Weekend finds

Besides attending Sweet Salvage on 7th, I also went to the flea market at Merchant Square on Saturday morning.  Here are a few of the things I found there and other places this weekend.

 Found this great horse head bust at Sweet Salvage.

 This old book is just too aged and beautiful!!  Also found the necklace with the "J" and a "B" on the key!  How did the maker of this necklace know those were my initials.

 Found this great tote at the flea market.  Plan to use this often!  Really roomy!

Aren't these little birdies just too cute?   Love this original painting -- it's not a print.

Sweet Salvage Raw & Re-find

 Well, the ladies and gentlemen of Sweet Salvage did it again!  This month's show was called "Raw & Re-find" and it was wonderful.  I took lots of pictures to share with you today and tomorrow.  Hope you enjoy your pictorial tour of Sweet Salvage on 7th!

I love this great candelabra, the heart shaped clock with jewels and the yellow daisies!

Great lampshade!  Love the little gold bust and the old basked full of burlap ribbon!

This display was so pretty because it used real plants!  The boards on the left with the bird and the flowers is a winner too!

Fabulous cubby!  Look at all the tiny treasures held within!!

This lampshade was so wonderful.  I know my friend, Dawn of Bohemian Valhalla bought this one!  Lucky gal!!

 A nice rocking horse found a new home on Thursday!

Baskets galore!  Love the old clothespins in the basket!

Another wonderful Sweet Salvage shopping experience!  More tomorrow!!!

Big 3 day sale this weekend at Merchant Square

Merchant Square is having their last 3 day sale and flea market this weekend before the hot weather sets in.  The sales will resume in the fall once the weather cools off.  So, get on over there if you live here and visit!  My booth is C-6 and I have just finished loading it up for the sale!  Check it out!

Here's what you see when you walk into my booth!  I have it stuffed full of goodies!!  Including one of the Victorian riding hats that I blogged about recently.  It is on the third shelf down in the china cabinet on the right.

I have a lot of vintage and antique picture frames for sale this time.  All in good shape!  Paint it yourself, or use as is.  They make great frames for smaller objects or collects on your wall.

The envelopes in the casserole dish are bundles of air mail envelopes with stamps from all over the world.  Great for scrapbooking, mixed media or art projects!

I just refilled this holder with ribbon, buttons and trims for sewing, mixed media art work or scrapbooking.

This cute little desk would be perfect in a child's room. Look at all the cubby holes for treasures!  And I have a lot of really nice vintage jewelry boxes.  The pink one has a secret compartment in the bottom!

And here's my industrial or salvage chic corner.  Lots of rusty things to decorate with.  There's also the guts of an old clock that would be perfect to take apart and use in steampunk jewelry or art work!

Please visit my Judy B's Shabby Chic Facebook page to see the entire album of pics I took this morning!  Hope to see you at Merchant Square this weekend!!  I'll be there every day!

Gone to the birds!

Lately, I have been crazy about birds.  I really enjoy watching the Gambol's quail that wander through my back yard.  The mockingbirds are nesting somewhere close by and they regularly chase other birds away.  Just yesterday they were so noisy that I went outdoors to check and a hawk flew out of my tree, circled the neighbors yard and flew away.  The mockingbirds had notified everyone that a hawk was close by.  And my trees have several dove nests in them.  Love the birds!  Hope the hawk was hunting for bunnies -- my yard is nearly overrun with them!  And my neighbor feeds them!!  Ack!!!

Here's what I have been working on that reflects my "bird love."

I pulled out a box full of vintage children's blocks (mine as a child) and stuck them together to spell "birds".  I have made these bird tags using 7 Gypsies Conservatory papers (8"x8" paper pad).  Also added vintage sheet music, ribbon, and an old bird stamp torn from an old envelope.

I am also getting ready some displays for my booth at Merchant Square.  I bought all of these items over time and am now ready to put them in my booth to sell as well as pretty it up a bit!

Even my blog background got changed last week to a bird theme.  Well, I am off to play bridge.  Do you love the birds, too??

In spite of the weather, I went out junking today

It's supposed to rain here today.  So far, the rain is to the west and north of my house.  The wind is kicking up and there is a lot of dust in the air.  This is the winter storm that hit California earlier in the week.  However, today is Saturday, and there are yard sales and a flea market close to my house.  I set out at 7 a.m. in the dark to shop.  I was not disappointed.

Finally found some more buttons.  My booth at Merchant Square is nearly out of buttons.  Thank goodness I found these buttons.  They are sorted and priced and ready to go.  Mind numbing activity, but I love it.

I love this leaning teapot!  So cute and it goes with my new flower pot and nesting birds!

Found some tiny items to add to displays in my booth.  Bitsy birds and birdhouses.  I think the turquoise flower pot is vintage.  See the rose decal at the bottom?

While digging through a box of stuff I came across this wall lamp.  I LOVE IT!!  It's turquoise and so industrial or salvage chic!  Best of all, IT WORKS!!

Last, but not least I found this metal box full of old film cans and reels (mid 1950's and the boxes predate zip codes) with actual 8mm film still on them!  Have you seen what film reels go for in the catalogs?  And just to hang on walls!  Swooned over this find.  And  the other metal box holds old slides.  More great industrial chic!

Much more found yesterday and today.  A small coffee table, pedestal table for a plant, old knobbed milk glass lamps, old baby clothes, old baby shoes, old jewelry box, and much more!  Now comes the hard part -- pricing all of it!!

Birds and Botanicals altered book is finished

I began this altered book several months ago. After working on it for a couple of days, I was tired of it and put it in a big envelope and let it sit for awhile. Today I took it out and looked at it again and decided that it was nearly finished. So I worked on it today to get it finished. Here it is:The cover is an page from an old photo album I bought that was falling apart. The bird picture is actually a piece of wallpaper.
Here is Joy's relative that you saw a while back. I imagined that this was her botanical book and she put it together with just what she could find. There is a "certificate of merit" just under her picture and I like to think that her teacher liked her book and gave her the certificate for doing such a fine job. There are tags and journaling papers on the other page for her to fill out with her notes while she collected her botanicals.

More tags in pockets and more journaling space. Also a "bird" word card.

Here I made a pocket out of stiff interfacing and put a pretty postcard in it with butterflies.

Here is a birdnest that perhaps she could have sketched or collected. There is a bird tag tucked in the back of the nest. The birds on the other page are mounted on a piece of wall paper that was folded in half and sewn together. The tiny tag on the left holds (perhaps) a feather from one of those birds.

Here is a picture of her best friend who helped her collect the things for the botanicals book: butterflies, bird's eggs, flowers, etc.

More favorite things: fabric flowers, pictures of birds, a game card with an envelope that has a tag with feathers on it.

The back side of the game card has my favorite twig chair stamp and a bird attached. The opposite page has some of that wonderful woven paper that I threaded ribbon through so it could hold tags.

These are the last two pages with shells, a bug, and a wonderful bird cage. I used a lot of the Graphics 45 papers, vintage papers, some things by Catherine Moore (the bird cage and the twig chair stamp), heavy paper to paint on with acrylics matching the colors in the papers. It was a lengthy project. Glad I put it away for awhile and then took it out again. The "rest" from it gave me the boost to finish it today.

Done! I think this may be a submission.

The altered house book is finished!

Been working on this book little by little and it is finally done. Took a bunch of pictures so you can see it. The light was good in the dining room, so I got clearer, brighter, better pictures.

Remember I told you that this book suddenly turned into a flip book? Here is side one, entitled "Winter Wonderland."

I love the beaded trim that looks like icicles hanging from the eave of this house book.A real woolen mitten! Got the idea to cut out a mitten shape from felt then sew it together. And the picture of that little tiny girl all bundled up against the cold. She has her mittens on!This next little girl is all bundled up, too! Check out that wooly snow suit she has on! And it even looks like the photographer gave her a "snowball" to hold for this picture.Used some Pearl Ex here as well as Diamond Dust for the other tree.This is the flip side -- side two. I call it "For the Birds"!The background here is an old Christmas postal envelope that bears a message. You fold it up and then lick the flap to close. Add postage and the address and they are ready to send. Lots of different pictures to choose from among those postal envelopes!I love the pretty tags and post cards that Cavallini & Co. has made for the Christmas season. Lots of glitter and pretty birds. I used lots of these to finish the flip side of this altered book.

Altered book in the works

I am working on an altered book using old and new materials, and recycling others. It is still a work in progress, but I thought I would share a few pages with you. This is the cover. The flower and the lock plate are not fixed yet. Could change my mind on those two things.
This is one of the inside pages. I used an old "Certificate of Merit" as well as old lace. The background is several layers of different papers. This is a great collage technique to use to give the page more depth and interest.
On the wall paper background these birds look great! Love the machine stitching. Just adds interest.
This little girl is also on the page of wall paper. I have used a couple of pages of wall paper in this book. I think you will like the finished product.