PIN SEARCH CONTEST IS NOTHING NEW

I wanted to share another fun article from "Reminisce" magazine Nov/Dec 1999

Pin Search Contest is Nothing New

(by Frances Kimball, Dexter Oregon)

In the 1930's, we were very poor, so mother did plenty of sewing to keep my four brothers and me looking decent.  We wore a lot of hand me downs and nearly all had to be remodeled.

Just about once a year, mother would gather us together and say "it's time for a needle hunting party"  You see, she had one of those big, fat tomato pincushions, and after so long all of her needles would disappear into the sawdust in the center.

We would each get five minutes at a time to try to find the lost needles.  We'd squeeze and poke and push trying to see who could find the most.

The pincushion had been our grandmother's so there was no telling how many needles were still in there from years ago that we simply couldn't get without ripping the cushion.

The most we ever found was 17, but we always knew there had to be more and hated to stop.  When we tired of looking, mother would have a big plate of warm peanut butter cookies waiting as a reward.

To this day, I have a small tomato pincushion.  Every so often when I am out of needles, I start squeezing that thing and, sure enough I find all of my lost needles except for those few elusive ones.

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I hope you enjoyed this article from one of my favorite magazines.

Do you have a tomato pincushion??

Thanks for stopping by

Michele

LOVE THE WILD ANIMALS

For those of you that follow my blog you are well aware that I have a love for wild animals and anything to do with nature (maybe I lived out in the wild in another life)...

 This is a very large turkey feather (in a glass frame) with this painting of the bear and her cubs.  I purchased this piece of art for Mr Nook several holidays ago.

It is hand painted and signed by the artist, see on the end.

This piece of artwork is truly fantastic (realizing the picture is behind glass in this photo)

 A few pillows on the bed in the master bedroom.

Our home is a log cabin looking west to the Adirondack Mountains.  

The decor in my home is Adirondack, antique, and rustic with lots of nature of course.  I love the colors that nature provides us.

 

I do actually have bears in my home.  I do not like to show them much, a lot of people are not comfortable with taxidermy items.  I will post on the bears at another time.

Do you decorate with nature inspired items?

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

SOME WINNINGS, A MATCHBOX SCENE AND A NATURE JAR

I wanted to share with you some of what I have received lately.

First I won a giveaway over at Vintage Dragonfly

I usually am not that lucky, but I guess I was this time.

I am a follower of Vintage Dragonfly so when I read that JoAnne was having a giveaway, I was so signed up.

Please do take notice of this fantastic little muslin bag with the stamping and bling.

 A small peat pot was included with delicious vintage lace and a glass doll.

The bag was filled with vintage paper ephemera, I love this stuff...

A tin filled with buttons, game pieces and more.

I LOVE to win things, don't you??

This is my Easter matchbox I received from Karla at Sketchbookmailartclub

I so love how this little pink bird sits here and the wooden bunny is adorable.

The matchbox I created you can see here

I received this nature glass canning jar from Linda at Itsy Bits and Pieces.

All of the goodies were randomly sitting in the box, much to my delight mind you.

The canning jar I sent out you can see that here.

Will you just look at this nest on the cover of this jar.  I so love nests and birds as most of you know by now.

I love the bling and the crown on the bird, so sweet.

I love all of my goodies, it fills my need of hoarding, LOL

I would of posted my goodies much sooner but we were vacationing with family in Nevada.

I hope everyone had a wonder Easter Holiday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

CUT GLASS/BLESSING PARTY

I picked these cut glass bowls up at my local auction a few weeks ago.

Early May Mr Nook and I are hosting our new granddaughters blessing party.

My plans for the decor for the blessing is; cut glass, antique glass bottles with sprigs of flowers, sterling silver large pitchers and sterling silver dishes to hold pillar candles and more flowers.  

 I am sure to throw in some vintage lace/ribbons around the antique glass bottles and other items.

 My thoughts and plans are for elegant and rustic shabby chic for our Lil O...

This is the invitation we order from Tinyprints

We have used this website for the baby shower invites.  We had the baby shower back in October, if you would like to see that post you can go here

We will be looking forward to our celebration.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

EASTER CELEBRATION PEAT POTS

Well, Easter has come and gone.  We are currently in Nevada visiting and celebrating with family.

I did not want to post these Easter peat pots earlier for I didn't want to ruin the surprise, some family members visit my blog.

My inspiration for these peat pots comes from many blogs that I favorite and visit often.

I thank all in advance for the inspiration.

 Each female for Easter dinner at my Aunt Gail's house received one of these pots.

 Using copies of vintage images of children and dogs from my personal collection.

 Each child has feathers as wings.

 I used brown basket filler and moss in the pot.

I glued three eggs each to the moss.

 I used pastel colored picks and silk flowers.

I also included shredded vintage sheet music and dictionary pages.

 I so enjoyed putting these little gems together for my family.

I think they are adorable.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday celebration.

I am thinking of Halloween and peat pots??

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

Thanks for stopping by.

HAPPY EASTER

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

EASTER PANORAMIC BOX

I have created my first ever panoramic Easter box.

JoAnne over at Vintage Dragonfly is hosting this swap.

We are to use a large size matchbox, decorate the outside and create a panoramic Spring/Easter inside.

Well, I do love to create things inside a matchbox as you do know.

 Using an image of small children standing next to an antique truck as my inspiration I set out creating.

These children just may be waiting to get home from church to hunt for hidden Easter eggs.

 The bunny has real fur attached.

 I had a great time creating an item that made me think of spring.

 This is the finished piece all wrapped up in a vintage dinner napkin, tied up in a nice big bow of organza trims and a hand stamped tag.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Spring.

Michele

FILL AN EGG CARTON

I have two blog friends that I am sending egg cartons full of goodies to.

Cassandra over at An Artful Adventure is our host for the Easter Treats Egg Carton Swap

Both of the cartons I created were mailed wrapped in these vintage linen dinner napkins with a circle tag cut from some vintage wallpaper.

 Both of my friends requested neutral colors.

This is the top of one of the egg cartons.

 This is the second egg carton.

I used the same bird image on both.

Lots of vintage lace and trims were used to make the covers.

I painted the egg cartons with spring/pearled colors.

The tags are hand stamped.

 I will not show the goodies inside, I don't want to spoil the surprise if my friends come to visit.

Have you tried filling an egg carton with goodies and giving away as a gift?

I think it would make a nice gift for a child, the egg carton will hold the plastic eggs that could be filled with little surprises....

Just a thought.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele