Birthday Giveaway winner and Weekend Junk Finds

I'm a little behind on posting my Birthday Giveaway winner--trying to jam-pack as much into the last bits of summer as we can and getting ready to go out of town for a week has me dragging!

I did this drawing the old-fashioned way to make sure I didn't miss anybody. Of course I had to use my Teardrop bowl. ;)

 Had a little mermaid draw a name and...

1 Buddha's Mom, you are the winner!

I don't see an email in your profile so please contact me at themerrymagpie@gmail.com so I can get your address!

Thank you ALL for your kind birthday wishes and for Liking my new Facebook page! You all know how to make a girl feel good on her birthday. :)

The junking has been sparse around here lately. Too much other stuff to do! I did find a few fun things:

Love this pair of vintage vases. I'm not sure what exactly they're supposed to be with all of the loops, but I liked the shapes and having a pair is nice. These will be for sale later this fall.

Vintage McCoy pink-striped baking dish. I've seen bowls in this pattern on other blogs but this is the first time I've ever seen a piece in the wild. I think it might be some kind of shallow baking dish? I bought this item with my local consignment store in mind. They take vintage/antique items as well clothing and other home decor pieces, so I'm trying to keep an eye out for items I can flip there. Their prices aren't very high and I only get 50%, so I have to be able to find the item for very little money to make any profit. I think yard sales would probably be the best buying venue--paying thrift store markup takes too big of a chunk out of profits. But I think this could be an interesting sales venue for items that are too heavy/fragile/bulky to ship.

I LOVE the colors of this crocheted afghan! Not something I normally buy, but I follow an Etsy shop that regularly lists and sells pretty afghans so when I saw this one I thought I might give it a try for fall. The colors are great and I like the dark brown stitching in between the stripes--reminds me a bit of stained glass leading. I think this has the perfect amount of balance between 'Granny' and 'Chic'!

Did you find any great junk this past week? What are you doing to enjoy the end of your summer?

It's my birthday and I'm giving YOU a gift!

Today is my birthday! Some people don't like their birthdays because of the reminder that they're getting older, but not me, I love my birthday! I love cake and ice cream and pressies and getting to choose what is for dinner (okay, as the mom and chief cook in the house I do this every night but as a kid I loved it). I don't mind getting another year older; today I'm 34 years old and proud of it.

Normally on Mondays I post my Weekend Junk Finds but today I wanted to do something a little different. To thank you all for reading my blog and leaving wonderful comments, I wanted to give one of you a gift!

I've gathered a few fun treats to send to someone: a copy of one of my favorite junking inspiration books, Collection Style by Country Living. A sparkly beaded ring handmade by me, a set of 6 covered buttons made with vintage feedsack fabrics, a stack of cool vintage store price signs, a set of hand-stamped typewriter notecards, and a few other surprises I'll slip in!

There are two ways to enter my Birthday Giveaway:

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. 'Like' my The Merry Magpie Vintage Facebook page

You say you didn't know I had a Facebook page? Well, you're not alone. :) I created it way back in April but have been waiting for the right time to tell everyone about it, and I think my birthday is as good a day as any!

You can enter by one or both methods, but please leave a separate comment for each one. The giveaway will close Friday, August 3 at 8:00 a.m. MDT, and I'll draw a winner and post later that day.

The Mister just graduated from Jumpmaster School (on his first try, which is uncommon. So proud of him!) and there are no wildfires burning so I think we may finally be back to a normal schedule for the the first time in two months. Whew. Today for my birthday celebration we're going to visit the new History Colorado Center, I'm going to make my all-time favorite Texas Sheet Cake, and then I think we'll go have sushi for dinner at our favorite little place. I can't wait! :)

SPARK Giveaway winner and Weekend Junk Finds

First, I forgot to choose the winner for the SPARK 3 Giveaway last week.

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 3 

Which means the winner is LYNN! Lynn, please email me with your address (you can use the link over on the left) so I can send you some goodies! 


After a long thrifting drought, things finally seem to be picking up around here! The thrift stores have followed the retail stores in putting out their Christmas wares in the days after Halloween, so I've ratcheted up my thrift store visiting hoping to score some of my favorite vintage Christmas goodies! I've already had some small success, which will hopefully set the tone for Christmas goods to come. :)

This doesn't look like much in the photo, but in real life it's a perfectly aged, worn antique ironstone plate. It's small, but it's pretty! This one will be headed to my Etsy shop.

This find was one of those examples of the need to see past the present and find the potential at the thrift store. This old Ball jar has been fitted with a socket kit to turn it into a lamp. When I found it, it was filled with dried beans and topped with an ugly late 80s-era blue lamp shade. I re-donated the lamp shade literally as soon as the cashier rang it into the register--popped that sucker off and walked it right over to the big donation bin, and then dumped out the petrified beans once I got home and was left with this! Just think of all of the fun things I could put into the jar--mother of pearl buttons would be beautiful, and there's always Shara's fabulous lamp filled with vintage Christmas ornaments. What would you put in the lamp?

Vintage Shiny Brites never fail to make me happy! This batch had some pink, some of the pretty ombre variety, and even a pink indent and a green one with stenciled stars. More, please!

And the last find, which was plucked off a to-be-shelved cart. I'm absolutely crazy for the cheery decals on both sides, the red painted rim, and the perfectly crazed glaze. It looks the right size and shape for a flowerpot, but the stamp on the bottom states that it's "Oven-proof Bak-Serv". I can't imagine what you'd bake in such a tiny pot. I certainly won't be using it for cooking!


Did you find anything good this weekend? Have your thrift stores started putting out the Christmas goodies?

SPARK 3: Day two and a giveaway

On the morning of Day two of SPARK 3, we were all moving a bit more slowly than we had the day before!

Our first class was with the very cool Amy Tangerine, a successful fashion designer who has just made the leap into the scrapbook and papercrafting world. She was great! She taught us how to do reverse applique, one of her signature fashion treatments. It was so easy and fun and I loved it! Here's the shirt I made for Maren:

I figured it would be easiest to do a small shirt first. I can't wait to use this technique on more items! I definitely know that I want to make Christmas shirts for both of the kids using reverse applique.

Our second class that morning was stamp carving with April Meeker, who was also one of the SPARK hostesses along with Margie.

I had done some stamp carving a long, LONG time ago but never using lino cutters. I designed a 'thanks' stamp that I can stamp on the bottom of packing slips for my Etsy orders.

No idea why Blogger wants this upside down again. Grr! And hey--there's my felted soap!

I found stamp carving to be really relaxing and I definitely plan to do it more often. I already ordered more supplies!

After another delicious lunch (seriously, I never put a bad thing in my mouth the whole two days), we were treated to a very interesting Blogging panel, and then we attended our final class. This one was taught by Donna Downey, another mixed-media artist

She taught us how to use a very interesting art supply called pan pastels. They're different from stick pastels in that they don't contain any binder, so they are very intensely colored because they're pure pigment. I forgot to take a photo of my finished canvas, perhaps I can add one in later. I'd never even heard of pan pastels before that, so it was fun to try something completely and totally new and out of my comfort zone. I can't say that I see myself ever doing it again, but I really enjoyed it!

That evening we had yet another amazing meal, catered by the same company as last year's final dinner. They even brought back the ENORMOUS rose cupcakes from last year!

I wish there was a regular-sized cuppie in this photo for scale, because these are simply the most enormous cupcakes you've ever laid eye on. They're easily the size of those giant muffins you can buy at Costco, and then there is another 3 1/2" of frosting on the top in the rose and leaves! They are pretty darn spectacular. And because we're women, there was a whole other table absolutely packed with amazing desserts!

After dinner, we were treated to a wonderful, entertaining concert by indie artist Sarah Sample, who in a funny sort of coincidence, was friends with my younger brother in college.

Sarah is a very talented singer-songwriter. Her lyrics are really beautiful and thoughtful, and she can play the heck out of the guitar! I can't wait to download some of her music.

Honestly, I can't think of a single thing I would have changed about SPARK 3! Every detail was perfect, the teachers & classes were inspiring and fun, the decorations beautiful, the food delicious to the eyes and to the taste. I met beautiful, kind, warm, creative women and my cup of creative inspiration was filled to overflowing! Margie has promised that there will be a Spark #4, and as far as I'm concerned--she can take my money now!

One of the messages at the heart of every Spark gathering has been that we must share our *sparks* with those around us, so I have a little bit of Spark to share with you:

If you'd like a chance to win some of the goodies I brought home from SPARK 3, leave a comment on this post telling me something that you do that helps to *spark* your creativity! I'll draw a winner on Thursday morning.

SPARK 3: Day one

Last September, my mom and I had the opportunity to attend Spark No. 2, an amazing creative event in Utah. It was so incredible that it took me three whole posts to chronicle the awesomeness. When registration opened for Spark 3 earlier this year, the decision to attend again was a no-brainer for both of us!

I knew going into Spark 3 that things were going to be a bit different. Two of the original founders had stepped down and another woman stepped up to join Margie Romney-Aslett in putting on Spark 3. I knew that things would have a different feel and quite honestly, I wondered if they'd be able to measure up to Spark No. 2. It's not that I didn't have faith in Margie and April, but more that Spark No. 2 was so completely over-the-top, so awe-inspiring, that it was just a whole lot to live up to.

I shouldn't have been worried. Margie and April gave their hearts and souls for months and months and it was obvious! Just as in Spark No. 2, every little detail was attended to. The decor theme was 'Granny Chic', and warm textures of yarn and lace and fabric and thread were everywhere.

We started off the day by choosing beautiful  handmade nametags, each one different and each one a tiny work of art:

From there we moved into the large hall, which was truly spectacular yet again this year!

Yards and yards of crocheted yarn, trim and lace hung from the ceiling.

Chandeliers made from pattern tissue-covered paper lanterns and plumbers tubing hung throughout the room.

Each table had a centerpiece made from a doily-covered jar, a pedestal made from vintage china and a candlestick, a yarn ball, and a stack of old books with the covers torn off.

At each place setting was an absolutely beautiful journal and memory box from Paper Coterie.

Our first session of the day was a creativity lesson from the fabulous Mindy Gledhill, who had performed at Spark No. 2. She spoke about the stages of creation and sang a few songs, including one from her new Christmas album!

Our first class was taught by Emily Falconbridge, another holdover from Spark No. 2. Last year she taught us to use wool roving to make into felted wool beads. Confession: all of my wool is still sitting in its plastic bag in my closet! I had a hard time with the beads so I never finished them. This year's project was making a felted soap.

You use a bar of soap and wrap it with wool roving. Using hot water and soap and the motion of your hands smooths the wool over the soap and causes it to felt around the bar. You then have essentially a bar of soap and a wash cloth in one! We also got to try needle-felting a design onto the top of the bar of soap, something I enjoyed and would like to try again.

The second class was taught by one of my blog idols, Cathe Holden from Just Something I Made. I'm pretty sure I let out an audible squeal when she revealed a few months ago that she was going to be teaching at Spark 3! In Cathe's class we made these beautiful little wire nest pendants.

After a delicious lunch catered by Dear Lizzie, we hit our third class of the day, which was taught by mixed-media artist Christy Tomlinson.

We didn't know what to expect other than the project would be a collage, which made me a bit nervous. Collage (especially mixed-media) just doesn't come naturally to me and the collage class from Spark No. 2 was not my favorite. However, Christy's class ended up being so much fun and I'm absolutely tickled with the SHE art collage that I made!

It's totally different from anything I've made before, but I love it!

The last class of the day was a Junk Journal altered book class taught by Jennifer Jensen, an artist I've long admired. She has been designing in the scrapbook world for ages, and has always used vintage and antique objects in her art.

Our class materials were wrapped so beautifully! The theme of the book was metamorphosis so all of our supplies had the most beautiful butterflies on them.

That evening we had a delicious dinner catered by Plates and Palates, including a Lemon Tarragon pasta salad that was to die for! I found a similar recipe online from someone who frequents their restaurant and I'm dying to give it a try to see if I can recreate that goodness! We laughed that dinner was such chick food--spinach salad and pasta salad and rolls. :)

After dinner we were able to do several make-and-take projects provided by generous vendors. I made pretty earrings from Making Memories

I don't know why Blogger has decided to load this one upside down

This tissue flower was from 7 Gypsies and the yellow fabric flower from somebody else who I can't remember.

This one is upside down too. No idea.

It was a full, exhausting day but every bit as wonderful, warm, and inspiring as I hoped it would be! Stay tuned for Day 2...

No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids WINNER!

The winner of my giveaway of a copy of No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

13 

Timestamp: 2010-12-15 02:24:24 UTC

Commenter #13 is Amy! I happen to know where Amy lives (ooh, that sounds stalkerish, doesn't it?) because she's a local friend, so Amy--I'll get your fabulous book to you soon! Thank you all for entering, and I'd encourage you to check out my friend Lisa's book, which is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders. You can also check out her blog, where she has info about where to find candy, great decorating inspiration, and even the plans for two of the houses in her book! Now I have to decide which house to make next: the Cozy Cabin with its yummy Pirouette walls, or the darling toadstool house to go with all of the toadstool ornaments on my Christmas tree. Decisions...
 

Mermaid Palace from No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids

Since Maren is STILL out of school (25 days until she goes back and counting**), I figured this was a perfect time to try our hand at one of the houses in No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids. I let Maren choose which house we'd make first, and she chose the Mermaid Palace--no surprise there from my girly girl!

Once the Master of Disaster was in bed for his afternoon nap, we set to work. I used meringue powder to make my royal icing, per Lisa's tip in our interview. I had a can leftover from a Wilton Cake Decorating class I took a while back, but it can be readily purchased in the Wilton aisle at both Michael's and JoAnn's (don't forget your 40% off coupon!) The Mermaid Palace uses stacks of vanilla Oreos and ice cream cones to construct the towers, so we glued them all together and let them dry for a bit--not long, because royal icing dries out very quickly.

Once they were dry and secure, we got to do the fun part--the decorating! We mostly followed the picture in Lisa's book, though Maren chose blue icing for the walls instead of seafoam green. I piped on the frosting and Maren helped me smooth it out with a frosting knife.

For decoration, we used Smarties (leftover from Halloween!) and some tiny pink sugar pearls that I had in my cupcake decorating supplies; every Mermaid's Palace needs a little bling, right? Lisa's Mermaid Palace in the book looks like rests on a sandy seafloor made of graham cracker crumbs. I don't have any graham crackers right now, so we improvised and used breadcrumbs, which look just the same! I simply squirted royal icing all over the cardboard base, smoothed it out with a knife and we dumped the crumbs on.

My local Walgreen's was sold out of the green sour straws so we had to forgo the seaweed, but we did add sour gummy worm sea anemone to wave in the underwater currents. Maren loved how it turned out and had such fun making it! The whole thing was incredibly easy; the hardest thing for her was being patient while the icing dried. Being able to use store bought, pre-made items for the structure of the tower was such a huge mess- and time-saver for me!

I think next up we'll try the Cozy Cabin from Lisa's book. Maren and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie series and when she saw it she said, "Look, it's Mary and Laura's cabin!" so that would be a fun way to tie into our reading. The fact that the cabin is constructed from Pirouette cookies, which just happen to be one of my all-time favorites, has nothing whatsoever to do with it. ;) And Pirouettes are on sale right now anyway, so it's economical!

You have a few more hours to leave a comment here and enter to win your own signed copy of No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids! The giveaway closes at noon MST!

**(disclaimer: I love my daughter and I enjoy spending time with her. However, I also enjoy the precious 2.75 hours of "alone" time I get per day when she's at kindergarten and the baby is napping. It keeps me sane and allows me to get a lot done. Maren truly loves school, and is bored without it. Six weeks out of school in the middle of winter when it is too cold to go outside and run around gives us all cabin fever.)

No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids GIVEAWAY!

I first met Lisa Turner Anderson in 1990, right at the end of sixth grade. We had moved into the house right across the street from her and we became fast friends. Fast-forward twenty years and now my dear friend has written a book of her own, and I couldn't be more thrilled for her!

Lisa's first book is No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids. Have any of you ever made a gingerbread house from scratch? I have--years ago. It's a lot of work! You have to make the dough, spread it flat in a pan, use a template to carefully cut out all of the correct pieces, bake it, and let it cool and hope none of the pieces break--and all of that is before you even get to the really fun part, which is the decorating! Lisa's great book features 23 different gingerbread houses that don't require any baking, because they're constructed of graham crackers, cookies, and other things you can buy at the grocery store. You can let the Keebler Elves do all the work for you, while you concentrate on the the fun stuff!

Lisa agreed to do a little interview for us about her new book:

Heidi: What gave you the idea to write this book?
Lisa: I noticed there were no books on the market for gingerbread houses for kids. I also thought there had to be an easier way to make a gingerbread house. I had made the simple graham cracker one before, but I thought there had to be more you could make with graham crackers. So I started experimenting and using other things to build with along with graham crackers. I discovered there's a lot you can do with cookies, ice cream cones, etc.

Heidi: Do you have a favorite house?
Lisa: I have so many favorites! My favorites are probably the windmill with the gumdrop tulips and the tiki hut--those tiki masks were fun to draw. I also love the cabin because it looks so real and so cozy!

Heidi: Where did you buy the candy to decorate your houses?
Lisa: I started out buying a lot of it online, but then I discovered I could find most of it at the local grocery store, Walmart, the dollar store, and the candy store at the mall.

Heidi: Do you have any tips on working with royal icing?
Lisa: I prefer to make royal icing using meringue powder. It contains dried egg whites, so you don't have to work with messy eggs! 

Heidi: Since the book has been published, have you thought of any more houses you'd like to try?
Lisa: I've thought about making some more haunted houses based on movies--like the houses from Amityville and Psycho. I'd also love to do a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired house. I figure long, flat graham crackers would be perfect for that!

Ooh, I love the idea of a Frank Lloyd Wright graham cracker house! You can watch Lisa in action, showing how to make the Old Woman in the Shoe house from her book:

I have a signed copy of Lisa's book, No-Bake Gingerbread Houses for Kids to give away to one of you! To enter, please leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite Christmas candy is. This contest will be open until Friday, December 10 at noon MST.

Sharing my Spark

At Spark No. 2, there was an abundance of sharing. My fellow Spark sisters shared tools, materials, ideas, praise, conversation, inspiration and friendship. The Sparkettes (Rhonna, Margie & Elizabeth) shared their time and talents with all of us when they put everything together. Teachers shared inspiration and stories and techniques. Manufacturers shared goodies, and now I have something to share with you!

 

In the spirit of Spark, I'd like to share a few of the fun treats I brought home with one of you! There are two sets of clear stamps, cool fabric stickers, funky Halloween rub-ons and a packet of cute tags. If you'd like to enter, leave a comment on this post with something that ~SPARKS~ your creativity when you need a lift! You can leave comments all weekend long and I'll draw a winner on Monday!

Giveaway winner and Thrift Thursday finds

And the winner of the Everyday is a Holiday cupcake cards is...

Debby from The Gathering Nest! Yay Debby! Send me an email with your mailing address using the link over there to the left and I'll get your cute cards in the mail to you! Thank you all for your comments.

Today I also have a few recent *good junque* finds to share.

This cool vintage tinsel tree was from the awesome estate sale I blogged about a few weeks ago, but I forgot to include the photo then. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the tinsel is a mix of magenta and orange, and the branches are actually loops. It sits in a glittered white wooden stand and is marked Italy. It came with one lone glittery bird still wired to the branch--wish I could have found the rest of the flock! This will probably end up in my etsy shop around the holidays because it's neat, but doesn't match my decor.

This jewelry set was a find from a small-town thrifting trip back in January. I bought it right before I took my blogging break so I never got around to sharing it, but I LOVE it so much that I just had to show it off! The bracelet is one of those funky hinged cuffs, and is made of brown plastic and set with dozens of gorgeous aurora borealis crystals. All of the crystals in the cuff and the matching earrings are intact and have their iridescent finish, which is rare for a piece with that many stones. It's gorgeous and was a steal at $7!

This last item was actually gifted to me by a sweet friend. She was changing her decor and remembered that I love old stuff, so thought I might like it. She was right! It's now displayed in Porter's bedroom, where I think it works well with the other vintage space-themed items, and the bright primary colors are just perfect!

I was able to get out and do some thrifting yesterday, thanks to a kind friend who invited Maren over for the morning to play with her girls. Found some good stuff, and when it's all washed/ironed I'll be sure to post it!

Everyday CAN be a holiday with Jenny & Aaron & Michael's!

In 2007 I had the pleasure of attending Silver Bella, one of the best paper arts events in the country! While there, I got to take classes from the fabulous Jenny & Aaron, of Everyday is a Holiday. In fact, I hung up the darling cake plaque I made in one of their classes for Maren's birthday celebrations a few weeks ago. Jenny & Aaron are the nicest people, and I've long been a fan of their gorgeous pink & aqua blue, vintage-style cake art, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to find out that their work is available at Michael's craft stores RIGHT NOW!!

I was first tipped off by Natalea (a fellow '07 Bella who was in that cake plaque class with me) a few weeks ago and couldn't wait to go to Michael's to see the items for myself. They were even cuter in person, with pretty pastel colors and glitter and sprinkles all over. This (lousy) photo only shows a small portion of the line. There were more styles of journals, notecards, little enclosure cards, magnets, and rhinestone words--all in Jenny & Aaron's signature style! And guess what--they were only $1 each--can you believe it? I loaded up my cart because I think I could happily use these cards for all my mail correspondence for pretty much forever.

And guess what else--because I love Jenny & Aaron's art so much and because I just know that you'll love it too, I picked up an extra packet of notecards for one of you!

Aren't these cards just darling? Simply leave a comment on this post between now and noon MDT on Wednesday (that's tomorrow) and I'll pick someone to send a little bit of cupcake Happy Mail!