A Very Vintage Christmas Swap Reveal

I know I'm late but I still wanted to show you all of the amazing goodies I received from my Christmas swaps. So, today I'll show you my goodies from A Very Vintage Christmas Ephemera Swap and tomorrow I'll show you some fabulous ornaments from my ornament swap.

First of all, Cristina sweetpeaink our hostess with some help from her momma put together these fabulous sewn bags to hold everything. WOW!! Now, I'll just show you the pictures and list the participants. The pictures do not necessarily coincide with the links.

Amy Powers, Catherine Aguilera, Cerri littlepinkstudio, Gina embraceyourbliss, Lynn createbreath

Look at how lovingly packaged everything is!

Kristen sweetdreamsartstudio, Jessica Rodarte, Marilee rose-brier, Sara Blagg, Trina thepaperfleamarket

I truly believe that bloggers are the most generous people in the world!

Michelle Geller, Karla Steele, Heidi Wallingfond, Kerry k8tykat, Yvonne Welty, Vicki texasscrapaddict Deborah debsvintagesoul, Teresa foxhollowtales, Pamela keravuori, Aimee Kruse-Ross, Kelly Deal

These two gigantic Santa seals are absolutely fabulous, I don't even know how anyone could part with them. I'm sure glad they did though! lol!!

Lori myvintagewhimsy, Kana Conger, and Hope Karney

Well, that's it for this swap. Totally yummy right!??!!

I hope you all had an absolutely amazing Christmas and that your upcoming New Years Eve is safe and full of love and family.

xoxo

Cari

Red Letter Day!!

SHE DID IT!!

O.k. as some of you may know, I've been M.I.A. (missing in action) lately. Well she's why. We've been going crazy here with her college ap, and essays and letters of recommendations, and sending scores, and transcripts, etc., etc., etc., well..... you get the idea.

She's really smart and researched the statistics on early application acceptance in comparison with regular application acceptance and decided "early application" was definitely the way to go. Well, she did it, we did it, we managed to get everything there, on time, with only a few hiccups along the way. Yeah.

Then the wait..................

it felt like forever.

I got sick to my stomach every time I had to get the mail, I mean who wants to be the one to tell their child that they can't go to the school of their dreams right?!!

So, today was the day we were supposed to know by.

I'm just sitting in the car waiting to pick up my two youngest from school and my screaming, hysterical, out of breath girl calls me up and says......

SHE GOT ACCEPTED!!!

(oh yeah, she got into the Tisch School of NYU)

(She's going to be a screenplay writer, How fun right?!!)

She had been checking her email all day at school and had just found out. I didn't believe her, I was in shock, I made her read me the email just to make sure she read it right. She had :-)

I am so proud of her.

(sad that she's going to leave too)

"Little" Christmas Gift

So, I have a question for you all.

Do you ever feel bad when you cut up an old book?

What if it was a German prayer book from 1863?

I don't usually feel to bad about cutting up books. See, I feel like I'm saving them from obscurity. I'm taking something discarded and sharing it with all of you fabulous creators and by doing so turning something decaying and abandoned into fabulously cherished works of art.

Except This One!!

I cut it up for a fabulous Christmas themed ephemera swap I was in. (wait till you see all of the goodies later this week!) But boy, did I feel really bad cutting it up.

So, I've decided I will no longer cut up this sweet tiny little treasure. But, I did want you all to have a little piece of it too. So, please feel free to use the above images for your own personal creations. Please don't reprint the images to sell as they are.

At least this way this book can live on forever.

xoxo

cari

It's finally here!

Remember when I told you I had a secret?

I'm sure you don't, heck I can hardly remember what happened yesterday, anyways.......

Here it is The very first magazine that my art has ever been published in. Yeah!!

(Notice, I said first.., I'm being optimistic! lol)

When I got the email ( I almost sent it to junk mail, ugh!) I was soooo excited, But, I didn't want to tell anyone because I didn't want to Jinx it. But, my loving, wonderful, big mouthed husband told! He couldn't help himself.

Then came all of the questions, "Are they coming to your house?" "Is your picture going to be in it", "Is the whole magazine about you?" (That last one, Really!?) So, after some explaining that no, I'm not famous or anything, I've just had a couple of pieces put in a beautiful magazine, here it is. yeah again!

(Here is one of my pieces)

The entire magazine is absolutely amazing and is on sale tomorrow.

Thank you to all of you amazing bloggers. If I didn't have you there is absolutely NO way I would have had the courage to send something in.

Have a wonderful day

xoxo

cari

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for this year? I'd like to say I'm not thankful for being soooooo busy. But, I know that life has it's ebbs and flows and that this is just a time in my life when Chaos reigns! I know that the day will come when I am alone (or even just a little lonely once in awhile).

For example, my oldest will be going off to college next year!!! Ugh, I can barely think about it without crying (I don't let her see me crying though). So, this year, I'm embracing the Chaos because next year will be a little less chaotic. :-(

I hope you embrace your chaos this year! That is my Thanksgiving wish for you.

Happy Thanksgiving

xoxo

cari

Re-Organizing

Just a little crafty re-organizing. Here is a peek at my newly (almost finished) craft space. My work space is wedged between the second fridge and the furnace in the garage. But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! right?!

Anyway, I couldn't take the yucky garage walls so I cracked open a can of "Ballet slipper Pink" paint. (I love that name don't you?)
And, what a difference a can of paint and a little re-organizing can do. Unfortunately, I've got lots of stuff piled behind these pictures still to be put away. I haven't put it all away yet because it looks so pretty, I don't want to mess it up.

Here's a close up of the shelf. Don't you love that antique German Prayer book. My daughter threatened to kill me if i cut it up. LOL

O.K. so back to the mess behind me. My husband is getting a little impatient so I thought I better hurry up and get some pictures of the niceness before it becomes messiness again.

It's fun to look at these pictures and see all of the neat little goodies I've gotten in swaps or the beauties I've created with the fabulous kits I've ordered.

(This, well..........ahhhhhh!!! right?

nothing else to say about this.)

Alright, so even my organized desk is still a bit unorganized but still inspiring!!

I've got a couple of post ideas brewing, I've got 2 swaps to show you and a little something else. I've got to work on them now because the kiddos are off for 9 days in 3 days. I better hurry!!!

xoxo

Cari

Inspired Ideas

Surprise!

That is the first thing I saw this morning when I grabbed my blackberry to check my emails. The Amazing Sadie from lollishops emailed me to tell me that my little shop is featured in an add that she placed in the most amazing online magazine!!!

(I immediately start jumping up and down and squealing, which was really funny because I was in the drop off line at my kiddos school!!)

How exciting! right?!! When you've got a minute, jump over to lollishops and check out the fabulous sadie and then jump over to inspired co. and sit down (so you don't fall down when you see how fabulous this magazine is) and enjoy. Amy Powers did the most amazing job ever!!!! I can't believe it's Christmas time again!!

xoxo

Cari

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!

This is about how I feel!! LOL

I'll be back soon. Life is slowing down a bit finally.

Just in time for the big Holiday rush!!

Have a safe and happy Halloween.

xoxo

cari

We Have a Winner!!

Congratulations "lucky #7"!!!

Yeah Nelly, just send me your email so I can get your goodies on their way!!

Don't we all wish our birthdays were like this? and that we were that young again? Well.......

maybe not that young! lol

Thank you for your sweet birthday wishes

xoxo

Cari

Giveaway

100th Follower yeah!!!

Thanks to all of my followers for being so patience with my recent absences.

Giveaway too!! scroll down to my previous post and enter, I know you're out there!!

Now onto the big Senior Homecoming Dance!

(the dance is a "Rock-a-billy" theme, we did the best we could)

(notice the army boots. Thanks Ross!!)

So, here's my senior getting ready to go on her very last Homecoming Dance ever! Boo Hoo!! This is a tough year.

I'm not the only one who's going to miss her. Look at those smiles with daddy.

Both of her little brothers (and lil'sis who's at a slumber party)

are going to miss her bunches too. But on this night it's all fun and high jinks. She had a super duper night. Love the dress. Thank goodness for Anthro's sale rack!!

be back soon.

xoxo

Cari

Birthday Giveaway and Swap Meet Finds

I just wanted to show you guys some of the yummy things that I picked up at the last two swap meets I went to.Jackpot!!! Look at those lovely pink Mercury Glass picks and all of those wonderful rhinestone baubles. I also scored a bunch of those sweet little Czech glass flowers.Some more of the yumminess!! I love old labels, order forms, game scorecards, etc. Lately, I seem to be a magnet for them. Yeah!!

O.K, so onto the giveaway. Next Saturday is my big "40" so in order to celebrate properly I'm going to giveaway some of the goodies I've scored lately. I'll also throw in a few surprises!!

Just leave a comment on this post between now and Friday 10/15 at midnight to be entered. I'll announce the winner on the morning of my birthday. Yeah for you!!!

xoxo

Cari

Recent Projects

Hi all!!

I know I haven't had much time to blog but I've been squeezing some time in to create. Here's a peak at my projects.

These were super fun to make. I used Genuine German Lametta and vintage Mercury glass beads and ornaments.

Then I got hooked on these sweeties. I didn't think I'd like making these very much because the directions say "do not measure your circles" Ugh!! I'm a perfectionist control freak, no measuring or cutting on the lines!

But I think they turned out wonderfully. The kids thought it was super neat to watch me make them too. Only one of the fabrics actually smelled bad when I was melting the edges. The kids didn't like that much.

So, that's it for today. I've got a giveaway post planned for tomorrow. Here's hoping I'll get it done.

Let see, tomorrow we have SAT's, homecoming, a drill team parade, and a AAA little league game. At least we don't have soccer tomorrow! LOL

xoxo

cari

Chaos!!

Hi all,

Thanks for hanging in there and being patient with me.

You wouldn't believe all the chaos that's happening in my life right now!

Hopefully, I'll find a few minutes to take some pictures of the goodies I got at the Long Beach Swap meet (over a week ago), so I can do a real blog post.

Maybe I'll even share some?!! (does she mean a giveaway???? I think she does!!!)

Be back soon.

xoxo

Cari

Paris to the Moon

Saying "Good-bye" to Paris to the Moon

In case you haven't hear the bad news, Paris to the Moon is closing down. Boo Hoo!! This is by far my all time favorite artsy store. Where am I going to find unusual and handmade goodies that I can touch and swoon over anytime I want to.

I am sorry to see you go after 9 amazing years, you will be missed.

Surprise News

I just got an exciting surprise!

I can't wait until I can tell you all about it.

Have a wonderful day, be back soon.

xoxo

Cari

Fun Little Craft

Hi all, just a quick little post to show you what I've been up to.

Thank goodness for deadlines! Seriously?! If it weren't for deadlines I don't think I would get any crafting done lately. This sweet little box was my latest craft for the "More Paper than Shoes" forum. It was super fun to make and now I feel like I've accomplished something. Hope over to the blog by clicking on the icon to the right and see what all of the other artists have been up to.

Have a wonderful weekend.

xoxo

cari

I'm still here!

I'm still here. We've been battling pneumonia. Ugh!! Don't worry, we're making it.

School finally started for my oldest! Yeah that means they are all back in school. It's so funny how much I want summer to start and then how relieved I am when it starts back up.

I'm a bit sad this year though.

Yesterday was her last first day of school. boo hoo!! (except for college but that's different, you know what I mean.) This one, she's quite a character! This will be such a stressful year for her but sooooo exciting too. She's got one more SAT test, and early application to NYU (cross your fingers) 3 Ap classes and an honors class to boot. But it will be fun too. She goes to a fabulous school and will have tons of fun doing cool senior activities.

These are her all time favorite shoes. (boy have they had it!) She even won an award in Cheer in her freshman year for "sparkliest shoes" !! Even though she wasn't supposed to wear them during cheer. LOL

She finally got to travel this summer. She went to NY, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Boston, and Connecticut on college tours. Lucky!! She got to stay in a fabulous hotel in Times Square and see "Rock of Ages" on Broadway, they even stayed after the show to take a picture with Constantine (from American Idol). She came home with a shirt that says "Hooray for boobies"

O.K, now that they are all back in school I will be able to visit all of the wonderful blogs I follow again. Yeah!!! I can't wait.

be back soon. have a lovely week

xoxo

cari

We Have A Winner!!

Congratulations Mary Ellen!!

comment #13

Mary Ellen from Mary's meanderings, you are the lucky winner of my "Flea Market Sunday Giveaway"

Now, I'm off to get some rest so I can play with the kids all day tomorrow,

we are doing the free movies then a picnic in the park with bike riding.

I'll try to take some pictures.

My kids only have a week left of their summer vacation. :-(

Have a lovely day.

xoxo

Cari

Flea Market Sunday Giveaway

Welcome! Come on in and enter my giveaway!

All you've got to do is leave a comment on this post by midnight tonight and you are entered to win all of the items below. These are pieces of my latest flea market finds and I'm going to share them with you. But wait, there's more....

Hope over to lollishops blog and enter all of the other "Flea Market Giveaways" too. I was so excited when I found all of these old bank checks. I love them so much I haven't even put any in my shop. Oh, and I'm throwing in 12" of the most luxurious 2" wide black velvet ribbon (just in time for Halloween crafts)

the lucky winner will also receive some of this vintage Monopoly money in the greatest colors, this fabulous old skeleton key

some vintage Dennison labels and this adorable old rhinestone mushroom pin.

So, what are you waiting for? Leave a comment, I want you to win!!

Have a wonderful Sunday

xoxo

cari

Giveaway warning!!

Warning! Warning! Warning!

Fabulous items will be given away on Sunday!!

Come back here and enter my "Flea Market" giveaway and then hop on over to Lollishops blog and check out all of the other giveaways. yeah!!! It's like hitting the flea market without leaving the house.

xoxo

Cari

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

We have been BUSY!!

We've been going to the beach, the free movies, the pool, water parks, school clothes shopping, school supply shopping, soccer's about to start..... whoo! We are busy but, we are having FUN! Here's a peek at what I'm thinking about.

Can you guess?

It's crazy how fast time flys.

Have a slow and wonderful summer. Hopefully I'll post again soon.

xoxo

Cari

New Forum

Come visit this new creative forum!

I was recently asked to be a designer on this wonderful new creative forum. It's called "More Paper than Shoes". There are lots of designers making fabulous little projects all the time, come over and visit when you get a chance. Here is my project for today.

Have a lovely weekend,

xoxo

cari

Fabulous New Find

Look at all of this yumminess!!

Yesterday I visited this fabulous shop in Huntington Beach, CA. It's called Gramma's Attic. Where have you been all my life??? LOL O.K, so the shop is packed to the rafters with fabulous treasures everywhere. You will literally have to dig through the gorgeousness. I will have to go back at least three more times just to take it all in and by then there will be so much new stuff. Ugh, I guess I'll never be able to take it all in. (I'll just have to keep trying!!) So, I got some vintage Dennison star's, a small pink ruffled glass bowl, and the most luscious black velvet ribbon you'll ever find. (Hoping to have pictures to share soon.) Their prices are super reasonable. Yeah!! Oh ya, and they were voted #1 Antique store in Orange County. whoo hoo!! Why didn't I know about them sooner????

O.K. Enough of my fabulousness commercial, I'm off to the beach with the kiddos!!

xoxo

Cari

Feeling Creative

I've been feeling the urge to create jewelry lately.

These are my latest creations.
I made them with rose quartz faceted beads, shell beads, and czech glass beads. I was inspired by this amazing package I received.

This is what I saw when I opened the box.All of these beautifully packaged handmade silver and pink Marie Antoinette charms. Yummy!!
Once unwrapped this is what I had. Who wouldn't be inspired to create??
So, here it is my stunningly beautiful Marie Antoinette charm bracelet. Thanks to the talented artists who created my charms. Now, I'm not sure anymore who made what but here are some links to all of the talented artists:

Our lovely host: Rhonda Thomas www.Rhondamum.blogspot.com, Laurie Wirth @ http://mermaidtreasuresart.blogspot.com, Holly Moore @ www.paperpiecesofme.blogspot.com, Melanie Hall @ www.artfulinterludes.blogspot.com, Lillian Mederak (no blog), Blanca Medina @ Magic Moon light Studio, and Terri Gordon.

Thank you lovely ladies for such a fun swap.

xoxo

Cari