I'm On A Blogcation!

...I promise to be back soon!

Tootles,

Sandy

My Angela Harris French Paper Roses

These are my very favorite Angela Harris creation -

dainty pink roses with antique style French script!

I think they were about $10 for 6,

a bargain for handmade art.

I will be sharing this with:

Table Top Tuesdays at A Stroll Thru Life

Treasures & Trinkets Thursday at My Cottage Charm

Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch

My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday

Favorite Things Friday at A Few of My Favorite Things

Pink Saturday

'Till next time, stay shabby!

My Chippy White Iron Langley Bed

I saw a Langley style iron bed in a magazine around 1995, and fell hopelessly in love.  

 For nearly ten years, I passed many a 19th century chippy iron bed in antique shops

and yard sales because they were so ‘square’.  

My apologies for the 'bare and spare' look in this room in my old house

when it was on the market. 

It wasn’t until 2002 when I visited Zaborski’s salvage warehouse in Kingston, NY
I found this and had to have it, even though they wouldn’t
come down in price from the $300 on the tag.  

That’s a lot of money, but I’ve never seen a good one for sale before or since.

A Langley’s sweeping curves are so much more feminine, don’t you agree?

It’s one of the few antiques I’ve bought that didn’t require repainting or shabbifying, too!

May you always find what you seek, gentle reader.

'Till next time, stay shabby!

Antique Shopping in Delhi, NY - The Fisk Barn

Come shopping in the Catskills with me! The prices are better than in New York City!

The Fisk Barn opened up a new store in Delhi in March, and I paid them a visit to see what they had.     Nothing except for a votive candle was in my price range, unfortunately, but I would have bought this pair of dreamy mercury glass canisters for $155 right away if I could.

An elaborate pier mirror with marble table for $895.

Two of a set of four wall sconces for $525.

I am so wishing for an Italian tole wall sconce with macaroni beads.

A pair of mercury glass finials for $135.

Cast iron brackets for $275.

Golden mercury glass urn for $165.

Cast iron coal grate for $1,200.

Awesome antique nickel-plated bath hardware for $65.

19th century dress form for $175 (sorry about the blurry pic).

And last but not least this ultra sweet French demi-lune console for $195.

Give the friendly folks at The Fisk Barn a call if you’re interested in any of these beauties!

‘Till next time, stay shabby!

White Lilacs

Single white syringa vulgaris alba  - white lilacs - cut from where they

grew behind my husband's old restaurant in a cute Catskills town!

It's the Catskills' way of saying "sorry for the long winter",

I think, because spring flowers tend to bloom all month,

like a sustained chord.

I'll be sharing this with Kathleen at Faded*Charm for White Wednesday!

My Dainty Pink Ruffled Angela Harris Journal

I won a giveaway at Angela Harris’ blog!

She’s an artist regularly featured in Somerset magazines,

so you can imagine my excitement when she emailed I won,

and sure enough something special came in with my next order from her studio.

This petite journal contains soft paper that feels vintage already.

It’s going to be my next blog notebook.

I can only hope my cyber content is as nice as the pretty ribbons,

lace, and German glass glitter covering the tablet it came from!

I encourage you to experience her art at her Etsy shop and blog,

especially if you have a wedding or party in your future.

Until next time, stay shabby!

My Big Tissue Paper Roses

(I had so many requests for a tutorial on these gift tissue paper roses

I'm posting this!   It also gives me a chance to say thanks for all of your

very sweet comments.   They really make me blush with embarrassment!)

.         .         .

Cheap, quick, easy.      It doesn’t get better than this.

Materials:

Wire
Scissors
Florist’s tape (white if you’re doing white or pastels)
Tissue paper
Pencil, dowel, or other object to curl edges

This tissue paper is the kind you stuff in gift bags.    My favorite is the value package sold at Target –
“Solid Tissue” with “Celebrate for Less” printed on the label, 50 sheets measuring 18” x 26” for about $4.
This pack will yield approximately 6 ‘Old Rose’ style roses and 2 ‘Hybrid Tea’ roses.
Michael’s has packs of 25 for about $2.

Nota Bene:   In white, different tissues have different tints, like lilac or cream.
If you want complete consistency buy one brand.    In the finished pictures three different brands are used.

Old Rose Tissue Roses:

1.  Count out 6 sheets of tissue.

2.  Gently fold in 4 accordion folds.   Do not crease hard.

3.  Cinch the middle with a 8" - 12" long piece of florist's wire.

4.  Cut the ends off in a semi-circle shape.

5.  Stretch out each side like a fan. 

Carefully separate and pull up each leaf of paper.  

They rip easily but it doesn't show much, so don't stress.

6.  Shape the finished rose to your liking by fluffing and tugging!

Hybrid Tea Tissue Roses:

This type takes a lot more time and material, but the resulting rose is pretty.

Please link to this tutorial at Martha Stewart’s for the petal template.

The only things you’re changing are (1) you’re leaving out the sepals and leaves

(use only the inner and outer petals); and,

(2) you have to wrap the bottom of the rose up – higher and higher -

with your florist’s tape until the rose ‘stiffens’.

It’ll be ludicrously floppy before that.

Lightly trace an inner tear-shaped and an outer heart-shaped petal shape

out on the top of a stack of 15 sheets of tissue as big as they'll fit.

Cut all 5 and 15 out at once.

Tissue paper won't curl up the way crepe paper will, so your petals will have

to be rolled up in a pencil or dowel pretty hard to make a curl.

I find they look great without much of that, anyway.

Tape or pin up by the little tail of wire and enjoy!

Until next time, stay shabby!

I'll be sharing this with:

Get Your Craft On Tuesday at Today's Creative Blog

Faded*Charm for White Wednesday

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Please stop by!

My Shabby Book Covers

A real bibliophile will dismiss this as contrived, spurious, even heretical.

After I created the pretty magazine slipcases with Beth’s (Tattered Vintage),

the rest of my library clashed.

So, I recovered everything that wasn’t a soft, light color in

various papers of white, buff, oyster, and gray!

Library before.    Too many bright or dark hues.

I merely printed out digital art I own of old French documents on the good side

of used paper from work, cut them to size, and taped them around the spines.

With favorite titles, I printed labels in Word, but for the most part

I just penciled them in script right on the paper.

The Victor Hugo volumes are printed from a photo on the excellent French Blue website.

Here, two books in the middle had their paper soaked in a shallow pan

of my leftover morning tea, and I squeezed the tea bag over it to make ‘water damage’.

Let dry on old towels (they stick to smooth surfaces).

Photo courtesy of French Larkspur

Tracey at her wonderful blog French Larkspur posted a crumbling antique book

she recently picked up in Paris that influenced the spines and labels I created.

I used the Word fonts ‘New Century Schoolbook’, ‘Arial Narrow’,

and ‘High Tower Text’ within text boxes (changing the borders to mimic) et volia!

Photo: 3 Fine Grains

Another dream – to reproduce these beauties Stine posted on her pretty blog.

Cheap paperbacks look wonderfully shabby with their back and spine covers ripped off.

One can find these for free at libraries, yard sales – even the bathroom at work.

I’m going to try soaking them in water and rubbing them on a

rough surface to see if they’ll imitate ancient paper tomes.

Midway through my project I wondered, ‘What would Beth do?’

What luck!    As it turns out, she’s passionate for old books, and created these

heart-stopping designs now available at her Etsy shop Tattered Vintage for around $4 each.

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite  - #213 -  cut to fit a paperback.     Dreamy.

 

 

More Tattered Vintage book covers and book marks in gentle colors.

So much prettier than plain paper and labels.

If you have Photoshop, you can write the actual titles in the graphics.

Some call it sacrilege.     I call it shabby!

So ‘till next time, stay shabby!

I’ll be sharing this with:

 Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Favorite Things Friday at A Few of My Favorite Things

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Please stop by and see all the interesting entries!

Belle's Birthday: A Pampered Pooch Party

My daughter Belle turned 11 on May 1st, so I had a little party for her!

I found the perfect string of silky rose petals

at the incomparable Ozma of Odds.

 I planned the whole party décor around it.

It’s $8 for a 6’ strand.    Rosemary makes decorative items so exquisite

you’ll cheat yourself if you don’t visit her.

The banner is just scraps of white tissue cut with pinking shears,

the letters are free-hand glue sprinkled with gold glitter.

The birthday girl proudly displayed in an adorable

Rachel Ashwell Simply Shabby Chic frame from Target.

I made fluffy tissue paper roses and hung them all over!

I tossed white crepe paper streamers from the dollar store over

my antique chandelier and taped on a few silk cherry blossoms.

The rosette at the top is just a piece of the streamer

wound around itself and taped.

My King and I made a white cake with whipped cream frosting,

and pink meringue cookies shaped like bones for the humans.

Doggies get a dog biscuit wrapped in French candy cones made

from Tattered Vintage sheet #208 (about $4).

The cute pink crepe paper garland was a freebie

in a Sugar*Sugar order I received from Etsy.

The New Dawn pink roses are made from generic cone coffee filters.

This Martha Stewart tutorial is fun - I just wet them when they’re done,

dab only the centers with pink watercolor from a kiddie tray of paints, et voila!

The smaller size Tattered Vintage candy cone makes a great birthday

hat once you tape vintage seam binding in and tie it onto your pooch’s

precious little head!

Miss Belle and her sister ZuZu are ready to par-tay!

(Like many old ladies, later on she fell asleep at her own fete.)

Until next time, stay shabby!

I’ll be sharing this with Table Top Tuesdays at A Stroll Thru Life

and Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch.

You're invited to come along for the fun!