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!!

Fun with keys!

One of my best sellers lately in my Etsy shop has been keys. I have sold all sorts of varieties...

skeleton
and the rusty, crusty kind...

I loved this set and probably should have kept it, but now they have a new home!

Simple, yet pretty all the same.


And one of my favorite uses for them is to add a special look to my repurposed jewelry designs.

I think they add such a special touch!

I have really found some great collections of old keys in the past and have really been on the look out for more! Always a good seller and a fun thing to collect too!


I'm sharing my vintage keys with linky parties this week at

Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday and

Ala Carte for Junkin Finds Friday

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Estate sale finds!

The reason I haven't posted in awhile is because I haven't had anything going on in my life that was exciting enough to share! Just the usual day-to-day stuff, plus I caught a dandy cold too. But I was feeling well enough to head out to an estate sale on Sat. morning that was being run by Fran, the lady that is the manager of the antique mall I sell in. So, I knew it was gonna be a good one and that she would probably give me good deals!! And that she did! This gorgeous platter, allthough chipped in a few spots was in a box of odd dishes and was only $2- for the whole box! I will be keeping this beauty and putting it in one of my cupboards, so who cares about chips, right?

This is pretty much the whole of my bounty from that sale. I also bought a beveled mirror that has quite a bit of silver loss--YUM!!

I can never turn down vintage sewing stuff and more old patterns too. This bunch of patterns were from the 50's--way cool!

I like to use old ric-rac to tie tags on my items I sell.

I love this old bird cage! It will be finding a new home here in my office/sewing room that I will be sprucing up in the soon to be future! I hope!!
I will keep you posted on that. It involves paint and a whole lot of furniture rearranging!! YIKES!

Who doesn't need more ironstone?

Bought one cute little lone butter pat too. You can spy it in the photo of all the stuff I bought.

Grabbed this lot of old medals and crosses too. Will be saving these for jewelry projects of course!

Bought a bunch of old books, but my favorites were a fun colorful children's story book and a girl scout hand book with great illustrations!

Not sure if this is a doorstop or a bookend, but there was only one so I'm going with doorstop!

At this time of year, it's always fun to get out to your first great sale, and this one did not disappoint!

I must admit that I was having an anxiety attack when I drove up at about 7 minutes after the start of the sale and people were already walking out with stuff!

And good stuff too! Oh well, I think I did pretty well, don't you?

Thanks for stopping by and hope to visit you all more often too!

Etsy purchases and a discovery!

I must admit I am totally addicted to Etsy ~ both selling and buying!! I'm afraid any profits I make selling will be quickly reinvested in new Etsy finds! I recently purchased the keyholes in the picture above and I can't wait to receive them and start creating more jewelry!! I found these amazing little goodies at Vintage Supply Co. Her etsy shop is full of all types of fun what-nots for altered and mixed media projects!
I hope to soon be receiving this lovely little number too!! Another etsy purchase from a wonderful shop called Kimiko611. Her charms are so unique and look to be of amazing quality! I love it and wish it would get here already!! My ultimate dream sometime in this lifetime is to visit Paris and I love anything with the eiffel tower image!
My new discovery that I want to tell you about is another wonderful etsy shop called the French Circus. I was searching for some assemblage jewelry and Robyn's site came up and I was totally blown away!! Her creations are amazing and so unique. I asked her permission to share some of her jewelry pictures, and she obliged me! You can find her shop HERE.

Gorgeous!!!

Beautiful!!
Robyn also has a new blog and I told her I'd help her find some new friends and give her a much-deserved mention on my blog. You can find her lovely blog HERE.

I love this fun verison of her coin purse necklace. She uses such beautiful elements to create her pieces!

This is my coin purse necklace that I have currently listed in my Etsy shop.

Take a minute to go check out these wonderful and inspiring shops and blogs. I promise you'll be addicted too!!
Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great weekend!

Blogiversary/Birthday Giveaway!!!!!!

Even though I celebrated my actual blog anniversary on Dec. 22nd and my birthday last Thursday, I thought I would have a giveaway anyway!!! Even though it's a little belated, I wanted to share my good fortune of celebrating another year with you my wonderful new-found friends!! So to honor the occasion, I made a bracelet using all vintage buttons!

And I will be wrapping it up inside this sweet little vintage wallpaper box!

I will also be adding a wonderful and whimsical vintage photo of two lovely ladies on a ladder, a brown transferware soap dish and 5 pretty, little mother-of-pearl buckles!

I wanted this giveaway to be sweet and romantic and I think I came up with a mix of vintage goodies that exemplify just that!!

I love this photo--such a hoot!!

These buckles would be great in a craft or jewelry project or just let them sit in this pretty little dish too!!

So...here's the deal!
You'll have 3 chances to win...
Leave me a comment... become a new follower or remind me that you already are... share the news about my giveaway on your blog and let me know you did so!!! I will be choosing the winner on Monday, Jan. 24th at 8 p.m. central time.

Simple enough, right!?! So, good luck and thanks so much for your love and support this past year!! You all mean so much to me!!