The Fall Intrigues Shabby Tote swap completed.

I recently hosted the Fall Intrigues Shabby Tote swap and ended up with two partners because of an uneven number of players.  So I am the lucky recipient of some great stuff.  Two totes and really cool fall items. First, there are pictures of some stuff which I sent out to my partners.  then I will show you how I got spoiled.

The Shabby tote I made and sent to Kerry James.  I put lots of vintage crochet lace on this crazy quilted bag.

I found these cute ceramic witch's shoe to put chocolate treasures in!

I made each of my partners a smaller slap-happy tote filled with vintage cards, and ephemera

One got a gratitude journal and the other got this Halloween decoration

Each one got a card like this with trims and sequins for fall.

and here is the other bag that went out to Wendy Aspinall.

both totes were filled with goodies like the ones below.

Then I was lucky enough to get this tote from Wendy Aspinall of Bliss Angels

and here are some of the goodies she sent out to me. . . . 

This little mini handmade accordian book!

This is true Wendy Aspinall fashion.  She is so good at this mixed media art!

Don't you just love all this fall goodness, and I have never seen fall leaves done up in paper doilies before.

And Kerry James of Tales of a needle and thread made and sent me this beautiful tote bag.  

Here are some of it's contents.

Kerry truly is good with a needle and thread for sure!  I love pincushions!

These lovely keys and so much more.  She really spoiled me and made such a pretty bag!

I am hooked on blog swapping!  Thanks to both my partners so very much!

Some things that are truly Special!

It isn't very often, that I get out to yard sales in my area that turn out to be the most amazing ones, due to the items which I find.  But yesterday, my daughter-in-law Barbara and I set out to do a little bit of thrifting or antiquing.  When we ventured out we covered those in the paper and those signs we would just see while traveling for yard sales.  The last one however, was an estate sale in which the people there, would buy up storage units and sell the contents.  Sometimes it is very profitable I understand.  But we found some things that tickled us to no end!  Next, Barbara found these little baby shoes. . . .A steal at $8.00

Aren't they just amazing?  We were both so excited about these baby shoes.  Then she was intrigued by this little rock hound's jar, with a description and rocks inside.  (below)

Then I picked up, and decided to buy this adorable Double Breasted Child's dress coat.  (below)

There are some stains on it, but otherwise it is in perfect condition!  Any ideas out there on removing stains like these from antique clothing?

Detail on the sleeves.  This little gem was $5.00

The back view of the garment.  I love the collar.  While taking these pictures I could just imagine the child standing in a pose at the photographers studio wearing the button up shoes and this little coat!

I also found these leather booties.  The leather was pink and the ribbon was so worn and falling off, but for baby shoes they were amazing!  The cost was $5.00

On the tongue of these booties, the soft leather was very pink.  Not faded at all!  I
love them!  They were  $5.00

I also bought this baby's bonnet.  It is practically fragile, and so delicate, it is so very old.  This was $5.00 too!

I was tickled to death to find these vintage beauties.  The garland is several feet long and the glass globes will be great on my vintage bottle brush trees.  They cost $.50 each.  One of the best dollars I ever spent!

My other great finds of the morning.  When we returned we felt like we truly did have a successful Antiquing experience, at major bargain prices! And what fun it was to share it with my daughter-in-law Barbara Askeroth!

Barbara also picked up this camera at the first sale we visited and got it for $15.00  It was a pretty fair price I think!

Another Shabby tote completed

I finished this shabby tote the other day as I have two partners to swap with in the Fall Intrigues Shabby tote swap.   The other tote is on my sidebar and in an earlier post announcing the Shabby tote swap.

  I made some fabric yo-yos and some ribbon roses, and all of the buttons are vintage as is the crochet lace pieces.  

I will p0st the contents later as I don't want to give away all of the surprise.  

Wedding cake and Baby Blessing

  We had one of our daughters here visiting for an entire week last week with her 16 month old son Maddox and it culminated with myself helping her finish a wedding cake on Saturday.  A little bit stressful, cause we finished just minutes before we had to deliver the cake.  

I love this unusual cake, with it's curved tiers.  The two top layers were white chocolate, with raspberry filling, with light chocolate fondant, and the bottom layer was chocolate with chocolate mousse filling and chocolate fondant.  Very yummy cake because the fondant is made from scratch.   

And I finished this sweet newborn size long dress below, for the blessing dress for little Claire.  She looked so pretty wearing it.  

I can't get over this little girl's eyes.  She looks so much like her daddy, who happens to be my third child.  We love this little Claire Elise so very much!

The Fall Button Floozie Altered Altoid Tin Swap

Look what the very artistic Carolyn (CJ) Hyland fashioned for me in the Fall Button Floozie (altered altoid tin) button swap.  Laurie Jackson of Button Floozie Blog hosted this swap, and I love the sweet artsy tin I got filled with buttons. 

and on the bottom she put these sweet little legs from glass marbles for feet.  

I was tickled to get it.  This was the first altered altoid tin I have done.  

And below is the one  that I sent on to CJ.

Then I wrapped it all up in a vintage hankerchief and tied it with ribbon

I made a pretty little card for her and tied it all up with some fallish colored fiber. 

Announcing the Fall Intrigues Shabby Tote Swap

Do you like totes?  Well I do!  I am nuts about nifty little tote bags.  To transport all sorts of things and keep everything in its place.  I have one to store the coloring books, art paper and crayons for my grandchildren.  I have a special little one that holds just enough favorite dvds  for a great weekend retreat.  I also have perfect totes for scrapbooking supplies and totes for magazines to take with me in the car.

I made this little tote bag just the other day.  I thought, why not swap this tote and make it a fall one at that.  So. . . . . . .

I am announcing the FALL INTRIGUES SHABBY TOTE SWAP    Last year I hosted the fall intrigues "basket" swap.  But this time I would like to make it a little bit more interesting.

****Here all the rules.

1)   Make or decorate a simple canvas tote approximately 11" x 12" and put a shoulder strap on it.

2)  Inside fill it with anything having to do with fall.  Can be Autumn anything, Halloween, or Thanksgiving.  Can be handmade, or vintage, or even brand new.  Put things into it that you would love to receive.  But please don't put lots of things in the box too, just what ever can fit into the bag.  It can hang out of the bag, but not out of the tote.  Keep it lightweight so shipping won't be to expensive.

3)  If you are interested, you must email me by October 6th at ask@comnett.net and put in the subject line "Fall Shabby tote swap" and I will let you know who your partner is by October 7th.  Give me all your info in this original email.  I need your name, address, and also your email and blog addresses.  It is beneficial to be able to visit blogs and or flickr pages to get a feel for one's partner's dislikes and likes.

NOTE******Please do not go out and buy lots of stuff.  The fun of these swaps is to use what is in your stash and also use your abilities and creativity.  Also be sure to contact your partner before hand.  Getting to know one another makes for a better swap too!


Here are some ideas for things to put in the bag.

1)    chocolate
2)    scrapbooking supplies
3)    vintage doilies
4)    handmade cards
5)    vintage ephemera
6)    notebooks
7)    albums
8)    aprons
9)    hankies
10)  buttons
11)  jewelry
12)  small candles
13)  small books
14)  small frames
15)  craft supplies or kits
    etc.

Some closeups of the tote that I will swap.  I decorated my bag with vintage buttons, ribbons, and vintage crocheted lace.

I will put all the participants names on my sidebar by the 7th of October.  And the shipping date for this swap will be October 19th, 2011  REMEMBER THIS IS A SHABBY TOTE

The Halloween matchbox I made for my partner.

I had loads of spooky fun creating this matchbox for my partner Karen.  We were asked to make 4 handmade items, and they did not all have to fit in the box.  I made some things that would not fit in the box, and some that would go in there.  But the box was full.  I don't like super gothic, or scary, but I did want to have it look very old almost victorian halloweenish!  I hope it doesn't look to gothic/

So I  made this chipboard faux coffin for the top, an decorated it with ribbon roses and velvety leaves.

One thing that did not fit inside was this witchy tag book.  I wish I had one of these to keep.  

I went through my stash and found these Alice in Wonderland halloween images by graphics 45.  I also purchased digitally the antique witch images from Etsy for this tag book.

I pulled out the meanings of words like Witch, ghost and vampire from a very old dictionary, and embellished.  The spider rub-ons looked a little bit to real, cause I kept trying to kill that little spider on this tag.

Got some cute quotes of some vintage postcards.

All 10 tags put together with a ring

Some of the other things inside the box.  Notice the rope pendant.  I don't know what it is, I just know that it is very old~it looks like it is made out of floss.  A crystal chandelier prism that is definitely vintage, a little vintage doily, which the lace on it reminds me of a beautiful spider web, a vial of black german glass glitter and other stuff.

a cello bag of buttons and earrings that I made.  

I framed this image with an old part of a buckle and crepe paper ruffle

This thick domino was just asking to be decorated.

the back of the domino

 I put this necklace together for Karen and decided it needed it's own display card, so it did not go into the box either.