There are angels among us...

I just love beautiful angel images...

and love, LOVE creating angel themed artwork.

I know they watch over us and are most likely

our loved ones who have passed on before us ~

I finally finished my tattered angel!

She was primed, painted and the stand was antiqued.

The small dress form stands 16" tall and

is adorned with several old treasures...

An old doll dress has been shaped to fit her ~

and another little doll dress serves as her petticoat.

Vintage millinery and seam binding were used to cinch her waist

and antique lace was used as a camisole.

Even a new-made-to-look-old rhinestone charm adorns her neck...

She is already sold but I just had to share her with you!!!

Thank you always for stopping by to see me ~

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday sweet friends!!

hugs and love,

Dawn

Our wonderful hands ~

I often look at my hands and see my mama's hands...

And lately, mine have been aching terribly!!!

I guess after you hit fifty and are still a crazy girl like me

and love using your hands every day,

it's a given.

We've had a good many soap orders lately and being the perfectionist I am,

I've worked tirelessly on making sure they are beautiful!

You have to release them from our custom mold then

gently clean the excess soap from each one with a tiny paring knife...

making sure you don't ruin the beautiful egg shape.

We've created over 200 egg soaps in the last few days and

filled many orders! I'm so very thankful...

I even squeezed in a little time to create a new

business card for General Store Soap too!

Please take a look at our soap Etsy store if you have a moment....

just to see all that we have!

We are so blessed with our two hands
we use them to help others, our precious family,
to cook, clean, caress, wash, massage, fold and
even to make beautiful things.
And I am always, always

so thankful for the use of mine ~

I hope you have a great Tuesday sweet friends!

hugs and love,

Dawn

A tattered angel in progress!

I haven't finished her but couldn't stand it...I just had to share!

I found a small dress form at the store the other day

and knew it would be wonderful altered.

A few years ago I altered a paper mache dress form

that was really quite large and transformed it into

a tattered angel ~

I used old lace, feather wings, rhinestones, etc.

That's exactly what popped into my mind

the minute I saw this smaller form!

So rather than wait, I thought I would share my steps and progress!

Here she is...about 14 or 15 inches tall....

there were some designs printed on the fabric

but I didn't care for those ~

I've had these sweet angel wings for a while,

probably since last Christmas...

I found them at Hobby Lobby which

they probably have them again as they

are all stocked up for artists and crafters

to create their goodies for the fall 

and Christmas shows.

Next, I pulled out the gesso and gave her a good coating....

just so I could paint her a pretty shade of off white ~

The gesso dried quickly and I couldn't even wait to paint her,

I had to play a little bit!!!!

Since this piece will be totally different than my first tattered angel,

I thought I would pull out all of my collected doll dresses

and see if I had one that would work for her....

I found the PERFECT little dress!! Plus I found a slip that I will use as as well ~

This is just pinned in place to give you an idea...

I still have to paint her a beautiful linen color,

antique the stand and begin layering pretty components

that will add to her charm!

Stay tuned dear friends!!!

Wishing you a wonderful Monday,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Things I love...

So many different things inspire me...

beautiful old bits and bobs, magazines, books,

amazing artists and their creations ~

and then there are these....

wonderful, gorgeous, old illustrations and paintings.

I love to collect them ~

Don't you just love them all?





Please don't faint...but I am READING A BOOK!!!
And a WONDERFUL one at that!!!
Jessica Dotta sent me preview copy of her first book
Born of Persuasion
and I just LOVE IT!!!

It's perfect for those who love Downton Abby.....
I'm still not finished but will give a review very, vert soon PLUS
I'm participating in Jessica's 31 days of giveaways!!!!

Wishing you a great Friday dear friends ~

hugs and love,

Dawn

Sweet speckled eggs ~

So....I've been working quite a bit lately!!!

And on what you say?

Creating these wonderful, speckled soap eggs ~

Each little one is hand-poured...hand-cleaned...then thoroughly

inspected before we package them up for shipping!

Being the perfectionist that I am, I've learned quickly

how to clean them, smooth out any imperfections and

of course, you know I love the packaging part!!

I made these robins egg blue soaps just yesterday ~

don't you love the pale blue shade?

Each one is approx. the size of a quail egg,

a perfect size to me!!

We're creating them in other shades now, pale green and pale yellow too ~

But the blue, pink and of course, ivory are still my favs.

If you like to peek at our soap shop

just CLICK HERE!!

I hope you're having a great week....

wishing you a beautiful Thursday precious friends ~

hugs and love,

Dawn

Creating a little and missing you...

I love blogging so.

I love my friends here and our connection to each other ~

you always, always inspire me and you know

that I pray that I can do the same for you!

We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend and I finally got back

to making a little something!

I've had this most amazing vintage ironstone sugar dish for a few years now

and finally decided it was time to upcycle this sweetie into a pincushion!

Here she is all finished...perfect with staining, crazing and of course

you know I had to add a little lace, seam binding and rhinstones :)

I've added this new pincushion to my Etsy if you'd like to take a look!

A week or so ago, we went to an estate sale so I thought I'd share

my teeny tiny finds with you!

The pincushion is in the pic and was in progress....

Not much but still sweet things ~

I love this little chair so much...it's stained a little too much but I hope to fix that ~

I think some folks collect these...

And our precious grandson Murray visited Sunday
as Brent and Emily took Clara

to the movies to see Despicable Me 2.
Look at his two new teeth! He's already 10 months old ~

good grief the time just flies by.

Clara was a happy girl after the movie and I know she loved

having some one-on-one time with her mama and daddy!

I hope you are doing so, so good

and thank you always for visiting me here!!!

Happy Tuesday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn