Beat The Winter Blues With A Fairy Party

My daughter is turning 5 next weekend, and it's her first girls-only birthday party. We decided to make it really girly and have it here at the house. I know the thing these days is to have birthday parties somewhere else, with built-in entertainment. I remember having birthday parties at home when I was young, and I think it's so cozy. Nothing against party places of course, as we've utilized those things, from Build A Bear to Pump It Up.
Close-up of fairy crown.

My son had lots of at-home parties, but his birthday is in June, where we can do our best to keep
all the kids outside. It's a bit more challenging in a Michigan January!

Another close-up of fairy crown.
Anyway, it started as a tea-party and has morphed into a fairy theme. Being me, not one to keep things easy for myself, I decided that I could make the tutus and wings myself. I also added fairy crowns to the to-do list.

Detail on tutu.
Here are pics of the tutu and crown I made for my E. I will post pics of the wings when I finish them.

Spread-out tutu of tulle, ribbon, velvet leaves, & faux floral beauties.
Of course E gets the fanciest, so the ones for the other little fairies will not be quite so labor intensive. Besides, now I sort of know what I am doing!

Close-up of an invitation.
I made the invites on Photoshop, which I wrapped around pretty faux flowers and secured with a lenth of hot-pink tulle.

Invitations.
OK, gotta go, I have a lot of wings to make in the next week! Enjoy the photos.

Fabulous Vintage Hats For Sale!

I am a collector. That means I have too much stuff.

OK, I don't collect little ceramic animals, or large mixing bowls, or real animals, or tvs, but even though they are all vintage treasures (to me, used stuff to my MIL), it is still stuff. I always have a plan to use the things when I buy or find them, but we all know that our ideas are better than what we actually get around to doing.

What brought this on? OK, don't laugh, but I was at an estate sale this weekend, and I started worrying that I would be one of those women who couldn't get rid of anything and ended-up living like the former occupant of this house. I go to LOTS of estate sales, but this was just stunning.

I literally walked into the house and stopped in my tracks with my mouth hanging open. I could not imagine how all this stuff fit in this house, which was 4,000 square feet!

I asked where the basement was, as I find most of my goodies digging thru boxes down there, and I was told to come back in 2 weeks. They hadn't gotten down there to unpack yet, as there were close to 1,000 boxes down there. What?!?!

There were multiple large styrofoam coolers in the garage full of vintage kids' clothes. 2 rooms upstairs were FULL of fabric. 1 room had almost exclusively yarn and tacky needlepoint kits and cheap crochet forms. A drawer in the family room had over 58 (stopped counting) pillar candles, all used. 8 boxes of inexpensive china teasets in the boxes. 7 sets of chipped china. Hundreds of forks. A drawer of rulers. Hundreds of packages of seam-binding. Boxes of mostly used gift-wrap. More paperbacks than you could ever count. 7 or 8 boxes full of picture frames.

OK, I'm not there yet. I probably never will be either. I did start thinking about how, if I died tomorrow, would my husband and kids have to go through all that stuff in my studio (that I can barely use bc of everything in there)? Why hold onto so much?!

I admit, if it were the middle of the summer, this wouldn't even be an issue, but it is the middle of this truely awful Michigan winter, and I spend a lot of time cooped-up in my house. Time for some early spring cleaning.

I used to be a milliner, and probably will be again, and I have collected some amazing and beautiful vintage designer hats. I went through them, and I am keeping a few, but I have just listed 10 of them on eBay. Click here if you'd like to see all of the auctions.

I will be listing packs of ephemera, vintage photos, vintage jewelry, vintage game boards, and lots more, in my Etsy and Lollishop shops. After all, I will need more room for the goodies I will find in that basement in 2 weeks!