Friday, September 24, 2010

Footsteps…..

 

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Shoes…ordinary, everyday objects…necessary to our lives.   We don’t pay much attention to them, do we, after they’ve served their purpose…

Some, however, are special—are saved and kept carefully…

Here are some of the shoes carefully kept over the decades at my house…nearly a century represented here…

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Steps taken on special days…steps taken on ordinary, everyday kinds of days…

Wedding day…my great-grandmother Estella’s wedding shoes from 1914…married at the age of 19…

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I sadly don’t have a picture of her on that day, but this high school basketball picture was not to much earlier…

Estella's basketball team, about 1912

There’s Estella…front left…the beautiful, happy blonde…so excited about life…

The steps she took on that most important of days in her life led to these…

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…baby steps….

Velda Stapley baby

…my grandmother Velda’s baby shoes…which led to these…

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…belonging to toddler Velda… 

Velda about age 2

Can you imagine buttoning all of these little buttons on a wiggly little 2 or 3-year-old whose just itching to get outside to play?!

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Velda’s baby steps changed to those of a wife and mother’s steps, which led to these sweet, silvery shoes…

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…my mother Karen’s well-loved, well-worn silver leather tap shoes…fabulously scuffed from long hours of practicing, leading to dance recitals where she could show her parents all that she had learned…

Karen the Dancer, June 1947

Happy tapping steps led to wife and mother steps for Karen as well, which led many years later to…

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…the shoes worn as I took my first steps as a wife on my wedding day in 1988…

My wedding day--3 generations

Watching me take those first steps into marriage that day were Velda and Karen…walking with me…sharing advice and memories of their own steps taken along the way…

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…just as I will do with my three daughters one day not too very far away…

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A project made this morning—inspired by my sitting and looking at these shoes the other day…thinking about the steps they’ve taken…

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…vintage mother-of-pearl buttons, a typed sentiment in one of my favorite newly found fonts…reminiscent of another great-grandmother Anna…more stories for another day…

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…images from Crafty Secrets’ new “Girlfriends” Creative Scraps, some lovely Graphic 45 paper, and another image found online, a wonderful “page” from a large label shaped album from Maya Road, that is now being sold by Crafty Secrets…

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…some luscious crumpled-up creamy seam binding, platinum Stickles and a touch or two of Dazzling Diamonds finish it all up!

The photo on my collage is my young grandmother Velda…isn’t this gorgeous?  I love the attention given to the matting on the photo…the early 1930’s were beautiful years for detail, weren’t they?!

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Well, that’s it for me today…I hope you have a beautiful fall day…and may the steps you take today remind you of those you love who have taken similar steps  before you…

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See you soon with something new.

Julie

***P.S.  Please join me, and many other vintage-loving bloggers in celebrating the launch of a wonderful new publication—“Creating Vintage Charm”

creating vintage

This beautiful new magazine is available to order now—I can’t wait to receive mine!

Also, don’t forget to enter my blog anniversary giveaway, if you haven’t already!  It runs through midnight next Monday!***

Click here to leave a comment to enter!

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Black Cats & Pumpkin Girls

 

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Good afternoon, my friends! 

Are you ready for fall?…it’s coming!  Even here in California, you can just feel it….a change in the air…my favorite time of year is here! 

Just look at the view I was greeted with when I stepped out onto our back patio this morning…

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…oh, how beautiful…!

I was still in a Halloween mood after our Crafty Secrets challenge the other day, so I did a little more playing last night, and came up with this little card…

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This cute little image is from Crafty Secrets’ “Halloween” Images & Journal Notes booklet. 

I just added some of my favorite black & white gingham print paper, some buttons,  lace, rick-rack trim & ribbon…

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…just for fun I thought I’d run a few stitches through the bow, and I really liked the way it turned out!

…a little touch of Dazzling Diamonds on the vintage greeting, a bit of framing with some platinum Stickles, and that’s about it!

I thought I’d also show you the swaps I’ve been working on for Elizabeth’s (Creative Breathing) Halloween Banner swap--

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My assigned letter is “A”…the banner to spell out HALLOWEEN—can’t wait!

I love vintage pumpkin girl images, and got this one from a vintage image book I’ve had for ages…

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…then I just drew the arch and the “A” by hand and made my own patterns…then embellished—easy peasy!  The “A”’s were then colored with Glimmer Mist…Pumpkin Pie & English Ivy.

I made two different styles…not enough of the harlequin print, which I love, so I had to change it up a bit!

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Two little pumpkin girls ALMOST ready to be shipped of with 8 others to my friend in Ohio…they’ll be there soon, Elizabeth!

Well, that’s it for me today!  I’m off to my daughters’ field hockey games this afternoon—yep, two games—back-to-back!  My older daughter is on the varsity team and my youngest on JV…maybe next year we can work on getting them on the same team!

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to leave a comment here for my blog anniversary giveaway…

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…I don’t want anyone to miss out!  I’ll be drawing the winner’s name on next Monday night.

Hope your day is wonderful….you can just smell the autumn in the air….aaaaahhhhh!

See you soon with something new.

Julie

Monday, September 20, 2010

Crafty Secrets’ Design Team Halloween Challenge….and a Little Treat!

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Good morning, dear friends!

I hope it was a wonderful weekend for you all…a busy one here, as usual…fun, friends…the Renaissance Faire…

Here we are…another month, another Crafty Secrets challenge for those of us on the Design Team…always a fun time to use new product and try something different!

This month, we were to focus on the new Halloween products…here’s just a couple of them…

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“Halloween” Creative Scraps

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“Halloween Treats” large stamp set…

For my project this month, I decided to make a chipboard booklet out of one of the new Maya Road chipboard sets Crafty Secrets will now be selling…

And here are some of the individual images:

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I just chose some fun Halloween-themed papers…these are all either Graphic 45 or retired Stampin’ Up papers…

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…glued them to the chipboard pieces,  sanded the edges & grunged them up with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink…

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…added the main images, taken from Crafty Secrets’ “Halloween” Creative Scraps, “Halloween” Images & Journal Notes booklet, and their “Seasonal” Images & Journal Notes booklet…

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…added a bit of glitter for some sparkle…

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…framed some of the images or the overall star with platinum Stickles…

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…added ribbon, lace, buttons,  pom-pom or rick-rack trim…

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…then tied it all up together!

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…sprayed the chipboard tag with some yummy Pumpkin Pie Glimmer Mist…

…a wonderful jumble of vintage, sparkly Halloween goodness!

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To close up--this is a couple of weeks late in coming, but my first blog anniversary was at the end of August, so I think it’s time for a little giveaway!

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…just a few of my favorite vintage things for you…

*4 new Crafty Secrets Creative Scraps

*1 new Crafty Secrets flower stamp set

*A bottle of my favorite real silver shavings glitter (it’s so fabulous—tarnishes over time to really give a vintage look!)

*A package of K & Co. lace frames

*10 vintage cards with envelopes from the 30’s & 40’s

All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post, and let me know if you’re a follower & I’ll count you twice! 

I’ll do a drawing next Monday, September 27th, and let you know who won!

Please take a few minutes and stop by to visit the other very talented ladies on the Crafty Secrets’ Design Team—I know they’ll have so many inspiring things to share with you!

Vicki Chrisman, Team Leader

Pam Hooten

Heidi Blankenship

Marisa Grossen

Linda Duke

Michele Kovack

Melissa Phillips

Flo from France

Mary Hamer

I hope your day is beautiful in every way…

See you soon with something new.

Julie