etsy love...

Thank you Susan from Beach Baby Blues for
featuring my Valentine heart in your wonderful treasury!

To all of my lovely blog friends...

Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart for your love...

your kind words and prayers mean the world to me.

love,

Theresa xoxo

reflecting...

I am so enjoying the process of beading these necklaces!

I started  going through my soldered pendants that have been hanging around the studio,

this one is my first attempt at a double strand necklace.

The two crystal balls on either side of the pendant are from a vintage necklace,

and the pendant is double sided.  The enclosed button with a circle of glass glitter that you see here,

and a fleur de lis on the other side.

I think this one is my new favorite :)

I applied a copper patina to the soldered Eiffel Tower pendant for a more vintage look,

and then beaded with vintage and new creamy ivory beads.

Super romantic!

Our weekend did not go as planned, it was turned upside down

when we found out that one of our best friends passed away Friday night.

Very suddenly, without warning, and much too young.

He was only 49.

One of the nicest, kindest people I have ever met.

Married his highschool sweetheart, also wonderfully kind,

and raised 3 incredible children.

I know that it is almost cliche to say that a death like this,

makes you evaluate your own life.

but it does.

It's too short, not enough time to make sure that you are living to your full potential.

By that I don't mean becoming some huge success

by the standards that the financial world sets for us.

Nor by being famous,

I mean, did I recognize the sadness in someones eyes as we spoke,

and did I do something to help make it go away?

Have I shown a kindness, big or small to those around me?

Have I stopped to appreciate this big beautiful world and have

I made a conscious effort to keep it that way?

Am I the kind of person that I would want to meet?

All simple things really,

but they all require a promise...

a promise to myself that I will stop long enough to give more of myself.

The good parts...the parts that come from a place of love.

Source: ruelala.com via Theresa on Pinterest

nuff said.

Have a wonderful week!  Ours started with a snow day, so Hannah and Max are still sleeping. 

 I'm thinking fruit smoothies for breakfast and some good snuggles are in order.

love,

Theresa xoxoxoxo

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weekend plans...

I'm thinking more of this...

I'm sorry for the grainy pictures, I was losing daylight quickly as I tried to snap a few for you!

I'm still investigating but I think that i got this altered photo from 

Gaby Cajubrasil

she has some really fantastic freebies for us!

vintage bark cloth under glass.

still beading...

I've combined my love of collage and soldering into new necklaces.

I am loving the process, picking vintage costume jewels to add to new

glass seed beads.  My brain is spinning!

We are supposed to get some snow tonight,

so that means more beading tomorrow too!

Picture me cozied up on the couch surrounded by beads with a fire going in the fireplace,

and movies on the t.v.

sounds like a pretty good Saturday so far!

I'm thinking beef stew for dinner for the carnivores and vegie stew for us herbivores,

yup that's a good Saturday!

Have a wonderful weekend!

love, 

Theresa xoxoxoxo

linking up to:

Vintage Inspiration Friday

Thanks Debra!

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words to live by...

Source: createfindadmire.tumblr.com via Theresa on Pinterest

One of my favorite things about pinterest are the wonderful and insightful quotes that I find to add to my Words To Live By pin board.

I just thought I would share one of them with you today...


Happy Thursday!

love,
Theresa xoxo

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the story of a simple piece of string...

How does something as simple as cotton string create a whole new room?

My drop cloth curtains in the dining room needed new tiebacks,

so I grabbed my butchers string from the bucket that it resides

 and crocheted some new tiebacks for the dining room!

It was a nice sunshiny day and that coupled with the new tiebacks led to a fresh, clean room!

(o.k. that coupled with some window cleaner, a vacuum, 

and  a bucket of vinegar water and some elbow grease!)

The tiebacks were just the excuse I needed to rearrange and freshen things in here.

Last years boxwood wreath bit the dust while decorating for Christmas

and this old mirror frame with last springs wreath took its place.

The metal basket filled with blue jars was a special Christmas gift...

as was this little frame, I put one of the few pictures that I have of my mammy in it.

( I love it, even if it's small and a bit blurry... she is feeding a puppy)

I balanced all of the light colors in the room with this black dresser on the short wall

before the living room.

AHHHHHHHH gotcha!

I wasn't "balancing" anything on purpose!

This dresser was put here when the Christmas tree came in the  room

and I liked it so much that this is where it stayed!

(that's the truth, the whole truth!)

During the holidays, when everyone was showing all of the Anthro inspired snow globes,

I made one of my own.

A vintage wedding cake topper on a small silver coaster

on top of a candle holder.

It will probably stay out way past Valentines Day.

As for this girl, she made it safely to Atlanta and the happiness in her voice

is music to my ears!

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers. xoxoxox

These are pics that I shot through the window in the comfort of my semi-warm (old house)

kitchen of her and Duane tying down all of her must-have treasures.

She doesn't miss the cold at all!

so that's the story of how a bit of cotton string can create a whole new room!

(Who would have thought that something as basic as curtain tiebacks

would force me to redecorate the whole room?)

ohhh you, of course!

;0

Thanks for stopping by!

love,

Theresa xoxoxo

linking up to:

White Wednesday

Primp your stuff Wednesday

What's it Wednesday

Transformation Thursday

Thanks for the parties girls!

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newest creations...

Thank you everyone for your advice and kind words over my last post...

I see that many of us suffer from the same "problem" of wanting to create in so many mediums!

Last night I turned to my latest venture...

many, many years ago, when I was about 20, or so I found this picture at a garage sale,

I fell for this grandpa-man immediately... he just looks so approachable, doesn't he?

(it's gotta be the mustache!) 

Last night while we watched a couple of movies,

I finished stringing a few more necklaces.

It was a great night spent with some of my favorite people in the world,

a good movie, old jewels, old silver, and glass beads,

and homemade popcorn...

enough to make a girls night complete!

Happy Weekend!

If you would be so kind as to keep Danielle in your prayers I would appreciate it,

she heads out for Atlanta tomorrow,

a mama's gonna need some prayers too!

thanks <3

love, 

Theresa xoxo

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what to do, what to do...

I love to visit pinterest and all of my favorite blogs for inspiration, but recently I decided to

check out my own pics for a jolt of inspiration

 (like a walk down memory lane)

and I think it's time to plug in the soldering iron again...

could my kids recent moves be what draws me to this one?

and then I came across this bag, and now I want to plug in my sewing machine...

I have more sweaters...

and more skirts for more pillows...

but I also have a few more of these vintage trophy ribbons in my stash...

is this starting to sound like one of Deb's squirrel alerts?

and then Santa brought me a dremel for Christmas...

(we are now eating with plastic silverware!)

At the moment, I am making a few special orders with special phrases

of this Valentine heart...

Is it a bad thing to want to create with so many different mediums?

I didn't even bring up the collage work and assemblage that I want to do...

At times I question my direction as an artist and small business owner.

Am I really doing myself any favors by going in so many different directions?

When I have tried to concentrate on only one or two things,

I find myself feeling antsy, 

or feeling maybe a bit more squirrely than antsy actually.

There is that one thing that always comes into play when I make something,

making something new from something old, creating something it was never intended to be.

Did you know that when you type in repurposed it comes up as misspelled?

It's not recognized as a word except with those of us

who can't help but look at something

and think...

what if I did this to that, and then put this here, and cut this off...

you get the picture, right?

I knew that you did :)

you get me... thank you for that!

so be it upcycled, repurposed, recycled, or whatever the spell check will accept,

I will surely be doing more of it starting next week!

Gotta get my head back in the game so to speak.

til next time,

love,

Theresa xoxoxoox

linking up to:

Transformation Thursday

Vintage Inspiration Friday

Thanks for the parties girls!

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I love homemade gifts, don't you?

The kids draw names for Christmas every year, and this year John got Danielle's name.

Not all of the kids make their presents, but I love it when they make at least part of it.

John and I tossed around a few ideas, He really wanted to make her present, and while shopping

at the Good Will he spotted this black lamp and it even had a great shade on it, so to 

personalize it for her we used the transfer method of photocopying an image on a laser printer,

 covering the image with gel medium, and then placing the image face down

on the shade, canvas, fabric.. you get the idea.

When the gel medium is dry you rub the paper off with water and waalaa

like magic the image is transferred to the shade!

(Danielle LOVES old Hollywood and vintage pin-up girls)

so he looked for a good one for her and found these two girls in full pin up attire.

(Well, as full as pin up attire goes!)

We then added some pleated satin and velvet trim around the top and the bottom of the shade 

to give it a more finished look.

I think it turned out fabulous!

It is sooooooo her style!

and she loved it!

What do I love most about it?

Collaborating with this guy to make it!

I loved how determined he was to make at least part of the gift that he would give his sister 

for her new apartment in Atlanta.

While John was home for Christmas we went thrifting,

Christmas shopping, visiting relatives, out to lunch with my dad and sister, Molly, played Yahtzee, we

cooked, (he taught me how to be a better vegan cook and new items to shop for), 

In fact, he cooked our entire Christmas dinner - except the ham for the carnivores!

we laughed, we had great conversations, 

(the first night he was home him, Cameron, Max and I 

stayed up until 4:00 in the morning talking, it was fabulous!)

and we created art.

It doesn't get better than that!

I had a hard time telling him good by the other day, and I hope we 

are able to see each other again soon,

cuz as all you moms know,

when your house is missing one, two, or even three of your babies,

a piece of you goes with them.

Can you feel the love?  I see it in all of these beautiful faces.

Duane's birthday is New Years day and we had a quiet dinner at home.

per his usual request.  John and Cam couldn't make it, but this picture 

says it all for me... love.

I love this lil family that I was blessed with.

Danielle moves to GA. on Friday, so this week will be 

an emotional roller coaster ride for me.

Good thing she makes me laugh like crazy,

I'm gonna need some humor!

Gotta let them fly...

and I know she will soar!

love,

Theresa xoxoxoxoxo

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A BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

I have been having major problems with our internet... I am really going through some tough 

blogging withdrawals...

it's not pretty people, not pretty!

Seriously, someone needs to mend this quickly so I can do all of the things I want to do on the blog.

I have so many ideas to share,

posts that I NEED to post.

I have been thinking of ways that I would change up things over here.

Post more, tutorials coming your way, lots of fun things on the horizon...

now I just need our router to cooperate!

As soon as it does, I want to show you some of the fun I have been having over here!

(Right now I am sitting in the public library in the young adult room, 

acting like a young adult,

 and whining because I miss all of my friends!)

Until this gets worked out these librarians can expect to see much more of me around here!

I don't let myself whine for too long though

sooooooo

on to happier things...

This was one of our presents from Hannah... 

another reason why her and I love/stalk

Pinterest!

She saw this idea on there and then proceeded to make three of them to give as presents!

I think it turned out beautifully, I love the little girl that Hannah painted, blowing bubbles

under a rainstorm of green and yellow.

Also, before Christmas I won a giveaway from Jeanine over at 

Okio B Designs

I received a box stuffed with crafting supplies and oh my gosh,

I cannot wait to show you some of the creations that come from

Jeanine's generosity!

She is not only generous in her giveaway but she give us doses of  inspiration on a daily basis... 

go and check her out,

 you will be so glad that you did!

Hannah, Max and I were all digging through the box, coming up with ideas for all of the goodies!

(Jeanine's picture, we tore the box open like wild animals-

I think we are lucky the mail lady will still deliver to our home!)

For instance Jeanine put a paper mache' dress form in the box

and I snagged it before the kids did, because a couple of years ago 

I made this silver platter assemblage and it sold on etsy,

 and I have been wanting one of my own for a while now

so THANK YOU Jeanine for contributing to our crafting habits!

I think my new one will be wearing some of the hand stamped ribbon that was in the prize box!

THANK YOU JEANINE!!! XOXO

You see, I have so much to share with you...

but the girls just flickered the lights over here and I think that must mean last call

or something, so I gotta say good by for now.

Please know that I'm thinking about you and wondering what you have been up to!

You can bet there will be a great game of catch-up the next time I can link up,

whether here at the library or hopefully in the comfort of my own home, where people

won't look at me weird when I laugh out loud or ooooh and ahhhh while

oogling all of your beautiful creations!

I hope you have a fabulous 2012, full of love, laughter and many blessings...

in other words...

may your cup spilleth over!

and when it does, may you have a super sized

 SHAMWOW 

to mop up the excess!!!

:)

love,

Theresa xoxoxoxoxoox 

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