Spoonful of Sugar

My inspiration for this sign was an image posted by The Graphics Fairy.  Hers was a black and white and I wanted mine to be a bit lighter so I used gray.  I originally was going to make this a children's bookstore sign, but the theme took me in a different direction so I just went with it, plus I love to host and attend whimsical tea parties myself.
The board for this sign started out as a broken table I purchased sight unseen from an online auction.  They did list the table as "as is,"  but they didn't explain what the as is was.  The legs were broken and one of the top pieces was cracked and busted.  I used the table top for another project I will show you next week, but for the broken half of the table I knew immediately I wanted to paint a sign on it.  My husband sheared the bad part off and made it even for me and painted it with a satin white paint I had on hand.

 I made a reverse copy of the image from The Graphics Fairy and reduced it so it would fit on my board with my artist's projector.  I projected the image onto the board and lightly traced the image with pencil.  All  I had to work with for gray paint was some old latex paint  that was nearly gone.  I wanted to save myself a trip to the craft store to save time.  Also I am a firm believer of using what you have on hand.  The latex paint worked just fine.

 As always, I map out my lettering ahead of time on paper.  This may sound like extra work, but it saves so much time and re-doing, it is worth it.  I figured out the spacing of the letters and then I could easily figure out the exact placement on the piece.

 Here I used three different stencils to do the lettering.  After it was all done, I thought it was a little too pristine for my taste so I shabbied it up a little bit.  Here is the finished product.

Pasadena Look-In Holiday Home Tour Part 2

This is Part 2 of 2 in my Pasadena Look-In Holiday Home Tour.  These homes are always so beautiful to tour.  Check out the hydrangeas in the first photo.  These are the real deal, not dried.  Everything is fresh.

 I love the use of pepper berries and pomegranates around the pillars.

This home had an adorable little potting shed at the back of the property and they even decorated that with baskets full of garden tools and paper whites.  Did you know you can attach your paper whites to an arrangement suspended in mid air and spray the roots and they will grow just like if they were sitting on soil or glass rocks?  The exposed roots add an interesting element too.  I never knew that until this weekend.

This little potted evergreen was so cute.  All the miniature ornaments were garden themed.

Steel Cabinet with Cubbies

This post is sort of a repeat of one I did last month, but my subject matter is a little different.  I have been a dealer in various antique malls for going on 11 years now.  When I first got into this business, I loved to sell "girlie" things that were pretty, feminine and pink.  I think you get the picture.  Somewhere along the line my tastes became much more eclectic.  For instance, now I rummage the salvage yards and flea markets for industrial stuff made from rugged manly man materials.  I still love my pretties, but somehow or another I have become attracted to the industrial revolution.  I love things like old metal advertising signs and cabinets, chippy wood windows and old wooden gates.  My antique spaces have evolved as time has marched on.  I still have the feminine stuff, but now there is a little more yin and yang. 

 This cabinet was found at a salvage yard.  I wish I could have kept her, but there was just no room.  Now she is on her way to a home in Malibu, California.  I hope she is happy there.  See, I still refer to my things as "she."  She is kind of feminine in her own way.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 She had tons or storage.  Wouldn't this make a great craft cabinet?

Music Sheet Tiara

I hosted a Royal Tea Party for a dear friend of mine over the summer and I made tiaras out of sheet music for all her ladies in waiting.  One of my favorite paper artists is Ashley Carter from Goldbug Studios.  She was the inspiration for my party favors.  I went to the party store and purchased some children's card stock tiaras that were a combination of a tiara-type crown and Mickey Mouse ears.  They were attached to a little silver head band that was very flexible so it could fit an adult.  I cut the ears off which left the rest of the paper-like tiara and created a sturdy base to apply the sheet music.  I cut the music in the same shape as the remaining card stock on the headbands and scalloped the top edge.  I cut two pieces of the music for each tiara.  Then I took my spray adhesive and sprayed one side of each piece of music and attached them to the front and back of the little crowns.  I rimmed them with glitter and proceeded to decorate with vintage pins, ribbons, trims and whatever I had that was a small scale.  I used tissue paper garland, rhinestones and printed a little banner reading Let Them Eat Cake.  I kept layering and layering until I got the result I wanted.  I purchased bobby pins so the ladies could wear them comfortably and they worked like a charm.  It's always fun to feel like a kid again when you are a grown-up?  Well, maybe I will never grow up. In essence, I am still playing with paper dolls.

 You can see in the following photo that the back of the little crown was covered with the music as well.

 I attached vintage ribbons and small flowers as streamers to finish off the project.  Of course, the guest of honor got to wear a real tiara, but being the artist that she is, I think she wanted one of these as well.  I chose this tiara to share with you today because I thought the colors would be great for a holiday tea as well.

Pasadena Look-In Holiday Home Tour 2011

An annual event that I love to do with my friends the first weekend of every December is attend the spectacular Pasadena Look-In Holiday Home Tour.  As many of you may know from around the country,  Pasadena, California is home to the Rose Bowl Football Game, the famous Rose Bowl Flea Market the 1st Sunday of every month and also host to the famous Rose Parade on New Year's Day.  It is an incredible mecca of some of the best real estate in California so you can see why we love to go on this tour.  Unfortunately taking photos inside the homes is forbidden and I did ask permission to photograph some of the floral arrangements outside the home before I started snapping away.  Keep in mind all of the florals, trees and anything plant-wise is all fresh florals.  Nothing is dried, artificial or silk so that is what makes the decorations really something to behold.  The best of the best floral designers participate and the result is nothing less than spectacular.  Check out the columns on the photo below.  I love the  swag with the Magnolia leaves.  Definitely made a statement.  Considering on Wednesday Pasadena suffered its worst wind storm in history and there were downed trees everywhere and power was out for three days, the show clearly went on.  We were thrilled.

 I have seen and used cut pomegranates in arrangements before but never citrus.  Is this spectacular or what?  This was at the same house as the previous photo only this was the patio as we exited the home.

The following home we viewed had several citrus trees on the property so they used lots of spiced oranges in their florals.  It was very fitting.  I love the bow on the wreath below.

 Check out this display of miniature evergreens and the white Amaryllis.  The photo does not do it justice, but this was quite beautiful.

 The following photo was one of the pillars entering the estate.  These are pots of poinsettias suspended and hanging.  We were greeted by four of these hanging arrangements.

 I love and have always used decorative cabbages or kale in my landscaping in winter.  It is one of my favorites.  This was a welcome arrangement with all the evergreens.

Christmas at Aubergine Emporium

The elves have been busy at the shop decorating for Christmas.  Here is Pat's Christmas tree this year.  Her theme was old books.  This is the first thing you see when you enter the store.  The customers are loving her original design idea.  To make the tree taller she set it on a round coffee table with little nooks and made it a literal book nook.  Great idea!

 I love this cute little dinette set with the red seats on the chairs and the mini Christmas tree in the pot.  The whole store is filled with merriment.

 This is the smallest space in the store and it is chock full of goodies.

 I love what one of our dealers did with this large wooden caddy.  When I first looked at it, I thought it was a mantle.  The height is perfect.  Great vignette.

 Continuing with the book theme, here are some book pages stuffed in the wreath which is hung on shutters.

Our holiday open house is this Friday, December 9.  If you are anywhere in the area, please stop by.  The festivities will continue into the weekend.

Great Find Cabinet

Over the weekend I sold my industrial steel cabinet and set out to fill the space that was vacated with something really special.  I searched Craig's List for quite some time.  Now I love Craig's List.  Don't get me wrong.  But lately I have had issues with people getting back to me or not deleting a listing when it is sold.  So I found this listing under the "antique" section which it is not.  It is a reproduction cabinet, but nonetheless, it is fabulous and very well made.  It was also listed as a curio cabinet which I would not classify it as that either.  I have a sneaking suspicion I am the only person that called on this beauty and the owner quickly returned my call.   In any event, I was meant to have it.  I fell in love with the beveled glass, the slanted display cubbies in the center of the cabinet and the hardware is all there and beautiful and up to date.  What more could I want?  No repairs, no painting, just a little dusting off and she was ready to go.

I filled her with my Glitterfest Roses and some tarnished silver pieces for the holidays and she is ready to rock and roll.

Check out the hardware.  Isn't she beautiful.  I'm feel'n real fortunate right now.   Sometimes you just get lucky!

Vintage Postcards

This is an extremely busy weekend I am sure for a lot of people.  Yesterday was the Pasadena Home Tour which is an annual event for me.  I haven't uploaded the pics yet that I was able to take, but will post them this week.  I found this adorable postcard I thought I would share with you.  Lately I have had a thing for black and white.  This one is really cute.

 The following postcard was an advertisement.  It's an old Christmas graphic.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend.  I haven't even started decorating yet so I had better get to it.