Another Photography contest

I have only entered one photography contest. Just the local electric company contest, I was on pins and needles for two months before they posted the winners, and obviously, I did not win, or place for that matter.

 

Still, it was fun and you will never have a chance if you don't try right?

I am going to try again. The theme this time is "What does summer mean to you". Based on the winners in the past I expect that they are looking for are sweeping landscapes, pictures of lakes and sunsets with kids playing in water and fishing. Pretty much everything I don't typically photograph.

 

But my stubborn rebel streak is going to enter the pictures that I want to anyway. So, brainstorming, I was thinking, what does summer mean to me? Beautiful homegrown tomatoes, Flowers, bees and water.

 

Ok, my tomatoes are not home grown, garden failure. And I could not find pretty tomatoes at the farmers market, so whole foods to the rescue.

 

 

Still have not decided what to enter...I will have to look at them for a week before I decide.

 

Such beautiful Zinnia's this year. Believe it or not this picture does not do this Zinnia justice. The colors are so intense on this variety. They are just gorgeous.

 

Maybe both flowers and tomatoes together? No. I don't think so.

I thought about sunflowers. I mean, How can you look at a sunflower and not think about summer?

 

I think the only one I am 100% positive about entering is this bee picture. From last summer, but one of my all time favorites.

 

 

I have been very busy at work, this is our busy season, new residents coming in and locum doctors subbing for providers taking month long summer leaves, but regardless, tired or not I am trying to keep hammering and get some new stock into Creative Village. I sent a nice selection to the new boutique "The Basement" and still have a nice number of my "base" stock on hand. Believe it or not, I am already thinking about working on Christmas ornaments. I wanted to have several ready for the October Farmisan Market, and they were very good sellers at Creative Village, so I will want a large stock ready to go and not have to rush to get them together at the last minute. Because of this I have not been tackling as many new craft projects as I would like to. Time to hit Pinterest again for some new inspiration?

 

But finish one project first...I need to figure out a picture to submit that deals with water. Thank goodness I live close to a gorgeous lake. I refuse to conform to a sweeping landscape shot. But I sure do love a pretty lake water picture,

 

Off to the lake. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

 

 

Just a little thrifting...

During the summertime when the kids are out of school I like to take random days off and just hang out with them. I was very lucky over the 4th of July that my company decided to close both on Friday and Monday, so add on one vacation day and I had a nice supersized weekend to hang with my kids. Well, kid, the big kid is old enough now to be at work, and he has a pretty poppin social life, so it turned out to be more girls time. But we girls are like peas and carrots and always have a blast.

 

Running around Nashville, lunch at the grilled Cheeserie (best grilled cheese in Nashville) McKays bookstore,  shopping at World Market for gourmet root beer then floating in the pool while sipping said gourmet root beer and of course some crafting and thrifting.

 

This is one of the soda's we grabbed at World Market, omg, this was the most amazing tasting soda. I am definitely going back for more. So good.

 

 

We really had a practically perfect weekend.

 

Not that we found a lot thrifting, but we had a darn good time doing it!

 

Best buy of the weekend, Mint Julep cups! I have been looking for these for a long time. Goodwill find, two bucks a piece, I got four of them. They are silver plate, and I am thrilled with them! Cannot wait to fill them with beautiful tiny roses!

 

 

The coolest enamel mushroom pot. Mint condition, until I dropped the lid and damaged the enamel. Dammit....but still love it and have used it several times already. I have two Fire King casserole dishes mint condition with their lids, same design. Love the 70's mushrooms.

 

 

Napco milk glass vase, this is going to get some pink hydrangeas and burlap roses, I think it will make a good arrangement for one for craft shows this fall!

 

 

Another cute little butter crock! No problem filling this up with more vintage silverware.

 

 

The coolest little tea diffuser! Sitting at the same Goodwill with the Mint Julep cups, .99, cant beat it!

 

 

And a moustache cup, again a Goodwill find, I like to use them as tooth brush holders, into the bathroom it went!

 

 

I keep all my metal stampers in an old handmade tool box, but they are always rolling around. I spotted this little enamelware box? I don't know, but it is a nice old heavy enamelware and it is the perfect size to keep my stamps corralled. 2.00, totally worth it. And, I have another larger one, now they will both be going into my toolbox.

 

 

I found a light kit at Hobby Lobby to light up a mason jar, so I grabbed another vintage blue jar, the light does not fit perfectly, but a little burlap ribbon around the top and we are good to go! I really loved how it turned out. I may have to run back and get another kit. They are cool!

 

 

And an Ebay buy...we decided to add some cool old Monopoly pieces to add to our vintage game collection.

 

 

I have yet to put an air plant in my pretty blue bottle, I keep popping little hydrangeas in there, I love how this looks on my window sill. 

 

I am looking forward to another long weekend this week, Vacation time for another girls day and getting ready for a summer pool party for my daughter and her best buds. We are having a good time surfing Pinterest looking for fun pool party food ideas, so much fun! Cannot wait to see how it all comes together.

 

And...I think I will be able to sneak in some more thrifting as well!

 

hope you are having a beautiful weekend!

 

 

Alice in Wonderland

 Another lovely long summer Holiday weekend. I had a lot of fun, did a lot of relaxing, and got a lot of crafting done!

 

Remember this flea market buy? It did not last long, I was excited to make my vision come to life.

 

I had a lot of fun with this one!

 

 

This was not easy to photograph It is quite tall and regardless of what I placed it in front of, it was difficult to capture. Nevertheless I really love how it turned out. The sentiment spoon says "Every Adventure requires a first step" a quote from the book, but I felt that it was especially appropriate for a children's nursery arrangement.

 

 

I loved the knot in this box. It looks so rich after it was stained, amazing for such inexpensive pallet wood.

 

And the butterflies, oh the branches full of butterflies! I was right, the funky graphics of this old book made fantastic butterflies.

 

I again did three layers with the aluminum cut out in between. Red, white and black. I did a couple all paper, but the majority have the aluminum center. My favorites are the ones with the aluminum centers.

 

I am just so pleased with how this turned out. I NEED to make more!

 

I did my best to get some of the best pictures into the butterflies. They made such cool butterflies.

 

I posted my creation on Facebook and got some very favorable comments on it, as a matter of fact, I had a couple people ask me to make one for them, so, it is off I go to McKay's used books to dig through their children's bookshelves and find some more little golden books. I have an order or another "Alice" themed book, but I would love to do a Peter Pan and a Bambi arrangement. Maybe even a sleeping beauty!

 

I could very easily get carried away with this.

 

I made this one especially for a wholesale order for a shop a fellow crafter friend of mine is opening in August, so now I will be selling at two "boutiques" very exciting! I hope she likes it enough to put it in her shop, but if not, I feel pretty confident I have it sold anyway.

 

Hope you had a fantastic long Fourth of July weekend!

 

 

 

 

Legolepsy....

An obsession with words......not an injury caused by stepping on a Lego.

 

I have always been a reader. One of my favorite things to read (other than books) are definitions of less commonly used or obscure words. A bit nerdy, I know.

 

Recently, I was reading an article on the topic of beautiful words of the English language, it gave me an idea.

 

And a new "spoon line" was born!

 

 

 

Just saying these words aloud is relaxing.

 

Of course, I do live in the South, so I have to make sure I have a few "Southernisms" thrown in as well.

 

I have a long list of "Southernism's" to hammer out.

 

I am having a lot of fun with this.

 

 

I am not sure what I enjoy more, researching words, or hammering them out. I predict that this "spoon line" is going to have a wide selection.

 

Well, that is unless I am alone in my love of obscure words.

 

Hoping you are having a prodigious week!

Melting at the Nashville Flea

The South is experiencing a very hot June.

 

Hot, as in you start sweating the minute you walk out the door at 6:30 in the morning hot.

 

Flesh melting Southern heat.

 

I am tired just describing it.

 

I was back and forth about going to this months market because of the heat, but I know the June Flea market is one of the last really good ones until September and I did not want to miss it. So, up I got early on Saturday and headed out there hoping to get through the majority of market before the sun burned the clouds off. Typically, the market is pretty quiet this early on Saturdays, but I think everyone was thinking the same thing I  was. Go early before the real heat hits. I got there to find half of Nashville decided to join me.  

 

Darn it I could not even park in my usual spot.

 

grumble, grumble.

 

Anyway....I did make it almost half way through before the sun came out to brutally beat us down. Lots of vendors, lots of good stuff, but I only came away with a few things. Still totally worth the trip out. Even if I did turn red as a lobster and sweated about two gallons.

 

A couple little Pyrex finds. The fridgie is pink and since I have been on a pink Pyrex kick lately I had to grab it.

 

 

 

The light in the kitchen really showed the flaws, they actually look much better than this.

 

Of course flatware to hammer and a couple aluminum cups that caught my eye.

 

 

 I think they will look cool filled with spring violets.

 

 My daughter loves the Blue Azurite Fire King and has a pretty nice miss matched collection, so I was excited to find this serving bowl for her. She was very happy with it!

 

 

My main goal for the day was a nursery appropriate book for the next arrangement I wanted to work on. Found what I think is a PERFECT book to use, and a couple more odd books to add to my old book collection.

 

 

From 1951, I love the funky somewhat creepy graphics of the book. I think it will make a wonderful arrangement.

 

 

 I love really old books, they are so cool. I found a copyright date of 1888 in this one.

 

 

The cover was pretty beat up, inside was much better condition. It promised that it could teach anyone to sing...from a book. That made me laugh.

 

 

 

I really loved the graphics in this book.

 

 

 And another milk bottle. Like my cottage cheese bottle this one has a beautiful pink tint. I love how they look filled with flowers sitting on the window sill.

 

 

Of course I walked out with my favorite peaches from the peach truck and fresh farmers market veggies to have with dinner. 

 

 

Then home I went to drink a couple gallons of water and cool off  in the pool.

 

The first of my Zinnia's have bloomed! Perfect color to come out first since my garden Dill is also in full bloom.

 

 

 The heat is keeping me out of the garage to do my hammering...but I will have to deal with it to get some spoons finished this week for my wholesale order. Whew..I am glad I did so much hammering this spring so I have a decent stock built up or I would be seriously behind.

 Hope you are keeping cool!!!

 

 

 

 

Destoying history...

I love vintage. I love restoring vintage and up cycling vintage things that are damaged. But I hate destroying something vintage that is in perfectly good condition. It just kills me.

 

So when a friend of mine asked if I would make a center piece out of vintage sheet music for her son's 18th birthday party, I groaned. No way I was going to turn her down, but, my gosh...it was almost 100 years old. AH!! MY HEART!

 

It even smelled amazing, like good vintage books should. I don't know what it is about that smell, but I love it.

 

But, it is what she wanted. Her son is a very talented musician so it could not have been a more perfect choice for a party center piece.

 

So I cut it.

 

But not after doing some research and making sure I was not cutting some priceless music document. I was not, average value, 6.00.

 

 

Still, so beautiful. I saved the cover and some of the prettier pages so she could frame them.

 

Once I started working on making roses out of this beautiful paper, I got over the pain pretty quickly. The paper was old, which means it can be brittle. It was a pain in the backside to work with.

 

 

But I think it turned out pretty well.

 

 

A willow branch from my beloved tree, some hydrangeas with sheet music leaves and my favorite, the butterflies. I could have done nothing but butterflies and been totally happy. They are my favorite part of the whole arrangement. Some are all paper, three butterfly punches to make almost a 3D butterfly, and some with an aluminum punch spray painted black for the center. I was so happy with how they looked perched on the twisty willow branches.

 

And, working this project not only got me out of my creative energy slump, but it also inspired a couple more ideas like a whole branch made with fairy tale butterflies!

 

That one will be this weekends project!

 

And...one more idea...

 

"Gutterflies"

 

 

As I started work on the roses and butterflies for the nursery themed arrangement, I learned that the subject matter of the book you are using DOES matter. Ummm this is why the nursery arrangement is on hold until I get out and find a kids Fairy Tale book. But it gave me an idea to make an arrangement made with more of an....adult theme for Valentines day. Oh myyyyyyy.

 

This is gonna be fun!

 

I have been so busy at work that I totally lost track of the fact that this is Nashville Flea Market weekend! It is going to be very HOT but I think I need the Flea Market Therapy, so first thing Saturday before it gets flesh melting hot, I am going to have to make a run out!

 

Hope you are having a great week and are looking forward to an ever greater weekend!