Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Joyeux Noel!





Graphic: Tattered Vintage 






What would a festive occasion be without printing out something from Beth at Tattered Vintage? 
I just love the power of easy, affordable beauty.


Card printed with 'Pas de Quatre' lithograph: Bella Sera Designs


Vintage tree topper: Efinegifts




Graphic: Tattered Vintage


My studio lit for the holidays under the full moon of the winter solstice.


All of you gift me, with your beautiful words and your beautiful blogs, thank you so much!  
I thought I’d sprinkle a little aqua/blue/green in my white holiday décor this year. 
Used so often in summer, one forgets how charmingly wintry these hues can be. 



 Photo: Victoria November/December 2008


This spread from Victoria has haunted me ever since I first saw it. 
It’s the sort of ‘impossible’ detail only money or time begets. 
I don’t have either and I don’t care, but it’s so rewarding just staring at it, n’est-ce pas?

Here are some images I found from kind Lisa over at Urban Farmhouse
and sweet Mandy at the ultra elegant A la Parisienne.   Some of these are offered for sale.







My unfinished 'Second' Shabby Streamside Studio for my (hopeful) book.



Two big, fat dreams of mine are to write two books, one based on the holidays
and one on building a small home.   My agent hasn’t been able to secure a
deal for me at one of the huge publishing houses yet.   In fact, he hasn’t returned phone
calls or emails.   I can gracefully take a hint.   I remain undaunted.  
My search for a publisher continues, so everyone keep using those tripods
and shooting in the highest resolution on your cameras.
We’re making a book!


May all your dreams come true this holiday season and in the new year.

Until next year, stay shabby!


I’ll be sharing this with:



White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Vintage Friday at Common Ground


Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Silent Night









St. Patrick’s photo: Jeff Hutton

St. Patrick’s photo: Corinne Cavallo



Photo: Paul Kolnik for the New York City Ballet



Sunday I was so tired in the afternoon I thought I’d lie down.   Nearly three hours later, I woke up to my studio at night.   I thought of all my favorite things on holiday evenings: walking in Manhattan with the smoky scent of burnt-roasted chestnuts, watching The Nutcracker, wrapping presents, Zuzu snuggled by the woodstove, my tree and its vintage ornaments, and the aroma of baking from my husband’s kitchen.

What do you love about evenings during the holidays?

Until next time, stay shabby!


I’ll be sharing this with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm


Vintage Friday at Common Ground

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Get in the holiday spirit with all the talented participants!

Monday, December 13, 2010

The Jeanne d'Arc Living Xmas Book Winner is: Pam from Indiana!

Thanks for all of your entries, blog buttons, and ultra sweet comments.   I really hope you keep coming back, and that I don't disappoint you!   The best thing about this giveaway is it's exposed me to blogs I've yet to discover, and I look forward to visiting over the holiday.

The ramdom number picker selected Pam from Indiana!


Pam, since it appears you don't have a Google account, would you kindly email me at zuzudotfosteratgmaildotcom so I can ship your book and gifts out to you?   I hope this makes you feel better since you mentioned you were down with the flu.   And you thought you wouldn't win! 

Your luck can change for the better.

Everyone remember that.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Jo-Anne Coletti's "The Feminine Home" is finally available!


I'm relieved I don't have to keep this secret any longer!
Artist/author/photographer/blogger Jo-Anne Coletti of Vintage Rose Collection,
a great friend of mine, has published her first softcover book, The Feminine Home.

I'm bursting with pride, for this truly is her valedictory publication.  
She's written for Dovetales magazine, and has been featured in Romantic Homes and
Romantic Country more times than anyone I know. 

I can't call it a 'magazine', 'maga-book', or 'bookazine'.   It's a book.
A book as galvanizing as Victoria in the 80s.

Inside, meet women from around the world and their gorgeous homes and gardens,
be inspired by poetry, and soothed by devotionals.   I've had a hand in the writing and editing
of this book (thanks for the opportunity, Jo-Anne!), but I'll let the photos speak for themselves:


It was thrilling interviewing women in Europe and writing about them.
There's never-before-seen Belle Blanc pictures, too!

Oh, look at those cute Maltese doggies!

And who can resist Maria Carr's Dreamy Whites?

It's only available online at this link and ships internationally.

Until next time, stay shabby!

P.S. - There's still plenty of time to enter my first giveaway!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Worldwide Giveaway: Jeanne d’Arc Living Christmas in the French Inspired Home and Ornaments Till 12 Dec. 2010 to Celebrate One Year and One Thousand Followers



I offer my first giveaway, gifts only one of you will receive but my heartfelt intent is to give them to every one of you.   Material things are meaningless compared to the daily cup of joy topped with foamy sunshine you serve me by sharing your visits, blogs, and comments, but giveaways are what’s done in the blogosphere to commemorate milestones.   So, let’s see what I got for ya!

The winner (international entries welcome) will receive handmade gifts including a trio of vintage-style bottlebrush trees flocked in white and silvery glitter.   The pink and white are approximately 4” tall each, and the little white one is 2” …



…a set of five 4”- 6” upcycled plastic pink candy cane ornaments dusted with white glitter or pearly paint…


…an 8’ white garland of fabric rose petals by Ozma of Odds, seen here softening the edge of my loft that I still haven’t decided how I’m going to resolve architecturally…



…a 4” angel wing ornament…


…a trio of Ex-Voto paper gift tags/ornaments also by Ozma of Odds

Photo: Rosemary Foltz
…and the grand prize: the English reprint of Jeanne d’Arc Living’s





To enter:


Leave a comment.

To double your chances, become a follower, too.   (Current followers, please leave a second comment you’re already following.)

To triple your chances, put the 200 pixel wide giveaway button below as a picture in your sidebar as well.

To quadruple your chances, write a blog post using the large button below.   Additional posts on Facebook, Twitter, or other social networking sites count as individual entries also.


Prefer inserting your buttons via HTML/Java from a remote photo host?

The 200 pixel button code is here: 



The 500 pixel button code is here:



International entries are welcome.

The winner will be selected by an online random number generator Sunday, 12 December 2010 and contacted by email whenever I get up and out of bed.

Important!   Be sure to leave a separate comment for everything you do for the sake of the random number generator.   For example, if you comment, already follow, and mention it in a blog post you’d leave three comments.   Questions?   Email me at zuzudotfosteratgmaildotcom.

When I started this blog on my days off between Christmas and New Year’s of 2009, I thought it would be a modern diary for the old hunting cabin on my property I lovingly remodeled and decorated with lots of Rachel Ashwell’s pretty wares.   I don’t have a design background and I’m a pauper.   I assumed only Mom and I would read the boring chronicle.

A year later, it’s changed my life.

I can’t afford a new computer or internet service, so it took three months of long evenings in the public library (where I still post) to get my blog to even begin to look the way I wanted.   What touched me the most was experienced bloggers reached out to me to help, even offering their phone numbers.   “It’s enough to make a good girl cuss,” Charlene of My Heart’s Ease emailed after a particularly frustrating night when I lost the ability to display comments.   Our world is vastly sweeter than the one of ‘haters’ leaving ‘nasty grams’ in YouTube comment fields, n'est pas?

In March, after I left a comment on one of my favorite blogs, My Romantic Home, Cindy contacted me asking to feature my tiny studio.   After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I breathlessly agreed.   One hundred people began following me the day it posted, and then Anne of Fiona and Twig wrote a post, and hundreds more followed.   Encouraged, I went to my first blog party at Kathleen’s White Wednesdays, and it remains my favorite ‘bash’.

I wished to use one of Fifi O’Neill’s pictures for the post to show where I took my inspiration, so I shyly asked permission.   She wrote back stating she loved my studio so much she wanted it in Romantic Country and her upcoming book Romantic Prairie Style.   After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I breathlessly agreed.   The same thing happened with Jo-Anne of Vintage Rose Collection and her maga-book The Feminine Home due out mid-December, and she’s been brave enough to allow me to write and edit on that dreamy project.

In May, I left a comment for New York Times writer Joyce Wadler stating how much I enjoyed her story on a cabin in the Catskills, and she asked for an interview.   After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I breathlessly agreed.   She and photographer Trevor Tondro crafted a whopper of a feature that went viral worldwide.

It’s November, and I’ve shared my twee cottage with The Nate Berkus Show, magazines, blogs published by folks ranging from Claudia Strasser to young girls starting their first Etsy stores, and even a dollhouse replication, and I hope to publish my first book in Spring 2012.   It’s at once thrilling and confusing for me, for I am but a common office worker for the government with an unemployed husband.   The other day Rachel Ashwell’s people contacted me to see how I’d feel about a feature in her 7th book Rachel Ashwell Inspirations.   After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I breathlessly agreed.

But the core of my joy is with you, gentle reader.   You who were there when my blog background was discombobulated (thanks for fixing, Beth!) and my pictures were dark and blurry.   And I’m taking you with me wherever I go.

So.   As I said in the beginning, I offer my first giveaway, gifts only one of you will receive but my true intent is to give it to every one of you.   Material things are meaningless compared to the daily cup of joy topped with foamy sunshine you serve me!

Until next time, stay shabby!




I’ll be sharing this with:


White Wednesday at Faded Charm


Vintage Friday at Common Ground


Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home


Under the Table and Dreaming's Sunday Showcase


Join the party!




Saturday, November 13, 2010

A Preview of Creating Vintage Charm's Holiday Issue

                 


Creating Vintage Charm's holiday issue is available for purchase here.
This new print shelter magazine is sold online only and ships worldwide.  It features beautiful and inspiring homes, shops, and tutorials showing you how to get 'their look'.   Enjoy glittering white holiday decor with touches of pink and aqua?   Don't miss it.

This issue is doubly meaningful to me not only because Sonia put my studio on the cover, but because I wrote the copy on my feature.   To style, shoot, and write is a twenty year old dream I nearly abandoned.

Do have a look at Creating Vintage Charm, I'm sure you'll want to own the inaugural issue as well.   You will see what your favorite bloggers and artists are up to -- in print -- and find new ones to love.


Until next time, stay shabby!




I'm sharing this with White Wednesday at Faded Charm, 
and Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday, share in the fun!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

A Jeanne d’Arc Living Rosy Rosary and A Sacred Heart








Welcome to my blog, especially if you’re a new follower!  I've been reading your comments.  
Really, you must pace the floor in deep thought before you write, you're all so kind!
I’ve been playing with some pretty props, and I’d love to share them with you.


When Emma Mattsson and Petra Kjellstrom came from Sweden to shoot my studio
for Skona Hem, I made an effort to make it look more Nordic, like something
in that utterly ravishing Danish magazine Jeanne d’Arc Living. 






So, I borrowed some Catholic paraphernalia from Mom and made
a little devotional ‘altar’ before a chippy white mirror. 
A rosary of pink glass beads…





…a French holy card, some candles. 
The whole thing was inspired by the sparkly sacred heart decorating my most recent


Photo: Rosemary Foltz



Rosemary also posted some lovely photos of religion inspired bottles in vintage lace
from artist Rhonda  and her Etsy shop Paris Gal 56.

My Swedish friends didn’t care for any of it –- they wanted a neutral American look!

At any rate, it was fun to do.    Speaking of Jeanne d’Arc Living, Roberta over at
Enchanted Treasures is hosting a giveaway till 11 November for the Autumn and Christmas issues.





‘Till next time, stay shabby!




I’ll be sharing this with: