Pretty Paper Heaven ......

Eeeeks......

I found myself in pretty paper heaven today.

After getting my taxes done bright and early this morning, I decided to stop in at one of my local Archiver's scrapbook stores to see if they might have some pretty spring like papers in stock. And my oh my did they ever. Check out these too die for gorgeous, girly, rosy papers from the "The Girls Paperie" collection. I love how they named it "Vintage Whimsy". So perfect for a girly girl like me...

My photography skills are not the best and these photos don't do justice to how pretty the papers are in person. I love the shades of pink and blue on these. So scrumptious.

It's going to be hard cutting up these beauties that's for sure..

If I can dare to do that, I'll have to save them for something special..

More Artsy Crafty Stuff ......

Blogger is giving me fits today with spacing between my written paragraphs and photos, so I will keep the words to a minimum today and just show you some pictures of the two new shabby patchwork wall hangings I made over the weekend. Enjoy the prettiness ..

I am so loving these pretty paper flower embellishments that I've been using in my crafting projects. I can't seem to get enough of them.

Hopefully Blogger will play nicer next time..

Vintage Advertisments ...

Hey there girls..

It's almost Friday. Are you has excited about that as I am??

Well, I'm hoping that this weekend I'll have time to get out and visit an antique store or two in my never ending quest to find new and beautiful treasures. I was lucky last weekend and found some great things, the last of which I am sharing with you today.

I must say that it sure pays to slow down a bit and dig through stacks of vintage advertisements and ephemera, because I definately scored on this find. A pretty vintage fashion print in some of my favorite pastel colors.

Isn't it pretty??

Because I was thrilled to find this lovely print and now have the ability to scan items such as this with my new printer/scanner/fax machine, I thought I would share my happiness over this lucky find and share this print with you as well.

Please feel free to copy and save this print for your own personal use. If you do create anything with it, I would love to see how you used it in your artwork.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

More Spring Pretties ....

Well, I'm still feeling a bit heartbroken over the loss of my pretty little "Pin Money" bank that I had found at the antique store this past weekend but broke before it even made it into the house, but I did find some other great things that have helped me deal with the loss.

Like this totally adorable pale buttery yellow wicker flower basket. So perfect for Spring decorating and I just love the shape and size of it ...

Keeping with the Spring theme, I've added this pretty Royal Copely planter to my collection. Amazingly enough, I already have a vase in this same floral pattern so now I have a matching set. These little planters are just the perfect size to use as pen holders on my desk.

These pretty new Spring themed items are just what I'm gonna need this week to keep a cheerful mood as Mother Nature has decided to play mean and tease us with another dose of winter again. Its pouring rain outside as I am writing this and parts of Minnesota will also be seeing snow over the next few days. Some areas farther north of where I live are forecasting close to two feet of the fresh white stuff with the rain possibly turning into snow here even in the Minneapolis area.

Can we say YUK !!

Happiness And Heartbreak ......

Hi Girls...

I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far. My weekend has been going great, except for one little heartbroken moment which I will explain shortly.

I headed out early today to make an hour and a half drive down to the lovely town of Red Wing, Minnesota where they have some awesome antique malls located in an old pottery factory. The old factory is a huge building which currently houses some smaller specialty shops as well as four separate antique shops. Two of them are quite large and a person could spend hours and hours browsing through them looking at all the goodies for sale. The other two are a smaller in size but are fun to browse just the same. It's a one stop shopping experience right up my alley.

I found several great things today which made the long drive worth while.

First up is the "happiness" part of this post. I found this lovely china gravy boat that I couldn't resist. It was a great price too at less than $10.00 ....

Not surprisingly, it has some very pretty roses on it .......

Now for the "heartbreak" part of this post. I found a very cute "Pin Money" bank to add to my small collection, but before I even made it into the house after I returned home, I accidentally dropped the bag it was in and I could hear the sound of breaking china as it hit the garage floor. They had wrapped it in some newspaper at the antique mall and this is what I saw when I unwrapped it after getting inside the house.

I felt a bit like crying over this little tragedy, but I guess I can count myself lucky in the fact that I didn't pay too much for it. It had a few minor cracks already on the backside that decreased its value and it only cost me $5.00, but I still feel pretty bad about it as it was so pretty, even with its minor flaws. It would have made for a great display piece as those little flaws it originally had were weren't visable from the front. Now, it's another story and this sadly had to go in the trash..

I found a few more things on my trip today that I will share with you in another post.

Until then, keep on enjoying your weekend.

Another Room Transformation ......

Would you like to see another magical room transformation ??

This first picture shows what my living room looked like about a week before I moved into my house. The old carpet had been ripped out as had most of the padding underneath (just a little bit remained when I took this picture) and the walls were getting ready to be painted before the new carpet was installed. The walls were an odd green color that I didn't particularly care for so they had to go ..

And this is what it looks like now. Well, not exactly. A few minor things have changed since I took this photo a year or so ago, but most if it looks the same.

I can sure tell that it was a nice, bright, sunny day when I took the photo. The big picture window faces east and I get lots of morning sunshine coming in this window which I love. I hardly ever close the blinds in my living room as I hate that closed in feeling. I love my living room to for the fact that it's nice and big. Most townhouses I toured before finding this one had very small living rooms so this one was a major surprise.

Much better don't you think ?

The Magic Of Paint ....

It's hard to believe, but I have lived in my town house for eight years now. I closed on my house near the end of January 2003, but I didn't move into my house until a little over a week later.

Why did I wait so long between closing and moving in? Well that's a simple thing to answer. It's because the interior of my home needed some minor cosmetic work to make it a little more me before I could actually move in.

Besides having brand new carpet installed throughout the home and new flooring installed in the kitchen, the most drastic change that needed to take place was in my dining room area.

I had to get rid of this before I could even think about moving in .............

Good grief. Who in the world ever thought that painting a huge old mural like that on the wall was a good idea ??? It totally overpowered the dining area made it feel closed in and like I was being attacked by that big old tree. And I hated the colors.

Thank goodness for the magic of paint. It made that ugly old painted mural disappear within minutes and turned that ugly space from the room you see in the picture above, to the more serene and soothing room you see below ....

Now that is about 500 times better don't you think ???

Stay tuned as I'll be sharing before and after shots of my living room next time.

Pretty In Pink ....

Good Morning Everyone...

It's been ages and ages since I've participated in Beverly's Pink Saturday event and I have found myself missing it at times, so what better time to join in again than when I have pink on my mind and actually having something pink to show.

For your pleasurable viewing today, I'm sharing will all of you a little touch of spring with this pretty bouquet of artificial roses in the yummiest shade of pink.

More often than not, artificial flowers look just that. Artificial and not real. Well, not these. The detail on these is so amazing...

I found these pretty rose bouquet's at a local craft store a few weeks ago and they sure have brought in an extra touch of spring into my home..

I'm so glad you stopped by for a visit today. Please come back soon !!

Please visit Beverly's blog at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ to see even more lovey pinks.

Thanks Beverly for hosting such a wonderful weekly event.

Happy Friday ....

Happy Friday Girls.....

Hope you all have a great day and an awesome, fun filled weekend !!

A Winner...

Hi Girls...

Just popping in with a quick post today to announce the winner of my giveaway which I had announced last Friday.

Each person who left a comment on that post had their names placed in a hat for a chance to win one of my handmade, shabby patchwork wall hangings.

And the winner is ............

"Renegades"

If you can send me an email with your address, I'll try and get your prize mailed out before the end of the week. It won't be the one you see pictured here, but your prize will be just as nice :-)

Congratulations !!!

As for those of you who weren't so lucky to win one of my hand made creations this time, don't worry. I may just end up doing another drawing sometime in the near future.

I hope you are all having a great week so far. My week has been pretty good so far, but it may go downhill after today as we are in for more snow here in Minnesota overnight tonight and during the day tomorrow and then again on Friday and possibly over the weekend.

Will it ever end ???

Playing With Color ....

Hi Girls...

What's a girl to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon ??

Well, how about putting together a sweet little vignette using a color theme of seaglass green.

The backdrop features some pretty scrapbook papers I found this weekend, a jar of buttons, a vintage engagement card, a little sewing tin and some vintage lace trim.

I found the cute little sewing tin at Junk Bonanza last fall. It hides a stash of Q-Tips that I keep on my crafting table for when I need a little something to dab away glue as I am creating my little art projects..

The pretty lace trim is a brand new find that I found this weekend at the antique store. The color matches perfectly with my jar of buttons and vintage tin.

Don't you just love to play with your stuff and create charming little vignette's like mine?

Time For A Giveaway ......

Oh dear... I can't believe it's Friday already.

The week has just flown by and as usual I've been a bit neglectful of my blog. Likely because I really haven't had much to share with you other than showing off my crafting projects which I'm sure you are probably getting a bit tired of seeing.

This winter just seems to be dragging on and on and on, with snow storm after snow storm, many of them falling on the weekends and it's really put a damper on my antiquing. I haven't been able to get to some of the shops I've been wanting to so I don't have any new pretty treasures to share with you.

So... once again I'll bore you by showing off my latest shabby patchwork wall hangings. For the first one, I used a more bold color scheme with the deep pinks and reds ....

And one in more muted tones of pale green and creams with just a bit of pink added...

As you can imagine, I now have quite a pile of my finished creations that I'm going to have to start giving away as little gifts instead of hoarding them all for myself. Like many of you other crafters out there, I'm sure you can relate when I say that it's a bit hard to pass my creations on to someone else as I just love how cute they all have turned out and I'm finding it a bit hard to part with them. That may seem a bit silly considering they are just made with bits of paper and a few simple but cute embellishments and I have the supplies to make several more, but it's true.

Maybe it's time I did a little giveaway so my blogging friends can have a chance to win one of my cute little creations.

If you are interested in acquiring one my shabby patchwork wall hangings, leave a comment here on this post and let me know if you would like to be entered in a drawing to win one of them. It might be one of them that I've shown here today or one I have shown in the past or maybe even one that hasn't been created just yet.

I will do the drawing to choose a winner early next week...

Until then, have a great weekend!!