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.

The World's Best, Not So Best Kept Secret

Well, I wanted to tell you I'm having a Valentine's Sale in the shop. 15% off of everything in the shop, including vintage items, with coupon code "VALENTINE2011" at checkout.
and I made a new banner and profile square for such an occasion:

 

What I really wanted to tell you about was this amazing site that I've found that has amazing FREE downloadable vintage and antique graphics!

I used quite a few of her free images for my Etsy banner and icon.

This site is a load of fun if you enjoy playing with graphic design elements. I have an almost degree in graphic design, and though hands-on creating with vintage and antique things is my passion, I still thoroughly enjoy making the occasional banner or add, or card. This website makes it so easy to find things with cataogories and such.

Here are a couple of quickie banners I've made for a couple of my favorite Etsy shops:

(Click on the banners to be taken to the shops!)
I hope everyone has a great Sunday! See you again soon.

A Surprise Sale and Vintage Assemblage Jewelry for Little Girls

I'm having a sale in the Etsy Shop...
look for the items marked "SUNDAY SALE" for 15% off lots of things. I'm kinda diggin' pink lately...apparently it is the Pantone Color of the Year as well...a color called Honeysuckle, which is a reddish pink. I like happy colors like pink.

I'm also starting a small jewelry line of lead and nickel free vintage jewelry for little girls. Thinking about doing  "mommie and me" earrings and such. For now I have made up some sweet little vintage earrings and hairpins. (I'm listing them today)

teenie vintage porcelain studs

sweet vintage rose hairpins

Would you mind leaving a comment  telling me what your favorite color is to wear? I'm always curious about what colors you like. Do you like the vintage jewelry for little girls idea? No need to sign in. You can leave an anonymous comment with just your name! No passwords and word verifications and such.

Oh, and I have new boxes...kind of like faux Tiffany blue...it was kind of an accident because I ordered white and ended up with these instead...and I like the color, so I bought some ribbon to compliment it and have lots of these vintage millinery flowers on hand....and Voila!(did I spell that right?)

So, this is my new wrapping these days...I mix it up a little with monograms and such. I love for my sweet customers to feel like they are not just making a purchase, but they are receiving a gift of love...sounds a little corny, I know, but seriously this is what I do.
I create the jewelry and then I place it on my little "altar" above my table for the night before I photograph and list it. I thank God for the gift of being able to create and I ask blessings for my readers and my dear customers and I say a prayer that goes something like, "may those who wear the work of my hands, and read my words feel the love I put into each and every piece."
Thank you, each and every one of you for being here today. For reading my words. For leaving such heartfelt comments. For your prayers for healing. I am so grateful for each and every single one of you. So grateful.

A Portrait of Self

I want to remember this day. I want to remember this bedhead in bright red with dark roots and makeupless face and wearing all of my spring clothes in the middle of this Michigan winter. Putting on her amazing springtide earrings, and a favorite necklace given to me by my mama years ago by Mati Rose. I put it on when I most need it. I need it today. Bright colors on one side and on the other it says "There is nothing wrong with you." If I can't hear anyone actually say it to me, I need to wear it close to my heart.

redheadbeadhead

I have painted myself with color today...in the brightest I have. Red shoes, green pants, blue shirt bright green sweater....my kids still make comments even after almost two years of it.  I come from literally years of wearing all black...a throwback from working at Eileen Fisher and living in a Seattle suburb years ago. I guess I thought it was easier and more "chic". It was. I desperately wanted to be chic. But that was then. I'm not worried about "chic" anymore. Now I paint myself in layers of color whenever I can. I don't much care anymore even if it really "matches". It lifts me. It was my 40th year resolution and I've kept it going. Quite possibly the only resolution I've ever kept.
Yes, I want to remember this day. The sounds of my little boy playing in the other room. Patty Griffin station playing on Pandora. Jewelry waiting to be finished on the table.
Hope in my heart.
And the feeling that there is really nothing wrong with me. Sometimes I allow others to make me feel terribly terribly flawed. I'll be 42 soon. I like myself. I heard about this revelation when I was 30. How when you turn 40 things change. They have. I've let go of some stuff...some clutter in my heart. I like the light in my eyes and the new big wrinkle in the corner of my left eye that I discovered the other day. (I don't spend much time in the mirror, so it is always a surprise when I really look!) I do, however have issues with my chin. Still trying to make peace with that......
uh-um but anyway, what do you do when you need to be lifted?
Aside from wearing lots of color, I love a big  cup of double-spice Chai tea and take maybe take in the scent and sight of lemons. (I keep lemon oil on my table and sniff it...sometimes even putting a dab under my nose and inhale deeply) I prefer lemons to fresh flowers (they're cheaper too.) Sometimes I keep one or two on my table to feel and scratch and sniff until they loose their lemony-ness.
and I read this poem called The Journey by Mary Oliver that I want to share with you:

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Je t'adore

Isn't this just lovely?!
Thank you to RewElliott for including my luscious Cobalt blue French perfume bottle. (at the time it is still for sale!)

Mamma, the Beach and Edgar Allan Poe

When I was 16, my mother presented me with this book.

I was a young novice poet, writing and brooding about broken hearts and love and wounds and teen angsty things...and I loved the dark words of my (then) favorite poet, Edgar Allen Poe. I learned from a friend that today he'd be 201 years old. My little antique book was published in 1882...I don't think I own anything else that is quite that old, or a possession that I've had quite as long.
My little Poe book has moved with me more times than I care to count. Packed and unpacked. Darkness and light. And always in the first box  I opened in the new place. My Poe book and my children and I have criss-crossed this country from cities and towns in Florida to Seattle,Washington, and then finally landing here in small town Michigan where we live our days celebrating each unique season. Though my three teenagers would disagree, there is something very charming about living here for the past seven years.
In each place I've ever lived, my little old Poe book became a reminder of my mother and from whence I came. It grounded me. It has always been there, resting quietly until I take it down from its place and gently turn the brittle pages and run my fingers over the lines of my favorite Poe poem, Annabel Lee.

I once recited it in High school English class, bringing with me my red "boom box", and on it, a recording of the ocean waves (I crept out that night before the assignment and traveled with a friend to the beach to record them.)  Barefoot and skipping in the shallow waves and twirling in the darkness, I practiced the poem aloud with the ocean mist in my hair and recorded the gentle rushing forth and receding of the waves. Yes, I was quite the romantic then and the world was wide open. Quite the dreamer at heart...and I suppose that hasn't changed much.
There was something about those last lines of Annabel Lee that resonated within me and furthered my love for poetry. For the past 28 years I have written off and on, sometimes going years uninspired to write...but always, my little antique Poe book was there waiting quietly for me. And my mother, never too far from my thoughts.

So, Happy Birthday Edgar...and thank you for your words pressed into the yellowed pages of a little brown book that made everywhere I lived a home, and inspired me to write. And thank you mama, for the very first gift of poetry...and the little old book that holds the memories of my young-ness and my spirit....and always reminds me from whence I came; of you mama, my forever home.

Resolution gone BAD....and maybe it's GOOD?

OK, I didn't write down any resolutions or words for the year yet...I only know this: I told myself I'd be more organized. I wasn't really specific. I made myself a notebook this year to keep track of labels and receipts and such, so I got that much done....and well, that's about it. I clean my work desk at least once a month and it takes A LOT of my time to do. I always feel better afterward....and then two days later it looks worse and worse and worse...........and I am surprised I get anything done. I really do have a great little space  and I am planning to paint the ugly tannish-brown colored walls soon. Anyway, an excersize in humility brings me here to show you where I work. Where I spend serious blissful hours making things for you...infusing them with joy and with love...in an organized chaos. Is there such a thing?
Thanks for being here today and sharing your time with me. I really enjoy sharing my life here. It is very cathartic for me; but also, someday my children can come here and see where their mama came from....
(my apologies for the video quality ahead of time.)

Off the Cuff...Well, I guess really it's ON the cuff..but it seemed clever enough...

I'm smitten these days with bracelets. Particularly cuffs. I have a large amount of vintage Art Nouveau stampings,shapes and swirls, little leaves, religious medals, vintage earrings, rhinestones...oh my. I've been collecting vintage and antique "supplies" for a couple of years now. It's time to use more of them. I've found the versatility of the brass cuff...

The Beekeeper's Daughter

Wedding Song

My Baroque Valentine

Oh, and for the rest of January, I am giving away free button or rhinestone or button-rhinestone hairpins with each order.
Thank you for being here.
Blessings and Light,
Jennifer

An Easy Shabby Pendant Lamp Idea

It has been ages since I've decorated anything. I am slowing down a little this month and focusing on organizing and such. I wanted to share with you an easy project I did today. The supplies involved are fairly simple:

*a thrifted  lamp (mine costs about 6.00)
*cheap lamp shade (old or new) (a little too large or too small is fine)
*bunches of old lace, vintage hankies, silk flowers
or anything that you fancy
*hot glue gun
*ceiling hook
*extension cord

Ok, so to make the pendant lamp just really entails using bunches of fabric (I used lace) to cover the shade enough to make it kinda flouncy. I began by loosely hot gluing some old lace around the bottom. I used the "cool melt" kind of glue so I didn't burn the skin off of my fingers! I just gathered the lace, added a blob of glue and pressed the lace into the glue. It kind of squishes into the lace layers and holds it where you press it down.

I began with a layer draped around the bottom, then added two more layers. No need for perfection. I wanted it to be kind of haphazard and messy.

Once the shade was covered, I added it upside-down on to the inverted vintage glass lamp base and hung it from the ceiling. I covered the cord loosely with a long length of vintage lace and puddled it a little into the open lamp base. The lamp then plugs into an extension cord. The joined ends are perfectly hidden in the fluffs of lace, so it just looks like one continuous cord.. Anchor the lamp cord to the ceiling hook by just looping it back over itself a couple of times and adding a tie. I found a low wattage bulb is best. I put a 60 watt in for this photo and it got a little too hot.

A mishap with the old plaster walls while attempting to tear down some tacky plastic paneling (glued and nailed to the plaster walls!) became a welcome bit of shabby chic-ness that my husband and I both like a lot. We decided to leave the rest of the walls alone and cover them with antique sheet music and book pages. It is still a work in progress...I'll post that project next week.
If you decide to try this lamp project, I'd love to see your creations!
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today.

Yes, I'm Being Followed by a Moon Shadow

Moon Shadow, unknown date

I dreamed of him again last night. Every now and again he visits and I tell him how much I miss him...how much he meant to me...and I hold him tightly as long as I can before he has to go away from me once more. Even after almost 30 years, the tears well up and spill over my cheeks with the intense missing of him...my step-father, Jerry Roberts. He came to us a funny, gentle and playful angel. He made our mother smile and laugh like we'd never seen her do...he made us all feel safe and loved. He made us feel precious and seen and relevant. We mattered. He loved our mother deeply and he loved us girls like his own.

And then he left us. He didn't want to, but for whatever reason, God took him home. He was killed in a car accident in December of 1983.

We watched the joy leave my mother's face and turn into deep sadness. Our little world, our utopia by the lake, under the boughs of Hickory trees laden with moss...was completely shattered. Only a deep chasm of emptiness and grief remained. My sister and my mother and I were forever changed...forever altered by an unimaginable and unbearable grief.

and Here I sit, almost 42 years old....with the same wounded heart of the 14 year old girl he left behind...

I need to tell you this. It is a part of my story, but it is only a part of the reason why I am writing this now. Sitting here vulnerable. Fighting the tears that blur the computer screen as I type.

He comes to me in dreams every now and again...sometimes picking me up in his truck. Sometimes we talk on the phone. Sometimes we meet at the lake; but this time we met at the track and he let me drive the dragster he named "Moon Shadow". Why, after almost 30 years, did I get to drive it?

I think I know.

He knows how I struggle. I feel his presence around me much more so these days...and I hear the sweet phantom sound of his southern voice. When I worry about not being alive for my children....or when i feel the energy drain from my body and I succumb once again to the blue-plate-special-illness of the month. When I am fearful and a little crabby, I remember his playfulness and his smile and his laughter....how i reveled in his attention and generosity; his dark and kind eyes looking back at me...his gentle voice filling my ears. I adored him beyond reason. He was mine, and our everything. He was a wonderful father to me and my young sister. The only one I ever really knew. He loved us deep and wide.We felt it. We knew.

...and so now, I've gotten to drive the car. I had always yearned to. I would dream of it when we'd go to watch him race at the drag strip....he'd let my sister and I sit in Moon Shadow every now and then just to have the thrill of sitting in it...

I know it sounds silly, but I think the dream, well it was a message from him...and in a way, a message to you and that is why I am spilling open here, wider than ever, to bring you the message.

He knew I needed to finally drive the car. To feel the power as I pressed down the gas and the loudness came and the front end came up off the pavement. I felt empowered. I felt alive and joyful. I knew where I needed to go. I knew what I had to do. I instinctively knew how to drive it and I wasn't alone because he was watching and he was proud.

In the dream I was driving the dragster, yet I could also see myself in it at the same time. He was showing me that I could do it...he was showing me what he saw as I drove.

and what a thrill it was to be driving!

But more so, I think his message was this: no matter how limited our time here on this Earth, love is the only thing that matters. It is the only thing we can truly leave behind.

What we leave behind in the hearts and minds of others is all we have. It is all we can truly give.

He gave me all of the generosity, laughter and love to pass it along. Life is so precious. So mysterious. So filled with beauty and despair and resilience and grace and tragedy. I am learning how to love the questions. I'm learning to love with my best possible love. I understand that I will always be a work in progress. I am learning to be more gentle with myself. I'm learning to find more and more humor in it all. And I've finally gotten to drive Moon Shadow. I know I can leave here any time now, knowing I've planted seeds of laughter and generosity and love. This was his message to me.

He gave that to me.
He gave me that, to give to you.

In Loving Memory of
Jerry Stephen Roberts

November 6th 1949 - December 27th 1983

Garn-Etsy, one of the prettiest treasuries I've ever been a part of...

This is just the most visually striking Etsy Treasury I've ever been included in. Maybe if we all click on it, we'll make it to the front page?
Notice I say "We"? I can't; I don't do this alone. I draw my inspiration from all of you...the beauty and depth of the human spirit...the individual and collective beauty of all you out there reading this now.
I am so grateful for "Cynmb" for including me in this beautiful collection.

Resolutions

I'm still here...just resting a lot.
But I've made some vintage assemblage jewelry for the Etsy shop, that I'm pretty pleased with:

I am giving a lot of thought to the idea of having a New Year's "word"...it seems to be the thing to do these days. I imagine it means having kind of a "power word" for the new year...or a focus word...
The whole New Year's resolution thing just seems to set me up for disappointment in myself. Last year I only had one resolution: Wear more necklaces.Yes, that's it! And you know, not only did I end up wearing more necklaces than I ever have, I made and sold a lot of necklaces too!
So maybe there is something to the whole resolution thing. But maybe we should be more gentle and playful with what we resolve to do. How about some easy things like pick more flowers or watch more old movies? Last year was the first year that I didn't say to myself, "This year, I resolve to loose 30 pounds." "Work out 4 days a week." "Walk for an hour every day."
,,,and well, it was so much more FUN this past year. There was no pressure. Nothing in my resolution to feel like a failure for. Nothing to fill me with dread and self doubt.
I encourage you to be kind to yourself. Make one or two goals/resolutions, but be sure to add in some fun and humor and gentleness.
I think this year I will resolve to write more....postcards, letters, journaling and such. There is something about the actual written word that means so much more than a typed one. Almost as if the essence of the writer is captured in the ink and paper. I like that.
This year, I'm thinking of words like "travel", "true", "mend", "heal", and "simplify"...can I have more than one word? Who made up the one word rule anyway?

Do you have ideas for kinder, gentler resolutions? I really would love to hear them.

What Does Your Heart Say?

Tonight I am thinking about the song of my life.....the song of my heart.......
with the sound of the cats romping about,
and the sound of my teenagers' laughter in the next room,
and the sound of my favorite music by Patty Griffin and Michael Hoppe on the player;
the sparkle of the snow outside when the light dances from the window,
and the taste of a warm cup of Chai tea...
the symphony of breathing in and breathing out, coming from the next room as my little son and husband sleep deeply;
carried by dreams...the secrets of the night...
as I type here tonight at the desk next to my jewelry table, I am surrounded by paintings and artwork by the most incredible people:
 Marina, Cathi, Michael, my beloved Ken, Carissa, Susan, my mama, Randal and my sister Kelly Rae who's quiet voice asks me each day in the sweet  words of my favorite print: "What does your heart say?"
And I say back to it that my heart says to love. Love with everything I've got...because love is really all there is. Love is the only thing I truly own, and it is meant to give away.
In this space I find myself surrounded with the evidence of it....letters and cards from dear and loyal customers and friends...precious offerings of Autumn leaves and special gifts from my sweet husband...
Yes, my heart says to love with wildest abandon. Hope for all things. Cherish family. Make amends. Laugh loud. Embrace each season of the earth, and each season of my life...

“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.” H. D. Thoreau

Tonight I am thinking of you out there...and I am sending you love and light tonight. I thank you for being here and sharing your precious time with me.  For sharing this space.  For reading my words. For taking the time to leave sweet and thoughtful comments....I sound sappy, I know, but life has taken on such a different meaning for me since I've been sick so often.  Each day of wellness becomes this jubilant gift...a celebration...a triumph.

(And my darling Ken, my K.W., I know you are reading this too, and I want you to know how precious and rare you are....how precious and how rare. I love you so...)

Goodnight dear ones...

my feeble attempt at modeling one of Marina's necklaces
 wearing my favorite vintage sweater. Is my hair really that red?! oops.
good thing my husband is color blind.

It's 2 a.m. and I'm Thinking About You

Precious baby boy True...Right now I'm thinking about your mama, my sister, and how your smile looks so much like hers. I'm thinking about your eyes and how they shine and I wonder if they will be the prettiest green; like hers. I'm thinking about how your tiny breath would feel on my neck as I rock you to sleep and sing to you the song of pretty horses...the same one I sang to her in the night. Night after night to soothe her in the darkness.
I'm thinking about how the tiny bubbles in your bottle as you drink must sound almost the same as hers did, while she lay next to me more than 30 years ago...it seems like it was just yesterday. (it's a dumb old cliche, I know, but I don't know how else to say it.)
I hold a lot of your mama's memories, you know, and someday I hope to hold some of yours too....and I promise I'll keep them safe, like hers. And I'll bring them out later when you have a birthday or need reminding or maybe you need to remember where you came from if you get lost along the way. So many times, your mama has found me when I was lost along the way. She is such a remarkable person and you; well you are a very very lucky boy.
I think of you every day and I am so grateful to see your smile, even if it is just a photograph. When I see your little face on the screen my breath catches in my throat. I hold you  in my heart and in my thoughts always. Since you've been born, life seems lighter somehow. Greener. The hard things seem a lot less important.
Sweet child, you are a lantern in the darkness. You are hope. You are healing.

You are True.

Anne Told Her to Make it Green....so She Did.

My "Florintine" depression glass earrings made it into this beautiful treasury today made by FeyDesigns...click image to get to the Etsy page. These shops are definitely worth looking into!

What I Was Up to Before I was Rudely Interrupted

I'm out of bed this afternoon, just for a bit though to say hello. 
I had grand plans this past week. Oh yes, I had plans. But my body? Well it had other plans....
I've been very sick these past several days. Sicker that I ever thought possible. Complete with ER visit and scary low blood pressure that almost got me admitted.
I am just now feeling a little better, and aside from being happy about the obvious, spending time with my family;
My thoughts turn to my passion, my jewelry making...
My grand plans are laid to waste, I think to myself while looking wistfully at the small pile of earrings and bracelets I made to put in the shop.....before it came along. I wonder to myself what I am supposed to take from all of this. I thought I was grateful to be well before. I thought that the worst was behind me and I wanted to jump back and kiss myself because I felt so good to feel good again. But no. Before was just a kiddie ride. Just being able to get out of bed and stay upright for as long as I've taken to write these words means I am finally on the mend. And I am ever ever so grateful. The curtains are flung open to reveal a beautiful winter wonderland that wasn't there before. The sounds of life all around me are a sweet symphony...


I've got new things coming to the shop very soon. I must say, I love the new cuff bracelets the most. They give me a great opportunity to use some larger buckle pieces from my collection that I can't use for necklaces.


I'd like to thank all of you who have sent well wishes, notes of hope and love to me. It means so much.

antique buckle cuff bracelet

depression glass dangle earrings

Art Nouveau flowers with Haskell filigree

These things and more will be coming to the Etsy shop very soon. I am having a sale through Christmas of a total of 20% off of everything in the shop if you use the discount code "WONDERLAND" at checkout.
(now, back to bed...)

Wishbone Chandelier

I bought this pin this morning.
Wanted to let you know.
It is a wishbone pin, Dad.
I bought  it for myself
because today is your birthday.
Bet you thought I didn't remember.

For so many years
I always meant to call,
but I never knew what to say.

I was 8 and
my first memory of you was how you hung
wishbones on your
chandelier to dry.
And you took one down
and we each held the delicate bone
(always pulling in opposite directions)
and made a secret wish together.
I remember I got the larger piece,
so my wish was supposed to come true.
But it just never did.
And now you are gone from me
forever.
You left without saying
a
single
word.
Left me with nothing.
but this dead birthday phone call

and this damn
wishbone chandelier.

The Adventures of Cutie Bear (named by my 5 year old) and the Christmas Tree

This year, it has taken me quite awhile to decorate the tree. I just finished wiring on the last vintage chandelier crystal last night...and debating on whether to make paper chain this year.... We have two new kittens in the house, which bring us so much joy, but they also bring us exercises in patience! I have had to actually wire the ornaments on to the tree.....as you can see in the video, I've done a nice job so far. And only two glass icicle casualties so far this year.
I've been told to squirt the kittens with a squirt gun to train them to stay out of the tree, but I just don't have the heart to do it....so alas, every now and again I hear the tree tinkling loudly in the other room and smile to myself for a job very well done.

In other news, the sale in my Etsy shop is still in full swing until December 1st. I have everything marked at 5% off, then you get another 20% off with coupon code: THANKSGIVING2010
See you soon!
Love and Light,
Jennifer

Cutie at Rest. (Thank God.)

Unique Display Idea, Cat Eye Glasses and Antique Letters

I bought several ancient, (as in late 1800's) blue shutters from an antique shop quite some time ago for 5 bucks a piece...they still have the original hardware on them and they are all this amazing pale blue color. I didn't have to do a thing to them but clean them up a little. This one, I use for a display piece in my living room...on which, I hang a vintage lingerie/pants hanger with amazing red clips that really add a little punch to the display.....and on said lingerie/pants hanger I have clipped a beloved antique green satin purse in which I display some of our favorite antique letters, postcards, and a pair of our favorite vintage cat eye glasses. More glasses from our collection are just inserted in the slats.

This is by far, my most favorite display. I hope it inspires you to be more playful in your home too.

Let me know what you're favorites are and maybe I can do a post about it? I'd love to see!