Altered Dress
ntagMy obsession for vintage items makes me go a long way.
Lately, I have decided to alter a few items to give a personal look to them.
This is an antique doll’s dress where I added a vintage photo, buttons and laces.
The photo was printed on a special fabric that goes in the ink-jet, allowing it to be sewn on the dress.
Buttons, notions and beads are part of my vintage collection.
Aged Photos
My friends, I have to tell you a secret….shhhhhh…..blogging makes me happy.
I wake up every day looking at the day ahead of me, imagining what kind of special treasures It would bring to my life and how exciting would be sharing it with YOU!
My new thing is finding enough time on the day where I can accomplish mother, wife, worker and artist taks, without getting frustraded.
I decided to invest some of this time on learning how to manipulate pictures, to get the effects I want on the fastest way and of course learning from the PRO – Mr. Gorgeous!
I am now using Lightroom and these are the results of aging my wedding pictures!
Quick Craft
This weekend was Mr. Gorgeous brithday celebration and as you might know, I had no time to do any special craft or decoration, but I really wanted at least to decorate the party room with something that would reflect Mr. Gorgeous mood.
I have seen a lot of artisans making flags out of scrap material and sewing them together on fabric strings, so I adapted this technique.
I had no time to sew so, I cut the scrap material with a VVVVVVVV scissor (what is the name of the scissor that cuts in zig zags so the fabric tread doesn’t run?) and stapled them on a long piece of sisal.
They looked beautiful and very festive.
Here they are!
Catching up…
Wow, it has been almost eight days since I had the pleasure of sitting and writing to you.
Last week was totally crazy.
Mr. Gorgeous turned 50!
Of course, all the duties came to the awesome wife here, so we got a few friends together and had a blast.
Meanwhile, I took some pictures and the following ones are from a friend’s studio – KIM SNYDER STUDIO.
There are more to come, but I really like these ones.
Have fun!
Where my heart lies…
Today, I took my son to his play group at Mulberry Waldorf School.
In addition to normal school schedule, they have a program called Parents and Tots, where parents go to spend time with their children, watch them playing and make art.
This is a Waldorf oriented school, following the steps of Rudolf Steiner.
Waldorf philosophy is based upon the belief that children learn different things best at certain stages of development when their spirituality, intellect and physical capabilities are in tune with the information presented to them. This phylosophy places a strong emphasis on non competition, respect for nature and other human beings. Children are strongly encouraged to develop their creativity to the fullest and to think for themselves critically as individuals.
My daughter went through Kindergarten under this system and I cannot imagine having a better start for my little ones other than teaching them the basis of life, respect, responsability.
I took a few pictures of the classroom to share with you and to give you an example of why it feels so good to be there!
Here is an invitation. Find the nearest Waldorf School to you and make a point of visiting, even if you don’t have a child. You will see the gates to beautiful hearts being open to you!
wishing start too…
Maybe a little tea…
Peter Rabbit comes to see you…
The forest Gnomes too…
inviting you come in and play…
How Does Your Garden Grow?
I grew up with my mother saying that gardening requires a good hand and green fingers!
I always thought the expression a little bit odd and always wonder if I had that kind of fingers.
Living my whole life in big city, I mean BIG city (Rio de Janeiro has now close to 9 million people), the closest I could get to a garden was a little flower container on my window sill, which would end up being neglected due to lack of time.
Canadian life proved to me that I could grow my own food and today, Dante and I proved to my mom that a bit of love, water and sun make your garden grow.
This is the first batch of radishes I harvest this year. Dante could not hold his excitement as he was the first one to pull it out of the ground!
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.
Inner Peace
I couldn’t resist on posting this explanation of inner peace. It sounds more difficult that it seems, but if you put yourself out side of the problems, you will see an easier path to follow.
Inner Peace
If we want to transform our life and be free from problems we must learn to transform our mind.
When things go wrong in our life and we encounter difficult situations we tend to regard the situation itself as the problem, but in reality whatever problems we experience come from the mind. If we were to respond to difficulties with a positive or peaceful mind they would not be problems for us; indeed we may even come to regard them as challenges or opportunities for growth and development. Problems arise only if we respond to situations with a negative state of mind. Therefore, if we want to transform our life and be free from problems we must learn to transform our mind. Sufferings, problems, worries, unhappiness, and pain all exist within our mind; they are all unpleasant feelings, which are part of the mind. Through controlling and purifying our mind we can stop them once and for all.
Let’s hope the light invades our lives and a clear path comes right in front of us!
Busy Times!
It is spring time and for Canadians this means a lot of work!
We have to lay vegetables in the garden in time, trim bushes, separate plants, spring cleaning the house, check kids clothes for the ones don’t fit them anymore, open the cottage, clean the mice mess left from the winter time, cut the grass, plant more grass, and get rid of spider webs! Gosh, they are everywhere!
On top of that, I always want to find time to put some art in our lives.
A few friends have been dropping unwanted scrap fabrics at my house and this is what I’ve been working on.
De-cluttering
People who know me would tell you how obsessed I am with organization. I can’t walk in to a cluttered room without doing something about it.
Some of my friends often use this so called OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) in their favor and I like that. It makes me feel good looking at their amazed faces after a few hours of work and organization skills put in practice.
However, this weekend the OCD hit my studio. Laces, buttons and fabrics were getting on my nerves. They were everywhere. I can’t imagine producing anything while the chaos lives right beside me!
I had found a few antique jars and decided to incorporate them into my studio decor.
They look pretty elegant on my shelf now.
Have a great week!
Gardening Weekend
Princess Victoria’s birthday, the busiest weekend for canadian gardeners.
The green houses were packed with people coming from everywhere to get the good deals on vegetables and plants
That’s it! No more frost danger and with the warm weather, vegetables can safely go in the garden and plants can stay outside overnight.
I went to Burt’s Greenhouses in Odessa, very organized, plants in very good condition, I highly recommend it.
Burt’s has 4 of this size green houses to choose from, amazing space!
Just a little angel’s kiss to bring good luck to your garden!
Jam Jar Decor
One of my favorite magazines, Somerset LIFE, put a challenge for ideas regarding dressing canning jars up to give as a gift.
I realized that all the decorations I have seen are usually wrapping the top of the lid and I always felt bad about deconstructing them to taste some of the delicious jams.
So for my decor I decided to create a sleeve for the jars that can be taken off anytime you want, and put back with ease.
They are made out of scrap fabric, laces, buttons and a little bit of glue.
I know that I will be hiding the beauty of the jams, but who likes to see the jar getting empty? I don’t!
Enjoy!
My Mother’s Day.
Sunday morning was very cold, but nonetheless, I woke up early and got ready for my day.
I had a coffee and left the house at 8 am.
Where I went?
Yard sale hunt! I specifically wanted to go back to Harrowsmith, where I found this hidden house with very interesting stuff, but a lot of the tables for the yard sale were covered with a tarp because Saturday was a rainy day, so I decided check out on Sunday to see what was hidden underneath!
As I arrived, the owner told me to grab a card box and fill with as many things I could and pay only 5 dollars for it!
What a bargain! This is what I gathered.
Metal handles,
set the table beautifully
and placed a special gift she made for her Nana.
My love made me awesome crab legs with garlic bread (isn’t he gorgeous?!)
and my little boy gave me lots of “huggys and kisses” (mini gorgeous)!
I couldn’t ask for anything more!
What I am up to…
Eat, that is what makes me move!
I was never a kitchen person.
I grew up having lots of people cooking for me and just the idea of reading any recipe book would instantly give me headaches.
I always found ingredients and how-to’s very complicated.
When the recipe called for “put aside” kind of stuff, I would just close the book.
That’s it! I will have to find someone to make that recipe for me.
And I used to find good friends who would even bake an awesome cake for me so I could entertain my boy friends and take the credits for it! Yes, I know, terrible but I did it!
Anyway, moving to Canada brought a lot of good things to my life and one of them was learning with my husband and mother-in-law that being in the kitchen and cooking could be fun too.
I am still in high-school stages on this journey, but certainly don’t get scared with recipe words anymore.
My latest kick is introducing dried food to my diet.
I bought a food dehydrator and the kids and I have been having a lot of fun cutting apples, bananas and other “experiments”.
They look gorgeous after dried and inside of a beautiful glass jar is an awesome addition to the kitchen shelf.
Reading Stuff
A few friends have been asking where do I get some of my creative and gardening ideas.
Well, there is a bunch of magazines around, very well written and with eye candy pictures.
My favorites are the ones published by Stampington & Company and I am constantly being inspired by them.
Somerset LIFE, Somerset Studio, Artful Blogging, Art Journaling are some of my favorites.
What Is Going On …
So, spring is here and with it, the life is back to my garden.
My hostas are coming up,
My Symphony!
I read this symphony on a blog another day (Flea52) and made me curious about this person’s life.
THE THOUGHT–
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common–this is my symphony.
WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING.
Country Driving
Since I moved to Kingston, Canada, my favorite thing to do is driving through the country side and finding new places to visit.
One day I bumped into this charming antique building by the main road in Candem East – The Bookstore Cafe.
The store is filled with old books, antiques and the also serve the best soup and sandwich ever! Three floors packed with everything you can possibly imagine. Art, furniture, linens, crystals, jewellery and of course, tea cups!
The owner is trying to sell the business, so they are having a 50% off store wide.
I ended up buying a few books and a charming silver candle holder.
Flower Dream
A friend of mine, showed me a craft magazine called Green Crafts, I believe it was from the last month.
They featured an article teaching how to make flowers out of scrap material.
I made one and next week the kids from Central Public School and I will be making it as a gift for Mother’s day.
To The Queen!
Have I told you that I am totally obsessed with tea cups?
It all started when we received two non matching tea cups as a wedding gift.
Now, I have a collection that keeps growing and as I say, If the Queen of England, one day, decides to visit my house, I will not be shy and will serve her with my elegant tea set!
