Little Pink Studio

Pretty, old things

Hello! I hope your weekend was lovely. I'm just popping in today with some pretty photos from around the studio. Trying to sooth my troubled spirit. Lots of things happening around here, some wonderful, and some horrible. I guess that is life, right? So, let's just look at some pretty, old things shall we? 

I found these wonderful old boxes recently. I really can't seem to say no to a pretty, old box. Even if it's a bit tattered as the stationery box is. 

This one is a wonderful old chocolate box. Sigh. I really wish our packaging was still as lovely. 

I love this box equally, even if it is a bit tattered. It's just that perfect shade of green that I love so much. 

Then, there's this stack of dolls that are awaiting a decision as to what will become of them. I've decided to narrow down my doll collection and the dolls in this photo were in the "not my favorites, but not sure I can get rid of them yet" basket. 

That's it for me today. I'll be back soon. 

Cerri xoxo

OH! I almost forgot to mention that all of the spring beauties kits are in the hands of their owners (except a few that went overseas), so I have created a listing for the tutorial by itself in the shop. It includes 10 (!) pages of directions and photos, plus high quality scans of all images used! So, if you're interested, you can check that out here. It is the perfect project for using some of your stash. :)

 

A flea market weekend

Hello, friends. We are headed to the Nashville flea market this weekend and to spend the day with our daughter that is desperately needing a break from finals. In case you're not headed to a flea market or estate sale this weekend, I thought I would have a little flea market in the shop. Still sorting through and parting with some of my vintage treasures, I've listed a few more  items in the shop tonight. Maybe you will find a treasure of your own?

Details and descriptions of these sweet items can be found on the website. 

Wish me luck finding more treasures at the flea! I'm actually on a mission this time to find a few things for some very fun projects I have planned for the shop soon. :) I'll share what I find. 

Hope your weekend is lovely! Cerri xoxo

An extension and a tiny bit of studio progress

Hello! I hope your weekend was lovely. First up, I had several requests for an extension on the date to purchase the Spring Beauties kit, and you know I wasn't really thinking that through very well when I listed the date. First, I totally forgot last week was tax week, and I only offered it up for a few days. Not the smartest decisions on my part all the way around, but most importantly, I want everyone that wants a kit to be able to purchase one. So, I extended the sale date on the kit through Sunday, April 30th. If you're still wanting one, then you have time! Get them here. To see more photos and details, check out the previous post. For those that have already ordered, thank you. I will still begin shipping those kits later this week, no worries. 

Next up, I thought I would share a tiny bit of progress on the studio. Are you getting tired of reading about this move, yet? Sheesh. It really is taking me forever, but between working, weekends at the lake, my daughter's senior prom, and getting her ready to graduate, I work on this in my spare time. Eventually it will get finished. My goal is to have it totally finished by Mother's day so that I can host a little luncheon for the gals in my family. Cross your fingers for me, ok? Mother's day is just 4 days before graduation. 

So above, is a wonderful little 1930's armoire my husband bought me, and on it is a favorite old parasol and part of my millinery collection. Yes, I said part. Remember my lace dilemma? Millinery is almost as bad. And of course, you might notice there is also a (rather large) jar of vintage lace scraps on there as well. Really, is there any hope for me? 

This frothy little thing is a vintage bed jacket. Why don't we use bed jackets anymore? I am thinking my husband might prefer those to my standard tshirts and pajama bottoms. Ha. 

And then there is this lovely. It occurred to me that I had not properly introduced you to her yet. She was a Christmas present from my husband. (I knew about that one in advance...I found her in an antique shop outside of Atlanta and asked begged for her.) Happily, he is a good husband and obliged. She is my 3rd mannequin. I would show you all of her glory, but unfortunately she has a mess at her feet at the moment. She is different than most I have found, she's actually quite petite. I am thinking she was probably for a young adult? I don't really know how old she is either, the gal that worked in the shop said she thought her to be from the 1920's. She was already stenciled when we bought her as well. She is made of an odd paper like material. I don't know..I just know I loved her instantly and am thrilled to have her. 

So, that's it for today, I'm a busy bee assembling journal kits. I'll be back soon. 

Cerri xoxo

Peeks of the new studio

Hello! I hope you're all having a lovely week! As you know, I've been slowly moving my studio and shop to two different rooms in the house. It's quite a process as I'm sure you can imagine, but I think the rewards are going to be soooo worth it. For one, the "shop" room will strictly be inventory, shipping, and shop supplies. That is going to make shipping, ordering, and keeping track of business so much for efficient! (and it's cute too, I'll show you photos of that soon) And now, my studio will be more centrally located in my home, and is just a studio. It was so hard to keep the studio clean when it was combined with the constant influx of inventory, and I'm one of those people that doesn't feel that creative unless my space is pretty tidy and organized. So enough blabbering and on to the peeks.  The photo above is of a fantastic old door my husband bought for me. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to put anything at all on it, but as you can see I decided to utilize it a little. 

I am pretty sure I mentioned to you that I covered all of my walls with fabric, right? Well I have also lined any shelves with layers of old lace and sometimes millinery flowers. 

I'm still using old boxes, or boxes covered in old papers to organize a lot of my bits of paper and things. 

I love having my rubber stamps on display. The tin in the back is a wonderful art deco candy tin I found on a recent trip to the DC area with my husband, here you get a glimpse of the fabric walls with the lace and ribbon striping. 

A wonderful gift from my husband from Christmas. Can you see her dainty little shoes peeking out from her dress? 

Maybe this post should really have been about how I display my rubber stamps? :)

Old hat boxes, jewelry boxes, and purses, must have staples in any vintage studio, right? 

Oh ick! Please ignore the dead bug in this photo. Those stupid bugs have invaded east TN this past year and they turn up everywhere. I can't believe I didn't notice when I was taking the photo...

This wall is not completely finished, I still need to add smaller frames to the inside of the large frame in the upper corner as well as some other things, but you get the idea of where it is going, right? The new studio is filled with natural light all day, and I adore that. It is also a smaller room, and I have to pare down and just keep the things I really love, but so far it is making me quite happy. 

I'll share more when I get more finished, but I hope you enjoyed the little peeks into my new world today. 

xoxo, Cerri

Some lovely old things and image share

Hello! Sorry to go missing for a couple of days, but I was not feeling well. I'm back with some image shares that would make lovely additions to your Valentines. Isn't she lovely? I think she would be gorgeous on a tag or card. I have lots of these wonderful fashion print originals in my shop, (printed in 1894! )and I love them for projects!

I was also realizing the other day while working on my new studio that I have not shared any of my vintage finds in quite some time. When I started my blog I used to do that all of the time, and miss it. So here are a few of my recent favorites. 

These stunning vintage hankie cases were actually a gift from my Mom. I LOVE them. I have collected these forever really, as I think they would make stunning book or journal covers. One of these days, I will get to making some into that...(you can see some of my other favorites in this flickr set. )

I just love the old satin, and the faded lace over the satin. Sigh..Really, why don't we make things this beautiful anymore? Such a simple thing to have your hankies in a case, but they were just made so beautifully. 

(up close details..)

Another one of my recent favorites was also a gift from my Mom! I also collect vintage petite handbags, and I'm not sure if I have ever shared that collection with you? Hmm...I'm thinking of hanging them on the wall in my bedroom, so I will share them soon. This one, is probably one of my favorites in the whole collection though. 

I mean just look at all of those delicate beads and the embroidery. B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l! 

Then there is this little thing. I found this recently on a quick trip to the DC area with my husband. (I love it when I get to tag along on his business meetings. :) I believe this is a very old pin keep. It is a very detailed velvet on one side with a little padding in between, and on the other side is an embossed metal. You can kind of see the chain in the photo, so it actually hangs. I have never seen anything quite like this, have you? 

The lovely shopkeepers had a couple of old hat pins stuck in it, and I just fell in love with it. 

Lastly, this was a sweet gift from my husband. Sometime around Christmas while he was out Christmas shopping he found a ziploc bag full of  these wonderfully faded chrocheted bits. He brought it home and asked me if I liked it. He thought that I might, but just in case I didn't, he didn't want to include them with my Christmas presents. Uh...

Why yes(!), I do love them. And honestly, just how sweet that was of him was a gift in itself. 

And one more image I thought would be beautiful for your Valentines.... 

I'll be back tomorrow, and hopefully will have a sweet little tutorial to share. 

xoxo, Cerri

A better look, and textures...

We had some nice sunshine today so I snapped a quick photo of the finished product from yesterday's tutorial. You can see the sweet details a little better in this photo, I think. I also forgot to mention yesterday that I also colored the bird's cheeks with the same chalk pencil I used on the pixie.  

Anyway, my husband and I have been keeping our minds (and hands) busy with a massive project in our home. We're moving my studio again. You know how people like to rearrange their furniture? Well we prefer to rearrange our rooms. Seriously, this will be the 4th room my studio has been in. Hopefully, it will be the last. We are separating the shop from the studio and that is a welcome thing for me. It's so hard to keep a studio neat when you have inventory coming in all the time, plus inventory storage, and shipping materials, etc. You get the idea, especially those of you that also run little online shops. So, the shop will now have it's own room, and I get a new studio (complete with fireplace), and hubby gets a media/game room. All happy, right? Well except the fact that we always seem to take on these crazy ventures of ours around Christmas. 

So. The studio will look quite a bit different this time around. We covered the walls with fabric. Yep. Fabric. Unbleached muslin to be exact. 

To cover the seams, we used a very pale pink vintage ribbon, which created stripes. Each stripe is then covered with vintage lace. All of the lace pieces are different. 

This photo  is a little pale, but you get the idea. I absolutely adore this! It's so different, but so warm, and lovely. We thought of using burlap, but I think it would be too dark, and maybe too smelly, and too trendy. I wanted a white/neutral/cream studio with little pops of pink here and there.

Love this old umbrella. 

And this. This is by far the most colorful thing in the room. It's a stunning old door that was originally supposed to be a Christmas present, but I convinced my husband that I needed it now. (the black smudges are not really there in person. Not sure why they're there in the photo...) For now this door is leaning against a wall, but it will be 'holding' something special soon. 

So, there is still much work to be done. I'm hoping to at least have it workable by the time Kenz comes home from college on Sunday. So, wish me luck. I'll share more along the way. 

xo, Cerri

PS, There are still a few kits of each of the designs I have done, and they're all ready to ship. There's also some ornaments, and other great Christmas things in the shop. I will be closing up next week for a week or so to spend some time with my family, but there is plenty of time to get your things still and plenty of time for more Christmas crafting. :)

A beautiful old box

Hello! I hope you've been having a lovely week. Nothing too exciting here, my husband has been out of town on business most of the week, so things have been busier than normal. I've been working on my Easter basket swap, shipping out orders, and running a teenager around. You know, normal life stuff. 

Last fall, my husband and I were antiquing together and I came across this beautiful old box and fell instantly in love. It's covered in velvet, lined in silk, and topped off with tulle netting and faded old millinery. Who wouldn't fall in love? 

I'm not sure what it was originally used for? It's small-ish, only about 5"x7" maybe. 

As much as I loved it, it was a little more than I would normally pay for something like this, so I was delighted to find it under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. I've been meaning to take photos to share it with you, and finally did that yesterday. The silk inside is a little tattered as you can see, but it is the most wonderful shade of pale pink. 

The velvet is also worn, and tattered which makes me love it more. 

But the fact that it was a surprise from my husband means that I'll treasure it forever. 

By the way, he thinks it's quite ugly, and only bought it because I loved it. You agree with me though, right? It's beautiful. 

Cerri xo

PS, If you're involved in the Easter basket swap you should be mailing your baskets out today or tomorrow. I think I will make a flickr group so we can all see the baskets everyone receives. 

Pretty, old things

  
Hello! I hope you had a lovely weekend! We had snow, which was nice, but my daughter was making the journey home from college and it made me quite nervous for her to travel in it. She did just fine though, and made it home just before the worst of the storm hit. She'll be home for almost a month! My Gram is doing better, and hoping to get to leave the hospital soon. Thank you for her well wishes.

So today I thought I would share with you some of my recent finds that are sitting patiently in the studio waiting to either be made into something else or used in decorating. Don't you love these sweet little angels? They're a little chipped, and show some age, but I really love them. I was thinking of using them in a little assemblage piece. We'll see what becomes of them.

This sweet doll is another wonderful find. She is a petite 8", antique doll. She is currently missing some clothes and is sitting in the studio in her undergarments.

She is holding a tiny, tattered cocktail umbrella though. I'm thinking of turning her into an antique lace covered angel...I have some ideas. :)

And, here is one more teeny tiny lovely just waiting patiently for me. I may turn her into a necklace...or she may just continue to sit right where she is at.

What projects are you working on right now? Are you finished with your shopping? Are you making Christmas cards? I would love to see what you're doing. Link to your latest projects in the comments, will you?

Cerri xoxo

Making ornaments

Hello! I hope you had a lovely weekend! I missed my pretty, old things post this week, but we were celebrating my daughter's 19th birthday all weekend, plus I've been crazy swamped. (like the rest of you, I'm sure!) But, I did play with some pretty, old lace and trims, combined with some super cheap snowflake ornaments from Target, and this is what I came up with. (click on the images so you can see the lovely details)

I'll warn you, these little ornaments are quite addictive to make, but if you would like to see how I made them, join me on Joli Paquet today. My Mom came down for a slumber party this weekend and we stayed up all night making ornaments and other things. (I'll share the "other things" soon) Such good times during this busy holiday season.

Cerri xoxo

Pretty, old things in the studio

Hello! I hope your Thanksgiving and long weekend were lovely! We had a great time with family, and my husband and I did lots of shopping during the sales. It's a tradition with us. We pick up the paper on Thanksgiving on the way to my Mom's and we plan our day. We always stop for lunch to regroup, and then go at it again. It's fun, really. The crazy crowds, and the excitement in the air. I love it!

Anyway, the only room decorated in my house so far is the studio. Here is a rather dark shot of the studio all decked out for Christmas. The chandelier is a new find. We painted it white and added the pink mercury glass ornaments from it. (Home Goods for $4 each) The beautiful, pale pink ruffled curtains are also new, but they're not old. (Target, Simply Shabby Chic line) I do love them!

The vintage hanging basket is also a new, old find. I now have two of them, and love them both. The sweet teddy bear was a gift from my husband the first year we were married. I treasure her.

A mixture of new and old things in this little vignette. The little cottage was one of my Joli Paquet kits last year.. (or the year before?) The vintage pink ornaments and tinsel are the only lovely things I have ever found at a thrift store in my area.

The turning tower thing to the right is new to the studio too. It was a recent find from a local scrapbook store that closed. It has been a life saver, it hols so much inventory!  My husband painted it white for me and I'm really loving it.

A few shots of some of my favorite vintage ornaments...

This little sweetie I made using both vintage and new parts. (wings can be found here)

And for a little shop talk, the free shipping sale is continued through today. Joli Paquet is in full swing with tutorials, and kit sales will be this week on the 2nd. (I'll preview mine soon)

I made up a few of these glittered reindeer, embellished with vintage velvet millinery and silk ribbons and listed them in the shop.

And if you would like to see a little more of the studio decked out for Christmas, treat yourself to this very lovely magazine!

I'm thrilled to be a part of this!

Be back soon with lots pretty, old, and Christmas-y things!

xoxo, Cerri