Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Easter Season Has Arrived

Easter week is upon us and Tom and I have been working on some spring cleaning even though we have had snow on the ground , all promised to be gone by Friday... Wow, the cleaning went much easier a few years back...
     Tomorrow we will be off to Defiance to purchase our groceries for our family gathering Sunday... My list is long as it seems you need many special ingredients... We will be baking 2 old fashion hams however... very traditional..
      This afternoon I just finished putting together some little packages if BUNNY COTTON TAILS for my soon to be set up candy bar on my server in the dining area... I plan on making little packages of BUNNY POOP consisting of colored mini marshmallows also.... I have made ready many old games... clothes in drop into mason jar for candy....I drew a big bunny to pin the cottontail on for Olivia... and this yer we will have a egg toss instead of a egg hunt... These ideas can be found on my Pinterest under Easter... The labels were originally from www.theidearoom.net
       Just wanted to post a short post as I am now off to make supper and start by frying pork chops for adding BBQ sauce and a apple salad... mashed potatoes and corn...
       Hopefully I will get another post in for Easter but if not my wishes for all are to enjoy a day filled with love and happiness....
     
     

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Passing Time With Button Love

A old jar of buttons from shirts, blouses, ect. may hold little or no value to a collector... The majority of buttons of collectors have some special qualities.. The clear depression glass buttons I have just carded I wouldn't use for crafting unless it was for someone very special or for a display project for my own use... I have a couple gallon jars of ordinary buttons I use for creating and altered art... Many collecting look for buttons that were manufactured differently up to 200 years ago or so... with different techniques... Clothing buttons were made from hand-cut glass, { of which I love... along with rhinestone and mother of pearl} some of molded clay, and hand decorated porcelain among some of the materials.
      VALUE ? In general, clothing buttons prices can range from a few cents to a few hundred dollars each,, Only rare examples in excellent condition bring high dollar values.. These buttons are very hard to come by these days...
      Many times buying a piece of antique or vintage clothing in poor condition at auction may not be a bad proposition if it contains a number of buttons and the piece can be scrapped and salvaged...

     PS.. the carded buttons in my pictures are just a few hours I have already spent finding and printing and cutting the images to place the cards on... { I also have a shared just a few of the cards I printed... More can be found on my Pinterest under altered art board} I have many more to card and also I have been placing description and approx. value on card back... This will help me and my poor daughter that will have to love to collect or rid of her mother's passions... I plan on displaying these lovely collections in a shabby white antique sewing machine drawer... Just another effort to place some new objects to enjoy in my home with what is already available to me in my home....
     I am interested in possibly purchasing more of the clear depression glass buttons if you would like to rid of or know if some one who would... Will share more as I slowly work on this little passion... I have rhinestone buttons to work on also and many little tiny ones and also pink buttons... I also have been busy trying to get my creating space in the back guest room which has now become a space for me to create... I also have more personal projects and have started a brown bag scrappy book for my favorite little athlete at Tinora High School that will be a gift to him... It also is a work in progress... Have much to keep me busy till the sounds and smells of spring arrive as it comes much closer....

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Thoughts Of Spring

Thoughts of spring have entered my thoughts as we await warnings of a large snow storm to enter our area this afternoon and over night into tomorrow... The winds have picked up in the last couple hours....
      I realize I haven't posted for a couple weeks again and have been working on a few projects around the house... As I am posting Tom is in our basement recreation room making ready for new carpeting to be installed in the morning... It will be a welcoming improvement as the carpet he tore out was very old...I also spent a couple days removing all my stash and altered art supplies from this area and have relocated into the back unused guest bedroom... This will be where I will be creating from now on...It is not a studio as I would love to have but a tiny corning of the bedroom ... and I will be happy for the small warm space to spend time in... I have several projects started and I need to take special moments and just enjoy the time creating...
      As soon as I finish this post I must remove the evergreen wreath and antique ice skates from the front door entrance even though we are expecting snow... it needs to go...
     Most of my winter decorations have been placed in storage and I have been pulling out some of my Easter belongings for reuse... I have a few draw backs now with decorating since our little rescue puppy has come to live with us... I find he is a "thief" and often grabs things ... and we are constantly yelling "drop it"... Cannot leave remotes or computer mouse laying around as these are crowned jewels to him and he is ready to heist....
      I have shared a couple pictures of a few Easter objects I will be using... I am working on my dining area table and not quite done with it but have snapped a couple pics so you can get the idea... The large cabbage leaves I had purchased at Chicago Gift Mart several years ago for displays in the gift and floral area of the shoppe... I had purchased several for my own use here and they are fun to work with.. I will place a couple book page shreds under the bunnies on the plate and a couple other embellishments... I have several little sugared mini carrots I haven't found yet to place by the bunnies and on the eater tree that sets on the server... I have to make ready the server to hold different Easter candies.... The little fancy butter dome I found at the Ft. Defiance Antique shop was widowed from it original plate and I purchased it for a couple bucks as I thought it was very pretty and I had a little pressed glass dish I thought would work here....
     The fireplace mantel I removed the Valentines antique boxes and replaced with antique and vintage mirrors... I do have very small mini lights to turn on worked through the greens for evening and special occasions...
     This past couple weeks I believe I spent way too much time in the house... The picture above is just one of the treats I made for us... It is home-made shortbread and it was wonderful... but only one of the treats as I realized I had made a scratch lemon pie... Carmel corn... home-made sugar donuts for breakfast one morning... Home-made large loaf of banana nut bread... and creme puffs... I haven't made anything as far as baked goods the past couple days when I realized Tom and I was the ones consuming all this stuff... yikes...Tonight we are having New York Strip Steaks.. baked potato and a salad and some carrots... Tomorrow I am going to make a kettle of potato soup and I will bake some cookies as we are out.. Imagine that...
     I did have another 3 month check up a week ago in Toledo at the Dana Cancer Center and they said after my examine that all looks normal at this time period... I am always so glad when the 3 month check ups are over but I have many more 3 month check up to look forward to in the future... even though I know I am very blessed it is a but nerving....
     Sending love and best wishes to all my blogger friends and hopefully I can get myself back into a better posting order... I am so looking forward to spring with hopes that I will be able to enjoy the pool and yard time this summer that I felt was really short due to the finding of cancer and not being able to swim for 3 months of the summer... especially when we had just replaced the existing in ground pool with a new one and was looking forward to using it... Tom and many friends and family did enjoy it however.... I see some snowflakes as I peer from the window... think I best put those thoughts of spring on hold for a couple days...