3 Ways To Beat Stress

It's not possible to control stressful situations that we encounter from day to day, however, we can control how much that stress affects us!

1. Journal!

Identify tour stress points and write about them in a journal. Your journal doesn't have to be fancy and your spelling and grammar doesn't have to be correct. It's just the act or ritual of putting pen to paper transfers all of your mental energy out of your mind and parks it so that you can let it go. Your journaling can be sporadic, only when you have major stress or you can make it a constructive daily activity. Remember to make your own rules in order for it to work for you. Just jotting down thoughts on the back of an envelope can also work in a jam. Get it out of your head and park it on the paper!

2. Get Moving!

Your thinking 'I'm so stressed and now I have to plan an exercise regimen?' NO! Just get moving and put on any pair of shoes and take a walk. It doesn't matter where you go just get outside if possible. Leave your phone at home! (or in your pocket with the rule to only use it for a true emergency) 30 minutes of motion is best but if that just seems like too much trouble get out for 10 minutes. You may end up staying out for longer than your 10 minutes and might surprise yourself! Exercise can be an effective way of releasing pent up energy that can keep you anxious or tense.

3. Practice Mindful Meditation

 It's all to easy to get caught  up in the hectic pace of life. Practicing mindfulness can help to focus your thoughts and actions on being fully present in the moment and curb your panic by not allowing your mind to race. Being mindful can have positive mental and physical benefits.  Helping to reduce worry, encourage better sleep and improve well-being are just a few of the many positive outcomes you may experience!

Garden Party

I have such fond memories growing up of my great grandmothers summertime garden party picnics. The table would be filled with yummy food made from secret family recipes. An appetizing display on heirloom lace and embroidered tablecloths. Finger foods showing off the cut glass serving dishes. Tea would be served from her favorite collection of tea cups and saucers. I looked forward most to the desert at the end of the meal! Great Grammy's brownies were stacked neatly on a white translucent depression glass plate. It was the only plate she had of that pattern and is still in the family to this day. Vases were made and decorated from extra kitchen  jars and filled with wild flowers cut from the field. It was simple and beautiful!

I have gathered a buffet of vintage goodies that were inspired from these lovely garden party picnics of the past and created The Garden Party Collection. Hand embroidered tablecloths, vintage dishes and jar flower vases, so allow yourself to dive into the lovely and charming garden party style!

I hope these re-creation pictures will inspire you to get out and enjoy this season by having your own garden party picnic!

Homer Laughlin Plates

Above: A lovely vintage spring homer Laughlin 1940's plate alongside a pink handmade rose doily used as the base of a simple centerpiece. Below: A vintage tablecloth with beautiful hand embroidery work.

Vintage Embroidered Tablecloths

The crackers rest in this adorable ceramic crate found here

This is a jar that my mom decorated in a similar way. My great grandmother would decorate extra jars from the kitchen and find other uses for them. This one is used to hold a few pieces of silverware for the garden party. An easy DIY or just check here for decorative jars and custom ones!

Gorgeous Southern Belle Dresser Scarf adds a delicate touch to a comfy throw pillow.


My great grandmother would always use dresser scarves  or embroidered runners to decorate a plain throw pillow. It's a nice way to change up the look of items you already have and add a little vintage detail!

Storage Ideas

 I know everyone has seen using stacked old suitcases for storage, that is nothing new.

 What I like about this photo is that they have used these to store photos or special mementos from wedding, vacation, or a special event and added decorative labels to each suitcase. It would be so handy to do this because how many times do photo books get shoved in the back of a book shelf and you forget about them? Or vacation mementos get stored in the "Scrapbook to do" box but that box turns into their permanent home. Before you know it that box is full of scrapbook supplies, ideas and is just a big mess!

These would also be out in the open so you wouldn't forget about them. Reminiscing with your loved ones and kids would be so much easier because memories would be very easy to find and pull out to look at. I have recently found some old photos in my shed and am not sure how they made it out there. I wish they had been in the house protected from elements and bugs. It would be even greater if they had been in house, labeled and easy to find!

I find these jars so handy. My mom first made one for a friend as a toothbrush holder in a country-chic style bathroom. After that I started thinking of all sorts of uses for them around the house. The chicken wire helps hold items like paintbrushes, tooth brushes and colored pencils. A similar storage option, painted cans, are helpful for storing craft items like buttons, clothespins, pens, pencils, wooden kitchen spoons, etc.

I wanted a very small drawer on top of the bedside table to store small items like lip balm and  eye drops in.  I ended up using a wooden book box I found at a craft store and painted it black to match the base that the lamp sits on. it was an inexpensive fix and creates a little bit of hidden storage.

I love finding new uses for items I already have. I use vintage toast racks to hold greeting cards. It's always great to have greeting cards on hand and in an organized fashion. You can use a larger toast rack to store them and set it on your desktop or store in a cabinet if you'd like! The yellow toast rack is very small and only meant for two pieces of toast. Use the small holders as decorative touches on your desk. On the 1st of the month I go ahead and pull greeting cards for any occasions in the month ahead and  keep them in the smaller holder. That way I see them everyday on my desk, add my message and get them mailed out. The vintage toast racks come in may different styles and variety which is great because you can match them to your decor. The bottom picture is a vintage heavy brass toast rack, it can hold a lot if I need it to!

If you have any unique storage ideas, let me know! Every home can be organized in a lovely decorative way, sometimes with items you already own.

Enjoying the Craft Fair and beautiful Spring weather!

What a beautiful day for our first craft show! We had a lovely location under a large shade tree and luckily remained in the shade from 8am until well after five o'clock! A ton of people came out to buy the locally made crafts, enjoy homemade food and relax by the shade trees and pond.  I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got everything loaded into two vehicles and headed home. While I was rubbing my back after loading up our  heavy tables (which I love and were not for sale) I was wishing I had taken the offers I had for what seemed to be the crowds two favorite tables. Even though one was my real desk and the other was a regularly used craft table, wrestling them back into the truck was not much fun! What was I thinking?!?!

 

My mom is very crafty and creative so we put our efforts together to prepare for the craft fair. We stitched, painted and created for over eight months getting things ready. The painted jars were a favorite of customers as well as a lot of the kitchen stuff and horse themed items.

 I set this section up and quickly took a picture. It took about an hour and a half to unload, unpack and set up all of the tables. The door had a very pretty curtain topper, I wish I had noticed I did not get that fully in the picture. The wind was blowing it though so it may not have really photographed nicely.(Unfortunately I was so busy I didn't take nearly enough pictures, only 10 total)

The dishcloth pants sold well. (Part of the bottom can be seen in the duck tub) Only two are pictured here and have yellow yarn bows on white and yellow dish cloths. My great great grandmother used to make these for gifts. They were traditionally given with bridal shower gifts, since they were actually useful once untied. A cute and useful handmade gift that is so easy to make! I'm sure you could find a similar directions on the internet, so I won't post them here.

I set this up at home beforehand and took a picture. I really find the painted cans and jars very handy. I use the cans at home for colored pencils, paint brushes and craft supplies.  They are perfect if you need to store items on open shelves and want them to look nice while doing so.

My mom made some fun Mexico themed items. One of my favorites is the yellow jar with cute donkey. (on the left.) I like it and am kind-of glad it didn't sell so I can keep it around a little longer! ha. My mom also painted the horse jars, which I thought really turned out quite nice. We sold three of the palomino ones, I guess that was the favorite horse jar of the day!

I will list the horse themed trinket boxes for sale on etsy. (Lower right hand corner) The one with the saddle is $12.00 or $15.00 (can't remember right now.)  The brown and blue ones are about $7.00.
etsy link here:  www.CardsAndAntiques.etsy.com

I have to wood burn some more spoons, You can see them in the background, however, I don't have any close up pictures at the moment. I'll probably paint more jars and list some of the ones I have left since they are very handy to store stuff in, people seemed to like them and they sold well.


               Although I felt like this when I got home,


after a good rest I would probably do another craft fair in the future.
Not tomorrow or next weekend but sometime in the future!

Imari Pattern Items I found for the store!

Imari is a style of porcelain named after the Japanese port from which it was shipped to the West, beginning in the late 17th century. Originally made in the town now known as Arita, which became a center for porcelain thanks to its proximity to kaolin-rich Izumiyama, Imari ware (also called Japan or Japan ware), took its design cues from colorful Japanese textiles of the day. Exotic landscapes, gnarled trees, long-winged birds such as cranes, and depictions of courtesans in exquisitely detailed kimonos are just a few examples of the most common Imari imagery.

While Arita ware was often associated with blue-and-white pottery, the Korean-influenced Imari pieces were typically underglazed in blue to define areas filled in later with colored glazes fired at lower temperatures. Thus, blue was primarily used to create borders and backgrounds, although it was also painted on vases, tureens, plates, and lidded jars to depict leaves and other floral elements.

The most frequent Imari palette revolved around three main colors—the blue underglaze, plus a rusty reddish-orange and a brilliant gold. The popularity of this trio led to countless imitations in the West, produced by potteries as respected as Meissen in Germany and Spode in England, both of whom copied Imari freely.

This Imari teapot has a deep cobalt blue background with a bit of orange which acts as an accent to this piece. 14 KT Gold Highlights are still intact, which enhances the value. Places like the handle on the lid are always worn because it is touched the most with regular use. Although all teapots have worn places, look for pieces that still have some of the original gold intact.  This one measures 4" tall and is 9" between the end of spout and handle. Signed number on the bottom. An exquisite piece!

This is a beautiful Royal Crown derby octagon biscuit jar in the Imari pattern. It's porcelain lid is decorated with rich blue, rust and gold designs.The handle is made of bent wood and is covered with leather lacing.it is marked Crown derby on the bottom. There is also some other words stamped, however can not make them out. This jar is numbered on the bottom. 

www.CardsAndAntiques.etsy.com

These items have been added to my store, to check out in more detail just click the link above!

These salt and pepper shakers are stunning with their rich colors and go nicely with the Imari pattern! Very simple designs and flowers decorate the top part of the shakers which also have 14 Karat gold accents. If you are looking to add some life to your table try the Imari pattern and colors!

Lucky Day!

Found more MacBeth Evans at a local resale store! I know this is a difficult pattern to find. Will update with info on next post.

Vintage Finds

Depression glass is an inexpensive glass that was manufactured in large quantities during the 1920s and early 1930s.  Dozens of factories in the United States made it in many colors and patterns. Glass labeled elegant by collectors refers to American hand-pressed items made from about 1925 to 1955. Most patterns were also made in clear glass, which the factories called crystal. The name Depression glass is a modern one and also refers to machine-made glass of the 1940s through 1970s.

The Macbeth-Evans Glass Company was an American glass company that created very fine glassware with beautiful designs, famous for making depression glass.
It was located in  Pennsylvania and started in 1899. Before 1929, Macbeth-Evans made hand blown glass before the use of machines became popular.

I just love this pattern and got lucky finding these at an estate sale.

 

I also found these for the shop, they are similar with the blue edge. They would go with the plates above  nicely!

These pieces are in pristine condition, when looking for your own vintage finds make sure to look for any chips, cracks or glaze imperfections.

 For more depression glass check:    CardsAndAntiques.etsy.com