YAPPING CAT STUDIO

More Thoughts of Christmas

Thank you all so much for your kind words regarding the magazine.  And yes peeps around town do keep volunteering to slap me (thanks Sis).  And well, now my mind is a whirl with Christmas ideas and colors. 

Every year, about this time, I drive Sister crazy.  (For those that don't know, she's not my REAL Sister...just my BFF and shop/booth partner).  Yep, I drive her nuts, cause I get one color combo stuck in my head and that is what I like to do for Christmas.

Last year it was pink, brown and red with a dash of gold!  Very vintage and elegant.

And the year before that, very daring indeed.  We went with Black and Silver for Christmas.  Yeah, I know, some thought we were out there.  But seeing as how Curious Sofa is doing this this year, well, we are actually feeling a little smug about it now.  Hee, hee hee.  Yeah.

All of this leads me to THIS year.  Do you really want to know what is in my head?  Probably not.  But too bad.  Here it is:

 

Color!  Glorious Color!  Saturated, carnival fun, color.

 

I stumbled upon this Mother Lode of vintage Christmas goodies at an Estate Sale on Thursday.  Well, not literally...cause then I would have broke em. But there they were in bags.  On a shelf.  I won't tell you the price, cause it was dirt cheap and you would cry like a little girl.  Yep.  You would. 

But I think I spotted em cause for days now, "this" has been stuck in my head.

 

and this.

 

Isn't it fun? 

 

And I know I'm not doing anything new.  Heck, I've seen it here and oh, it's wonderful here.  And exceptionally wonderful here.   But I think when I saw it all here. well, it just congealed in my head.  And now it won't leave. 

I don't know...we will see.  I'm thinking candy canes and birdies.  Paper lanterns and cotton candy.  Asian emblems and Christmas tinsel.  We will just have to see how it all works out.  I'm sure Sis will be thrilled.  Not.  At the very least, well, we might just re-visit black and silver.  LOL.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

ADD + Monday = Nothing Done

Thank you all for your sweet comments regarding my post on my Mom.  And while I usually don't blog on things quite that personal, it was good therapy to tell you about her.  And to remember her in that way.  Thank you again for all your sweet comments.  It helped with the missing. 

Today has been a typical Monday.  And I've run around hither and dither.  Getting nothing accomplished.  Seems to be my MO lately.  Not even White Chocolate Cappuccino helps me to focus.  ADD?  Beginning to think so. 

*sigh* Did this pile of stuff make it to kit status today as it was supposed to?  Uh, no. 

Did any of these get magnets glued upon the back?  Uh, no.

What did I do all day you ask?  As will my hubby in about two hours?  I have not the foggiest, I say.  I know I wrestled with Etsy for over a few hours this morning.  Breezed through blogs, sans commenting, which I hate to do.  I did run the Orek about a bit.   And cleaned the guest bathroom.  But sorry Tee, you might be snoozing on the same sheets as last time, minus the chocolates on the pillow.   LOL.  Well perhaps I can at least get some dinner fixed. 

Oh well, its Monday.  Apparently a...

Happy (ADD, that's me!) Monday.

In the Pink

As promised.  More pics of my biz partners (otherwise known as Sister ), whose real name happens to be Sherri, and my booth.  Inspiration came in the form of an old New Years Eve post card.  So we decided to go with shades of pink, brown and soft red.  But I think it is more pink than anything. 

Here's the inspiring post card (in a cute little birdie pic frame).

Lovely pink ornaments.

And brown transfer ware.  And gold signs that say, "joy". 

Cool old hat boxes.  And little angels.

Lots of pink.

Lots and lots of pink.  For a perfectly pink Saturday. 

Let's do some shopping!

In my booth.  LOL.  Seems like it's been ages since I've shown you anything down at the booth.  Mainly, because it has been on the back burner and I have not had time (or inclination to get out in the heat) to go junkin.  So stock is thin.  But I went down this morning and re-arranged and put a few new things in.  Which is always good for business.

Isn't there just something so cute about red and turquoise together?.  This is our little "kitchen" area, which has a little bit of everything in it right now.  But it's very bright and fun.

This is Sis's dress form.  She's been in the window for awhile, I thought she needed to come in out of the heat and wear some crown goodies for a change.  To her right is a little garden area full of bird cages, that's were all the new fairy goodies will go.  When I get the finished.

This is our little "bakery" area.  Which also needs a wee bit more product.  I've got more cupcake art to take up.  And I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of these.  Won't they be cute piled high on that cake stand?  I can hardly wait.  I was so glad that Lynne was receptive to my offer of putting them in the booth and that she did not think I was a crazy person.  Out to rip off her cupcakes.  LOL.  I will post more pics when they come in.  And Tootsies.  Yes, I sell Tootsies.  Quite a bit of Tootsies. 

This is our little "paper" area, for tags, cards, covered books and such.  Isn't that piece cool that is holding the tags and quilted birdies?  Wish is was mine, but it's the stores.  May have to consider purchasing.  LOL. 

Here's a tall shot!  Don't ya love that bunch of "stuff" on top?  It's a Fun Fringe table cloth.  LOL.  I just think it is the coolest.  I'm a sucker for Fun Fringe.

Is this hutch not the best color in the world?  It's such a perfect shade of Robin's egg blue.  Which made it a spectacular piece to showcase all our birdie stuff. 

Here's a close up shot of some of the goods.

And what do you think of this?  Gotta love this gal. I know I do.  Her art is sassy and whimsical and fun.  She told me that one of her customers has a wall of Pam.  I have a "door" of Pam.  LOL. 

Ain't she just too cute?  I have a hard time deciding which are my favorite ones.  Heck, I just love em all.  They are too fun.  This is my second batch and I'm thinking, I really probably do not have enough on hand.  Oh Pam?  LOL.

Well, that concludes the tour of mine and Sis's booth space.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Have a great and safe weekend.

"Charming Gardener", the booth version

*** Edited to add - my text is out of place, LOL.  I don't know what I've done, but no matter how many times I change it, it keeps rolling back to this.  So, bear with me.  But I think you'll get the idea.  Gah, I hate computers.  LOL. 

I wanted to add live ivy...but figured would be a pain to deal with, so I just did some fake plants and pots of flower's (but look real don't they?). And Target had some cute gloves and garden markers, so I threw those in as well for color and to give it an overall garden feel.

Here's the beaker collection. On top of the cake stand. I tied all the beakers together with a little garland that says "garden". I think the beakers make the cutest little bud vases. I like 'em grouped together. Would make a fun table center-piece.  I basically stole that idea from Laurie Anna's booth over in Canton.  Well, she didn't use the beakers, she used little flower vase, with cool old fashioned-tags that spelled out "Bloom".  Aren't the fake flowers cool?  They look more real in the photo than in person. LOL. 

Well, hope you enjoyed the tour of the front end of the booth.  I've got more goods coming.  I'm doing a "Door of Pam".  I've ordered lots of fun, framed prints from Pam at Blog Cabin Fever.   I think those will be so cute on one door (which is our wall really).  I can't hardly wait. 

Thanks for looking and Happy Wednesday!

Finally got my "junkin" goods into my booth. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Green and garden-y. I based it on a theme of the "charming gardener". One of my favorite sayings is this, "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardener's who make our soul's blossom."

I wanted it to have a sunshiny/green garden feel. I'm loving the black and green combo right now, but since the display we had in this spot preveiously was pretty dark and neutral, I wanted a little more color to this one. So I added some golds. Yellow and gold/gold. Like sunflowers.

Here's one of my hand-painted canvases with said-theme.

I was really happy with the way the paper frames turned out.  I have found lots of old metal and tin press door knob plates and I love the way they look on a frame. 

The little gold birds are actually the stores...but a few just happened to find their way into my booth.  Hmmmmm...wonder how that happened?  LOL!

I added an assortment of painted canvases, painted flower pots and embellished frames. I found the little gold birdhouse at Canton and added the word "nest" and the little painted nest.

Sherri brought in some wonderful hand towels and little pots filled with nests.

Is Spring around the corner?

What a difference a day makes.  It was sunny and in the low 70's yesterday and today...well we re-visiting the 40's....brrrrrrr!  It's overcast and rain is coming.  Time for a cup of hot tea or two.  A nice, hot cup of Lemon Zinger always feels like Spring to me.  (And I can't let those Valentine cupcakes go to waste or would that be waist!) 

Speaking of Spring, spent the morning re-merchandising the booth.  I love to re-merchandise and add lots of fun new things.  It's always interesting to me how how just a few changes of goodies can make everything look totally different.

Before:

After:

I concentrated more on greens and little nests this time.  I loved the look, feels like Spring and really fresh.

Burlap, ferns, rusty little birds, green egg soaps and lots of garden signs.  I love Spring. 

I loved those little feather birds..too sweet.  'Cept he has a peeved off look on his face.  LOL.

These Lemon Verbena french soaps smell heavenly.  I love Lemon Verbena.  Smells so fresh.  And one of Sis's beautiful tags.

Here's a close up shot.  The stand is actually an old tea cart on wheels.  I'm surprised it has not sold yet.  It's really cute.

A few warmer tones.  Some more of Sis's tags.

Happy Little Zinnia's.  They always make me smile.  These are some of the best fakes I've ever seen.

Well, hope you enjoyed the booth update.  I'm off to try and get some tags and things of my own created.  It will be the perfect weather to stay inside this weekend and craft, sip tea and eat the rest of those Valentine cupcakes.  LOL.

I hope you have a happy weekend.

Day by day...

...I'm just taking it, day by day.  Some days are harder than others.  My Sweet Hub (many thanks to him for his lovely post about my Mom's passing) was only 11 when his Dad passed away.  He has often said that when it happened, he could not understand why the world did not stop.  While I often nodded in agreement when he told me this, now I fully understand his sentiment.  This would be so much easier if the world would just stop, but I guess that is not going to happen, so we take it day by day.   

I want to thank, each and everyone of you all for the kind words, emails, comments and prayers.  I have been blessed to have so much support and love, here in blog land, and at home.  Truly blessed.  I appreciate each gesture of kindness, of words, prayers, food, cards and calls so much.  A mere thank you does not seem enough.  But, thank you all so much. 

It has also been a great comfort, to retreat to the studio and just "be".  Playing with paper or paints (as of late, paints) seems to help me find a calm center and embrace the quiet.  To concentrate on colors and brush stroke and  to keep my hands busy, seems to ease my mind.  I'm still in "nest" mode, more so now than ever.  I did sneak up to the booth a few nights ago and tucked a few  more things in.

Picture frames, little (re-covered)notebooks, hand-painted flower pots and soft, subtle blues, browns and pinks seem to convey a certain sweetness, but not overly.

Sorry, this pic is kinda jumbled.  That wrought iron "curve" is actually the coolest headboard, so shabby and sweet.  And see those tiny little brown birds on the white plate, so dear.  I'm so tempted to purchase from Sis and display on the plate with some little bird seed.  Or they are just the right size for a mosaic project. 

Burlap.  Who does not love burlap?  You can dress it up or down.  It is just fun.  The store has these, well, bird nests on a stick.  They are too sweet.  I filled a concrete urn with them and then stuck in a few real limbs and clipped paper birds, tags and feathered birds (far right hand corner of pic) with embellished clothespins.  I liked it so much, might have to do one at home.

Thank you all again for such sweet thoughts and prayers and comments.  Helen Keller said, "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the night". 

Thank you friends, for walking with me in the dark.

Before we get to the winner of the drawing...I thought you might like to see a few pics that I've taken with the NEW cam.  Oh man, this little thing is so much fun.   I love having a really great cam. 

Here's our (Sister and mine) booth over at work.   And for those that don't know, no, she's not REALLY my Sister, but when we worked together at another store everyone constantly asked if we where and we started calling each other that.  Then the name (much to her unhappiness) stuck on her.  Now everyone in town calls her Sister.  Hee hee.  I love it.  Anyway, she is my BFF and LIKE a sister...so it all works out.  But, I digress.

Anyway, Sister had the colors ofsepia, black and cream rolling around in her head and we both have a bird thang, and the whole thing just seemed to lend itself to a "Winter Garden" feel.  The browns, the creams, concrete, a little black.  I love it.  I think it works really well together. 

This is to the right of the booth at the entrance.  Ahhhh, a plethora of bird related and not-so-bird related goodies, but it works.

(

Sorry this shot is a little blurry, I was trying to hurry.  People were looking at me like..."hey!  you are NOT supposed to be taking pics in here!)  Don't cha love that transferware?  I'm such a sucker for transferware!  As she was taking things out of the box and setting them in to the booth, I was quickly taking them out of the booth and saying repeatedly, "I want that, I want that and I want that". 

*sigh*  These are a few of my favorite things!  Oh crud!  Now that song will be stuck in my head and I hate that song (sorry Julie Andrews). 

This is the other side, across from the front.  All birdie, nestie, etc. 

Don't you LOVE this sign?  Of course, it was one of the first things to sell.

Here's a long shot.  Don't you love those paperwhites in the little burlap bags?  I thought they were adorable and the music covered flower pots.  I'm such a burlap freak.  It's one of those things that can be dressed up or dressed down. 

So, that's the entrance to our booth.  The rest is pretty much empty.  So we've got to really get busy and get the rest filled up. 

Now, drum roll please!  Our winner of the 100th Post giveaway is:

Elaine at A Place for Ink! 

Congrats to Elaine and a great big hug to all who played.  I appreciate you so much.  Thanks for taking the time to read my little musings and ramblings. 

I hope you all have a great weekend. 

Black Christmas

Ta! Da!  As finally promised here are the photos of the fabulously shabby Christmas that I mentioned .  As I had said, I feel in love with the baby room that  Elizabeth had done in the November Romantic Homes issue, in shades of black and putty.  I thought it would be an interesting spin on Christmas.  I wanted an elegant, tarnished, Miss Haversham look.  Remember Miss Haversham from the Dickens novel...the one with Pip and all that?  The same Miss Haversham that was jilted and thus lived with her wedding finery and food for YEARS!  To me, that image was the most haunting one from that book.  Whenever I see a really great pile of grotty, peely, shabby stuff, I think of Miss Haversham's home and her aged wedding shabbiness.  What was that book name?  Oh well, I digress.  Anyway.  I wanted a silvery, timeless, elegance and lots of white to offset the black.  See what you think.     

I was happy with the way it turned out.  Granted, I don't think it is a look for everyone.  But in a store overflowing with every Christmas idea imaginable, I wanted something different to stand out. 

I mixed in lots of shabby pieces.  From stools to old plants stands, tons of tarnished silver and old white cafe ware.  Even an old bed frame. 

I mixed in my hand-painted frames.  This is one of my favorite scriptures from Job.  It says, "The morning stars sang together and the angels shouted for joy".  Isn't that wonderful?  I think would be great for a Christmas photo or a new born baby photo, especially if the photo is in black and white.

The little "joy" wings, cut from old sheets of music and stamped and glittered. Great on a tree or a gift.  I loved the little black Christmas trees (and those have sold). 

Sis's little angel tag was the perfect colors.  She's so sweet.  Look at Sis's sconces?  Aren't those cool? 

Here's a close up.  I love package tie ons.  I thought that the little pearls and bells and musical notes (sorry, can't see those) would be great ties on boxes and bags.  Especially if the paper was a beautiful black and cream floral.  With a satin ribbon.  I thought it sounded pretty.  See the silvery branches, love those, those are the stores. 

Angel wings.  I was so thrilled when I found these at a local craft store.  The stamped tag reads, "Every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings".  A little silver bell is attached.

Here's a back side view.  Some things are the stores, like the wonderful glitter house in the old plant stand.

We borrowed a page from "Paris Over the Moon's" book and decided to cover our "manni" in tags.  I bet Sis has over 50 tags on her.  It's a great sales technique cause people can see each one.  Plus she just looks so darn cute.

Well, hope you liked my shabby elegant Christmas.  I'll try and post a few more pics from the store later.  We still have the "Magical Forest" to go through and the wonderfully red "Cottage Christmas" as well. 

Thanks for coming by.