Meant for each other

The big ol' chippy doll head I got today at Attic Treasures in Ellicott City was one I had spied several months ago. I can't believe it was still there, as was a tiny one-inch one I also got. But the big one fit perfectly on this shabby chic pink dress form I got from Kelli at The Vintage Shoppes. The skeleton key on a ribbon is also from The Vintage Shoppes, as are some more treasures saved for another post.

Next stop was The Pink Cabbage, a co-op of 12 artisans, including Stephanie George of Doojies, who runs in the same circle of art girls I know IRL and virtually. I loved her altered art at the shop. I got some groovy flashcards, some art books, a shabby chic bed jacket (that will NOT be worn to bed) and a "mink": a fab racoon collar, that looks very chic but not shabby. Saw some great jewelry and lots of cool stuff. Will definitely be back!

Putting Things in Place

I've been so busy getting situated for my wonderful new job that I've barely had time to think about art, and that makes me grouchy! So I thought I could at least photograph a few vignettes to share and do a little blogging...since I am WAY behind.
I love my touches of pink and my doll heads, and looking at them everyday makes me happy.
In the top photo you will find a poppet box by Mica of Garboodles.

You can read a little bit about where I am in this article I wrote for Vintage Indie. It's a beautiful and historic area, with rolling hills, wineries, rivers, lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, ski slopes, you name it. And Ellicott City, which I profiled, has tons of cool shops. It's where I met an "in real life- IRL" art/vintage friend, Miss Kelli. Check out her new blog, The Vintage Shoppes. She's a partner in pink, and her house, studio and shop are to-die for! Her husband is in a pretty cool band, too, The Kelly Bell Band. Check them out on Project Playlist. They were voted Best Blues Band by Music Monthly for six years in a row and Best Band in Baltimore for two years running by City Paper.

The little art gallery above is in my closet, as you can tell from the shoes. It's a great place to assault my senses every morning. Some of the art is by moi and the cute Frida prints are by Tascha on Etsy. The big white frame in the doll head photo is vintage as is the pink Humpty Dumpty stuffy on the slipper chair.

More blogging later; I'm headed to Ellicott City, the Artists Gallery in Columbia for a "pastels and pottery" show and to the American Visionary Art Museum, which I joined. Gotta get un-grouchy!

Vintage goodness: shadow boxes, projects, buttons and a magnetic memo tray

I decided it was high time to go through my two tins of buttons, and when I found this vintage tray a magnetic memo board came to life. The tray is actually salmon-colored, with gold and black, and so I used an assortment of red, pink, black, gray and gold buttons and the trusty glue gun.

I've been collecting vintage medical supplies for a long time, since I work in health care. The perfect shape shadowbox came along, and voila! Medical shadow box. I love using old printer's type-storage trays and drawers for shawdow boxes. My next project is to incorporate my vintage art, school and office supplies.

Self-Explanatory: Flickr Zettiology Group New Badge from Artchicapoo Jade

Score! Birthday! Ebay! Etsy! Junking! Swaps!

September went out like a lamb, which was merciful, considering a certain number birthday--or perhaps other of life's diversions--has caused my blood pressure to rise into the danger zone. A little week-long break from blogging, Flickr, Hotmail, Etsy, Ebay, swaps, groups, and virtually everything else didn't necessarily help the BP but it did show me I really missed blogging.

I like my virtual record of art I've made, received, stuff I've done, read, etc., and although I don't post to my Blythe blog or my writing blog as often as this one, I do like to upload my photos to Flickr as soon as I take them, and organize them accordingly.

The books above, an old Alice in Wonderland, barely hanging together, and a fashion compendium with 1,000 pictures, were both found in antiques shops in North Webster, IN for $3.00 each. They're going to come in handy for altered art.

And thanks to some help from Maggie on Etsy, my Avon Small World re-collection of the eight 1970s figures is essentially complete, sans a few boxes.

The blue charm bracelet is the finished version of the charm bracelet I blogged about starting here. It traveled around the world, literally, to California, Pennsylvania, Norway and more, before making its way back to me in the Marie Antoinette Mail Art round robin charm bracelet swap.

And last but not least, the crazy assortment of goodies photo includes an Alice doll, some doll heads, a pink beaded jewelry box from Pier 1, some old Bailey's Irish Cream cups, a pretty pink rose necklace, a little lavender crescent-shaped dish, a reproduction apothecary bottle, an old tin robot and the finished version of my Zettiology skinny book, from a swap on Flickr, blogged about here. These treasures arrived via various means and reasons but all helped to make my birthday week and month special. More on the finished Zetti book soon. It's an explosion of art and color.

Meanwhile, many of the vintage books and treasures, bottles and doll heads came from one of the most wonderful places on earth: Green Oak Antiques in Rochester, IN. These three buildings are 10,000 ft2 (that's right, ten thousand) of furniture, junk, garden wire, salvage, cottage, victorian, primitive, jewelry and more.

Owner Ann Burton Wootten Furnivall and I had some great chats in person and via email about altered art, steampunk jewelry, favorite sites and more. She has some great sites: her blog Magpie Cottage, Gypsy Market on Etsy and the shop site, Green Oak Antiques.

I highly recommend a drive to Rochester from wherever you are. Out-of-state visitors are very common. You'll need several hours and probably a truck. They are open 10-5 every day but Thursday.

The Making of A Marie

Here is an approximate 22" Marie Antoinette dress form I made for a swap with Stephanie Watt. I covered two paper boxes and attached them together and then attached a paper mache dress form which I had covered with tissue paper, lace, sheet music, tulle, ribbon and to which I lashed a decorative feather corset-style. I've been saving this feather I got from Dale McLain for almost two years! Some of the luxurious beaded trims came from Hobby Lobby.

For the absent head I used a white porcelain rose drawer pull, with part of an old earring and green micro beads. The skirt is made from a rose-print fabric wrapped in irridescent chiffon and trimmed with several different laces and velvet ribbon. There is no sewing anywhere on the form. Can't wait to see the peach form I am getting in exchange!

You can see more of my Marie Antoinette dress forms in my Flickr set here.

On a fall break...be back sometime

Happy 401st, Little Witch!

My 401st blog post on my birthday--how appropriate, since I feel about 401 sometimes. Of course, that's young in witch years anyway. Ancient for cats, dogs and people. Stress kills.

Heirloom tomatoes and fresh cut flowers= farmers market and fall festival

It's a different kind of art-mother nature's to be exact-that makes up my 400th blog post today. The fresh-cut flowers and produce took my breath away today, a sunny Saturday in Syracuse, where I was summoned impromptu to a festival by my daughter. You would have thought it was the first time she had ever seen altered art, snatching up a huge wooden Notre Dame sign and another "Welcome to the Lake" sign, both made of paper mache letters on old doors or shutters.

The heirloom tomatoes taste like candy and are almost as sweet as the whoopie pies we both bought- she got chocolate and I got oatmeal. My little 26-year-old even bought a bag of Amish noodles, although she insists she doesn't know how to prepare them. She must have missed my lesson on boiling water.

There was a lot of great jewelry, photography, beads, ceramic tiles and other art, which I managed to avoid, but Wawasee Antiques drew me in and sent me out later with two tiny Kewpie dolls, a couple of old medical tins and two old chandelier prisms.

Besides finishing up the round robin charm bracelet swap in the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group, I have fat book pages coming due in my new Alice in Wonderland Mad Tea Party Mail Art group, and a Halloween-time Marie-theme treat bag/supply swap due next month in the Marie group. I have one coming to me from Amanda and I send one to Rebecca.

Alice in Wonderland or Me in Aliceland

Marie who? Seems my Marie Antoinette kick may have taken a back seat for the moment to Miss Alice herself and her wacky friends, like M. Hatter, Esq., pictured here popping out of the house I made for him. Doormouse, Cheshire Cat, Duck, Dodo, Lory and Eaglet are in the back window (not seen here) along with Alice. So many strange characters in that book! Isn't that where one finds Toad the Wet Sprocket? I think someone besides the Caterpillar may have been smoking the hookah when writing. Of course, that was Lewis Carroll back in 1865.

Meanwhile, I was inspired to create a Baby Alice art doll (Linda and Opie O'Brien Who's Your DADA?-style), Alice as a Young Girl art doll/canvas assemblage (inspired by Lisa Kaus) and a Zettiology-style (inspired by Teesha Moore) Alice skinny book page. Small doll head from Kris Hubick of Retro Cafe Art. The black framed pieced is a 3D collage under glass with vintage silhouettes. I think that may actually be inspired just by me. Maybe that's the author explaining his book idea to a comrade. March Hare/White Rabbit (who is whom?) winks knowingly on the front of the piece.

Major Bling and Things

Here are a couple of charm bracelets I made over the weekend. The base bracelet for the black and white one was actually a new charm bracelet I got at Jules of Goshen. It had the black plaid heart, the crystal teardrop and a few others already on it, along with the hot pink lucite rose that I moved to my pink charm bracelet. Then I added some more charms and touches of hot pink to balance out that bracelet, and what was left on the starter bracelet was just asking for some black and white charms to be added. So I did.

The Goshen foray resulted in some old tins (bandages, salve, pencils), an inkwell, a very old copy of Alice in Wonderland, a front-desk bell (pre-cursor to the Easy Button), and a 1932 Etude music magazine with a Marie Antoinette-inspired cover. Time for some show-and-tell soon.

Wanted: Shiny Happy Plastic People

This elusive redhead in the green dress stands between me and a complete collection of the eight Avon Small World bottles from the 1970s. However, I just discovered by researching photos of the originals that some of mine had wrong heads on wrong bodies. And, it seems I am also in need of 1) a cowgirl head with hat, 2) the senorita's pink flower for her hair, 3) the island girl's lei, 4) boxes for everyone except the French girl. But I could live without the boxes. Otherwise, I haven't done too bad in recapturing some pre-teen kitsch.