A Treasure Hunting Adventure

You know sometimes you go on a quest for one thing and then find a hidden treasure ?  Well, the other day hubby found in the newspaper a few addresses for Estate sales.  I don't know about you but to me they are still garage sales but with higher prices.  We ventured out on a Friday and found one that the treasures were higher than a cat's back but then one we went to, we only went to two,  had some bottles that we were looking for.   The Vintage Art Bottles that I am doing right now ?  Giving the untold stories of the bottles new stories and a new life?  I was going to check out and what did I see?  A lamp, now I had no intention of getting a lamp and for $15?   Not that $15 is a giant amount but I didn't need a lamp.  Or so I thought.

We came home and I washed the bottles and thought about what new story were they going to get today ?  Well, when I woke up the next morning I told hubby I have to go get the lamp.  I was thinking ----what a Polly Anna I was.  That lamp will be gone and for only $15 some decorator or antique person will just sweep it up.  We got ready for the day and off we went to rescue the lamp.

Lo and behold, there it was THE LAMP.  It was sitting there with the other lamps that were uglier than sin.   I am sure they were thinking we will get purchased today and you won't.  You know how lamps are all trying to out do each other.   It had even been marked down to $10.  My heart was thumping loudly and I even had to push, gently, a lady aside.  I did say excuse me though.  The lady said it was at least 80 years old and it had been her mother-in-laws lamp.   I thought why had no one purchased it ?  This was meant to be my lamp.  

We have an eclectic decorated home and this will go perfectly in the corner of my part of the bathroom. 

I gently dusted it with a soft rag and the carving and beauty just was there begging to be looked at and loved.  It was an oil lamp and still had the goodies with it and the owners had converted it to a new fangled electric light.    A glass globe was used but I think a shade with some pretties on it is just begging to be joined with it. 

The little cherub holding up the globe.  His or hers little foot is cracked but some Gorilla glue should fix that.

The base of this $10 beauty.   This is brass and heavy and even made in America.  

The whole lamp.   I do believe it was meant to be ours. 

There you go, our little adventure .   I do hope you enjoyed it and thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.    xoxox

From Sand to Bottle Art

Here it is already the 6th of October.   I believe it is going by to fast and the little trick or treaters will be coming to our door wanting candy.   I use to make or bake home made treats for them but with the meanness that there is in the world  just the prepackaged goodies will have to do.   

Of course the month flying by could be because our wind in blowing like crazy here with gusts up to some hair blowing straight out MPH.  Our sand here is reddish  in color so it  makes for a colorful sky color.   Now at times I wonder what in the world is sand good for besides growning great peanuts except to get into your shoes and places we won't mention while at the beach.   It does filter into your house so it looks like you never dust just fine little granules.  So what else do you think?  Yep it makes glass.  Now I went on the Internet to see how they do it and you wonder how they did it years and years ago?   I am certainly glad I didn't have to think of it. 

I have been on a glass bottle hunt for the Bottle Art  I have been making.  I guess pretty soon it will have to be plastic.  I have become a glass bottle hunter at the grocery store also and am surprised how many are plastic and not glass. We might even have to change what we eat for the glass.   No plastic for me right now.  I can imagine how many of them I have thrown away in the years of my being.  

Earlier here I did post a couple or so of the bottles that I created.   So here is the lastest group of them I have created last week.  You don't know where you are going when you start with them and then your muse just takes over and tada it is done.  Now I tried to copy the yellow one like I made Grandaughter and it was hard to copy it.  My muse kept saying NO I want to do this and I want to do the yellow one.  Needless to say I won that conversation.  this time anyway. 

So here is the crew of last week.  I even used a photograph of Paris that Grandson took last year on one of them, it is the one on the right front with the red do dad on it.  I used some of my paintings and drawings and actually whatever I could find.  The toppers I got a little creative with, you can't have an empty bottle top.   There you go, hope you enjoy seeing what I did last week.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.  See you next time.



Car Talk and Crayons

Car talk, you know when you are in the car with your hubby going places and you solve the problems of the world ?  Well, hubby and I have been married for over 50 years now and for the last five years, he says a thousand years but five years is more like it, we have been "joined at the hip".  We have most always traveled together and that is the time when we solve the problems of the world.  When I would go off and photograph weddings and proms he was always there for me.   I really don't think the world  listens to us but we try.  Makes for good conversation while traveling in a not to exciting stretch of road.  Now when we go to town and buzz around it is not serious problems we solve.  Like a mile and one -half from our house is a "pond" of sorts and when it is full  of water the migrating Canadian Geese fill that little thing up and right now it is nearly empty and two or three long legged white birds are living and walking around there.  Now where will they go when it is totally dry?   A sub division we drive past are building two new "doll" houses next to one on the corner and what new business is going in down the street?  Those are the town problems we solve and goings on we observe.  

Somehow the subject of crayons came up.  How you ask?  Who  only know but hubby said he remembers getting a box of 64 of the beautiful sticks of wax.   64 !!!!! Now that sounds like manna from heaven to me.  I remember the biggest box I ever got was  a mere 24, it was usually the 8 count ones but I loved all of them.   I would get a new box of 8 and color til my hearts content.   It would be tragic when I had to peel the paper back to release more of the beautiful colors.   Inside the lines I would color, making sure all the strokes followed the contour of whatever I was coloring and outlined each and every picture.  

One day we were going to Wally World AKA Wal-Mart for some treasure and hubby said "I'll be right back"  well, me being Miss Nosey Nurse  I had to go see what he was doing.  He had picked up for me 120 count of crayons.  Yes  your read correctly 120! This just made a tear come into my eye that he bought me crayons. 

 The Crayola Crayons were packaged in a big box with a box of 24 and two of 48.  These are the colors in the 24 package.   Color names like tickle me pink and robin's egg blue.

The two boxes of 48 with wonderful different colors.  They proudly sit in my art room now at a place of honor on my table.  

Now September is coming to an end and the first day of Fall or Autumn was Friday September the 23.  So happy Fall to you all.   Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.  

Can't wait to show you all the bottles I have been decorating but that is for next time.   Don't want to wear your  eyes out.   xoxoxox

No Earthquake Today, Frida and the Borg

No earthquake today for us.  It is not to  unusual that we have any here in Texas but last week we had a 4.4 one last Sunday.  In fact we had three total but  two were baby ones about 77 miles from our home.  It just shook Eldon's chair and rattled the globes of the chandelier we have in the bedroom.  I actually thought Eldon was playing a trick on me.    We found out though that our area with Oklahoma and New Mexico have had more than a dozen earthquakes in the past two years.  In 1931 we did have a 5.8 shaker and no I wasn't around then.  Just a little excitement around here, Mother Nature just clearing her throat.   She is giving us a beautiful fall so far and as you know it is my favorite time of year. 

I have a sweet friend that surprised me with a pendant.  In the mail was a little package, you know good things come in little packages.  It was a pendant of Frida Kahlo.  I wore it a few times but I try to surround myself in the bathroom while getting ready with things that I enjoy looking at.  So I had this sweet little frame and Frida is now hanging in a place of honor along with my photo of Eldon and I with space guns on a Borg spaceship and us with the race cars.  Good memories to view for me.  On the back, which you can't see is the saying of Art Heals .  Love that saying.  If you don't know Frida, she is a 20th centruy Mexican artist who was a great artist and a had a strong will.  Please google her if you want.  There was a movie about her also that was interesting. 

Here she is proudly hanging on my wall.  The frame I did have to overhaul but it cooperated quite nicely and I thought the butterfly on it went well with Frida. 

 Eldon and I with the Borg.  Just in case you don't know about them, they are nasty things on Star Trek.  Their ships are large cube looking contraptions.  I have a small one if you ever care to see it.  Once a friend who owned a Hallmark store called and said "Annette, the ornament this year is a cube thing and my mother collects the Star Trek ornaments.  Would she want one of these" ?  I promptly said you bet and save me one while you are at it.  I cannot get enough of the sci fi world.  I know it doesn't go with some of the frilly things I create but there are different sides of all of us-possibly.

There you go a quick peek at what is going on in my world today.  Thanks for stopping by and see you next time.    xoxo

From the mid 70's to an Altoid Mint Tin

The 70's, my that was an interesting era.  Don't think I want to go back to it with bell bottom pants and some pretty wild colors.  So much going on during that time in our life and certainly the world.   WHEW !!!  

 Now when you do a short lived, you noticed I said short lived, hobby back then and saved it with all of it's doings I certainly think you need to make a special display out of it.  Now what was this hobby you ask?  It was TATTING !!!!   You have this special little shuttle, holder of a bobbin with fine thread and spend hours and hours to make 1/2 of an inch of it.  Not only was it slow but very hard on your nerves.   I made about 18 inches to one yard of it.  Closer to 18 inches though.  this has got to be a lost art that our little great grandmothers did and some grandmothers made.  You used a tiny crochet hook with these little torture instruments.  It is pretty on clothing and hankies but I would have to have naked hankies if I carried one.   Naw, Kleenex is a good thing to have around.   I just hated to give up on it and declaring that a little piece of thread won but it was the winner over me. 

Cristina Zinnia Galliher of Roses on my Table is teaching some great techniques on her site and one is Shrines.  I didn't have a clue what a shrine was in our art world but if something is calling to have a shrine made of it tatting is.   So after some extensive digging, I hate to throw anything away, I found the pretty doings and the instruments you used.

Meet the Altoid Tin,  I did forget to say they are some curiously strong mints made in England and they come in little tins.   On the outside of the tin is a little hint of tatting.  I slightly altered the look of the tin, warning they do not come decorated like this. 

The inside of the little tin.  Of course you can see the shuttle, holder of the little round bobbin with some of the tatting spread around both sides of it.   So now the tatting and its torture parafanilia have a little resting spot and trust me I will not ever use the shuttle or any of it again. I did think the lace is pretty and now certainly appreciate it.   Inside I wrote tatting is patience and it is if you do any of it at all.

I did line the inside of the shuttle section with gimp.  If you look very close you can see a section of it.   This is gimp.  When I went to a local store and said something about gimp the lady looked at me in discust.  I don't think she knew what this was called.    The goldie gimp and the pretty lace I used in this was from some of my Gilded Girls Stash Society.  The treasures you get are to pretty to use but trying to use them, some of them. 

There you go this is what is going on in my world for the moment.  Well, this is over and onward and upward to another project.  I still do believe ART HEALS and it does.    Thanks for stopping by.  See ya later.  xoxox

Hog Heaven

Hello and welcome to September.  I can feel it in the air, well after today when it gets to the 80's.  It should be the last of the 100 plus days.  The weatherman says it.  So that should be gospel in TV land.

I remember when fall came  while our daughters were growing up.  Fall  meant kids starting back to school and a schedule of sorts. Fall sports of Volleyball and Football and the ending of the baseball series. Of course the grass slowing down in it's growing and less mowing for us and we get to put up our fall decorations of the colors of oranges, reds and yellows.   I may have been the only mother in the world that enjoyed the freedom of the summer and no set schedule, but I bet not.

I have discovered this group called---get this-Gilded Girls Stash Society.   Isn't that a great name for us Stashers ?   I need to take pics of the goodies you get once a month. Everyone needs more stash to play with don't we ?  So it was to die for and I hope they aren't like some of my other wonderful treasures, to pretty to use but I am going to try.  The beautiful laces, that I am a sucker for, and fabric and just findings in general.  It is a tad pricey but you know trying to find them on the Internet or even shock upon shock actually going in the automobile and hunting for them in the stores.   I do remember one day our beautiful daughter Debra came to see me one day, she lived in another town and was a second grade teacher.  She had this big sack of lace for me.  I don't know where she got it but there were yards of it and she wanted me to have it to play with.  So of course I had to use it and create.  I just found the box that it was stored in and was in hog heaven.  Guess it doesn't take much to make me feel like I am in hog heaven.

This month I was sent in a pretty glass vile some beads and findings for making jewelry.  I have never in my whole life made jewelry like this.  I did use to do beading in the 70's, it was fun and I gave away a bunch of it.  No one seemed to mind to receive it.  I even made toe rings for our daughters.  They had toe rings on when they went bare footed.  Pretty cute.

So Annette you say, quit teasing us and let us see what you did.   Well, you asked.  It is not perfect as it is the first piece I have created but certainly not the last.  It has  the beautiful fall colors that redheads can wear with ease but the rest of us wear it also.


Be sure and remember to double click on the pics and then you can really see them. 

A close up of the beautiful vintage glass flower that I put together.  I was so excited that I didn't break it. 

A side view of the glass tulip and the other pretty crystal bead.

Another view but with some of the pretty greenish beads.  There were little chains that I took apart and everything.  I felt like I worked at Tiffany's jewelry . Well not really but did feel pretty good about it.  I put it together while watching the Texas Rangers play ball.

The completed necklace.  Now I didn't design this beauty.  Shea did one of the owners of the Gilded Girls, she and her mother.  A couple of talented ladies.   I feel like jewelry design and making is certainly an art.  So many types of art out there isn't there?

There you go my fun little project and what is going on in my world.   Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.

Live in the Moment

Here I am with another one of those little sayings.   LIVE IN THE MOMENT.  I am thinking what does this mean to me?  Eldon and I agree that it means live for today, not to worry about tomorrow or yesterday.  Kind of like the present?  The little gift you give yourself.  Today is your present.  He says I live more in the moment more than he does.  I do wonder about if I could have changed anything and I think not, what it is -is what it is.  I just try to live day by day, even when I was growing up and a teenager I never really thought, but once, what was I going to be when I grew up.  I figured I would do what I was suppose to do.   Now you are asking what in the world brought this little subject up to Annette?

Well, remember the Artful Gathering class I am finishing up with?  The bottles and textures ?   I thought alright lets do a cute bottle for grandaughter, she loved the one I did first, not her colors but the whole concept of it.  So I created this bottle , showed it to her and she loves it.  I feel like pleasing a busy little 19 year old was like hitting the jackpot at Vegas.  To me anyway, probably cost me a lot less dollars also that going to Vegas. 

I drag out the paints and all the goodies to create this beautiful bottle, paint, glue and things go to flying like a mad scientist building their whatever they build.  I have a wonderful 2 foot by 3 foot matt, they call it a misting matt by Tattered Angels.  It is pink, which is a good color almost as good as red or yellow, right up there anyway.  It is a silicone matt that our glue doesn't stick to or the paint but remember it is not a cutting board.  I keep the newly discovered error at the back of my work table now. 

Here you go, the bottle.   The sunflower is from a painting I did earlier here on the blog, the jewelry goodies is from a bracelet I cut apart and the little medalion at the bottom is stating to  LIVE IN THE MOMENT.   Now you know where my saying came from I put other words around on it also.  This was fun and Zinnia might have created a monster here, making these pretty little things. 

 

This is the next bottle I created.  Lace, ribbons, flowers, charms,metal dragon flies and words.  I also added a painting I had done of grandaughter during her Senior year of high school.   It was an antique bottle we picked up earlier.  The saying on this one is in the garden of life you are the rarest of flowers.

There you go and now you know what I have been up to the last few days.   Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.  xo