New Treasures

My mom added a few great things to her etsy shop last night, including a convex glass frame, a sterling silver spoon, and a set of decorative tin hot plates.  Head over to see what else she has in store.  She's really excited about her shop, and I'm so happy she finally has it going.  I've been wanting her to open up shop for a while now.  Since I closed my vintage etsy shops (primarily due to lack of space for anything), I'll be giving you updates to hers every now and then instead.  You might like what she has in store. I do. I always want to go shopping in her garage when I visit! It's like being at a flea market.

Thrill of the Hunt

Yesterday I went junking with  my mom while Andrew took Lois to lunch with a friend of his.  I had a great time with my mom, and we scored some amazing things for her etsy shop.  It was sooo much fun.  Our hearts were all a-flutter with the thrill of the hunt!  Here are a few of my favorite things in her shop right now.  We took a ton of pictures yesterday of her merchandise, and she'll be listing a lot of things in the next few days, including some great quilt tops and some sterling silver.  Click here to head over and see what's in store. 

Images that Soothe

I'm still sick.  Poo.  Ah, well, what's a girl to do when she's sick, besides ingest lots of Robitussin, drink lots of water, eat chicken soup, sluggishly try to entertain her daughter, rest and read?  Look at pretty pictures, of course!  I just took a peek at Etsy's Get the Look: Decor, which features Margarita Lorenzo's really cute London house.  She also has an etsy store filled with eco-friendly handmade pillows, which you can see here.  I should add "look at pretty pictures" to my cold remedy list.  It seems to help. 

 

 

Behida's Hats

This may be reason number bazillion that I love etsy: Behida's hats.  Handmade.  One of a kind.  Beautiful.

A Suitable Bag

I just saw these cute bags in the new Country Living. They're made from men's suit jackets, using the original pockets and buttons. You can see more of them here on etsy. Made by Clever Scene. Clever indeed!

Cut and Paste

I love mixed media art and collage. Seeing all the crafty things Jessie and Buddug have done with bits and pieces and odds and ends made me want to pull out the scissors and glue and get to placing and pasting. I went through a collage phase a while back and made this little one above, which shows my mom sometime in the mid-fifties in a photo booth with a friend of hers. Remember the Paper Quilt Project? Oh so many great collages! My little gal never made it to the site, which I think was supposed to be in the December section, but it was great to be a part of it. I would have liked to have that quilt myself. I have plenty of paper scraps in my craft box (the tie tie papers, what's left of them anyway, are my favorites), but I can't help but look around to see what other fun scraps are out there. I love looking for vintage paper, postcards, pictures, ads, paper bags and the like at flea markets and thrift stores, but sometimes it's just fun to buy a cute paper pack that's already sorted with a bunch of great bits. I love these paper packs, shown below, from Lovely Sweet William on etsy. Maybe collage Christmas cards are in order this year.

My Martha Daydream

If I'm ever on the Martha Stewart show making party hats with Martha (yeah right, I know, but it's my current daydream while I'm not suffering from party hat making fatigue), I'd like to wear this cute shirt and these shoes. Too matchy-matchy? Too party hat or clown-ish? Maybe I should order them and keep them just in case. Like Jim Carrey, who wrote himself a check for 10 million dollars dated for 1995 and then received 10 million for a film in 1995, maybe they will bring me Martha luck. Andrew thinks I need a new name for "party hats"--they do sound corny, don't they? Maybe "party hat" in French would sound nice. What would that be? Chapeau de fête, I think. Much better.

Pin Tea

I sold my first dress and party hat set this week (yay!) and celebrated by buying myself the most adorable pincushion from Sew That's It on etsy. Mine is the one pictured just below this paragraph. I love it! Who needs to take a tea break when you have this delightful cup sitting next to you while you sew? I've also been poking around KT's blog, where I've been drooling over some things like her great metal baker's rack. I finished a few more hat and dress sets, which I'll be listing in the next few days--keeping myself busy so there's no thrifting temptation! I'm getting over a cold, so it's been slow going. Time for some real tea and then bedtime for me.

What Would Fraulein Maria Do?

I've been hunting around for some cute vintage fabric on etsy and ebay for party hats and dresses. I was thinking about the barkcloth that I like so much that my mom gave me, which were curtain panels in a previous life. So I thought I'd search for curtain panels, and I found so many great prints, like this carnival print above that I made into a dress and hat set that's now in my etsy party hat shop. The print is so cute, and I love the orange and brown colors. It took me 2 days to finish this set, and I'm glad it's done. Lois is crawling now and she's all over the place, so it takes me forever to do these things if she's awake!


Here are a few other panels I found on etsy. Of course my top favorite of these is the bright floral print, below from shop at moxie, which look so much like the ones I have in Lois' room.

These are really great too. The first one from here and the second here.

Tea Dress

If I ever do get around to having a tea party, I'd like to wear one of these dresses from sohomode on etsy. I love the vintage fabrics and the flattering 50s cut of the dresses. Aren't they so pretty? And for Lois, this, from her sister site, sohokids.

First Mother's Day

The days are getting away from me lately. On Wednesday I went online to order both our moms flowers, and when I saw the shipping charge (express rates to be there by Sunday), I realized how behind I was in doing anything for Mother's Day for them. I haven't even sent cards yet! Our moms really won't mind, though, and we'll see them next week anyway. I was also planning on doing some fun Mother's Day blog posts with gift ideas, but it just hasn't happened. I know what I'd like for my first Mother's day, even if I'll be a little late getting it. I saw these adorable silhouette necklaces from Lucky Me Beads before I was pregnant and knew I'd want one one day if we ended up with a little bundle. It took a while to get a good picture of Lois' profile, but we finally got one that I think will work. I love silhouettes. My grandma has a gold charm bracelet with each charm being one of her 4 kid's silhouettes with their names engraved on the backsides. It's so cute and such a nice way to capture the memory of your little bundle's chubby face. Here are a few more silhouette ideas from etsy sellers that I have my eye on. I actually bought a set of the cowboy cards for my nephew, Cash, for his birthday. So cute.

Couples above from Blue Clara.

Custom family silhouette pillow from Le Papier Studio.

One of the most interesting silhouette ideas I've seen--a custom leaf silhouette from Jenny Lee Fowler.

Cute custom cards for the little ones from By Cheryl Images.

Tea Time Swiss Style

One of my favorite new etsy shops that I stumbled upon recently is Swiss Fizz. I've been wanting to have a tea party sometime soon, so I've been poking around looking at cute tea pots and whatnot. She has so many great thing in her shop, but here are a few that I especially like as I dream of tea time with blueberry scones, clotted cream and vanilla rooibos tea. Wouldn't all these gold, peachy and blue colors look great with that spread? Who wants to come over?!

Vintage Jane

I'm always on the lookout for fun vintage things for Lois' room even though I can't really fit anything else in there. My favorite things I've found are probably the cute wooden pull toy I got at the Alemany Flea Market a while back and all of her vintage books. It's so hard to pick one favorite book, but I love the colors and covers of The Mitten and the Make It Book. I was hopping around on etsy looking at cute vintage kid's stuff (as if I could fit one more thing in that room, especially with all my etsy stuff taking over every inch of space in there). If I did have room, though, I'd want to fill it with treasures from Vintage Jane's shop. I love this little shop! Here are just a few things from Vintage Jane. I might be able to make room for one of those cute little girl head pillows.

Room For Everyone

My sister had baby #3 last week on April 2nd. Little baby Knox! He was 4 weeks early but doing great. Since he's the third, she still has plenty of baby stuff. So for her gift, I bought her a Whole Foods gift card so she and her husband could stock up on yummy prepared foods. When we first brought Lois home, the last thing we wanted to do for at least two weeks was cook, and it was so nice that so many of our friends brought us food. I'm not there to bring them food, so I thought a Whole Foods gift card was the next best thing. I also got her this cute print called "Room for Everyone" from Cathy Nichols on etsy. I saw it soon after my sister first found out she was pregnant. Knox was a "surprise" and she didn't know how they would fit one more person, though little, in their small 3 bedroom house. Their house is so cute and really nice, but it is small. I thought this print would be perfect for the boy's room (Cash and Wyatt's bedroom). It doesn't take up much space, and the sentiment is perfect. The whole family is there in the tree. I think she will love it!

etsy fix!

I got my etsy fix last night, just browsing all my favorite shops. We're having a great time here, but with all this stuff I'm amassing to sell in my etsy shop, I'm looking forward to getting back to it when I get home. I'm also looking forward to going treasure hunting at estate sales with my friend Caroline who is scoring a lot of great vintage finds. Just check out all the great things in her etsy shop, like this Danish modern cook pot above! Surrounded by all this cheese and chocolate, I can't help but picture some fun fondu dipping in this pot's future, or hot chocolate--those little spouts on either side are perfect for hot chocolate pouring. The lucky owner of this pot might want to pick up those great Vera napkins to make the experience complete. Now that I have my etsy fix, I can get back to Swiss sightseeing.

From the City of Love

Paris print from isphotography.