Surprise Birthday Giveaway!!

Yes...it's my birthday today and I wanted to celebrate by having a surprise birthday giveaway! This little fairy comes bearing a gift and she'll be the happy prize for a lucky winner! Just leave a comment (I'd love to hear about your favorite or funniest birthday memory!!) on this post and next Monday night I'll pick a winner!

Yes...it's my birthday, but it's also my little sister's birthday!! She was born 12 years ago (has it already been that long?!) on my 14th birthday. I told my mom to keep her in until later, but she didn't care enough to try. While I pouted back then, now I'm thrilled that we share the same birthday and I wish I could be with her today! Happy Birthday Suzi!! :)

Bayberry Cove

I have some exciting news...

...the fabulous Debbie from Bayberry Cove has just added me as a new artist to her fabulous website!! Yippee!! If you've never been there you must go check it out now! It's chock full of cheery, glittery holiday decorations from many of my favorite artists and best of all, you can't leave that place without a head full of inspiration for unforgettable holiday displays. I'm so thrilled to be a part of the Bayberry Cove "team"!!

Here are a few of her Vintage by Crystal offerings:

Silver Bella Crown Swap

I joined two swaps for Silver Bella and this crown swap was so much fun! (I'll show you the other swap later.) I made this vintagey, lacy, cream and white hen crown for Sheila. She loves roosters and chickens and what better symbol to put on her pretty headpiece?

I was really worried that she wouldn't like it, but then I saw her wearing it the next day at vendor night and it looked great on her! Yay!

I added lots of vintage lace, buttons, glitter, and old pearls....and you might never guess, but the crown itself is made from an old manila folder (gasp!).


And THIS beauty is the crown I got! You can see by the crazed look on my face that I'm truly thrilled! It's all about nature and sports pussy willows, feathers, tiny sticks, ribbons, flowers etc. It will serve me very well as a centerpiece! It was made by the super sweet Terry Frias (thank you so much Wanda for her blog url!) Unfortunately this is the only photo I have of my beautiful masterpiece, taken by Pink Pomegranate. I had to leave the crown at my parent's house because I didn't dare take it with me on the bumpy bus back to Boston. I am looking forward to retrieving it when I visit for Christmas. :)

Sigh...I feel like a princess!

Back from Silver Bella!

Ok...well I'm not JUST back...but it's taken me this long to catch up on orders, emails, and now, my blog! I had an amazing time on my trip across the country that ended at Silver Bella. I took only a few photos, but they were snapped on my phone, so please excuse their yuckiness (and also excuse my weird hair...it always looks fine until you see a photo of yourself!).

The photo above is probably my favorite project. Jennifer Murphy's snowman clip ornament. I'm not a great sewer, but I managed to do a pretty good job on this cutie if I don't say so myself!

Jennifer was a great teacher and I was thrilled to be one of her students. Her work inspires me so much and she is such a great person!

The bundle up birdie box was a lot of fun too. Mine is the one at the top. So cute!

I also met Jo Packham of Where Women Create. She is a real sweetheart and I loved her wildly buttoned sweater! ;)

And best of all, I got to hang with Heather and Heidi! They are the best!!

I'll be sharing more goodies from Silver Bella and from the rest of my trip, as well as what I'm working on now...stay tuned! :)

My Workspace

Well...I've been on the road for almost two weeks now and it's been amazing. We've been to more than a handful of different states and just as many gorgeous National Parks. I promise I won't bore you all with too many photos when I get back. ;)

Before I left I snapped this photo of the desk area in my studio (which I've been missing tremendously! Along with Ben and Magic of course). I was super busy getting ready for Silver Bella and my workspace was proof! Well...to be honest, it almost always looks like that.

Tomorrow is the big day (the start of Silver Bella) and I can't wait to meet so many blog and artist friends! I'll be rooming with Heather of Speckled Egg and Heidi of Birds of a Feather and I know we'll have a blast! I'll try to take lots of photos!

Until later...

Great movie and Bad Art

Last weekend I took a break from all the cotton spinning and Ben and I joined some friends to see "Where the Wild Things Are". It was a great movie and a fun night! The Somerville Theater was decked out in cobwebs and other Halloweeny things.

It was a wet, but warm night...my favorite. Perfect for being out and about.

The characters in the movie were wonderful and really looked like real life versions of the book! My favorite part? The giant dog they saw walking in the desert.

After the movie we ventured down to the Bad Art Museum they had in their basement. It was rather entertaining and some of the "bad art" was actually quite good...like this crazy clown! Very well rendered but certainly a little scary.
The frame on this one was really interesting.

Some tedious pointellism. Silly to think that someone did this much work to paint a man in his tighty whities.
A sweet portrait.
This one was certainly poorly rendered and I'm not quite sure what's going on here...any ideas?

This was a fabulous night out in New England...however, I am currently in the great state of Texas and will be travelling with my dad and sister out through the Southwest, looping around back to through Southern Utah, making a stop in Denver to visit a friend before continuing on to Nebraska for Silver Bella. After that we're making a B-line for New York State. I'll leave my dad and sister at home and take a bus back to Boston. Phew! I'll be back in town and back to my normal routine around November 18th. I've drafted several blog posts before I left that I will be posting every few days...so check back in! As for now...I'm hoping to spot a horny toad and catch a tumbleweed (which I actually already did just today!) :)

Halloweeny Snapshots...

The house is all decked out! I snapped a bunch of photos the other day to share with you. This photo above is the living room...I've been collecting vintage plastic jack-o-lanterns and piled them on top of Grandma's cabinet.

Standard hallway garlands.

Ahhh!!! They're getting out!!

Ben's mask from the masquerade party last year now keeps the lampshade shrouded in secrecy. The orchid used to be white but when the blossoms dropped off I replaced them with creepy black blooms.

Crazy gourd man sports a new hat! Or should I say old hat...it's from the 30's and has glittered witches on it! The old honeycomb spider is new too...love him!

I made this guy a while ago after seeing his vintage counterpart on the cover of country living magazine.

Vintage garland a cutie made by Janie adorn one mirror...

...while old festooning and a witch made by Janie adorns another mirror!

I replaced a few of the photos in the bathroom with some more festive ones.

My mom's representation of my little sister in pumpkin form.

More vintage goodness! That devil head was the first piece in my collection...I don't think he's super super old...but he sure is fantastic!

And of course I put up my crepe paper Halloween tree! I have tons of new ornaments to adorn it from Heather's black and white Halloween ornament swap!

I also found these fabulous old black cat pieces at two separate garages in the same day. They really add to the festive feel...but I was told that I couldn't put them in the dishwasher...umpf!

All of these girls did an amazing job!! I just love all of the work and detail that went into each piece!

LOVE this victorian shoe!!

They just make me so giddy!!! I was a kid in a candy store when I was unwrapping each one...which reminds me...the packaging of each piece was almost as good as the ornament itself! Thank you so much girls!!

And lastly Mr. Scary Bear (who stays out all year to great visitors at the front door), says "Happy Halloween!" :-)