last post i mentioned that i took my hand-cut vintage paper letters to Market.  there i met Tom Henderson, he owns a shop in Dallas called Downing Hill.

i have not been to his shop, but the next time i’m in Big D i plan to stop by…it looks like it’s right up my alley!

he fell in love with the letters and he had a special request….
his wife’s grandfather was a nurseryman (i love that word, btw!) and in their possession are some of his original catalogs.  wow!  way cool!

he wanted to know if i would be willing to cut the letters from copies of the catalog pages.  are you kidding?  in a heartbeat!  i love anytime i can personalize a project and i really love a story!

i received the pages last week and i could not get started fast enough!  i shipped them off Monday and…thanks to UPS…Tom received them yesterday and he is thrilled!

these are the words he ordered…

i know.  it’s kinda hard to tell how great they are…scuse me while i pat myself on the back…so i’ll give you a few close-ups so you can really appreciate them!  oh yeah, i took the pics before i put the glass on…that would present camera challenges i couldn’t possibly overcome!

this was such a fun project because Tom was so enthusiastic!  be sure to stop by Downing Hill if you’re in the area and definitely check out the website!

next up on the calendar, after san francisco, was Dallas Market!  reps came through Marburger in the Spring recruiting for a new area of vintage/vintage inspired/handmade…it was the perfect fit for SweetTalk!  i’ve dreamed of going to Market and this seemed like a great opportunity!

i’m not good at visualizing space.  so many people i know actually
set-up their space prior to a show.  for me…that’s not in the cards!  sooooo, that means when i saw my space i just about fell over.   it was substantially smaller than my mental picture!  ack!

i froze.

thankfully, my sis volunteered to come help and i knew she would know exactly what to do!  and she did!  phew!

when all was said and done i had brought exactly what i needed…
no more…no less!

i also took my hand-cut vintage paper letters!  i have a
great story about these i’ll share in a few days…

as people stopped by i asked them to write their favorite WORD on a tag and i added it to the board!  i always enjoy learning the WORDS that are dear to other people…

it was superthrilling to walk in the front doors of Dallas Market Center and see a display that included SweetTalk tags!  it was front and center…hard to miss!

i picked up exciting new accounts!

~ Pattywhacks & Co. – Houston
~ The Birdhouse – Waco
~ The Room No. 9 – Oklahoma City

i saw some precious friends and…as i tend to do…made some great new friends!

EPHEMERA

i guess because it originates from the greek.  i looked it up and the definition kinda made me sad: “minor transient documents of everyday life that were intended to be used and generally expected to be discarded.”  really?

i feel a new one-woman-mission coming on to collect all the *ephemera* i can get my hands on.  wait. i’ve been on that mission for years! 

okay, so now i feel a (greater) sense of urgency!

i did manage to rescue a really cool and quite old dictionary the
other day!  go me!  then i promptly tore the binding off…should i be saying this out loud?…and now i have really BIG plans for all those TINY words!

aren’t the pages beautiful all stacked up?

and the colors…the black WORDS against that aged,
calming creamy color that soothes my soul…

ahhh…

are you worried about me? 
oh well, in my little world ephemera = love!

craft bug, that is!  once that happens there’s no stopping me!  last week i drove to every craft store in the land gathering supplies!

then i came home and unearthed my supply of vintage paper and then i threw in a little glue, some scissors, letters & numbers and WORDS…did you doubt?

if you figured that’s about all i’m going to tell you then you figured right!  you’ll have to come to the big red barn next weekend and see for yourself!

here’s a picture of my assistant…she’s not that great with glue or scissors, but she does like paper and she’s pretty darn cute!

come see me and my friend red door ~ we’d love it!

i’m rested and ready!  uh-huh!  kicking off the new year with
great news…i’m setting up at the Big Red Barn January
15 & 16!   you can find me right next to my good friend Red Door in space #344! 

i smell trouble!

i am so darn excited and amazingly relaxed!  i’m sure it won’t take long for panic to set in, but for now i’m enjoying that peaceful place!

gearing back up i started thinking about WORDS…okay, i confess, i think about WORDS all the time!  i believe that everyone loves WORDS…i just think there are a few folks out there who don’t know it…yet!

never fear, i am on a one-woman mission to help people discover the WORDS they love!

i put together this video of a *few* of the ways i use WORDS in my home…i hope it will inspire you!

My space in Antique Queens continued…my favorite part about these pictures is that my sis used a doll bed to surround this sweet feather tree!  Then she added REDs and whites and blacks and creams…a little twist on tradition…

for the base of the tree, she used a round battery jar filled with fringe…i can hardly stand how cute it is!

nothing in my world is complete without WORDS…SweetTalk tags peeking in from the side…

~ have an outstanding RED friday! ~

Mo put me in charge of this darling rack!  It was perfect for displaying SweetTalk Packages and lots of other goodies!

Jana hung a mattress spring between her space and Mo’s so we covered it with SweetTalk tags, stencils, numbers and topped it off with yet another of Mo’s crafts…a paper wreath!

It’s not too late to order your Thanksgiving Package and get your order in for your Christmas Package too!  

With WORDS…you can do anything!

It’s time!  Christmas is so close I can smell it!  Check out this video to see how I *sprinkled* SweetTalk tags throughout my decorations!

…with WORDS…you can do anything!

And then hop~on~over and order your Christmas Package!  There’s still time for Thanksgiving too…so get busy…place your order and I’ll get some happy mail on its way to YOU!

As is so often the case, when I took on my latest *project* (ahem) I went into it with a false sense of self-confidence!  Words like: glass, flux, exacto-knife, soldering iron, cutter, grinder, breaker pliers, tips, electricity and Janet do not belong in the same conversation!  And if they ever are…run for cover!  Okay, you’ve been warned!

Against my better judgement, I took a stained glass class a few years ago.  Wanna talk about a fish outta water!  I wanted to learn how to make picture charms.  I signed up and every Thursday night for six (grueling) weeks I was taught more than I ever wanted to know about stained glass!

But in the end, I learned how to make charms and I’ve been lovingly making them from that day to this!  I was in the stained glass store the other day restocking my glass supply and stumbled across a book that was heavy on inspiration and short on instruction!  UH-OH.  It’s fine.  I don’t need a lot of instruction…really, I’d rather muddle through it and figure it out myself!

I’m one of those people that would take the 9000 parts to a swingset and a week to put it together without once glancing in the general direction of the instructions!  Nevermind that I could read the instructions and put it together in a day!  In my world, that’s entirely beside the point!

Armed with my stained glass skills, my short attention span and my construction savvy…wait, I have no construction savvy…well then, armed with my stained glass skills and my short attention spam I set out to make glass houses!  I threw the first one away.  Literally.  And took the second one apart three times before I got it the way I wanted it…far from perfect!  Just like me!

Goodness knows I have not one ounce of spare time right now prepping for Marburger, but once I set my mind to something there’s just not a whole lotta stoppin’ me!  Currently, I am just shy of a full blown neighborhood…more like a village…a small village.  I’ve managed to complete five houses!

I have named them “Hallelujah Houses” because every time I finish one I am confident I have witnessed a miracle!

Of course, they would not be ME if I didn’t include my love of words!  Are you sufficiently curious?  Prepare to be impressed…well anyway, I am!

this is the Texas house…thus the bling and, of course, the words “heavenly place”!

every village needs a French house!  (hopefully the words are *nice*!)

this one from the pages of an Organic Chemistry book!

no village is complete without a Church…in the group picture the other side has the dangling turquoise cross!

the first one i made with sheets of music!

the Texas and French houses and the Church!

I don’t know if anyone else will like them, but me and my imagination have had a great time building these little glass houses!  btw…the tallest one is about 4″ and I added glass and rock feet to turn the *quirky* up just a notch! 

I am my happiest…when I’m in my zone…lost in my messy space…creating!

I think I have finally come down from the high of shopping for double-digit days!  Not sayin’ I like it, just sayin’!

I am, however, buried alive in the bottomless-pit-of-pricing! 

I don’t care what anybody says…this is the fun part…right.

In very disturbing news…I immediately rushed cookie-cat to the
Vet thinking she was coming down with a cold…yes it’s possible…only to discover that every time she lays on the fabulous, vintage pinky-peachy motel blanket (in the middle of the abyss) she sneezes her little furry head off!

How in the world did I end up with a cat that’s allergic to JUNK?  thud.

RED FRIDAY, oh how I’ve missed you!  Once again combining
my love of words with my love of the great minds that put them together!