Welcome To Where Bloggers Create 2013

 Welcome to Where Bloggers Create 2013!  Many thanks to Karen at My Desert Cottage for hosting this event for yet another year.  I am looking forward to visiting everyone, getting some new ideas for my art room and being inspired by all the creative bloggers.  Click on the link to Karen's blog and you will find links to all of the participants on her sidebar.
Many of you have visited before during Where Bloggers Create 2012, 2011 and 2010. There haven't been any dramatic changes to my room so I threw open the drawers and boxes and took a LOT of close-ups this year so you can dive in and rummage around.  For any of you visiting for the first time, welcome and please buckle your seat for the loooong ride through my own personal amusement park!
Since I took so many photos I will try to keep my blabbering to a minimum, although we all know I am mostly made of lace and dust and blab and buttons!  If you make it to the end I have a special surprise for you.  If you see something you like, please feel free to pin and I would love it if you would follow me on Pinterest so I can follow you and we can share the inspiration.

 I am starting of the left side as you enter the room and will work my way around, more or less.  I painted the pictures above the closet about 25 years ago.  My folk art period.  8+)

 One door is a bulletin board, as if you could find anything classified as a bulletin in that jumble. The door behind it is a chalkboard.  The dresser holds Etsy inventory.

 The shelf on the other side of the closet holds most of my collection of vintage jewelry boxes.  Some hold buttons and others are used for bits and pieces I use in my inspiration kits, sorted by color.

 This is Mona, one of my art room companions and an alter-ego who wears that artsy stuff for me.

 The shoe organizer holds every sort of thing that I don't want to forget I have.  I adore little baby shoes whether there is a pair or a single.

 This cabinet is new for this year.  My son custom made it to hold my collection of vintage satin hankie and glove boxes.  You can read more about that project here. The boxes are filled with lace and trims I use in my inspiration kits.  Each shelf holds a different color.

 The top of the cabinet gave me a flat spot where I can display a few pretties and collections.

 This vintage trash can sits behind Mona and holds wallpaper rolls.  Modern wallpaper isn't that well-suited to using in artwork because of the coasting but it works great to cover boxes and make tags to wrap my vintage trims on.  I even use it as shelf liner in my kitchen.  The pre-pasted kind sticks just enough and the washable coating holds up very well.  So much more fun that shelf paper.

 My hankie collection started with my Grandmothers hankies and grew from there.  I store them in her hankie box ever though it is overflowing.  I always have room for one more.

 Apothecary jars hold two-piece buttons, colored glass buttons and vegetable ivory buttons.

 An old lens sitting atop a very tiny copy of Dante's Inferno.

 A little art piece I made and lyrics to one of my favorite songs.  Lyrics and quotes are a mainstay of my artwork and my altered book project.

 The contents of the pink shelf.

 More buttons and a jar of thimbles.  I don't collect thimbles but I buy "poke sacks" of vintage sewing notions and they are a frequent find.

 Vintage cabinet and post cards, bone buttons, china buttons, plastics and pearly ones.  The matching boxes behind them hold beads and embroidery floss.

 Contents of the white shelf.

 This jewelry box holds wooden buttons.

 The large white basket holds the accumulation of buttons I sell in my Etsy shop.

 Contents of the red shelf.

 This jewelry box hold white, cream, brown and gold bling.

 A vintage wire basket filled with colorful crochet thread.  The thread is used on the bookmarks I include with each Etsy purchase.

 Vintage mercury glass Christmas beads.

 A little suitcase holds my personal collection of my favorite laces and trims.  

 My "Husky" girl.

 Vintage delicates.

 Plastic buttons, transparent glass buttons, and glass rhinestone buttons sit atop the tool chest.

 A little artwork with my favorite quote and a very vintage dried flower picture above it.  You can read more about the quote picture here.

 The black shelf.

 Plastic buttons and a stack of vintage satin lingerie bags.

 You can read more about the round assemblage here.

 This shelf is actually the top tray from a vintage steamer trunk.  I fell in love with the blue print on the interior and just had to bring it home.  Click to read more about Kathy's Folly.  In front of it hangs a mobile I made using those credit cards that used to show up the mailbox daily.  I call it "Extra Credit".

 The cute pink canister is filled [stuffed] with rick-rack.

 A little collection of vintage cookie cutters.

 The wooden box holds my collection of vintage carded buttons.  The apothecary holds china buttons, including a few calicos.

 The top shelf in the trunk tray holds some of my favorite vintage postcards.

 My little collection of oil cans.  I don't know why I love them but I do!

 One of the quotes hanging on the "Extra Credit" mobile.

 The black and silver bling.

The top of the oak buffet that serves as my workbench. 

 The vintage millinery bouquet is surrounded at the base by a vintage hair wreath and the Eiffel Tower is filled with MOP buttons..

 Lace wound on vintage wooden bobbins.  They are such a pretty color!

 Contents of the green shelf.

 Shelves above my workbench.

 The top of the workbench from another angle.

 A little collection of cloth measuring tapes.  They stopped making them from cloth and switched to plastic because the cloth stretched over time and they were no longer accurate.  Love it when I find the old cloth ones!

 The front of the workbench.  The two side cupboards hold Etsy stock.  The drawers hold supplies.

 The shelf above the window.  The ceilings are high in this room so I store less frequently used items up there.

 A gauzy blouse decorates the window.

 The other end of the top shelf filled with things that are just waiting to be something.

 Red, pink and copper bling.

 My sewing machine sits in front of the window along with the box that holds my scrapbooking paper.

 Peek-a-boo!

 I don't have much display space in my room so any flat surface, including the printer/scanner, is fair game.

 This corner holds my collection of religious items.

 

 The orange and peach shelf.

 My other two art room companions, Calliope and Harmony.  They are a work in progress and will eventually become my little steampunk time-travelers.

 They say it takes a village.

 My son built this custom desk to fit the corner space in the room.  The ceilings in here are 9 feet high and the desk stands a full 8 feet. SO perfect!

 There are those girls again...

 Blue, green and purple bling. 

 My collection of fancy mother of pearl buttons.

 I don't join in on many swaps because I don't have the time but I did participate in a Bird Song swap hosted by Karla Nathan.  Her tag is the one in the front and mine is the one sticking out from the back.

 My collection of fancy metal buttons.

 More buttons, my altered book project and random clutter that hasn't found a home yet.

 The contents of the blue shelf.

 Two little party birds made by the one and only Magpie Ethel.

 The cream, tan and brown shelf.

 I use tags on strings to mark articles I want to be able to easily find again.

 One of my very favorite things, my vintage Corona typewriter.

 The yellow shelf.

 The silver box.

 A collection of vintage needle books. 

 The purple shelf.

 A loooong row of clear glass salt and pepper shakers.

 The gold shelf.

A collection of tomato pincushions.

 This workbench drawer hold all the random metal junk that makes it's way home with me.

 Once again we have wound our way around and around and up and down and arrived in the center of the room where my vintage suitcases end the tour under the table.  Sort of how I feel after a full day putting this post together- LOL!

 If you have hung with me all the way to the end just leave me a comment and you will be entered to win this altered bottle inspiration kit.  You will receive everything shown on both sides of the card plus the square glass bottle it is propped against.

Stop back a week from Saturday, on July 20th and I will peer into my crystal ball and see who the random number generator has selected.
Thank you so much for visiting my little world.  Now I'm off to start making the rounds myself.