Merry Christmas from my house to yours.......

I hope it is safe, joyful and merry!!! karen......

Just a little bowl full of Christmas to share with you..... Ho! Ho! Ho! Still working on merry-making and present purchasing and wrapping........

Elf at Work......

These are the gifties I made for my workmates....little felted flower scatter pins and a candle for our guy teacher.... Those flowers are addicting (until I had to sew on the pins)!
Hope you are having fun merry-making! karen....

Merry and Bright......

Sorry for the delay in posting...like most of you, this time of year is busy, busy!!! I finally did a little decorating yesterday. My sweet girl and I bought and partially decorated the tree and I put up the Santas and decorated the buffet.... this is our buffet above and below.....

I made the button tree a couple of years ago and love it. The Santa and Mrs Claus are vintage salt and pepper shakers and I am in love with bottle brush trees...I am sure you couldn't tell :)

This is a little feather tree that I found at a thrift store for $1.89....I have since added more vintage glass ornaments...it makes me happy!

Above the buffet is this banner that I made last year...

This vintage Santa is my find for my mom this year...he is sitting on the back of loveseat with other Santa's, it looks like someone is trying to punch him in the face....well he is still smiling! I have a velvet dolls skirt and some old felted white wool that my mom is going to make a hat with....

This little joy banner hangs over the kitchen sink....

And I thought I would share some little treasures I got from Ikea...cute embroidered cones, reindeer ornies, white candles and a cranberry candle...all for a steal! I got the cones and ornies to fill with candy and nuts for a couple of my coworkers....

And last but not least...a bowl full of ornies....sitting under our oven just shining away! Well, hopefully we will find the last two boxes of Christmas stuff so we can finish the tree and play some pretty carols and movies.... I hope you are enjoying the season! My word for the season:

SIMPLIFY! I am loving the season much more without all the stress!

Have a holly jolly week! karen......

Been A-Creating......

I have had a wonderful week! I was off last week for Thanksgiving....our school closes down (wahoooooo!!!). I spent much of my time before the holiday cleaning and shopping and cooking but I have sure had fun the last 3 days!!! Above is a little door hanger made with a vintage deer and glass glitter....
Below is a "Wish" Banner.....

Gotta have a "Joy" banner.....

And everyone needs to "Dream"....

I also made a "Noel" banner similar to the wish banner.... I made 2 sets of Christmas tags and some snowman soup packets... I will be taking them to work this week to sell...

Below is a picture of our rascally cat....she loves to be at the highest point in the house...She is on our door to our room..... Gotta love her spirit!

I hope you are having a great start to your holiday... I also got some shopping done!!! Yippee!

Gobble Gobble (since I missed wishing you a happy turkey day!) karen.......

White Wednesday

This is a fun thingie that I found at the flea...I walked away from it but couldn't stop thinking about it so I circled around and bought it! The dealer said it was part of a basket.... I was envisioning it like this:

Aaahhh! I love it.... A funky basket and my favorite hat....heaven!! A friend surprised me one morning with the beautiful beaded purse on the left so I added another from my stash to show you some pretty whites....

I have been busy creating...I will leave you with some pretty off white rosettes...Hope you have a joyful week! I am linking to Faded Charm's White Wednesday! Thanks Kathleen! karen....

Lucky me!

Why the first picture?? Well I just don't know.... I got it off of a french or german site with copyright free images years ago and since I am not a big collector/decorator for Thanksgiving...I thought I would share this poultry pic....hee! hee!
Anyway! I have been the lucky winner of Eleanor from Bit of Heaven's giveaway!
When I won, she said it would be a surprise.... and look at the lovelies she sent me:

A pretty journal, some xmas cupcake picks which I am using for appetizer picks and some beautiful christmas tags.... also, that darling Alice card..... Thank you Ele! Years ago, my mom started a tradition of making 3 huge pots of soup and fresh bread and then she had the family all bring appetizers and we finished it off with homemade desserts on Christmas Eve.
Well, she got sick, my dad passed away and she had more health problems and that tradition just went by the wayside. Well, I am excited that this year we are bringing it back!
I am going to use the cute appetizer picks with our Christmas celebration... I can't wait!!!

Now, I know halloween has passed, but I just had to share with you the fun goodies my husband brought home today after going garage-saling! Vintage Halloween!!!!
Be still my beating heart! I love it all!!!! I have always wanted to collect vintage halloween but it is out of my price range....I just love the vintage noisemaker and celluloid candy containers! Can't wait till next year to put them out!
Well, I have a post ready for white wednesday, so I will see you then! Have a wonderful few days! karen......

Busy, Busy....A Good Busy......

This is a busy month for my family!!! Today my son...my 6foot 4inch first child turned 19! I just can't believe how fast they grow up!

It is also our 23rd Anniversary! Our first baby was born on our 4th anniversary! What a great day! We went to see the play Ben (our son) is working in as a stagehand and then had dinner.
We walked around the Wharf area of Long Beach and just had a nice time!

And..... I am a year older on tuesday!!! Age has never really bugged me, except when I turned 30, but I got over that quickly!

So....that is the reason I have been MIA lately. I have also been working on Saturday's still and I am pooped on Sundays.

I have not shown you any of my thrifty finds lately so here are a couple of pictures:

This is my stash from the local flea...button cards, loose buttons, little dolls, some cool old doors from old german cookoo clocks, paper flowers and a barkcloth scrap....

I also scored at a little thrift shop.... a cool old bottle, a candlestick, some red buttons and fun xmas goodies for creating...

Now I can't wait to have a minute to sit down and start creating with all these goodies! I have some new fun ideas...I can't wait! Hope your week is wonderful!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me....Happy Birthday dear Karennnnn.... Happy Birthday to me....... and many more!!!!

More Sweet and Sinister

Well, my favorite holiday is almost here.... Sssshhhh! Don't tell anyone that I never got up my decorations this year! Between getting the gak (cold?) Working on the weekend, and just everyday life, I never made it over to storage to get our my favorite decorations! Boo!

My kids are now teens and don't trick or treat so I may see if I can hang out on my friends porch and hand out candy so I can get my fix of all the little one's in their costumes!

In my last post, I showed you what I sent Sandi. Here are the goodies she sent me!

It is really overcast out and the pictures just didn't come out well but there are lots of fun goodies, sweets, fun paper items for scrapbooking, cute halloween drink umbrellas (love those!) In the little pumpkin there are little scrolls with little fortunes and sayings. Sandi made a darling wicked cone and magic wand. The boo banner will hang on our big mirror....these and my dollar tree finds and a couple pumpkins will take me thru this halloween!

Here is the cone close up:

Such darling little girls....

And here is the magic wand up close:

And here is some of the mess from my creations...I love this kind of mess...it inspires me!

The images at the beginning are from the Graphics Fairy. She has wonderful images that she does all the graphic "fixing" that needs to be done and shares them with everyone...If you need some inspiration, go for a visit!

I hope your week has been good so far! I will be back soon! karen.....

Sweet and Sinister........

Time has been passing quickly between blog posts lately...this is the season hubby and I work as Proctor's for the SAT and ACT tests. It's usually just 2 saturday's a month but those are then 6 day work weeks for us. But! I got a little nap today and thought I would show you what I sent to my sweet partner Sandi!
This is the EEK banner I made for her, it's hanging on my neighbor's fence:

Here is a little closer:

And here it is with all the other goodies I sent her:

A vintage purse with a white flower brooch (something vintage& something handmade)

A cute pumpkin plate and serving knife (something new and something thrifted)

A little halloween brooch (handmade)

A little halloween tin and See's chocolate pumpkins (something sinister and sweet)

And the banner is for the home and handmade...Oh yeah! A glitter chandelier from target because we all need one of those!

Next time I will share the goodies she sent me. Please send good thoughts/prayers her way, she lost her son recently and really needs help to heal!

See you soon! karen.....

Vintage Alphabet Party......Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So today is S, T and U..... but unfortunately I have no "U's" to share with you....I know, I usually get strangely creative but I have been under the weather with the "gak" (flu? cold?) and my brain just isn't it's usual wonky self....
So..... Off we go with Salt and Pepper shakers and a salt dish......

I hope the floral shakers are vintage. I inherited them from my aunt..but they are pretty!!!

Now the next item has a little story.... A good friend gave me a pretty handmade velvet strawberry and I just love it! Well, I wanted more! I kept thinking how much I would love a dish of velvet strawberries!

Well, hubby and I stopped at the last hour of my favorite flea market after a trip and there..to my surprise, was a bag of velvet strawberries! So now I have enough to fill a little dish! I love them!

For "T" I have a teaset that my Grandma brought over from Wales.... Tea for two.....

And a teapot that haunted me for 2 weeks until I went back to the thrift store to find it waiting for me.... The colors are not my usual colors but the design was so unusual and cool that I had to have it. It will be the centerpiece of our larger thanksgiving table..holding the flowers....

Here is a closeup....it has different pictures all the way around of cherubs and goddess's...so cool!

And if you are going to have tea, you have to have bisquits...(the english refer to cookies and crackers as bisquits) so here are some tea and bisquit tins....I have way too many, these are just a few! (sorry the pic is blurry!)

Well, I hope you enjoyed your Vintage Alphabet tour....If I had some, I would share vintage undies (I love vintage slips and bloomers and pantalooons!) (My mom's bloomers were made from old feedsacks! shhhhh! don't tell her I shared that with you!)

And I would have a couple of vintage umbrella's---I love old parasols!

Hope your week starts off wonderful! karen......

Glitterfest

I LOVE Glitterfest!!!
This show is filled to the brim with wonderful artists!!!
I took a bunch of pictures and most of them came out blurry so these are a couple from our booth.....


I did not sell this time so these are all Robin's creations, and there she is taking a little break!

Our booth was 1/2 Halloween and 1/2 a shabby look and filled with Robin's wonderful jewelry.

And this last picture was one I couldn't resist! This was a happy Glitterfest customer! He bought this to add to his collection for his bar. (he gave me his business card and I still can't find it....ooops! so sorry!)

If you come to Glitterfest uninspired...you won't leave that way! See above picture...hee! hee!

For more wonderful pictures, go visit Rita's blog Mammabellarte, she has a wonderful slide show! Have a great week! karen.....

Lovin' Me Some Dollar Tree.....

Okay, so I am in Love with Halloween.... I have great childhood memories of Halloween and making Haunted houses for the younger kids in the neighborhood with the girls my age...so fun!
My birthday also falls on November 9th and I think that all worked into the fall excitement for me and Halloween was like the start of my birthday season!
If you would like some fun halloween/fall inspiration, go visit this blog....


You will find wonderful projects by a group of fantastic artists and they also sell kits! I have never been disappointed!

Here is a little vignette I made with a fun menu and some glitter skulls from the Dollar Tree... I love these silly things .... I still haven't gotten to decorating the whole house, life has been busy-busy but hopefully on Sunday. I also spent the day at Glitterfest last saturday selling with my good friend Robin and want to share those pictures with you!

Hugs until then! karen.....