Vintage finds from San Diego

Well i am back home and missing the cool ocean breezes of San Diego. At least we got some rain today so i could kind of feel cozy. I have to say thank you to my dear sweet little brother and sister in law. They took us all over San Diego and my little brother even went antique shopping all day with me on friday. I found a huge vintage dictionary that i think is just beautiful. Of course my husband was not impressed,especially when he had to carry it on the plane! I am think it is from 1957. Here it is,

I already cut a little piece out of it although i felt kind of bad at first but after seeing what you can create from all those pieces i changed my mind! Here is a pair of earrings i made out of the vintage chandlier crystals that i found this weekend as well. You cant see too well in the picture but they say Art on them,

I also found a huge selection of old postcards, i got about 20 of them but i was standing there for a long time trying to just pick a few. I bought clear chandlier crystals like the ones above too,

We also went to old town San Diego, if you havent been there and get a chance i highly recommend it....it was so quaint and you can take an hour long history walking tour for free. I just love that type of thing. Did i mention the food down there is delicious?! I also bought a beautiful sterling silver and amber ring from a shop in old town no bigger than a small bedroom from the jeweler who personally made it. I also got a few odds and ends from garage sale shopping but nothing too big. So now it is time to start creating, no more excuses! I will post new art soon :)

Junk shopping weekend

I am very excited to say that this is my junk shopping weekend....i cant wait!!! Who knows, i might actually get some inspiration for that elusive heartswap idea....hopefully!! So i will be posting pictures of all my treasures in a couple days. I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

To collage or not to collage

Here are this weekends projects, i have to admit that there is only one that i really like. I just couldnt get the others right. I will be doing a Fatbook swap and the theme is Hearts but i am having a really hard time finding my theme, i just cant seem to get it together this weekend! So here was my attempt, but these are nothing like i had in mind so i suppose the search continues.........

FAVORITE THINGS CHALLENGE

When you really stop and take a look around your home it is a little hard to pick just a few of your favorite things. So many of us have so many forgotten hidden treasures in the most creative hiding places that anyone has ever thought of that it is so easy to miss a few that might be higher up on the list than others. I have to try to not hide away my treasures but to keep them out and enjoy them. I always want to hide them thinking that somehow they are protected but really it is just myself that is missing out. So now my dear Cindy, I answer your challenge, here are some of my very favorite things:

I didnt take a picture of the cases but most of you know what movies these are anyway,

You've got mail- I know it is sappy, which I definitley am not but for some reason i just love this movie and can watch it over and over. I just love her home in this movie!

Office Space- Now this is just a classic, how can you not love it?

This painting was done by my grandmother Dorothy who was an amazing woman. She just recently passed away at the young age of 103

There is so much so was a part of socially and politically that i am very honored to have had her as my G-ma as she came to be called at times due to an episode of Wheel of Fortune when i was little. She left me so many treasures that it is hard to pick but this is of Jenny Lake that she did just for me. She didn't finish painting the flowers in front because i was so impatient when i was little i didnt want to wait and took it home right away. Hmmm....i think that impatience is still in full swing today!!

This is a little shelf that holds some very sweet things, My very first ATC card, a picture of my sweet babies, a little chair with little cats resembling my sweet babies and a little golfer for my husband. And of course my favorite turqouise color. By the way my headboard that i built is all that color, it is fabulous!

This is my Archeological bible that i just love so much, it is on an eched glass piece that was my grandmother's. ( this is a real bible with all kinds of archeological facts about places and events in the bible)

This is a table i built for my little cats, they were always dropping food all over so the sides and back really cut down on wasted food. They just seem to eat a little neater with this table. It is wood painted black and topped with granite tiles. I loved the picture because my husband's name is Mike and it was fitting.

This is just one of my Nigella Lawson cookbooks. I love to cook and i love Nigellas books. I dont make too many of her reciepes but for some reason i can curl up in a chair and read this like a novel. It seems to take me away to another culinary place were everything is beautiful and the kitchens are all clean.

This is a wall of stuff that has slowly collected on a wall in my kitchen. I love all of these things for one reason or another, each thing has a meaning. Just a few are the chili apron belonged to my husband's grandfather, there are a couple ATC cards made for me by Cindy Dean, a couple souveniers from my trip to Honduras to see family, and a card from my mom.

These are a couple of my favorite current jewelry pieces. The necklace is my diamond necklace from Tiffany's that my husband bought for a birthday long ago and the other is a bracelet and earring set that i made in some of my favorite colors with swarovski crystals and sterling silver.

Well there is a few of my favorite things i hope you enjoyed reading them as much as i enjoyed writing about them and thinking of all the special memories that attached to them :)
I am already thinking of a few things that i missed that you guessed it, i have to go and dig out!

Playing around

I have decided to "play around" today with jewelry and wire. I am much to serious when it comes to making jewelry and i need to learn how to loosen up and just let the elements tell me what to do. I am always so worried if someone will like it that i dont always have fun and just do it. So here is my playing around pieces for the today. Hopefully you can see them with my not so good camera skills. My next playing around projects will be with painting and collage so i am looking forward to that. Till then i hope everyone has a great weekend!

Pictures...i hope!

Ok so here is my attempt at pictures....i need to learn to take better ones but here are some for now. I bought new beads and paint and i thought they all look so inspiring together and of course when anything new comes out there is always a helping paw around! See Cindy he's not fake!

I also made a couple pairs of earrings and started a necklace yesterday. The ones with the carved flowers are carved adventurine flowers, silver chain and swarovski crystals and the others are a pair that i remade for Megan, Cindy's http://cindydean.blogspot.com/ daughter which are silver chain, and hematite. Hopefully this weekend will be more productive and i will have more pictures to post. I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful 4th of July. Thank you to all of our troops out there...We love you and pray for you everyday.