What’s Cookin’?

Does morning get any more gorgeous than this?!

I certainly don’t think so!  I’m always so grateful for this early morning view from my backyard each and every day…no matter what the weather may be…

Just a few things to share with you today…

A fun kitschy kitchen card with some fabulous new elements from Crafty Secrets…

A collage-style image from one of my favorite Creative Scraps sets—“Domestic Goddess”…

A computer-typed greeting in a good, old-fashioned typewriter font…

 

A wonderful recipe card image—complete with pretty borders & kitchen gadgets—from the very soon-to-be-available “Vintage Paper Pattern” CD from Crafty Secrets—you’re just going to love it!

Here’s a close-up look at two of the vintage paper designs from the CD—love the shabby blue print and red polka-dots—so sweet!

I used one of the shapes from the “Accent Essentials” cartridge and my Cricut for the nice, big label-shaped background…

Making this card reminded me of some of my wonderfully kitschy kitchen finds I’ve had lately while at yard sales…

A sweet little bit of vintage kitchen linen, topped with…

…old cookie cutters…slightly bent and dinged-up, but just beautiful to me—I LOVE them!

…I’ve been particularly on the look-out for these lovely scalloped ones lately…just perfect for my favorite Scottish Shortbread cookies…

All these wonderful old gadgets!  I just love them all!

I love these old sifters…need to work on getting that  label off!

And this perfectly shabby old masher—love the chipped paint on the wooden handle!

Aren’t these wonderful?! 

This old bundt pan is one of my favorite finds…”KAISER”, “Made in W. Germany”…

My girls and I are having so much fun “junkin’”, as we call it!  Just started taking them with me a few weeks ago, and they’re hooked!

Well, that’s all from my kitschy kitchen today…

See you soon with something new.

***To all of you whom I seemingly haven’t visited lately—it’s because I can’t leave comments!  I can leave comments on some of your blogs, but not others…so frustrating!  I AM reading your posts, but just can’t let you know…I’ll keep trying!***

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Crafty Secrets,Vintage Paper Patterns CD,Domestic Goddess,kitschy,Cricut,vintage kitchen items

The Face in the Frame

 

The beautiful woman in the frame…a face I’ve loved all of my life…

Hanging in my grandmother’s home from my earliest memory, it moved into my uncle’s home at the time of her passing…

Last fall, a trip made from Arizona to Utah…the car filled with treasured possessions…

…belongings of my grandmother, which my dear uncle was bringing to my mother and me to care for…letters, wedding scrapbook, photos, and two very precious framed portraits…

A terrifying spin on the ice, and the car flipped to it’s side….uncle and aunt—frightened and scraped--but thankfully not hurt badly…precious letters on the  snowy road to be quickly gathered and saved…and a single crack in the glass on the portrait…but everyone—and every thing—safe.

This is my copy of the portrait—made while my grandmother still lived and the portrait was still hanging on her wall…I’ve loved this little copy of mine…

Brita Stina…isn’t that a beautiful name? 

Born in Sweden in 1848…a new-found faith led her and her family—as well as the man who would one day be her husband—across the sea to America…

The family first went to a Swedish community in Minnesota, where she met and married Jonas Ostlund…they soon after crossed the wide country headed west…

 {This BEAUTIFUL vintage frame image is also found on Crafty Secrets’  soon-to-be-available new “Vintage Paper Patterns” CD…}

In their new-found home, they became shop keepers in their new community…

{Lovely vintage paper pattern also courtesy of Crafty Secrets’ new “Vintage Paper Patterns” CD…topped with a bit of soft, pink seam binding tied in a double bow}

They later migrated to Canada, to help in building the canal in Alberta…

{Vintage “pin” ephemera from Crafty Secrets’ soon-to-be-available “Vintage Paper Patterns” CD…covered in Glossy Accents and ringed with Platinum Stickles…looks just like a real brooch, doesn’t it?!}

Five dear children were born into this family…

…and that’s about all I know.  I want so badly to learn more…and so I am searching…

A very large pile of pages of family history—both typed and handwritten by my great-grandmother, Anna, her daughter-in-law, lie on my dining room table…unorganized, unnumbered…just waiting for me to pour over them in the hopes of finding new clues to the life of this beautiful woman…

A new page made yesterday for my heritage album…Brita Stina Anstrom Ostlund…five handmade shabby rosettes at the bottom representing her five children…one of which was my great-grandfather, Hjaldermar…

…more stories for other days…

Later this summer, Brita’s portrait will be coming home with me…I think I’ll leave the cracked glass in place for a while…just another part of her story.

See you soon with something new…

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Crafty Secrets,Vintage Paper Patterns CD,Brita Stina Anstrom Ostlund,Hjaldermar Ostlund,family history

Vintage Paris…

Bonjour, mes amis!

So glad to have you joining in with us today as we visit Paris…it may be only through our  music, our crafting, our photography, our beautiful drawings, or our dreams…but it’s still Paris…

I couldn’t celebrate the beautiful City of Light in any way but vintage…

…a scrapbook page, filled with vintage images and LOTS of sparkle…for Paris sparkles and shimmers in my mind’s eye…

 

{“Paris” and fleur-de-lis cut from the “Destinations” and “Home Decor” cartridges using my Cricut}

beautiful Art Deco-style letters covered with real silver glitter…perfect for Paris…

 

…a delicate fleur-de-lis, of course,  likewise silver-coated…

Our dreamy trip to Paris wouldn’t be right without a view of the iconic Tour d’Eiffel…shown here at the turn of the century…

Postcards from Paris…isn’t everything the French do so beautiful?  Even the back of a vintage postcard is so lovingly designed…

A lovely Parisienne…tres chic, non?  If you look closely at the bottom of the original, you will see…

  {this gorgeous vintage image courtesy of Magic Moonlight}

…”Leo, Paris” …just perfect!

A trio of very shabby chic rosettes finish off my handmade tribute to gay Paris…but I cannot leave my daydreams without memories of a very different kind…

“In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines…”, begins the much-loved tale of Madeline and Paris…they are intertwined, are they not?  First published in 1939…the same year my dear mother was born…so I’d better not label it “vintage”, I suppose!

A series of stories rediscovered by me as a young mother…read over and over again to a delighted first daughter…far to young to read it herself…

She loved it so much that she had the first book memorized…would “read” it for all who would hear…I can still hear her sweet little voice…

“…in two straight lines they broke their bread…”

“…brushed their teeth, and went to bed…”

Such a delightful way to visit the sights of Paris—through the little girl eyes of Madeline and the joy of my own little one…

That same little daughter of mine—still in love with the stories of Madeline and Paris—is now about to embark on her life as a teacher…a room full of sweet second-graders will be her very fortunate first class this fall…oh, where does the time go?

Thank-you for joining me today on this sweet, vintage trip to that dreamy place unlike any other…

Please make sure you go by and visit Anita—our gracious hostess for this lovely trip—and all of the others participating with us today…

And so, au revoir…until we meet again…

Julie

 

LiveJournal Tags: Paris,Castles Crowns & Cottages,Anita,Eiffel Tower,Chelsea,Madeline,Cricut