Valentine Swap And A Vintage Gem

I decided to participate in Sandy's Valentine Swap back in January. I was paired up with Jenny of Jenny's Heart. She is an amazing woman with a wonderful blog. As you read her blog you really get to know Jenny. She loves the Lord, her sweet husband and her wonderful family. She loves papercrafts and swaps. I am so glad that I was paired with her. We love the same things: vintage, vintage and more vintage! She sent me the most amazing Valentine box filled to the brim with bits and bobs, vintage goodness, candy and ephemera. I plan on working on more paper crafts this year (as well as adding in a lot of sewing) and the things that she sent me are perfect!

Look at all the goodies! Zoom in to take a closer look.

A vintage Easter card! I don't have very many of these and I loved adding this one to my collection. See the ric rac in the upper left corner. I love that color!!

Look! Vintage valentine, vintage letter seals (Christmas!!), candy, ephemera, adorable straws, candy cups, ice cream cup, buttons, felt envelope! 

This is an adorable Valentine box. It is perfect and I am proudly displaying it among my Valentine decorations!

I am so glad that she sent me these seals. I have been looking and looking for some vintage Christmas letter seals and these are just adorable. My sister gave me some rose letter seals that I love and this started me on the hunt for more.

Baby Jesus, little church and sweet little girl. These look like they are from the later 60s or 70s, going by the graphics and colors. Perfectly adorable.

If you get a chance head on over to Jenny's blog and say "hi". I didn't take any pictures of what I sent her but she said that she is going to blog about it this weekend. She has had so much snow and cloudy days & that makes it hard to take bright pictures. I had to wait until today even though it is brighter today it is still not sunny. Thank you so much Jenny! I am so glad we were swap buddies! You spoiled me.

I never did show you what I bought on my antiquing adventures over Christmas. Mom, sister, D#1 and I went to a little town in Georgia called Hogansville. Dad kept on telling us that we needed to go and check out their downtown. He said that they have a lot of antique stores and we would have a blast. Boy was he right. They had the cutest stores filled to the brim with antiques and after Christmas sales. So sorry but I didn't take pictures of the vintage Christmas that I bought and I have already packed them away. I also didn't take my camera to get shots of their downtown but if you google Hogansville, Ga, several downtown images will come up. Cute town. I did manage the score of a lifetime though. As you know, I already have a black Featherweight well....now meet Miss White Featherweight.

For some reason the cat and dog love to explore the craftroom while I work. Smokie is very curious as to what is in the vintage sewing box. Estate sale find $4, loaded with sewing supplies.

Smokie graciously used himself as a scale to show how small the Featherweight is. He is about 11lbs and so is the sewing machine. See the plant in the background? Every time I take a cutting from the mother plant, I place it in this window. They love the morning light coming through and grow like weeds!

Did you guess what I paid for this lovely little rare beauty? $35, yep. 35 buckaroos!! I couldn't believe it. This particular machine is worth 10 times that. It runs smooth and purrs like ...well....a....kitten :) It was sitting in a chair, dusty, lonely and of course I had to rescue her. She has been well taken care of and treated well. She does have a few tiny battle scars, as her case has long been lost. If you ever find one of these little coveted gems snatch her up rescue her. You won't be sorry, even though she will make the other machines in your craft room a little jealous.

Happy hunting,

Holly

Swapping Fun!

I participated in Sandy's (521 Lake Street) Easter Swap. I was paired up with the talented Laura (VintageBettys). She makes the most adorable paperclay characters. This swap was so much fun! I really enjoyed every minute of it.

Here is what Laura sent me (left to right): most adorable bunny with a top hat, adorable spring Spoolie with her paperclay bluebird, Victorian spoolie (yes, she sent me two spoolies!!), egg decorated with paper flowers, and a lamb Nursery planter! Click on the picture to get a better look.

She also sent me this exquisite hand painted egg. Two butterflies and flowers are painted on it. The lovely hankie (which I must confess, vintage hankies are my latest obsession) and a beautiful silver rose broach. I have plans for the broach and hankie that I will share later on :)

I don't have very many Easter greeting cards. I have just never thought about collecting them until this year, which is of course thanks to all the wonderful blogs that I visit. Vintage Easter cards are posted everywhere and are so adorable. Well...look what Laura sent:

Vintage card images!!!! With a post it note sticky back! Oh my, I can't wait to craft with some of them (I am going to leave some plain too). The little framed girl is the sweetest. I have her tucked among my vintage nursery planters. * That kidney bean shaped blob is just a chip on my enamel top. It looks ugly (sorry, I should have covered it up) but it reminds me that my vintage Hoosier 

table was well loved before I bought it.

The basket tutorial that she demonstrated on her blog. Yes, she sent it to me!! I think it is so adorable and I love the lamb image. He fits right in with my other lambs. I love the flower ribbon and chickie bookmark. Later on in the spring when I plant the seeds (forget me not and sunflower), I will think of Laura and her friendship. She also sent some abc/word stickers that look like tiny Scrabble tiles-you know that I love my Scrabble tiles!

Thank you so much Laura. I loved opening my box and each little present within. We couldn't have been better paired, as you and I both love the same things :)

*small disclaimer: Laura sent candy but I shared some with hubby and D#2 and hid a few pieces in my craft room to enjoy later. Thank you so much-the chocolate was well loved! 

I didn't take any pictures of what I sent Laura, but she did a blog post on it. Just click here.

And a big thank you to Sandy!! She was so wonderful to coordinate this swap. Without her this swap would have never happened!!

The alarm went off this morning at 7am! So that I could wake D#2 and dear hubby up from their Saturday morning slumber. To go on an adventure to buy this:

and all of this:

and this: 

D#2's school was having a yard sale for a local church. The church was making money for a mission trip to Africa. D#2's school teacher was in charge and she told me that they were going to have some good stuff! Lots of Christmas stuff, but mostly from 1980s and up, a little too modern for me. But I did find some vintage Christmas. Only two Nursery planters. Look at the little elephant. His original plastic flowers still intact. What a find!

Another church yard sale. Not a plentiful as the first but different stuff. 

Charlie Brown A to B dictionary, Disney book (I love this type), Richard Scary (can never pass these up), and 4 Hardy Boys books (ohhh...I love these even if they are new), & Lefton Christmas salt and pepper shakers. D#2 bought some toys there too.

In 4th grade I had to do a report on our state, Alabama. It had to be hand written, bound, pictures of state bird, flower, flag, etc. Yep...this is the book that I used as my reference. Oh the memories when I flipped through this thing at the yard sale. We had a contest for best Alabama report and guess what? I won first place with a blue ribbon and everything. Yes ma'am, this books coming home with me! Can't place a price on memories. But I do have to admit, it is very useful, it is a dictionary after all. So as long as I don't need to look up anything past the letter "b" then I'm good.

Well, that's our Saturday morning adventures. And for dear hubby and D#2 being such good sports I promised them breakfast at MickeyD's. 

Just a little side note: I do have one more Spring/Easter craft coming up. Hopefully I can get it posted tomorrow. 

Until then have a wonderful day, 

Holly

**If you are having a little trouble understanding Baa lamb's instructions I have uploaded some easy to follow pictures that should explain in a little more detail. Just click here. Enjoy!

The Day the WHOLE Circus Came To Town

On a recent post, I showed you my craft room. I had spent a whole week organizing, coordinating and decluttering it and was quite proud of my accomplishment. I have never had a room so cute. My former craft rooms were always just plain. My mother-in-law has a cute craft room. Even though she doesn't think so, I think it is very organized. She paints, sews and crafts in this cute small room. My current room is large-bonus room over garage, but it wasn't "cute". No curtains, no cute knick-knacks, etc. I wanted to change that. I knew that Elizabeth over at Creative Breathing had an amazing craft room. So, of course I went over to copy get inspiration from her. She loves the same colors that I do, loves cute stuff (so do I), decorates with vintage cute planters (which I loooovvvveee), makes as cute as can be eye candy, and posts the most amazing stories. She really inspired me to make my creative space "as cute as can be!". After I finished the behemothen task, I thought that I would share my some what complete room with her. I had used her flickr photos as inspiration (ok, I admit it, I did some what copy-but at least I admitted it, right?). I left her a message on one of her photos inviting her to come over to my blog and see what I had done to my craft room. I thought that she would probably never really read it. I mean she probably gets 100s of invites from stalkers normal people to come and check out their stuff. Boy, was I shocked when she, my inspiration hero, sent me an email. I was so thrilled and couldn't believe my eyes when I read:

"Would you be interested in a trade?"

Are you kidding? A trade!! She actually looked at my stuff and liked it! You bet I would! I couldn't answer her quickly enough, thinking all the while that she might change her mind and not want to trade after all. That she had made a mistake and didn't want anything. But she did and wanted me to pick something for her. Wow....what would Elizabeth want? I knew that she loved bluebirds and I had just made one the other day with Mary Engelbreit influenced colors. Hopefully she would like it. I would make her one that was similar but would have a little inchie friend. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of it. But she did and it is on her blog Creative Breathing. She wrote the sweetest post about me and the gifts. And of course I read the comments that her sweet blog friend wrote. These blog friends are the most amazing women. They said the kindest things and have even joined my blog. Thank you so much. I have always been amazed that people would even want to read my blog. I started out keeping a blog for my sister in Missouri and my family and in-laws in Alabama and Georgia, Florida, North Carolina & South Carolina. Mainly to let them know what we were up to. I do have a visitor counter and sometimes I will go to it and find out that people as far away as Australia, France, Mexico, Spain, Africa, South America among many other countries have visited my blog. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. These are countries that I will probably never visit but would love to and just seeing your pin on my map gives me a connection to your country. Many states are represented and although I probably won't visit your state seeing the pin on your state give me a connection as well.  You are welcome to leave comments and I will try to reply to them. I am not always on my blog, I may neglect it for a week or more at a time, but I will always try my best to post at least once a week or more :)

 

Ok....now to the swap. Elizabeth read my blog (insert blush), and figured out that I had started making her Circus. I loved the cute little characters. I had only made the elephant and monkey, but had high hopes to make the rest of the Circus soon. Her patterns are so easy to follow and are very detailed. It's this detail that I love, but it is a little time consuming, which translates it is going to take me more than an afternoon to complete the whole set. It is all hand sewing. I love to hand sew in front of the TV and her projects are perfect for this. Elizabeth wanted to know if I would like to swap something of mine for the Creative Breathing Circus. I would love a Circus character, I told her. But guess what!?!? She didn't mean just one character, but the WHOLE Circus. Boy, was I delighted to find that the WHOLE Circus had come to town!!  She sent an elephant, monkey, clown, Ring Master, sweet Seal Trainer & the adorable seal (made out of pipe cleaners!). They are as cute as can be! I can't wait to make a circus banner to go above them.

Above: My elephant w/ fez and my tiny monkey. Elizabeth's monkey, Seal and Seal Trainer, Clown and Elephant.

Above: Look at the Ring Master! He's holding an amazing banner. See the tiny ticket booth. Hobby Lobby has some Circus stuff in their birthday party department. Has real tickets in it.

Above: The details that she adds to each character is amazing. Adorable, just adorable....

Above: sweet clown.

Above: She sent the sweetest butterfly card. Thank you so much Elizabeth! I am so thankful to have made a new blogland friend!

Here's to taking chances and making new bloggy friends!!

So, if someone inspires you, let them know. And if something catches your eye ask about a swap. If Elizabeth hadn't email me and asked about swapping, I would have probably never made my first swap ever! Thanks again, Elizabeth!!

Holly

disclaimer: sorry about the fuzzy photos, same camera problems, plus it's dark and rainy outside and I have had too much caffeine.......