Twyla on Tuesday

Hello dear friends!    You guys are the best!

You were so sweet to me last week when I was feeling so guilty about my hoarding issues.

Because you were so understanding and appreciate my collections, I'll share a few of my

lastest treasures.  This Little Miss Muffet is from 1943 and by Napco.  I think she is pretty rare.

No sticker left on this one so I don't know who her maker is, but she was too

cute to pass up ;) and I hoard planters, you know.

This prettly little girl in blue is by Lefton and is also a planter.

This is a little drawer I've used as a shelf to display some of my thrifted finds

and flea market goodies.  Aren't the colors yummy?

I have such a passion for old prints and really have to fight my addiction to them.

This one is in such a beautiful wooden frame.

This is such a lovely lady in a beautifully carved wooden frame that I picked up

for a song.  Don't you love that saying?  If I'd had to sing for it, I don't

think they would have let me had it :(

One of the features that I used to love in Where Women Create is the interview with different artists.

The question that always fascinates me most is 'How old would you be if you did not know

how old you were?' 

I've pondered this question a lot myself.  I am thinking I could be very happy

being 40.  As much as I dreaded turning that age, I really consider that to be the beginning of

a great period in my life.  I'd just lost 100 lbs. and was feeling better than I ever had, had a great family and

and soon to buy our first home.  Creativity has always been in my life from a very young age, but I

began exploring different mediums then.  I painted murals, took up scrapbooking and rediscovered my

love for crochet.

Yes, 40 I shall be!

How old would you be?!

Have a wonderful day, my dears!

Twyla

Saturday Images

Happy Saturday, dear friends!

We hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing,

your day will be filled with joy and happiness.

These two vintage cards are from our collection and you are

welcome to use and enjoy them.

Have a beautiful day!

Twyla and Lindsey

Barbie Wednesday

Hello friends!

Today I am sharing with you Avon Exclusive Barbies.

These dolls were available exclusively through Avon catalogs. The first Avon Barbie came out in 1996. She was called, Spring Blossom Barbie.

The next doll to be released by Avon was the Winter Velvet Barbie also from 1996. The first in a series of Winter themed dolls.

This Barbie inspired today's post as I just added her to my collection Monday! Still in her original box, she was a great thrift store find!

One of my favorite Avon Barbies is the Winter Rhapsody Barbie, which came out in 1997. I loved playing with her! She is the second in the Winter Theme collection.

Although this was an Avon Exclusive, it was sold by K-B Toy Liquidators for a reduced price and a Winter Rhapsody Sticker covered the Avon label.

In 1998, Avon released the Winter Splendor Barbie. She is a lovely doll! I have always thought she was one of the prettiest Barbies!

Also in 1998, came the Spring Tea Party Barbie. This doll also had been sold by K-B Toys with a sticker covering the Avon label.

Several more Avon Barbies were released over the years, but my favorite of all is this Timeless Silhouette Barbie from 2000. I adore the vintage style Ponytail Barbies across her dress!

This lovely Victorian Tea Barbie from 2006 by Avon must find it's way into my collection someday! I love her! She is so pretty!

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the Barbies created for Avon!

In 1 week from today you will start to see my work on October Afternoon's blog!! Yay! I can't wait to share with you all the projects that I created!

Starting September 1st I will be the Guest Designer! I am so excited! It was such a treat to get to work with all their lovely paper! My favorite new release from October Afternoon is the Modern Homemaker Line! It's dreamy!!!!!!

You can visit their website to see pictures of the new release!!!

You will also be seeing lots of projects featuring this lovely collection because it's all I want to work with!

I didn't have any of the cute stickers or embellishments from this line to play with while creating and as you can see they came out with beautiful stickers and even matching buttons!!! I can't wait to get those too!

The Modern Homemaker line will begin shipping to stores at the end of September! I can hardly wait to get more!

Wishing you all a lovely day, Lindsey

Twyla on Tuesday

Dear Friends, I have a confession to make.

I am a hoarder.  I know this may not come as a surprise to some of you,

but it has just become apparent to me.

I have happily been collecting most of my life all the things I love and never

once realized there was anything wrong with this.  I opened my newspaper this week to

be confronted by an article on hoarding. 

It was an eye opener!

"Hoarders are reluctant to reveal it. They are embarrassed by it but don't want to seek

treatment,"  it read.  Well, I am revealing it and I am not even embarrassed!  "Hoarding is considered a

mental disorder although whether it's a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder is up for debate."  Sheesh!

These people are rough!

I was guilty of the seven signs of a compulsive hoarder.  And I thought I just loved to

collect cute stuff!   My collections are dear to me and as long as it's not interferring with my quality of

life or my family's then I think I'm okay.  It is in the deepest fabric of my being to want

to collect things.  I can't help it, does that make me mental?

On the upside, it did say that 'hoarders shouldn't be confused with slobs or people who collect things.'

Then why did this article make me feel so guilty?

I refuse to believe that I have a mental disorder or am in denial.

Okay, maybe.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing these pictures of some of my collections and don't think ill of me

for having them.  I hope that many of you will understand my joy of collecting and maybe share

in it, too!

Collecting has been my great extravagance.  It's a way of being.  I collect for the

same reason I eat too much-I'm one of nature's shoppers. - Howard Hodgkin

Have a lovely day!

Twyla

Pink Puppy

Hello friends!

Do you recognize this cute little pink puppy?

It is the one that sits atop our banner!

We had the good fortune to win Imagimeri's giveaway and she let us pick

any image we wanted to turn into a three dimensional sculpture.

 

We thought how great to have our cute little mascot from our banner!

Meri did such a wonderful job turning him into a real puppy!

He is so cute!

Meri sells her sculptures in her etsy shop if you'd like to have one of her creations,

too!  Thank you, Meri, we love him!

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Twyla and Lindsey

More Inspiration!

Hello friends!

Today I wanted to share a few more photos from my recent trip to Chicago for CHA!

One of the lines that I was most anxious to get was the Togetherness line by Cosmo Cricket! 

Here is a photo from the Cosmo Cricket Booth showing ATC cards created using the Togetherness line.

I  can happily say this was the first line to arrive at the scrapbook store where I work! I am going to have fun playing with this line!

Another booth that I was excited to find was the Crafty Secrets booth. They sell beautiful vintage style stamps, stickers and creative scraps!

One of our blog friends, Julie of A Vintage Chic, is on their design team and I was excited to go see her lovely work in person!

One of my favorite displays at the show was from Melissa Frances. This beautiful old green door was so pretty!

This Halloween Mannequin from the Girls Paperie booth was very inspiring!

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The Graphic 45 booth was amazing, definitely the best, very detailed and lots of lovely altered projects!

Most of my photos were taken on this one side because every afternoon of the show, Graphic 45 would have a giveaway. I had to be one of the first 10 people in line to be a part of it. So every day I would stand in line for about 2 hours by their booth so that I could win a full paper pack from one of their newest collections. 

One of their new lines is called, Steampunk Debutante. It's a very cool victorian line filled with clock faces and gears. So all the employees at the booth were dressed in cool victorian costumes!

After the CHA Trade show was over we headed across the convention center, where they had another area ready for us to set up a booth for the CHA Super Show which was open to the public. It was an exhausting 2 days filled with doing make n takes and demos!

 I was teaching this lady how to use alcohol inks on pill bottles to create lovely needle cases, when I had my picture taken unknown by me! 

Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing my trip! I've been so busy creating since I've been back!

I will have lots to show soon!

Have a lovely day, Lindsey

Barbie Wednesday

Hello Friends!

Today I wanted to share with you a wonderful flea market find that I discovered last week!

A Twist and Turn Barbie! I knew she had to come home with me as soon as I saw her on the shelf, and for only $4.00, she was definiely a steal! She also looks to be in fairly good shape. Just needs a little love and a pretty new outfit and she will stand happily with my others!

I wish that I had more photos of her in my vintage dresses to show you, but I have been SUPER busy these past two weeks, working on my Guest Designer projects for October Afternoon!

Mom has hardly seen me at all, as I have been working like mad in the craft room!

I cannot wait to show you all what I have been creating!

It's been so much fun! I love all their new releases!

One of my favorite projects was created using the "Schoolhouse" line!

You can visit their website here, to see all the pretty patterns included in the Schoolhouse collection.

Wishing you all a crafty day, Lindsey

Twyla on Tuesday

Hello dear friends!

Since my birthday I have been sharing some of the postcards

that I received as gifts.  Today I wanted to share with you the
awesome old postcard album that I was given.

It has a beautiful worn leather cover.

This is on the inside front cover.

As I've said before, to me these old cards are enduring endearments.

The affection that people felt for one another lingers on in these aged cards.

A poem on one of them reads:

These messages of happiness

Greet you on joyful wing;

May their pure joy lodge in your heart,

And always, always sing.

On the back of one it says, 'Dear Sister, oh it is so hot here.  Why don't you ever send me a postcard

I get so lonely.'  It was from May 1909.  It seems sad to me that all the hopes, dreams and

lives of these people have already passed.  I enjoy hanging onto their small pieces of history.

Another one from 1910 says, 'Well Florence how are you?  We have not forgotten your

little puttering footsteps.  Love to all.  Marion.'  They didn't have to say a lot, just a jot

to let others know they were thinking of them.

Sending postcards were very popular in the early 1900's and very popular for people to

collect even then.  I suppose that is why there are still so many around over 100 years later.

So sad that now our endearments are mostly emailed or texted and will suffer the 'delete'

button.  No beautiful graphics or handwritten correspondence.  I

am so thankful though, that we have blogs today and that I can have friends all over the

country and the world.  That warms my heart and I really appreciate each and evey

one of you!

Wishing you all much happiness!

Twyla