A Sneak Peek at My Birdsong Tags

I finished my tags for Karla Nathan's Birdsong Tag Book Swap today.  One of them will stay with me and the other seven will fly off to Kansas on Friday.  Karla will mix them up and assemble them into little books of seven tags each, plus a cover made by her.  There are over a hundred people participating.  Making eight tags took me some time so I can't imagine making over a hundred covers!

 

You might recognize the Golden Robin picture I used for the backside from this post.  Perfect for the Birdsong theme!  I had the vintage photo of the sweet little boy playing in the birdbath for a while now and wasn't sure how to use it because the birdbath was cut in half.  I think it was just waiting for the right project to come along and then it told me it was ready.

I sandwiched a piece of torn cotton fabric in between the two sides then machine stitched them together.  The soft fringe around the edges has a downy, organic look and feel.  I love stitching on paper!

As I'm typing this I realized I put my name and email on the back but forgot my blog address - Doh!  I will have to fix that before they fly off to Kansas.  I can't wait to see all the little works of art that fly back to me!

Catch Up Post and a Few Recent Finds

Holy Moly, I can't believe it's almost a week since I posted.  I am on vacation this week and I can't seem to remember last week so apparently I was busy getting ready to be on vacation - LOL!

These are a few recent finds I have managed to scavenger here and there.  Click the picture bigger and check out the "lace" collar.  It is a size that would fit a baby or a doll and it is handmade from bias tape and rick rack and it is PERFECT.  Can you imagine someone having the patience to piece that all together just so... amazing!!
I just got the double eggs cups at the VOA today.  At first I thought they were Johnson Brother Friendly Village, which I collect.  On closer inspection I realized they are a different pattern.  I think it is called Old English Countryside.  The colors and design are very similar to Friendly Village but the subject matter is different.  These have cottages with thatched roofs.  They would fit with my collection but not quite right and way too cool to leave behind.  I haven't decided yet if I will keep them or put them in my Etsy shop.  It really isn't the kind of thing I normally sell since I steer clear of the fragile stuff.  I might have to let them steep a while.
So what have I been up to you might wonder.  Well probably not, but I'll catch you up anyway 8+). 
On Saturday we went to the "Oldies But Goodies" drag races.  We both like old cars and that is one of our favorite events.  The weather was beautiful for a change and we got to see an old 1930 Studebaker pickup do not one, but TWO incredible wheelies.  I thought it was going to go over backwards and I think the driver might have been thinking the same thing as he was gazing up at the blue sky!  This was really our first time spending a whole day outside this year and we both got so sunburned we have looked embarrassed ever since.
Yesterday we climbed through the trees about half way to the top of the Ski Bowl ski run on Mt. Hood to watch the mountain bike downhill race.  Our son wasn't racing this time but another friend of ours was and this was our first time to see it in person.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Mountain bikes peddling down through and over the trees as fast as they can go, sometimes FASTER than they can go.  Trust me on this.  There is really no spectator area.  You just find yourself a flat spot to stand and hope it isn't where someone flies off the track.  Crazy stuff, I tell you!
Today we went on our own bike ride here in town.  There is a new branch to the Springwater Trail we hadn't ridden yet and I wanted to check it out.  My bad.  It was uphill both ways, I swear.
If I can still walk tomorrow I don't plan to do anything more strenuous than checking out the merchandise on the bottom shelf at the thrift store!

A Little Pink for the First Day of Summer

Today is the first day of Summer and it is lovely and warm outside.  I can actually go out on my patio without a coat.  Not so much last Saturday.  We had a soaking rain that lasted all day long. 

 Needless to say, the just-opened Peony blossoms filled with water and went head first, straight to the ground.  That is a pretty common scenario here in Portland so I rushed right out to salvage what I could for a bouquet.  At least I don't have to feel guilty about cutting them since I'm really "saving" them!  I don't bring Peonies indoors because they always have ants in them so we just enjoy them on the patio.  They are just as beautiful no matter where we enjoy them!

I also snapped a photo of one of our first roses while I was out.  Blogger decided to turn it sideways but it's just as pretty either way.  The Portland Rose Festival ended about a week and a half ago and there were few roses in bloom for it this year because everything is so far behind this year.  I'll take them when I can get them!

The Button Picking Gods Smiled Down on Me Again!

I stopped at one estate sale yesterday where I picked up five gorgeous white lace-trimmed hankies plus two rather faded floral ones.  I also got a hand full of wooden spools and yet another jewelry box.  I was on my way home and made a last second decision to stop at the VOA.  Well, maybe my car decided.  It knows the way there and what it should do when it gets close. 

 Thank you to my well trained car!  The VOA coughed up yet another poke sack of buttons.  This was a much bigger bag than last weekend but I suspect it may have come from the same original donation because there were a few buttons that match what I got then.  How lucky is that - I got the rest of the story!

I didn't photograph all of them but these are some of the more interesting plastics and MOP.  Look closely in the upper left corner and you will see I put a quarter in for scale.  Those white plastic buttons are HUGE.  The MOP at the bottom of the photo are some of the biggest I have seen.  My favorite is the orangish one in the center with the crescent moon cutout.  They just don't make 'em like this anymore!

Pick a Pile O' Poke Sacks

Say THAT three times fast!  I did a little junking while my MIL was here.  No big "scores" but I did pick up a pile of poke sacks and you know how I love those.  I even got a couple little sacks of buttons, better yet.

 They were filled with vintage sewing notions and those are my favorite.  There is just something about them that makes me feel "connected" to the creative spirit of another generation, to know those women from another time had the same need to make something.  It makes us all one.

 Old velvet ribbons and trims and an old silver-plated sugar bowl that might become a sugarcushion experiment.  It is pretty, hmm...  rustic.  Yes, that's a good word...

 A set of sweet little hors d'oeuvre forks in their original box. I'm sure glad that word was on the box.

 A Christmas Angel Band, also in the original box.  Someday I will accumulate enough little angels to replace the strange characters on my big wooden Christmas candle chime.  A pack of pinochle cards with birdies on them.

 Elastic button thread - who knew??  Sounds like a great idea so I wonder what became of it.

A few pretty glass buttons and my first EVER rolls of vintage rayon seam binding.  Love that stuff but have only found the small packages until now.  The "good" stuff!  Digging through a poke sack is just like opening up a treasure box - you just never know what you will find inside!

Alexa's Secret Garden

Over a year ago in April 2010,  I took some pictures of my Granddaughter, Alexa, playing in her "secret garden" in our backyard.  They eventually became a little fabric and paper book that I submitted to SEW Somerset last Summer.  It was published, along with the story, in the Summer 2011 edition which just came out the first of June. 

 I kept the whole thing a secret {no pun!} until she and her Mommy and Daddy were over to visit last night.  The little book hasn't been returned yet but once it is I have a keepsake box for it and will include a copy of the magazine {autographed, of course! LOL!}.  Alexa's 15 minutes of fame will make a fun "show and tell" for first grade next year!

 I didn't have any luck trying to scan the glossy pages so I just photographed the magazine.  Stampington included a link in the magazine to some additional pages that didn't make it in to print.  You can see them here:  http://www.stampington.com/html/snoopy/2011/0611/sew/alexa_garden_of_verse/

 I mention in the story that I was able to photograph her in the Secret Garden because it isn't so enclosed in April when the ferns haven't come up yet.  These next pictures show how it looks right now.  What a difference a couple of months makes!

 This shot is taken from roughly the same location as the ones in the magazine.  The ferns completely hide the secret garden.  You don't even know it is there until you walk right past the "doorway" between two evergreen branches.

 This little doorway is actually about 4 feet high and just right for a little fairy princess.  A little hard on the rest of our backs.

The inside is a perfectly enclosed little playhouse with a canopy of green overhead.  What more could a fairy princess want!

Time Out For A Little Touristy Recreation

My dear MIL, Lisa, arrived from California yesterday so we took a little trip up the Columbia River Gorge to have lunch at Multnomah Falls today.  We have all been there many times but it never fails to impress.  Between the rain and the snow melt our rivers are extremely high and the amount of water going over the falls was remarkable.  The hazy look in the pictures is actually the mist from the water.

 We had a delicious lunch at the lodge and then headed back to Portland in time to get in a little shopping.  We hit DSW for shoes then the Fabric Depot.  The evening was spent working on her Etsy shop.

Tomorrow we have some thrifting planned and then the kids over in the evening to visit with Grandma.  Recreating until we drop - LOL!

Spalted Hackberry Fresh From Missouri

Seriously!  I thought you might be curious about the "art supplies" that arrive for The Other Art Room at Our House.  The husband is constantly on the lookout for interesting pieces of wood to turn, both locally and on the Internet.  This is a piece of spalted Hackberry that arrived today from Missouri.

 Years ago, back in "the day", as we call it, all he had to choose from was what he could find locally or we cut down ourselves.  Boy howdy, I could tell some stories about THAT!  Today he can go on line and find an amazing selection.  A fresh, or "green" blank like this takes several years to dry and be ready for turning so there is a lot of long-range planning and patience involved.

You can double-click on the picture and make it larger so you can see the beautiful spalted grain in this piece.  It will make a gorgeous bowl!  Sometimes the wood arrives as a square or rectangular blank and other times they have already been cut round to reduce the weight.  I think the round ones look like big wheels of cheese - LOL!

I Better Pick Up The Pace!

I had the pleasure of a "play day" with a sweet friend last Saturday.  Well, that's nearly a week ago now and I still haven't posted my finds for the day.  I need to pick up the pace!

We hit the VofA first.  They were having 50% off everything and I found most of this pile there.  Nothing too exciting except that plate in the front.  The color doesn't show up well in the photo but it is Royal Ruby in the depression glass pattern called Bubble.  I collect Royal Ruby and Forest Green and I have a few pieces of Bubble but this is the first plate I have found in red.  Love it!
Those bookends are just for some art room reorganization I plan to do before Where Bloggers Create III.  It was so much fun last year and that is where I met some of you.  There is a link over on my sidebar if you haven't got the details for this year yet.

 We also visited the Monticello antique mall.  They have a lovely little cafe where we had lunch and then took our time oohing and aahing.  That's where I got the pink sugar bowl I made into a sugarcushion in the previous post.  I guess I got the cart in front of the horse!
I also got this sweet little set of swallow S+P shakers to add to my birdie collection.

And yet another jewelry box {big sigh}.  Not a lot of loot but a big dose of fun! 
They are predicting our first 80 degree day tomorrow - WooHoo!!!  I will be enjoying some outdoor time!

Good Karma

Cathy over at ma vie trouvee pointed out that it must be Karma at work - I gave away a SugarCushion and I was gifted a tin of buttons.  She might just be right...

because tonight I finished up this little pink SugarCushion that I am planning to gift to the sweet co-worker {another Kathy!}who gifted ME that amazing tin of buttons.