Crafty, thrifty books

I hope you all had a wonderful, lovely Easter. The tulip greens are just pushing up above the surface of the earth here in the piney mountains of Northern Arizona. I have been ready for Spring for at least six weeks now! Bring on the yard sales too!!!

One of my favorite thrift store pastimes is to browse the books section. You never know what kind of treasure troves of crafty knowledge you'll find. On a recent journey, I was lucky enough to find the goodies below....Making Old Fashioned Dolls is jam packed with inspiration! Just look at a few of the completed projects in the pics below.... Since I typically prefer to create dolls in miniature, I think I might try my own version of these beauties in a tinier scale....

Another great find were the POP POM books pictured below. I have of course seen the sweet newer versions of pom pom creatures created by wonderful artisans. I actually went out and bought a couple of skeins of yarn after leafing through these... Now if I ever actually get around to making one, you'll be the first to know!!!


I am way overdue in posting, as usual. And I still need to follow up on more more tag. Since it is another "6 random things" I am going to hold off for a bit until I can think of 6 things interesting enough about me to share. It's always fun to get tagged though!

Hope your weekends are all off to a good start! I'll be spending part of my weekend working on a bit of a blog makeover... Stop in on Monday to see what is new, and hopefully, improved.

Beat the Winter Blues Swap!!! Flea Market Finds, Mail Goodness, and a Sweet Award!!!!

I apologize in advance for how long and picture crazy this post will be, but I have lots to update! :-)

The talented Viv recently hosted a super fun doll swap and paired me up with the world's sweetest partner, Cindy of ThimblePrims Studio! You have to see the goodies she sent me. She completely outdid herself!!! Below is a pic of the fabulous doll she made...(look at the bluebird on her hat!!!!)

Of course she didn't stop there! The doll was accompanied by a sweet little Easter basket, a fuzzy chick, a bookmark, an egg ornament, a decoupaged mache Easter box, and hand embroidered tea towels!!!!!!
If you like Cindy's dolls, please be sure to check out her most recent ebay offering. She lists gorgeous dolls there often under the user name Thimbleprimstudio.

Now check out the gorgeous custom hand painted sign the the wonderful Becca made for me a few weeks back. It hangs proudly on my porch to welcome friends and family.


Speaking of mail goodies, I was one of the lucky purchasers of Every Day is a Holiday's sweet Valentine Nut cups. The detail in their work is astonishing! This photo is not doing these gorgeous cups justice!!!
And speaking of Valentine's day, I also was giddy over the contents of this fabulous package received from Little Pink Studio. Same sensation as I got when I was a kid with a new set of play-dough, sheer joy!!!!

Yummy glass glitter!!!!


This week our kids are on Spring Break, so of course we had to make the 6 hour trek out to Disney! But before I set foot in the amusement park, I had to drag my sympathetic husband to the Long Beach Antiques and Collectibles Market. We got there late and lots of vendors were already packing up as I made my way through the booths as fast as I could. Here are some spoils.....

Vintage glass doorknobs...
An assortment of 124 lovely little vintage greeting cards from the 30's 40's and 50's....

Vintage millinery flowers!!!!!!

Another cute set of anthropomorphic S&P set....I am running out of room to display these!!!!

WOW!!! 1950's wrapping paper!!!

Paper dolls!

More 1950's wrapping paper... love the cowboys!!!!!

And the BEST wrapping paper for last... look it's ALICE!!!!!!

And at last, I was tagged again by the sweet Gypsy Mermaid. This time it was was a lovely award.....

Now I have to pick only 10 others to give the award to! That is so hard!!!! So many blogs are always inspiring me! I am going to take the wimpy way out and procrastinate on this one for a bit.

I have one more tag coming! I'll be back soon :-)

Back from Denver, I have been tagged and new listings on ebay!

Whew I made it! I am back from my business trips to Denver and Phoenix, and spent a happy weekend up in the studio creating these miniature little guys in egg shadow boxes. The shadow boxes were purchased from the wonderful Heather at The Speckled Egg. They are vintage plastic and were originally a bright yellow. I painted and crackled them, then made the little blue bird and bunny out of paper clay to go inside. They are listed on eBay here and here.

These little guys are super tiny, with the bunny measuring only 2 inches tall, the bluebird measuring only 1 1/2 inches tall and the egg shadowboxes/pedestals standing only 3 inches tall total! It was fun to work in such a tiny scale.


I have been tagged three times! I'll answer the first tag today and will do the other two tags later this week.

The very talented and sweet Dani tagged me with the following task.

Here are the Rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

So here are my things....

1. I manage 7 telecommuting/traveling employees for a national non profit organization. They are the best people to work with in the world. I worry about them out on the road like I am their mother, even though I am younger than most of them.
2. I started sculpting with good ole' salt dough. I still have some of the original ornaments I created over 10 years ago....
3. ...Unless you count the sculpting I did in high school.... My friends and I were weird. As teens, we would actually get together at a friends house when their parents were out of town... with a big bag of earthen clay and we would sculpt. Wild, eh?
4. My idea of a perfect day is getting up early (you read that right), grabbing a cup of coffee, spending the morning thrifting or flea marketing, the afternoon at the bookstore, and the evening at the movies. With lots of snacking in between.
5. I am such a pack rat it is embarrassing. I really really need to clean my garage! When we bought this old house, we got most of the furniture in it too, so I think the garage cleaning may unearth some treasures. But even more junk!
6. This song makes me cry (good tears). It's written by the awesome Irish band The Frames, and was featured in the lovely movie "Once".

Okay...
Karen,
Victorian Lady,
Viv,
Holly
Phyllis
Marie

You are it!!!


I have so much more to share with everyone, including Denver pics, two more "tags", wonderful stuff that has recently come in the mail, and a tutorial. Please check back in a couple of days. I am looking forward to catching up on all of your blogs!

PS. the Shepardess (below) is now available on PFATT :-)