Time for a change!

There comes a time in everyone's life when they need to take a step back and re-evaluate what is most important and where they want to place the main focus in their lives. After MANY months of soul searching and tossing things around in my head, I have come to the very difficult decision to pull myself out of the Red Rooster in Plymouth, WI where I have sold for the past 11 years!

This was not an easy decision for me considering the fact that the owner, my dear friend, Linda is battling cancer. But I had to be true to myself and my family and go with my heart, which was telling me that I needed to make some changes in my life. I had wonderful success at the Red Rooster and know that I could not have sold as well anywhere else. But I have really lost interest and all the moving and lugging was really taking a tole on me. I plan on being out by the 1st of September, and am having a 20% off sale in my room right now. So if you are in the Plymouth, WI area, go check it out!

Right now my heart is being tugged at by this little guy...
My gorgeous grandson, Jackson whom I babysit at least two days a week. He is the joy of my heart and I'd rather spend time with him than just about anything else!!




I also want to take more time to just enjoy my surroundings. I took this photo after a storm had just past over our farm, leaving us with this gorgeous sunset!


My husband has been very patient with me while I was making my decision. When we purchased our lake home, he gently suggested that I get out of the antique business. At that time I just wasn't ready...but now I am.

Hopefully we'll get to spend more time here...so relaxing!!!


Here's my skipper husband with his little first mate out on the lake in our pontoon boat!!

He is a very loving and patient grandpa!


It's not hard to accept a difficult decision when you have a very supportive family surrounding you. All my kids have been very patient with me as well, and let me take my time and supported me along the way!

More time for some summer fun!

I will continue to sell at my booth in the antique mall in Fond du Lac, WI....lots less stress and demand on me. Although sales are not near as good, but I guess you can't have everything!

I also have been having alot of fun with my Etsy shop!

Sales have been very good and I have been having a ball with it!! Something I can do from home and it gives me a good excuse to keep junking!!

And my last and final decision is to cut down on blogging, which I'm sure most of you have noticed already! It's been fun, but another one of those things that I feel is something that I could eliminate to make my life a little easier.

I hope to keep checking in now and then with my fave peeps to see what y'all got goin' on!

I don't think I can do this cold turkey!!!

Thanks so much for all the love and support I have received in the past!! I'm looking forward to seeing which window will be opened for me now that I've closed this door!

My best regards to all!

Julie

Where this woman creates!

This post is a long time coming considering I re-decorated the room I now call my own almost 3 months ago! Yes, I hate to admit it, but I did the big move and paint job in March, but in my own defense, I really didn't get it completely done until recently. All the finishing touches are now complete and I'm ready to share my sanctuary with the world!!This room used to be my youngest daughter's bedroom and until March, was a guest room of sorts with the computer and a bunch of other odd junk in it.

It was also painted red on the bottom and white on the top with a border between the two.

When trying to decide what color to paint this room, I knew I wanted something fresh and completely different from any of the other rooms in the house.

Most of the other rooms are earth tones, cream, tan, or yellow.

Here it is mid-mess with the border removed and ready to paint.



The deep red was a little tough to cover, but the paint I bought was a good quality and did a pretty good job. I went with a pretty robin's egg blue ~ so fresh and different!


I also knew I wanted to go with a french theme in here since I am totally enamored with anything Paris!

I have a small collection of little eiffel towers which I hope to add to. I found the tin Paris sign at Hobby Lobby.

The black canvas banner with all the french locales on it was a purchase at my friend Katherine's shop, Fibber McGees in Plymouth, WI

I ordered the black lamp with the french script shade from a mail order called "Country House" and I just love it!!
Looks good with my "manny"!

I spend alot of time on the computer, so I wanted to make sure my view was pleasant! I have alot of fun things on this particular wall.

Tattered old books, sweet Mary Jane's and some vintage pricing tags that I bought on Etsy make up this vignette.

This picture is a little bright, but shows some of my work table and the storage around it. The cute little white book shelf was my grandma's.

I recently bought this old desk from the Red Rooster and knew it was exactly what I was looking for as my work table. It was from an old technical school from the 1940's. I love the shelf on the top...great for extra storage!

This is what it usually looks like with all the jewelry junk laying around! But I thought it looked a little more "real" this way!

I decided to take the closet doors off and utilize this space for storage for crafting and art supplies. I found the old metal brackets and made a shelf above the door to display some of my ivory pottery collection. It really pops against the blue!

I try to keep this organized!

More storage in this old chest, and a great place for the tv too! The black eiffel tower on the wall is a vinyl rub-on that I got at Hobby Lobby ( I adore H.L.!) and the framed map of France on the left is from a 1940's atlas.



Well, that completes our tour! The only other wall I didn't show has a black shelf that I have office junk on and is not all that exciting. But I do have my pincushion display on it that I showed in my last post.
This room was a labor of love and I am so happy that I have a place to call my own!!

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do! Thanks for stopping by!

Projects completed!!

As promised, I'm sharing the finished product of some of my latest projects. In my last post I mentioned a table top mannequin that I bought on Etsy and that I wanted to decoupage it with vintage pattern pieces. Well, here is my finished manny and I think I'm lovin' the end result!
I used pattern pieces that were the same color as the mannequin so all that shows is the black lettering. I also tried to match the pieces with the "body parts" ~ kinda fun and made the result a little more interesting. You really need to use a light hand when applying the mod podge as the delicate tissue tears easily.
By the way...the necklace is a new creation too!

I also finished the shelf I mentioned in my last post too.

I used pages from an old German book as the background, then glued pieces from an old tape measure around all the edges.

Finished the top off with a piece of hardware that was in my stash from the Pardeeville Mall.

I've been on a decoupaging frenzy lately! I had this old wood drawer and thought it would look great done with ads from an old Woman's World magazine.

Now I'd like to share some of the other things I brought home from my recent trip to the antique mall.

I found this adorable mini plant shelf and thought it would be a perfect spot to display some of my favorite pincushions.

This sweet little crown pincushion with tape measure on the bottom was a recent Etsy purchase too! That Etsy can be a dangerous place for me sometimes!!

I knew I would find the perfect spot for this cute 2 tiered basket in my craft room. I filled it with old balls of darning cotton and string that I use to make tags.

Last but not least, this is the bulk of the rest of my finds from Pardeeville. I have been looking for some of these gutter screens and managed to find three! I plan on keeping these for a bit and will use them like little cloches! So fun!

Will probably sell the shaving brushes and the Flinch cards in my Etsy shop. The little word cards will be saved for art projects.

Have some plans for some more jewelry on the back burner and have been kinda anxious to get working on all that cool hardware I just found!

So stay tuned and thanks so much for your visit!

I have been visiting blogs lately, but am having trouble leaving comments and from what I hear I'm not the only one!

So know that I do drop in now and then, but have to just look for now!

Scenes from a Mall!

We spent most of the day on Saturday at our cottage, mowing the grass, planting flowers, cleaning the garage, vacuuming, dusting and sweeping cobwebs. It makes me tired just thinking of it all! But on Sunday...we decided to take it easy and play!
My husband is a die-hard fisherman, and wanted to fish all day. Which was fine with me, because I knew I wanted to head over to the Pardeeville Antique Mall in Pardeeville, WI!

As always, my absolute favorite booth was that of Sadie N' Stella!! So many things in this booth spoke to me! Lots of ironstone, shabby, industrial, garden and sweet little packs of ephemera!

Lu really has a knack for display and uses every inch to it's full advantage! Tucking vintage goodies in every nook and cranny, box, drawer, and cubbie!

Lu is the owner and named her business after both her grandmothers, such a sweet idea and wonderful tribute to them! One of these times I'll take the opportunity to meet up with her and have some lunch and a nice visit!

She has such a great selection of transferware too --I love this pitcher!!

Great chippy paint planter basket!

Like I said, every nook and cranny!

This sweet little tiered basket came home with me! I now have it in my craft room with supplies and some sweet little collections!




One of my other favorite booths had lots of junky guy stuff and drawers full of old hardware!

I spent at least a half hour digging through this drawer full of hinges, hooks, knobs and escutcheons!! Needless to say I came away with some dirty fingers and a pile of awesome junk hardware for jewelry and craft projects!!! THIS WAS FUN!!

This is my haul!

Now for some time and ambition to use some of these great pieces!!

There were some other really cute booths that I liked. I thought this one had a fresh summery look!

This booth had lots of pretty shabbies and some great ideas for repurposing!

Loved the look of these eggs nested in a bed of shredded sheet music!

Simple vintage style!


My next post I'll share some of the other goodies that came home with me and what my plans are with them!

We had an awesome weekend! All our kids came to the cottage on Monday and we had a cookout and just hung out ~ perfect!!!

Hope your weekend was perfect too!!

My latest projects...repurposed trays

Just wanted to take a few minutes to share some of the projects I've been working on lately.

I've been having lots of fun finding and altering vintage trays. I loved how shabby this pretty tole tray was and thought it would be perfect as a memo board. The reticulated edge was perfect to add a chain for hanging!
I made these magnets using an old earring and a carved ivory brooch. I will be including these old photos with it and plan on listing it on Etsy soon.

This old silver tray did not have an open edge, so I had to drill small holes and add wire and chain for hanging. It must have been silverplated brass or copper so magnets would not stick, so I decided to do a collage instead. I started with a french dictionary page as the backdrop and added other vintage paper ephemera to dress it up!

A folded sheet music fan embellished with an old Valentine die cut.

I love this pretty die cut frame and the sweet little dove too...all old embellishments that I've been saving!

I also found this old tole tray painted with lovely pinks and blues!

It's now complete with magnets I made from buttons and bits and pieces of vintage bling!

Recently I purchased an old table top mannequin on Etsy and I plan on decoupaging it with old pattern pieces. Hope to get around to that soon and will post pics when I get it finished.

I think it has good bones and should be perfect for jewelry display!

I bought this cute little shelf a couple weeks ago at a sale and have big plans for this too. I already have the inside done, but am adding more embellishments as I go. More pics to follow!

My husband and I are planning to go to our lake cottage this weekend. Our 34th anniversary is Saturday and plan on lounging around and taking it easy! That is after we get all our yard work and flower planting done! I'm sure we'll go out for a nice dinner and enjoy the weekend!

Wishes to all for a special holiday weekend! Be safe and thanks for stopping by!