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

newest creations...

newest creations...

another version of a bib necklace, something a bit less over-the-top than the gray that I showed before.

I need to make myself one of these to dress up a plain t-shirt

These were gifts for 2 very special people

but I will be adding these to my etsy as well.

I only have time to show you these for now...

I am in the middle of getting ready for our family reunion!

I can't wait to play with these people

CAN YOU FEEL MY EXCITEMENT?

5 days of fun, laughter, more laughter and reuniting with my family.

I can't wait!

I'll tell you all about it when I get back!

...did I mention that there will be laughter?

:O

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!)

so many muffins and not enough mooses...

this is the story of a girl  who, as you have been told, flies by the seat of her pants

 and usually that leads to the whole

if you give a moose a muffin thing...

here's the scoop. poop.

(just thought I'd throw in a little saying that I say to the kids)

Yesterday I was minding my own business wiping God knows what off of the kitchen wall, when I thought

'do you really want to wipe these blue walls one more time without painting them white?'

"nope", I said.

so I finished wiping said walls and then headed down to the dungeon  basement and retrieved any paint

can with the color white, off white, country white, ivory, well you get the picture.

I then mixed every can in a bucket and gave it a good stir.

waa laa enough paint for the kitchen

and no need to get out of jammies

and no need to spend a dime.

(good thing too, cuz that dime has already been spent!)

I just love aprons, don't you? 

 The scale holds our banana supply... as you can see the monkeys have been hungry!

the fruit bowl is empty too... time for a trip to the farm market.

So now I needed new kitchen curtains.
Off to the stash of white material...

This morning as I was reaching into my bag for my good scissors, the ones I don't like to share with the kids because you never know what they will cut up with them, I found some of the fabric circles I made last week to make some new flowers with.

Carol over @ The Polka Dot Closet shared this tutorial for these and well

they are swoon worthy.

Thank you Carol!!!


I had made the melted flowers before but well these just were too pretty to pass up.

You know where this is going, right?

I got a bit distracted, and well if I could cover the whole window with these then I could tell you that I made the curtains.

but I made flowers instead!

Then I checked my etsy to see that I have a couple of new flower orders for the big fluffy ones so I am still in flower mode and not yet curtain mode.

In the mean time, because I painted the walls things needed to be rearranged.

Less stuff going back in... you're welcome Babe.

ofcourse the soldering tool box had to stay, you never know when I'm going to be inspired!

here's a first... I'm taking pics of my trash can for you now!!!
We've had this for a while now, but I don't think I've ever shown it to you.
gotta love a giant crock. I made the lid for it by cutting a circle out of some scrap wood and then painted it black and put a metal handle on it.
waa laa.

scaling back. more white, a bit of grey...

thank you JDA.

simple living.

ahhh that's better.

let me tell you, with me around, those moose have no worries about their muffin supply!!!

Who knows what I'll come up with tomorrow when I attempt once more to make the curtains!

Thanks for stopping by!

love,
Theresa xoxo

linking up to:

White Wednesday

Transformation Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

Vintage Inspiration Friday

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

how does your garden grow...

I have been making some new flowers and thought I'd show you a few of them, the flower bug has hit hard over here and so as I am making the etsy orders I am thinking of how I can mix it up a bit...

This one has a stiff linen type of fabric for the bottom petals and then some lace that a friend from work gave to me and a ribbon rosette and glass bead in the center. 

I have to address the lace fabric,  I am able to work on my flowers while I am at work during the quiet time (yup it's a really stressful job...not) and whenever she comes in, her standard question is "so what are you making now?" and she has started bringing me in things to check out and some to share.  I love it!  She is 78 years old and I love that crafts and junk bring us together, our common bond so to speak.

This one has more of her lace and some chiffon added with a gorgeous old beaded earring in the center.

I know this one doesn't qualify for WW but I am in love with this lavender fabric, it is just so delicate in both color and weight so I made it into a pom flower.

Can you pass up polka dots?  Nope, me either!

A lavender dahlia.  Help me out, lavender or lilac?  It's just the palest purple ever.

This was a special order of my ivory ones, the order was for 4 flowers that were 3"  instead of 6" so she can have her bridesmaids wear them!  I get so excited when someone uses something of mine for such a special occasion!

Yup, it's like a fabric gardening center over here @ 612... So unlike the planting, watering, and waiting like a  true gardener, think Carole or June,   instead  I sew, glue and fluff!

You can find all of these in my etsy,  The Old White House. 

It's Wednesday, so you know what that means, I'm linking up to White Wednesday over at Faded Charm, Wow Us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style  and Link Love with Tea Rose Home.

Thanks for the parties girls, I always come away with so much inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by,

Theresa xoxo