It's The little Things..

Picked up this little wooden doll 'keychain' at World Market and turned it into a long necklace.

Easy to Make Accessory

A decorated headband made with scrap ribbon:

I wrapped the headband with ribbon, tacking the ends of the band w/needle and thread. Then I tact'd the ribbon rose to the headband where I wanted it and then added gobs of fabric glue directly under the rose and onto the band. (Even if the glue dries 'clear' you don't want any of it to show) I used clothes pins to hold it in place, overnight while drying. This morning I had a brand new hair accessory to wear to work.

The Ribbon Rose looks large in the photo but is actually in good proportion with the headband.

The ribbon rose was made by following the instructions HERE. Scroll down at the link and click on the "Fancy Ribbon Rose" instructions.

Down The Trail And Back Again

Memory Lane can be a beaten path or a merry trail, either way I'm finding myself there.

This is a mansion where I recall quietly skipping through the halls with my sisters back in the 1960's while my mother was with the Realtor taking a tour of the
'House For Sale'.

Of course the tour was a farce as we couldn't afford such luxury, but Mom was determined to see the inside. She dressed us in our Sunday best so we could hopefully pass for rich status.

I took this photo summer 2009

History 101:

"The Leon Cheek Residence may be one of the most elaborate residential structures in the historic district. Leon Cheek was the owner of downtown's massive Cheek-Neal Coffee Company, now known as the Maxwell House Coffee. The remnants of Mr. Cheek's private dock still stand across the street from the 1929 structure."
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Mom grew up on this side of town, and I'm sure she passed by this house many times while she was a child. I wonder if she had her own private memories and dreams of this fantastic mansion.

Did she have any idea that she'd hand down memories and dreams to us children? Even as a child I could sense, no.. I knew this was a GRAND place. A place of dreams. -And I had many.

I even had a nightmare or two about the basement. For all the beauty of the house, the basement was the opposite. It was ugly, dark, damp and frightening.

Wow! What a fantastic GRAND home! A place that little girls dream of and ladies find mystery of what it would be like to be the lady of the house? To call it 'HOME'.

Surely, the homeowners of this mansion cannot be of ordinary folk?
Can they possibly not realize what they have because its something obtainable for them?
Materially speaking, wonder what folks that can own such a place like this dream of? What could be grander?

Updated: Paper Curtains

They look much better with the edge punch:

I decided to go ahead and edge the paper curtains using a Martha Stewart edge punch. At first, I thought I had ruined them. I began the first punch not considering the handmade paper is a different texture and thickness than regular paper or even card stock.

Whew! -But it turned out satisfactory, methinks!

Paper Mache' Dress Form

I bought this on a clearance rack with no preconceived idea for it. I got the idea from a book and off it went..

First, I cut a heart shape completely out of the breast portion. Then I covered the whole form with patterned paper using ModPodge.

This is the front of the dress form:

Then I reattached the heart shape using the ribbons to tie it on. Untie one side and here's what the inside looks like:

The inside heart shape I covered with gold leafing.
(Turn ceiling fans off when using this stuff!)
The inside of the dress form I covered using the same patterned paper.
The ribbon roses on and in the form I made myself from step-by-step instructions at the Ofray ribbon website. Then added a bird nest and some foliage.

Not to be neglected, the back of the dress form displays photos of much loved ones whose photos hang from tags.

Top photo: My precious mom-in-law when she was 16 yrs old.
Middle photo: My special Grandmother
(Ola Ruth, whom I did a doll house in memory of and posted photos in past blog entries)
Bottom photo: My dearly missed mom

Also, hanging is a little bird house covered w/patterned paper and a little glass bottle of f aux bird seed (which is wee little seed beads)

This was another FUN project that turned out to be something that I'm rather fond of.