Monday, February 15, 2010

One World One Heart - Another Update!

I won something! Me? Me! Can you believe it? You'll have to go to Debra's blog, It's All Good to see. She offered a choice of several of her art prints. I chose the mermaid, because Elizabeth loves them. Can not believe I won something. I had hoped to add a photo here, but she's copyrighted, and I'm not even gonna ask her . . . she's in the count down to her daughter's wedding. We know what that's like . . . I'll not add another thing to her mental to do list. So do, by all means, go look at her page, you'll love her art! And . . . Thank You, Debra!
~ Debbi

One World One Heart . . . the Winner!

Congratulations to Rachel! You'll love her very cool jewelry blog, Jive's Jools.
Her prize? You want to know what it was?
Silly . . . this is me . . . it's a pearl necklace, of course.

Congratulations Rachel!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Vintage Valentine Card Party

Another Valentine Party! All of the images that follow in this post were post cards collected by my husband's Grandmother, Lucile Amelia Mathilda Johnson, as a small girl. For some wonderful reason, which remains unknown to me, I inherited her post card collection~! Don't you think for a minute that I'm complaining!
I most decidedly am not! I am bragging, pure and simple.
This little fellow is attributed to Ellen H. Clapsaddle, artist. Originally posted in Topeka, Kansas ~ February 14, 1917 . . . the message on the back, in childish penmanship reads;
"I kept my promise didn't I? Will write a letter sometime soon . . . Lots of Love, Pearl."

Posted from Wichita, Kansas
February 14, 1910
Reads;
"Hello Lucile ~
I sent you a Valentine yesterday, and I suppose you have it by this time. Let me hear from you.~ Bro. Ed"

Note only says,
"Wichita, Kansas
2-13-08
E."

February 14, 1908

This Lovey came from
Aunts Minnie and Rose Rapp
February 13, 1912 {I think . . . hard to tell}
And opens to reveal . . .

the sweetest abundance of three dimensional Victorian scrap
and the message,
Pretty One,
I hope you know,
This is from
Your little "Beau"
Happy Valentine's Day!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Cupid's Kiss Valentine Swap

Danielle, of The Vintage Dragonfly Studio fame, has just hosted the most delicious
vintage Valentine collage swap, Cupid's Kiss Valentine Swap. You must stop by to see all of the lovely artistic creations! I think they outdid themselves this time. I was part of it, but when my Grandmother passed away, Danielle kindly offered to let me out of my obligation. I agreed . . . just in case I wasn't able to finish, but since my project was nearly completed, I attempted it anyway, then contacted Danielle, again, just in case . . .

. . . as timing would have it, she had already mailed the completed pieces to the other participants, but . . . she offered to do a one on one swap with me anyway . . . So here we are.

And this is what she should be getting in the mail any minute now . . . a little bit of Spring to counteract all that snow where she lives, on the right side of the country.

And I still get to participate in a Valentine Swap! I'm pleased!

Elements of this will show up in the Amour Valentine Swap that will be posted on Valentine's Day, but let me tell you about this one . . . here's an excerpt from the note that I sent to Danielle,

" . . . because of the glass style that I was planning, I decided not to make it too "over the top" Valentine-y, in case a person wanted to . . . it could be displayed a little longer. . .
The heart was originally about 8 inches, and gold. I bought several of them from a girlfriend's antique booth last year, but reduced the size to fit the guidelines, and changed the color . . . well, for fun.
The bird nest is also reduced from an antique German scrap that I've collected.
I cut a page from a book written {and printed} at the turn of the last century. I had hoped more details would show, because in this passage, a beautiful young woman {naturally} is being drawn up a mountain to find the source of the most lyrical birdsongs . . . when she arrives on the mountain top, it is a wayfaring flautist who has drawn her, and it becomes their love story.
. . . which seemed to me to fit well, the heart~love~bird theme of the collage."
So there you are. This one is only 4" X 4" , not including the hanger.

Hope your Valentine's Day plans work out!

Friday, February 5, 2010

On the topic of Decorating . . . Whose job is it, anyway?

My blogs have been kind of downhearted of late . . . with reason, you know . . . but I want to reclaim the Sunshine in my spirit. It is the middle of the night, and I'm not sleeping again . . . sigh . . . so I checked for drafts . . . you know, blogs that I had begun to write but not finished. I came upon this one, which is kind of sweet. Is that okay with you?

A blogging friend recently wrote that she and the man in her life were having a difference of opinion about decorating, and she asked for votes from her readers as to who gets the final say? She is a Shabby Chic decorator, and he is a tidy, modern, minimalist sort of fellow. I hope opposites really do attract, because I think she kinda likes him.

This was my "two cents worth" response to her query.

In my lifetime {which, when I begin a sentence like that, sounds as long as Methuselah's} I have seen a few couples start out life with differing approaches to decorating their nest. The first time that I witnessed a husband with strong decorating opinions . . . well, he just left me mouth agape. What? A man with a decorating opinion? He must be a fool . . . or he has a mighty high opinion of himself . . .or low one of her.

In the fuzzy around the edges memories that I've dragged with me through time, I remember that my Mother was the be all and end all of household decorating. My Father simply did what she told him to do, moved the furniture and hung the pictures. My husband, raised in a like~minded family . . . is similarly disposed.

Ooh, these enlightened men scared me.

. . . so I had a girlfriend . . . we lived across the street from one another . . . she was a newlywed, compared to my vast seven year, one {and a half} child marriage. The mainstay of our friendship, at that time was housekeeping. We lived across the street from one another in what, in retrospect sounds like a 1950's neighborhood, vintage indeed. {It was not.} We had coffee every day, tended one another's children, wallpapered one another's rooms, shared sewing thread at 1:00 o'clock in the morning when we could see by the lights that the other Mommy was still up sewing, too.

Oh, I have waxed nostalgic, haven't I? The point . . . the point . . . Her husband was a little older and had been on his own for some time, and had plenty of decorating opinions {read that as rules, maybe even laws}.

Especially . . . he thought bare white walls were "it". Period. That's it. Nothing but bare white walls. They even fought about it. She cried. He demanded. No. White walls. Nothing on them. That's the way it's gonna be. Oh the sadness of it all, denying a new bride the right to feather her nest . . .

Naturally we set about doing what women do anyway. Just gently and maybe a little bit secretly, so as not to arouse his suspicion . . . A family portrait here, a picture there, a pretty little shelf in the hallway, flowers on the side table, a wreath here, a bold paint color in the kitchen, a brilliant wallpaper in the laundry room, until beauty and color absolutely exploded all over her lovely little cottage!

One day, after a year or so of our clandestine decorating, {he never knew what hit him} they were invited to dine at a new friend's home. It had bare white walls. After dinner, on the way home, husband turned to my friend, and says, "Wow! RoseAnn really doesn't know how to decorate a house . . ."

. . .wait for it . . .



"LIKE YOU DO!"

So you see, dear Sir . . . there is no point in resisting. I'm getting up there . . . I've looked at life from both sides now, from in and out . . . wait, oops, wrong example . . . I know what I'm talking about. Resistance is futile. But comfort, warmth, and beauty that causes the Mother-in-law walk in and say, "You really know how to make a house a home" is the result {and the reward}. Sorry.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Serendipity Strikes Again!

I've told you before, how I find myself buying the really cool stuff for my house, and then tucking it away where no one can see it. Part of that is fear . . . because there are people in my life that can not hold their tongues, and sometimes the path of least resistance is the easiest. What am I talking about sometimes? It's always the easiest!

Anyway . . . mean people are just plain mean and all of that rot . . . and I am trying really hard not to hide the things that make me joyful from them anymore. You know who I'm talking about . . .that judgemental kind of person . . . they're the ones that make you feel like you've exposed your soul for examination, and it has come back wanting.

Afterall . . . if they don't like me or my decorations, or whatever . . . what in the heck are they doing in my house? Right? . . . Like I said, I'm working on it.

So the serendipity part of it is this . . . we had a really large gathering at our house yesterday, and I needed to move that lamp, because the way our living room is arranged, the cord actually posed a trip hazard to guests. I moved a table over next to the piano {which is over 100 years old, and was my husband's Grandmother's} in order to make a spot for the lamp. Then came the nest thingee . . . then I remembered this beautiful picture that my husband bought for my birthday, tucked away, {hidden again} under appreciated upstairs . . . then the gorgeous figural . . . another gift, from Number One Son and his Wife. And I love it! The whole vignette! It is perfectly perfect, and I am completely pleased and happy and satisfied and contented and any other comfortable adjective. And I took photos to share with you, because you aren't mean, and if it makes me happy, it makes you happy for me.

I want to thank you for that.
. . . had to add this photo so you can see the whole table. Isn't it cool? Sorry about the power cord, kind of a necessity, though. It is a real house. Rats. There I go again . . . I am not sorry about that cord. {I am a work in progress.}

You're Sweet

Don't you just love it? Isn't she cool? She arrived a few days ago, so charming and precious . . . I couldn't wait any longer to share her with you. I bought her on Etsy {naturally, where else could you find anything this unique, made with a practically ancient handmade method, by the artist?} Don't we love Etsy?

So . . . you really, really want to know where I found her, don't you!?

Alrighty, no more teasing . . . here's your link.

Before or after, you should check out the artist's blog, too. She seems like an awfully kind person, besides. Vintage by Crystal