A little excitement for a Tuesday night here at 612!

The kids saw a baby squirrel hanging around the yard, unfortunately the way they found it was that one of Max's little friends accidentally ran over it with his bike. He seems o.k. and has taken a liking to the kids. Hannah and I saw him in the tree and went to check on him and he came down the tree and followed Hannah up the steps to the front door! He thought he was coming inside! It is so stinking cute I just had to share some photos with you! Here is a photo of brothers and sisters = best friends. Max and Elijah and Hannah and Juliet all posing with their new squirrel friend that they have named Nuts.
Hannah wants to keep him, but she has a mom who really doesn't want a wild little critter otherwise known as a small rodent as a pet. Plus he has his own family, right?
I have never seen anything like this, Hannah has tried to put it in a tree out back but he keeps following her around the yard... or that's how the story goes!
I mean how cute is that face??? too cute that's how cute!
On a side note, although Hannah wants to keep him the most, (Max has since gone about his business while Hannah and Juliet are researching what to feed him) she will not touch him with her bare hands! she really is her fraidy-cat mothers daughter! :0
Thanks for stopping by! Theresa xoxo

White Wednesday, with new creations here at 612!

I cannot believe I finally made it back to the White Wednesday party!! WOOO HOOO! I think this weekend finally got me out of my funk, I stayed in my jammies all day on Sat. and created like a crazy person. I actually started during the week with some altered art creations. It was good to get out the glue and papers and photos, what fun that was, very therapeutic as well!
Well, one creation leads to another and there you have it, next out comes the fabric and trims and there has to be a rosette or two in the picture... and waalaa a bag and some cuffs are born! The tote was too easy and one of those things that just came together as I was playing.
I have been wanting to make one of these for awhile now, I love all of the ruffled goodness I see here in blogland and some time ago someone, I'm sorry I can't remember who (note to self take your Vitamin D) showed the totes you can buy for a song at Hobby Lobby, they come in sets of 3. They are very well constructed and the ideas are just endless with ways to decorate them. This one ended up with 3 ruffles in all and a removable pin made with vintage doilies and felted wool and an altered domino. My mind is just reeling with ideas for the other two from the pack!
Here's a close-up of the pin, made in the style of a vintage prize ribbon. I thought this pic was the more detailed photo to show you that this dapper young man's hat says sunshine on it, but I guess I picked the wrong one. sorry, but trust me it says sunshine!
Friday is when I started on the fabric cuffs. my new addiction. really.
They are so relaxing to make, twisting scraps of fabric into rosettes as I watched a movie with the family. Are you like that, if your sitting (unless exhaustion has hit you) then your fingers have to be busy making something? I digress... the flowers are fun to make and a great way to use up fabric scraps of all kinds. I was twisting bark cloth, drop cloth, wool, homespun, there were pieces of fabric surrounding me in piles all over the loveseat!
Then after the twisting was finished I got out the jewels and ring backs and decided to make a couple of rings to go along with the cuffs. I really love how they both turned out, and can't wait to make more!
This one is not a twisted rosette but more a fall mum-like flower made from felted bits of wool from a vintage blazer. (another note to self... Danielle should be doing more dishes, my hands don't even come close to looking so good!)
This one is my favorite, made with bark cloth from an old curtain that was beyond repair, I have been saving it for some time now, always afraid to cut into it. I get like that, when something is too utterly fabulous I get cold feet when I want to make something out of it. Glad I put some socks on and got busy! Oh my gosh, I am so corny ;)
Now for the altered art part of this post... it's Halloween time and well what better way to decorate than with an aging warlock! I love taking old pictures and adding hats and jewels and other goodies to them. This one will add some humor to the otherwise spooky fest!
This is a beautiful woman who I think exudes strength and gentleness at the same time. I got her from one of the generous sites on here that share their photo treasures with all of us. I cannot remember who shared her right now but if it comes to me I will be sure and let you know... seriously needing the vitamin D! I just found the site where I got her picture from... Papieren Avonturen so glad I found it so any of you who are looking for more great photos can see what she has to offer. :)
Here she is in her shabby frame and surrounded by layers of tissue pattern paper. I took a stem of small silk roses and wrapped them in a floral cuff complete with a little bling. The quote on the bottom is from Eleanor Roosevelt... "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams " well said. Thank you Mrs. Roosevelt.
So there you have it... I'm back! I thought I was back before but well, I think this time I'm really, truly back! Making new creations really does wonderful things for me!
I'm linking this up to Kathleen's White Wednesday party over at Faded Charm that is always full of inspiration and some fabulous attendees so stop on by and see for yourself!
This just in... I'm also linking up to Tea Rose Home link party #25 for more inspiration come check out the party!
Thanks for stopping by, see you soon! Theresa xoxo

the fuzzy yellow mustache...

When we went camping this summer Max got a fuzzy yellow mustache out of the gumball machine (are they called that anymore?) and all of the kids humored me and let me take their pics all wearing the mustache. I knew right away that I wanted to frame them all for the house and well, 2 months later, here they are! Too funny! I love them so much, and I think the metal sign above them says it all. Laugh out Loud.
This leaf is sitting in front of the pics. Duane spotted it on our walk Friday and handed it to me with a kiss. awwwww.
Here's the full shot, sorry about the poor lighting but the weather just really doesn't want to cooperate for picture taking today. I am not complaining mind you, because this summer we were really hurting for some rain!
This huge chalkboard is in the dining room and I LOVE IT! This weekend I loved it even more, because Friday when Max heard that Cam was coming home, he erased the previous message and wrote a little something for Cam. I know, another awwwwwww. I swear, I could have a chalkboard in every room!
We had a great weekend, went to the local Blues Fest after the rain on Sat. and heard some amazing music, ate good food and smiled from ear to ear the whole time! We will be making it an annual event for sure!
Today is a creating day... I have one piece finished and am going back to the table to work on some more. YAY!!
Thanks for stopping by! Theresa xoxo

One of the places I've been!

I cannot believe I haven't posted anything in 2 weeks... it's been a combination of not having time to make anything new, not having the time to post and well, when school started and we took Cam to Eastern, well, I was in a little bit of a funk. I knew it would happen, there is no getting around it for me, but I'm hoping to be funkless very soon! :) Let me tell you one of the ways I have been able to make the funk go away... yesterday we went to the Oprah show! See the beauty in the red dress? She requested tickets to every show for the last season and last week she got word that she got 4 tickets for yesterdays show. YAY us!!! Her letter to the ticket folks was that she has been wanting to take her mom to the Oprah show for many years now. (on a side note, this is my second time to the show... Duane got tickets for me for my 40th birthday and Danielle was too young to go. She has vowed to be able to go there together one day)So yesterday was the day! She also invited her cousin Candice (in the pic) and my sister Molly (taking the pic) it was all very exciting, we had lots of fun on the way down and back, but the show was a very serious and sad topic. Really took the wind out of our sails but definitely a topic we should all be aware of.

Of course since this is the person who we were with all day...
our wind came back pretty quickly!!! Yup that's Danielle in target picking out her outfit to wear to the show! She sent her Aunt Molly this pic. as a text to ask her if she should wear the hotdog or the first pic she sent her, the banana! Although we all chose the hotdog, she did not want to upstage Oprah!
I will end this quick post to tell you that when you put 4 Kirby girls in a car together for the whole day, well, some good hard snorting laughs are gonna take place!
Thanks Sweetpea, I had a fabulous time! I loved having the whole Oprah Experience with you!!!

Thanks for stopping by! Theresa xoxo

p.s. I hope to have a new ANYTHING to show you soon! I have been itching to be creative again! xo
pss. I HAVE MISSED YOU ALL LIKE CRAZY!!! xo

Another coin purse, more family, and more treasures...

Good Morning All! When I made the white coin purse with the rosette I also made this black one that also has special meaning to me. That photo under the chandi crystal is my Aunt Amelia, another one of my moms sisters. She passed away when I was a girl but she was very dear to all of us children. My Bushie (grandma) owned a restaurant up north and it had these tiny cabins for workers, travelers and hunters. She had stopped renting them out by the time we were around but my Aunt Amelia would fix them up so pretty when we were coming to visit. We were allowed to play in them all day long if we liked, but she also snuck us out to the barn, and showed up which green beans were ready to pick. She was a petite, beautiful woman with a giant love for all of us children. This photo was taken of her washing dishes in the restaurant, I think she is just beautiful.
The charm of the two girls at the beach was made for me by my sister Molly, out of a backgamman piece and the angel was a souvineer that John brought home from California for me a few years ago. I love that he thought out of all of the things he saw that I would love that most... he was right.
One of the things that I love about it is that when it flips over it looks like a heart. A love Angel.
Now on to the treasures from the title of this post. These wool blankets are from a sale a little while back. Some are in fabulous condition and some will be used for flowers, bags, pillows, etc. after they are felted. Oh tell me I wasn't crazy to buy all of them, just look at those colors, all of that wool goodness!
I went to a sale where the lady had quite a few pairs of glasses, I picked out some for etsy and I gotta say, that they are wonderful! How cute are these?
And vintage clip-on sunglasses... adorable.
Here's a grouping of the ones I bought that day. I gotta sell them before I change my mind!
Some old wooden building blocks, I just love the patina on these. They show the wear of small children playing and creating towers!
One of the hats from the estate sale, Danielle gets pretty excited when I bring home vintage hats, well because she always looks gorgeous in them!
Old birthday and Christmas candles. The birthday candles have the cutest graphics on them.
O.k. with this picture I'm going to start a new game here at 612... can you guess what it is? Or better yet, can you just tell me what it is?? I think it looks like a cherry pitter, but I have no idea and neither did any of the shoppers that I asked at the sale. One older woman said she didn't know but maybe you put someones thumb in there to get information out of them. Actually she also suggested that a very heavy vase could be used to clobber someone over the head... I very discreetly walked away from her! I should have checked her loot to see what she was purchasing so that I could reference the memory if I saw anything disturbing in the newspaper!! LOL!!
A sweet little ceramic pixi made in Japan,
One of the cool old bottles that I bought, this is the only one with the label still intact. I'm thinking the other ones need to be altered. My favorite kind of recycling!
2 old knife sharpeners I love the green one, it still has its label too,
Some vintage quilt squares, I don't quilt but I do appreciate the work that went into these!
A very cute chenille rug... SO SHABBY!!!
More shabby, 4 great frames with a wonderful patina!
And last but not least... more jello molds! I have made some pincusions out of these, and I see more on the horizon! So there you have it, treasures galore! Best of all, some of these things would have been overlooked and possibly thrown away. I know I can't believe it either! As soon as school starts next week I will have more time to list these things on etsy, but right now I want to focus on the last few days of summer with the family and getting the kids ready for school.
We did manage to get some shopping done this week and I really think were almost finished, at least I hope we are!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Theresa xoxo

Project Genesis

See this? Do you find it as appalling as I do? That we waste so much here on this little planet we call home, the one we hope will be around for our children's children? I don't want to get on a soapbox really I don't, and I am far from perfect but I promise you that if you google~ images of landfills~ you will think twice about what is going in your trash can. truly. this image may not get to you, but how about this next one...
yeah I know, GROSS. The sad part is we cannot deny the fact that this photo belongs to US. Which is why when I started making my dryer sheets there was no other choice but to use vintage sheets as my material. I use recycled finds in my artwork all of the time, I find it inspirational and a way to save a little bit of the piece of earth I inhabit.
Isn't this a pretty way to save the sheet from going to a landfill? Right now the inside bags of my laundry soap are made of muslin but this week I had a revelation and after the bags I have made up are sold the future bags will have a recycled sheet for their inner linings. I mean after seeing these images... how could I not?
This is why everyone in our family got reusable metal water bottles in their stockings this past Christmas. I recycle and we go about twice a week with our fair share of cans, plastic and cardboard... anything I can take there goes but the water bottles were getting out of hand, and there mostly unnecessary. It's not that we never buy a bottle of water but if we do, to the recycling center it goes.

This post really came to fruition because of this story that I read. We have all been to the Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. (well us lucky ones have!) but this man decided to do one better for human kind, he started his own version of a thrift store but everything is free. That's right FREE! Like freecycle but with more accessability for the city residents. I love this idea. Take what you need and leave what you don't need. Keeping things out of the landfills and sharing with those who might find a new purpose for your stuff. No money involved, no profit, just saving the earth one old book, scarf, purse, canned good, bowl or cup at a time.
You can read the story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/nyregion/16free.htm?_r=2

Stop on over to Old Grey Mare and check out all of the other great ideas everyone is sharing for Project Genesis. Even the simplest idea for saving the earth, times 100 readers becomes a idea worth sharing. Thank you Suzan!

Thank you for stopping by! Theresa xoxo