Retro Kitchen Fun...and Spring Break!

Good afternoon, my friends!

Hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start--don't you just love Fridays?!  I'm just about to pick up my girls from school, and I love how happy they are on Friday afternoons--like they have all the time in the world...to just relax and have fun with the family....and we will be doing just that!

Early tomorrow morning, we leave for a trip to visit our oldest daughter, Chelsea, who's a sophomore in college, and my parents--we're so excited!  The girls have been so looking forward to this!  So tonight, we will finish madly packing and cleaning up the house...and TRY to get some sleep!

Just a couple of things to share with you today...first off, I FINALLY finished my swaps for The Retro Kitchen Swap, hosted by the wonderful Elizabeth of Creative Breathing--if you haven't ever been to visit, please do!  You will quickly fall in love with everything she does--her amazingly charming creations and her stories will cast a spell on you, I promise! 

Here's a peek at my tag, sent off this morning...we were each to make our tags in the shape of something you'd find in a retro kitchen--I chose salt & pepper shakers--which made me later  question my sanity, as I had to make double of everything!  But, here it is...

I had this adorable vintage clock image forever, and had never done anything with it--this seemed like the perfect "time" to use it! 

I used my favorite vintage font, "Apricot",  for all the wording, including the recipe for our favorite cookies, attached to the back of the tag...something we were all to include...perfect for a Kitchen Swap, right?!

I really can't wait to see all of them together!  Thank-you, Elizabeth for organizing this swap--it's been such a lot of fun!

Next, a little card--just for fun--using a favorite Crafty Secrets' image along with some fun stuff from a new-to-me company called Raspberry Road--lots of wonderful digital vintage papers, etc.  I'm having lots of fun incorporating some of them with my Crafty Secrets' products.  Here it is:

This image is from Crafty Secrets' "Domestic Goddess" Creative Scraps--one of my favorite sheets!  Okay...look at the wonderful green vintage buttons--paper!  One of Raspberry Road's "elements" going along with this "Flour Sack" set.  And the wonderful green/blue flower print is one of the Raspberry Road paper downloads--so pretty!

The "frame" backing the image is a crocheted pot holder from the same elements set for "Flour Sack"--so cool!  Lots of silver glitter, lace, ribbon, and that's about it!

Well, that's all for me today...I won't be here until just after Easter...we'll have so much fun with our family, but I definitely get blogging withdrawals when I'm away!  I'll be on the hunt for some fabulous trims/ribbons/ buttons,ideas,  etc. to use when I get home.  Till then, have the happiest of Easter weeks and enjoy every moment!

Mind Your Peas & Q's...and Dreams of Roses...

"Peas and beans do well in the company of carrots, leeks and turnips, neither of them thrive in the proximity of onions, garlic or gladioli."  --The Country Diary of Garden Lore--

Good evening, everyone!

Hope your day has been wonderful...mine's been full of everything, and not enough of nothing....does that make sense? 

I have a couple of things to share with you tonight...I definitely have spring on my mind today!  I worked at the Park again this morning...took a delightful 4th grade class on a hike and taught them all about the Ohlone Indians who lived here  for so many hundreds of years before we came here...a good morning!

Okay...my first card came about just because I've been feeling the need to get out in the garden.  My daughter's been craving a teepee full of sugar snap peas, and I've been in love with this adorable Crafty Secrets' image for ages...so this card emerged today...

...the image comes from Crafty Secrets' "Garden" Creative Scraps--isn't it fun?!  I came up with the saying myself...I've got a terribly corny sense of humor, so there you go!

I had fun "dyeing" the white pom-pom trim with Olive and Garden Fairy Glimmer Mist, added some lace and ribbon, Martha Stewart's "White Gold" fine glitter, some beautiful paper from K & Co., and that's about it!

Silly peas!

I love turning to this book each spring--one of my very favorites--to re-learn old gardening traditions and get tips and ideas...

This book is meant for the English gardener, but as I love England and it's beautiful gardens, I love this book, and take what information I can for me and my garden...It's filled with ancient garden lore, superstitions, traditions, practical information, and gorgeous images...a book to treasure.

Here's what they say about peas...

"There are several superstitions attached to the shelling of peas.  While it is considered good luck to find a pod containing a single pea, the luckiest pod of all is one containing nine perfect peas.  If an unmarried girl puts such a pod on the lintel of the outer door, the first man to cross the threshold will be her future husband."

Fun stuff!

Here's my second card...

I did this one to fit this week's Crafty Secrets' challenge over at Splitcoast--to use different textures on our card...  Hope this works!  Some beautiful lace, leaf trim, gingham ribbon, more K & Co. designer paper, Moonstone German glass glitter, and some more of the tattered roses I made last month...I love these!

So much fun to make!  I covered them with a couple of shades of pink and some gold Glimmer Mist--then dabbed them with some Vintage Photo ink to grunge them up a bit. Oh, yes...and some Dazzling Diamonds for just a bit of sparkle!

This little sweetheart is also from Crafty Secrets' "Garden" Creative Scraps.  She reminded me how excited I am about my garden full of roses...

We just pruned them back about a month ago, and they're all (over 100 bushes!) covered with lush new growth...it's the most marvellous thing to watch them spring to life!  Soon they will be covered with little buds...I am so ready for the heady scent of roses to be filling the air of my garden and the beautiful, fat bouquets filling my house....ahhhhh...perfection!

Well, that's it for me tonight...off to watch a little "American Idol" with the family...I've been getting so caught up in this show for the last couple of years!  Hope you all have a wonderful night...I'll be back on Friday with something new...

May your dreams be rosy!

I See the Moon...

"I see the moon, and the moon sees me...God bless the moon, and God bless me."

Good afternoon, everyone!

Look at the beautiful sight that greeted me this morning...

How's that for gorgeous?!  It was soooo foggy this morning, then--the sun started rising behind these hills, and oh, how beautiful it was!  Not a bad view for a backyard, is it?!

Well, moving away from the sunrise, I seem to have had the moon on my mind alot lately...remembering sweet rhymes and images from childhood--my own and my daughters'...here's one of my very favorites:

Not the best scanning job--sorry!  But I love this sweet poem..."Wynken, Blynken and Nod", by Eugene Field.  They don't come much sweeter than this!  My Mom tells me that my Grandmother Smith loved this poem, and would tell it to young children--me included--whenever she got the chance...

This is my grandmother, LaPriel, when she was 8 years old, about 1920, along with her little sister, Veon at 5 years old.  I don't have many pictures of my grandmother, and this one is very dear to me--Her mother, Mary, loved good literature as well, and I imagine LaPriel had this poem read to her when she was a girl...

...and here she is again, years later...a very young mother in the late 1930's...just at the beginning of her time reading beloved bedtime stories to her babies...

I copied the poem from one of my favorite books--a collection of books, actually, called "Childcraft"--I'll bet some of you are familiar with these.  This edition was printed in 1949, when my Dad (LaPriel's son) was 12 years old.  This series of books was hers, and she passed it along to my Dad, who then gave them to me.  I remember looking at them all the time when I was a girl, and I love them still.

With the moon in mind, and thanks to some fabulous images, I made this (yes--another one!) 3D Shadowbox card this weekend:

"Would you like to swing on a star...Carry moonbeams home in a jar..."  I love that old song, made famous by Bing Crosby...and it's been in my head all weekend!  It just came to me as I started putting this together, and guided me as I went along...

I found this star online, and just copied it in different sizes...glimmered them all up with "Iridescent Gold" Glimmer Mist and distressed them with Vintage Photo Ink...some gorgeous turquoise lace as a backdrop...

Don't you just love this sweet little girl lounging on the moon?  She comes from Crafty Secrets' "Altered Fairy" Creative Scraps--one of my favorites!  I stamped the background with a star stamp from Crafty Secrets' "Message on a Bottle" set.  The patterned paper used for the card is one of my favorites from Crafty Secrets' "Radiant" paper pad. "Over the Moon" was cut out from the "Altered Fairy" scraps.

It seems to have been quite a fad in the late Victorian to Edwardian times to have a moon as the backdrop for a portrait--I've seen so many--like the ones at the beginning and end of my post...they're just wonderful!

I found this wonderful vintage moon image online...just perfect!  Dusted him up with a bit of Dazzling Diamonds and LOTS of Glimmer Mist--doesn't show up too well in the photo, however--but it really looks great!  Then, of course, added a jar for our moonbeams...also from Crafty Secrets' "Message on a Bottle" stamp set.  The tag stamp is from their "Price  Tags" set.  The jar was "filled" with Dazzling Diamonds--what else for moonbeams?!

The sentiments I just typed up and printed...some lace, gingham ribbon, silver Stickles, glitter, gorgeous turquoise crystal rhinestones...and that's about it!

Well, I think that's all for me today.  I hope your day is wonderful in every way...and tonight, take a peek at the old moon and think of your favorite childhood rhymes, songs and stories.  Teach one to your babies, and enjoy every second...