My Weblog

Giveaway Winner and Where Women {collect} Want to Create

I'm still plugging away in "my room" which is the bonus room over our garage. Dragging boxes from the basement and sorting through my stuff. As someone who has collected and crafted for over two decades the stash I've accumulated is.......I can't think of the right word.

Ridiculous?

Awesome?

Hideous?

A Royal Mess?

Oozing with Creative Potential?

Perhaps a mixture of all of the above! All I know is that right now, my work area looks more like where a woman collects and wants to create as opposed to my goal of where a woman actually does create...but I am making steady progress.

 
However, as I rediscover stuff that has been packed away, hidden from sight, my mind begins to fill with ideas. Organizing Angel and the We-Love-Chaos-Demon begin to do battle. It takes every ounce of willpower not to stop the sifting, sorting, pitching and organizing in exchange for running off to chase the latest creative muse.

But I have a huge incentive....On June 19th, Karen, at My Desert Cottage is hosting her second WHERE BLOGGERS CREATE party! As of this writing there are 390 signed up to showcase their creative work areas! How fun! Everyone is invited. You can read all about it by clicking on the link to her name.

I can only imagine all the eye candy and inspiration that will be showcased during that awesome tour of work spaces!

Are you loving that little pink metal doll case? Maybe a year ago [or more!] I bought it from Janna who is now involved in a HUGE antique shop up in North Carolina that I am itching to go and check out. It wouldn't be a bad drive from where I live...it's on my wish list. Janna is a great junker, with a fun blog if you love old, rusty, and antique items. The name of her blog, Artsy Fartsy Finds gives a little glimpse into her witty, and fun humor as well!

Before I ramble any further, let me announce the winner of the book WHERE WOMAN CREATE....

Counting down the comment list, that would be Anne! Congratulations and I hope you'll enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed it!

xo, Sue
 

Happy Mother's Day

   (my mother taken in the 1940's) 

Mother's Day is one of those days that can stir the emotions like no other day...At different times in my life, those emotions varied. During seven+ years of infertility, or following a miscarriage, the day stirred an emotion of deep longing. But the one consistent theme year after year was a deep sense of love and appreciation for my own mother.

Now at age 87, she is mother to six, grandmother to 18, great-grandmother to 22, and even a couple  of great-great grandchildren! No doubt those numbers will continue to increase as there are still 7 grandchildren {our 3 children and my baby sister's 4 who have yet to either get married and/or start their own families}.

One consistent theme in my mother's life next to having her family visit in person, are the piles of photos she loves to receive and sort through often.

 

She also loves to receive my handmade cards. Despite the fact that my creative muse seems to have taken a long vacation and refuses to return to me, I knew I had to try to come up with something. Recently I stitched the little verse that I blogged about here and decided it would be perfect to use in my card.

{front} 

 

{back}

Starting with an 8.5 x 11" piece of heavy chipboard I covered the front with an old piece of drapery and began layering different elements. The back was covered with a piece of vintage wallpaper with a photo added of my mom from days gone by. It always tickles her to see one of these forgotten photos included in my cards. [the little fragments of green glittered lace on the two corners were from Patty and now shared with my mum...]

 Despite the fact that my mother lives 1200 miles away and I won't be able to share this day in person, I know how blessed I am to still have her. 

Here's wishing all my bloggy friends a most blessed Mother's Day.

 [And huge hugs to the hearts of those for whom this day stirs the sadness emotion for any number of reasons.]   

Vintage Fabric...Part I

 

Tucked away in the basement level, in the far corner, was a pile of them. Love at first sight. With merely seconds to decide, the tock clicking, and my arms loaded with more than I could already carry, I decided three would be enough.

Three luscious rag balls made of vintage fabric--about the size of a grapefruit--in an antique store--1200 miles from home--and I only bought three. Was it because they were so expensive? No. It's because...I don't know why, because they were only $2 a piece. Sigh.  

 
Do you see the tiny stitches someone made in order to join the strips into one continuous piece? My guess would be someone intended to use these to make rag rugs. Growing up, we had them scattered at all spots throughout the house wherever dirty feet might trod.

But before you feel too sorry for me, I made quite the haul at this store. The prices were so reasonable on so many different items.

But still...there was a rag ball the size of a basketball made up of numerous old prints, and the price was $6. I didn't buy it because I couldn't carry it along with my other items up to the checkout. Due to the fact that I needed to be somewhere and was already running late, there wasn't any time to make two trips to the checkout from the basement.

 One option that came to mind was to yell for help hoping one of the employees upstairs would come to my resuce. The only thing that stopped me from doing so {besides personal humiliation of stooping so low} was knowing that two of my sisters have a booth in the shop. Perhaps a little embarrassing for them if these two employees didn't have a sense of humor? 

Seriously, this antique shopping disease can cause one to consider extreme behavior, can't it?