Birthdays...

Birthdays... IF a girl has to have one nothing takes the sting out of it like sharing it with a

 BEST Friend!  

While at Joy's Sandy & I shared our BDays (mine at the first of the month & hers at the end).  

AND presents of course really help!

A MERMAID Necklace from Joy & Laurie (found while they were at Round Top I believe).  Joy put the pretty turquoise necklace part together.  LOVE HER!!!!!

That AMAZING Necklace of bling was made by none other than Ms Sandy!  And I adore the cabinet card of the little girl that she used to  display it on.  Presentation, Presentation, Presentation!   

And the beautiful burgundy flower was made by Vickie Orlando as well a string of Miriam Haskle pearls (so she said).  And that darling little mermaid on the left is a chocolate lollipop made by the infamous Cynthia V.  She does such detailed, beautiful, yummy creations.  She also made me a sand castle cake but, darn NO ONE got a photo of that.  Loved it Cynthia.

These beauties were made by Diana Salvucci Smith.  She & Vickie took a class from Arlene Baker & hand made/formed those flowers from velvet.  Hours I'm sure.  While out in California last summer Vickie took me to Arlene's house & I got to see students working in a class as well as being able to shop among all the velvet, patterns, molds, buttons, & findings.  HEAVENLY!!!!!  And that mirror... a vintage hand mirror that Diana use the "Laurie Mika clay technique" on.  I would sooooooooooo love to learn to do this! Below you can see the crown she made for each of us using clay & the same technique.

 How can I thank you girls for spoiling me this weekend & helping me celebrate my birthday?  Now that it's September I can't believe it was so long ago.  But, soon I'll share a post of the BDay celebration we had for Sandy in San Jose at the end of June... Never enough time for friends!  Come back soon!

A Visit to Andrea's AMAZING Home

I bet that EYE CANDY caught your attention!!!!  This is the studio of my friend Andrea of Freckled Star Blog. Be sure to click on the blue links to go visit the girls & see their blogs as you will be hooked on all the goodies you find there.  Andrea is an AMAZING, TALENTED, FUN friend that I have been blessed to know for years. We first met through Kim Caldwell & her fun filled EVENTS but, through time we have been together in many classes, Antique Fairs & this June I was invited to a class by Robin Dudley Howes which was held in Andrea's AMAZING home.  I didn't even take many photos of the project or any of our finished work because I was so OVERWHELMED at the beauty of Andrea's home/studio.  Maybe I have studio lust since I STILL don't have a studio.  But, what beauty... Let's go peek.

 Andrea LOVES Dollies & has MANY different one to look at.  Here are just a few.

The ones below were made in a class by my talented friend Diana Frey.  Nice job Andrea!

And I think the bird necklace is a Sally Jean class.  I need to try that one as it's really pretty!

She has such a knack of display.  Don't you love the garland of gloves?

A Ruth Rae piece to show off...  I think I was with her at a class in Kim's home when she bought this beauty.  It was the first time Andrea had used a sewing machine & I will tell you that girl made that machine FLY!!!! Finished her piece in class!  I was impressed.

How sweet is the window covering below... vintage baby slips?

 More views of "STUFF" in her room.  Like me, I think she has enough paper.  My friend Jo Ann & I always end up buying paper but, do we use it?  NO!
We live by the belief that the one with the most paper wins!

In her guest bathroom her displays of perfume bottles, soaps, goodies abound.  And MOUSE TRAPS anyone?  Have you ever seen cuter ones?

 Let's move on to a few more rooms in the house.  Each one cuter than the next.  Now anyone who knows me knows I am a beach girl & so is Andrea.  Her displays speak to my heart!  LOVE the starfish tree.

The "P A R I S" bottles are 2 Die 4!

The mantle in the family room.  

The jewlery nook in the corner of her bedroom... Oh she had some treasures there!!!!

This little beauty above was sitting on her dresser.  A suitcase with the side cut out, a mermaid scene & fish inside.  BE STILL MY HEART!!!! Angela I MUST have one!  And last but, not least look at her little reading nook in her room.  LOVE the saying... You have my whole heart for my whole life... SWEET!

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into Andrea's special world.  I feel blessed to have been invited & thank her for her hospitality & sharing.  

I have been away from Blogland for such a long while with the move/remodel & last week I posted for the first time in months.  I hope that you will come back & make it a habit to visit as I want to visit many blogs each week because I have missed Blogging.  Andrea did a post a few weeks back about blogging & Face Book.  I think each have their own special place & I would hate to see Blogs disappear altogether because FB is eaiser! What do you think?  IF you stop to visit please comment & let me know you were here.  But, even if the comments are few I keep reminding myself that my blog is a place for ME!  A place for me  to share but, most of all it's my journal of my life & I will keep it up no matter what until I decide it's time to stop.  If you're here... thank you for stopping & visiting.  I hope you enjoy what I have to share.  Have a beautiful week!  HUGS!

All Aboard for our Train Case Swap & FUN at Joy's House!

Missing in action????? I bet that's what you think!

Well almost...

We bought our house back in February 2013 & ever since it's been a crazy re-model & move merry go round.  In between trying to heard the goat rodeo of contractors & take care of "life" & work I've had my hands FULL!!!!!!  In June (this year) I got a pass!  "Daddy Darling" (that's one of hubby's nick names) said go play with your girls for your birthday!  He didn't have to tell me twice!  

One of the things we did while there was to do our Train Case Swap.  This started A LONG TIME AGO!  Back in January 2013 Joy Campbell came up with the idea & we all agreed.  Little did we know that of the 6 that started (Cindy Craine dropped out due to having the shingles) 3 of us would sell our houses & move.  Not only did we move we did HUGE re-models.  Needless to say the Train Case became a derailment!  18 months latter we got together to exchange the cases that traveled from California to Texas to Washington state.  Below is four of us with our finished cases.  Vickie Orlando was also in the swap but, she was out of town at The Country Living Antique Show back east when we got together.  She & Sandy had a pre-party for her to open hers.

Left to right is ME,  Sandy Navarro , Joy Campbell & Laurie Garcia.

The OUTSIDE of the cases!  We bought our own cases & decorated a little bit to develop the "theme".

 The case was then sent to the next person who put at least one personal touch to the outside & then we added 5 to 6 things that the receiver would possibly use to "CREATE" with.  Or something special you thought that she might like.

Since Cindy had not done a case we each gave her a few goodies & the adorable Doll Head Fur Muff was given to her by Laurie.  As anyone who knows Cindy knows... she is CRAZY about dolls/doll heads.  Laurie said she remembered having one of these as a little girl.  When she went to church (she lived up north) it was one of her favorite things to have as it kept her hands warm & was a toy to play with while sitting still.  IT WAS PERFECT for Cindy!

 The weekend was held at Joy's new home near Temecula.    BEAUTIFUL doesn't even begin to describe her home & the grounds around it.

 Dinner in her back yard.  Good dinner with AMAZING FRIENDS!

Above you see some of the fun....  Diana Salvucci Smith also joined us & you can see in the photo to the left we were doing chocolate cake shooters.  And Cindy/Joy messing around being silly.  With Joy doing a photo bomb on my case.  We had sooooooooooooo much fun!  THANK YOU JOY FOR OPENING YOUR HOME FOR US & FOR BEING AN AMAZING HOSTESS!

 On Friday we all took off to go to Vintage Market Place in Rainbow, CA.  Our sweet friend Cynthia  met us to shop & party.  We also ran into Jan & her husband Steve while we were there.

This was so cute but, I bought the Mermaid &  "Cocktail" sign all done in lights.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of what I bought but, I guess I took this thinking I would add this cutie to the other things later & would need a gentle nudge to remember him.  I'll share my purchase when I get them hung.  Not much was purchased by me but, I can say I did my share of the HUGE shipping bill in size of the items.  Oh well...

I'll try real hard to be back soon to share our class that we did at Andrea's house.  The teacher was Robin Dudley Howe & we had a wonderful time.  Andrea's house is AMAZING & I took tons of photos of her studio.  Glad to be back in BLOGland.  I've missed you!

Vintage Case Round Robin

The last thing I needed was another project but, I COULDN’T SAY NO!  When I was out in California in January, all the girls were at dinner in Pasadena after being at the Bead Show & Joy threw out the idea of a vintage train case/suitcase round robin.  I knew we’d just signed on the new house but, thought SURE why not!   It sounded like so much fun!  What was I thinking?  I didn’t need anything else on my plate but,  I found a little time to work on my case before boxing it up & sending it to Gig Harbor, Washington!  These cases will be well traveled when it’s all over!   I really thought the OLD American Airline tag on the handle was cool.  This is back when travel was glamorous!!!! Do you love the crocodile embossing on the case?  I DO!

Sorry for the shadows but, it’s so hard to find good light…
I found the case last year at The Urban Barn when Sandy & I were shopping on one of my MANY trips out to California.  I LOVED IT & knew I wanted to do something with it.  Joy’s idea was to do a bit to the outside & as it went to each of the girls they would add something to the outside & then put 4-5 treasures inside!  I LOVE the color of the inside of this case.  It was in such good shape.  Ms Cindy stuffed the goodies she had collected for me in a couple of the pockets.  A beautiful tea died sleeve (with pearls, lace & beautiful buttons) & other goodies all packaged up so pretty.

The trim on the outside is chocolate brown & a soft blue (with crystal like beads hanging from it).

And the image that I used was a Blog Banner my friend Tiffany Marshall designed for me a few years back.  I’ve always loved it (& I think I need to use it again soon so, MAYBE when I get back from Round Top I’ll change the current Princess Elizabeth on here now for this one).  Love the sweet little vintage coin purse with the white hankie peeking out. It has a long way to go (literally) & I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it returns.  
Back to keeping reign on all the contractors at the house. 
IT’S LIKE HERDING CATS!
Hug!  Charlene

California AGAIN!!!!!!!

I promised to be better about my blogging.  AND I MEANT TO BE!!!!!  But, January started off with a BANG & I headed back to California for multiple reasons… But, while there I was so lucky to spend time with some of my Art Sisters.  I flew into Orange County Airport & Vickie whisked me away.  That weekend we hooked up with Sandy, Joy, Laurie (plus we saw Cynthia) at the Pasadena Bead Show.  It’s the “BOMB”  Best bead show I’ve ever been to.  We had a ball & spent WAY MORE $$$$ than we should have.  Dinner in downtown Pasadena was a blast & we all put our heads together planning our trip to Round Top this Spring (Cindy & I already have soooooooo much planned & I had to pin these girls down so we can start making reservations for the side trips).   

While there we also had a chance to head to Matilda Mouse Antique Show.  It only happens once a month (Friday & Saturday) & I had always dreamed of attending (& had my first chance in December while at Kim’s Winter Wonderland).  Well, this time the theme was LOVE & Valentines…..

The day was wet & cool but, we headed south anyway.  There’s the back of Vickie making a MAD DASH for the front door.   The sale is held in the old barn on the Betty Crocker Estate.

This is not the greatest photo (it was very hard with the overcast skies making it grey & dark (once inside it really got difficult & a flash just made it all weird light).  But, I showed you this so you could see the check out counter & all the great old architectural stuff in the barn (as well as the great bone structure of the barn itself).  It was cold & damp inside but, beautiful in a sort of rustic way.

Beautiful OLD treasures everywhere.

Such darling displays!

Outside nature had dressed in her finest…. the pyracantha berries bursting on this bush.  So pretty.  I could just imagine the birds joy when they see this.

And Matilda (she’s a Wirehaired Fox Terrier) made an appearance!!!! The show is named after this sweet dear.  She is very OLD & it is difficult for her to attend now but, her “Daddy” brought her down for just a little while.  She’s  so cute.  My friend Cynthia tells me she has always been dressed for the occasion (or theme…. one year at Christmas she was dressed like Mary in the Manger).  Here she’s sporting a vintage pink something for Valentines Day.  She lays up on the counter while “Momma & Daddy” run the cash register.  WHAT A LIFE!
Also, while there Vickie & I drove north to Nipomo to deliver Christmas gifts to friends of hers.  Since her sweet Hubby had surgery right before Christmas she hadn’t been up there to “play Santa”.  This gave us a chance to spend a couple of days with our dear friend Diana Frey.

With tears in our eyes we had to say good bye WAY TOO SOON but, there was much talk of our plans to be together this summer!  And… right before I left for California….. As if I didn’t have enough already going on, we signed a contract on a new house here in Texas.  I saw it right before I left but, jumped on that jet plane only to be signing more papers via email once in California.  Looks like I might not be enjoying that beautiful new Master Bathroom we just finished remodeling this past  fall.  Here’s a sneak peek at the house….

So, forgive me for my delay in starting my Blogging year out but, it looks like another busy year…. Stay tuned for house news & more photos from California.
Thank you to all my Art Sisters that I got to visit with.  I LOVE MY TIME WITH YOU!!!!!