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...

Halloween 2011: leftovers

Remember the giant teeth Trunk-or-Treat idea that I Pinned?

Well, I bought some sheets of white posterboard and delegated that job to The Mister, who did a fabulous job and even made some big fangs as well:

I loved it! But apparently we weren't the only ones who saw that idea, because there were two other cars at our Trunk-or-Treat with teeth:

This decidedly more friendly version,

and this full-on face version, with kids passing out candy from the mouth. Funny!

Some of my favorite costumes from friends this year:

Flo, the Progressive lady. HATE those commercials, but my friend Stephanie looked just like her!

This cute Peter Pan family costume from my friend Brittney. I think this costume theme works best when you have adorable 1-year-old twins.

An amazing, elaborate Lego man costume my friend Annie made for her son, Graham. Holy cow!

And this creepy drowned Titanic victim costume from Keeley, which I am totally going to steal for a costume party someday!

What was the best costume you saw this year?

Halloween 2011: our Scooby Gang costumes

I didn't mean for it to take so long to get these photos posted, but life has just gotten in the way. Today school has been cancelled for snow, which is ironic since on Monday it was 71 degrees. It was like that last week too: nearly 80 on Monday, then 6" of snow on Wednesday. The only reason school wasn't cancelled last week too is that we were already on Fall Break! I am really thankful that last week's snow melted before Halloween and this week's snow held off for 24 hours so that we could enjoy a beautiful sunny Halloween and not even have to wear coats over our costumes.

Speaking of costumes, here's how we dressed up this year:

For a family with a little girl who LOVES Scooby-Doo, this was a natural choice! In fact, we chose this theme before Halloween last year, so I've been thinking of it ever since. Here's a run-down on our costumes:

The Mister as Freddy: wore his own jeans, blue dress shirt and white v-neck sweater. The orange scarf was thrifted (I had to work a little magic to make it the right shape) and the horrible blonde wig was new, but bought at the thrift store.

Maren as Velma: wore a perfect thrifted orange turtleneck sweater and thrifted red skirt. Bought the orange socks at Gymboree. We tried two different wigs but both had issues and she was not feeling great, so in the end we just curled the ends of her hair under and called it good. She also had more square glasses that looked much more Velma-like, but they were an adult size and wouldn't stay on so in the end we went with Harry Potter glasses I had in the costume box. Ah well. She also had a homemade magnifying glass made from a dowel, a thrifted embroidery hoop, black spray paint, and a piece of clear Saran Wrap.

Porter as Shaggy: wore his own brown pants. I thrifted a green turtleneck and when the weather turned out to be so nice that day, I went ahead and cut it into a v-neck to be more authentic. His hair is naturally shaggy, I drew stubble on his chin with an eyeliner pencil, and he gamely carried around a Scooby stuffed animal all night.

Heidi as Daphne: my purple vintage dress was thrifted 7 years ago, so to make it authentic, I simply sewed on two stripes of wide lavender ribbon and then made a headband to match. My green scarf was thrifted, my pink tights (which I didn't think would be quite so lacy) were on super-clearance at JC Penneys and my wig was new but from the thrift store. I couldn't find the right color of shoes at the thrift store, so I just bought a pair and painted them with acrylic paint (which totally cracked when I wore them, but they gave the right effect). The cutouts on the front were made with chipboard that was painted and hot-glued onto the shoes.

Bronco the yellow lab as Scooby: Even Bronco-doggie got in on the act! I made him a Scooby collar using teal ribbon and then made a tag out of teal and metallic gold cardstock that I hung off the ribbon with a binder ring. Bronco went with us to the Trunk-or-Treat, but stayed home for the actual trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

We got so many nice compliments on our costumes, and I have to not-so-humbly admit that I think we rocked them! I may not be able to sew everything, but I can MacGyver the heck out of some thrift store finds!

I do wish I had just sprung for the $20 Velma costume for Maren, just so that we could have had the child-sized wig and glasses but I was determined to find something cheaper and make it work. Those efforts included one disastrous (new) black wig from the thrift store, and a thrifted blonde wig that I attempted to color brown with a brown Staz-On permanent ink pad, which is an hour of my life I'll never get back, especially since in the end she wore neither.

Even our jack-o'-lanterns were Scooby-themed! Truly, it was a fantastic Halloween and I'm so thankful to have a family (especially a husband!) who will go along with my crazy ideas. I'm already starting to plan our costumes for next year...

Just three more days and Trunk-or-Treat ideas

Each day, Maren counts down the days until Halloween and squeals as it's getting closer--and I want to squeal right along with her! I've got work to do this weekend to put the last touches on our costumes, and I still need to hit a few thrift stores to see if I can find shoes for mine. We're going as a coordinated group again this year and I think our costumes will be really fun! For any new readers, here's how we dressed up last year:

Our church traditionally has a Trunk-or-Treat event on Halloween, which I have mixed feelings about. On one hand--I know there are people that go and distribute all of their candy during the Trunk-or-Treat and then go home and turn off their lights, which I think is NO FUN at all! I happen to think that one of the fun parts of Halloween and trick-or-treating is getting to know your neighbors, and you can't get to know your neighbors if you won't open your door! On the other hand, the Trunk-or-Treat is usually held early enough that the kids can still go out trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, so double the candy--yay!

I know some churches have car decorating contests and I wish ours would start doing that--I think it would make the whole event more fun because right now, it's little more than an organized but crowded grab for candy. I found this awesome car on Pinterest

Original source

and I think I might be making a run to the store this weekend for white poster board! The rest of the car is made to look like a giant whale to go with the family's costumes, but I think I'll just stick with the big scary teeth.

Last year at our Trunk-or-Treat there was one person who went all out and made a Honeyduke's Sweet Shop in the back of her van. We didn't get there until it was almost empty, but I still got a few snaps so I could remember how clever it was!

Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them so you can see the neat tags she made with the candy names. It would seem like filling all those jars of candy would cost a fortune, but most of the candy was inexpensive (salt water taffy) or homemade (toffee) or store-bought candy, gussied up (Licorice Wands were individual Twizzlers dipped in candy melts & sprinkles, Acid Pops were sour Dots on a sucker stick).

The key to this was the presentation--all of the candies were individually wrapped in little bags and each jar had its own label, printed in the Harry Potter font. The car owner made a shelf with a piece of painted board that was held up on either end by a large gold-painted book. The whole effect was really impressive! Maybe she'll be back again this year and I can get some photos when the jars are all filled up.

And just in case you haven't settled on a costume yet, let me leave you with a few of my favorites from last year's Trunk-or-Treat:

Incredible papier mache Mike from Monster's Inc.

The blue shirt was an XXL thrift store find and he stuffed the front with fiberfill. Hat was made from felt-by-the-yard from JoAnn's.

My friend's two-year-old as a Toddlers and Tiaras winner. Hilarious!

Have a fun weekend! Are you doing anything fun to get ready for Halloween?