Sharing a little birthday love!

Little might just be the wrong word to use though!!!

And yes, my birthday is the day after Christmas but

my precious friend Lisa and I are known for not being

on time for our birthday gifts to one another.

I just have to share with you

all the amazingly, wonderful goodies

she gave me!!!

Some of the photos are a little repetitive but

I know you like pics and I tried to get close ups ~

She packaged everything so sweet!!!

Each parcel had a number and on the back of each tag

Lisa wrote a little note to me...

Here is a shot before I opened the packages:

And here's after....WOW!!!!

Look at all of the precious treasures!!!!

She SO knows what I love.

All types of sweet baby shoes, a few baby dresses too.

Gorgeous antique lace and a porcelain half doll!

Antique children's photographs and old photo album pages.

Vintage rhinestone pins and postcards.

See the teeny doll shoe?? LOVE!

And yes, at the bottom of the photo below are a few very small animal skulls.

I hope that doesn't creep you out but I love the beauty of nature

(and Lisa knows it)

and will create a shadow box just to showcase them all!!!

Several pieces of the new Tim Holtz fabric, isn't it beautiful???

Wonderful feathers to use in artwork.

An amazing book about old dolls ~ I just love it!!!

And lastly, a few back issues of a magazine from the UK that I love, Daphne's Diary!!!!

Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Dear sweet Lisa,

Thank you soooo very much for my gifts...

and for your precious friendship...
you continually inspire me to be creative ~

I love you girl!!!!

Happy Monday sweet friends and

Happy March too!!!

hugs and love,

Dawn

A look back ~

You know how I love old images, illustrations and photos, right?

Well, I just recently discovered the Library of Congress website....

chock FULL of beautiful old photographs and other goodies ~

Here are a few that I fell in love with:

I've edited and cropped these to my liking ~ maybe to use in artwork?

You could too! These are all so, so very old.

I've been drawn to the precious children that worked in the fields,

as young as 3 and 4 years old!

So many of these sweet children don't even have shoes.

Life was so hard back then. We have it so good these days and don't even realize it.

Don't you love these amazing photos?

I just had to share them with you ~

Wishing you a wonderful Monday dear friends!

hugs and love,

Dawn

Nests on the brain....

My antique sweet boy photograph doesn't have much to do with bird's nests

except that my boys are always so good about finding me

abandoned nests to display in our home.

Don't you think he's beautiful?

Look at the nest that my son Brent found for me!!

I'll be displaying it in the living room soon ~ still on the branch too!

I love finding gorgeous old nest paintings ~

Nests in old book pages ~

Nests on vintage or antique postcards ~

The sheet music page below doesn't really feature a nest

but don't you LOVE IT???

I love these illustrations ~

A cardinal's nest found in our front yard a few years back ~

I'm trying to decide how to display

a beautiful collection of bird nests

that I've collected over the years.

I love SEEING these wonderful creations ~

Maybe they would look good in cubbies or shadow boxes....
and how about displayed on either side of sweet Bucky??

What do you think?

I hope you have an amazing Wednesday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Sweet children ~

I love this photo....scanned just for you :)

Seems to be a brother and sister ~ don't you think?

Of course the props are a little goofy to me.

"Yes, I'll sit in the window and you can sit outside on a twig stool!

OH, and remember not to smile..."

Have a wonderful Thursday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn