Saturday's Finds...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This was the first year, in more years than I can remember, that I had both my sisters and my brother (and their families) here for the holiday. My oldest sister lives in Virginia but recently bought a house two streets east of us so they moved some of their belongings in on Wednesday. Since she doesn't get to do much treasure hunting, Saturday I took her to a few shops Tom and I discovered last summer...for those of you in MN there's a stretch along highway 8 between Forest Lake and Taylors Falls with quite a few really good shops...My sister filled up my truck with her finds and this is what I brought home... Never can have too much vintage lace and millinery! I'm a BIG collector of religious (christian) memorbilia and my niece, Madison, surprised me with the vintage crucifix in the bottom right corner. I've been looking for a composition doll for quite some time and found this one in a box with another doll and 5 doll heads for $15...she needs a little work but the price was too good to pass up! Some of the doll heads will be perfect for spooking my niece Jordan...one of them just might end up under her bed (don't worry, she's 14 so it's not as mean as it might sound)!

And here's another journal I made for myself. I've got about five of them now (one of my New Year's "plans" is to keep journals)...I can't decide just how I'm going to do it, I might use one journal for each quarter of the year. It would be nice if I could just wing-it but I must have a touch of OCD because everything has to be carefully thought out and planned. We'll see what happens!

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday break. Sebastian and I got out to play in the 14 inches of snow that fell over the past couple days...it's back to work for me for a few days before the New Year's celebration.

Journaling

I wasn't lucky enough to attend Silver Bella but I was lucky enough to find some wonderful blogs with pictures showing all the treasures that were made during some of the Silver Bella 2009 classes. Since one of my goals for 2010 is to journal more I was happy to find these and these and decided to make my own...here are the final products...

Hopefully one of these years I'll actually get to attend Silver Bella but for now I'm content just dreaming about it.

Well there is only one day left before the festivities of Christmas begin at our house so this will be my last post until then. Merry Christmas to you and yours! I hope Santa brings you everything you wish for!

Sugar & Spice

Yesterday I ran to a few estate sales (no Tom this time) that were really close to the house. One was in the most fabulous old farmhouse I've ever seen...most of the people there were more interested in house and the four out-buildings than in the estate sale, unfortunately the house had already been sold but I did find a few treasures! I hadn't realized that the sale started on Thursday so everything was half off but there wasn't really anything left. I got the two Santa mugs and the two vintage books at that sale...spent a whopping $2.25.

I'm not sure if the ledger book is actually "vintage" but the yellow-ish pages certainly make it look old...and I just can't seem to get enough of the old Christmas tags and seals.

My Santa mug collection is now up to 6 pieces...the one on my right is my favorite so far due to the cracks and crazing (doesn't show up in the pic)

And finally, I listed this little girly file-folder album in my shop this morning and promised to show pictures of the entire album here since pictures are limited on Etsy...

Now I'm onto my next project (after I run to Goodwill to do some treasure hunting). Tom found two old mahogony chairs FOR FREE on the curb in a surrounding neighborhood and knew I would love them so brought them home. They are in pretty bad shape so I'm determined to make them lovely again...and determined to get it done today!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Since it's getting so cold here and it gets dark at about 5:00 there's nothing to do except sit in my "studio" and work. I've been busy, busy, busy working on journals and albums in hopes to keep my store stocked over the holiday season. Here is a little peak at the journals I've been working on (in their not-quite-finished form)...

And a little Santa tin filled with handmade gift tags...I'm hoping I'll get everything finished and up for sale this weekend but things don't always go as planned!