I (heart) NY

It is always a joy to visit one of my most favorite cities in the world. It is a city that has a pulse like no other. There are many, many, things I love and did but that might take a few posts. For now I will just showcase one of the best stores in NYC, and one that you have probably seen featured a lot before on blogs and magazines, the one and only TINSEL TRADING COMPANY. This is store that has all things beautiful and vintage and I'm talking about things I love, old flower millinery, old trims and lace, old ribbon, wonderful stuff like that. The best thing is this is all new stock. This is stuff that has been literally pulled from boxes, never used before. They had so many wonderful things and needless to say I will not tell you how much I spent. But I will feature some of the different projects I make with my loot.

I actually had a chance to run into someone I really admire. When I went in the store was quite empty and I saw two other women browsing around. One looked very familiar and it was none other than JO PACKHAM of Where Women Create Magazine. It is a Somerset publication and one of my all time favorite magazines. I chatted with her for a few minutes. She was really lovely and so delightful.

 My 3 Seniors graduating in April, I will miss them!

So from this blog post so far you probably think this was a glamorous shopping trip. That really is not the case. I actually took my 3 senior stage management students and we had a chance to meet NY professionals and see some Broadway theatre.




Yes, we did see the famed Spiderman heard about in recent news broadcasts. Many people have asked how it was:
My reply: I have no idea what it is about, I could not name one song, but the SET IS AMAZING! I never seen a set so intricate and complex. They have 8 stage managers and 10 stunt Spidermans! Yeah but don't ask me the story, I don't really remember it!


I could go on and on about NYC but I will not bore you. I think I might post about my Anthropolgie out of body experience. I do love that store, but alas that is for another day.

I wanted to post my OHOW winners:

#93 Lori Diane won the crown
#22 Kristin Dudish won the wreath
#169 Sunshine Shelle won the necklace (all the way from Australia)

Happy Creating!

Off to NYC

I'm taking my students to New York tomorrow morning. I'm excited to be back in the city after a few years. After meeting with some old New York friends as they talk to my students about NY theatre I hope to be able to get some shopping in. I will bring back some pics of my favorite shops. In the meantime, here are some shots of things I'm hoping to buy at one of my favorite stores. Urban Renewal in St. George Utah. It is the ultimate consignment shop with great prices. I highly recommend it.

 I also plan to post about my Valentine Party. It was so fun to be with my good friends and celebrate the holiday of love. We did a lot of things I love. If you can't wait for my post go visit my good friends at their blogs here:


My friend Paula's post is here.

My friend Sarah's post is here.

Have a great holiday weekend and I will see you on Monday. I will try and announce my OWOH winner on February 17, but I might not be able to get to you until February 21. Goodbye Utah, Hello NYC.

Things

If you are visiting from OWOH, HELLO and go here for the post.

I have people ask me how to purchase my crowns, especially because I do not have an ETSY store. Don't get me wrong, I love ETSY and I am a very good customer. I just don't have the time to put into a store right now. I take orders for crowns, for all occasions. I thought I would show you this cute Valentine Queen crown.  If someone you know would love a crown, you can contact me at 3dotters@gmail.com. This crown is for sale, so if you know someone who can't live without it, drop me a line.

 I fell in love with these valentine cupcake fairies and these are on the top of the crown.

 ***Note of caution, those of you coming to the Valentine party, Do not peek below!!***

If you can't tell already I am very excited for my Valentine party. I'm going to show you a couple of sneak peeks for what I have in store for my friends. I wish you could all come.I love these sundae's, I made one for each of my friends. I got the idea from the wonderful blog Kara's Party Ideas. There will be lot's of fun red, white and pink candy!

 I got a really fun text from a friend today. His sister had been wanting a junk necklace and he decided to buy one for her 40th birthday. This was in October. He gave the necklace to her today and texted me the following: "When I presented it to her today she bawled like a baby when she opened it. Thought you would be interested to hear that you can now add "Caution: May cause weeping" to your wares."

Thanks Mike that made my day!! Below is a junk necklace (long since sold) for those of you wondering what they are.

Have a great week and look for pictures of the Valentine Party. Happy creating!

One World One Heart 2011

Hello and welcome to my blog if this is your first time.  To my friends who visit often, I love you guys! So my name is Jennifer and I do many things in my life. First I am the mother of these three gorgeous girls. They are the dotters in my blog name. My catch phrase "musings of our creative life together" truly indicates what this blog is about for me. While not every post features them, they are integral to my creative process and they are all little budding artists and creative beings in their own right.  A lot of things I create and eventually end up selling is usually because of one of these darlings below in the picture.

 This is my awesome husband, the father of the daughters and my partner in every way. He is also an amazingly creative guy. He is a set designer and technical director. He also is a puppeteer.

I work as a professional stage manager and have been for the past 20 years. I have traveled all over the world and worked on many shows. I have worked with amazing people. Now that I have the dotters, I took a full time job at a wonderful university and I  teach students what I have learned working in professional theatre. I still freelance as a professional stage manager too.  Currently, I have 3 projects in the works;  a new full length Peter Pan ballet, I am directing a production of Annie, and I am an associate producer on a new musical that is being done for the first time Christmas of 2011.  

 I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all things vintage and interesting. I am a lifelong collector. I use a lot of my finds in crafts that I make...more on that below. I love old colorful dishes as you can see from my shelves in the kitchen. And yes, I do use a lot of these dishes. I also have a booth at an antiques mall. A good day for me is a few estate sales with a good thrift store thrown in and lunch with my antiquing buds. I am thrilled that my oldest dotter loves those things too. She has been tagging along quite a bit lately.

 

I live in Utah, which is a gorgeous state. I love the outdoors and I love waking up to our beautiful mountains. Right now we are freezing our butts off, but I still love it here. I found some new friends during the the last OWOH event and hope to find a few more. Okay, enough about me, So on to my giveaways......

Okay, so I love to craft and create, I also love vintage, estate sales, thrift stores, and I try to combine my two passions. I sell my wares at shows, a few boutiques in town and word of mouth. Alas, I do not have an etsy store. :) This is what I have made and sold lately. These vintage inspired yarn wreaths. They are so cute, and I incorporate all things that I love, especially birds. This wreath features lots of vintage flair with a sweet message, "our nest" It has 3 birds in honor of my 3 dotters. The wreath is white, pink and green, colors I love.

I also make crowns, which I sell quite a few of. This is an example of a birthday crown I have made. This will not be the one I send you (it is sold) but I will email you and make a custom one. Again, they are one of a kind and vintage inspired.

 I also make what I call "junk necklaces" and some lucky winner will receive their very own. This is a picture from a show I did this summer. You can also see some more examples of my crowns.

 Okay, so that is three different prizes my friends, so I will have 3 different winners. As the rules state you will have until February 16 to make a comment and I will then pick 3 winners randomly on February 17.


Thanks for stopping by, I hope to take a peek at your blogs as well.

XOXOJennifer

Estate and Thrift Love

So, this Friday I got to do one of my favorite things....checking out some estate sales and thrift stores. Now those of you who know me are probably thinking what is so special about that? Well, Bronwyn begged me to go and I gave in, school was skipped and Bronwyn went to her first estate sale. She was beyond excited and had a great time.


We were joined by my friend Paula who is an awesome antiques dealer.

***Paula, Bronwyn and Me

So Paula, Bronwyn and I piled into the van for the trip to Salt Lake. We ran into our other friend Cathie (who went to high school with Madonna, I just had to tell you that) who is also an wonderful antique dealer. Cathie took us to a Salvation Army thrift store in SLC we had never been to. Found lots of great stuff. At the end of the day and a Cafe Rio lunch, Bronwyn proclaimed that it was "the best day of her life!" Ohhh.....she is truly my girl!!!



So I'm going to share some fun finds:

***Found lots of great vintage jewelry for my junk necklaces, and some cool vintage glass doorknobs from the 30's.

So I'm getting ready for my Valentine's Party and I always like to have some fun giveaways for my friends, I made this cute Valentine wreath this week. Look at my previous post to see the one I made for my house.

Bronwyn

I had the chance to take a photography class right before Christmas. I'd like to say I am now a brilliant photographer....... yeah well I would like to say that.
Right before Christmas my teacher took us to Wadley Farms in Lindon for a photo shoot. I dragged Bronwyn along to model for me. It was fun just to be together and I just snapped and snapped with my teacher giving me pointers here and there. Here are some of my favorites, and I love them becasue they are just pure Bronwyn.


I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful and beautiful dotter in my life!

If you want to take a wonderful photography course with a great teacher I recommend:
A Photo School the owner and teacher is Jed Colledge.

Looking Ahead.....Also loving the red and pink.

One of my goals this year is blog just a bit more, my last entry was 2 weeks ago so I need to get serious about this goal. I'm really shooting for once a week, so let's see what happens. I was going to write my list of top ten creative adventures of last year, but I have decided it's a new year, I need to look ahead, not back. I'm going to share a few ideas we have brewing for this year that I am excited about. But first, I am so in the Valentine Day mood. I love to decorate and I was so excited to put together a sweet valentine vignette in my house to get us in the mood for love and I also just plain love the colors pink and red. Those colors just make me happy. I am also in the throes of planning my second annual Valentine Party and Cookie Exchange. The ideas are flowing!!

I made this wreath with sweet birds and vintage embellishments. I bought the yarn at DI for $1 and wrapped a straw wreath. Perfect for Valentine's don't you think? I love layering things and love the look of wreaths on top of mirrors.
I love Vintage Valentines and try and collect some every year. They are so sweet.
I bought this white urn at one of my favorite stores, Second Hand Chic in Salt Lake. I love it and can make it fit with any decor. I used it for Christmas and it is perfect here for Valentines. I just put in a vintage valentine, a pink glitter heart and a vintage silk rose. I also left the gold mercury beads from Christmas. They are just so pretty.
I always love decorating with candy and filling them with the colors of the season always add a bold statement. I made the little pedestal stand with red gumballs on it. I purchased an old milk glass plate and found the silver candle holder at DI. With a little E6000 I made this cute platter.
This is my kitchen windowsill. I made the picture holder out of a vintage oil can, and bits of vintage lace, jewelry and buttons. A perfect place vintage romantic french postcards. I love the huge sucker and have one made for all 3 dotters for Valentines.

Do you decorate for the holidays? What do you do for Valentines Day?