Clown Car

This was the car as we left Karla's house.

Looks full right?

Not even.
 We managed to squeeze in 5 more boxes, a hatbox & a birdcage  somewhere between here & there.

If we had gotten in a wreak we'd have smothered.

An avalanche of junk.

Souvenirs from various malls across the flat-lands.

Tobacco tins for a future class, books & frames & this tarnished silver sugar bowl.

I scored some very fun things at Birdsong.

I'll buy Beth & Karla's cast-offs any day.

Kristi was my personal shopper at Marburger, she brought back a Victorian scrapbook, a lamp from Carolyn Westbrook & these amazing fabric scraps

Sweet little satin heart shaped pouch.

I found about 200 old monograms in a booth marked 75% off.

Of course I had to buy every bag.

Beth gave me some early birthday presents.

An old tin type album screaming 'make me into a book'.

And something from my Wish List.

A small album of pressed flowers from Israel.

I have wanted an herbarium for ages & this is close enough for me!

I am in love with it.

Aged, yellowed tissue protects each page of flowers.

 

 

It's too bad the book is in such good shape, wouldn't these be incredible displayed on a wall. 

Can you imagine 20 framed botanicals?

I have a few Victorian scrapbooks, but this one

Kristi found is wonderful.

Then an unexpected gift came my way via Philip's teacher.

2 big bags of goodies.

25 high school portraits from the 1940's,

 found near a dumpster in Massachusetts.

Besides being the coolest kindergarten teacher ever, Gail loves everything vintage.  

The second bag was stuffed with old laces, hundreds of them!

I think a lot of them were samples.

So that night I laid them all out in our bed.

Very carefully sorted.

Neat little piles, short ones together, cards together......

you know.

Kevin walked in & just stared at me for a second,

gave serious eye roll then left.

They just don't get it.

Are We There Yet?

We left my house at 7am packed up & ready for an 8 hour drive to Kansas.

13 hours & several stops later we made it to Karla's Cottage!

Karla outdid herself, Birdsong II was a hit!

Sometimes the sequel is better than the original!

3 days of great food, good friends, Cool projects, serious rain,

 belly laughs,

shopping, shopping & more shopping, packing, unpacking, faerie trails, magical surroundings, prizes, treats,

& memories.

I don't how she does it, but she does.

If you read Karla's blog, you know that life in the cottage has not been easy this last month. 

For most of us mere mortals just the thought of hosting an art event for 25 girls would bring on a panic attack the size of Texas!

But Karla thrives on it.

She is Hostess Extraordinaire!

I was busy & a little disorganized

(who me???)

so I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted. 

Especially of the finished projects.

Isn't it amazing how you can give 25 girls identical kits & each one will be more unique & beautiful than the last!

It was a crazy- fun group this year.

I got to know some new friends,

& caught up with old ones!

Happy Hour at the Texas Lounge!

Beth's friend Karla, (Faux Karla to me)

kept the food coming, the floor swept & was head cashier at our sale.

If she gets tired of being a CPA I see a career at Wal-Mart in her future!

It was hard to say good-bye, but hopefully we'll meet up at future events & there's always....

 Birdsong III.

Tune in next time for 'the long trip home' or 'Kristi, where are we going to put that colum'!

Thanks to Kristi & her iphone pics which I swiped from Facebook.

If one's good......

I think I'm finished packing for Birdsong. 

I'm bringing about 10 boxes of vintage goodies for the vendor sale.

My junking mantra has always been, if ones good then five are better!

I spent about 3 years picking up wool sweaters from thrift stores & felting them.

Someone gave me a couple dozen very old & damaged Pendelton work shirts.

So I felted those too. 

I made a camping quilt with some of them, I blogged about it here.

(on a side note: I can't believe how good my pictures were in that post. What happened? Could it be the duct tape holding my camera together is a bad thing?)

I'm making little wool bundles to take, it looks like I'll have enough for my etsy shop too.

My baskets of lace are over flowing so it's time to share.

How about some cool metal?

Got some of that.

I'm a sucker for cases,  boxes, & trunks of all sizes.

These are filled with all kinds of good stuff!

While I was packing & pricing, the boys were repairing retaining walls.

Philip helped his Dad all day.

What happened?

Seriously, last week I was crawling on the floor in the dark looking for his Binky. 

Now he's wielding a jackhammer.