The Gifted Line

In the early 1980s I fell in love with another man. His name was John Grossman. His photo is below. He's an artist who, along with his wife, created The Gifted Line of ephemera. At that time he lived in Sausalito, California, which was just north of us above San Francisco and a lovely place to visit. Very artsy and expensive area. Beautiful however. He is now about 80 years old and resides in Tucson, Arizona.

This is some wrapping paper I purchased over 25 years ago. I have one whole roll left but cannot bring myself to use it. It is pretty here but seen in person it is absolutely stunning. More photos of it are below. Trying to capture it on camera is a bit difficult but I did my best.

This is a note pad he had. His note pads were gorgeous.

There are even accordion files with beautiful paper on them.

Ephemera.

Another photo of that paper.

Photo albums.

Another view.

As with Thomas Kinkade, he had plates with gorgeous ephemera on them.

Mr. Grossman.

Journals with lovely papers.

More note pads.

Plus the most gorgeous of ephemera I've ever seen.

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Happy Birthday to ME on Pink Saturday!

Join all the participants on Beverly's Pink Saturday. Happy Pink Saturday to each and everyone one of you.
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Today is my birthday and I've received special things to share with you. Vickie sent me these adorable cards, ephemera and a glittered pink "C" to hang in my other "C" over my bedroom dresser. She is an absolute doll who travels continuously! I swear Texas weeps when that woman leaves the state.

She even knew what kind of Wallies roses I have used in my office. Squeeeeeeeal...


I am so thankful I know this woman.


Isn't this adorable with the glitter "C"?


Then my sweet friend, Katie, sent me one of her spectacular paintings on a box on which she attached a handle because she knows I love to hang things around the house.



Then my friend, Bertie, sent me this little ceramic pot with vintage seam binding. Squeeeeealing with delight! You will want to go see her blog because she is featuring her 180+ years old farmhouse this week. It is truly spectacular to see what Bertie has done with that place. Just exquisite.
It is truly my pleasure to have known these women in my ebay group for 4 years now and some even longer. They lift me up and delight me each day with their caring and humor and stories of grandchildren and life. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I truly adore each and every one of you!
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I've been sort of lazy the last several weeks and haven't done all I'd like to have gotten done but here is one thing I did do. I simply stuck a little print into a dollar frame I had painted and put a matte that I had painted from a hideous brown to a glorious blue and then Fun-Tac-ed it to the wall. Easy and fast. Just the way I like it!

Noooo, I have still not finished putting stuff back where it belongs because I just can't find places for it. You would NOT believe how many trips we've made to thrift stores giving things away. And there is still MORE! Anyway, some gals have emailed me asking how it was coming along so I photographed a few pictures to show you. Still haven't gotten the desired wall photo of the mantel and faux fireplace board but I'm getting there.

And lastly, this old stencilled towel I've had for about 20 years. I've used it for a painting rag but it hasn't even gotten thinner through all the years I've "cleaned" with it. Just goes to show you how long stenciling will last on a fabric. Plus the strength of that old fabric!

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Random Thought:

You never want to stand between a woman who has just eaten a quarter of a watermelon and the toilet. Personal experience with Love Bunny..........

Master Bedroom Redo July 2009

We now come to the new painted bedroom. As I said before I had the walls filled with "fluff" because I didn't like seeing the beige color but with loving the pink so much I've pared down the wall "fluff" this time.

I took about 20 yards of pink tulle netting and draped it above the bed swagging down with bouffant poofs tied with organza ribbon and topped off with pink paper roses. Lovely I think but then it's MY bedroom. :-)

A closer view of the wall behind the bed shows you a canvas painting I purchased and what I did with it. It isn't very big at 8" x 10" but when I saw it on Gail's website I knew it was mine. I snatched it up surprisingly quick! I didn't want to frame it because the last picture I had framed was $350.00 after a 50% discount. Love Bunny almost passed out from that experience. So I decided to be creative. (Shopping at my own house again.)

I couldn't find a mat in a 22" x 28" without getting a costly custom one so I decided to just put another picture frame around it inside of the larger frame to "frame" it. Then since Gail sent me 2 printed pictures of more of her art I "fun-tac-ed" it to the wall. A snippet of leftover pink garland and it was finished. Then a sign I bought last year from Catherine was put on one side and an embroidered piece I did about 25 years ago went on the other side.

I had 5 pom-poms in the bedroom but only hung 3 back up. One in this corner and 2 on the other side of the bed wall. I added a pot of violets on the little corner cabinet I confiscated at my daughter's last year and painted shabby white. Instead of the Paul deLongpre prints thumb tacked to the walls in this corner, I added 2 cottage prints. The roses curtains are some that I had in the family room but replaced with white ruffle-y ones in there now. (See post from a few days ago.)

Decisions for this wall were the hardest to decide on. I have several message boards on which I display tags and gifts from my sweet ebay group and I wanted them in this room. Also my wedding dress, the news clipping from our marriage that my sister had framed and gave to me many years ago, some vintage baby clothes (mine!) and my doll clothes from when I was a child are hanging on that wall. Boxes of ephemera, photos and stationery are stacked in here and on the chair I refurbished a few months ago.

A shelf remains but the vignette is a tad different. I added a scarf, poofed it out, added the faux greenery, 3 crowns I made and some cards my hubby gave me. The letter "C" was a gift from another woman on my ebay group. I love that hand painted wood letter and since my initials are both"C" it can be used as a family initial also.

My side of the room with the 2 pom-poms in pink.

And lastly, a close-up of the painting over the bed.

I've decided to show you my message boards up close. Birthday greetings, tags from sellers, pretty calling or business cards, "just because" tags, beaded fripperies from Berrtie, tags that simply say they love me and cute pictures I've collected from various places, just anything I think is beautiful and worthy of being pinned to my boards. I even have special thumb tacks on which I've glued ribbon roses onto their heads. Nothing and I mean nothing goes on there that isn't beautiful!

Middle message board. Embroidered and painted hearts from my sweet ebay group chicks. There is so much love and support in there it's a miracle. I love them all and I think the feeling is reciprocated. ;-) We truly do lift each other up above the fray and hard times in life.

Third message board. Old ephemera, hand painted cards, note cards collected over the years, a little hanging heart hand painted by Celeste, just lots of flouncy stuff.

And this. You wonder what it is? Well, it's a bath "puff" that has come unraveled. It is such a bright pink fuchsia color that I can't part with it and besides, I use Oil of Olay bath/body wash and it smells so wonderful that it fragrances up the entire area in which it hangs. Yummm...... Sigh........

Crafting Patio Lights for Pink Saturday 5/9/09

I was crafting today after getting a MUCH needed massage. But first let me show you what I bought. Squeeeeeeeeeeal..........

I ordered these beautiful roses file folders from Polly and received them the other day. Aren't they gorgeous? I also received several yards of vintage pink ribbon and I intend to embellish some t-shirts with some of it. I'm so excited.

This is a close up and I thought I'd put it on here in case someone wanted some ephemera for a project. Just enlarge it and then snag it for anything you might like to use it for. Gorgeous rose!

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I saw a canning jar made into some patio lights on another blogger's post and cannot for the life of me remember who. Sheeesh, I can't believe it. If I see it when I'm surfing my favs I'll let you and her know.

Anyway, I did this first one and didn't have any tea lights to put in it—I actually do, but they're up in the garage attic and can't find them at the moment(!)—so I broke a red taper candle and lit the bottom part and tried to melt it down to drip into the jar—okay, okay, so I started a fire but can we NOT let Love Bunny know this?— and stupidly let it drip onto a paper towel (I said I was intelligent, not that I didn't do dumb things every once in a while!) The paper caught fire and in blowing it out I sent little pieces of flaming paper towels around the kitchen. I need to work on the smell before Love Bunny gets home.

Isn't it adorable? And it can be hung on a porch or patio and is protected from the wind. That's especially important out here in the Idaho desert! I plan on making several more out of some of the tall olive jars hubs gives to me after he finishes witht he olives. Try them yourself. Easy. Wire around the top of the jar. Wire over the top for hanging. A scrap of fabric or ribbon. Candle. Embellish with roses if you want. I did on this one. Just be careful and only use tea lights OR fatter, shorter candles.

I did this one also in green and net lace ruffles. Ummmmm, I didn't put a candle in this one yet. I think I'll wait until I can find the tea lights or some short fat candles.

The Winner is.......and Some Ephemera to Print

I drew the name for the winner of the little Fairy Ballerina Art Collage and the winner is

Stephanie of Angelic Accents!!!!

Congratulations, Steph!
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I'm still beat from our trip and haven't been sleeping well and just feel kind of lethargic the past few days thinking about our son and what this has done to him and his family. I laid awake last night thinking about him and praying diligently. He still feels pretty bad because the headache won't stop, nor will the loud ringing in his ears and eyes are still cloudy. Just please continue to pray for him and for this country.
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I have a lot of vintage images I'm going to be using in the next few weeks—hopefully!—to make some pretty artful pages to show you. But I thought I'd share some of them with you. Click to enlarge and use what you want to do some crafty things. Enjoy.

Vintage post card also for you to print. Just click to enlarge.