Notes from A Cottage Industry

Memorial day, Twenty-Ten.

 ...And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

                             (Lee Greenwood)

This verse of the song comes to mind (and brings tears to my eyes) for me every Memorial Day. I am truly grateful for the men and women who gave it all, as well as those who served before or are serving now. (And, I am a very proud Mama of an Nevada Air Guard son!)

Weekly Words to Live By - Week 170

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.  ~Anthony J. D'Angelo

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A full day....Something new in the window and a lil' cupcake love.

 I absolutely love days like today. I had a full day today, filled with all kinds of activity. I worked at the bank from 11:30 until 6:15.(Okay, that part wasn't so thrilling, but it was a busy and rather fun day there as well.) What else made it a full day? Well, let's see...

Today is one of my fabulous son in law's (Son's in laws?...whatever. Carter's Daddy.) birthdays. I took some double chocolate cuppy-cakes to his office on my way to the bank.(I baked them last night) I got the "Happy Birthday" candles at the grocery store...an easy decoration that looks pretty danged cute. 
 Before the bank, and before stopping by Carter's Daddy's office, I was a very busy bee working on a few new finds for my booth space.  Mmm hmm, my day began with a quick trip to Camas Antiques at Oh-dark-thirty to fluff the window and add a couple of new treasures. (I so love fluffing this window...I cannot even describe how fun it is to create new vignettes up there!!!) 
My favorite new find was an old vintage brass birdcage holder, which I coincidentally had the perfect vintage brass hanging light fixture. It was just begging to be hung from this wonderful holder... a match made in heaven. (I think if I were to keep it, I would nestle it in the corner near my reading chair in the living room, or take out the wiring and use it for a romantic "candelier" on my balcony...how sweet would that be?!)
Now I'm home, in for the night. 

If you're going out of town this holiday weekend, I wish you safe travels, and if you'll be staying home, I hope you're with people you love. Whatever you are doing this weekend, let's all remember what Memorial Day is really about, and the service men and women who've given it all of the freedoms we Americans enjoy today.

A new use for old curtained shutters.

This is the latest vignette in the side corner of the window at Camas  Antiques, and I thought you might get a bit of inspiration from this idea. I put a cute little corner writing desk in the alcove and I needed something as a backdrop up on top of the desk. 

I discovered a pair of sheered curtain shutters in a fellow junker's booth space at Camas Antiques and I placed them, slightly folded, across the two back sides. Using Italian paperclips (they look like little spiral circle things) I hung some old snapshots. (You could do the same thing with postcards, old letters, or quotes) Aaaah, instant charm. 

The fabric adds texture and the wood frames add interest as well. Plus, when used in a corner like this, they extend the desk area up to eye level when looking at it from across the room.(I think this idea would work great above a dresser too!) It's funny, 'coz I've seen old curtained shutters a few times at thrift shops and salvage yards, and just passed them by. You can bet that I'll grab them up next time I see some.

Art Linkletter

 Younger readers may not even remember Art Linkletter. Readers in...ehem...my age group...surely remember him. I vividly remember watching him on his Television shows, "Art Linkletter's Houseparty", "Kids Say the Darndest Things" and "People Are Funny". It was good clean television, featuring interviews many times with children, and they were priceless. 

My friend Bob in fact was interviewed on one of these shows, at the age of eleven. Art asked Bob if he would like to be President of the United States one day and when Bob said no, Art asked, "Why not?" Bob replied that there was too much paperwork.

Tonight, while watching a little snippet of an interview with Art, he shared his philosophy on life; a clip shot when he was 78 and was out skiing somewhere. He said emphatically, "Don't sit on the sidelines just watching life. Get out there and be part of it." You've just gotta love a guy with that kind of attitude.

Mr. Linkletter died yesterday, at the age of 97. What a wonderful role model for us all.

So many ideas, not quite enough time.

 When I am painting a piece of furniture, I am usually thinking about baking. Or writing. When I am baking, I am usually thinking about thrifting. Or painting. It's a vicious circle, for sure. Now, maybe it's my creative nature, or the fact that I love a new project, or, maybe...maybe, it's simply that I am a spaz.

The challenge is that I enjoy doing many different things, and to picture myself doing just one of those things, day in and day out, for forty-plus hours a week, seems frightfully constraining to me, and I wonder, if I might become bored, if I did focus on only one of these passions.

I bring this up because my cupcake business has pretty much been on the back burner, and it pops into my thoughts a lot lately. Part of me longs for a cool vintage trailer, to refurbish and sell my cupcakes out of at fairs and farmers markets..or a full blown cupcake parlor and dessert lounge. (Imagine a cupcakery on the grandest scale of charm, oozing with mouth watering smells, as well as vintage pieces of furniture, and stacks of fabulous cake pedestals for sale, and you've got the basic picture.) 

At any rate, while I am loving every minute of thrifting, and creating, and doing my booth, and working on my blog, I still have moments...lots of moments when I think about cupcakes, and entertaining ideas, and growing my business in these areas too. 

I know I've said it before, but sometimes I think I will need to live to be 132 to be able to do all of the things I have ideas for in my head.

Weekly Words to Live By - Week 169

 Um, ya.

If this is true, I am guessing that I fall into the "Incredibly Gifted" category! (Click on the photo for a larger view if you have trouble reading the typing...)

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If you'd like to join me in sharing your own "Weekly Words to Live By", use the Mr. Linky tool below to link your blog post to this week's specific Words to live By post, and please remember to link back to this post here on Notes From A Cottage Industry. 

A new lil' Cottage Industry tutorial blog.

 You all know that old book pages and sheet music are part of my signature look, and have endured seeing countless projects done this way. Well, the other day, I was over at Carter's home helping his Mama to add some book pages to an old book case for the home office in her new home, and she had the fabulous idea to film me for a nice little tutorial to share with you.

I'll tell you right now that I insisted she film my arms only for this first time online tutorial because :

A. I am a woman over 50 that is more vain than I'd like to admit (and I think most of us "girls" that are over 50 are this way....) and 

B. I was having a really bad hair day, (No, seriously I was.) and 

C. I was caught in a typical Pacific Northwest (I still can't really believe I live here, can you?!) downpour before going to Carter's home and it made the bad hair day oh-so-much-worse.

Anyway.

Now that I have shared why you only see my hands (and a fraction of my nose and lips in one ten second spot) I would like to share the very first tutorial video with you.  (By the way, Carter's Mama created the new blog for me on Blogger because Typepad, as much as I love it, isn't so video friendly as I would like.) I will however, be jazzing up the looks of this tutorial blog in the very, very near future (As soon as I get the password and such from Carter's Mama.)

The first (in hopefully a nice long series) of tutorials is on Decoupaging book pages. You can find it here. (The link to the tutorial blog is now on my blog's sidebar.) 

Oh, one more thing...I have a fair amount of kind of...pauses....and I do not usually talk this way (any, I don't think I do) but, I was trying to get my thoughts together, and there was a bit of a race for time, as we could hear Carter on the baby monitor, stirring from his nap, and time was of the essence. 

Mmm hmm, it's yet another window update, folks.

I know some of you are groaning, while rolling your eyes and thinking, "Dear God, how many more posts and pictures is she going to post on here about her 15 minutes of small town fame in the front window at Camas Antiques?! Get a life, woman!"

Um...well, the honest answer is that I am not sure, because I have been so busy (and excited) about this latest project that I have kind of developed a brain freeze in the area of blog post ideas the past couple of weeks. Yup, I sit down to type and...nada. So, I decide to share more pictures of the updates on the window. After all, to my way of thinking...at the very least it is a post, and it's what I am doing every minute I am away from the bank, (And, if you think about it, the window is very much like decorating a room, which hopefully gives everyone a few ideas) so...there you have it.

So, to those of you that have had your fill of window vignettes here, I apologize sincerely, and please know that this topic will be temporary. (Although I have to share that I have control of the window through the fourth of July and I will be switching to a patriotic theme the first couple days of June, and I am sure I will share that too...) Actually, I am going to debut something kind of semi exciting tomorrow on my blog, (okay, maybe not semi exciting, but,  least it isn't all about my window display) so.... if you can just bear with me today, I promise tomorrow's post will be about something other than the window.

Now then. Back to the window.

I redid the color scheme, as the bedding is all sold, and I was absolutely dying to go to my favorite-of-the-moment-neutral-color-palate! whites to wheats to browns to blacks. Mmmmmmm, love it.  

If you are still reading this post, thanks for indulging me.

A little Tuesday inspiration for all of us.

Nope. No picture today.

Just a link to an incredibly inspirational blog post that totally made my (very early) Tuesday morning when I took a break from painting in the garage. I cannot even tell you how I came to land her blog, but I am so very happy that I did.

You've just got to love this girl's determination and commitment to her dreams. Thank you, Laura, for sharing your story with all of us here in Blogland.

To read her post, click here.

A Bliss List.

 I'm not sure if I've shared this with you before or not (I think I have...) but I am an over-thinker. Actually, that is putting things...um..rather mildly. In truth, I am an uber-over-thinker. I think about what I should wear (Changing clothes as many as 47 times before leaving for the bank sometimes...just kidding...okay, maybe not kidding.) how I should schedule my time (being mainly self employed means you need to be a self starter and try to not get side tracked...with the emphasis on try.) and if I am making the right choices in my life so that when it's over I can feel like I did my best. (Do you do that?)

Anyway, because I am an uber-over-thinker, and because I spent a fair amount of sidetracked time yesterday reading blogs (I'm calling it an "inspiration session") I came to the conclusion that I needed a Bliss List for myself.

I got the idea in part from my daughter, who calls her list a "Bucket List", and from this girl, who calls it a "Wish List". Now, my daughter's list is for her entire life....while Cassie's is strictly for this summer, and quite honestly, I am not sure which idea I like better....they both inspire and give a sort of rough guide to things we want to be sure to not miss while we're here.

So, like I was saying, I decided to call my list a Bliss List, because, well, you know...I am all about my Bliss, especially these days. I was thinking about it, and I was a bit disturbed to realize that I am now officially past middle aged now, (Unless I plan to live to be 106, which I absolutely do not...96 maybe, but nevah 106...Good Gawd, I am having enough trouble navigating the way through my 50's.) and life has thrown me a few curve balls that have required me to rethink, rejoice, adjust, and accept some previously thought out life-plans I had in my mind.

Hense, the need for a Bliss List. The funny thing (to me anyway) is that it wasn't all that easy to come up with items for my list. Maybe it's that I am not as clever as the other girls I named, or maybe, you just think more clearly in your 20's? This being said, my list isn't so full of "Go to New York City and see a Broadway Play" kind of stuff, although I do have things like... going to the Bliss Spa (Any one of them) with my best girlfriends. Mostly my Bliss List contains everyday kinds of experiences...
 like taking Moose to all of the Dog Parks in the Portland Oregon area. All. Fifty. Of. Them. 

And, learning how to operate my camera to it's fullest potential. (The same goes for my MAC...and my iPod. Think how easy life would be!) Oh, and things like going on a picnic one day each week for an entire summer...at a different fabulous spot here in the Pacific Northwest.

I was thinking as I attempted to create this Bliss List that I keep myself so busy currently that this might be the reason I was having trouble getting the list going, (Certainly it could not be my age, or the fact that I now must admit to having the ever so periodic "Senior Moment" as some horribly insensitive person coined them) and that made me want to compile this list even more. I've decided that I'll keep adding to it as things pop into my mind. It's fun, and positive, and inspiring.

I just don't ever want to look back and feel like I've wasted precious minute that I have been given.

So tell me, if you have one, what's on your list?

Weekly Words to live by - week 168

Character: Who you are when no one is looking.

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What's old is new-but-vintage-shabby again.

My daughter found this diamond in the (very-very-very) rough for me a few weeks ago.(She's a cardiac recovery nurse by day, but a junker with a keen eye on her time off) Now, for who-knows-why, someone had painstakingly covered all of the shelves in faux wood grained contact paper (Is that heinous, or what?!) and had painted the body of the piece a very bright..umm..I guess I will call it..caramel color. Pretty hideous overall. Anyway, that is what one might think at first glance.

Upon closer inspection, the piece had good lines. It was clearly originally an old armoir, but the doors were long gone, so it has these six wonderful cubbies. (look past the contact paper, people.) And the drawers...the drawers had been painted an off white at some point in time and they were chippied and rustic looking, which was the part of the piece that both my daughter and I loved most of all.(It's hard to tell in the photo, but the dark center is a cool vintage pull in a dark pewter patina metal.)

I took one of the drawers to my good ol' Home Depot and they color matched the paint. I came home and painted. And painted. And painted. I got most of the contact paper off, but it left the shelves sticky (there was a lot of mumbling under my breath at this stage of the "rejunkinating" as my friend Carol calls it.) I covered the sticky shelves with my old bookpages, natch. Here's another angle, from inside...
In the end, it was all worth the effort. A lot of sanding, and this gem is a charming example of shabby charm at it's best. (Kind of Anthropolgie-meets-Rachel-Ashwell, no?) I know the photo isn't great, 'coz it was taken from outside the window....

Anyway, I love it. I love it so much I wish it could stay and live in my workroom for-evah.

*sigh* No such luck, though. It's just too perfect for the window display at Camas Antiques. And that is where it is now.

The window...day three.

I'm out the door early today for a neighborhood yard sale, but I wanted to share the slightly altered new window display for Camas Antiques. (It's like setting up a room, except it's in a window!)

There's always a terrible glare from outside the window, but here is one shot from outside anyway...

I'll be sharing my finds from today's thrifting later! Wish me luck!

Charming little blanket chest....reinvented.

I got this adorable blanket chest a while back. (and of course, forgot to take "Before" photos...but trust me, it was a pretty dicey looking piece!) This past weekend, I reinvented it for the window space at Camas Antiques.

The original condition of the chest was stained wood, and the drawers had multiple holes where different knobs had been over the years. The knobs it had on it were giant square wooden knobs...so not me.

Anyway.

As I pondered what to do with all of these holes (Putty them in and start over? Cover them with ginorous pulls?) Then, I had an idea. I decided to go with my signature book pages from tattered old discarded books. I applied them, as always, with liquid starch.... (Be sure to do this process on a floor that is easliy mopped...it's messy. And sticky. And gooey. I let it dry over night, and rough sanded the edges of everything. I then added my new knobs and the filigree pieces for around the key holes.
I also added book pages to the sides of the chest to make things flow. Now, it's got a whole new look and I think it's charming.

What do you think? Have you reinvented anything lately?

The window..day one.

 Ya baby, it's my turn for the window at Camas Antiques, and after about six trips to and from my home to the shop I finally remembered to bring my camera to snap some pictures to share with you. Carter's Mama helped me to pull things together and I was very happy with the outcome. I began with a backdrop of my signature vintage book pages, scattered here and there on the walls. 
 Then, I brought in the furniture, followed by filling things in with littles from my booth, and many others from the mall. What do you think? 

...Oh, and don't you love the quotation on the sign in that last photo about being as happy as a bird with a french fry?  ...I will share more pictures very soon, since the iron bed sold less than a half hour after we finished set up, (thankfully they will not take the bed until Friday, so I have a day to regroup and restock...) and half the bedding was gone by the day's end! (Did all of you on the west coast hear me squealing about 5:00 on Tuesday?)

Have I told you just how much I love what I do? I am feeling very blessed these days.

Weekly Words to Live By - week 167

 "I know how to do anything—I'm a mom."

— Roseanne Bar

This may not be the deepest quotation I've shared, but I must say that I do think it's true. Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms out there. (Including mine!!!)

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Pony Show.

 Carter's Mama, along with Carter and I went thrifting yesterday morning, hoping to score a few more littles for my window display. We hit a garage sale on the way home, and the nice lady at this sale offered to take Carter to see her Shetland ponies. (For the record, Mr.C was only interested in the chocolate brown pony.)
How sweet are these three? I swear, you just never know what you're gonna find when you head out thrifting. 

That's why I always take my camera.

Things are coming together.....

I've been a busy girl the past couple of days, (and it's my excuse for not having a post yesterday...) and my booth is at last, beginning to show the results.....(for those of you nearby, it's "First Friday" on 4th Avenue here in Camas and all the shops will be open late tonight, followed by the garden show on 4th Avenue all day tomorrow!)

I'll work at the bank tomorrow, and then be painting and pricing, and crafting here to put the final touches on my window display items for next Tuesday. (And I cannot wait to share it all with you!)

I must say, I am having a blast doing all of this.

Because what I really need right now is one more project to work on...

 
 It's a domino effect, really. One thing leads to another. One project turns into three...or sixteen.

Here's how my Sunday went this past weekend- Even though I was stressed about being ready to fill the front window at Camas Antiques in just one more week, I had big plans to make a dent in organizing my workroom. (I've heard that an organized work area makes for more calm and balance in a person's life, and I am dying to find out if this might really be true.)

Anyway.

After surveying the layout of the room, I decided to begin with organizing the vintage dresser I had been using as my packaging and shipping center. Meanwhile, in my garage, is a very-cool-new-to-me piece of furniture that would be a fabulous addition too my workroom..except for the fact that I would need to remove another piece to make room for it.

That's when I had the epiphany. (and another project was born) The vintage dresser could work perfectly in my great room. Not only would it add weight to the wall between my sliding glass door and the window, but it could hold all of my table linens, candle holders, and various entertaining accessories. That, in turn, would make room in my workroom for the very-cool-new-to-me piece. 

Well, there was nothing for me to do, except get that dresser emptied out and moved down the stairs to the main floor where it could be re-purposed in the great room. Three hours later, the dresser was in it's new home in the great room. (and looking like it had always been there, I might add) 
 While I still plan to rough sand the dresser for an even more vintage look, and I am not at all sure I like the vintage mirror I currently have sitting on it (it works for the time being anyhow...) I am happy with the look of the great room now.(By the way, I also decided that I am keeping my old vintage sofa...at least for now) 

Meanwhile, all of the contents of the "packing and shipping" dresser are now all over the floor of the still-in-a-shambles workroom....

What's that they say about the best laid plans?

Miles and piles of picnic baskets.

As I began writing this blog post, it occurred to me that I shared my love of vintage picnic baskets before with you...and when I checked, it was actually more than once here- last time, it was a few years ago..and before that, I first shared it...what feels like was a lifetime ago, (or..maybe...was it someone else's life?) back when I still thought I was June Cleaver.

Anyway.

My passion for vintage picnic baskets has turned out to a very good thing. The fact is, they are so pretty to look at, they never go out of style, and they store all sorts of things. I keep baking supplies like all of my cookie cutters, and fondant molds in one of them. I keep fabric in a couple of them. (No, I don't sew a lick, but I do re-cover things like cushions on piano benches and dining chairs)

Currently I keep part of my collection (ehem...yes, it is only a fraction of my collection....) on the landing of the stair area that leads downstairs.I think they look pretty danged cute here now, but I have rather big plans for them though, just as soon as I wrap up my turn doing the window at Camas Antiques, and I will then share the new look they will be sporting. The reason I am sharing my collection once again is simply to remind you to think outside of the box when looking for storage ideas. This is especially good when space is at a premium. The only somewhat challenging part for me seems to be remembering what is in which basket, but labeled manila tags hung on each basket can help with that!

Weekly Words to live by - week 166

The world's favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May.

                                                                     -Edwin Way Teale

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A second quick little post for May Day.

I usually don't do two posts in a day, let alone, posts on the same topic, and yet, I felt I had to add this picture to complete the table scape post from earlier today. You see, I was just cleaning up some photos in the iPhoto program, when I happened to notice I had an surprise guest in a couple of my shots from last evenings dinner shoot.... ...he loves having his picture taken!

From ordinary to extraordinary in no time at all.

 Sometimes it's nice to make the ordinary extra special. 

I've been doing a whole lot of cleaning and organizing the past couple of days, as one thing lead to another, (as it always seems to do) and somehow that lead to me getting the bug to set a pretty table for a typical Friday night dinner last night, as well as adding an unexpected little touch.  

The unexpected part? Well, last week (or maybe it was the week before?) I heard about an online card and invitation company that has some unique photography and creative ideas. (Check them out here. And, no, they are not paying me for this plug, I just was really impressed with the site, so I wanted to share it with you.) The best part was that I could choose already worded cards, or customize any of the cards to say exactly what I wanted. I am sure there are oodles of companies like this online and I am just dreadfully behind the green times, but I hadn't seen online cards as cool as these before. Anyway, their stuff was so neat that I started thinking how fun it would be to send cards to friends for no reason other than to make them feel special.

And so, that is what I did.

Having someone over for dinner last night was not a birthday or other milestone occasion, it was just a simple spaghetti dinnerl, but I sent a lil' custom designed online card yesterday morning as a little pre-dinner-you-are-special-to-me-and-I-am-happy-you-are-coming-to-dinner kind of thing.

I set a pretty table. I made place cards, which took me all of 35 seconds to create from manilla tags and a strip of ribbon, and the ordinary table setting became extraordinary. 

It really is all about living that charmed life...on a shoestring.