New Adventure of Creativity & Opportunity!

Ok, so i have been such a bad blogger lately- Recently i had an opportunity to have my Very own little shop, and as exciting as it sounded i waivered a bit, the fear of the unkown, uncertainity, and the sole responsability (oh my) but then my husband & children reminded me of how much i live and breath to create, make & share what i love so much and how they would help my along- I jumped in so with many hours painting, adding molding and building a register area and figuring what to have available to customers, we officially opened today...
Here are a few pic's- the register my husband built for me, with nooks and crannies for my crafting while i work, the beautiful black window doors to welcome you in, some new stuff to carry for gift giving, my favorites the animal prints ( as you see i pull from blogging world),the sign we made- trying to be different from the others, but unique with the vintage inspiration..
Would Love to hear your thoughts, suggestions for me and my new adventure..

Words To Live By or at Least Be Inspired By!

Hearing many times to make your job your passion or find something you love doing and try to make money at it, well sounds easy enough but shopping, painting or baking cookies(really?) How i could make money at that. I didnt realize what that meant or how to do it. I started off going to school to be a Nurse, then a School Teacher and all the while not totally thrilled about it,but figured i was suppose to go to College and get a degree make everyone proud my husband, kids, parents & friends all the while sitting in class wishing I was home with my kids or feeling guilty for not going on a field trip or so worried about who was going to make the cupcakes for the classroom party and knowing i would need to study myself. Well in this joureny what i realized was What i absalutely loved the most was creating, either cupcakes for the school (trying to make them the most unique the class ever got), or bringing snacks for Cheer and wanting the snacks to be packaged so cute that everyone would remember them or finding that piece of dirty, worn furniture & fixing it up with paint, stuffing, fabric and standing back to see the results, well that is what i get so excited over each and everyday. Sometimes what you Love Most is right in front of you and you dont even know it.
So with that said, I found a way to sell my creations my fixer ups, my loves that i become so attatched to at a little shop called Melange, i started small scared nobody would like my stuff, then moved to two spaces always longing for more space,& then moving across the street to Not Too Shabby where i grew bigger and learned more. Well i have found this Passion, this Love for re-finishing,creating, making and sharing ideas so much that i really needed to be on my own & opportunity came up for me to do so..
So My Words to live by are find what you truly love, what truly makes your heart skip a beat, what makes you not sleep at night because your so excited to get up to do it, AND then (Make what you love most, What you do Everyday!)...
After 7 years of part time college,thousands in fees,books I finally found what I love the most..

Maybe a Miniature Corkboard!

So thought i would maybe give Etsy a try-and in doing so someone asked me about making mini corkboards to use as place settings for a wedding. Well that got me thinking, how could you do that to where they sit up by themselves-now Im sure one of you Totally Creative Bloggers out there have already done this, But For a first attempt without seeing one for an example -not so bad.
I used those plastic photo holdrs, spray glued corkboard on to it, added fabric,hot glued to seal, then added twine around edges and a cute little bow. Then Topped it off with a stamp.
Just think, you could use, differ fabrics, textures differ sizes of frames to prop them up.. Anyway love when something kind of works out the way you thought it would.
P.S. Turns out that what the Etsy person was looking for was a Large Board for place cards- not miniature corkboards. (Oh Well!)

Sweet Little (Ruffles & Stuff)Inspired Baskets

Ok so I can admit i am a (copy cat) but that is the best form of flattery (right?)..SO here is the pic's again of the Easter Baskets I made after seeing a Post from Disney at Ruffles & Stuff on her emulated Pottery Barn Baskets she made.
I found old baskets in garge, painted green, spray glued some mossy stuff on them (not the stuff she recomended, not sure what i was using) but it worked. Then patted it down, let dry and then hot glued in some mini flowers aimlessly around basket-added a little bow & Pretty Cute Little Baskets..
Love all The Sharing Of Such great Ideas...

Charming Character!

Loving my Dresser i just finished, i usually only use Heirloom White on my pieces,But this time thought i would be different and use a Blossem White & I LOVE IT! So while doing it for some reason the paint started to cackle (or at least that is what Im calling it), first i was Bummed, but now I Think I like, I'm going to say I was aiming for (Charming Character)that looks Aged?

Music & Decopage Glue!

After painting many hutchs,desks,tables,chairs,and so on, i really like being creative and trying to think of different things to make or ways of designing or re-finishing an item. SO when my husband brought me this little treat home I was over joyed in an opportunity to try something new.
SO this dark cabinet was a little dreary,so i decided to 1.Paint in a heirloom white, slightly distressing it to bring out the details (that i love so much) 3. use old music book sheets to decopage the back of cabinet ( i ran out so had to use my blk-white printer to copy some of the sheets) & acutually gave it a more unique look. 4. I spray glued the back of cabinet-then put all the sheets on randomly & then used decopage glue to seal it 5. then i lightly used a polyurathane to seal all edges and shelves.. A little Different, but unique and the total cost $15 ($8.99 for cabinet,.50cents for old music book, $5.00 for paint & already had polyurathane and decopage glue).
Not so Bad for this little musical cutie!

Make Your Own Background!

I have been searching high & low for some old vintage raggedy doors with the paint chipped away to use for background pic's for my items for shop, but they are a bit pricey, thought about trying to age my own but (really how long would that take)so I kind of put on back burner. Well as i was taking a picture of a table cloth i made & I realized I have my own cute background in my own front yard, sometimes the answer is right in front of you. What Do You Think?

Totally Forgot!

So i forgot to include the other cute find, that box isnt that too cool, the shape, the flowers painted on it.. I Love It!, and well that is the dome thing, i attached to a urn like flower holder-painted and added a birds nest and eggs-but really would probably use to display our cookies or a few cupcakes..
Love those Amazing Finds!!!!

My Newest Finds & Projects!

Ok so Stopped by my most Favorite store today (Can you Guess Where?) and found these wonderful treasures the 2 chairs- which are cute the way they are,but I think Ill do them in black and distress them, The litle glass dome thing-probably will paint the wood portion attach it to a candles stick holder and make into a standing cookie or cupcake display (yes always thinking of those lovely treats), and well the large white frame was a vintage mirror that my poor husband was trying to scoot along the wall at the shop and the wire broke, and well we had to buy it for cost... So now i have to figure what Im going to do with it-can't let it go to waste- i can patch up where the wood broke, and lastly the cute little ladder back vintage chair- could not pass up either, im thinking white-then distress it so that wood comes through and then sewing some black -white toile cushions for it..Oh yeah well the ladder was from the owners of our building, she was done with it, so i thought i could maybe paint it and stencil or paint some design on it.. We will see, as you can see I totally have A-D-D i just know it, not that i would change it, but my mind goes oh so much faster than my little hands can go..As i type this i can see my project Im still working on for Ruffles & Stuff (contest),i did the hat, now i got one more im doing-almost done.. Yes I am just all over the place- this is why I don't sleep.. I would love some ideas of inspiration on that Ladder...

I Promise Im not a Pack Rat!

Ok so i had to take the picture-to prove to my husband the Tahoe could fit in garage-Because it may not happen again for some time seeing as that Saturday was the first time in 10 months it squeezed in. And that was with the help of my girls on either side guiding me after pushing-shoving,stacking my precious vintage chairs, tables on the side, Thank Goodness that Antique Fair is coming Soon.
P.S. it is in driveway again...

WhippyCake Love, Pink Chandelier Sweetness!

The set up is done, at least for now, long vintage farm table, a varitey of vintage chairs with unique upholstery or paint colors, tons of shiny silver tea pots, platters, mercury glass, music sheet wrapped flowers in the LOVELY shade of Pinks,pearls strung along the arms of the jeweld chandelier & the place settings are set,tea cups ready,one black top hat, ALL I need is that; Darling PINK CHANDELIER necklace over at That Amazing Blog whippycake.blogspot. How darling would that be to serve tea & cupcakes to our customers at Not Too Shabby wearing one of those lovely (Pink Chandelier) Necklaces? I say Perfect!!!

Wrap a Flower, Decorate a Cake!

Just a little sharing,I love flowers-and right now all shades of pink. Doing a display of (Mad Hatter's Tea Party) at the shop, so using this rustic vintage bottle holder we thought we could stick flowers in it aimlessly-giving a kind of garden feel with prettyness. Instead of newspaper to wrap flowers i used music paper,I found an old music book at goodwill, and tore out pages to wrap flowers.. A little different for a centerpiece, but i think it is a bit charming,at least for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party that is, and with that i made a cute little pretend three layered cake out of old round gift boxs, that i painted & added fluff to it.. Love My Pink..

Make your Pooch feel like a Prince!

As I Love anything over the top, I saw a picture over at (The Pink Funny Farm)of a sweet little doggy bed. Well i aspire to Create, So I thought, I could do that (well maybe)..So i had bought an old dolly bed (for what-not sure) but i had it, so I had my husband add posts to all four corners, bend some metal for me,attach to top, then i put some thin cardboard over the top as well. Next i covered with some blue satin- made a cushion with flannel blue &white stripes,made a pleted skirt,added some brown pom poms-sewed a little mini pillow,embroidered Prince on it,added wood crowns on head-foot board.
And here is my little (Made for a Prince Doggy Bed)..Our little Henry loved it as well, we couldn't get him out of it & he already has a bed with our son so I ended up donating it to a Fundraiser..
($5 for bed that came with cushion, $15 for fabric trim ,$10 for wood posts,metal,cardboard top-A total cost of about $30 not so Bad, although it did take a few days..But Kind of Cute!!