One last little thing...

I had such high hopes to make so many wonderful things

this Christmas season but it just didn't happen.

There were so many soap orders to keep up with

(which truly have been a blessing)

and the days seem to be flying by like lighting!

It's always like this when Thanksgiving is late in November though...

I did manage to finish my altered bottle!

I'll share a few photos with you. This bottle is an old one

and I created a stopper using a glass knob and a cork!

I used one of my favorite labels on the front,

a little vintage wedding lace...seam binding and of course

a beautiful vintage rhinestone bobble to finish it off!

It's been listed in my Etsy store if you'd like to take a look ~

I just SO, SO HAPPY about my sweet friend Tammy's recovery!!!

She's totally off the ventilator now, breathing on her own.

She does have a simple oxygen mask on and is slowly

but surely getting over being sedated for an entire week.

She's communicating with her family and this is such a wonderful thing!!

Thank you again for your precious prayers...

we totally give the Lord all of the glory!!!

Have a beautiful Wednesday sweet friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Sharing your creative spirit ~

Since beginning my blog waaaay back in 2007,

I've always loved creating new things, sharing photos of what I've made
 and even sharing how I've made them!

Sometimes I will share my creative steps
with free tutorials here on my blog,
(see the link at the top of my blog for those :)

with my tutorials for purchase and

even in simple photographs in a blog post.

But always, always I have loved sharing my creative spirit.

My sweet friend Suzanne contacted me a while back

and after purchasing one of my tutorials mentioned

that she and her friends were heading

to her mountain home getaway
(the gorgeous photo above is from her mountain home!!!)

and were all going to create the project
from the tutorial!!!

I told her it sounds like so much fun and to please share photos

with me when you return, I would love to see!

Here are their wonderful Silver Plate Collages and

Suzanne said they had the most fun being together and creating!

I think they are all so GORGEOUS!
Beautiful, French and each special in it's very own way ~
Thank you so much sweet Suzanne for sharing your photos with me
and I am so very thankful that you shared your creative spirit with your friends!

Happy Tuesday my sweet friends,
hugs and love,
Dawn

A few sweet treasures ~

This past weekend we did a tiny bit of treasure hunting...

you know how much I love that!

Well, I'm very cheap and selective it seems these days,

but I did find a few wonderful things ~

Here's my little haul:

I love the graphics on this tin!

It's a repro but I don't care ~

the color is so pretty to me too.

 

And I have ALWAYS wanted one of these "Pin Money" banks!!

I can't believe I found one for such a great price too :)

The stopper was inside and I was able to get it out easily.

But it didn't fit very well so I tossed it.

Like I'm really going to put money in it anyway!!

 

Sweet, old cuticle scissors ~ rusty and beautiful.

I loved this little book too....

a French to English...

English to French dictionary!

It's the most wonderful small size.

It's in a teeny bit of rough shape but you know I don't care!

Do you think it's been to France and back?

A new TJ Maxx store just opened near us and I had to go check it out!

I found a box of heavenly rose scented dusting powder and

this beautiful box of note cards ~

right up my ally, don't you think??!!!

Thank you always for stopping by to see me....

Wishing you a beautiful day precious friends!!!

hugs and love,

Dawn

For the love of clocks ~

Of of the many things I love and collect are clocks.
My husband loves them too, which is a good thing!

I was in The Plum Tree the other day and
saw this wonderful clock and just loved it ~
the graphics are so beautiful, the patina....and it's brand new!!
It is new but I don't care, the look is so what I love
and have in our home, it should fit right in ~

A gift bag with a little treasure inside that I put together
for a sweet someone who has the gift of generosity ~

My first attempt at embossing today! I can see places I missed but STILL... isn't it lovely???

Something else I seem to be enamored with lately are vintage pincushions.
Look at this gorgeous one I found on ebay....

And last but not least on this completely random post
is that I've finally started my bee assemblage.....starting is good.

Wishing you a wonderful, relaxing weekend dear friends,
hugs and love,
Dawn

A baby shoe and some gorgeous fabric!!

Just look at this precious baby shoe. Wonderful, soft leather that once held a little one's chubby foot as they began their life. I love the folds, the scrapes, the beautiful verdegris of the eyelets as they've aged. Quite a simple thing, but so very lovely ~ soon to be transformed into an heirloom keepsake pincushion!

Do you see the gorgeous fabric it's resting on?

Doesn't it have the look of French linen?

Looks at the specks and nubs all over ~

I just love working with this wonderful fabric.

Would you like to know where I buy it???

Home Depot or Lowes!!!

It's a canvas dropcloth! I love the look of them new, fresh out of the package but they're also gorgeous if you throw them in the wash with fabric softener and you will see gentle wrinkles that add character!! They make the most beautiful curtains, too. Another idea...wash one so it will be soft, and throw it over that chair that needs covering. When it gets dirty, rip it off and wash it again . . .

Don't you love a cool idea??

Have a happy Tuesday!
xxoo, Dawn

Some beautiful French images for you ~

I love to share my collection of old papers and images with you. Quite a while back I bought a packet of wonderful old papers from Corey of Tongue in Cheek. They are like brittle antique treasures to me. I keep them all in a very sturdy box for safe keeping. I scanned a few for you today ~ be sure to click to enlarge, then right click with your mouse, select save image as and left click. Then you can save them to a folder on your hard drive!

When you enlarge them, look at the dates on these pieces . . .

I hope you'll be able to use some of these in your artwork. I'm not sure if you can do this with your software, but did you know that if I open one of these images in my photo editing software and then go to print while I'm still in it, I can select all different sizes to print the images in. It's designed for using with regular photos but I love using it to print my vintage images. Try printing on beautiful scrapbooking paper cut down to feed into your printer too!

Have a great Wednesday sweet friends!

xxoo, Dawn

Beautiful French postcards for you!

Tuesday was a busy day ~ I gathered my goods from Antique Griffin and moved out of my tiny space. Sales are off terribly and I find that I would rather work on my artwork than hunt for antiques that may or may not sell.

After I left Antique Griffin I headed to another wonderful antique store down the road, From Out of the Past Antiques. Come to find out, they are closing their doors in a few weeks. The economy is hurting these small stores so much. Plus the big box stores have such a draw for everyone's money. Please remember to stop in your small local shops when you need a gift or something special for that empty spot in your home. If we don't shop them, they will surely vanish!!

I bought these beautiful French postcards at From Out of the Past today and just love them. I wanted to share them with you as well. Just click to enlarge, right click, slide down to "save picture as" and left click to save to your computer.

Thank you so very much for all of the wonderful comments on my giveaway ~ I just wish I could hug each and every one of you!! xxoo, Dawn

Sweet friendship, a button bottle & a trip!

Isn't this the sweetest image? I picked it up a few weeks back at Scott's Antique Market and the date on the back says 1900! I scanned it in for you ~ just click to enlarge then right click to get the list of options to save to your computer then left click again on "save to computer" or "save image as" and then you can rename it
and file it away ~ Don't they look like they're friends?

I'm working on several projects that I can't share with you right now and it makes me crazy! But I have to press on and know that I can share them with you later . . .

I did manage to squeak out a wonderful button bottle tonight with a pretty French label that I applied. This is from the French images book a few posts back. I aged it a bit with my brushed corduroy distressed ink pad and a soft cloth. I've added a snippet of lace and sparkle with a piece of an old earring.
Lastly I filled it with pretty vanilla and pearl buttons ~

I'm sure this old bottle thought it's purpose and use was over. Little did it know it would eventually be so gussied up!!

And the trip is to . . . Savannah!! We are leaving this evening to visit our two oldest sons, Brent and David and Brent's girlfriend, Emily. All of us are going too! Dennis and I, Brad, Chase and Noah . . . and of course Ellie!!! We are so looking forward to seeing them all and having all of our family together. I'll still blog too, because they all know I love it!!

Feel free to use the images below as well. I took them last year at Bonaventure Cemetery ~

Wishing you a wonderful Friday ~ xxoo, Dawn