Getting Ready for Where Bloggers Create Party!!!

I can't believe it's almost that time again!  And I've been VERY busy getting ready.

Are you going to be there?

It's Karen Valentine's Blog Party,

Where Bloggers Create!

You can click on the site HERE to see what's up, or you can click on my sidebar pictures at the top right of this page at any (or all) of my past room pictures.

This year I have left a good bit of my room the same, but I would say the other half has seen a lot of change.

I've added a number of pieces that make this room my favorite one in the house.

Here are a few sneak peaks!!

My dress form, Nadine, has decided to take a hand with posing for me to 'help' me with the party and promises to act like a lady.  Hmmm, sounds suspicious to me!!

She's got her pink and pearls going on, so I hope she lives up to my favorite things!

Be sure and visit Karen's blog and join the party yourself!  We want to see your creative spot!!

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Blessings,

Doni

Vintage Shaving Items

Shaving.

What's so exciting about that?

Nothing usually, not today's stuff anyway.

But the things our grandparents used??  Well that's another matter altogether.

For the fastidious dapper gent, there were the expensive sets of seven blades, one for each day of the week.  Better on the blades...able to keep them sharper for longer.  But when they needed sharpening, the attached strop (with special attachment to sharpen razor blade while attached to the razor!) was ready for use.

excuse the aged oiling please...that's just gross!!

As interesting as it appears, it also looks a bit PAINFUL!!

I'm so grateful for my pink Bic razor that I can use for a while and then trash!!!

It's not so bad living in the current day after all!

Sure hope you are all doing well.  We just got a few days of very much needed rain here, and today was gorgeous!  Of course it's chilly again, but not for long.  Summer will be here in a day or two!  At least it will FEEL like it!!  The flowers are getting prettier too.  And the birds are hatching babies all over the place!  I feel like I live in the middle of a bird nursery!!

I expect the birds out back to start barking because I see them grabbing the dog food off the back porch, and out front they ought to meow...yes, cat food available out there!  The birds are faster on the front porch.

Blessings,

Doni

Tutorial For Lace Book Part 2

Previously Posted May 2014
Reposted because of high interest to be included with the part one post 
please see January 24, 2016


In my previous post I showed the construction of a Lace Book made out of fabric napkins.  The process of sewing the accordion folds to the napkin pages took me one day.

Here is the result:

As you can see, there is plenty of room allowed for adding laces and trims, whatever I desire.  After the pages are completed on the inside, I will finish the outside of the book, including the binding and covers.

Now that the book construction is finished, it's time to embellish and decorate!

This is the time to get out any and all of your stash of lovelies and pick and choose what you might want to use.  Remember, at this point, it's important to decide on your color scheme, arrangement, and placement of items BEFORE you permanently place the item in the book.

I will be sewing my laces and trims in place, but first I will pin them where I think I want them to go.  This is the part that takes me the longest, as I decide what to use and where I want it be located.  Be as creative as you want here.  It's a whole lot of fun, and the results are wonderful to see as you go. 

Layers are important.  Starting a page with a background of a lace piece, fabric, or whatever that you can build upon is a good starting place if you want.  Decide if you want to use the same background on each page, or different ones for each, or none at all.  I used a few in the first book I showed you HERE, but for the most part I left the pages plain and just added embellishments of laces and trims, etc.

When I made my first book, it was at this point I decided that I needed to go back to Pinterest and see what other people were using in their books, and as I did, I made a list of items I saw.

I have printed it here below so you can get an idea of what I gleaned:


Collage Items
Vintage rulers, rusty parts, buttons, papers, book pages, tags, music, fabrics, binding, ribbon, cardboard, cardstock, denim, net, photo album pages, book covers, ric rac, metal elements, burlap, flowers, jewelry bits and bobs, beads, wire, keys, chain, dress pattern tissue, wooden bits, muslin, quilts, batting, leather, corrugated cardboard, vintage wallpaper, handkerchiefs, fabric ribbon (ripped), fibers, tassels, stamens, millinery, velvet, felt, ripped fabric, stamped fabric, children's book pages, crystals, embroidery, measuring tape, spools, bobbins, floss, patchwork, small tiny pillows, stitching, silverware, file folders, pockets, library cards, greeting cards, heart shapes, memory chatelaine w/glass vials to hang

and the list is quite endless.  Use whatever you want to use.

OK.  Now let's see how far I can get on this next part of the book!!
Hope you are each having a wonderful spring!!
Blessings,
Doni



Pearls and Lace Book for Pearls and Lace #146

One of my very favorite pastimes is to hand stitch.  

Sometimes I like to cross stitch, crochet, tat, or whatever, but I thoroughly enjoy stitching

pretties onto a background, and seeing what turns out.

I stitched this whole book by hand, except for the original pages, and the flowers on the front, which I will show you in a future tutorial or walk through as to how I made it.

As you all know by now, I love laces.  Not the nylons but the REAL, old vintage laces, and I have been hoarding collecting them for years.  It took me a while, but when inspiration hit, well let's just say the rest is history!  Here's what I made.

Do y'all want to have a Pearls and Lace party???  Add your url code to the link below and let's see what all y'all have to share!!  Anything pretty is what we want to see!!!

Spring is almost here and I want to go dig in the dirt.

I want our flowers to start blooming and things to be sweet smelling...

and I want it to STAY that way!!  Summer will be breathing down our necks before we blink here in Texas.

Hope it's nice where you are!

Blessings,

Doni