In an ugly box...

can come such great stuff! This box recently appeared on my doorstep (one of those - oops, honey, I forgot to tell you "Mary Ann" stopped by - events).
I opened it up and took a gasp. You would not believe the number of beautiful vintage buttons that are in there!
From World War I and II military buttons
to ones that are purely decorative,
my button collection has gone from large to huge :) All thanks to a neighbor's mother downsizing her home. Sometimes I think I am way too lucky to have the great friends I do!

Cameron Antiques Fair

This past weekend was the semi-annual antiques street fair in Cameron, NC. I love going to this event and was disappointed I forgot my camera (although, here's a blog post with beautiful pictures). I love how you can find everything there... the antique/vintage, crafts, food, plants, etc, etc and came home with a good little stack for myself :) The first thing I bought was this cute necklace. I don't have anything like it and just had to have it.

And my prizes of the day were these glass bottles. In addition to my family's obession with shells... we have a thing about old bottles, too. We're apt to partake in occassional "bottle-hunting" expeditions (in between the beach-combing) but I've never found purple ones on my own.

I was even looking at items with a crafty eye and can't wait until I solder these miner's tags.

Recently, I was cleaning out some bead drawers and always get surprised by what I find (like beads I bought in 2nd grade, yet still have yet to use them or get rid of them?). I found some cute little sping time charms that made me wonder exactly what I would do with them since they don't even come close to looking like my "shore debris" theme.As I was laying them down together in a pile for destash, I thought, these look kind of cute... and don't leaves look like these moss agate beads hanging on the wall over here... Oh, and maybe I should pair them up with some pale pink...

Lo and behold, I got a cute little spring set.

It's fun breaking out and doing something besides the norm :)

Bead Mixed Lots...

Sometimes I buy beads and findings in mixed lots.... and until recently, they've been sitting around in my studio still in the original packaging.

Just this week, I discovered something in a mixed lot bag of gold plated findings: Magnetic clasps. Now, I've seen magnetic clasps before and since I make most of my own clasps, I'd never thought of using them in my own jewelry. But for those pieces where I need something more streamlined than my large handmade hook and eye clasps, I think these will do. Now I'm off to order some in sterling and gold fill :)

Bead Shopping

It's been awhile since I've browsed a bead store. I've been on a bead shopping hiatus - trying to actually use up something before I go buy more plan.

This week, I've managed to get into two of my favorites again. This afternoon, I was in the Twisted Jeweler in Fayetteville and snagged some opalite. I figured what the heck - I've never bought opalite and it was a steal -buy 1 strand - get 2 free!
On Saturday, I spent the day at Ornamentea... but that will be another post :) Before I left, I was stocking up on cool stuff like this Toggle Clasp from Elaine Ray Beads and

a raw brass sea horse. I can already see what colors he'll looks great with in my overflowing collection of nugget-sized mother of pearl beads.

Shopping in Fayetteville

This summer, I discovered the "Arts Alive at 4th Friday's" events in Fayetteville and decided they are lots of fun. I did lots of shopping down there and have just gotten out a pile of stuff that is making me drool all over again :)

This first piece is an agate I got from the Cape Fear Mineral and Gem Society Showing in August. I have dreams of wrapping him in gold and making him my centerpiece at the Durham Artwalk.These beads I got from my new favorite store downtown... The Twisted Jeweler. If I had no job and if they also had a coffee bar in the shop... I'd probably live there!

I love scouring the antique shops for pretty pins, too. They make such an addition to a beaded necklace!

And finally, the other bead store - Strung Out on Beads. Who could believe that 13 months ago there wasn't a single bead store in Fayetteville, and now there are two!

More Shells!

I love visiting beaches... especially when I walk alway with lots of shells. I made my husband take me to Topsail Island recently and walked away with all kids of loot. I even got a few good pieces of sea glass that day - I so rarely find sea glass in North Carolina it is always a treat

Wire, Wire, Wire...

Last week I ordered a gigantic spool of 20 guage wire... one of those "uh oh, did I order too much... yes it was a great price because of the volume, but should I be spending so much right now? " moments. It arrived yesterday and I'm so excited because there is no way I am running out of wire on this sucker! All 3,450 feet is now sitting on my big folding table just waiting to be used

I hate glue!

So yesterday I was trying to work on a large amount of notecards. My wonderful paper cutter, new punches, and scissors were all up to snuff...

However, the glue had it out for me!I cannot tell you how many photos I ruined and how much cardstock I had to throw in my scrap pile before I ended up with this little set of 3 complete cards...

So now, using every stick, bottle and tube of glue I own (except the hot glue gun and bottle of gorilla glue), I am going back to good old fashioned elmer's glue. It seems to never go bad and always works on my corners...

Sometimes I wonder why the simplest thing from when I was a kid always takes me the longest to discover again as an adult?

Too many posies!

I've been thinking of buying a corner punch for some time, but haven't just because they are kind of pricey and I don't make all that many cards... besides, until now, I have insisted on all of my cards having square corners with patterns of squares and rectangles on the front. While buying a rounded corner punch, I found this punch on sale, so bought it, too.
So, after sitting for hours in my craft room, I have approximately 300 pale and dark pink posies. Sure, that was a little bit overboard and I didn't really need to mow my knee-high grass or weed the gardens or clean the house...Now, what to do with my too many posies while still avoiding all chores?

More rainbows...

Continuing with my rainbow theme from yesterday.... I have now organized my paper scraps into a pretty little rainbow. I was thinking I was almost out of my paper scraps last week, so when out shopping I bought 2 more packs of scrap cardstock. I was surprised because the paper from Walmart was better than the paper from an actual arts and craft store. Normally, the cardstock scrap packs at Walmart are about 80% carstock and the rest is just regular paper. I was severly disappointed in the other package (I wish I had kept the packaging so I would know the brand) - maybe 1 in 10 pieces of paper were actually card stock versus colored printer paper. Nothing against Walmart, but normally I like to think that the smaller guy has better quality - just not this time.

Creating rainbows

I have a lot of satin ribbon scraps and was having trouble keeping them flat (I kept getting wrinkles in them no matter how I rolled them, folded them around a small pillow, etc, etc). I thought I had this brilliant idea by hanging them all on a hanger in color order, but this has turned out not to be the best tool...
For the first couple of days, the hanger looked perfect - like a beautiful rainbow of my colorful ribbons. Now my hanger is sagging in the middle and all of the thicker ribbon has slid to the middle, ruining my pretty rainbow.

I guess I need to try this again with two hangers or come upwith another way to store the ribbon.