From My Heart

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. . . ."

". . . .they must be felt with the heart." ~ Helen Keller

Thrifting Finds

I've found some wonderful vintage goodies recently and I finally got the camera out to photograph some of them. Love this pink wicker purse and pearl trimmed pink gloves.

Some pretty millinery flowers and hankie laying on top of a beautiful textured pink tea cozy.

More millinery flowers, vintage pink seam binding and a McCall's apron pattern. I love the pink and orange combination. . . . .do I see some inspiration bubbling up here???

Sweet cards from a children's game. I love the old maid cards.....brings back fond memories of playing that game with my family when I was little.

A beautiful lace collar in perfect condition and a couple of white plates that are just like the one's my mom used to have.

A combination sugar and salt container???  Well, it's going to hold glass glitter in my 

craft room.

I couldn't resist the pale pink color of this adorable vase. 

Finally! A blue velvet lined jewelry box. . . . . .I've been searching for one of these for ages!

And a girl can never have too many rhinestone shoe clips, right?

Summer Greeting Card Swap

Can you believe it's September already? It's incredible how fast this summer flew by. I'm trying to think back on what I accomplished this summer and I seem to be coming up short. Well, I thought I'd better post my pics from Heather's Summer Greeting Card Swap before summer completely passes us all by. The darling card above is from our swap hostess herself, Heather Bluhm. I love the pensive look on the little girl's face and the soft colors Heather chose to use. Lots of layers of stitching and vintage papers grace this card. And that snippet of oxox ribbon adds just the right touch! This next sweet card, also with an image of a sweet little girl is from Ellen at One Ripe Peach. She makes the dearest little creations with a retro feel (and lots of polka dots) that always seem to make me smile. Isn't that pleated trim she used to die for? Wish I had some of that.
This adorable NEST card was made by Maija Lepore. She also used a delicate palette of soft pinks and rich browns. Yum! Don't you love her usage of vintage book pages, flocked wallpaper, and crepe paper? Of course anything with the word NEST is always a hit with me.
Martha Brown created this lovely card. Martha is such a talented lady. I've been in other swaps with her and have received the most beautiful pieces of art. A paper lace doily, vintage book text and ephemera are all embellished with real machine stitching for added texture.
This lovely mademoiselle, who looks like she is straight out of the 1920's, graces this card made by Vivian Peters. Vivian used another soft color combination of pink and green. She added touches of glitter here and there, in just the right amounts, to add some glitz to this belle dame.
And this scrumptious card is the "mystery card" of the stash. I always seem to get at least one of these in every swap. The yummy minty color, vintage millinery, and scalloped & pinked edges gives it the feeling of simple perfection. If anyone knows who's card this is, please let me know, as I would love to thank her and see more of her work.
EDITED: I just found out this card was created by none other than the lovely and talented Holly Abston ~ I should have known cause it has her fabulous style all over it!

Last Days of the Hippity Hop Swap

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We celebrated at our house with the entire family and after all the shopping, cleaning, cooking and eating I can say I am beat! The weather was great, the sun was shining and we hardly noticed the blanket of white snow at all! I got a little behind on posting my Hippity Hop Swap gifts. But of course I didn't get behind in OPENING them! This gift, wrapped in sparkly (the best kind) aqua tissue paper is from Heather. She made this amazing ethereal feather wreath for each of us. I told her it reminded me of the snowfall we had a few days ago.
Here is a close-up of the floral and birdy detail. . .don't you just love it? I DO!!! Thanks Heather!
And the 12th and final (boo-hoo) gift is from Cerri. I just knew it would be something special......
And by-golly, I WAS RIGHT! Isn't this the sweetest little teacup nest??? The whole thing is only 1-1/2" in diameter. As the saying goes, good things come in small packages. Love it, Cerri! What a wonderful way to end this fun swap. The gifts from everyone were simply spectacular!