~MOVING~

~PREVIOUS BOOTH SPACE~

OK, Peeps!  Today is

MOVING THE BOOTH SPACE DAY

at

SERENDIPITY MARKET

in Edmond, Oklahoma!

More than excited about moving into my new Booth in the same awesome Market!  As soon as we are done and I can get my wits about me I'll share new photos for you to see!

This is coming after a weekend of sod-laying and shrub-moving around our La Chaumière de Briarwood.  My guy and are are BEYOND exhausted...BEYOND TIRED.  Must say though that our new yard and landscaping looks divine!

Nothing like starting a fresh new week off with a bang!

Love to you...

~MAKING A TOTE BAG MADE OF VINTAGE LACES~

 I shared with you all few weeks ago that in early March I opened up at new Booth at Serendipity Market here in Edmond, Oklahoma!  Well...after just a few weeks of loving my wee little Space a larger Booth came open on the first aisle of the store.

 It's by a large window and so I jumped at the chance to take it.  It's not double my existing Booth, but maybe about one and a half times the size I'm currently in...

 I'm excited about having more room...but not about moving!  So...over the next week or so you probably won't be seeing hide nor hair of me...I'm going to be very busy!  I promise to show pictures...

 

 This morning I put the final touches on a Tattered Lace Tote Bag and it was so much fun to make.  Years ago I sold a lot of Shabby Cottage Totes on eBay...

But~ as styles and decor changed I just got away from making them and found myself moving onto things that weren't so labor intensive!  Totes take a lot of time to make...especially those layered with vintage laces.  They can get expensive to make, too!

 The picture above is of the reverse side of the Tote!

I snapped this one after layering the laces, but before assembling it!

I love the vintage linen used for the front side!  Sooo lovely!  Forgot to snap a picture of the inside...it's pale pink with soft white dots!  Did I say PINK????  I think I did! :)

 While scavenging around earlier in the week I found this fabulous vintage brass and glass lamp!  It is absolutely amazing...love those precious little cherubs at the base!

I'm going to work on transforming it over the weekend...  The lamp is actually in wonderful shape...just very dirty and a bit grimy!  I can't wait to see how it comes out...promise to share with you soon!

Hope your weekend is lovely!  My Mr. AGPMan and the Boys are sodding our backyard tomorrow!

(I'm sooo glad I don't know how to do that!)

:) :) :)

Love to you...

~AND SEW IT GOES...MORE FRENCH EPHEMERA PILLOWS~

My life over the past few days has been super busy and hectic.  Most of your who read my blog know my Mr. AGPMan was in school for 18 months and so for the past two summers our yard has been, well...hmmmm....

NEGLECTED!

Last July the heat of the sun successfully burned up the little bit of grass we had left in the backyard while the weeds overtook the front.  It's all overwhelming to be honest with you because I don't have a green thumb and my guy really doesn't either.  I'm seeing dollars and more dollars skip right outta my bank account with each dandelion pulled.  UGH!

  Anyway...we spent Saturday moving overgrown shrubs and tearing out sick ones, all the while measuring for fresh new sod to replace what we lost.

My La Chaumière de Briarwood has seen better days.  All this work while we are STILL working on our kitchen remodel (yeah...the one I started blabbing about a LONG TIME AGO!).  When you are do-it-yourselfers it's SLOW GOING!

Yesterday I worked ALL DAY LONG stitching up new French graphic and vintage lace Pillows in my studio and so today I'm going to clean up the big mess I made.  Honestly...you'd faint if you saw it...stuff is everywhere!  I purchased ten yards of a soft, pale taupe (beige) cotton and successfully used up ever single bit of it.  Hope to get these pillows (gasp...and a few pink rose ones) on my website later this week!

My beautiful daughter, Adrienne, and her sweet hubster, Micah, both graduate from college in three weeks.  I can't believe it!  When she married her beloved back in 2007 she promised me she would finish and she has!!!!  Hard to do when you are young bride and working full time.  I'm so proud of them both...more about this soon!

Hope your week is wonderful...be back when I can squeeze in some down time!

Love to you...

~IN MEMORY~

 The day was an ordinary spring day.  People were milling about going about their business. Driving to work, dropping their children off at daycare, eating breakfast, jogging, shopping...  Flowers were beginning to bloom and our native trees were starting to blossom.

The day ended as a day that will go down in history.  By noon untold carnage spread across our City and men, women and children lay dead and a beautiful federal building destroyed.  Two cowardly men bombed our Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Building killing 168 people and wounding many more.  A nurse coming to aid the injured also lost her life that day as a result of falling debris.

It's been eighteen years since that morning in early April 1995.  Lives were forever changed and the landscape of our beautiful Red Earth State was altered for all time.  My children were only ten and thirteen at the time, far too young to bear witness to something that today sometimes feels commonplace.

The people of Oklahoma are resilient and proud.  We have healed from the devastation although many scars remain.  Today as we honor our fallen citizens we celebrate with continued hope and joy that God's mercy will bless and cover America.  Our State is stronger and more beautiful than ever...a testament to our will to press on and survive the most difficult of days.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Boston and the state of Massachusetts as they face untold violence.

They, too, will rebuild.

But their lives will never be the same.

May the memory of love prevail in our hearts forever.

Love to you...

~MORE RE-FURBISHED VINTAGE LACE LAMPSHADES~

I'm in the process of transforming a few more gently used lamps this week!  Both of these little beauties were found at local tag sales and have been waiting patiently for complete makeovers.  If you missed my post last week on how ugly old lampshades were refashioned using vintage and older laces you can go HERE and read all about it!

I love to recycle junk-store lamps!  I see them all the time and I have to hold myself back from buying more than I need...don't want my Mr. AGPMan to ever think I'm a HOARDER or something...

I think my favorite part of making the shades is being able to use up all those itty-bitty pieces of vintage lace I've been hanging onto for sooooo long now

Because they are fashioned in patchwork-style there isn't a pattern or a set way of covering the shades!

Fun to create, but as I shared last week very time-consuming!

Love adding those tattered roses that are sooo popular right now!

I'm working on special pillow orders inside my studio this week so I'll be in and out for the next few days.  Stormy weather is supposed to hit Oklahoma today (like the tornado kind) so I'm hunkering down and praying our roof doesn't fly out into the universe or something...

Today I'm linking up with:

 Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

Ivy and Elephants for What's It Wednesday
DIY Design for It's a Party

Timewashed for Blissful Whites Wednesday

Hope your day is wonderful!

Love to you... 

~GENTLE THOUGHTS~

 Yesterday was a day most of us will never, ever forget.

I guess we never really know how a day that begins gloriously beautiful will end up like...

Do we?

Nothing quite like watching a real tragedy unfold~  Sure does have a way of whipping one's life into focus... 

Doesn't it?

All the things I thought were troubles in my life yesterday morning didn't even cross my mind by the time I crawled into bed last night.  I fell asleep thanking God for his protection for my beautiful family and for ALL those

OTHER THINGS

I forget to thank Him for

almost every day...

Because I live in Oklahoma there isn't a week that goes by that I'm not in or around the Oklahoma City Memorial near our downtown.   Although it's a place of reflection,calm and peace today, forever etched in my mind is how on April 19, 1995, our Alfred P. Murrah Building was totally destroyed by a truck bomb and how two deranged killers shattered the lives of many of our men, women and children.

Then of course there was 911...

More death, dying and profound loss.

Today my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Boston as well as those visiting Massachusetts from other cities, towns and countries.  Like you, my heart breaks over the injuries and deaths...

I pray God creates something beautiful out of the ashes...

May God help us.

May God help us all.

Love to you...

~MY 100 YEAR OLD CHIPPY WHITE ANTIQUE WATER PUMP!~

~SWEET ESTATE SALE FIND~

On Saturday morning my Mr. AGPMan and I headed out the door extra early so we could get to a local estate sale before the crowds settled in.  We were #14 and #15 in line and we were so excited for the doors to open!  Well...the sale turned out to be a total DUD so we quickly headed south into OKCity to visit another sale.  This one had already been underway for an hour by the time we got there!  I'm so happy to say this one was just as good as the one we visited a couple of weeks ago and that one seriously rocked!!!!   I couldn't believe the treasures we found...some for us and some for my website and local booth... 

~AT HELEN KELLER'S WATER PUMP - 2010~

All that said...by the time we loaded everything up, hauled it home and found a place to temporarily store it all (aka: GAW-RAJ) we were beat!!!  Finding room was a bit of a challenge as our kitchen remodel is STILL underway (which also includes a new downstairs full bath and laundry room).  All the supplies and fixtures are being housed in our garage.  Our SUV and car don't even know what it's like to be sheltered from the Oklahoma storms anymore! BAH!

~FABULOUS MAPLE DRESSER w/MIRROR~

Anyway...showing you just a couple of pics of what we snagged.  I'll share more when the makeovers are done....

~2 DIE 4 FRENCH WRITING DESK - SECRETARY~

My favorite find of the day was the 100 year old (plus) antique water-pump you see at the top.  It was already painted WHITE and it's chippy-wonderful!  It's either going in the flowerbed you see OR in our backyard.  I don't want the thing stolen even though someone would probably need a CRANE to haul it away!

 

~VINTAGE LACE - $1 PER CARD~

(WHAT????)

Finding it reminded me of the fabulous trip my hubby and I took to Tuscumbia, Alabama in 2010.  We stopped to see the birthplace of Helen Keller and just had to have a picture taken at her water-pump!

Love the maple dresser (hmmm...black like Pottery Barn or WHITE!  We'll see!) and that French Desk is darling.  Not sure WHAT was goin' on with the paint job tho.... 

And the lace?  Just speechless.  This is just a SMALL sampling of what I brought home.  Destined for life beyond those cards...

~GORGEOUS DRIED HYDRANGEAS~

Now...one last thing to tell you...

See the pretty dried Hydrangeas?  Well while my Mr. AGPMan was loading up the heavy stuff I noticed a large Hydrangea Bush in the front yard that was covered with spent blooms.  Well...there were at least 100 naturally dried flowers/heads that were soon going to be completely worthless if they weren't clipped off and given some TLC.

 ~CREAMS-WHITES-TAUPES-BROWNS~

I just couldn't have that...so I marched myself slithered right back inside the house and boldly sheepishly asked if I could dead-head the bush.  They all just looked at me like I was  slightly disturbed or something and then said sure...'just don't dig up the plant'.  (Like MOI would do such a thing!)

Every drawer in the maple dresser was filled with dried hydrangea blooms and I can't wait to play around with them!

I have a super-busy week ahead of me.  After only a few weeks of being in my brand-new-booth space I'm moving it to a larger site in the Market at the end of the month!

Sooooo......

  I need to get to work on filling her up!

(More about this soon!) 

Hope your Monday is happy and blessed.

Love to you...  

~TIME WILL TELL...TRANSFORMING OLD CLOCKS~

 Some exciting changes are coming to my Booth/Space at SERENDIPITY MARKET in Edmond, Oklahoma!  As soon as I can I'll be sharing with you more about where my little shoppe is headed...can't wait to show you pics and to tell you what's new!!!  I'll just say for now a WINDOW of opportunity has come my way and I just can't pass it up!

Now...see the clocks at the top?

Tick-Tock!  Tick-Tock!

Don't you just love clocks???

 

I think they look pretty sweet dressed all in white...

Well...take a look below at what they looked like when I found them...

I actually liked the one on the left...but it had a couple of nasty scratches so WHITE PAINT TO THE RESUCE....

This pink, yellow, green and blue clock was sweet and whimsical...but I like it much better now that she's transformed!

I almost passed on this one...but once she was painted she actually turned out to be pretty sweet!

Tag Sale Shopping tomorrow!  Two fabulous estate sales are slated to begin in the wee hours of the morning and I'm too excited to speak!

Hope your weekend is fabulous...

Love to you~

~VINTAGE LACE LAMPSHADE TUTORIAL FOR YOU~

~PAINTED LAMP and VINTAGE LACE SHADE~

One of the things I love about creating things for both my home and business is being inspired by all the incredible talent out there in Blogland and beyond!  Years ago we had to purchase craft and decor magazines in order to get our weekly/monthly jolt of ideas~but these days just a couple clicks on one's mouse and you can find most anything your heart desires.

~ORIGINAL LAMP~

I've loved following Karen over at My Desert Cottage.  She is so talented and I love her spirit and I love her home.  A few years ago (2010) Karen gave us a Tutorial on how she recovered a lampshade with stuff a crafter might already have on hand.  Well...I missed her original post, but I found it thanks to Pinterest.

~ ORIGINAL SHADE~

I loved her transformed shade so much that I decided to use the basis of her idea and fashion a shade for a lamp I snagged last week at a tag sale.

~PAINTED BASE~

I started off by painting everything a soft white.  This included the shade's frame and the entire lamp.  After everything was dry I went over everything with Annie Sloan's Dark Wax.  Just love that stuff!  First apply clear wax and let it dry.  Then go over everything with the dark wax and wipe off the excess leaving some in the cracks and crevices!

~ATTACHING FIRST PIECE OF LACE~

After removing the original fabric on the shade and cleaning off all the old glue (Googone) I painted it and let it dry.  I then pulled out my big bag of scrap lace (tattered and fine) and began covering the shade by hand-stitching the lace into place.

~MORE LACE WAS ADDED~

Fabric glue is a mess and hot-glue won't hold due to the heart of the lamp's bulb.  So...I stitched away.  Now...I have to tell you that this all took a long, long time.  My back was aching by the time I was done!

~AND MORE LACE~

~AND MORE...~

~MORE...~

As each piece of lace was chosen I stitched it onto the piece already secured onto the shade.  I stitched right over the metal leaving the prettiest scalloped-edge-lace for the edges (if possible).  I just kept layering and stretching the lace and hand-stitching it into place as I went.

~LAST OF THE LACE~

After the entire shade was covered I added the pretty insertion lace (gorgeous vintage French? find!) around the top edge leaving the tattered and well loved portion sticking up over the shade's top edge.

~REMOVABLE ROSE PIN~

Lastly a removable rose pin was added to the front along with a gathered vintage lace doily and some ruched  up rayon ribbon...

All in all this was a fun project!  It really was.  I used up tons of my lace scraps (a good thing!) and the project was something new for a change after lots of pillow making of late!  I've done lace lampshades before, but seldom without removing the original fabric first.
 
~LIGHT OFF~

 Downside to the project was that the shade alone took me about 6 hours plus to cover.  So...it was fairly labor intensive...at least it was time-wise.  And like I already said my back is hurting from standing for too long!  I never sit when doing projects like this~way too much moving around to remain in a chair...I'd be up and down and up and down....

(Thank you Karen Valentine for the inspiration on making the shade! ) 

Today I'm linking up with the following:

Green Willow Pond for What We Accomplished Wednesdays

Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

Ivy and Elephants for What's It Wednesday
DIY Design for It's a Party
Timewashed for Blissful Whites Wednesday

Hope your Wednesday is awesome.  Crummy weather is suppose to come to Oklahoma and I'm praying our fairly new roof doesn't go sweeping down the plain...

Love to you...