Atlantic City Assemblage Necklace and a Little Story Too

When I was a child, I spent most of the summers with my dear grandparents in  New Jersey. I hold young memories of Atlantic City, softened with age...riding the huge ferris wheel and the far flung swings...the fortune telling machines and the smell of the salty ocean air...the drifts of sand along the boardwalk...the smell of the wide sun-baked planks under my feet. I remember the sweet cotton candy (always the blue, not pink) and the welcome respite of cool shaded booths filled with cheap touristy things...I imagine where this little pin has been, but I do know where it started out...in the hands of a hopeful, smiling tourist...maybe a couple on their honeymoon... or maybe in the fist of a little girl just like me.

I just had to make this necklace when I came across this wonderful vintage tourist pin in a recent purchase of "junk" jewelry....and it has been so long since I've told a story associated with my work.

I like this one...Yes, I like this story.

WINNER WINNER chicken dinner!

Thank you all who left amazing poetry comments and such on the blog for the giveaway! I wrote all six names on little slices of paper and put them into my favorite vessel....swirled them 'round and had my husband choose the names out for me to be extra fair!
And the winners of the 20.00 gift certificates are (drumroll please):

SUSAN and EMILY!!! (*will you send me a message so I can give you the details?)
I love each and every one of you for taking the time to write and share your poems and favorite words. You are each and every one so special to me.

I got a most amazing and inspiring Valentine email from Magpie Girl today and I want to share the links with you right here:
http://www.magpie-girl.com/a-blessing-for-the-single-people/
http://www.magpie-girl.com/a-blessing-for-the-separated/
http://www.magpie-girl.com/a-blessing-for-those-with-partners/

I don't know how her blog escaped me, but I have found a new daily read. Her words inspire me and the above blessings are so incredible. I hope you enjoy them as well.

with love,
me

A Special Valentine's Day Giveaway!

Well, I am keeping my graphic design (almost but not quite yet) degree warm with a little practice, but this didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to. Might look better in print...anyway, this is my Valentine to you!

Enter a line from your favorite love poem for a chance to win a 20.00 gift certificate for my Etsy Shop! I'm giving away two of them on Valentine's Day.

IN OTHER NEWS, I have opened a separate shop for my children's line. I a very excited about the things I have planned for this special venture. Making the sweet hairpin sets and necklaces just makes me smile huge, and melts my heART. Here is the banner and link (just click on the banner) for the new Etsy site if you'd like to visit:

SPECIAL THANKS to The Graphics Fairy for all of the wonderful free Valentine images and such!

Black and Blue and other Stuff

I try to post more often, but where does the time go? I am finding it hard, still, to balance work with play with blogging with twitter with website with etsy with relationships with laundry with raising kids...and on top of it all, exhaustion is back again and not feeling so hot these days (again). I forget, when my health is pretty great, as it has been for exactly ONE month out of the past 7 of them, that I have this damn disease. I forget that I can't push myself too hard. I can't stay up too late or eat bad food or get less sleep or forget my medicine. To be honest, it kinda pisses me off. And yup, I'm getting older. There is so much I want to do and time seems so limited....and then I feel so dumb and ungrateful for uttering a single peep about my life when so many folks out there have it far, far worse. So what's an ungrateful, overwhelmed, sick and sometimes, angry gal to do? She makes pretty things in black and blue.

(click on the picture above if you'd like to see more)

(getting pretty good at photos with my trusty old AA battery powered Sony Cybershot 7.2 megapixel, eh?)

AND what else does she do?

She celebrates the moments that make life so incredibly beautiful. Moments like this:

My youngest with his birthday PIE. Key Lime to be exact.



Love, Your Typewritr

I opened my front door Friday to a tall stack of packages...a welcome sight.I always enjoy opening the vintage treasures i use for the shop. But there was one package I was not expecting.... I knew from the sketch on the cover that it was filled with goodness and love. I knew it was from my dear friend and artist Carissa Paige.

I was so overwhelmed and touched to see what was inside! I had just asked her several days before receiving this amazing gift if she'd like some vintage erasable typewriter paper that I had brought with me years ago from Seattle. She didn't respond and I just thought she was busy...little did I know that she was giggling to herself! The most touching part was the typed note that came in the typewriter...

I have always loved to send unsuspecting people small packages of simple blissful things. Random acts of kindness in boxes filled with my love and sent out into the world...I just don't often receive things like that, but I love love love to give them. That is the best part...the giving of thought manifested in physical form. This was such an absolute unexpected joy. I had to share it with you too.

She even enclosed a vintage typewriter brush wrapped with a large feather and soft whispy things..as if to say that any mistakes I made would be effortlessly brushed away. Lord knows I make enough mistakes.

Carissa my dear friend, thank you for your precious self and the precious gift. I can't look at that machine without smiling wide....

 p.s. Dear readers, if you'd like to see Carissa's work, you can visit her etsy shop!

Won't you share an unexpected joy in a comment? I'd love to hear it! and by the way, when was the last time you used a typewriter?

New Vintage Assemblage Wedding Jewelry

butterfly collar

vintage crystals and tiny celluloid flowers

I've been almost obsessing on a neutral palette lately. Toning the shiny golds down to antiqued tones...and relishing the new tiny antique glass flowers and leaves I recently bought to play with (more about those soon!). My mind is very much taken over by jewelry for little flower girls and on weddings and spring...maybe it is a way to relieve the constant chill that the thick snow leaves in this Florida semi-native's bones...(I was born in Jersey but I'm mostly from Florida, and a little from Seattle and Michigan, if that makes sense.)

ah, but I love the idea of creating something that someone will wear during one of the most precious days of her life...yeah....I think it is more about that............it's really much more about that.

By the way, Layaway is now available at my shop. Just stop by and ask about details on something you might like.