Antique, Vintage, and PINK

Happy Pink Saturday! Hard to believe that Bev has been hostessing this crazy little event for a year now, but "shore 'nuff", that is the case. I must have been feeling the love when I posted my auctions on Ebay this week, because these represent 5 out of the 6 things I have up right now, all PINK. Thought you might enjoy seeing them since they are very fun antique and vintage pretties.

First, a wonderful 1940's or 50's hat that I bought on my recent vacation to Florida. It is covered with pink organdy and velvet rosebuds (on a pink velvet hatstand, of course).


Next, a wonderful pair of 1920's silk shoes with adorable rosettes on the toes...can't you just see a little flapper gal doing the Charleston in these?


Antique English pink lustreware cup and saucer. Makes you want to have a spot of tea, doesn't it?


One of my favorites of all time (why am I selling it???), a 1920's half doll boudoir lamp with the prettiest little half doll perched on a tricked out ribbonwork and lace canopied chair. The light is under her skirt, giving her a soft glow when it is turned on.


Lastly, one of the prettiest handpainted tole trays I've ever come across, in almost mint condition and...PINK with pink roses. Doesn't get any better than that, does it?

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little tour of pink pretties on this lovely spring Pink Saturday. I hope you are having a great weekend with your friends and loved ones. Next week, I hope to take you shopping with me to some of my local haunts.

Until next time,

A Pink Post from Vacation

I wasn't going to do a Pink Saturday post this week since I am in Florida with my family on vacation, but then I started looking around and realized that I had lots of pink to choose from on this fine Pink Saturday. From left to right, we have pink flowers, pink sandy toes, pink seashells, and a pink hat.


More pink flowers, pink cheeks, a pink koozie, and more sweet pink cheeks...
Who knew that there was so much pink just waiting to be discovered? And while you ponder this, pop on over to Bev's and check out the other Pink Saturday participants. You'll be glad you did!

Until next time,

A Pretty Pink Flapper Gal for Pink Saturday

I thought you might enjoy seeing one of my Ebay listings which happens to be SO very pretty and...PINK! She is from the 1920's and is a powder puff holder. She holds 6 powder puffs in her skirt. Isn't she just adorable? I may have mentioned that I love 1920's flapper boudoir items. Some of them are totally useful, some are totally useless, but most are somewhere in between. I think the thought of the day was that if something held still, you should embellish it! And boy, did they.

I am going to head out to the beach for a family vacation this week, so I must keep this post short and pack my swimsuit and book! When you read this on Pink Saturday, I will be either en route or enjoying the sand and surf. See you all when I get back (or before if I find something interesting...). Until then, pop on over to Bev's and check out the other Pink Saturday participants. It's never boring!

Until next time,

If you were my neighbor on May Day...

You would have been pleasantly surprised with one of these little pretties on your front door. Except for Wendy, because she caught me as I was hanging the vase on the door (thanks to Oliver, the Springer Spaniel who had to very loudly announce my arrival). The weather was very gray, misty, and cold, so it didn't feel like May Day, but the flowers cheered me up and hopefully did the same for my friends and neighbors.

I got the idea for these from a magazine last year (Romantic Homes, perhaps?), but never got around to doing it for May Day last year. Just take a tin can (like a soup can), remove the label and wash out the can. Then cover the can with pretty paper. I used Modge Podge to put mine on, but I'm sure you could just use a white craft glue. I wanted to make mine a touch more resistant to water in case the water spilled, so that's why I decided to decoupage. Add some pretty seam binding or other ribbon, tying off a loop on the back to allow the "vase" to be hung, add water and your favorite flowers and voila, you have a lovely little gift for your friends and neighbors for May Day or for any day that you want to make just a little more special. You could also embellish with pretty lace or other trims, but I thought my paper was nice enough that any more would just be too much. Pretty simple, but pretty neat because most people won't take the time to do such a fun little project, so you get style points for being so "artistic" with a minimum of effort! And your friends get a great day brightener. Now that's what I call a win-win situation...

I hope you have a great first weekend in May and if you can break away from the spring cleaning and gardening, pop on over to Bev's at How Sweet the Sound who hostesses "Pink Saturday" and see what other participants have posted-it's usually pretty eclectic and fun with something for everyone!

Happy Spring!

Until next time,

Spring Cleaning

I actually spent all day yesterday deep cleaning our family room. Yikes! I think I missed like the last 8 or 9 springs for the whole cleaning thing, so it was intense. However, its amazing how good it felt to come home this evening after work and see the fruits of my labor. Clutter corralled, dust bunnies evicted, carpet and upholstery cleaned. WOW! Who knew? Better than Prozac, no lie! Okay, maybe not, but seriously, it makes me want to systematically go through all of the areas of my home and do this. I have no pictures to share, but I will share a link with you that, at one time, I found very useful. I need to get back to visiting the Flylady once in a while. Her theories make sense and if you do what she says, you will have a clean, organized, well functioning home. Its a comittment, sort of like losing weight (also on my list) and getting regular exercise (another one, check!), but worth it if you can at least do at least a smidge of her suggestions. Check it out if you have time. For now, I must finish my little May Day Flower Vessels that I'm going to gift my gal pals with tomorrow. Maybe I'll be smart and take pictures to show you. And just for the record, the photo above is a Flickr file (from the incredibly talented Polly) which has nothing to do with the post, except for having one of my favorite spring flowers, lilacs, in it. Which, in my part of the world, is more like an early summer flower, but that might be splitting hairs.

Until next time,

A Pretty Pink Solution...

By now, you may have pegged me for the type of girl that would be attracted to vintage millinery flowers. If not, I can save you the trouble of figuring it out. I AM ATTRACTED TO VINTAGE MILLINERY FLOWERS. I got really into it some years ago after I attended an estate sale of an antique French fashion doll dresser (yes, there really are people who do that). This lady loved all of the beautiful antique textiles that I do-ribbonwork, millinery flowers, ribbons, wonderful fabrics, linens, and lace. She also had a huge collection of Victorian ephemera, but that's a whole other post. Anyway, to say that I had achieved antique textile Nirvana when I went to this sale was an understatement. I left happy, but broke, with bags and bags of great things, one of which was a plethora of millinery flowers. At the time, I used to set up regularly at a local antiques show, so I sold many of the flowers there. But, there are always those holdbacks. The ones that I just couldn't part with. Then, there were a few more that I had picked up along the way at various venues. All well and good, but what the heck do you do with all of those pieces? I was pretty sure I wasn't going to become a doll dresser and use them to adorn the dolls...I was pretty sure I was not going to start wearing hats and dolling them up (although maybe for a girlie tea party in my garden sometime...but, I digress). Then one day, I happened upon this cool small dress form at my local craft store (Hobby Lobby, I think). It had a distressed pink wooden top and a chicken wire like skirt. Hmmm, on went the thinking cap and in the cart went the dress form. This is what I came up with.


My girl is as pretty from the back as she is from the front. I added the ribbon "cumberbund" and lace "shawl". Many of the flowers were just stuck in through the holes and the ones that wouldn't stay for the most part were held in place with one of my favorite accessories, twisty ties. Pretty simple.



Gotta love a pretty vintage pink rose...


And a deep pink velvet rose...


I really love the pink velvet berries...


This ended up being one of my most favorite inspiration pieces. And the best part is, no vintage millinery flowers were harmed in the making of this project! I hope you enjoyed seeing it on Pink Saturday. When you have the chance, go over and visit Bev at How Sweet the Sound for loads of other fun and PINK offerings.


Until next time,

Maybe it's just spring...

Okay, I don't know if its just the hint of impending spring or what, but I'm feeling restless in my decor. I've always loved my home, small though it is, but after almost 10 years in the same place, I'm feeling like its time for a change. I've been getting inspired from places like Pottery Barn for my family room and am leaning towards darkish chocolate (maybe milk chocolate) walls for my "pretty room" otherwise known as the living room or, as it was called in the Edwardian era, the "entry hall". I'm also getting anxious to renovate our home office and rip up that hideous carpet upstairs and rearrange my son's room, and...okay, you see where this is going. And then there's the studio we are building. Now that, I envision as a Nordic French kinda fusion. As illustrated in Franske stemninger på nordisk vis, a beautiful book printed in Danish only which has so many stunning pictures, you don't need to read it. Although if you could read Danish, it would be handy. The name translates to "French Atmosphere in the Nordic Way" and it is a very pretty combo. Sigh...off to pay some bills. Reality, you know? Anybody else out there feeling restless?

Until next time,