Little Yellow Houses

For as much junk as I have in my home, my walls are surprisingly bare. I have very few photos hung (but big plans for those soon) and almost no artwork. I was thrilled then to finally purchase a couple of pieces that I've had my eye on for a long time now and hang them on my formerly bare walls!
These gorgeous paintings (really, mixed-media pieces if you want to be precise) were made by my dear friend Jodi. I first saw them several months ago when Jodi posted about some of her work being displayed at a local shop against a red wall. Normally I'm not much of a yellow person but the combination of the yellows, blacks and grays against that red was just so striking that I've never forgotten it! I have similar red walls in my front room so I knew that they would look right at home here too.

I was right--they're just beautiful. I loved them from the photo online, but they're even better in person! It makes me happy to look at them because they're so pretty, but also because they make me think of someone I've really admire because of her hard work and commitment to her creative dreams. :) Jodi has an etsy shop if you'd like to see more of her work!

Crafty inspiration from Blogland

Even though several of my beloved magazines are folding, thank goodness there's still more than enough inspiration to be had in blogland! Last week I saw these Bookmark Bijoux from Andrea Singarella and was smitten! I already had all of the materials and I spent a happy hour playing around with two of my favorite things: velvet ribbon and vintage bling.
I love an instant gratification craft! Fun, easy, and pretty results.

More great craftiness from blogland last week:

• This gorgeous pearly heart from Heather Bullard. Aren't the colors of those pearls just gorgeous?
  
• Joli Paquet is back! I loved their Christmas projects so I can't wait to see what they have cooked up for Valentine's Day. Tiffany Kirchner posted this darling vintage-style pop-up card.
• I swoon over these velvet-and-pearl strawberries from Holly Doodle Designs! I want to learn to make these; I don't think they're too difficult, I just need to find a pattern and some pretty velvet.
  

What about you, friends--have you been doing any crafting lately?

It's more contagious than we thought

Well, crap. Not another one! I will admit that I let my subscription run out last year because I haven't scrapbooked a page in oh, longer than I can remember--but I always liked this mag and I'm really very sorry to see it go.

At this rate, I'm not going to have anything to read while I eat my breakfast. I might even have to start reading ~gasp~ my scriptures!

52Q 4 ME

I've been thinking a lot about journaling lately. This really isn't anything earth-shattering, as in my church we are encouraged from a very young age to keep journals--I've just never been very diligent about doing it regularly. I do have my journal that I kept while I was on Study Abroad in London; I knew that it was important to do so then and I was right as it's priceless to me now. I've also journaled about a few significant things that happened like 9/11/01 and the death of this dear man.

When I saw Natalea's post about the 52Q project she was doing, I immediately knew it was something I wanted to try! 52Q is a year-long journaling project designed by Emily Falconbridge with a new question available on her blog each Monday. I decided against the 'art journal' angle, only because I know that it will keep me from getting it done each week. Instead, I pulled out some hand-painted paper that I've had in my stash for probably 8 or more years and cut it into a cute shape using the very cool Big Shot die cutting machine I got for Christmas.
To keep the cards together, I punched a hole in the corner and will thread them onto one of those big binder rings from the office supply store. I had the brilliant idea to clamp the whole stack together and use my electric drill to go through all the cards at once so the holes would be in the same place on each one. Great idea in theory, but in practice it didn't work so well. I suspect that I used the incorrect drill bit for the job, as it chewed up the paper around the edges of the hole. I had to go back through and repunch each card by hand, which is exactly what I had been trying to avoid in the first place! Oh well, now I know better.

I'm looking forward to this little project for 2009! I'm subscribed to Emily's blog via Bloglines so every Monday when her new topic pops up, it will be easy for me to just grab a card and write my answer and string it on the binder ring. I'm still thinking about other journaling ideas I can implement, like making a journaling jar or writing monthly letters to Maren. If you're looking for a fun and different journaling idea for you or your family, check out what my cute friend Angie just did with her family!

Isn't it Ironic? and Tablecloth Tuesday

This is the envelope that came with my latest issue of Country Home on Saturday, one day after the magazine's sad demise was announced.The irony isn't lost on me. I'm really disappointed that yet another of the magazines I love is biting the dust. I've read that with the problems in the home-buying industry, ad revenue for so-called "shelter" magazines is way down, which is the reason that Country Home's publisher gave it the ax--not lack of subscribers.

I also find this ironic, because in a time when retail spending is down, it seems to me that people are more likely to look to sources that tell them how to reuse things they already have (or can get inexpensively) rather than telling them to go drop a bunch of coin on brand-new shiny stuff to fill up their McMansions. While Country Home isn't necessarily all about doing things on a budget and regularly features spreads of gorgeous homes full of expensive antiques and fabulous kitchens and reclaimed heart pine flooring, I do think it advocates decorating with vintage, thrifted and antique items or making over furniture that readers might already have.

It seems then that Country Home is exactly the kind of magazine that would be popular with home decorators on a budget and that advertisers would figure that out and buy ad space accordingly. I guess the problem there is that thrift and antique store don't have big advertising budgets like the fancy furniture and flooring companies do. Country Home and Mary Engelbreit Home Companion, RIP. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll pull a Victoria on us and return somewhere down the line, we can only hope. All I can say is that if someone tries to mess with my Country Living, I'll be on a rooftop with a rifle. Publishers, you've been warned.

So, on that slightly psychotic note, let me move on to the thrifting portion of my post. I stopped into a thrift with Maren the other day for the ostensible purpose of finding more Madame Alexander Wizard of Oz Happy Meal toys for her collection. We did score a pair of Cowardly Lions and a Pinocchio who'll have to stand in for the Tin Man until we find one, but Mommy found a few treasures as well.My first thrifted quilt! It's no gorgeous feed-sack beauty like the kind that seem to leap into Sarah's path, but red and white polka-dots are more my speed anyway.I don't think it's particularly old, but I like it. The backing fabric cracks me up because it doesn't match at all--that must have been a stash-busting maneuver by the quilt's maker. I do quite like the pink and green, even if it totally clashes with the red and blue on the front.

I also picked up this fun vintage barbecue-themed tablecloth. Love the bright colors! Thrifting bright vintage fabrics is perfect antidote for dreary January skies, isn't it?

Mushroom mania, continued

And the mushroom love continues at my house, this time with a trio of cute fungi. The ribbon was just procured from the $1 bins at Michael's and the vintage embroidered pillowcase and silver and bone ring are both in my etsy shop right now! For more mushroom love, check out Laurie's recent post.

January Flower Garden

Happy 2009! The Christmas decor is finally down--whew! It took me three whole days and halfway through day two I was really hoping that the Clean-Up Fairy might make an appearance and spare me the rest. I persevered, and was rewarded with an empty house and a storage room where I can once again see the floor. Normally in January I put up my "winter" decor--glittery snowflakes, a gorgeous Wendy Addison glittery Winter banner, etc. but for right now I'm just enjoying the emptiness.
When I was in Utah over Christmas I visited a favorite antique mall and did a bit of shopping. I've read of other bloggers who buy vintage hats just to take apart for the old millinery flowers but I've never found a hat that was inexpensive enough to make that worthwhile--until this trip, when I found THE HAT. I should have taken a 'before' photo, but imagine a small net cap (6.5" diameter) absolutely covered in every conceivable type of millinery flower. Now, I'll never be accused of being too subtle--I generally think a smidge over the top is just about right--but the woman who wore this cap must have looked ridiculous with such a concoction on her head! There's over the top and then there's whoa, and this hat defintely fell into the latter category.Lucky for me, I saw the swan under this ugly duckling of a chapeau! I bought it for the princely sum of $5 and just spent the last 3o minutes rescuing almost 40 millinery flower lovelies from the clutches of the most horrid glue I've yet to encounter. I have to wonder if this hat was a homemade affair, because I can't imagine any milliner worth her hatpins would abuse a bottle of glue and a pile of flowers in such a manner. After the first ripped flower I got wise and used my trusty heat gun to melt the glue so that I could pull the flowers apart from the hat and each other.
There's still quite a bit of that heinous glue stuck to the back of each flower but I'm optimistic that I can find ways to use them so the glue won't show. I'm love my little vintage flower garden and I'd like to thank the lady who, 50 years ago, put every flower she could get her hands on onto one hat. I'm much obliged to her!