CENTER PIECE

I've been getting the porch organized for the summer.

  I decided to bring into the house this bird cage I have had for sometime now.

I washed up the cage and the greenery and gathered a few more items from around the house.

What better way to decorate than to shop your own house for items, I love this!

 I am quite happy with my centerpiece for the summer.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Michele

LINENS, LACE AND TRIMS

Who doesn't love linens, lace and trims?

I am not quite sure why I love these things so much along with the fact that I think I may be slowly becoming a hoarder of sorts.

I thought I would share with you a sampling of my linens, lace and trims.

A beautiful tablecloth I found at a yard sale somewhere in my travels.

This is a basket with my appliques, I like to keep things separated some what.

I also have a Vintage Lines and Lace Pinterest board if you would be interested in looking at some fantastic linens and lace I found.

This basket is for doilies and such that I have cut up.

Here is a tote full of this flat lace.  A few years ago I purchased a box lot of this lace trim from a woman that had been into some sort of crafting for years.  There has to be miles and miles of this stuff.  If anyone would like to purchase some of this I could send you samples and we could take it from there, leave me a comment here.

Taking up a little bit of room in this tote is also a bunch of my dyed/altered organza bags, all ready to go to my swap partners as a little bit of extra goodies.

A random pile of lines and such.

My basket full of linens, table cloths and doilies.  I love collecting these things to not only work with but I can't seem to help myself when I go to yard sales or rummage sales,  I love to rummage around in the linens.

Yard and rummage sale season has begun, I am excited to see what I will find this year.

This large basket is full of scraps of all kinds.

I never throw out the smallest of pieces, it all ends up in this basket.

I really should make more shabby rolls, these scraps are perfect for that.

You can see the idea of my shabby rolls here

Do you keep every single scrap, too??

I hope you enjoyed my linens and lace Pinterest board.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Michele

NEW PURCHASES

I purchased a few things at Michael's for a project, alter a small bird cage.

I do love, love to shop the rows of small bins where random items are between $2 and $5.

This little bird (got two) I purchased a couple of weeks ago, so cute!

I was running low on pearl Martha Stewart paints, I love these.

I  picked up packs of small paper flowers, I paint/glitter a bunch these so I have flowers ready to go when working on a project.  I usually make a point of picking up a few packages whenever I go to the store, I've got a pretty good supply going.

Packages are $2 for 12, not a bad deal...

Here is the little bird cage I used.

You can see the altered bird cage here, I think it came out soooo good.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Michele

BIRD CAGES

This might just be the cutest darn thing I have ever altered!

This bird cage is for a swap over at the MAMA group.

Instructions are to altered a small bird cage in a Spring theme, making it pretty of course.

The cage measures a little bit over 5", I got this at Michael's for 3 bucks.

The little white glass bird I got at Michael's a few weeks back, just because they were on sale and cute as anything.

The bird sits on top of two small vine wreaths wrapped in pink eyelash yarn, just fitting to make a pink bird nest don't you think?

I used a piece of doily to wrap around the bottom of the cage.  The purple flower type crocheted things were also a part of another doily.

The rest of the items I had in my stash.

I just love how this little cage turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Michele

FABRIC COLLAGE, SPRING TIME

I don't usually do much in the way of fabric collage.

I do, do a lot with fabric, doilies and such but I usual do this on a base of paper or hard book cover and not fabric alone.

This is a fabric collage for a swap at Mixed Media Artist Guild (Altered Paper Place).

My partner is Jessica, I hope she will like it.

The swap guidelines were at least an 8 1/2" x 11" size.

I got to use a piece of a vintage tablecloth my friend Besty gave to me, I love the look and feel of this material.

I really enjoyed making this, I like how it turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Michele

I LOVE BLING

Here are three awesome ATC'S I received from three great gals from a swap over at Art Joy Stuff

The theme of the swap was "Pink, Black & Bling" great combination if you want to ask me.

This ATC is from Amy at flicker

This one is from Sherry at Createology

This ATC is from Manuela from Vintagesavonette

This tag is from our hostess Kimberly with a yoyo stick pin.  I will definitely be putting this on one of my hats.

Thanks to all that played along.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

A GREETING CARD, TAG AND GOODIES MAKES A LITTLE BIRDS NEST

These goodies are for a swap over at Blissful Art Group.

The requirements are; a handmade greeting card, a tag or ATC and a small amount of goodies all makes a "birds nest"

This is the greeting card.

Notice the little girl in the pretty spring dress writing a letter perhaps.

The tag with blue ribbon, a piece of doily and some burlap, some of my favorite crafty items to use.

The little package of goodies.

Here is the bird nest package I received from my swap partner, Anna

I love the colors on this tag and specially the little piece of fiber in his beak and the crown of course.

This card is hand painted and is so wonderful.

A little bit of spring goodies to create with.

Thanks so much for the fun swap Anna.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Michele

LOVE A HAT

Do you wear hats?

I love hats and would like to think that I could wear the most amazing hats to the places I go.

However, that would not go over very well around my neighborhood.  If I perhaps wore the hats I would like to wear, I am pretty sure I would be looked at as if I have five heads.

I do have a few vintage hats in my studio and love to wear them around the house every now and again, and swear I am going to wear one of them, one of these days.

I thought you may like to see my Hats, Hat Boxes and Hat Pins Pinterest Board.

(picture source on board)

I guess I did wear Easter hats when I was a small child when my Aunt Ida brought me to her church on Easter Sunday.

For a few years she knitted me a skirt, a sweater or a vest and took me to the department store to purchase a blouse, white gloves, a little purse and an amazing little hat.

Maybe this is why I enjoy the hats for I find them to be a symbol of dressing up as a child at Easter.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

BEAUTIFUL SPRING BIRDS FOUND IN MY MAILBOX

A bit ago I joined in on a spring bird atc swap over at the MAMA group.

Here are the three atc's I received.

This one is from Terri, love it!!

This one is from Kris, love the charm on this one.

And this one is from Wendy, love, love!

Thanks to all the gals who played along.

You can see the atc's I created for the swap here

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Michele