Hippity – hoppity . . . Easter’s on it’s way!

We had an amazing break in our winter weather last week that made me SO ready for Spring!  Our winter weather arrived late (February!) but hit HARD; as did my cabin fever.  Putting out the Spring and Easter product in my booths at Stars has really got me in the mood for ‘play outside weather’.

Since I’ve got the beach decor in my big booth, I put the Spring/Easter product in my wall space.  (Pardon that red bucket in the left corner.  It’s an OLD building and occasionally the roof leaks.)

Some cute vintage chicks and bunnies.  Ostrich sized faux eggs covered with vintage buttons.   Milk glass is great for using with your spring decor!

Vintage bell jars with hand shredded vintage book page ‘grass’ and gold leaf eggs.

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Custom blend of pink and gold paper shred to go with the packaged gold leaf and pink little eggs in the pink basket on the right.  Turquoise glitter eggs too.

More unique eggs for your spring display.  These are covered with ‘Paris’ themed paper.

Hand stitched felt eggs, embellished with vintage buttons and baby rick rack.

Gallon size mercantile jars filled with moss, nests and eggs.  Smaller jars with straw and eggs.  Big vase with nest and eggs under black wire cloche.

Cute mini take out boxes in Spring colors are perfect for filling with sweets to give to your friends at Easter Brunch.  Decorative faux cupcakes.

Plenty of cake and cupcake stands.  These are so versatile for use in your seasonal tablescapes for adding height and dimension.

Upcycled journals.

Reproduction vintage style chicks from an estate sale.  I gave them lace crowns and nestled them into some cozy nests.

Hand painted faux eggs in turquoise ceramic pots and buckets.

LOTS of new frames, big and small, just stocked.

LOVE this reproduction Gothic arched window pane.  I’m still on the fence about selling it.  It just might come home with me on my next trip!

Vintage white shutter with handcrafted twiggy wreath.

Youth size white rocking chair.  Vintage wash bowl and pitcher.

One of a kind little upcycled suitcase end table with ‘hairpin’ metal legs.

Black occasional tables.  The bottom one is distressed oak, the top one with  the scalloped apron and curvy legs is a satin finish.  Will be removing all the darker furniture in the not too distant future; replacing it with lighter colors for Spring and Summer.

Not quite matching pair of vintage canning jar lamps.  The jars are the same size but different brands.  The shades are the same color, but slightly different shapes.  Each sold separately; $29.00.

Vintage jewelry box with seashell motif paper.

Assorted crates and carriers; perfect for use with your spring decor.

Stars is open seven days a week; 11am – 6pm.

 

WHERE is Spring???

Ready for Spring!

I am SO ready for spring sunshine!  We had a couple of sunny ‘teaser days’ in January, and a gorgeous sunny and warm weekend last weekend . . . . the rest of the time . . .  rain . . . and MORE rain!  sigh.  Spring.  Spring.  Where art thou?

Although we haven’t had much in the way of spring weather thus far, I have been diligently working on new spring inventory; for my booth at Stars and the upcoming “Every Husband’s Nightmare Bazaar” in April.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’ve been working on.

I’m really liking neutral tones this year.  And big jars of stuff.  Dried hydrangea, dried white pepper berries, assorted dried botanicals and assorted shells.

Jars of spools and balls of yarns and BIG vintage spools of neutral color yarns.

And nests with eggs . . . . this set of three eggs with wood base and cloche top will be sold as a set.

Natural moss, bark and twigs (from my yard!) in a vintage apothecary jar with a little nest.

Big mercantile jar with lid and three nests; being sold as a set.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but this jar also has three nests in it, each facing a different direction in the jar; moss on top of all the nests.

Small vintage bell jars with moss, nests, eggs and twigs.

Another ‘beach scape’ jar.  This jar is an old fish bowl.  This lid was from a big 2 gallon glass jar that I BROKE at my last show.  I decided to hang on to the lid, ‘just in case’ I came across another such jar when I’m out thrifting that was missing a lid.  Turned out, it fit this fish bowl perfectly.  The little sand castle was just a white plaster one that I covered with sand.

Just nests.  To give them a little ‘oomph’, I glued them to a big piece of bark.  Tied a little ‘nest’ tag onto some of them; added feathers to some.

More ‘just nests’.  These with super tiny speckled eggs.   See the comparison photo with the nest on bark for egg size.

Assorted vintage containers with various eggs and nests.  The eggs in the tallest jar are ‘chicken egg’ size.

More of what I call the ‘mercantile’ jars; this time with bigger nests and ‘chicken’ size eggs in them; ‘nest’ tags and vintage keys tied to the lids.

Finally ran out of nests and had to start just using the assorted mosses and excelsior that I had on hand for fluff.

Assorted vintage jars with moss and eggs.  I GLUED the eggs to the moss to prevent then from ‘disappearing’.

Using up whatever containers I happen to have on hand for the eggs and nests.  These metal candle stands were perfect ‘little nest’ size!  The darker nest is a ‘purchased pre-made’ nest; the other, a hand-made moss one.

I don’t remember where I got these cute little canning style jars, but they were perfect for a tuft of moss and three little eggs.

LOVE these little apothecary style jars.  They are TINY.   Barely big enough for 2 of the tiny eggs.

I don’t even know what the original use for these metal tins is?!?!  I used to always use them for grubby primitive candles and ‘fixins’.  had a few leftover from my primitive days and decided to put nests in them.  These pictures show a good size comparison of the small vs. chicken size eggs.

For those whom already have containers or cloches and just want to buy the nest, I did a few even without the added bark.  The larger white eggs in this picture are plastic eggs that came in the nests when i bought them.  The other eggs are ‘styrofoamish’ stuff that I hand painted.   All eggs are glued in place.

Close-ups of eggs.

I had a LOT of eggs to use up!  I had saved these glass baby food jars from buying baby food meat to make dog biscuits for my grand-puppy.  Spray painted the lids and printed up little ‘specimen #’ tags to glue onto the jars.  Placed one tiny egg and a pinch of moss in each one.

Will be taking some of this to Stars tomorrow.  MORE to Stars next week . . .  along with a BIG SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.  And the rest to the spring show April 23rd.

 

More ‘yard debris’ wreaths

Yep, I’ve been out gathering up yard debris to craft with again!

It all started out innocently enough last fall when I gathered up a few bits of moss that had fallen off the tree in my front yard to ’embellish’ the blue pumpkins I had painted and displayed on my front porch.

Initially I had only replaced the ugly plastic stems with cut up branches.

Then I was out picking up pine cones from my yard (because for whatever reason, the lawn maintenance people hired by the property owners just mow right over them and leave them on the lawn!?!?) and there was a LOT of big pieces of moss that had fallen off the tree.  That is when it occurred to me that adding some moss around the stems of the pumpkins might look good.

Mission accomplished!

Even the pumpkins with just a ‘stub’ of a stem, looked better with the moss added.

I continued gathering up  the moss from under the tree once a week or so; intending to use it to add to little bird nests in the spring.

Every once in a while I’d pick up a hunk of moss, only to discover that it had grown onto a piece of tree bark; and it fell apart if I tried to remove it.  So, I was tossing those pieces back.

Then we had some very stormy days and a lot of bark bits had fallen from the tree and I had another ‘light bulb’ moment!  Gather up the bark and use it to make a wreath!

It took a couple of months to accumulate enough bark to make a wreath.  I just got in the habit of going out and gathering moss and bark once a week.

First I covered one of the bulky straw wreaths with strips of brown paper using tacky glue.

I just started gluing bark to the paper covered wreath form.  The tacky glue worked great for this project, as it’s ‘tackier’ than regular white glue and sets very quickly.  I’d lay out several pieces of bark, apply the glue to the back; then put the bark on the wreath.  In just those few extra moments, the glue will begin to ‘tack up’.  Occasionally I’d have to hold a piece of the bark in place for a minute or so for it to adhere properly.  I’d much rather do that then deal with a hot glue gun.  Plus, hot glue doesn’t hold up ‘in the weather’, and I envisioned these as ‘outdoor’ wreaths.

That first photo of the ‘first step’ is really the only one that I took.  Beyond that, it was just ‘filling the space’ with bark bits.  After drying over night, I filled any bare spots with moss.

Here’s what the back looks like.  I glued a strip of muslin to the back to hang it from.  You can see that loop at the top of the previous picture.

Be sure it’s covered about 2/3 of the way around, so that none of the backing shows from the side view.

A few ‘glue spots’ are visible in this pic, but they will eventually dry clear.

Simple and organic looking.

I actually had enough ‘supplies’ to make two of them.  As an after thought, I added some feather birds and a nest.

Little bird on top of the smaller wreath.

Little nest with eggs and a bird added to the inside of the bigger wreath.

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Do you think they look better ‘plain’ or with the birds/nests added?

Spring had sprung!

It’s OFFICIALLY spring!  We’ve been having unseasonably warm and DRY weather here in Oregon for almost a month already though.  Gonna be hard to deal with those ‘April Showers’ this year after having been so spoiled so early!

This early spring weather has been a HUGE help to me with catching up on all the furniture painting I was unable to do outside last summer when it was just TOO HOT to work outside.  I might even have my entire furniture ‘project stash’ painted up before I move!  Fingers crossed!

Switching things up in my booth at Stars a tad and going with more WHITE for Spring.  Here are the latest pictures.

For a better color impact, I’ve attempted to put all the white inventory at the front, left side of my booth.

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And the turquoise stuff at the back, right side.

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View from the outside corner with some more turquoise shelves on the outside far left.  (those turquoise shelves are fairly ‘permanent’.  They CAN be moved, but it’s a LOT of work to unload all those dishes and move them!)

I brought in a couple of vintage white wicker tables.

The top one was ‘dry brush’ painted white, and the round one spray painted.  Which look do you like better?  Solid white or the shabby distressed white?  I tend to do the dry brush more often because at least that way if the purchaser prefers solid white, they can easily repaint it themselves.  But once it’s solid white there is no going back.  It’s all about leaving options open.  The more options, the more buyers it will appeal to.

Vintage chenille and embroidered throw pillows.

Vintage quilt pillows and a little quilt angel.

Easter is so early this year that it kind of sneaked up on me and I JUST put my Easter product out.

Vintage style roly-poly bunny.

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Vintage button covered ‘ostrich size’ eggs.

Turquoise and aqua glittered Easter eggs.

Tissue papered Easter eggs with clear glitter.

NOT a good picture at all!  this is actually a bunny PITCHER.

MORE bunnies.

More chicks!

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This big old ladder on the front corner was the perfect spot to display the seasonal items.

Newly created mini step-back cupboard.

Assorted vintage urns.

Big HEAVY letter “A”.  (I was very tempted to keep it for myself!)

Constantly adding ‘new’ vintage white ironstone.

Upcycled cupcake stands, some with cloche tops.

Upcycled cherub wall sconce.

Large hand panted ‘PARIS’ suitcase.

Happy spring!!

Sprucing up for Spring at Stars . . . AND a Big sale!

Out with the red and pink and hearts in my booth at Stars, and time to spruce the space up for Spring!

Front focal point display with whites, creams and metallics.  Just working with what I have on hand in my booth for now BECAUSE I really need ROOM for lots of new stuff!

And to MAKE that room I am having a 50% off sale!  EVERYTHING except already reduced ‘red tag’ sale items will be HALF OFF.  Discount will be given at check-out.  No specific ‘end date’ for this sale as of yet.  I’ll keep it going until I’ve sold enough stuff to make the room I need for the new inventory.  (and hopefully enough room to bring the BED back in!)

In the meantime, I’ll continue to ‘mix things up’ and style new vignettes to inspire you for Spring decorating, using what I have on hand.  Vintage Madonna statues and vases, pedestals and urns.

Adding a few more metallic items with those silver and gold boxes.

This is actually the BACK side of the front display.

But it SHOWS as you round the corner, so I may as well ‘market the space’!

I always really enjoy going with the lighter colors for Spring.

Vintage inspired felt hearts with lace and buttons.

Will be building on the Paris themed items when I bring in new product.

Not many of these reproduction shoe form wall hooks left.  Normally $9.00.  They’ll go fast at half price!

Small Paris carrying case and burlap pillows.

Glass apothecary jars and cloches.

Vintage ceramic frames; one an art deco style and the others a floral motif, are perfect for hanging ‘blank’ where you just need a ‘little something’.

A new display in the giant white lantern.

An urn works perfectly as a paper crown stand!

Lots of birds on pedestals and with crowns, of course!

Lots of the vintage grubby book bundles still available.

Not very many frames left at the moment.  (I need to find a new stash of them to paint!)

Fabulous shabby black plant stand!

Vintage cherub urns look pretty in this back-lit photo!

Some have plates added to turn them into dessert stands.

Lots of signs available, as always!

Had your eye on some new white Ironstone pieces??  NOW is the time to grab them!

I’ll keep this sale going until enough stuff has sold down for a MAJOR re-do of my booth.

STARS IS OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK; 11AM – 6PM.

Buttons,BUTTONS! What to do with all those buttons?!?!?

So I found this big gallon jar filled with buttons at Stars last week and HAD to buy it!

Spent my first evening with them sorting according to colors; and sorting out all the ones that still had thread or fabric on them that needed to be removed.  (as soon as I can find my seam ripper!)

NOW WHAT DO I DO WITH THEM?!?!?

I’ve been cleaning out my craft room and getting rid of (donating to GW!) a lot of old craft supplies that I have not touched for TEN years or longer.  For the most part, if I brought it with me when I moved out here with Michael and have not used it since then, IT GOES!

But then I came across THESE plaster ostrich size eggs that I bought at Dollar Tree WAY more than 10 years ago.  ‘Back when’ I did folk art and primitives I used to paint designs on them.  Was even invited to display some of my painted eggs at a special art show at a winery.  Long story short, we switched over to cottage and shabby chic and I haven’t had a use for the big ceramic eggs since.  But I really did NOT want to get rid of them because I KNOW you can’t find them anymore; and if I DID toss them I just KNOW I’d see an idea on Pinterest for them the very next day!!  But I PROMISED myself that I would NOT keep things I did not have an immediate use for.    THEREFORE:

Button covered plaster ostrich eggs!

I got that “Seriously?!?!” kind of look from Micheal when I showed them to him.  Can’t blame him, as I am not entirely ‘sold’ on the either!

But at least I kept my promise to myself and USED them!

Now we’ll see if anyone actually BUYS them from my booth at Stars.  I only made three of them; put them in little felt baskets with some pretty iridescent grass.  HOPEFULLY no one DROPS one because they will shatter!!

SO WHAT’S NEXT WITH THOSE BUTTONS?!?!?

Again, some old supplies that have been sitting around for years!  Little satin jewelry boxes with buttons glued on the tops.

These are at least a little more ‘practical’.  Can be used as a gift box for a small gift or as a pretty storage box.

Layers upon layers of buttons until all the surface was covered.  (used tacky glue on these and the eggs.)

Added a pretty sheer ribbon as a finishing touch before taking them to Stars.

NEXT BUTTON PROJECT ?!?!

Maybe this little pink jewelry box???

I had originally planned on repainting it, but decided to leave it pink since I was adding the buttons.

Just a few slightly pink buttons amongst all the white ones.

The inside top was a little scratched up.  Probably from where a mirror had originally been.  I just covered it with some pretty scrapbook paper.

That’s it on the button projects for now.  LOTS more buttons to use up still.

 Any suggestions?!?!?

What I did with the backless frame

Found this frame, without the backing, at the thrift store.

I quickly slapped on some turquoise paint as a base coat.

Then spray painted with Ivory; then lots of distressing with a sanding sponge.

(there are those darn SPOTS again!!! grrrrr!)

Just a tiny bit of the turquoise just barely peeking through.  Normally at this point I am DONE.  Tie on a price tag and take it to my booth.  But I’ve been ‘sorting and organizing’ my craft room all week and came across a faded bird egg print that I thought would look perfect in this frame.

  I love how the egg print looks in this frame!  I mounted it on a piece of an old dictionary page.

Since the backing was missing, I had to ‘make do’ with a piece of heavy cardboard, which I also covered with a dictionary page.

Perfect for spring!

Seeing SPOTS!

Okay, someone finally commented on my ‘spotty photos’.  I’ve been avoiding doing anything for fear of finding out that nothing can be done and I’ll have to buy a new camera!!  I’ve cleaned the lend MANY times, but the dust that is causing the spots seems to be on the INSIDE of the lens; and mostly shows up when I use the zoom.  And the zoom lens does NOT just unscrew.  Guess it’s time to ‘bite the bullet’ and take it to a camera repair shop.  sigh.

See!!! There they are!

Just finished up these white glittered finials and took them to Stars.

On two of them I put little quail sale/pepper shakers on top.  The glitter was actually an after-thought.  I had filled the shaker holes with glue, but they still ‘showed’ when I painted the finials.  Glitter to the rescue!

The topper on this one is a little individual salt shaker.  The eggs are paper mache from eons ago.

They are all mounted to thrifted candle holder bases.

This base was a little trickier to attach, but it had a ‘nail post’ sticking up in the center (to hold the candle in place) so I pushed the mache egg on hard enough to pierce it, then glued it on.

Will be interesting to see how the ‘glitter’ goes over VS the more shabby chic style that I usually do my finials in.

Still in ‘white mode’

Finishing up a few more white projects before I go back to my signature beachy blue.

Got this little upcycled tray table spray painted off-white.

I did a first coat of white paint, then decided to go off-white.

I debated for DAYS on whether or not to paint a design on top or not.  Couldn’t think of WHAT design to do, so I left it plain.

It has gone to my booth at Stars; $35.00.

Also got this wire cloche with pedestal finished.  Is this picture it is sitting on top of the tray table.

For the base for the wire cloche I used this thrifted PLASTIC vase.  Since the TOP of the vase was wider than the base, I turned it upside down; attached a thrifted gold plastic charger plate (using e6000 adhesive) to the base, which is now the top.

 The wire waste baskets are available at Dollar Tree!!

Just needed to attach “something” to serve as a knob on top.  Happened to have this wood finial that I screwed into the finial then held in place with a wood washer underneath.

 

 

The most ‘labor intensive’ part was the spray painting!

It is available at Stars for $25.00; top and base sold as a set.

 This ‘similarly constructed’ black wire cloche is being sold separately.  On this one the basket was already black, so I only had to paint the knob before I attached it.

A couple of rusty lanterns.  The one on the left I bought new at Michael’s.  The one on the right is thrifted.

Two minutes of dry brush painting ans the are perfectly shabby chic!

These both went to Stars; the one on the right has already sold.

Found these two very rusty-crusty white metal hanging baskets in the back of the shed.  A good ‘scrub down’ with a stiff brush to remove all the loose rust; then a couple of GOOD coats of clear spray varnish to prevent further rusting and they are ready for duty.  Hung them in my booth to fill with smalls.  Spools of crochet thread in this one.

Some little packaged nests and eggs in this one.

 

LOTS of white for spring in my booth at Stars!

 

 

Shabby white spring make over in my booth at Stars.

Got most of the recently completed white items displayed in my booth at Stars this week.

The white table (former desk top) with rusty base, corner shelf, the plain little square table, and all the candelabras set up at the front, left side.  This is the view standing in front of the booth.

This is how it looks once you walk into the booth a few steps and turn left.  Here you can see the vintage vanity chair and  newspaper/magazine table partially under the upcycled desk table.   The metal bamboo candle lantern, and a Pottery Barn cubby shelf that I’ve had for a while.   Turquoise and aqua glitter Easter eggs in a glass jar and wood tray.  It’s hard to see, but the big rusty white hanging candle chandelier in on the table right in front.  (note to self: MOVE that chandelier and put it on something DARK so it will show up batter!!!)

Closer view of the chair.

Closer look at the newspaper stand.

Outward facing left side of the booth.  The shabby white night stand with the Lion’s head drawer pull and the tall black lamp table with vintage book pages on top, both sitting on top of an upcycled crib bench.   A couple of shabby white bird cages  too.

Better look at the two bird cages.

Yet ANOTHER white bird cage; this one filled with dried hydrangeas.  I LOVE the LOOK of dried hydrangeas.  HATE how easily the fall apart and shed!  Displaying them in a cage is a prefect solution!

Here’s that hanging candle chandelier again; still hard to see against the white table.  A little white cupboard with chicken wire door with a white and aqua candelabra on top; and behind that a white jewelry armoir.  A few new white bird finials too.

The white and aqua candelabra.

The candelabra that was black that I repainted sits atop the white corner shelf.

Vintage white ceramic bunnies and jars of speckled eggs on the corner shelf.

Two-gallon mercantile jars; on left filled with vintage crochet thread for sale WITH the thread included.  Hand stitched felt hearts with vintage buttons in the jar on the right; hearts sold individually and separately from the jar.

Another jarful of vintage wool yarn.  This is a 1-gallon jar; sold WITH the yarn.

Child size bowback chair with vintage wood bowls.

More wood bowls; these painted aqua on the outside.

Moved the ginormous cubby shelf to the back corner of my booth.

HUGE vintage bentwood cheese box.

Big wicker picnic basket with starfish, smaller slat wood basket.  Little turquoise drawer is filled with packets of note cards.

This batch of aqua shelves pretty much remain here permanently; but I DO change out what it displayed on them seasonally.

Just moved all of the white dinner plates and large serving bowls to this shelf on the outward facing left wall.

Upcycled round black table; lamp shade cloche sold separately.

Stack of three aqua benches.

Blank journals displayed in a black wire cage.

Little aqua metal stand, and a new batch of small white fleur de lis finials.

Along the back wall.

Kind of hard to tell WHAT these are at first glance?!?!

They are “mini cast iron shoe form hooks”!!  Really cute.  I’ve had them for EONS; intending to use them to make coat racks.  After ten years it’s time to ‘let them go’!

Very Paris chic cloches with cherub bust handles.

LOVE creating these ‘mini vignettes’ inside old crate wall shelves.

Just added some new vintage white cream pitchers too.