My Mother's Day Collages

I went by Room With A Past to add a few more things to my shelf so I took some photos of my Mother's Day collages.  These are made from original vintage photographs and cabinet cards.

 "Youth fades, love droops;

the leaves of friendship fall,

A mother's secret hope outlives them all."

~Oliver Wendell Holmes

"I cannot forget my mother.
She is my bridge.
When I needed to get across,
she steadied herself long enough
for me to run across safely."

~Renita Weems

 No quote on this one... just leftover sewing supplies. 

 Yes, even MORE buttons from the "biggest bag of vintage buttons EVER".  The tag says "Children are a gift from God."

"I remember my mother's prayers
and they have always followed me.
They have clung to me all my life."

~Abraham Lincoln

Fancy Bracelets & I'm Consignor of the Month

My sister said they're getting fancy!  These are all made from the old measuring tapes but with lots of shiny bling!  We displayed them on this fancy platter in Room With A Past this weekend.  Yes, it's going to be opened this weekend - starting Thursday night!  And, guess what?  I'm Consignor of the Month!!!  Go to the RWAP website & scroll down to see me.

While looking for a photo for Jan to use on the RWAP website I realized that I don't have many photos of me.  I'm usually taking them.  And the ones I have of me are usually still ones that I take - you  know my 'famous' photos of me & Glenn!  Since we ended up using a photo that had included my new niece but they cropped her out, I thought I'd share the complete photo here.  I know everyone wants to see the cute baby!

Show What You Create Blog Party!

It's a blog party!  Andrea over at Vintage Bella Studio is hosting a blog party today where we can all show off what we make.   I show off a lot of what I make here.  I started off by scrapbooking many, many years ago.  But quickly found out I wasn't very good at keeping things neat & straight like the examples I saw in the scrappin' magazines.  So I started making things crooked on purpose.  I'd also get frustrated when I spilled my coffee or wiped my chocolate stained fingers on my pages.  So then I started staining things on purpose.  My sister now says my art looks dirty.  :-)  That's okay.  I'm not making it to impress anyone else... just to have fun myself.   Then I discovered Somerset Studio & the other magazines that Stampington publishes & I found my niche -- other people that like to make art out of junk!  Here's an example - a Bingo card collage where I used scraps of string, fabric, & lace, a reprinted photo of my grandmother & one of her old earrings, all displayed on an old Bingo card.

My craftiness continued to evolve to include more dimensional projects such as my altered hair brush, this clothes hanger...

...an old baby shoe pin cushion...

...I even decorate old bottles!

And after I made the bottle with the old rhinestone necklace I thought I'd try out some jewelry.  So here are some of the necklaces I've made so far:

You can probably see a pattern developing... rhinestones, earrings, beads& other pieces of old jewelry,  & skeleton keys.

I keep many of the things I make, but I do live in a small townhouse so I give many as gifts.  That's a little hard sometimes 'cause some people don't like this style.  So I started listing them in my Etsy shop, too.

Can't wait to see what everyone else is making!  Don't forget to go visit Vintage Bella Studio.

Something for Angie to See -- My Altered Brush

I thought if I put Angie's name in my post title she'd see this when it shows up on Facebook.  :-)  Their family has had a rough week, too.  Angie's dad has been very sick the last few weeks.  Then Gary's dad died last weekend.  Maybe this will cheer her up.  I blogged here last fall about our little shopping trip to Pleasanton & what I bought.  I told her I was going to make something with it.  It's only taken me six months.  That's pretty typical for me.

I may put it in my Etsy shop, but for now it's sitting here on my desk reminding me that my adornment should not  be merely external.

Also, in this blog post you saw my project that made it into last year's issue of Somerset Holidays & Celebrations.  I found out this week that I'm going to be in it again this year -- that's THREE years in a row!  Yay!  One of my favorite magazines!!!