Covered Easter egg challenge

As part of the Etsy Cottage Style community we have periodic Creativity Challenges. The most recent challenge was covering eggs.

Below is my entry as well as a short tutorial on how I made them.....

 Starting with a wire basket I found at a thrift shop...I loved the handle! 

 I used styrofoam eggs, and used pinking shears to cut lots of fabric strips.

I prefer to use Fabric-Tac glue, it seems to work the best.

 Starting at the top of egg glue 2 strips in a "X" fashion

Then work the next strips overlapping until egg is completely covered.

I also used snippets of lace and crochet on some of the eggs. 

Added some raffia to the basket and viola!

Shabby Eggs~~

I am joining in on the  party below 

Cottage Craft Room party February

 

http://etsycottagestyle.blogspot.com

For this month's party I thought I would share the Calling card/Business card cases I have been creating!
I just finished 40 and I mean FORTY of these to be inserted into Boutique Bags for Shabby Lane Shops booth at the Nashville Southern Women's Show in April.
So here we go with some pics....these are super simple to make and fun to decorate. They make great gifts too!

August in my Cottage Garden

It was overcast this morning, so a great photo opportunity in my garden. Every year, I take photos and with a cottage garden, it amazing how things change and come and go, only to reappear a couple summers later. Below is a picture of my half moon garden. The tree in the corner is a Lollipop Crabapple, it is dwarf so it is a perfect addition to the cottage garden.

 You can click on any of the pics for full size

To frame the garden, we collected boulders for the last 6 years, many we found at the farm across the road.

The hollyhocks put on quite a show this year. I started with one plant from the nursery marked "mixed". It was white the first year, then the next I had burgandy. Since then, I get several shades of pink too. I love the surprise they bring. I just let them reseed naturally...along with everything else!

In the back, are "Kiss me over the Garden Gate" They are not booming yet--that will be a new post in a couple weeks, The daylilies will need to be divided this fall, they did not bloom well this year.

Amongst the coreopsis, one of my favorite features, a shepherds hook with a watering can appearing to be pouring into the bird bath. I have actually put large chunks of ice in the can when we have outdoor parties. The water slowly trickles into the birdbath. I just finished adding some heirloom Balsam seedlings for some end of August color.

My most prized clematis! Betty Corning . She never disappoints me. She spreads her wings and blooms all summer lovely little lavender blue bells.

This is one of my newer small gardens in another part of the property, I have a young Eden rose and a butterfly bush in back. I am hoping for a spectacular show next summer.

I hope you enjoyed this tour, cottage gardening is one of my passions and I love to share.

 AND

 

Serious Chocolate indeed

We just completed a fun fine chocolate swap over at  

Etsy Cottage Style ning.

We had to send our partner fine quality chocolate, preferably something locally made.

My partner was Anita from Somers, Montana. 

She sent me local 4 handmade chocolate Truffles and chocolate heart. Some creamy Lindor truffles too. I have to tell you that I snapped these pics quick, because as I am writing this post I have already eaten two of them~and I must say they were EXQUISITE.

want to know what I sent to Anita???

I was so excited to be able to share something 

made in Oregon

Moonstruck Chocolates~

If any of you remember Oprah named these as one of her favorites too

what a fun swap!

Vintage Alphabet Party December

It's the last party of the year!

Etsy Cottage Style Blog

The last letters of the alphabet Y and Z

For Y, I choose vintage fabric Yo Yo's. these became popular back in the 1930's and 1940's. Little fabric rosettes shirred into circles. They were most often made into quilts. They were popular again in the 1970's when they were fashioned into "hippie vests". In the mid 90's, patterns were introduced and more recently plastic templates became available making them extremely easy to make. 

I love to use them in my textile art too. Here are a couple examples of past work.

For the letter Z, I chose (and yes I am dating myself here)

Led Zeppelin

mid 1970's rock group one of my faves back in the day

so how's that for throwing something unexpected in?

Wasn't a Zeppelin also a blimp??

Hope you enjoyed...if you want to join our party, hop over to

Etsy Cottage Style Blog for details

The vintage alphabet party for September

Oh my this month slid by fast.....but it is time for the Etsy Cottage Style blog Vintage Alphabet party!

This month the letters are P,Q, and R. The P and R were easy, the Q not so much. I have a vintage quilt I wanted to show, but it is in our motorhome, and guess what, the motorhome is in the shop this week. So please pardon that I didn't include that letter.

To start with I choose to use a group of words to the letters....P--- for Pink stuff such as, Purse, Perfume bottle, Plate and Pillow. All of these things are or include something vintage and are handmade.

Next would be the letter R. So how about Red for Retro, Ruffles, and Roses!

Won't you join us to show up your vintage P, Q, and R stuff? Pop over to the Etsy Cottage Style Blog for more info!

Vintage Alphabet Party June

hosted by Etsy Cottage Style Blog

For the month of June, the challenge was to find something vintage that began with the letters I, J, and/or K

Certainly got me thinking---I came up with JARDIN which is French for garden, and ended being able to use all three letters!

Since many of my digital creations from vintage Images include French words, and I create lots of Keepsake pillows, and repurpose vintage Jewelry in designing them..here are a few examples

hope you enjoyed! this was so fun~