Thursday, April 28, 2011

A French Estate Sale


While estate sale shopping a few weeks ago, 
we discovered we were at the estate of a French teacher. 
She had a wonderful collection of French books and other items, 
and we came home with these.
 
French books, maps, and Paris post cards 



 Love this beautiful print that is the cover of
a dated menu at a Paris restaurant from September 10, 1952.

Can anyone translate French?
{click photo to view larger}
If you can, please let me know. I would love to know what this handwriting says.




Sharing today with Voila French Inspiration at the French Cupboard
and Vintage Inspiration at Common Ground.

Thanks for stopping in for a visit!
Hope you're having a wonderful day!

~ Julie


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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Treasure Hunting . . . . at the beach

We just returned from a wonderful 6 days in Maui, Hawaii;
 just enjoyed time together, relaxing in the sun, walking on the beach, 
and trying not to sunburn our pale northwest skin.



I am a big beachcomber.
I'm the one you see on the beach searching for seashells.
I have a small collection of several tiny, dime-sized
sand dollars found on the Oregon coast,
but I've never found anything on the beaches of Hawaii.

While eating breakfast at a restaurant on the beach,
we noticed another lady beachcomber
picking up little treasures and putting them in a bag.
Curious to know what she was finding, we talked to her after breakfast.
Her treasure . . . . . "beach glass".
This was a new term to me.

What is beach glass? 
Old broken bottles that have been tossed into the sea and
washed upon the seashore after years of tossing to and fro
and being sand-worn into smooth little pieces of glass,
in pretty shades of blue, green, amber, brown and clear.
Also called sea glass.

Now I was in search of this new found treasure,
on the beaches of Hawaii . . . how fun!
After two trips of "beach glass treasure hunting", 
the Captain and I have a bag full of beautiful 
sand-worn, pieces of glass.

What can you do with it?
Put it in a pretty bowl for decorating, a vase, or make jewelry pieces.
Personally, I'm going to put some in this gorgeous, whole
shell the Captain found on the shores of Kaanapali.


 I love it! ~ it will be a treasure to keep!



Of course, I still had to look for seashells, and we
found so many, little miniature shells that are so detailed and beautiful.
Most are smaller than a dime.

I'm bringing home some of our treasures to share with you.
If you would like any sea glass or miniature shells, or a few pieces of
coral, just let me know. I will be listing them in my etsy shop.



Hope you enjoyed this glimpse of treasure hunting on the 
beaches of Maui.


I will be doing another post on some things to do and
favorite restaurants on Maui later this week.


We also attended a wonderful Easter service on the beach.
Kaanapali Beach Ministry does a church service at the Hyatt every Sunday.
Ke Akua Mana E 
[How Great Thou Art]


Have a wonderful week!


~ Julie


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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Vintage Shop Tablescape

A few weeks ago, I shared this beautiful tablescape inspiration 
from Victoria magazine,


which was my inspiration to do an
outdoor tablescape with items from my vintage shop.



 The sun was shining . . . the Captain was able to mow the lawn . . .
and help with the heavy stuff . . .  
and we came up with this




We started with our outdoor table, a vintage tablecloth, 
some vintage chairs [love the old hotel chairs] and a wicker loveseat;
added vintage dishes and hankies for cloth napkins.
For Easter, we put eggs in the silver candle holders and candelabra 
instead of candles, added birds with paper bird nests,
some silver jello molds that I thought looked like flowers,
and put together other items to make up vignettes.











We added a side drop leaf table with a couple more chairs,
a vintage coffee set, an old book stack,
a rusty end table with a silver bowl full of old glass floaters,
 some fresh daffodils, and more paper nests.






I'm just a beginner at this shop stuff. All of you experts,
feel free to give me any input and advice :).



Thanks for stopping by. 
Hope the sun is shining where you are and you're 
enjoying the first days of spring.



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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

How to Make Hand-Blown Easter Eggs

I love hand-blown eggs for Easter.
You can enjoy them year after year, and 
they make great gifts.

Here's what you'll need to make your own hand-blown eggs:

eggs
a bowl for the yolks
a corsage pin
a nasal aspirator [preferably new :)]
 

 This year I got some beautiful blue eggs from a friend,
thank you, Bekah.

Use the corsage pin to poke a pin hole in each end of the egg.
 
 Make the hole a little larger on the bigger end of the egg.

 Swirl the corsage pin inside the egg to break the
 yolk and mix with the egg white.

 Using the nasal aspirator on the end with the small hole,
blow the yolk and egg white through the bigger hole.
{Use slow, steady pressure; the egg can break with too much air pressure.}

 After all of the insides are removed,
rinse out the inside of the egg with water. 
You can insert some water with the aspirator, shake and
then blow out the water. Allow the egg to air dry before decorating.
I usually wait at least a day before decorating.

Decorate as desired . . . paper mache, glue on flowers, buttons, etc. 
or color as you would a hard-boiled egg.
{You will need to remove any colored water from the inside and allow to dry.}

Here are some pretty eggs to inspire you.

 
















I just love this romantic Easter egg created by the talented
Rosemary at Ozma of Odds. 
She used a paper mache egg with petals and pins,
but you can use glue to apply petals, pearls 
and other pretties to hand-blown eggs.


And . . . how about these beautiful eggs adorned
with buttons, lace and pretty jewels?
Made by Becky at Junk to Joy


and

love this idea of displaying eggs in silver candle holders
shared by Tammy at Beatrice Banks.

I gave it a try with some blue eggs . . . 

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Paper bird nests

Just sharing some things I've been working on this week.
I saw this idea in Country Living magazine and loved it,
so I got busy crafting and getting messy
with shredded paper and glue.


shredded paper mache bird nests



some with vintage sheet music


and an Alabaster dove
{This one is sold . . . thank you, Vyanna :) }

how about pink?

with a cute little sheet music bird ornament
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