Our annual Bookclub holiday party

paintings, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party
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I have no idea how long we’ve held this tradition, 20 years, maybe?  Hmm, Sugarwings is 19 now, so maybe not quite 20.  18 or 17?

I tend to date events by the ages the kids or dogs were at the time.

It’s an evening I always look forward to.

Each year I try to make a gift to set at each place setting.

This year, it is hand painted book marks.  I thought of doing Christmas ones, but I thought flowers might be more practical. 

This is what I wrote for the backs.

Since they are watercolor, the paint needed protection.  Originally I’d planned to laminate the tags with clear packing tape, but oops!  It was too narrow!

The party was that night and I didn’t have time to get extra wide tape.  So I experimented by using an acrylic clear coat.  It went on fine, no smearing.  I was surprised and happy.  I hope they hold up.

The Cottage at Christmas

holiday decor
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My holiday decor is a bit lighter this year.

As I was setting it up, I started to feel ill.

So some boxes were left unpacked.

Even in that scenario, I seem to have set out plenty, huh?

As I pack it away January first, I typically fill a tub per tree, so when it is time to set it out again, it’s all sorted into different categories.


Such as nature…

Pastels…

Handmade with vintage paper…

Sentimental or family items…

It’s a loose system, with variables.  And when I unpack, I don’t exactly use the items the same as the year before.

It makes things go a little quicker for set up, even when I’m changing it up for the season.

It also makes tear down time go more quickly too.

Set up is a full day, because I have to pause, admire, reminisce, and enjoy all the baubles.  But tear down is usually one afternoon.  My record time is under 3 hours, but that was because we had an emergency where the floor needed ripped up and major repairs handled so those trees needed to be gone.

I guess my antique dealer past is helpful training in doing a redo quickly.   Plus, it makes me happy to do it.  An enjoyable task can just zip by, huh?  Well, unless you have guys with saws and tools waiting for you to get your precious pretties out of the way so they can tear up the floor to get to the foundation.  Not quite as much fun.

A faux cloche

how-to projects
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My pal, Beth, and I have always said, since our early days of junking together, “everything looks better under glass.”   We used that line as a joke sometimes, but it also was a good sales tool.  Plop a cloche over some odd item and all of a sudden it is elevated to a highlighted piece that gets a customer’s attention.

I use glass domes around my house, to sell at Juju, and in holiday crafts.  Though this find wasn’t exactly a cloche, it was transformed into one with an abandoned silver sugar bowl lid and some ribbon.

There were three of these lampshades, one broke, the other got a similar treatment with a Santa display inside.  (That one sold before I snapped a pic.)

Too bad that the 3rd one broke, I was looking forward to making more.  These could be used as free standing cloches, if not glued together on a stand with a scene inside like I’ve done with this one.

I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for interesting shades and lids to piece together so I can make more domes to place over items in my booth.

Jingle time at Juju

antiques/junking, Good JuJu, holiday decor
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November’s First Friday Weekend at Good Juju was all about the holidays.

And for me at least, so is the upcoming December sale.

Opinions among dealers vary, with some thinking November is for shopping to decorate your house and December is shopping for gifts.  Which I agree is valid, the same theory holds true for selling Halloween decor in September, not October because most people have finished decorating their homes by then.

 So while a lot of dealers still have their gorgeous displays for the season and the mall is festive and sparkly, they can subtly up the non Christmas goods for sale too.

I added my crazy quilt stuffies in my own spot. Plus, if you look around, you’ll notice many of my display pieces such as bowls, plates, books, etc are normal every day pieces that I use to hold my items for sale.

I include functional or household items (as well as jewelry and clothing) in the mix.

But for me, I’m probably still at 90% ho ho holidays in the back part of my area.

Part of the front of the space is all jewelry, all the time.

But for now, there is a Yule tide glow over everything.  Simply because I adore every thing related to the season all so much.  I love making pretties , collecting old Christmas stuff, fixing it up, treasuring it, displaying it, loving it.

Will my sales in December be as good as they were in November?  Maybe not, but my set up makes me extremely happy!

Don’t get me wrong, I take my business seriously.  But I also am there to enjoy the work, doing the displays, indulging myself and my joy in styling the pieces I make or find.

There is a chance that I go a bit over the top for our two day sale……. it has been mentioned to me.

And when my love of Christmas collides with my tendency to over do- I am not just in my happy place.

I’m sliding into my domain of exhilaration!

Simple stars and roses

holiday decor, Uncategorized
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I mentioned in my last post that I’d been under the weather.  Way under.  Before getting sick, I was planning a dinner party and decorating for Christmas.  I had to cancel the guests but I was left with a sparkling clean home and twinkly lights to cheer me as I recovered.

How nice!

Well, I almost had the house decorated.   I didn’t quite have our large, white tree finished.   It honestly had plenty on  it, unless you compare to previous years.

While hanging the baubles, I’d suddenly got worn out.  So I slid the remaining tub full of shiny brutes into the closet and cleaned up the mess that comes along with decking the halls, and called it good enough.

Now, after feeling better and living with the half done tree for a week, I decided it needed a little more.  But I still wasn’t up to dragging out the tubs and going through the trouble of hanging the delicate, vintage balls.

So, I dyed some coffee filters in coffee, seemed fitting.

Then turned piles of six filters into roses, and painted the petals with glue then drizzled glitter onto them.  They were quick, easy, and were simple to tuck into the branches of the tree.

The roses were ideal to solve the issue of the tree not being quite full enough.  Or they would’ve been if I’d had more coffee filters.

I ran out.

To finish it, I folded sheet music into stars and used the same glitter on them.  It’s a nice change up for me, I’m enjoying the new look.  Don’t get me wrong, I adore vintage shiny brites and my lovingly collected, special pastel ones in various shapes took years to accumulate.

But after being sick, I just was too tired to hang them with the care they require.  So they will stay safely tucked away until next year and for now I’m happy with my hand crafted paper pretties.  Plus, it was good for my soul to have a little craft project to work on.

Happy Thanksgiving

celebrations, cottage, holiday decor
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It is a quiet day for me  on this holiday. Rich has to be out of town, and Sugarwings is with family in Missouri.  Spending two days on one meal isn’t really something I look forward to anyway, so I will not be missing that part of the holiday.

But I will be thinking of all my grand fairies, and the whole big group of people I love and wishing them a lovely day.

Since I was ill for more than two weeks, I’ve gotten extremely far behind on my prep for our next First Friday weekend at Good Juju   So I will take advantage of this solitary day to make things sparkly and bright for the Christmas sale there.

And when the day is done, I’ll enjoy my fall table display one more night before it gets a Christmas glow up to match the rest of the house.

All the while, feeling grateful for having a family to love whether we share a turkey together or not.  I hope your days are filled with caring too.  Have a great Thanksgiving!

Vintage crazy quilt critters

Painting with thread
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For the last two weeks, I’ve been ill.  And am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

For the first week, I did nothing at all, just rested and figured I’d feel better soon.

By the time the second week of feeling crappy rolled around, I was antsy and wanting to make something.

Luckily, Beth had given me a bagful of gorgeous, very old, crazy quilt pieces.

There wasn’t an abundance of energy to spare, but these little, velvety tidbits were just the ticket to quenching my need to create while still resting in front of the tv.

The fabric was so precious, I didn’t want to waste a scrap.

So first, I cut out some larger cats, then smaller ones, and bunnies.

The smaller bits were used for hearts and birds. Then the teeny snippets became the birds’ wings.

Each one of them was an adventure in making the most of the material.  I’d flip it over and draw the shapes on the back, to puzzle out as many pieces I could on each square.

They are hand drawn, no patterns were used, so there are a verity of personalities that came out when I added vintage buttons for eyes.  Thank you to Beth for the fabulous gift, and thank you to the original artist who created such a beautiful quilt for me to work with.

Upcycled doll heads into angel ornaments

how to's
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Sorry, I only have “after” shots.

Whelp, maybe I shoulda done some before photos?  Or can you picture a vintage doll whose head has been pulled off?  Because that’s where these begin.  She was a stuffed dollie, in Dutch clothing and wooden shoes. No one bought her as is, despite this lovely face.  So, off with her head, and hair.  The hair had been a glued on, braided wig that came off easily and was replaced with angora goat curly locks.  (If hair doesn’t come off by peeling it back, I used pliers for a better grip and give a good tug)                                                                                                      Next, a bundle of trailing lace and ribbons were glued into her neck cavity where the body was once attached. Feathers got curled and glued to the back of her, and a cluster of old millinery blooms were clustered and adhered around her neck.  (This project works well with stuffed body dolls whose heads have been glued or sewn on.  When you remove the head, there is typically a neck or neck and shoulders that are hollow.)

 Actually, I might have gotten a little bit out of order, because the hair comes after the ribbons, flowers, and feathers. If you add the hair first, it’s in the way.  You need the other pieces in place so the hair can cascade over them.

On a few of the heads, I subbed a blossom in place of the trailing ribbons.   The main consideration is to fill in the hole where the torso was once connected, and camouflage it with something pretty- lace, flowers, jewels, etc.

After each is complete, I glue a ribbon loop to the top of her scalp as a hanger.  Some dolls have a rubbery head, and you can also secure the hanger with a pin.  I try to either hide the spot with another curl over it, or a bit of bling.

Remember, anytime you glue something, the glue is only as strong as what you’re attaching it to.  That is why, with these, I get the ribbon down through the curls, onto the scalp itself.  If it were glued only to the hair, when hung on a tree, the hair could pull away from the head.  Gluing the hanger directly to the head, not the hair, is much more secure.

Aren’t they sweet?

Remaking Santas, one used to be a wizard

holiday decor
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This guy didn’t start out with a wish to deliver toys all night long in a sleigh one night a year.

His previous job was casting spells.  I tore him apart, ripped off his clothes (not in a fun way), and started gluing red velvet and mink onto him to facilitate his career change.  His old, fake fur beard was pulled off with pliers and a fresh, angora one was glued in its place.

Here is another, midway through his reconstruct.  He began as a Santa, just an ugly one.

Here is how he started.  So hairy, he can’t even find his sleigh to climb in, let alone read his naughty list.

Once he was made over, you could once again see his face through his new, angora goat hair beard. And hopefully, I made the nice list by helping him out.

I don’t blink I got a before pic for this guy.

Randy gifted me this one to redo.

No fabric for him, I was able to do the transformation with paint and glitter.

Lots of glitter!  And some white mink.

I kinda like the funky stripes on this Claus, so I just updated him with teensy mother of pearl buttons, lace, mink,  and a vintage buckle on a strip of leather as a belt.

I just love redoing these gentlemen,  and hope the changes are upgrades.

Holiday paintings on vintage paper

Uncategorized
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These mischievous knee hugger elves were a fave of my childhood.

So when I thought about painting some holiday pages, they were my first thought as a subject.

I had a couple old sheet music pages of Jingle Bells and one of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and thought both titles were just right for these sprites.

Of course, I needed a doodle of this jolly old elf too.

The my caroling book, where I was finding all the perfect sheet music, had a quaint little village on the cover and it inspired this painting.

Home, Sweet Home, found in another old book, was just what I needed for a ginger bread house.

And how could this title not get a snowy owl?

All of the pictures were created on vacation.  Either while watching the ocean from our balcony, or while on the airplane. When I travel by plane or as a passenger when we go on long drives, I like to flip through vintage books and draw on pages that catch my attention.  Then after arriving, I’ll get the paints out to finish.

Hmm, maybe I need another trip, so I have an excuse to make more.  I tend to only do these while traveling, and absolutely love working on them. It seems like I only have time when I’m on vacation.

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