What I've Been Working on Lately......

Here are a few of the things I have been creating, some for the shop, some for gifts, some just because I wanted to!!!!
These gift tags are going to the Broadway shop, Julianna's, and I have another batch soaking in coffee, to use for myself !

The snowman's buttons are from my dwindling collection of vintage abalone and mother of pearl buttons.This snowman is made out of vintage, felted, tea stained wool.Some of the others are made of cotton batting or cutter quilt remnants.

These "zen sticks" are a result of  me playing around with my leftover beads and stones, after receiving a similar one from a "bloggy: friend. .They can be quite pricey to make, especially when using semi precious stones!
I received some  lovely calming beads from "faerwillow"- you can go to her blog and check out her etsy shop to purchase some of hers!She has some gorgeous ones!  My daughter promptly christened mine  zen sticks- they are a new age version of the old time worry beads. After having faerwillow's for a while, I can attest to their usefulness!! Mine are made with 20 gauge copper or silver coated wire. One of mine has a red jasper ring - jasper promotes harmony- we'll see if it's true!!! The other two are a beachy feel. These will just be gifts or giveaways.

The little bead bracelet spells out Broadway Gobblers - for the local high school team.

My feather tree is just a tiny "Charlie Brown" tree, made with a wood skewer, wrapped in floral tape, with faux pine branches, topped with a primitive rusty star. The pottery flower pot sits in a thrift shop votive candle holder made out of a slice of tree.

 I was harvesting herbs last week- and made this little hanger of curly willow (or Harry Lauder Walking Stick, not sure) with similarly scented herbs - lemon thyme, rosemary, and sage.

This bunch of lavender in the vintage silverplate urn may make it to the shop - altho I kind of like it!!!! The urn was a yard sale find - for 50 cents - since it had a broken handle!!! I fixed it!!!

Here's my vintage drying rack in the basement-the rack was also a yard sale find !

The upcycled teacup server and Christmas pedestal servers are already in Julieanna's.

The quilted table runner was one I made years ago out of vintage quilt blocks, machine quilted by Anne Weber of Ashburn, Va.

This last little piece was just me fooling around with a tin pie plate, after seeing Kimmie's tutorial on her bottlecap quilt! The reverse side looks better than the front, I think!!! The front is gessoed and decorated with bits of  clock innards. Not sure what I will do with it now tho......LOL

Now, off to make yet another cup of hot tea with honey, in an attempt to get rid of this cold!!!!

More Zentangles.......................

My latest effort, inspired by one created by those great folks at Zentangle!

This one took a couple of evenings in front of the tv to finish. I probably could have done more - but this will do! My favorite 'tangle is the zen shell. There were a couple of not so great ones on the clipboard, but since it will be covered with paper from time to time, it doesn't matter!

This was a run of the mill clipboard, that I painted with gesso, inked with Sakura pigma pens, some gel colors, and then sealed with Spar Varnish. Spar was what the Zentangle folks used, but I am not so sure I like it on mine. I used polyurethane on my hand mirror (see previous post) and liked the finish on that a whole lot better. The Spar was still tacky after 24 hours. I may try spraying polyurethane over the top of the varnish - but that may make matters worse. I'll see what happens with it in the next couple of hours.
You can click on the pix for a closer look - altho that will make the errors a bit more glaring!!!LOL