VINTAGE CANNING JAR AND STASH

I have filled a vintage glass canning jar chock full of stash.

Michele at askmichelesomethingspecial  is our host for this swap.

I will be sending to my swap friend this jar in the sack.

 The peach colored bag I purchased a few years ago at a yard sale, actually there were two of them, the other one is green.

 I had such a great time searching my space for goodies to fill the jar.

This jar is one of my favorites. I do love to use the "good stuff" when I am creating something for a swap.

I hope my swap partner likes her stuffed jar.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

PRETTY ITEMS

Some people really do get what I love to do.

My friend Betsy and her husbands family have been busy cleaning out a family home.

Betsy knows I love to use pretty doilies, linens, trims and such in the items I create.

Here is only a few of the items she gave to me the other day.

 Betsy gives me a lot of Holiday and every day greeting cards for I use these as well.

Once in awhile there will be a few vintage ones in the pile, some I really do hate to part with for I love just looking at them time and time again (I have a large dresser drawer full and love to sit quietly and admire them all, makes me happy)

Some linens and special materials are hard to part with as well.  One of these hankies has her mother-in-laws name tag sewed right into the hankie.  I have not ever seen this before, have you?

I so love the vivid colors of vintage greeting cards, it is as if the ink would never fade.

Greeting cards are great for making tags for just about anything.  They are also great for using in collage projects and much more.

Do you collect vintage greeting cards, what do you create with them?

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

LARGE NEST FOR THE SPORTSMAN

I have redone my large nest with a sportsman type of theme this time.

My large nest is made with two large vine wreaths stacked on top of each other and filled with different types of moss.

I usually have this nest all styled up for the different holidays and the seasons. 

You can see some of those posts here and here

 Do you notice the wooden weight lifting bells, these belong to Mr Nooks.

A night crawler holder for the fisherman.

 A very old brass oil can, and two of my dad's hunting knives.

I so love my nest.  I look forward to mixing it up when the seasons change and the holidays come.

Do you have a large nest that you play with?

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

WHAT IS ON YOUR WORK TABLE

Oh my gosh, would you look at this mess!!!

I can't even show you the floor I am so embarrassed.

Well, I've been busy creating as you can see.

 I've been busy making several Easter/Spring creations for some blog friends, more on this later.

 Mr Nook and I are traveling to Nevada to visit family and will be there over Easter holiday.

I have created some peat pots for the female relatives, more on that later on.

I love these little eggs, I think I purchased them at Michael's, $1 per pack.

I have also come up with a way to use up all the tiny pieces of fabric, trims and such that I refuse to throw away, more on this when I have a few finished to show you.

 I really do make a mess once I get going....

What have you been creating lately?

 Do you make a mess like I do or are you a neat and tidy kind of person when you are creating.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

I PLAYED!!

A blog friend of mine; Gerri from It's All Treasure, posted one day and said "Do you want to play"

well this intrigued me to say the least.

Gerri offered to send ten of us a package full of goodies (see at end of post) and asked us to play making what ever we wanted with 4-5 of the items she was sending along.  We were asked to email her a picture and she will post what we all created.

I am always up to a challenge so I emailed her right away.

A few days later the package arrived as promised.

 I headed to our local auction house yesterday with my package full of goodies from Gerri, my scissors, glue, double sided tape and some goodies of my own to create a cover of a journal.  

 I used a piece of linen that was given to me by my friend Betsy, it was her mother in law's and also the butterfly.

 I tied ribbon and trims in the binding rings.

The background is an interesting piece of paper that was machine sewed with silver thread, the camera doesn't pick this up very well.

Notice the image of the little girl holding her journal or perhaps her diary...

This is the package of goodies Gerri sent.

Thanks Gerri for the goodies and the challenge.

Well, I played and had a great time making my journal not to talk about my visit to the auction.

I purchased some small crystal bowls and some cut glass larger bowls for my granddaughters blessing party in early May.  My thoughts for the party is crystal, sterling silver, and antique bottles to start.  More on this at a later date.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

CAN YOU TELL

I have a ton of magazines called Reminisce "The magazine that brings back the good times"

I do love these, most are dated 1995-1997 but have stories in them and photographs that go back much further.

I posted about an article on buttons a few posts back, you can see that post here

I found this large picture and thought I would share.

Look at some of these children's faces, I am still chuckling.

 I do admire the clothes.

 You can tell who the really confident ones are by the way they sit.

 You can tell which ones are happy children, and the serious ones...

I can see some scared children in the photo.

I love this photograph.  I'm thinking of framing it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

PRECIOUS FACE...

Look at this face!

Does this make you smile just a little bit?

This camel is located not to far from my home.

I could not believe it when I spotted him while driving by.

What the heck, a camel living in New England, is this possible, guess so.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

BUTTON PROJECTS REALLY HAVE NOT CHANGED MUCH

Buttons used in projects have really not

 changed that much.

I wanted to share with all of you a story (in part) from a magazine called "The Good Ole Days", written by Kate Hartnell Stobbe.

I found it interesting that projects and activities using buttons have not changed all that much in the last 81 years (at least according to this article)

Grandma Vaughn always said "I never saw a button I didn't like, couldn't use or wouldn't save."

Stringing various sizes and colors of buttons on heavy thread for necklaces and bracelets was a delight of my preteen years.

Grandmother's handmade quilts for my sister and me were decorated with buttons or our current favorite colors.  

Gloves and mittens, so often lost or misplaced were readily recognized with large, ornamental buttons sewn on the cuffs.

Her curtains were hung evenly with buttons sewn on each side of the hem, those weights helped the curtains fall into place when we kids lifted the curtains to look outside as children are prone to do.

Many soft pillows were decorated with buttons.  

One holiday season, she cut a Christmas tree from green felt and decorated it with tiny glass buttons that picked up various colors in the light.

Grandmother customized each frame by gluing on tiny pearls and small buttons in the shapes of flowers and leaves for Christmas 1931.

I hope you enjoyed the highlights of the article as much as I did.

What do you create with your buttons?

Are you the lucky owner of your Grandmother's button collection?

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

A FEW VINTAGE ADDITIONS TO MY HOME

You never know what you may find when you go searching in places you have not been in a long time.

I found this fantastic vintage wood tray in the cupboards underneath our bar.  Guess we don't sit at the bar much....

I was tickled to find it there, I had forgotten about it of course.

(My forgetfulness is due to being a grandparent now, at least this is what I am telling people.)

I do believe this is a sticker/transfer of some kind.
The camera gets the glare so it is sort of light, sorry.

I am using this on our large ottoman.

I have discovered a new use for one of my ball jars,

 everyone knows I love ball/canning jars.

This one is a big one, 10 inches tall.

I am storing my coffee beans in here, I do love the look and color of coffee beans.

These are not new to my home but not sure if I have blogged about them before.

My sterling silver measuring spoons I purchased in New York City.

Here is a vintage ember glass bottle with a small string of white lights inside.

This is beautiful lit up at night.

A few new items added makes a room feel refreshed.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

WINNER OF MY 300TH POST GIVEAWAY

WINNER OF MY 300TH POST GIVEAWAY...

Thank you all for stopping by and leaving me a comment on my 300th blog post.

I do love hearing from all of  you and sure do appreciate the warm comments and support you show me on my blog and for my work.

The crow and the homemade trims are ready to go to the lucky winner;

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: 3
The generator picked number 3 which belongs to ANDREA from Town and Prairie.  I would encourage you to go on over to her blog for a visit.  It is a great place!  I am a follower there.  The max number of the generator was 11, it wants to go back to 100 for some reason.  Although I would of like to of had 100 people sign up, that was not the case.  (I do not know how to get this on here any other way than to copy and paste).CONGRATS!! Andrea.  Thanks again everyone.Michele

OUR OWN WINTER WONDERLAND AND A GIVEAWAY REMINDER

A REMINDER; MY 300TH POST GIVEAWAY IS NOW TWO POSTS DOWN FROM THIS ONE.  I WILL BE DRAWING THE WINNER ON SUNDAY.

Mr Nook and I are in our own winter wonderland once again.

Just when we think spring may be just around the corner, not so fast mother nature states...

Mr Nook is really looking forward to spring so he can get out and get fishing.

The trees got pretty heavy here.

Here are a few of my bird houses.  I do leave them out all year, it gives them that old, weathered and tattered look, don't you think?

 I also never know if the winter birds will make their homes in these houses.  I don't think they do but I would like to think so.

 This is my antique tractor seat.

Are you still experiencing the winter season or are you starting with your spring season?

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele