Happy belated Thansgiving!

I hope you all had a very nice Thanksgiving - we had a nice and quiet day. We all ate too much and then relaxed all day. The boys got out my tree for me and today we have been doing a little bit of decorating.

My holiday decorating style is mostly vintage treasures found throughout my years of flea marketing.

these are some lovely mercury glass beads and a wreath that i bartered with my friend, Cheryl for. it has a Charlotte doll on it and while i have plenty of those dolls, this doll is very pretty! (don't mind Gracie's tennis ball in the picture!)

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this is a manzanita branch that i cemented inside this green pot. i put it on my table and then hung a variety of vintage items from it. it is very hodepodey, but yet, looks simple and charming. it was hard to photograph in front of the window, but i think you get the gist. You could do something similar with a branch from the yard. It's great for areas that need something.....

tomorrow i will post another easy holiday decorating project

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this is my Al-Turn-A-Tree (think alternative....) - She's a cute doll that i rescued from the flea market (well, i think she's cute!) and i assembled her into a tomato cage which i decorated with all vintage items. I know some people find these dolls creepy, but she really looks very pretty all lit up in her glory! i have her in my studio.

I'm still working on my big tree, so i'll post pics of that later!

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and this is strictly promo, just an fyi that i have actually updated my etsy shoppe (gasp!) i have a few holiday headbands left and am slowly adding some of the many things that should have been added while ago!

update: "Life" necklace - SOLD

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playing with dolls

French Cupboard is having a altered art party - where you showcase some art that you have altered. I thought i'd show off some photos of some of the necklaces i have created using the old German Charlotte dolls.

girls day out

Today i took my friend, Michele out for her belated birthday. (it was in May and we had this same day all planned out and i goofed it all up, so it didn't work out). first we went to the flea market, which was absolutely FREEZING! we got a few things, but not much. one fun thing i got was a vinyl record of "Rocky Horror Picture Show". the graphics are really cool. i thought it'd be cool to frame and hang up in Dillon's room as art. also on the free table i got a whole bag of vintage Christmas stuff. too much to take a picture of. i guess some vendor tried to sell it today and then decided it was too cold and left it all on the table. it was like a feeding frenzy at the free table!

then we headed up north to meet Jane in Montclair. We wanted to go shopping at Parcel and then go check out Urban Outfitters and Anthropology. Parcel was so fun! friends have been telling me to go there for ages, but i rarely get up North - but i am so glad we went. my special purchase today was the darling little pink stocking in the top right corner of the collage.
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and how lovely is this little doll? my husband gave her to me yesterday as a KK. we have a tradition that started in my family years ago, called "KK", after Kris Kringle. in my family what we use to do was pick a family member name and then you were their KK. that meant that you bought them a main gift, but you also left little gifts for them throughout the season. another version of Secret Santa, i suppose! anyway, we do KK in my family now, but we do it where we give out little gifts now and then to anyone in the family. (like i recently KK'd Tucker with a cool blanket). it's a great way to let each other know that we are thinking of them. Jeff always gets me a Starbucks gift card at the beginning of December as a KK so that i can go get my eggnog lattes whenever i want to!

Acceptance

here's a doll i just finished that is going out as a gift for a fellow artist. i'd like to see this artist get a little break from the hardships she has had to endure lately.

charlotte doll heads

a package finally arrived today from far away. i couldn't wait to unpack it. it's from Germany, from Thomas! it was an ebay win, a LOT of those highly sought after and coveted Charlotte doll heads. since i am teaching a few classes where we use one of these heads as the focal point, i needed to get some in stock to get ready. i don't know if i'll be selling any of these since i use these alot in my projects. when i am almost ready to leave for Country Living Fair, i'll post some pictures of some wonderful things i have created using these doll heads. until then, you'll just have to be patient!

wow, a sunny day in New Jersey!

we had a nice day today here at the Jersey shore - and let me tell you that means something! it has been cold, rainy, cloudy, windy, gray and we are all tired of it! so jeff and i headed out to a flea market after getting tuck on the bus. we went to a different flea market, this one is further away and we got a little lost. but that's okay, it was a nice enough day to be out driving in the sun that we didn't mind. although i did have to finally call my friend, Abbie, for the flea market address so that i could program my GPS. thanks Abbie, glad you were home! while pursuing all the wares, i came across this darling woman. her name is Michelle and she was more than thrilled when i asked her if i could take her photo. don't you love her spunk? and check out her pin!

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at another booth, we came across this darling little doggie being carted around in a little pup sack. her name is Zora and she is a therapy dog. she was there with her doggie sister, but can't remember her name.

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here is some of the loot i came home with:

great findings for jewelry

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awesome old medal

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wonderful Charlotte doll

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old pictures - these are little though, about 2/34" long x 2"wide

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vintage sterling teething rings. cool, huh?

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my friend, Z, got her Christmas present today. I was going to make her put it under the tree, but she sounded so excited that i told her to go ahead and open it. this is what i made for her. i think she was quite happy!