Day in Sugarhouse

Last Tuesday, our art group met in Salt Lake to enjoy the Sugarhouse area shopping. First stop was at Diana's art studio "the art cottage".  First we toured her adorable home full of personality and artistic flair.

Here is the art cottage nestled in her back yard.  Cobblestone walkways lead to the french doors.

the cottage has a loft on both sides, full of antique eye candy. 

A sitting area in your studio.  A place to relax and rest a bit.

Diana's cottage was built by her husband.  They had been gathering and storing wonderful items for a few years.  It was so inspiring to see her style in every little corner, she is one talented gal.

Then we were off to the junk stores, and  consignment shops.  This one is called Abode located at 1720 South 900 East in Sugarhouse, such a cool mix of eclectic and antique finds.

Can you believe they served us cupcakes from the best cupcake store in town mini's cupcakes.  They are the most delicious cupcakes in the world.  really.....

this one is the best.....

then we headed to George's Antique Salvage also in Sugarhouse on 9th east, this shop is full of everything from old property restorations.

these you match with the doorknobs if your lucky they have the hardware attached.

hundreds of old doors, some even have the original paint.

a salvaged corner cabinet

light fixtures hang from the ceiling 

this old sink sits outside waiting to be put together in an aqua blue kitchen, any takers?

and this  old radio with some of the working parts, it was the color that said "buy me buy me" take me home with you.  This store is a must to see, if you can use your imagination you will find something spectacular.

joy

I have evolved as a mother.  I used to fret and fuss about mother's day, and dream of a day with no mom duty, everything planned perfectly..... breakfast in bed, a nice soak in the tub, time to blow out my hair, and my hair would be perfect, just right, then I would attend church and my children would be extra quiet, sitting and smiling, not poking each other.  I would have hugs all day, and handmade gifts with little notes expressing their divine adoration for me.  I would eat chocolate cake and have flowers delivered to my bedside, while reading the newest edition of Martha Stewart Living.

A few years back, (yes it has taken me that long), I had a moment of reality.  Mother's day is not about me, it is about serving others, and celebrating the women in my own life who have been examples of goodness and light, holding close the little moments of motherhood that need to be remembered.

Last mother's day I had the chance to be with my mom as she visited her sister in the hospital suffering from ovarian cancer. It was truly a sweet gift to be part of that experience.  This is the mother I have been blessed with, she is an example of giving life to others.  Her sister is a mother who has been through hard things, and she is a fighter.

This is my son who is in Maine right now.  I haven't seen him for almost a year, he is working so hard, serving others and he is the happiest he has ever been.  I miss him.

I talked on the phone to him on mother's day for almost an hour.  My heart skipped a beat as I heard his voice again.  How my arms ache to hug him, and mess his red hair.  I remembered him as a tiny little thing, my first feelings of intoxicating joy, no other love is like a mother's.

I did have an amazing mothers day this year thanks to my sweet husband and kiddies that made me dinner, wrapped up little gifts and even told me how thankful they were to have me as their mom.  I did however,  want to pull the covers over my head this morning as I ventured through the mess of a party day yesterday.  When do the mother's day fairies come to clean?  If you see them send them my way will you?

Happy Happy Monday......

A fairy thing with red round cheeks

a little child, a limber elf

singing, dancing to itself

a fairy thing with red round cheeks,

that always finds, and never seeks.

easter blessings

Then spake Jesus again unto them saying, I am the light of the World: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.
John 8:12

spring nesting

spring is a time for new beginnings, a time for darling little chick eggs you can hold in your hand. So much to hold inside until the rays of the sun warm the earth and little sprouts of the season can be visible with the naked eye. Winter leaves its frozen mark with the breath of spring, can you smell the fragrance of warmed dirt and tiny crocuses?  The sound of birds singing their welcome tunes?  A promise that tiny eggs will hatch and bits of earth will bloom with spring color. 

 Just as the frozen earth sheds it's winter coat new ideas are hatching at the art nest, more art retreats to nurture your spirit and soul, our very first art nest magazine, Everyday Nesting coming out this Spring,   as well as this little chick warming in the sun. 

 He is the announcer of our very first nesting kit.  Each box a little present from the art nest stuffed with goodies and unique vintage finds, hand packed and created for you to indulge yourself with a little creative nesting.  

Wool aqua felt from a vintage dress, blue bobble beads rummaged from a forgotten necklace, scarab blue seam binding to tie around your tiny treasures.

little bits of spring to make you happy even gleeful to touch.  a tiny bottle of german glass glitter, pink millinery mushrooms, glass currants, and other little vintage finds.

  paper mache egg made in western Germany,  silver german scrap tucked inside for use 

Where to begin with this lovely egg?   Sketch out your design thinking about how you want your finished egg to look, then gather your goodies from your kit.  I decided to cut a little peep opening in the egg, using my poker and then tiny sharp scissors.  I used a sanding block to smooth out the edges.

 then I painted the egg with Golden's titan buff, raw umber, and cobalt teal mixed to the perfect robin egg blue. 

 Let the egg dry.  After it is completely dry coat it with a thick coat of  acrylic gloss like McCloskey's clear coat.  This takes a little more time to dry so you might want to go get lunch.  When you come back your egg will be  shiny and look like a sky of blue glass.

now it is time to fill the inside of the egg,  Cut a piece of the aqua wool felt and glue it in the bottom of the egg, I just eyeballed it then adjusted the size a little. Poke a tiny hole in the top and add a blue bobble bead and vintage seam binding tied in a little bow.  Finally, tuck inside the egg your little chick in a nest made from paper shred, aqua felt and vintage millinery.

To finish the front add ric rac, tiny vintage trim around the opening, (use tacky glue)  spring  embellishments and a little bit of book text, finish your blue little egg by adding a tiny flower from an old  hat at the bottom of your little peep window. For more lovely finished spring eggs see Julie's blog and you can drool over her artful thursday project another tutorial using the spring nesting kits.

Happy Spring Nesting

xoxo

Candice

A sneak peak at our spring nesting kit. In the art nest shop.

time is ticking

do you ever feel as if the clock is ticking, and there is not enough  time to get everything done?  do you have to choose what is most important ever minute of everyday?  Do you ever choose the wrong things or make things worse because you want to accomplish a task of some sort. I do all of those things, ask my kids I am a slave driver........I love to get projects done, finished, out of the way, and sometimes I feel like her.......

and it seems like most days I do more of these than anything else.

   What happened to these fantasy homemakers?

thank goodness these days are behind us..

and these............somedays I wished I had an "Alice" to give me milk and cookies and set the table for dinner.

yet,  here I am in this century trying to raise my family against the odds, of everything that makes life good and peaceful.  I am a little tired somedays, I deserve to be a little stressed out  I am a women and mother in this day and time and I, like you, am a  fighter.  A fighter for home a fighter for  peace.  Here's to all of us that give our days to homemaking and find joy in it, or at least we have those fleeting moments of joy.  Here is one of my favorites...............

Happy Homemaking..............

snow birds

Today the snow is falling lightly and I am enjoying a few moments sitting in my studio, looking at my little blue bird treasure  found yesterday while working on our summer art nest retreat with Julie. It is a bird that has been broken a few times, probably fallen off of a table or dropped by a little child's hand.  There are chips and a few bits of glue. The bottom stand  has the most damage.

so she is  a little broken, and a little worn. She has  little flaws that  sometimes can be hidden but there are sometimes  big cracks in her soul that are the size of the great divide, still somehow she gets back together, glued piece by piece by the loving arms of the savior, until she can stand again.

Then she is  even more beautiful.  He molds her  and keeps us in his arms until her  glue dries and she can stand up again without help.  She starts to fly again,  she starts to forget about the cracks and continues on throughout her days, pretty soon  she can't remember how she got put back together in the first place, she starts to forget, how broken she was  and her gratitude to God becomes mundane.

and then she rested and took a still moment to refresh her little mind and spirit, she  remembered her creator and his  healing hands.

Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I shall give you rest.
 (St. Matthew 11:28)

sending you love, peace and a snowy rest this day.........candice

happy valentines day

Hope your day was filled with lovely notes and hearts...........and a pair of red  shoes.
xoxoxox
candice

Another Place and Time

Do you love having a day to go to your favorite junk stores to find treasures?  I have been sifting through junk  since I was a little girl.  On our very large farm there were many old sheds and buildings that were full of someone else's junk.  We (my brothers and sisters) would sort carefully looking over every little item.

this is my sister and I in front of our wild marigold bushes..........

We would think  about the people who used to love these things and what they were feeling when they used these items.  We even had an old chicken coop that we used as our club house, hidden  there we would stack our most valued treasures, someone else's junk.  I come from a long line of treasure collectors, my grandfather was a rock hound, a real rock hound. He had more rocks and little treasures than anyone in his town.   He would let me sit in his shop and polish rocks with him for hours on end.  My rocks were just dirty little pebbles shined to beauty, but he still let me put them in the tumbler.  He even took me to the city dump one day and let me rummage around for treasures, I would fill my pockets with tiny trinkets, but one favorite time I found a  cherry red bicycle with a banana seat.  He put the broken down bicycle in the back of his truck  and we admired it with great glee.  He helped me fix the bike up to almost perfect.  It rode pretty well even on our dirt road.  Now, where I live  there are no city dumps, and I don't have any old sheds to go through at the moment.  So I make due looking for a new junk shop or going to my local thrift stores.  I still get that tickle in my stomach as I sift through the memories of others.  I adore used items, they speak to me  and they feel good when you pick them up, like someone or somehow they have the energy of another place or time.

these two chairs I found junking this week.  The owner had refinished them in a green paint with a leopard print cushion, what you can't see is they are tiny enough for my small ones to sit in and put their feet on the ground. One has coasters the other not, we will get some soon.  They are perfect to roll around in our family room for reading or game playing.

My stash of clothes and other fabrics I found.........

the red poncho was for $1.00.  It is crochet by hand and such a lovely soft red,  I don't know if I can wait  until Valentines to wear it.  I also found a nice tweed skirt to go with my anthro stockings.  I love junking, but my new favorite thing is putting salvage or junk items with urban.  More to come on that later...........Happy Junking!!!!!!!!!!!!