Missing In Action?

Missing in Action? NO!!!!!!!! But, the weather cooled down so Hubby & I decided to BLOW THIS JOINT! And we headed to Round Top & Warrenton, Texas for the Fall Antique Show. What a blast we had. I had been before but, he had never had the chance because he's usually working. Since he's off recouping from his surgery & the weather cooperated WE PACKED IT UP & WENT!Here's how they direct the traffic. Yep, that's the Sheriff's Department! Some of these photos are compliments of my dear friend Susie of Vintage Susie's & Wings Blog. She drove all the way from California to be here with us!!! And what a dear she is!!!!! Why did she come all that way????? To come to the party that this precious, generous, fun, sweet girl throws for all of us bloggers. Meet Theresa of Garden Vintage Antiques. She knows how to throw a TEXAS sized good time. The venue is always set up in her booth just outside of Zapp Hall which is a well known Hot Spot in Warrenton.

Bloggers from all over come to meet each other. Young & old, dressed cute, casual... it doesn't matter. And below is the two that caught my eye & stole my heart. I don't know who they were but, ADORABLE just doesn't begin to describe these Gypsy Cowgirls. You can see that this little sprite got her looks from her precious Momma. LOVE the outfits on both of them. OK, Susie let me know that these darlin's are indeed Junk Gypsy Girls. Below is Amie & Baby Gypsy Indie.

And her Auntie Jolie keeping a watchful eye here. Again, gotta love the boots.

And now that she found some Yum Yum she is all into it. Are you all over her pantaloons?

My precious friend Diane Cook of Rosa & Josie's & Theresa at the table loaded with snacks.

Diane & I.

Susie talked about how she loved the sky in Texas. She said she had never seen such BLUE skies or such GREAT CLOUDS! Well, standing there just after the photo above was taken this is the sky overhead. Diane & I mentioned how strange the line was (we think it's a jet stream of off of a plane) in the bright BLUE!

It's starting to get dark & I finally got over to meet my sweet friend Jill from Gypsy Brocante Blog. She flew in a LONG way (from Jersey) with her friend Beth of Gypsy Fish to be one of Theresa's guest of honor. You can see Beth in the background of the last photo.

And she came all this way to HAND DELIVER the beautiful flower that I won in her recent give away. OK maybe that's not the only reason she came but, she says she's stickin to that story...

Darn! I didn't get a photo of it until it was really kind of dark but, THANK YOU Jill!!!!! I LOVE it & my new friend. Click on any of the photos to enlarge to see details better (Like the one below to see Jill's adorable necklace made from a vintage matchbox car) & any blog name that is purple or orange color(& underlined) will be a link to that person's blog.

Well, I can see that I am going to have to break down & use that software (Livewriter) sweet Jodie talks about because I have finished loading & writing this post only to see that the photo of Lisa, Jodie, Karla & Beth is missing. And the some of Susie!!!! DARN!!!!!!!! Guess that means another post. So come back to see them & visit some of the amazing booths I saw at the show. And Magnolia Pearl.... YES!!!! I bought some this time. I just couldn't resist it.

Where Bloggers Create II Blog Party

Welcome to my precious friend Karen's SECOND Where Blogger Create Blog Party! This is my first year to participate & I am so excited. THANK YOU sweet Karen for being the Hostess with the Mostest! If you saw THIS post you know my studio was in BAD SHAPE! I tried to get out of participating but, Karen very FIRMLY told me to "GET IN THERE & CLEAN IT UP". It took a WEEK but, I am now so happy that I can again create at my workspace(I'd been cheating & working at my jewelry design space or on the island in the kitchen... SHAME on me).

Welcome to my studio workspace. This area has a wonderful window that over looks my front garden & provides amazing light (but, not good for a photo shoot) for when I work. The wall paper is garden themed for this reason. I can tell you that I had been tired of it for quite awhile but, after spending the week in there cleaning I HATE IT! That wall paper is so out of there when I get the time! So, next year there will be a BIG change. My work table measures a wonderful eight feet of space to SPREAD!

My studio is actually located in my laundry room which is HUGE! My precious Daddy built me this wonderful set of shelves & installed them for me to "Hide" my STUFF! Truly my hero! Oh how I miss him in soooooooo many ways.

OK, not everything got totally cleaned up. But, in the photo above you can see the inside of one of those shelf units from Daddy Dearest. TONS of space & fill it I DO!

This is one of the long cabinets. Originally it had my vacuum cleaner, mops & supplies stored here. YECK, I needed the space for my plastic containers for scrapbook papers & embellishment a whole lot more than that cleaning stuff! It's all banished to the garage & now I have stacked bins all labeled by subject so it's easy to pull the container I need. My craft aprons hang on the hooks inside.

I told you it was garden themed... Yikes! This is one of the storage units (you'll see more of it later) that houses more supplies. I bought that adorable Cupcake Fairy Decoration from Cathy Scallise at the recent Petticoats & Parasols Art Event in Atlanta. It nicely hides the electrical plug behind it. LOVE IT CATHY! Also, you see a stack of my much loved vintage seam binding & a couple of old bottles that are wanting to be re purposed.

Another shot of the same area with a vintage hat. I love these old hats & have the hardest time snipping them apart. My buddy Lisa of Tarnished & Tattered is a master at this but, we both hate spending so much for these jewels & are hoping to go visit Karla Nathan who promises we can find them CHEAP up where she lives. We're countin on it Karla & talking a ROAD TRIP!

Moving on the next area is storage for smalls. It is the typical case with tiny drawers & on top of it I have stacking containers of buttons, bells, glitter & such. Also a vintage creamer with some tiny flowers, a favorite stamp, a box of rhinestone crown items, a beautiful crystal formation & my little studio mascot. Oh look at those wonderful old tiny sterling salt spoons just waiting to be included in another project (I put one on my Secret Shaker Doll Necklace).

Here is a shot of the unit from a bit further back. The area in this part of the room is done in a large horseshoe shape. The storage unit below holds a bunch of photo boxes for photos waiting to be put into scrapbooks, ribbons, & other goodies. And you see that power strip just ready for glue gun, soldering guns & whatever else might need a power tool.

Following around the room we come to the workspace again. And you can see some of my supplies & those blinds are now open for a little light on the subject.

In this area the ceilings are 12 feet tall so Hubby installed a shelf up high for me to put other treasures on & you can see the supports for the shelf in this photo.

And some of the goodies on the high shelves are vintage bottles waiting there turn to become something FUN, some pretty silk flowers & a silly Dolly Mama with her PINK feathered hat.

A small vintage child's hutch that I want to use for display when I have a jewelry show or vendor sale. A metal wreath with the prettiest morning glories & another vintage hat.

Back to my workspace... I have a PASSION for old buttons. I especially LOVE Mother of Pearl & Glass Buttons. Here are few just waiting to be used in creating or for me to simply look at them & remember that I have loved playing with buttons since I was a child sitting at my precious Grandmothers knee. Also, look at those wonderful crystals next to the cup (they will be listed in my Etsy Shop when I get it finished) & another passion... vintage salt shakers. There is a tiny pair just waiting to be enjoyed.

A couple of the tiny Charlotte's peeking out of the glass buttons.

All of us crafters know the frustration of finding what you need... I bought a lazy susan at The Container store (wrapped some vintage lace around the outside to make it pretty) & now all my glues & bottles of Stickles are at my fingertips. LOVE IT!!!! Why didn't I do this sooner? No more digging in drawers or storage bags.

A footed crystal compote holds some amazing buttons that I just have to marvel at from time to time. Another footed bowl holds a pile of vintage seam binding colors that just speak HAPPY to my heart. Easy to just pull a color, snip & create... And then there are big containers of glass glitter ready for putting SPARKLE on any project. Can a girl ever have too much glitter?

Head over heels over HEADS! China Doll Heads that is. My Hubby, son & the GRANDSONS don't get it with the heads. But, again it is a Grandmother thing. My precious Grandmother made me a china doll when I was a child. Now I adopt all that I can find. The boys think it is weird that I have a jar of heads & parts.

I think they are pretty sitting among the flowers (& you can see a tiny pebble I picked up on the beach in California).

And then to the right of my workspace is this vintage shelf & below that you can see the black bag on wheels (love the pocket for all the markers to be held in place) that I use when I am going to have to pack up to go to a craft event somewhere else. Sure is better to have it on wheels so as to not have to carry it. There is a flowered scrapbook I am working on right now.

Here's a close up of the shelf with a few more heads, a baby photo of my Mother, a pin cushion made from my precious Grandmothers old sugar bowl & some of the Fairy's in a Jar (from the tutorial from sweet Dawn at The Feathered Nest) that I had made for a sale. I am glad I had some left because I LOVE them.

I found this vintage child's dress last week when shopping with Lisa & Pat Close. My friend Diane Cook uses things like this to display her jewelry & I think that is an AWESOME IDEA that I am going to borrow (Thanks sweetie). The dress is made of what they called "Lawn". So sheer & beautiful with amazing lace & hand work on it. Can't you just imagine the precious child that wore this & how dressed up she must have felt.

Now remember I said this is my laundry room & here you see the shelf Hubby put up for my cookbooks. It it a double set of shelves which spans the whole space above the washer & dryer. Do you think I have a few? And also a great place for other little favorites. A crazed plate with pansies, my garden sprite reading her book, a Princess of Quite A Lot statue and...

This little elf that used to sit on my Grandmothers shelf. Somehow his feet were broken off but, I have always LOVED him (I used to put him in a pot of ferns or flowers & let him peek out). See the look on his face? That's kind of the deer in the headlights look I had when I started that "GO CLEAN IT UP" project.

Across from the washer & dryer (& the shelves you just saw) is a 6 foot bookcase with pretty storage boxes(full of vintage lace & velvets for ruched roses) on top. And above that is my Grandmothers vase collection that always hung on that shelf in her kitchen. I LOVE being surrounded by memories!

And on the bookshelves... STUFF!

Vintage silverware, a jar of eggs, bird statue, baby shoes & gloves, & a little journal made by a friend.

A bowl of BLING waiting to be turned into jewelry.

A martini glass with a scent bottle that wants to be a necklace & some chandalier crystals some trim & a jar of glass beads waiting to become soldered word charms.

Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the visit to my studio. And Karen THANK YOU for MAKING me clean it up. I have sooooooooooooo enjoyed using my space again. And I promise I won't let it get out of control again (at least not anytime soon). I'm off to visit all of you & see the wonder of where you create. Please leave me a comment & let me know you were here & what you thought. What was your favorite part? Be sure to go HERE & see the others playing. They are listed on the right side of Karen's Blog & will be there all year so you have time to visit & revisit for inspiration anytime you want. HUGS!

It's ALL Karen Valentine's Fault!!!!!!!!

IT'S ALL KAREN VALENTINE'S FAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm stickin to it!

Do you remember when I had Karen(same as Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage) of Valentine Design create my new LOOK for my blog? Well, when we were talking in the design part of all this process she would say "do you like......(whatever she was talking about)" & I would say "where I don't see what you are talking about". And after much further discussion we came to the realization that my monitor, which was quiet small" did not display all the wonderful things that many blogs have on the side of their design. She teased me that "THERE'S A WHOLE WORLD OUT THERE YOU ARE MISSING GIRLFRIEND" Well darlin.... not anymore. This weekend I went out & splurged on a new 34" monitor (can I send you the bill? hee hee just kidding). What are ya thinkin now girlfriend? I'm thinking there is a lot of difference between a 17" & 34" monitor. The only good thing I can say about the 17" one... it was free. But, it is gone & I can see sooooooooooooooooooooo much more! Karen was right! Speaking of Karen... Are you ready for the Where Bloggers Create II Party coming up this coming Saturday June 19? Click on the button on my sidebar for more information if you don't know about it. Karen had this event last year & it was wonderful! I only posted about my jewelry design desk because my regular studio was a mess... Well.... I tried to get out of participating this year for the SAME reason! For the most part I am an excellent housekeeper & my house is ready for company any time. But, the studio for some reason is ALWAYS a mess. It's like this is the one room I let myself slide because I can shut the door & no one sees it including myself!

Did you think this was it??????????? WRONG!!!!! Oh how I wish this was it. But, this is Karen's studio from last years event. NEXT YEAR BABY!!!!!!!!!!! I'll blow your socks off.

Sadly, below is my disaster. I am ashamed & embarrassed because blogs are supposed to be PRETTY. I kept telling Karen it's a mess! I can't do it. And she said "GET IN THERE & WORK ON IT". Did I start early enough to do everything I wanted to (strip off the wall paper, get some cute pieces of furniture)? NO! But, next year Ms Karen you just wait & see.

Sad So SAD! SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is my workspace... It is a disaster of piles & sacks. They just SLIDE from piling. Such a large easy space to DUMP STUFF when you come home. Shut the door & walk away! SHAME!!!!!

Unfinished projects everywhere. And HOW would you know what you own????? YOU DON'T!

But, the process has begun. The sorting & cleaning & purging. The wall paper is here for this time but, after spending the time in here I have this past week I AM OVER IT! AND IT IS OUTTTTTTA HERE! My space is looking much better & I will actually be able to work on my swap projects for my upcoming Les Sirenes Art Event. Yes, Cathy that is next... getting out the glue, glitter, & shells to start creating the Mermaid treasures for this will be a treat.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! I'm glad to get off that UGLY story & move onto something beautiful! Have you seen the Carolyn Westbrook's Book called HOME? Well, she has written a new one & Deborah of Common Objects has a Give Away where you can win a copy HERE. Be sure & rush over to put your name in to WIN! Good Luck.

Have a great week my friends & I hope I didn't scare you to death!