Artful Thursday-Little Notebooks

Do you carry around a little notebook in your purse to jot down ideas, phone numbers or whatever strikes your fancy? I do, I can't live without one. Recently I have been carrying around a little Ed Hardy one (you know the designer with the skulls, lots of bright colors, gypsies, etc) that I bought at Walmart. Okay, not so much my style. When I was sitting in a meeting with my bishop at my church and pulled it out to write some notes, it felt a little funny, this was not ME, this little notebook did not represent who I was and for some reason in that moment , that was important. I bought a few plain ones right after that (the recycled kind), but decided to add my style sense to it. I pulled some vintage fabric, some new paper doll fabric I had purchased recently and a few other vintage embellishments. I think they are pretty cute, and much more ME! Goodbye Ed Hardy!

Happy Creating! Have a great weekend.

The blank notebooks

Artful Thursday-Birthday Crowns

I love making crowns for friends, family and I've recently started selling them and taking orders. I was thinking.....does a crown have to have points or look like something a princess should wear? I went into my craft room, and my eyes went to a stack of vintage hats that I recently purchased. I thought....let's give it a try. I chose a pink hat with feathers, a perfect base. I looked further in my room and came up with sequins, birds, vintage hat flowers, vintage buttons, old sheet music curled and some Christmas picks I had bought on clearance. I added a Birthday Queen slogan and my crown was complete. I thought it turned out pretty cute.


I was in such a "artful" mood I decided to go for a second crown. This one I took a beaded bridal veil base I had bought at a thrift store. I built up the crown with chicken wire and added sparkly embellishments. I included crocheted flowers from a vintage doily I had pulled apart, vintage buttons, (have I told you how much I love vintage buttons?) birds (have I told you how much I love birds?) and some vintage Christmas balls I aquired some time ago. I added glitter leaves around the chicken wire for more glam. I am really pleased with the results and had a lot of fun creating.

Some of my supplies

Have I told you how much I love vintage buttons?

Happy Creating!

Crowns Fit for Any Queen

Are you looking for that perfect crown for your outfit? I just finished working on these beauties. If you are looking for a fun, whimsical and unexpected gift for someone special or a special occasion, let me know. I also take special orders, or I can personalize them. I am hoping to do a craft show this Fall/Christmas season so I'll let you know when. I'll be posting pics of all the things I'm working on.

As always, I use vintage finds. This crown is sporting vintage earrings and a deco shoe clip.

This crown is fairy inspired.
This crown is Marie Antoinette inspired.

Lehi Roundup Days Boutique

One of the great things about living in a small town in Utah is that almost everyone of them has a hometown celebration. Next week is Lehi's Roundup Days. Lots of fun activities planned every night and it kicked off with the boutique this weekend. I have never done this boutique before, but because I'm not doing Swiss Days, I thought why not? I just finished tonight and thought I would post some photos. If you see anything you are interested in, just leave a comment or call me. We will be there all day tomorrow (Saturday June 20), stop by and see me! Hopefully, the weather will hold out.

On another note, BRONWYN was chosen as one of 5 finalists in her age group for "Lehi's Got Talent". We are so proud of her! She performs Monday night at Wines Park at the Community Picnic. Come listen if you are out our way.

Close up of adorable black and pink table and accessories.

I love this color! My new favorite. Lots of fun hair clips, vintage earrings, etc.

Hair clips and bobbies
Friends stopped by with their little girls and picked up some wings.
Fairies with attitude!
Shot of flower fairy wings.
Mom's amazing blankets, cute baby gifts, love the sock monkey one!
She makes adorable pillowcases. Love this one!
Cute overalls. I used vintage trim, and buttons, made the fabric flower.
Love this lamp! 6 dozen roses....
A crown for the queen. Bronwyn keeps begging me for this one!
Close up of chandelier and fairy skirts to match.
Vintage inspired cuffs. Most of the materials are vintage finds, buttons, lace, cameo, etc.
Another fun crown. Who wouldn't want to wear this?
Vintage button bracelets, flower shades with vintage lamps, hair clips...
SEE ANYTHING YOU LIKE? JUST CONTACT ME.

Show and Tell "Take 2"

I know I said I was going to post show and tell on Friday, but sometimes the days get away from you. I'm sure a lot of people can relate. I love boutique clothes, but I don't love the price tag, so I'm always trying to figure out how to create a unique look for my girls. I love fabric (and I will confess sometimes I will just buy 1/2 yard of fabric that catches my eye....and stash it for a rainy day. Most of the time I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I bought this fabric at Broadbents in Lehi (I think one of the best fabric stores in the area.) and knew I wanted to use it for something for the dotters. I was reading the Farm Chicks blog and saw this cute idea. Off to Walmart for some inexpensive tanks and skirts (tanks-$3, skirts-$4). I used wonderunder to fuse the fabric onto the clothes. I then outlined the patch with a zig-zag stitch. I bought some cute ric rac and pom poms for the skirt. I didn't have a skirt for 1dotter, so I made this fun headband. I sewed a strip of fabric and put together this white flower. The middle is a very cool red vintage button. I think the outfits came out cute and the dotters really love them.


Many, many years ago (when I lived back east) I used to sell really cool vintage clothing. I have always loved the hunt for that special treasure or cool vintage sweater. I would go to thrift stores often, and I always found great stuff. Fast forward some years (I won't tell you how many.) and I still love to go to thrift stores. Unfortunately I don't have as much time as I like and we live in a very vintage savvy time right now. So cool vintage stuff in thrift stores is hard to come by these days. I mostly go to DI now and once in a while I hit the jackpot. This past week, was a good week and I thought I would share some of my finds. You can still find some cool stuff there. Happy hunting!

I found this bag of trims and lace for $4 !!! Lots of cool vintage stuff in there. I can't wait to use it!

Close up of vintage trims and lace, I love the brown flower ribbon! I think it would look cute on jeans.

I picked up this cute crocheted beanie ($1) the knitted bag ($1) and 2 bridal crowns ($10 each)
I'm post the finished products of what I have in mind for this stuff!

How funky! I couldn't resist the fabric top hat! I'm going to redo it. ($1) I also found this cool hat cloche form. ($1)

My Little Artists

I love that quiet time when I can pull out supplies, treasures, etc and create something new and beautiful. Most of the time this happens in the quiet hours of the night when kids have been tucked in for the night. The girls however, always seem to be aware of the projects I am working on and beg on a weekly basis to do something too. Now, I have to be honest and admit after working a full day, running a household, doing homework.......you get my meaning..... the last thing I want to do is make "crafts" with my kids. Now understand, I have a room in our house full of projects and supplies that they try and enter on a daily basis. I could put them off no longer and we hunkered down Sunday afternoon to CREATE. I went in my room to find something. I had bought these little chipboard flower books really cheap and I also pulled stickers, ribbon and misc. paper to bring to the crafting table. They were so excited and went and found some pictures to use. I made them do all the work, Brooklyn traced, cut and glued everything. Bronwyn being more meticulous took her time to make sure the flowers were cut to perfection. We spent all afternoon working on the project. It was so nice being able to spend time this way with them. They love to create, just like I do and I realized I needed to allow them the resources and time to work on projects to allow their creativity to flow.It was the kick in the butt I needed and I have vowed to spend more time"creating" together. I leave you with the very wise words of Pablo Picasso:

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.