My trio of Trees

 I came up with this trio of trees and they will be for sale at my upcoming Christmas Boutique.  The theme is I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.  I am busy busy crafting away.  I will share much more in the posts to come.  I am so happy that it will be the Christmas Season soon.

White felt pieces on top of styrofoam cones and attached to Glass pedestals, 

then glittered up to add a little sparkle.  

For the love of November

Well, November is always a busy month for me.   I am getting ready for a craft boutique at my home. I am teaching some crafting mini classes. I am going on a friend retreat where I can. You guessed it,  CRAFT!  And of course it is Thanksgiving, when I will get to see loved ones.  I love the autumn. Our trees are just starting to get beautiful color as I live in the desert.  The mornings and evenings are brisk and the afternoons are perfect and this is what I did today. . .  I put up pomegranate jelly. I got about 20 jars done but it's just the beginning. I ran out if sugar and pectin.     

  I will be sharing some of my crafts that I have been doing soon.  So hope you will come back to see what I am up to.  Happy November!!!!!!

Happy Halloween week

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL,  I thought I should share in the fun of the" Not for the faint of heart Matchbox swap" just recently completed and hosted by JoAnne of Vintage Dragonfly.  My partner and I both had fun creating the Halloween matchboxes and the other 4 items that were to be handcrafted.  My partner really spoiled me and sent me many fun things.  First off the following is what I created!

Here is what I put inside the box. . . . . . 

and I also made some other goodies for her. . . . . .

a swag in a vintagey sort of display

 A Halloween choker for my partners neck.

I also made a little snap purse and filled it with dove chocolate.  Then I decorated a small bottle and filled it with brown rich which was suppose to be Goblins Teeth.  

My Partner completely spoiled me and sent the items in two boxes.  Here are some of the cute things she sent to me.  

My partner was Jeannie of  jeankneen flickr.   o The matchbox goes well with the first machbox I recieved two years ago, when I started doing this swap for Halloween.  

Just look at this cute stuff.  So retro and kitschy and I love it all.  She even included some cupcake toppers, which I gave to my daughter for her Halloween party.  She also sent me my very favorite dark chocolate truffles.  

I think that this swap was. . . . . . . . . . .(spooktacular) DON'T YOU?

Pretty Little Witches ATC swap

Hosted by Kimberly of Art Joy Stuff was this really fun ATC swap with pretty little witches.  It was part of the 52 weeks of ATCs

Here are the ones that I sent off.  We were to send Three, and I decided to do a Retro 

sort of theme with mine. . . . . . . . . .

And here is what delightfulness arrived in my mailbox.  

 This pretty little witch came from Liz Waring at lululizinlalaland.blogspot.com

The cute little sleeve that the above ATC was in came from Charlotte Smothers seahorseranch.blogspot.com

this one came from Peggy Recker  pmrecker1950@yahoo.com

And from Kimberly herself this way cool mixed media Halloween art.  I have it hanging in a special place.  

Thankyou Kimberly!

Recent swapping completed

Here are two swaps completed.  I was involved with a crown swap on the Altered Place site with some other gals.  Cissy Prestige was my partner and here are the crowns we swapped.  It needed to be adult size.  How fun was this.  I love crowns! 

 The crown that I created for Cissy.  I used the top of an old spoon and dangly earring to embellish the top, after I glittered it up with german glass glitter.   She said when she recieved it she wore it around the house all day!

 Here is the back of the crown.

 I wanted it to have plenty of bling!

Now here is the lovely crown that Cissy made for me.  It has plenty of bling too!  Ooh I love it!

 And then she sent me all of these goodies to along with the crown.

The next swap was the Vintage Dragonfly's "Oh you beautiful Doll matchbox swap."

I posted my matchbox sent to Mercedes in the previous post and here is the matchbox I recieved from Sandy.  It took me back to when I was little and the Campbell's kids adds, plus she had everything Kewpie doll in there too.  My Mother taught me all about Kewpie dolls as that was from her Era.  Thankyou Sandy for such a delightful little box with goodies from the past.

I adore all of these sweet Kewpie doll and campbell's kids images (ephemera)

Oh You Beautiful Doll matchbox swap

Hosted by JoAnne at Vintage Dragonfly, was this "Oh you beautiful doll matchbox swap."  Here is the altered matchbox that I did for Mercedes Scott.

 The dolls head and arms serve as a drawer pull with sweet things inside.  And pinned to her collar is a little vintage brooch. I enjoyed creating this matchbox so very much!

 The back side

 Inside the matchbox were placed these goodies, some pertaining to dolls or doll parts and other embellishments.  Antique buttons, lace, a thimble and a golden spoon.

Oh you beautiful Doll matchbox swap was so fun for me to get in on and worked my creative senses into a frenzy.  I have not recieved my matchbox yet.  I am still waiting.  I am excited to see what Sandy has created for me.  The anticipation is killing me!

Just finished this dining room beauty

Just finished this hutch yesterday.  I was so fortunate to find this at a moving sale and I offered the guy $35.00 for it and he took it. Yippee. It was quite dirty and it looked like some if the glass shelves were broken.  I cleaned it up before bringing it in to paint it. Here is the before picture  And please note that these photos are from my iphone, so they loaded a little bit blurry.  I wanted to post from my iphone to my blog.  First time!

           I decided to use chalk paint as I have come to know that when you have a piece from the 70's and there is veneer and non-wood mouldings, that the best thing you can do is to use chalk paint.  I made my own chalk paint in this case and then sanded it off for the distressed look and also added two appliqued elements.  And here are the results . . . .                  

           

 I loved loading it up with cottage whites. I am very happy with how it turned out.  Here are some more views.

           

 And so to make room for the new hutch I had to do some changes in the dining room.  First I had too move this piece by my front door and here is the new spot for it  

Next I had to move my teacup shelf to my craft studio

          And to make room for that, my old shelf for the rubber stamps had to be sold.  I am so happy with my new look in every room all because I wanted a hutch in the dining room and I did it for about $40.00 Whoo hoo.