Birdcage Lamp

Since I am not in school, I have made it a priority to work on stalled projects as well as new ones.

I bought this great wire birdcage a few years back, with every intention, of making it into a hanging lamp.  You know that story and how it goes.  But I did finish it.

I had to use what supplies on hand and that was not a problem at all.  I took strands of pearl beads and tied them on with thread.

Then I got in my stash of red plastic hearts ( found at a garage sale for cheap). I cut out words from magazines and decoupaged those on front and hanged them with colored ribbon.  I also added a row of bead trim.

I used lace and red bead garlands for the  middle brackets.  I then went through my stash of crystals and beads to make the hanging bead garlands.  I have to admit I did buy the red heart beads. This was initally intended for hanging over the bathtub, but it turned out it was an accident waiting to happen.  It was way too long!! 

Insert a light and hanging chain and VOILA  it graces a corner in our family room.  John and I love it and that is all that matters. Two of our granddaughters loved putting their dolls or animals in this birdhouse and carrying them around and were a little sad about its new use.

When Lauryn saw it she said,  "I want one JUST LIKE YOURS for my room."  She will be here next weekend so we will make one together.  I have a green birdcage that isn't as elaborate, but it will work fine.

Hope your days are full of finishing new and old projects.

VALENTINE GOODNESS

Last month I entered an art swap through the group alteredart.

There were 14 of us from everywhere!!  These are the ornaments

I received.

This is the ornament I sent.  I took a small plastic type heart then accordian pleated vintage wallpaper strips around it.  The pink  ribbon draping was spontaneous and I had this vintage looking jewelry and small sprays of white beads.  I cut out dictionary definitions from an old dictionary. I had no real plan when I sat down but knew I wanted it to look victorian

This gorgeous heart was crafted by ANGIE It is flat and the picture of the couple is perfect to depict romance. the ribbon trim really adds flair.

You can jump over to her site to catch sight of her other work

This paper heart is made with some sort of gluing process and  covered with a sheer tulle  and holds in the definition and love and hearts

then machine stitched in a circular motion.   It is made by SANDEE   she explains in detail the process

this is made by martha and is another gorgeous heart done with fabric paper and sewing and stuffed!

Tamara  made this lovely.  It is so old fashioned and the ribbon skirt is too sweet. Even my little girls loved her.

This beauty was made by Theresa--it is covered in wonderful fabric.  She put our names in the rusted heart down below the tag.

This pretty hand felted bird was done by the lovely mija

it is a  perfect valentine tree topper. 

this dear valentine reminds me of the era I grew up in

where you usually got candy AND roses or else!!!!

This was made by PEGGY.

This bookmark is so pretty.  It was painted in a painstaking process and it has my favorite thing--  Hearts on it. Made by CHERI

SANNA made this little beauty.   She started out as a beaded napkin ring.

She sculpted the hands holding the heart.

This altered domino was made by the clever DAWN.

I love the color pink so it is perfect!

This little valentine jar was made by Barb our swap leader and the 'brainchild' of this swap!

the jar has gold confetti in the bottom and a dangling heart from the cork stopper.

she sculpted the face.

This  Dolly Dingle cutie  was made by Heather

she is so adorable   stitched and beribboned. She has a dangling silver heart.

Paula made this pretty  from a baggage tag!! I love all the different fabrics/ribbons and the rusty heart and other embellishments.

I have them displalyed on my white feather tree.  Next week it will move into a special spot in my studio.

Thank you everyone for your goodness.  These pretties definitely made me smile and my heart a lot lighter.

halloween swap doll and stuff about me

I was in vivonawhim's doll swap for the halloween Ball and this is who I made for
carla at carlafinley. I deided to use the hands feet and head made from ceramic. I found these at a thrift store in a box for $2. I have two more sets.
I had a set of short miniature pumpkin lights and she lights up when you plug here in.

Barbara at 123lavenderlollipoplane tagged me for random things about me.

I think there is not a lot left to know about me but I will go for it.

The rules are to name 7 things I like and then name 7 others to post on their blog.

1.). my nickname john dubbed me with when we were first dating is

"squeek'.

2). my nickname through school was 'hatrack' (last name hattenburg)

or 'stretch' because i was tall and skinny. much taller than the boys at that age except for a few.

3). I love to cook and bake

4). I love to sew.

5). I love tweety bird I always wear a gold tweety necklace john got me years ago for valentine's day.(i got a small tweety tattoo when I turned 50).

6). I am NOT much of a chocolate person. Give me good and plentys any

day.

7.) I am embarassed with compliments

Okay 7 others I am tagging:

1) paula

2) viv

3)vallen

4). connie

5).kai

6). karen

7).susan

I am off to do my laundry and pack my suitcase. I fly home tomorrow.

it is leafing! It is leafing!

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."- Albert Camus


I knew I would have a wonderful time here with the kids and Nakiah and Tovi Joi. I was not prepared for the beautiful autumn and the amazing colors every where I looked.
I think the kids got tired of me saying, "oh my it is beautiful, amazing, glorious but it is!!!


Nakiah likes to take me to the cemetery. It is truly beautiful here.

look at all the rustling leaves. We have fun walking through these every

day on the way to the coffee shop. We haven't been there in a few days

because of the rain and cold but today we need to get our 'lattes'.

The girls have chocolate 'wattes' as Tovi joi calls them. The people are so nice. The girls want to be like oma and they fix theirs with warm milk and whip cream and chocolate topping.( no coffee). So we walk down the street and nakiah says "I wonder if people are mad at you for letting us drink coffee Oma." HA

This lady is about five feet tall and stands on top of a gravestone.Nakiah tells me that a man's wife died and he loved her so much he put this lady

there to watch over her. Isnt that romantic? We go to her site every day.

This is one of the main roads thru the cemetery.

On our daily walk....walking on top of this little wall has become a ritual.

we found this toadstool among the fallen leaves and it is so pretty. In person it looked irredescent. That doesn't show up in the photo.

When u look around eastern washington it is more evergreens.


here the leaves are falling on us....


Their back yard. Salem the cat in the back is my foot warmer at night.

He disapproves of wiggly feet though and bites them in the middle of the night! OUCH
Hope you are all having a beautiful autumn wherever you are.

Halloween FUN

This was the last project I was able to do with the kids that come to the house each week. We had a ton of things we wanted to do this month.
I am now in midstate New york until the end of Oct.
These were hanging up the street the day after we made them.

Just little old paper stuffed garbage bags tied or rubber banded under the heads and painted with much DELIGHT. Tie or band off ears for
a sweet cat. Use tall kitchen bags for the ghosts and pumpkins and large black ones for the cats.
cut the bottom parts of the " halloween critters' into thin strips, draw a string through the head
and they make fun windsocks!!

Fun swaps and stuff!

Good afternoon every one. Here in the Northwest we are again having record high temperatures for this time of year. It is absolutely beautiful.The weather forecast calls for cooler temps plus some rain by the weekend but still much warmer than usual. I for one think it is 'lovely. I hope wherever you are you are enjoying 'perfect weather'.

I have actually been creating the last few months but haven't taken the time to post to the blog.

I have decided to go back to making every gift from now on. When the kids were little John and I would make almost every gift we gave. We both enjoyed it but found that some of the friends and family didn't appreciate the talent and time that went in to said gifts. As we grew a little more affluent and busier in our lives we gave more 'store bought' items and enjoyed it less.

With the national economics being what they are and the fact I have stashes that cry out to me on a regular basis, I am taking an oath here and now to MAKE every gift from now on.

I had to come up with a baby gift on Saturday. John wanted to just go buy a dress or something. It is for a girl. I held my ground and went into my
studio and voila. I found a poem online about little girls that was so sweet. I found paper I had that seemed to fit the poem and printed it out on the paper. I made a small box out of chipboard--though one could use cardboard etc. I taped all the sides together with duct tape. I made the opening 5 x 7 so I could place a picture frame and glass on top.( so the sides of the boxes were 5 x7 as well.)
I covered the four sides of the inside of the box with matching paper I used for the back. I used ribbon to cover the seams that showed between the bottom/back inside of the box.

I started pulling out all sorts of doodads that were mentioned in the poem: angel wings, snowflakes, cinnamon stick for cinnamon, pearls, daisies etc etc. I had enough to embellish the sides and bottom of the box.
When the inside was all complete to my satisfaction I placed the glass and picture frame on top of the box opening and secured it down with duct tape.

I covered the outside back of the box with felt and took wide plush ribbon to cover the sides. I used some pretty lace to cover the seam between the ribbon and the picture frame and then embellished that with some ribbon roses. I added a ribbon hanger when I glued the back felt on as well.

The shadow box can be hanging or sat on a shelf.

The couple that received this gift truly was delighted. They said 'oh it is so nice to have something unique and not another pink dress.'




This summer I was in a pinkeep swap hosted by the delightful Vivian @Vivswhimsy. I was paired with Fran from dollsthecanvasofmysoul.

She is very talented. Please go to her site to see her beautiful dolls.
She sent me this adorable pinkeep. I love her. I smile every time I use her. Fran also included some beautiful hand dyed lace. Thank you Fran I sent Fran this pinkeep. I used some of my cutter quilt stash to make this heart. I joined it together with ribbon using the blanket stitch. I then added lengths of ribbon with buttons/beads/doodads tied to the ends.
I then attached it to a brass candlestick and added a vintage brooch to finish it off.

Sarah from Gypsymermaidlife hosted The Witch's cupboard swap. (Please go to Sarah's site. She lost her home and everything in Hurricane Ike. If you want to help out she has information listed.)
My partner was Julie @CupcakeDD . She makes the coolest stuff! She loves vintage stuff as much as I do.
I had a vintage punpkin made out of orange yarn. I separated his head, arms and legs and glued them to this vintage Hershey's chocolate bar box. I thought it was fun and quirky.
I thrifted the metal sign.

I visited a liquidation store and halloween goodies like this below were 90% off. I filled it with some goodies for Julie.
I made the following basket out of vintage fabric stash. I lined this basket and then added a ruffled edge. I covered the outside with black coat sued

and added a vintage crocheted doily to the bottom portion. I embellished it with a few little halloween cats and spiders.
I thrifted this small black ceramic shoe and thought it would be perfect for a witch to have in her cupboard. I found a ghost design and glued it to a toothpick and added letters to spell out the B O O. A bat pin finished it off.

When Julie's package arrived it was so fun to open. She topped the box with long lengths of white and black wide ribbon and had wrapped everything in newspaper with great trim.
This crow sits on a tissue paper trimmed platform and looks very cute in front of my black halloween tree. His little witch hat is so cute.
Julie sent me a package of frosted gum drop garland that adorns the same tree.
SHe filled glass jars with bits and bobs and labeled them as 'eye of newt' 'naughty nymph dust use sparingly' 100% organic spun spider's silk' So clever! She also took a small plastic skeleton and broke into parts and labeled it 'bag o' bones'It was all wrapped up so sweetly.



My favorite item was this framed saying:
Home is where you hang your broom!
Thank you Julie! I have had lots of comments on the items you sent!!
I am off to hang some pumpkin lights to add a little more halloween decor to the place.
Make a Gift and give part of yourself.