Country Snow Girl Turned City Desert Girl

I have been in my home town in Wyoming & Northern Utah visiting my family for the last 10 days.  I learned that after moving from the small town in Wyoming 18 years ago to the "city" and moving from snow country to the desert 14 years ago I am officially no longer a "Country Snow Girl" but rather a "City Desert Girl".

I woke up to it snowing three days in a row!!!  It's okay to visit and have snow in the winter, but snow in the middle of May is just wrong!!!

However, while cozy and warm sitting inside the house I can't deny that I love the quite beauty that comes with a snow storm. 

 

While visiting I couldn't help but notice all the simple luxuries I have living in the city, ones that I would not want to give up any time soon.  Shopping being one of them, but I did find some good treasures at the local antique store which I'll share in a post once I return home.

It was so fun to get to see my niece Olivia
and spend some one on one time with her!

 

As much as I have enjoyed visiting my family I am looking forward to heading back to the city in the desert and getting to see my boyz in a couple days!!!

Pretty Presents

I love making presents look just as yummy on the outside as the hidden surprise on the inside.  I made these pretty presents by taking a simple kraft paper jewelry box and gluing a vintage white paper doily on the lid with a glue stick.  While those were drying I made name tags out of paper clay, tied them up with a pretty blue-grey seam binding ribbon and attached the tags with jump rings.  I adore how these turned out, I love the tags, I think these may become a theme on my presents!

The one with the Mother tag was for my mom for Mother's Day and as promised from my last post here are pictures of her present.

She loves birds so I made her a pendant with a bird them.

Front of pendant with the C charm.

Back of the pendant.

In the next few days I will be posting pictures of the hidden treasures in the boxes for Stephanie and Corrine. 

Happy Mother's Day

I love this picture of my mom, Candace Comet, I've had it in our family room for about 13 years.  When I scanned it this morning I noticed her necklace for the first time. It is quite possible that my Great Grandfather made that necklace for her.  One of his hobbies was making jewelry too!

So I ran out into the garage and whipped up a little something to add to her Mother's Day gift that I will hand deliver to her next week.

And here is the finished C! Keep in mind I said I was going to add this to her gift, I will post pictures next week of the finished project, don't want to give away any surprises!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you great women who encourage, support & inspire others!

What a Differance A Frame Makes

This is a piece that my maternal Grandmother made and my Grandfather gave to me a few years ago.  I wanted to put it in one of our bathrooms but the frame and mat just felt a little too '80's.

(I always forget to take before pics so after I got it re-framed
 I had to lay the old mat and frame on top for the "before" picture.)

 I found this old barn wood looking frame and switched them out. It gives it a much more rustic look than the clean modern look it had before.

I love it!

 It now has a prominent place in one of our bathrooms.

I love having things that belonged to or were made by my family around me, it makes our house feel more like a home!

What's the Date?

 I took a class back in December from

Shirley aka The Artsy Fartsy Fairy.

It was her Kitchy Kitchen Perpetual Calendar class, above is a picture how the calendar was supposed to turn out.  I knew when I signed up for the class that I wanted one for my studio and I ended up changing a lot of things from the calendar that Shirley taught in class!  But really that's nothing new for me, I can never seem to take a class and just make the project how the teacher is teaching it, I'm probably a teachers nightmare!!!  The calendar was on a cookie sheet (which I still used just not how it was supposed to be), the outside of the cookie sheet is where the current month and days are displayed and the inside of the cookie sheet holds the other months and left over days.  Each little box is decorated and gets a magnet so that you can easily move them around for each month.

Mine turned out a little (okay a LOT) different....but it turned out just perfect for me and for my studio. I had an old tray, I know I got it when I was shopping with Amanda but I can remember where, a thrift store probably, that I used instead of the cookie sheet. I used the inside to display the days because I loved the scallop edges and wanted them to be visible.  I took an old necklace and attached it to the tray so that I could use it as a hanger and topped it off with a pretty ribbon tied into a bow.  I hung it on the side of my bookcase so I can easily see it.  Since I used the inside of the tray for my calendar I didn't have an empty back to hold the extra months so I kept the cookie sheet to store the extra months on and keep it tucked behind the bookcase.

Here it is in my studio, I adore how it turned out!

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has sprung in my studio!

I spent a few days making some spring decorations.  I love the way real eggs look when they are dyed, but I don't ever want to display them because I'm afraid they will go bad and start to stink!  This year I finally took the plunge and "blew out" a bunch of eggs so I could decorate and display the shells.  It took a while but it was worth it!

I had these egg cups in my Easter decorations but I've never found anything I liked to put inside them.  While dying the other shells I thought that I would try to dye some with tea!  I finally found something I like in these cups!  The one in the center is my favorite, I love how dark it got.  I could not get the other ones to turn that dark no mater how long I left them in the tea, it must of come from a different chicken.

The other day a friend sent me a photo that reminded me of these old tin chocolate molds.  I've had them for the longest time but have never done anything with them.  So I decided to make faux chocolates!  I just love how they turned out!  If I didn't know better I'd think that they were actually chocolates, and the best part is they have ZERO calories and I can use them as Easter decorations year after year!

Hope your having a Happy Spring!

Lacy Nests and Glittered Eggs

I love birds and everything there is to do with them.  I love their nests, eggs, cages, bird houses, their chirpy music, I just love anything to do with a little birdy!

I played around last week making some birdy projects and I came up with these yummy lacy glittery treasures!



Some of the eggs are covered with vintage book pages and others were painted.  Then of course they needed a little bling so they got a dusting of glitter, some with vintage German glass glitter.  I wrapped them with my favorite "ribbon", seam binding and added some pretty little flowers, Forget Me Nots and Roses.  The nests I made out of lacy doilys and moss.

 

 

I have a few of these up for sale in my Etsy store, I can custom make these with your choice of colors, just email or convo me and I'll get them started right away!