Celebrating Friendship

My friend Gwen invited three of us to her lovely home for tea today. She asked if I could make a keepsake tag for each of us, as a remembrance of our day. So I decided to make a tussie mussie along with a tag.



Here is the tag..... a vintage postcard image, to which I added each of our names (in the corners by the pink rhinestones), along with the date and the words "Celebrating Friendship."

I knew I wanted to use the colors of pink and brown, as our friend Susan was going to be there, and she loves that combination.

I was pleased to find this brown and cream paper with words of friendship on it, for the outer cone.

I used a pink ribbon with raised flowers, and secured it to the cone sides by adding rose glass leaves.

Another glass leaf was added to the bottom, along with a cream tassel.

The finished product.

Gathered in a suitcase, ready for the tea party.
Thank you, Gwen, for a lovely day!

As promised, some thrift finds, and things in softer colors......

I'm a Goodwill Girl, but we had a new Salvation Army store open in a nearby town, so I had to check it out! Overall, their prices were higher than Goodwill, but I did find these two cute little bluebird soaps in a nest for around two dollars! I think they will be cute by the kitchen sink.

Vintage floral plates are just too hard for me to resist -- this one will also grace the kitchen.....

Some Santa Christmas tags I made in more pastel tones, with pink roses too of course!

Christmas Paper Cones aka Tussie Mussies!

I received some angels I ordered from Shabby in the City. Did you know she has Flea Market Fridays? You might want to take a peek -- but be sure to let me choose first if there are any more cuties like these, below! ;) She had them for a great price, as she warned that their "bell bottoms" (hee hee -- bell bottoms) were broken...... but I'm thinking on making them new pretty skirts to cover that up!

She included this BEAUTIFUL vintage card that features bluebirds&roses! How very thoughtful!!!!!!!!! I look forward to using this image in future projects; thank you so very much!

One more thing..... guess where dh, Brad and I went Sunday night? To a ZZ Top concert. I have to say, it was among the best in concerts I have ever been to. They lived up to their musical legend, what a great show!! No pictures were allowed, but wouldn't you love it if I could insert a photo of me here with those bearded gents? :)

Oh wait, there I am!

GOOD TIMES!! (original photo Barry B., altered by yours truly :)

This is a little Napco cherub I found at an estate sale recently. It seemed appropriate to post this today, as this is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. This is a cause very near and dear to my heart.

This one's for you, Kailey and Levi, my forever angels.

http://www.october15th.com/AngelAnniversaries/October.htm

More Autumn Decor

This is my autumn village ~ this year it's on top of the tv cabinet, last year it was on the mantel (below):


I love how the village houses/shoppes have little scenes within, such as this home where some autumn baking is going on:

And the farm is always busy at harvest time:

I have these four seasons slates, and I'm featuring the autumn one at this time of year. This is very much like the area in which we live; it's a farming community.

I found this little fall bottle brush tree on a shopping jaunt with my friend Gwen last year..... we each bought one to remember the special day.

(I hope those of you who come here expecting my usual pink roses aren't too disappointed with the diversion to autumn. It's my favorite season, and I'm thankful our family room is done in colors more accepting of traditional autumn tones......

I did go thrifting yesterday, and will have some pastel flowery things to show you soon! I hope you'll stay tuned!! :)

A sign hangs above a door in the family room ~ a reminder, as our blessings are many!

Thank you for visiting! Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Autumn Greetings

from Our House to Yours

Some Indian Corn by the front door
The view from our front door..... the leaves haven't changed much yet..... that little white spot is a park bench, so that gives you an idea of scale......

This outdoor decor below is from a previous year, but it's not cheating as long as I admit that to you, right? ;)

This is the view from our dining room door, of the path that leads through our back woods. I never look at this without being thankful.
Happy Autumn!

Pssst.... have you heard? Becca got a present!!

LOOK!! It's a beautiful bluebird and roses plate from Lori!! She wrote to me and said she had the perfect plate for me ~~ She wasn't kidding! The colors on the plate are so soft and it has a sweet little bluebird in the center. She also included this bluebird of happiness!!

But that's not all! Lori made this folder, decorated it especially for me in my favorites of blue and pink....

.... and enclosed were some lovely vintage cards featuring -- what else -- BLUEBIRDS!!

Lori, thank you so much; I can't even describe how touched I am by your generosity! Oh, and everything was so beautifully wrapped, but of course I tore into it too fast to get a picture of that! You can see the pretty ribbons she used though!! :)
And the little birds in the first photo? They are vintage mica birds, a purchase from eBay that also arrived today. I bought them with every intention of using them in my projects. Think they'll ever make their way into them, or think they'll move in with me? ;)

A Lovely Day with a Friend

(and some finds! :)
My friend Gwen and I met for a day of shopping and talking (and eating and laughing!) and here are some of my finds of the day:

A vintage tin in that wonderful color of robin's egg blue .....

An old embroidered laundry bag......

A green plate with pink roses...... (Gwen found one just like it except hers had her favorite flower of violets on it!)

Speaking of violets, here are some things I gave Gwen today.... I'm always on the lookout for violet items for her and it's fun to find them, as I'm usually hunting for pink roses!

This pretty fall garland had shiny gold leaves made of fabric..... When I brought it home, I arranged it among my treasured photos in the living room.

This pretty print was another find.... it's about 5 x 7, and will look great in the living room or dining room (if I can find some spare wall space ;)

Gwen and I spotted these pretty autumn beads, and she bought a "spray" of them for each of us. Where should mine go? I tried them out in three different spots.... the birdcage, above.....

..... the grandfather clock......

...... the gold mirror.....

Where do you like them best?

I bought a new cell phone case. It's pink and supports the fight against breast cancer. I laid it down when I came home, so I could pet my furbabies, but they were suddenly more interested in the "new toy" that Mommy brought them!
By the way, see that big ugly purple bin? It contains the rest of my fall decor -- the stuff that goes in the family room. That's what I'm going to do tonight -- burn my Yankee Harvest Candle, and decorate the family room for autumn!

Oh, look at these pretty flowers outside my favorite antique shoppe:

I have a little wagon like that I put flowers in, but didn't this year.... so I'll just admire this one!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

A Bluebird

On our way back from the fair, we stopped at an antique town ~ they were about to close up for the day, but not before I found this little bluebird as a momento of our trip. (He's half of a S&P :)

On the way TO the fair, we stopped at an estate sale, at which I found the above needlepoint. I bought it for the shoppe, but if I had blue in our living room, I think I would be keeping it!

Here's a new design of my tags. I'm using pretty roses as the background, and these tags are a bit larger than the others. Available in my etsy shoppe.

Some pretty garden mums in our front flower bed........

I've been decorating little paper mache boxes; this is one I did for autumn/Halloween, and below are two winter ones.

I'm glad you all enjoyed seeing the photos from the Country Living fair. It's only the second year they've held it, and last year it was in Chicago. Who knows, it might be in your neighborhood next year!