Pincushions!

Hello Friends!

Hope you are all having a lovely summer.
It's starting to really warm up here, and last night
we had an almost warm summer night.
Something you may not know about Southern California
is that we rarely have warm summer nights.
We have to have the braziers going if we want to stay out after dark.
But right now it is so worth it, because we have just planted a
night-blooming jasmine and its wonderful fragrance just fills the air!

I've been busy making more pincushions for my friends
at the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group.

 I've had so much fun making these, using vintage salt cellars
and mixing in some vintage lace, buttons and handkerchiefs with newer trims.

And I made this "coin envelope" mini-book
for another swap in the MAMA group.

This is the top view.
I bought my envelopes from Paper Source, because I liked the color,
but you could also use the manila ones from the office supply stores.
I then sent them through my Vagabond die cut machine with an embossing plate  for some texture.

 We were also to make 10 tags, one to fit inside each envelope. 
Oh, how I love crinkled seam binding :)
On to this week's freebies, some lovely flowergirls:

  Click to enlarge, right click and save! For all things lovely and vintage, visit Knick of Time!Lovely repurposed vintage finds at Coastal Charm!
And for links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by White Wednesday! Thanks so much for stopping by...hope you all have a great week!   

The End of My Long Winter's Nap

Wow, well I have taken quite a long winter's nap, haven't I?
Well, I haven't really been napping...not like someone I know:




For some, napping IS an art form!

I have been busy creating,
now I just need to get busy taking pictures!!

I am excited about some changes.
I have been in a monthly ATC Club for over five years,
and the club is now ready to shake things up a bit.
We're calling it *aRt*pArTy*!!
and are shifting the focus from a monthly ATC swap
(where we made 9 identical ATCs, one for each member
and received 9 assorted ATCs from the other members)
to a format where the swaps are non-ATC, one for one, and optional;
we have a monthly make and take; and refreshments/decorations
all tie in with the monthly theme.
Last month was New Year/New Start and we traded (one for one)
altered journals, made an adorable Valentine journal,
and had a salad buffet.
Next month the theme is Paris je t'aime (Paris, I love you)
and we are trading Parisian themed cones and filling them
with arty/Paris-y items; for our make and take we are making an
embellished chandelier crystal, and having a crepe bar!!
I can't wait!!

I have almost completed my journal
and will publish pictures this week!

Meanwhile, here is a picture of my cone, filled with French goodies:

And, here are a couple of Friday Freebies
to make up for the time that I wasn't napping! ;)


And:


Click, right click and save! Have fun!

Ocean Beach

Yesterday was a gloriously beautiful sunny day, and I headed down to Ocean Beach, with its shell shops, antique malls, and cute little boutiques to see what I could find for my vintage vacation swap partner.


I don't even know who my partner is yet, but I have a theme in mind, and I'm the kind of girl who takes a theme and runs with it! Well, I do not know how Vignettes--a fabulous shoppe stocked (a truly gauche term for the beautiful vignettes created by the various designer/dealers) with all manner of things vintage, French, shabby, sparkly, flowery, bejewelled--could have escaped my radar for so long!!


There are rooms and rooms of wonderful antique, vintage and handmade items, you can just breathe in the inspiration!

Regardez-vous:




I took the pics with my iPhone, so they don't really do justice to the soft vintage beauty of this shoppe. Can't wait to go back!!
And yes, I did find a little something for my swap partner! ;)