New Upcycling Projects Shabby Romantic

Hi guys! I have been laying low the past week or so..I have been busy! Besides the usual stuff, my husband was needling me to get things listed on Ebay..which I did. Also I have been working on a few projects. Here are a couple of my newest ones. These are small doorknob or wall signs that I made from all vintage materials (except the paint!) The base was some small metal tip or snack trays I got at an estate sale last week. They were pretty ugly..beige with wheat heads in the center. Sooooo... I broke out my drill and some spray paint. I forgot to take "Before" pictures of them...pooh...trust me..they were ugly!
I added swags I made from vintage chandelier crystal prisms from my stash..
I did the centers in chalkboard paint so you could write a name or short message or phrase.
I also added vintage brass chain to the top to hang them from.
I made them 2 different directions and in pink and aqua. These are in my Etsy shop, hopeandjoystudios!
These were project #2. These are vintage wicker floral baskets. This is the after..(hopefully you could tell that!)
I added some of my handmade paper flowers and one has a handmade singed organza flower with a vintage rhinestone center. I think they would be fab with a vase of flowers inside or piled with shabby pink, silver or aqua Christmas bulbs. (I have a weakness for shabby Shiny Brites!)
I also tied a vintage lace swag around them.
This one also has a vintage button center.
I really like this one..I like color!
This one had a vintage pink velvet ribbon wrapped around it also.These went to my antique/vintage booth (Main Street Antiques in Sweetwater, TN) The handles were so big I figured they would be hard to ship.
This was the before. I had these in my booth for months and no takers so I hope the face lift helps them find a new home! I have pics of my booth I hope to get posted in the next couple days. Thanks for stopping by! Julia

My repurposed Moss Terraium

Hi guys! I love houseplants but alas..I have a short attention span for watering things. I have always loved the look of moss and we have some that grows outside our house in the shady places. I wanted to see if I could bring some inside. I had some I transplanted to terracotta pots (that ended sadly) I stuck in mini vintage plastic deer, some mini vintage plastic mushrooms ( I use the word "vintage" a LOT) and on one I even added a packing tape laminated cut out of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards faces..get it?? Rolling Stones gather no moss?? LOL I am weird and do things that make nobody but me crack up..my family worries about me! I do think if Mick and Keith were made into garden gnome statues they would sell like hotcakes..but again I digress.. This pic shows the globe sitting on top of a favorite McCoy planter of mine (I love turquoise/aqua!)
This is a vintage rose dome. It was meant to display a plastic or silk rose (my Gramma had one and I think her's had water in it too) I think this one was marked "Bowl of Beauty" on the bottom. There is a lid that screws off. I added moss that had a pad of dirt still attached to the bottom, watered it, squooshed it back in the jar (technical term) and screwed it back together. There is a black plastic ring that the jar sits in to make it schmantzier looking.
3 weeks later and still alive! I think I need to add a smidge of water at this point but hey..not bad! Keep your eyes peeled for these jars at thrift stores, estate sales etc. I think this one was $5, but I have found them cheaper. Have a great day and happy junking! Til next time! Julia

My Vintage buy of the week

Hi guys! I went to an estate sale this weekend. It was a nice old brick 2 story w/ lots of goodies. I was sorta late getting there the first day because..well..I didn't read the estimated drive time on my yahoo directions. I was there before they opened but was # 66 in line. They only let 30 in at first but they had a basement and garage and those were open to anyone so off I went. I immediatelt snabbed an antique painted mantle for $35..but as I had driven the minivan, and since I had not anticipated buying anything large, I had not removed the seats. I doubt I could've gotten it in there anyways! I did 20 minutes of measuring and finagle-ing and sweating before I gave it up as a lost cause and decided I would have to come back the next day. I am already foggy about what else I bought..some rolls of vintage wallpaper, blue mason jars, old tin film canisters,Pyrex chem beakers, old apothecary bottles, red and white toile fabric, old white fancy frames..hmmm...seemed like a bigger pile than that! Anyways I had to admit my over zealousness to my husband and the next morning, we went back with the pickup to get the mantle. It is now in my antiques booth..I shall have to take some pix! (I just realized I never priced it..oops!) It was 25% off day and I went through the house again and found this coat which I had not seen the day before. It was a 1970's wool maxi coat with shearling collar and cuffs..and no price tag. I asked one of the estate sale ladies how much and she said, $5 minus 25%..$3.75! I almost squealed! I made my daughter model it for me to take pix..it was 96 degrees outside..I am so mean! We got a bit giggly....

"I don't know what to do with my hands!"

"It is SOOOOO hot!!!!" I think she had her eyes shut in every pic..she asked, "Are you going to crop my head off?" Yeah..suuuuure.

And back view..I love this and cannot wait til cold weather to wear it! I shall feel like a princess!

Mocked by a Mockingbird

I am being mocked by a mockingbird. Mocking bird's are thestate bird of TN and until this week I wasn't sure what one looked or sounded like. Apparently I had been seeing and hearing them all along, but never made the connection. This week though, every night when I went to bed there was an extremely loud bird outside my window chirping up a storm. I thought this was sort of odd as I am a nightowl and at midnight to 1am when I go to bed, most birds are fast asleep. Not this guy! It went on night after night, right outside my bedroom window. I layed there and counted the different tunes he was singing ..all in short repetitive bursts strung together in a looong tune. I counted up to 20 different bits and then would lose count. It started to bug me..what WAS this bird? I started telling my family about the bird outside my window and they all just gave me "the look"..you know the one.. Ya Mom..(whatever). I started leaping out of bed and peering out my bedroom window trying to catch a glimpse..pitch dark..no luck. I started trying to replicate the tunes to any of my family I could corner. My 8 year old told me knowingly, "That's the "Jeter Bird" Mom!" I asked him what he meant..he said , "It goes..jeter-jeter-jeter". I listened and he was right. I also figured out it was what in my head I had been refering to as the "Swedish Bird". I'd hear it when I was out in my garden and I always thought it sounded like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets, "sproingy-boingy-yoingy doingy". It finally filtered into my mind that the state bird of Tennessee is the Mckingbird (thanks Cub Scouts and my kid's 2nd grade state history homework!) I started dropping everything and jumping out the back door whenever I heard his song during the day and finally caught a glimpse of the culprit. A quick google search confirmed my suspicions. Now I can sleep in peace with the knowledge of who my serenader IS..although I am sure there is probably a lady Mockingbird out there who is the actual recipient of his musical attentions! Sleep tight! Until next time! Julia

Photo credits Photos.com and Wiki (eggs pic)

Trip to Bald River Falls

I am lucky to live in beautiful East TN. When the days are hot or boring you can jump in the car and 25 miles to the east are the mountains and a pretty waterfall. It is always cooler there. The kids and I packed a lunch and off we went to Tellico, the Cherokee National Forest and Bald River Falls... those are the Smoky Mountains in the distance.

You drive a winding tree enshrouded route to the falls, park the car and walk to the bridge. This is my daughter, son and grandson.

This is the view of the falls from the bridge..those small pink dots on the rocks to the right of the falls are 2 crazies that hiked over there..quite a feat and dangerous because it is wet and slippery and if you get hurt it would be hard to get you out and it is quite a trip to the hospital!

There is a trail you can hike to the top of the falls. The footing is rocky and uneven but it is easy enough for a 2 year old to hike it..steepish bits, some wiggly stairs and a bridge.

Pretty moss and ferns..

At the top there is a pool above the head of the falls..the water was pretty cold yet but not horrible.

Great for rock skipping..

The river that feeds the falls..

Where you see the water end is where it drops over to the falls. I never let my kids get anywhere near close..I am a total worrywart!

I found out after I took this pic that there was 2 copperhead snakes in the tree behind me. One of the other hikers said they were humping..definately entangled ..at least snuggling! Copperheads are poisonous so I was not reaaaaally amused. I took a pic but you really can't see them through the leaves..they were probably 3 foot long...I did not get too close!

More scenery..I think this would be a gorgeous place to get your senior pictures done.

We sat on a huge fallen log and ate our picnic lunch ( I looked for snakes first).

Some kids that were up there swimming/wading with their parents.

More falls...

I climbed out on a rock to get this one which is big for me because heights and depths totally skeeve me out! This is looking down over the falls.

Last pic..there is a swimming area a ways down the road. My 8 yr old was so mad at me for not letting him swim across the river to get on the rope swing in that tree. He is a beginning swimmer and the river was over his head in the middle and under the tree but he was SURE he could do it. He pouted until we got back to Tellico and bought shakes at Hardees. There were also crazy teens jumping off a bridge and a lot of people tubing and rafting the river..that looked fun..the tubing not the bridge jumping! It was a nice afternoon and we plan to go back again this summer (or the 8 yr old will drive me nuts!) Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend! Til next time! Julia

Repurposed Vintage Bling Jewelry Magnets

Finally! I was away for a week on an unscheduled trip to SD for a funeral for my husband's fiesty aunt Hilda. She was 89 and ready to go as she had been in ill health the last 2 years, but she will be sorely missed. I loved her dearly and understand she wanted to go, but I always wish things could just stay the same forever. She lived with her Mom and sister, my MIL for years. They are all gone now, but I prefer to think of them all in Gramma's house..Hilda and Betty cooking and argueing about something and Gramma sitting in her rocker crocheting an afghan for a great grandchild. The trip was not fun. We took my daughter's Ford Focus and just let me say, 18 hours bent like a pretzel in the backseat of that with 2 and 8 year old boys should be investigated as a form of torture. We all took turns driving and my daughter and I took turns being back there so we could share the joy. My husband is 6'3" so he never got to experience that particular fun! The trip home was actually worse as the boys were fighting. I had an I HAVE HAD IT moment and threatened to get out and walk around Paducah..ah well..we made it home and like each other much more now that we are not trapped together. I don't know how our ancestors did it with horse and wagon...people getting sick and dying on the trail...maybe they just weren't sick, just got booted out and left behind! As usual, I totally digress... magnets..

I finally got to "play" yesterday.

I dug through my vintage junk jewelry stash... most of these were broken or had missing stones.

I made a dozen. They took awhile as I was making it up as I went along..and I had to stop to make supper and water the garden before it got dark.

This one was a faux opal pin. I added a glittered paper disk to the back before I added the magnet so I would see pretty glitter instead of white magnet adhesive. The were stick on magnets, but I hot glued them on so they stuck better.Where there were missing stones, I added dots of glitter glue and dusted them with fine glitter..I like how they turned out. This one was a buckle and the center is an antique postcard of mine that I had scanned and resized to use on business cards. I added the Joy text tile. Hope and Joy Home is named after my 2 girls, Hope Ann and Alexa Joy so those words have special meaning to me.

This was also formerly an earring..I added blue glitter. and a blue glittered disk behind.This was a pair of enameled metal earrings. The center was a dark rivet so I covered it up with a vintage pearly bead. I glittered the top and sides of the magnet on this since you can see it more..didn't get all the excess sparkles brushed off..I am generally glittery myself!

This was a pin. There were quite a few missing stones and I added pink glitter. The center stone was also gone, this is a crystal bead.

Here I added pink glitter for the missing stones and a green glittered disk behind. These were truly junk jewelry pieces..none of these pieces were signed and they were in quite sad shape... I would never glitter a nice, fixable piece!

This was a tiny buckle. I added scrapbook paper and a text tile. I also glittered the sides of the magnet on this as it just barely covered it.

This was actually a button.It has sort of cellophane between the stones. I added a pink glittered disk to the back since it showed through.This one took maybe a minute to make..old pin, old fabric yo-yo, glue magnet on back. You could also do this with a gathered ribbon rosette. I liked this one because it was fast and since the pin was intact, I didn't damage it.

This was a buckle. I added glitter, scrapbook paper and a damaged pin that I clipped the back off of.

This was a vintage plastic pin with a damaged stem. You can buy new plastic flower cabochons on Etsy that would also work great for this.On my memo board..they look right at home! Dig through your goodies and get to glue-ing!Have a great crafty day! Til next time! Julia