Clown Car

This was the car as we left Karla's house.

Looks full right?

Not even.
 We managed to squeeze in 5 more boxes, a hatbox & a birdcage  somewhere between here & there.

If we had gotten in a wreak we'd have smothered.

An avalanche of junk.

Souvenirs from various malls across the flat-lands.

Tobacco tins for a future class, books & frames & this tarnished silver sugar bowl.

I scored some very fun things at Birdsong.

I'll buy Beth & Karla's cast-offs any day.

Kristi was my personal shopper at Marburger, she brought back a Victorian scrapbook, a lamp from Carolyn Westbrook & these amazing fabric scraps

Sweet little satin heart shaped pouch.

I found about 200 old monograms in a booth marked 75% off.

Of course I had to buy every bag.

Beth gave me some early birthday presents.

An old tin type album screaming 'make me into a book'.

And something from my Wish List.

A small album of pressed flowers from Israel.

I have wanted an herbarium for ages & this is close enough for me!

I am in love with it.

Aged, yellowed tissue protects each page of flowers.

 

 

It's too bad the book is in such good shape, wouldn't these be incredible displayed on a wall. 

Can you imagine 20 framed botanicals?

I have a few Victorian scrapbooks, but this one

Kristi found is wonderful.

Then an unexpected gift came my way via Philip's teacher.

2 big bags of goodies.

25 high school portraits from the 1940's,

 found near a dumpster in Massachusetts.

Besides being the coolest kindergarten teacher ever, Gail loves everything vintage.  

The second bag was stuffed with old laces, hundreds of them!

I think a lot of them were samples.

So that night I laid them all out in our bed.

Very carefully sorted.

Neat little piles, short ones together, cards together......

you know.

Kevin walked in & just stared at me for a second,

gave serious eye roll then left.

They just don't get it.

Happy Easter!

I'm still in Mississippi, but I wanted to wish all of my blogging buddies a Happy Easter.

I'm so grateful for the blessings God has given me, my health, my family, my home.

I'm also so grateful that I've made so many amazing friends this year,...ya I'm talking about You!

The sweetest girl in Denmark is giving away one of her precious, amazing dolls. Dorthe is so special to me. She was the very first person to follow me, & has always been right here encouraging all of my endeavors. I own a beautiful angel that Dorthe made for me at Christmas, she sits in my studio & brings me luck. If you would like a chance to win one for yourself, go see her sweet & inspiring blog

here!

Just before we left for vacation the postman delivered a wonderful surpise from my friend Beth.  Look at the orphaned hairbrush!

The box was filled with treasures & creations like this sweet dress tag. Beth does this mean I'm now part of the sisterhood ?? 

And this little pin is now the most coveted jewel in my whole studio! It is just the COOLEST thing ever!

I love this Alice tag, I will add it to my swap book from Karla.

Tags, twine, lace & jewels, oh my gosh I was squealing!!

You see... I've been blog stalking Beth for months now. My peskiness finally wore her down.  I think I might, (I'm just sayin might) be a future member of the Lawrence Hat Syndicate.

Thank you so much Beth, you know I love it all! Tell Karla & Mary, hide the breakables because I'm packing up the RV & heading to Kansas!

Look at this gorgeous velvet ribbon, this is some of the great stuff I bought with Jodie last week.

I seriously could not believe my eyes when I saw these sealed packages imported from Switzerland.  I bought as much as I could afford, 5 packs, 10 yards each.  The colors are so yummy....... taupe, cream, chocolate brown...MY colors! I also bought some beautiful aqua & pink to share.

Oh the sewing notions! Look at this box of embroidery thread, & the stains of age on the zipper. 

2 baskets full........

2 months mad money.........

Tons of vintage goodness, Priceless!

It's a good thing we have a luggage compartment on the top of our van to transport my goodies home.  Tomorrow we hit the road for our 11 hour drive home. 

Remote blogging

Guess where I went yesterday???

Can you guess who I was with??

Here's another hint.....

Yes, you guessed it. That crazy cajun blogger Jodie!!!

I have been looking forward to this trip for a month now, emailing & texting back & forth.  When we finally rolled down her long driveway I didn't even wait for Kevin to put the car in park! I just jumped out & tackled the poor thing.   We left the kids & husbands behind to play so we could go shop. 

The first time Jodie blogged about this place I went insane!  Walking through the door on that ancient paper thin linoleum floor, smelling the mustiness of vintage goods, well.....let me just say it was almost too much for me to bear.  I said 'Jodie, I'm having heart palpitations'!

Don't you love the fancy signage they got going on?? Anthropolgie's

got 'nothin' on them!

A whole wall of trims, lace, beautiful velvet ribbon.  Perfectly aged from years & years of hanging on the shelf.  Honestly, I nearly wet my pants when I saw it all!

Button catalogs, tons of them.....

I've just never seen anything like it.

After shopping we came back to Jodie's for some nourishment & beers.  The kids had a blast running around her property, chasing mud bugs.

Then she showed me her 'happy place', where all the magic happens!

Oh I wish I'd had more time, it would have been so much fun to just sit & play with her toys & make things together. 

I was dizzy trying to take it all in. So many wonderful things, souvenirs from retreats & blogging friends & everything was displayed so lovely. 

I wish this picture was better, but I had to show you. This is one of Jodie's prized treasures.  Her friend is holding a sign saying 'hi Jodie' & Tim Holtz pointing at it! So cool!

Jodie & Thad were just the sweetest, funniest, generous people.  They made me & my nutty family feel so at home.  It all just exceeded my expectations.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to post again to show you what I spend 2 months allowance on! 

But for now, the kids want to go swimming & we have to check out by noon & get to Mississippi.