Upcycled tart tin ornaments, bottle brush trees and vintage goodies

 Hi guys! I'm sharing what I have been working on lately.

 I made these for a custom order for a store.

 (but if she decides she has enough already they will be available shortly)

 I make these with vintage tart tins..

 Vintage lighting bits..

and vintage chandelier prisms.

 They have antique prayer card images..

 and German glass glitter..

 Some have additional pearls or beads..

 Each is a bit different!

 I also add text "tiles" to most ..I leave a few plain as not everyone is into text as much as I am!

 LOL..my camera skills are lacking..I swear they are in focus when I take them!

 Mostly these are Madonna and child images, a few just Jesus.

 The "icon" style images work well with the ornate look of the metals.

 I also have been hip deep in bristle brush trees! I made a slew of them. (Note the gold frame and the ornaments are finds from last weekend that are now a photo prop! LOVE that frame!)

 I generally do them in pinks, aqua greens and cream..

There is glitter and mica EVERYWHERE. It gets on the floor in my studio and then on my socks and then throughout the house! I see it crop up on the pups and my husband and son...I don't want to know how much I have drank in my coffee! lol

 I also got these last weekend..vintage hand cut tincan Christmas trees, stars/snowflakes and an angel..I may have squealed with delight a bit!

 Some I listed, some I saved for patterns and further "upcycling".

I also got a bag of old tutus..this is my fav. Not all were pink..some were more "jazzy". This one is in my Etsy shop, the rest went to my local booth. I have one more pink one with what appears to be a Coca-Cola stain down the front that I am going to attempt to either remove (or just tea stain the whole shebang). I survived Thanksgiving..just the 5 of us as our 2 older kids are out of state..on the up side, I didn't have to "company clean"..just cook! Hope you had a great turkey day. Count your blessings! Til next time, Julia

Views around the studio and rolled roses

 Hi guys! Just a couple pix from the studio. These are some antique bisque dolls and doll heads I have been fiddling with lately. More to come on that later..

 This is some of my storage. I use these vintage suitcases to hold mostly vintage papers. I hoisted one more white one full of maps on top after these pics!

 I used my Target $1 stickers! These pics are not the best, I was taking them at night.

 This is the cabinet Ed and I wrestled in last week. It is 5 1/2 foot tall. The front doors are glass and someone dabbed taupe paint on the inside..not my taste, but I am pretty lazy so I may just add some vintage wallpaper behind to peek through the haze! This may also get painted at some point..

 ..not the inside though as that would be a nightmare! I hate getting paint all over my knuckles and the only way this would get painted inside would be a spray painter..and as I am not planning on moving it again..this is how it is going to be! (I might paint the edges..after it gets filled with my vintage cigar boxes, that is all you'll see anyways!The fab cubbies run all the way to the floor!

On of my vintage cigar boxes. I was going to make a purse out of this at one time and glued the graphics on sideways in relation to the clasp..so now it is a storage box!

 I got volunteered to do a "craft project" at our church ladies group tonight. "But nothing too hard". Yikes. I figured I'd show them rolled roses as they are pretty easy and have infinite variations and uses. Here are some spirals I cut from book pages, map paper, card stock, magazines pages..I also used sheet music. Instructions for these are all over the internet. I did a warm and natural version here in  Sept. of 2013 if you want to see a tutorial. (I don't know how to link old posts!)

 You can also scallop the edges for a more "petaled" look.

 I wanted to just give the ladies the basic idea and let them run with it.

 The solid ones look great with patterned leaves. I am showing 3 options here. These would make a cute magnet singly, or massed on a wreath form for a fab wreath. Or if you don't have that much of an attention span, cut a cardboard ring about the size of a CD and an inch or 2 wide, wrap with yarn (lace, paper strips, GLITTER, whatever) and add only a couple blooms for a mini wreath. It doesn't even have to be round..a square or oval would be cool too. Add a photo behind and it is a mini frame!

 This is dyed coffee filters..same technique, I just used 2 spirals..one for the center and added another and kept going to make it a bigger bloom (use hot glue) I scalloped the edges before rolling to make it more "petal-ly".

You can also use felt. This is warm and natural, but I think a felted shrunken wool sweater would make a fab large one for a pillow front (I'd tack with thread instead of glue-ing there) So many options! Old Christmas cards is another great thing to use. I prefer to use double sided paper, but you could color or watercolor tint the back of the card front (or not) The side you roll to the inside of the roll shows up the most. So look around and get rolling! Ed and I went vintage hunting this weekend and got some goodies I'll be sharing next..so much fun! Stop back! 'Til then! Julia

Fall colors Fall sunset

 Hi guys! The fall colors are peaking here in East TN.

 Some tree varieties have already peaked. Today was the oaks turn.

 I love standing under a tree in its peak colors in the bright sun and looking up.

 The sun filters through the leaves and it is just breath taking.

 Plus it is a different perspective..sort of like laying on your back and looking up a lighted Christmas tree!

 These are in my drive way..easy just to drive right past every day, but some days you really need to just take a minute and take a closer look! I have seen some spectacular trees around town that if they were in my yard, I would have a lawn chair camped out under them and just be sitting there staring upward.

 They really are gone in the blink of an eye, I'm glad I got out there to take a closer look.

 My son pointed this sunset out to me  last night. Tennessee is very hilly were we live so we don't usually have the consistent spectacular sunsets that I grew up with in SD, but there are some good ones.

 South Dakota is pretty flat where I grew up so the sunsets are huge..here the sun sort of slips behind a hill and then it still takes awhile before sunset.

But today was a day to take a minute and appreciate  what was right in front of my face. Hope you do the same...have a great day! Til next time! Julia

Target finds from the weekend and my furry depression busters

 Hi guys! I went to visit my daughter and grandson yesterday afternoon to get me some "Hunny time". Hunter is 6 and he and his momma just moved out in August  with my daughter starting grad school (UT Chemistry) and Hunter starting kindergarten. I miss them like crazy! We took a side trip to Target because I was running out of THIS ..my fav lotion..Sonia Kushuk. I loooove this scent.

 Grapefruit, verbena, and musk.. (pamplemousse?) Yum. There are 3 other scents also, 2 were close runners up and one was a bit sweet for my taste (but my 12 yr old son Jack's fav of the 4!) I pointed them out to my daughter who had been asking about Christmas gifts ..there are other items in the line besides lotion. I'll be sniffing my hands all day!

 We also hit the dollar area and OMG! They have some really cute stuff. I need to go back and grab things for stocking stuffers!

 I got these things for me..cuuuuute pencils..baker's twine that I have no real purpose for but..a dollar. FYI it is also cheaper this way than their baker's wine in their gift wrap section. This is $1 for 15 yards and that is $2.99 for 25 yards (do the math..3 $1 ones is 45 yards..plus different colors!)

 CUte mint green notecards with gold metallic dots. I will use these mailing Hunter notes/letters/pics.

 CUUUTE (notice a theme here) heart shaped push pins for my studio bulletin board.

 I got these to label the contents in my vintage suitcases/storage in my studio..vintage wall paper, maps, etc. The suitcases are red and white so these should look...wait for it...cute! Ed and I drug one of my vintage cabinets up there this weekend..man was that heavy. No fights, minimal swearing (me), minimal blood (him) and one scratch in the floor (oopsie). I'll share pics when I get things back in it and on it.

The piroullines are for my son Jack as they are a fav of his (also $1 a box!) The oven mitt was in the holiday section and not $1..I think it was $4 but I love red and white polka dots and it was .....CUTE! Also my pups got ahold of my former fav oven mitt and chewed it up so....keeping this one out of reach! P.S.  I did not wander through the housewares section as I was obviously having a day with zero self control over "Oooh..cute!"

Speaking of the pups. These 2 have seriously been my anti depression pills lately..or maybe just pills. Having Hunter move out has been tough.If not for them I'd be home alone and probably curled up on the couch in yesterday's yoga pants. They put up with none of that nonsense though. If I lay down "for a minute" it is instant nose-ing and barking..and if that fails they go get (clean) dish scrubbies and potholders out of the laundry basket and shred them into 100 pieces on the living room floor. Thanks ladies for keeping me upright! Here they are snoozling on the floor on their blankies. I tried to sneak a pic but if Daisy hears the camera, she immediately poses! On to my day..hope you have a productive one! Til next time! Julia