Serendipity....

I woke up this morning at 5am with the determination that this was the day that I was going to organize my studio. After walking my guys, settling in with my coffee and my laptop, I proceeded to start to look for shelves, and other organization tools to make my life easier. I finally decided that the Target website had the best deals with the look that I liked and proceeded to fill my shopping cart. I found a cute table top shelf that was perfect for patterned papers, sheet music, and the various other papers that I use all the time. I ordered a tall set of shelves that I could put all of my boxes, ledgers, and other things that I just tend to stack all around me....and I ordered a Shabby Chic hanging shoe holder. I saw on a Flickr group somewhere, that someone had used a vintage shoe holder for tags, papers, and various trims and other things. Although it was cream canvas, I thought it was better than nothing and today was the day and if I found a pretty one later...I would buy it then!

When I got to the Check Out....there was a problem with my Sign In....I put in my email..then my password...it told me it didn't recognize it. I tried to reset it....it asked me some questions and it said "Sorry, we don't recognize you with these answers". Finally, after sever more failed attempts, I "LISTENED" to what someone was trying to say to me and decided to hold off on my purchase and wait a little while!

Well.....we usually go to the Flea Market on Friday's...you know, just to look (yeah right!). It was a bit early and she was just setting up so we went to the new Goodwill store and I found a few goodies...specifically some vintage Simplicity & McCalls patterns and a Vogue Couturier pattern for a coat, skirt and blouse. What a find!! There were ten patterns in a bundle for $2.00. Right beside the patterns, was...you'll never believe it....a hanging shoe holder. Cream canvas!!! For $2.50.

Anyway...my point! When we went back to the Market...sitting on the ground was a Table Top Shelf..hand made...with lots of little slots for paper, and any thing else I want to store! Can you believe it??? I've never even seen one of these before. It's so heavy, it's still in my car. I was hoping our handyman would still be here when we got home because I don't know how my bad shoulder is going to get it out of the car!! Serendipity!!!

What about the shelves, I'll bet you are wondering??? Well, I actually have some cute little built in shelves in the studio. I was just storing wood (that I collage) on the shelves. I don't know what I was thinking? I guess, I wasn't actually thinking at all! So I put the wood in a container in the closet, cleaned up the shelves....and there's my shelves. So.......instead of spending about $189.00 at Target this morning....I spent $2.50 on my brand new shoe holder from Goodwill (it was new in the package) and $12.00 on my table top shelf. $14.50 Not to bad!!

Now if I could just figure out how to hide that treadmill!! That's a project for another day. I think it may an old door or shutters.

Have a great Friday night,

Karen

Friday Flea Market

It's Friday...which means Friday Flea Market again. This week I've been busy...I have two new items available.....this one above is a 9 x 12 mixed media collage on art board called "Polly loves Purple" It's available in my etsy shoppe for $30.00

"Sometimes I feel silly in a Dress" is also a 9x 12 mixed media collage on canvas. It's available at Etsy for 30.00.

Both have copper wire hangers. These adorable little girls are just waiting for you to take them home!!

Check out all the other great merchants at the Friday Flea Market Site!

Have a great Friday!!

Karen

Flying Fingers!!

I've been busy as can be in my studio the past couple of days!! Maybe because I've realized that I will be returning to work soon....or just because I've been feeling particularly energized. Regardless of the reason, my fingers are flying! I went to get new glasses yesterday and didn't realize that I had dried glue all over my fingers....how embarassing!!

I'm participating in an Easter tag swap, so trying to finish 20 vintage Easter tags....complete some collages for my Lollishop and my Etsy shoppe and working on some other projects! It's going to take weeks to clean up my mess! (I'm not one of those people who cleans up after myself, I wish I was!!!)

Preview of new art work....Cutest images available on www.fairydavis.com.

Have a great day...I'm off to physical therapy...what an imposition on my time!!

Karen

Pure Vintage

Remember all of the old ledgers and scrapbooks we found at the flea market? This one of the ledgers from a 1897 shipping ledger. The handwriting is absolutely beautiful, isn't it? There are pages and pages of entries just like this!

This is the Women's Civic Club Meeting Book from 1924. There are meeting notes from 1924 through 1926.

This is the oldest scrapbook from 1942...filled with christmas cards.

Cool stuff!

Have a good Tuesday,

Karen

Word Cloud

Want to see something cool?

Thinking of Easter

Now that Valentine's Day has come and gone....Easter is just around the corner. Check out these eggs I picked up in Michael's this morning.

Aren't they adorable??? The pale colors are perfect cottage style. They come in bags of 15 - I bought one bag of brown eggs and one bag of colored. This bowl was full of vintage valentine cards yesterday, I took them right out and put the eggs in....I think it works what do you think?

Have a great Monday!

Karen

Friday Flea Market

New Collage ...available at my Etsy shoppe - Jackson Square Collections. The collage is on torn cardstock, with vintage buttons, vintage linens, old ledgers, and papers and a lovely quote by John Keats..."Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty". I used an original photo of a beautiful woman as the focal point is this assemblage...her gaze is absolutely captivating!! I almost kept this one for myself!!

Have a great Friday,

Karen

Valentine's Day...at the Flea Market!

I don't know about the flea markets you like to go to, but there a couple of markets here that always have the BEST things - you just have to dig for them. One particular flea market is a weekend market that love! She puts out the best furniture and other marketable things for dealers on Friday morning and you can't get a parking space within a mile - or if you do, you have to fight the antique dealers for the merchandise. The good thing is...they are out of there by noon. The rest of the weekend, you are free to browse in the hundreds of boxes of that are just randomly filled ( and I do mean randomly!!)

I'm sure that she goes to the same auctions that my loved one and I do and buys the boxed lots of belongings for a few dollars and brings it to her market and adds it to the hundreds more that she already has. She has wooden buildings stuffed to the ceilings with chairs, tables, goodness knows what else! I can't imagine that she knows what's back there.

On Friday, in the freezing cold, we were digging through some of the boxes and found some amazing scrapbooks! One book was kept by a young wife in the 1940's who was obviously very in love with her husband. There was page after page of love letters, poetry that he had written for her, little snippets of poetry with handwritten notes stating "Sven read to me last night", and many other mementos of their life together. We thought it so sweet that we found the book the day before Valentine's Day.

In addition to this scrapbook, we found a couple of scrapbooks filled with vintage Christmas cards, a scrapbook from the Ladies Music Club from 1924 - 1926, and a ledger from 1858. The handwriting in the ledger is absolutely beautiful! Those boxes held some unbelievable treasures don't you think?

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day Weekend!

Karen

All Dolled Up for a Valentine's Day Tea Party

Happy Valentine's Day..

It's Valentine's Day and we are having a Tea Party. We've laid out our best tea set....

Put out the Valentine treats....

We put on our best party hats....

And our best dresses....

Invited some of our friends....

And we had a Magical Time....

Have a great day!!

Karen

Making the Most of Monday (on Tuesday)..

Check out the Vintage Indie blog and post your goals and ideas for your week! It's a great idea to look at your Monday as a fresh start for the week. When I go to my office, I always start off the week with lists - now that I'm off on medical leave, I'm not so good at that. I've been just taking the days as they come and find that I'm not accomplishing as much as I should.

So this week I would like to:

Spiff up my living room...Two new chairs were delivered today and we are almost finished painting the armoire so I want to finish that room.

Complete the unfinished projects in my art studio. (Not all of them, just the ones almost complete)

Take care of my little man Jackson....He had his little man parts removed today and is one little pathetic mess right now.

Going to nurse a doggie now...
Karen

I just want to Squeeze Her...

Isn't she just the cutest valentine clown you have ever seen? I swear, they just don't make valentines like they used to. This one has a post mark of 1910. It's my very favorite!!

Have a good morning...Karen

Saturday Beauties

A beautiful antique teapot........ready for morning tea.






The color pink and dried hydrangeas...reminding me that spring is just around the corner.

Have a great weekend.





Bye,bye.


Karen

Friday Fun...

Happy Friday! Let me introduce you to Patsy, the Prom Queen Mermaid. She is handpainted on a piece of solid maple, her dress is a bright pink polka dot (it's specially made for mermaids), her party hat and bouquet are borrowed from a vintage paper doll, and her beautiful necklace is a very special vintage button. The bubbles are vintage book pages. She's finished off with a light layer of beeswax that adds an extra warm glow.





She can be yours today! I am offering her here on my blog as a Friday Flea Market Special for only $20.00 and FREE SHIPPING.! She's part of a series of mermaids - her friend Emma, who wears roses in her hair (instead of a party hat) will be featured here next week.



For more pictures and to make her yours, head on over to my Etsy Shop at http://jacksonsquarecollections.etsy.com/. Thanks a bunch!!



Speaking of next week....it's Valentine's Day next weekend. I'm busy gathering up all my vintage valentines....I love, love, love to collect them! Not only are they so much more beautiful than the valentines today, but the notes on the back are absolutely charming.

Did you know that Valentine's Day has been celebrated since the days of the Emperor Claudius? There are many legends regarding St. Valentine but in each, St. Valentine remains a romantic figure in history. Some believe that Valentine was imprisoned and fell in love with his jailor's daughter. Before he died, he wrote her a love letter, signing it "from your Valentine", an expression still used today.

Another legend states Valentine, a priest, defied Emperor Claudius III, by performing marriages secretly after they had been outlawed. The Emperor believed that single men made better soldiers therefore outlawed marriage in order to have a stronger army. When Claudius discovered that Valentine had been helping young couples, he put him to death.

It is believed by some that the celebration of Valentine's Day began as a celebration of the anniversary of Valentine's death. Other's believe that Valentine's Day began as a celebration of spring and the feast of fertility. To me, it's all the same. We are celebrating the power of love and the joy that it bestows upon us, whether it is to our partners, our children or to our friends.

So celebrate your loved ones, the power of love, buy a valentine, decorate....

Happy Friday!


Karen

Let's Have a Soap Bubble Party!

Shopping in a thrift store and found the cutest children's book.. It was given to some lucky little girl in 1945 for Christmas and the inside cover pages were this charming blue and white polka dot paper! Collaged with pages from the book, vintage ribbon and buttons and a layer of beeswax, a set of four magnets were born.

I have to say, fellow artists and creators....working from home is hard work! I think I'm "working" longer hours, recuperating from surgery than I did when was actually leaving my house for work. Creating during the day, e-mailing, posting, listing...my, my it goes on and on! But....this is much more rewarding. I may never go back to work again....

Bye, Bye

Karen

I'm Making the Switch!!

Hello....Welcome to my blog. I've spent the last couple of months on Typepad but decided to peek into Blogger last night after struggling for weeks on the whole "adding a widget" thing and feeling like all my smarts had flown out the window. It took me all of about three minutes to set my blog up....so I was SOLD!

That's my art work....I have a Lollishop...Jackson Square Delicious and an Etsy Shop...Jackson Square Collections. You can buy any of my designs at either shop. That cute little pink number is a part of a set of four magnets..... They are all different but all beautiful if I must say so myself.

I'm working hard right now to do as much as possible...I'm on medical leave for shoulder surgery. I know that I should be resting ( I AM a nurse) but I am trying to take advantage of all this time at home! But...yesterday, as I was getting dressed, I heard a LOUD pop and since then, I have been in some serious pain and unable to move my arm. I was able to make a set of magnets this morning by keeping my arm close to my to my ribs! I hope that this doesn't set me back any and I certainly don't want to put the scissors down.... I can't even go shopping, I can't let my arm hang down.

So...I'm off to get an ice pack. Stop by and see me on Lollishops or Etsy, or on the Friday Flea Market site or check back with me again here sometime....

Bye, bye...

Karen