a little of this, a little of that...

Let's start with this...

Last week I helped my good friend Julie put together a 50th birthday party for her husband, Tom.

She had so many great ideas for the decorations, the food and the entertainment so it was

an easy job!  This guy, Tod Parkhouse,  the caricature artist was a big hit,  

the guests, young and old alike were lined up for him to draw a silly picture of them.

Here he is drawing one of Max and Hannah

How adorable is that!!!  

GAAAAAAAAA!

It cracks me up every time I look at it!

Duane and I had ours drawn too, but nobody to take a photo of it happening,

Thank goodness for small favors!

Julie hired great local band to play on her beautiful wrap around porch

 while the guests relaxed on the  front lawn

visiting with friends in their lawn chairs.

Also a big hit!

(one day I need to take you on a tour of her gorgeous home)

I am so bummed that I didn't have more time to take some photos of the

decorations with my camera before the guests arrived.

 (I did take a few with Julies before I went

home to get mine but that doesn't help me show them to you now!)

anyway...

I made these chalkboard tags out of precut wood from the craft store

and them we used my new favorite tool, the chalkboard paint pen

to write on everything.

If you haven't gotten one for yourself yet and you love chalkboards as much

as I do, you must head to your nearest craft store

WITH COUPON IN HAND

cuz they aint cheap and I couldn't find any single pens,

you have to buy the set for $12.00

but go get yourself some,

I promise you won't be sorry!

I was able to use the 50% coupon though so I did my famous

Happy Dance as I walked out the door!

We also wrapped some vintage ice buckets with a strip of burlap and topped

them with huge burlap fluffy flowers and filled them with hosta leaves.

Julie also bought plain white paper napkins and stamped the corner

with cool vintage looking stamps.

Plus everything was in galvanized buckets or tool boxes.

She had so many wonderful details that I wish I could show you right now.

anyway...

now, here's some of that...

We have added some really colorful lavender sachets to the mix of 

our laundry provisions

and they are a big hit at the market!

All vintage materials, curtains, tablecloths,sheets, a pillow case or two,

and some mens dress shirts because Danielle said we needed something for the men.

She was so right!

and finally...

Oliver has decided that this large wash basin

is his favorite new hang out.

As I took this picture I had to laugh because we 

recently watched Jim Gaffigan, Mr. Universe,

and he talks about how we are becoming obsessed with taking

pictures of everything.  One of his lines is 'The cat is sleeping,

I should take a picture of him'

...and tweet it.

Seriously though, could you help but take a picture

of what we like to call,

"kitty in a bowl"?

I didn't think so.

Happy Saturday,

make it special!

love,

Theresa

xoxoxxo

better than a cup of joe in the early hours...

I woke up this morning to find an etsy convo. telling me that I have been 'treasured'

***sweet music to my ears***







GOOD MORNING!

how sweet are these colors?


What a great way to start the day!
Thank you Lauralee from Shabby Life


Have a fabulously beautiful Saturday,
I know I will!

love,
Theresa xoxo

a day in the life of @ 612...

In the life of a girl with too many craft supplies,

and so many ideas,

and so many flowers sitting on the table waiting to be used...

there comes the moment when it all makes sense.

Around here it seems that moment arrives with a chid in tow...

"Mom, I need a present for ____________"

you fill in the blank.

"Do you have anything we can make"

(it's like they know I work best under pressure or something!)



Today was such a day.

Believe it or not, I didn't have to make a single flower for this bib necklace

that I put together for Danielle's friend's 21st birthday.

D-"Mom can WE make something for Carly?"

M-"What would WE make?"

D-"I don't know... she loves all of your flowers though"

~nuff said.

I like this girl already!

D- "oh and I need to leave in about an hour or so..."

D- "I love you!!!"

I'm such a sucker for a smooch and I love you and a good challenge.

by the way... you know why the WE in this drama has been highlighted right?

I did mention the sucker part, right?

 This little project has given me a whole new appreciation

for stockpiling my supplies.

(also known as making tons of flowers without a definite plan for them)

I really must go through my stash and see what else I can come up with!

I can thank the fabulous land of blog for this inspiration!

so here goes...

Thanks to all of you fabulously creative bloggers who have shown us your anthro inspired creations,

otherwise I honestly wouldn't have known the first thing about bib necklaces!

Today I am the coolest mom on the block

and it feels sooooo good!  ;O

Happy Saturday!

love,

Theresa xoxo

aka... coolest mom on the block

(for today anyway until another mom breaks out the popsicles!)

a little of this... a little of that...

Recently I have had a few orders at the old white house from brides to make my flower brooches for them and their wedding parties.  I know it is just a small part of their wedding, but the idea that the bride has chosen something made by me for her big day is really quite an honor.  It has had me playing with the fabric and flower ideas quite a bit.  I have come up with a few new styles and am in the process of even more.



This photo answers the question...

Does Theresa wear the flowers that she makes?

why yes, I do! 

I actually wear them quite often.

They always make me feel happy, so even if I'm wearing a t shirt, jeans and my converse, I'm usually sporting a fluffy flower.  Also, I have been known to take off said flower and give it to the first person to compliment it.  That will almost always be an older woman, and it makes me so happy to gift it to her. 

They are usually so surprised and we both leave with a smile.

My little pay it forward so to speak.

For those of you who have shops... do you like special orders?

I'm torn, sometimes it can stress me out, wanting to get all of the colors and ideas just right, and then sometimes I take that challenge and run with it.

The easiest kind is when someone sees something in the shop and wants it personalized, like this altered trophy ribbon.

My pleasure!

This person saw one of the original trophy ribbons and wanted to tweek it a bit.

no problem!

This person saw my original felted heart garland and came up with the idea for me to make one using elephants and the color scheme you see here.

I loved the idea, she only wanted to use a little bit of the blush pink so I asked her what she thought about the hearts between the elephants in pink.

We had a few emails back and forth about this garland, and I loved every minute of the project.  I "stepped out of the box a bit" for it and am so glad I did.

(I tried to take a full view picture of the whole thing, but it was really too big to get a good one.)

 So here is the one she saw and then she envisioned the baby shower banner.

What a pleasure to take her vision and make it a reality!

I think the hardest kind of special orders are the kind where the person asks me to make a flower of a particular color... you know, the kind of color you would find in the big box of 360 crayons and not the kind you would find in a box of 24!

That stresses me out a bit... I mean we all know that the color you see on the screen and the color I see on my screen and then the color of the actual material itself don't always match up.

Plus what you call plum I might call brownish purpleish,

yes, I would probably call it that....

stress.

So I think I found a new way to eliminate stress...

roller derby!!!!!

These girls are crazy! 

Meet the Lansing Derby Vixens!

No they didn't let me join... they took a look at my drivers license and said

"Girrrrrrl you crazy"

LOL!!!

Seriously, I went to see this girl here.

Meet Amy...

She is my daughters long time friend and ever since I heard she was playing roller derby I have wanted to see her play.

You already know I am half way to 100 so I won't be divulging anything new here when I say I remember 'back in the day' watching Roller Derby on T.V.

I just thought it was so cool. 

and just a wee bit scary!

ok, I'm not kidding anybody here

it's a lot scary!

These girls are tough...

I am a wimp.

I should be ashamed to tell you that,

but one of the things my momma taught me was to be truthful.

that being said...

I am a BIG wimp.

So I didn't join the team, I just went to watch with this girl...

Thanks Sweetpea... I had so much fun!

to redeem myself and all of my wimpiness

I must tell you that we sat in the suicide section.

yup, right on the floor wear the action is!

and for that,

I might just make myself a badge!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

love,

Theresa xoxo

rain rain go away...

All of the dreariness of the day has me wishing for more motivation than just trying out different settings on my camera... but there you have it.

along with the rain, John has just left to go back to school and I'm not going to mince words here people, as I watched him and Cam pull away the tears flowed like the rain outside.

I think the idea that he graduates on Sat. and then will be moving across the country has hit home and hit home hard.  :(

that is life and I want nothing more than to see my birds spread their wings but it doesn't make it any less painful when they do.

(sorry just keeping it real.)

back to the collage...

All four of these shots were done with the manual setting.

I am ashamed to say it (but I will anyway) but I didn't even know my camera could take a sepia or B&W shot without editing on the computer!

I bought some dill from Aldis and thought I would use it for Easter dinner. I was unsure what I was going to make with it at the time but it just smelled so good!  Then wouldn't you know it,  I made my "moms famous dilled carrots" but used the dried dill I always use in the recipe because I FORGOT that I had bought fresh dill.   ugh.

I should be ashamed to say that too, but there you are... apparently I have no shame! LOL
so now I have a little pitcher of it to use as a photo prop!

(the carrots were delicious by the way)

you are welcome Boo! xoxo

While I was playing on Picnik I made a couple of thank you cards to go in my packages from

the old white house

I actually turned them into collages so that I could print off more than one at a time.

For some reason (the reason being that I need MY computer fixed because I had that one figured out when dealing with the printer and I don't have Cam's figured out at all!) I can only get Cam's computer to print one at a time so the collage worked great for the cards.  I will just cut them apart to add to the package.

There are a few things I would change about them and I could dr. them up a bit but I can only justify so much play time on the computer.  And I NEEDED to talk to all of you today, it has been a week since I posted last!  Where oh where does the time go?

So do you all PICNIK? 

I still haven't upgraded to premium but have been tempted on more than one occasion. For now the free version works just fine.   (I like anything that is labeled FREE)... just saying.

 and just in case you thought that maybe I haven't had my hand in any creating... I did manage to make a couple of market totes.   I had an order to take care of and while I was printing on that miracle transfer paper I thought I would make something new.  Love the bees, of course not really fond of them when I'm relaxing outside, but they are cute with crowns, are they not?

Then I went crazy big with one of my flowers.  

That's how I roll, once I make enough of something I have to play around with all of the sizes it could be!

So this one is enormous!

Guess what?  While we were visiting. the rain stopped!

thank you. I needed that!

Come by and work your magic anytime!   ;)

love, Theresa xoxo

I am linking up to , White Wednesday,  Wow us Wednesday, Link Love, Running With Glitter,

Transformation Thursday

last treat in the birthday bag!

Oh my goodness, yesterday was a busy busy day, so I didn't get to post the last treat for the goody bag, 

 so here you go...

The winner will be able to choose a flower from my etsy, The Old White House, any color of your choosing.

If you would like one a bit smaller than the 6" to 7" ones that I have listed I can do that for you... me I'm a bit eccentric at times and like to wear them big!  Really, I wear them all of the time, they go with everything and I swear that whenever I wear one someone compliments me on it.  That always makes me feel good so maybe tomorrow I will wear 2 or 3!  :)

I really have to wrap this up, no lengthy post tonight, I snatched the computer while Duane wasn't looking and he just walked back in the room!!!!!

EEEEEK!!!

So there you have it... the winner will receive the drop cloth ruffled tote bag, a soldered pendant, a burlap rosette, 2 vintage postcards, 1 flower frog and a big fluffy flower for you to add to your favorite spring outfit!

Wasn't that a fun Birthday Party?   Who's up for a little pin the tail on the donkey?

Remember, all you have to do is

* leave a comment on any of the birthday posts

*become a follower if you are not one already

easy peasy, lemon squeazy!

The winner will be announced tomorrow!

Love ya!

Theresa xoxo