Monday, April 30, 2007

~ Monday ~ My Home ~ Market Junk Treasures

Last week my Sweetie asked if I'd like to go up to Renninger's on Sat. and of course I jumped at the offer. When we went to Mt. Dora last weekend, it's less than an hour from here, we only went downtown to look at the shops.

Sometimes we will look over the "Junk Man's" ...um junk! It is tables and tables of nothing but junk, and maybe a tiny treasure buried. This time the usual guy had another junk type vendor as well. Junk Man #1 wasn't open and is leaving the market for good. Many people will be sad to see this happen. Junk Man #2 had only been there since Dec., and he was packing up to head back north. Hey guys, it's only 88* out, it's not even hot yet!


When I took this picture, I was actually rather startled to see how much of me it shows. The tarnished silver is from another thrift the week before, but the amazing peeling silver leaf cross, blurred mirrors and vintage jewelry and some others goodies were all from the junk tables. Sitting outside in the heat and rain. The cross was buried in one of two boxes from an older lady's estate. I was so happy to rescue it. I was too late for a vintage Madonna chalkware statue. That is what I was looking for, but it was broken into pieces.

Although I don't go to garage sales or too many thrift stores, there is something about looking at tons of old stuff sitting out on tables in the fresh air that I can't resist. Lucky I got there just in time before they headed north.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

~ Last Weekend's Trip to Mt. Dora

Here are a few pictures of Mt. Dora. What a quaint little town.
With the last real estate boom, everything got rather expensive out there, too.
You can find a nice little fixer upper in downtown on sale for only $500,000. Looks like it needs a bit of work, don't you think?
Something about this next old house really was enchanting....the color, the lacy curtains on that big porch. It calls out to my heart, but oh what a ton of work.

The downtown looks much the same as it did 50 years ago, but now it gets a lot of visitors. It was a bit more old fashioned for a long time, but newer stores have come in lately. Old buildings still, but selling new items. The town is known for its antique stores.

And if you come to town on a Sat., be sure to bring that vintage car with you!


Looking down one of the streets lined with shops.
Hope you enjoy the pictures since I love seeing your trips!

Monday, April 23, 2007

~ Monday ~ Corners of My Home


The last three days I've been home long enough to eat, sleep and watch one movie! I have really missed reading all the blog sites and will have to catch up.

It's Monday, so here is another little glimpse around my home. This is still in the morning room. It is the other side of the doorway you saw last week.

We built a storage piece here using two stock cabinet pieces and we added the tops, bottoms and moldings and faux lead glass treatment.
It is a good example of glazing over white with a small paint brush for more detail work.

The tile is an antique Minton. We found it up at Renninger's a couple of years ago. It was special treat for that trip. It's one of my favorite things. You can see the corner of a large painting which is one of my hubby's.

It was a beautiful weekend here, I hope you all had the same. We drove up to the little city of Mt. Dora, the city where we have found some of the vintage and antique things I've shown before at their Renninger's Market.

This time we went to the downtown area. It seems like it has been a long time since we went to the stores. It used to be almost all antique stores, now there are quite a few gift stores selling all new items. We skipped those.

I wanted to go to the Hospice store there, and along with it and one other antique mall type store, I did find some fun things. A couple of vintage jewelry pieces, old books to use in art, lace and some small vintage white glass urns, etc....that kind of stuff. We had fun and a fantastic (totally fat and calories) Italian meal.

Thanks for coming by, have a great day.

Friday, April 20, 2007

~ Friday ~ Art Day




Fridays sound like a good time for me to post little peeks of my art. This just might keep me on track a bit. I can really skip around from project to project and leave things unfinished.

The week really went by too quickly. Some friends asked what I was working on this week. So here is a little peek.

One of the most fantastic things that I've discovered since starting the blog in January, is the number of artists who have blogs. It was such a surprise.

Buy art! Real art, something made, painted, created by hand. There is so much out there that is affordable instead of buying from the stores who sell factory line stuff.
I will be putting my art pieces either on Etsy or Ebay, or both. If any of you have feedback as to which one you like best for selling art, I'd love to hear it. Wish me luck with selling. I've done juried art shows and galleries with fine art, but this on line thing is quite new to me.
Fairies and flowers have been in our art since the late 70's. We have always been drawn to older art that had those images. We loved vintage paintings and illustrations, and created our own art with some of that inspiration. I'm still finding art supplies and goodies that I had stashed away for years that I'm using again.

Creating art, that's where I've been this week.
Wishing a wonderful weekend to all who stop by!

Monday, April 16, 2007

~ Monday ~ Corners of My Home

The morning room had ugly cement block walls when we first moved in. This was a "breezeway" of that time period, a room right off the kitchen. I did what anyone would do in the 80's, I wallpapered it! It takes two layers of course to get rid of the lines of the blocks. You know that was fun to strip later on.

Now I'm happy to have the blocks. I love old stone walls, so after stripping the paper, I painted the walls to look like stone. In a couple of places I did a broken stone effect. This is one of them.
The ceiling in here was green for a long time, but with a grayish tone. Then a few years ago, when the kiwi green became a part of the decor, my hubby painted the ceiling for me. I really don't like painting ceilings. Does anyone? I guess not. I think almost everyone who buys an older house has one or two (or 100!) things like this that start out as the worst parts, and end up as some of the best for making it a home.

This once ugly area is a favorite spot to me now. The room just beyond the door is the Family Room.

*Added: The border around the room is anaglypta, embossed paper. Although I don't care for wallpaper borders, I make an exception for anaglypta. I love the carved molding effect they can give. As you can see this one has been painted to give it an aged look.

Friday, April 6, 2007

~ Happy Easter ~ Let Your Light Shine





Finally Boo Dahlia was with Mistress Cindy of B'Ham. It was a long trip from one end of the country to the other and back, but it was all worth it when she walked through the door to Cindy. Fried green tomatoes? Oh yes, they did go to the Whistle Stop, and it was the best food in the city. They needed the comfort of southern cooking.
When Jood passed on, Cindy was devastated and now Booie understood why her journey had taken the twists and turns that it had. She needed to be with Jood before she left, and she needed to be with Cindy now. There were days that they just sat and talked, and sometimes no talking was needed.

Cindy's home and gardens were beautiful and healing. She is the force and strength behind our art journey group. She brought us all together. Booie understood Cindy's broken heart, hers was as well. Cindy did not find much to improve with Booie. Jood had put the finishing touches on her. Cindy wrote a lovely poem and made pretty journal pages and painted the stand that Booie liked to use. Booie was a reminder of Jood's love of the art dolls, but she was good reminder. It was time for her to return home and comfort me, too.

Last year I found out that I was sick. At first I didn't know how serious it was. The doctor said I needed minor surgery and it would be fine, it didn't look really bad. We hung on those words and were shocked a few weeks later when the biopsy showed a different conclusion and I needed major surgery. But not chemo or radiation thank God.

I walked through the living room a few days after my doctor's visit and there was the most beautiful stream of light shining through the side window. I stopped to see where the light was going.

It was shining directly on Boo Dahlia, who had come out for Easter, standing sweetly on the entry table. To me, it was sign. Oh I know it was just natural sunlight coming in a window, but it was more to me. There was a comforting feeling that it would be all right. I even tried to make the light do the same thing a day or so later, but I couldn't catch the exact moment. Booie didn't move from her spot but the sun had continued on with its journey.
She did however smile with a twinkle in her eye. The sun doesn't stop shining when one of us leaves, but the Light we leave behind goes on and on.
Happy Easter to each of you, and I hope you dance in Light and let your Light Shine!

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

~ Boo Dahlia and Jood's Gifts


All together our art doll round robin group worked and played on 24 dolls. Four rounds of 6 dolls, Michelle and her mom, Jan (Jood's sister), did one doll together each time to send out, then there was Kathryn, Kimi, Jood and Cindy who you will meet shortly. Each art doll is so amazing, and several appeared in Art Doll Quarterly, but Boo Dahlia is special to me.
Boo loved being with Jood and you can see why from her picture. Doesn't she look happy?
Jood was having so much fun with Booie. She made her arms, fixed up her hat with some pink and added pink to her cheeks, fixed her ear, made the bustier and of course, made Booie smile. Jood had enough creative energy in her to light a city. She brought lots of light to our group.
Working on the art dolls was the easy part. We also sent out the journals and sometimes that got put on the back burner. And just as important, we had to get them boxed up and sent in the mail!
Booie didn't want to leave. But for Jood, getting Booie off again on her way to finally see Mistress Cindy in B'Ham, and then back home to me, was extremely important.
Jood, however, became too weak to get Booie out the door.
Her note said...As you can see, at times (from meds) I cannot write well (shaky), and since my angel daughter was here...taking such wonderful care of her momma, and she loves crafting, I asked her to put together the journal pages for me. She said it was so fun. What a Godsend she is.
What a Godsend it is to know Jood.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

~ EveryBunny Needs a BOOstier

I'm so happy that you are enjoying the story of Boo Dahlia the Art Doll. Her journey has brought some heartfelt lessons to me. Thanks for letting me share her with you.
At the end of August, and indeed at the tail end of hurricane season, here at home, we sat through the eye of a hurricane. A small hurricane, which made it very interesting and not quite as scary, but the eye of a hurricane nonetheless. After a couple of days we had phone service and family and friends were happy to get in touch with us again.

That is a picture looking down our street after the storm. Our house is exactly to the right, that's the tree at the front street line. You couldn't see any further than the lady & girl standing in front of my neighbors's house.
Soon a call came in...from Jood! She wanted to make sure I was OK. Me??? I yelled back, it's just a hurricane, how are YOU!? I was stunned at her kindness that she took the time to call me when she was going through chemo and all the other stuff to fight the cancer. It so touched my heart. But this is Jood.
Oh, the attention that Booie Dear received from the gracious Mistress Joody. This was an enchanting woman, a Giver of Light and Love. At first Jood was doing pretty good. Booie could see that she grew weaker as time went by. I like to think that playing with Booie made her life better. Jood certainly gave so much to each of the art dolls. The time, care and attention always astounded me when the dolls were done.
Booie had a lovely shirt when she arrived, but you could see through it. So Jood made her the most wonderful BOOstier which met with Boo's approval with "oui oui's" and she thought it was so fittingly French. She must have still thought this was Paris Jood said. Jood also noted that Boo did not get acupuncture, her hips just made a perfect pin cushion while Jood was busy sewing.

Monday, April 2, 2007

~ Ms. Boo in Paree (or the NW!)

It was almost August and the Rainy Place was pretending to be a warm sunny state, not rainy and cold at all. Boo Dahlia liked it very much. She loved plants and flowers and the green was so beautiful here. Jood's garden was so vibrant and it was nice to see the house back together after the fire. That's another story.

What Booie was not prepared for was how sick Joody was, she had cancer. Although she gave Booie the most wonderful welcome as if she was her old self. Jood was in treatment and taking medicines, but Booie knew this was one of the most important things she would ever do. She had to be as positive as she could be and not be crying and sad all the time. Time was too precious.

But let's go back a bit.
When Boo Dahlia arrived, Jood was astonished to see the condition she was in. Jood wrote in the journal that she thought "when Jan was not sitting at her desk...thinking that Boo spent the day innocently sleeping on it...that bunny was actually partying!
Booie's right ear was broken off, one leg was dangling loose, her face was dirty, and her blouse was down around her waist! Fortunately Jood had just the magic that Boo needed. She could put a smile on anybunny's face.

Lucky for Booie, the wondrous Mistress Joody loved a challenge. When Booie's cousin Soleil had come to visit Jood, she was very slow to leave. She loved this lady and her hospitality. Now Booie knew why.

Booie greeted Jood with, "Ees thees za place to where I am supposed to arrive?" in a very fake French accent. Jood was amused and began in a flurry to put that Bunny Girl back together. She mended the ear, added some long luscious eyelashes and that put a smile on the Bunny's face.