Hazel's Vintage Pretties

Vignettes

Hi y'all...Today I thought I'd write a little about one great way to use your creativity, and to express your personality in your home.  I'm referring to creating "vignettes" in your home.  You are actually creating little scenes, with the different things you own and love. 
      Pictured with this post is a photo of one vignette in my front hallway (You could call it a foyer, but that's a bit too fancy a word for my front hallway)...I put together three items, because things look best when displayed in odd numbers.  They include a bird nest, a rubber stamp featuring a bird, and a branch with vintage millinery.  The displays/scenes you do work best if they are connected by a theme of some kind. 
     They can be connected by category, color, purpose (bottle caps would be one, but I don't recommend it :)   Have fun and play with this idea.  Lay out a number of your possessions, and see what goes together.  Make sure you're dealing with items you love, or you won't love the vignette. 
     This brings up an important point...Someone once said, be sure that everything in your home is either beautiful (to you), or useful (hopefully both).  If you're holding onto a bunch of stuff that you don't even like anymore, or never did (gifts?), let them go!!  Don't throw them in the trash (unless they really deserve to go there)...Donate them to a local thrift shop/charity, where someone who does love them can adopt them.  Have fun!...Please send me photos of your vignettes!...Katie  PS  I added another photo up above, of a little wedding vignette I did awhile back. 

Shop Update...Flirty, Fun Aprons and More...

    

    

 

Hi y'all...Hope you had a nice Easter Sunday.  I promised a shop update, so here it is...I've added some fun items to my website.  I've made a couple of fun and flirty aprons.  The one pictured in this post has some gorgeous, flirtatious cowgirls, and the other one has some beautiful, flirty pin up girls.  When I do fairs, these are always top sellers...Even the husbands, who usually show no interest in my booth, notice these! lol 
     I've also added some new headbands, which I hope you like.  The girls in my 8 year old daughter's class all wanted one, when they saw my daughter wearing one, so I made them each one.  It's fun to see them wearing them to school.  Hope you are all well, and taking time to take care of yourselves...Talk soon, Katie

No Regrets...(Well, maybe one or two)

I love to attend estate sales...Well, let me amend that... I enjoy the part after you've been admitted to the home...I don't care for the competitiveness from the dealers...Once I'm in a home filled with someone else's life (most likely another woman's life), I love to respectfully see what she collected, made, kept over a lifetime.
     I've become more picky about what I buy at estate sales, and just in general.  Perhaps it's because I'm nearly forty~five now, but I think more carefully about what I want to bring to my home to live with me. I always ask the name of the person who owned an item that I purchase...I have things all over my home, whose previous owners' names are in my head...Dorothy's desk, Grace's headboard from the 1930's, Joan's desk, Marie's handmade quilt, Hazel's doll (that one belonged to my grandmother, so it's easy to remember!), etc.
     I don't have too many regrets about things I left behind, but I do have one that stands out.  In the photo with this post, is an old cupboard that I purchased at an estate sale.  It's one of my favorite pieces, if not my very favorite.  It's got matching glass doors on the front and the back...It's painted the perfect color yellow, which is a color I don't usually like, but this is the perfect hue.  The gentleman I purchased it from, told me that it was his Mother's, and she used to put her canned (home canned, in those wonderful blue jars) goods in it.  What's my regret?  There were two of these cupboards.  I was trying to be responsible with my budget, and I bought only one.  At the time, it seemed important to be careful about spending, but I can't tell you how many times I've wondered where the other one went, and wished I had purchased it. (In case you'd like to know, I paid $140.00 for the one) Kind of silly, I suppose.  I know that people are much more important than things, don't worry.  It's just that I do tend to attach my emotions to some of my things, and I wish I'd kept the two lovely cupboards together. 
     Enough of that now...Back to my aprons and headbands!  I will have a shop update in the next couple of days...I'm going to put some new headbands on my site, made from some swell fabrics (Really, one of the fabrics is from a line called "Swell"...and a tea (half) apron made from a fabulous fabric with pin~up girls (love 'em!), and big pink hearts...Talk soon, Katie

PS I think if you click on my photos, you will see a larger image.

New Kitchen Curtains

Hi everyone...Well, after putting up with kitchen curtains I didn't like, for two years (too dark)...I finally allowed myself time to make new ones...There's some kind of strange mind blip that happens with me, in regards to sewing things for myself...Perhaps because I sew for a living, I feel guilty about taking the time to do things for my own place...I don't know what the deal is, but I'm trying to take time to do projects for my home, along with my business projects...Anyway, pardon the poor quality of the photo...The camera said "backlight", but I didn't know how to correct it.  Talk next time...Katie

Furry Friends and Such

Hi all...Well, I'm very excited, because I've had my first comment left on one of my blog posts!  (Thanks, Jalal...I was starting to feel a little lonely here in blogland:)
     This is a photo of my sweet little cat "Goldie".  We adopted her from a local animal rescue outfit, twelve years ago.  We were trying to decide on a name for the little cutie, and my then 5 year-old son, Andy, said he wanted to name her "Goldie."...I told him that I had already had two cats named "Goldie".  He thought about it for a minute, then said, "I have something to say...I've never had a cat named Goldie"...Well, he had me!  That boy is always right, I tell you!
     Goldie sleeps right next to my husband at night...I call her his girlfriend...We had lots of cats when I was growing up...We never ever went out to get one...My mom would leave piles of cat food on the front porch, and cats would come and stay...We had seven at one point!

     One of the things I love most about animals, is how they just come into your life unexpectedly sometimes.  I've had many furry friends that have belonged to my neighbors...My current list includes "Joe" and "Louie"...Two little rascals that have stolen my heart, along with my catnip.  "Joe" is a big, muscular kitty, with the meow of a small kitten..."Louie" will run full speed across my back yard to see me, and then act like he doesn't know I'm there once he's within a foot of me...Such an actor!

      Well, I hope you all are having a good day...Talk soon, Katie
   PS I'm working on some cute headbands in some fun fabrics...I will try to post photos on my next entry...I will try to put them on my website too, in case anyone is interested...K