Antique Oriental Designs for Free Friday!

Antique geisha coffee card

antique sewing, thread collectors card

I have always been infatuated with the orient, since the rare visits to my great-grandfather's house as a child. It was filled with extraordinary things that he brought back with him from Japan when he was stationed there after the war. He had the most amazing Geisha dolls encased in huge glass boxes..tall black lacquer screens with mother of pearl inlay scenes played out in intricate detail. And always, he sent me home with some little thing I coveted, mostly some of the favorite porcelain chop stick rests I'd run my fingers over, from his burgeoning collection. He kept them all in a large, square low-walled wooden box on a stand; just kind of jumbled up like a heaping miniature treasure hunt...and I was always amused as I dug through them...nimble little fingers rummaging through them to find the oddest shapes and funniest things like chickens and curved up fish and strange vegetables. My fave was the deep purple eggplant one...I was so proud of my treasures when I got home to Florida to show them to my friends. I've been enamored with Oriental/ Asian themed things ever since. I feel strangely like it is a part of me somehow. I am so irresistibly  drawn to the culture and the beauty of Japan.

This assemblage necklace I made is in my Etsy shop. I created it with a gorgeous medallion made from the impression of a very large (very coveted) antique metal Geisha button from myown collection. The original antique button was later made into a special cuff bracelet for a up and coming project. This particular necklace I've named "Her Ghost".

oriental vintage assemblage Geisha necklace

My pottery artist friend Michelle Stambaugh used the button stamp she made to create a gorgeous pottery stamp, and in turn she made the most beautiful cobalt blue washed medallion...I just could not resist its ethereal beauty.

"Her Ghost" ,a geisha necklace, vintage brass fan, vintage glass bead chain

and this Lovely Geisha cuff bracelet that I made for a very special project...

antique geisha button cuff

Thank you for being here! Hope you can us the vintage Oriental/Asian ephemera for a nifty project.

White Picket Fences

There is no cure for Fabry's disease or the issues I have with the resulting nerve damage. There is only wishing it didn't exist, and dealing with all the "stuff" that comes along with it. But then there is this~

queen anne's lace growing wildly right by the front step

That is when I do my "noticing" photographing exercise, that I have spoken of here before.

A lot of it centers around our home. I think because home is so important to me. It is a safe place. A constant that I can count on. A cocoon of comfort. I spend most of my time here, since I work at home, trying to make a living by doing what I love...making new things out of old things.

authentic art nouveau findings and french rhinestones

the lovely texture of milk glass creamer and sugar with embossed leaves

 I've opened a new little shop recently called "White Picket Fences", just for earrings like the handmade assemblage art nouveau earrings above...it's for all the things I adore and love to be surrounded with. Like shades of white, pale pale pinks, all things shabby chic, old and sparkly~

vintage chandelier sparkles and shabby tin tiles (even during renovation!)(and complimentary spiderwebs too

The new shop has vintage jewelry, antique linens and the recent addition of lovely handmade shabby chic lavender sachets that I have made from linens and vintage millinery flowers I loved creating them...thought they would make nice gifts.

french lavender sachets decorated with vintage millinery

I've always wanted to run a little "real" shop, but this online one will have to serve that purpose...

...you know, I still believe in happily ever after. I still believe in the sacredness of marriage and the promise of growing old with the one you love. I want my home and your home to be a sacred sanctuary, filled with the things and the people you most love.
I want to believe that when I'm gone, I've made a difference in this world.
I want my breaths to have mattered. Even after all this time, I still want the white picket fences.

There are good days when I feel strong and energetic and invincible...but I know that my "quality of life" is not going to get better. I am not the type to feel sorry for myself, but I do now and then because I'm not superwoman. I try to use my sense of humor on the really hard days and ask myself, "Are you above ground?" "Yes,?" "Then it's a good day." And then I chuckle to myself because I know it is true.
Truly, I only have today.  This day. This moment.
If you are anything at all like me, you forget on a daily basis that this could be your very. last. day.
So, I find my joy, wherever it is that day. In a dancing shadow on the wall...or a favorite song...spending time with the ones I love, or even ironing vintage linens...or in the joy of creating just a little something every day.
This poem by Mary Oliver deeply resonates with me. Especially the very last line. forgive the morbid title, but if you haven't read it, I wanted to share it with you today~
 

When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

me and "Birdie" June 2012