamstress & has made many lovely things to sell in her shop there at Collected Treasures)performed her MAGIC!

This is a photo of Joanna & I at class. The funny thing is that we knew each other from my very first Soldered Charm Class taken last year from Heather Ales. Isn't it funny what a small world it is.

Here is a close up of the left pocket of my apron. It is a transfer of a piece of sheet music that I stitched on three sides. Perfect little pocket!

And the other pocket is also a sheet of music. Loved the title "Happy As A Birdie In It' Nest" & above the pocket you can see the lovely piece of vintage trim I used. I stitched on a number of different buttons, a stem of latte colored velvet flowers & ran a piece of beautiful vintage seam binding through the lace(the seam binding & flowers were mine but, the rest was from Lisa's stash).

Here's the top. A sweet vintage counter card of a boy was transferred onto linen & then stitched on. Above it is some more of the same trim & ribbon used on the rest of the apron. Here I used Mother of Pearl buttons to add a different look to the top.

A close up of this sweetie! Wonder who & what he turned into as an adult? These old photos have such stories to tell. If you missed this class & you live in the Dallas/Ft worth area... check back to see when Lisa will be teaching it again. THANK YOU LISA!!!!!! You're the BEST!!!! And Jana http://collectedtreasures.blogspot.com/ , thank you for having us to your wonderful store to use your Art Area as a place for us to all create & take classes.

I have a challenge for each of you... Learn something new this month & come back & share it with me. Have a wonderful creative week.