A Sunny Sunday

Today I can get some more photography done. Yay it is a sunny Sunday......then I will be posting and listing my goods in two shops at http://www.etsy.com/ I did some reasearch while my shop was down and Etsy by far has the best set up and the costs are very reasonable compared to other venues. Here is a sneak peek at what I have to list for sale. There is a lot more including supplies, jewelry, hand made paper piecings, my art, art bookmarks and so on. Check out www.gnormyle.etsy.com and www.nexttonew.etsy.com for vintage!

Thursday's Triplet of Thanks

A view from Glenna's Garden "The Door to Heaven" which has been the subject of many of my photographs!

Well it is truly amazing 70 degree temperatures at the end of October in NH for that I am thankful. Still on vacation of a sorts and it has been very relaxing. I guess I just needed to recharge as well for that I am thankful. Today I am alive thank you God. I have to admit that the creating bug is creeping back in. I don't want to start looking through everything that is packed up so with what I have still unpacked like my vintage oil pastels recently acquired..they are still in good shape from 1972....I have started to draw on bits of paper here and there. I created the front of a Seasons Greetings card by drawing a Chinese woman in her kimono on recycled envelope paper and attaching it to a piece of Christmas paper. This will be the front of a card for someone special. It turned out cute! Well I tried to get a picture of it, to post here for you and it seems that everytime I download my pics from my camera I lose them in my computer. It used to not be that way. I was very effecient with my shop pictures. I really need to get this figured out. Maybe it is better that, that someone special doesn't see the pic. Aha! Good morning from Manchester, NH! What three things are you thankful for today?

THIRSTY THURSDAY

This is an all beaded handmade tiny vintage Indian pendant. It will be available for sale in my shop soon just in time for Father's Day under the Section Shop for Pop!

So it is definately warmer today much warmer and sunny. I love iced tea and iced coffee. I think that came from living in FL. Today I made a cute little box by decorating a tiny matchbox and it is functional to put small things in. I also scored another cigar box from the corner bodega. YAY! I love to decorate boxes and they make perfect storage containers. Sometimes I make fancy ones for jewelry or I will use a vintage card to decorate the outside of the box. I am low in my shop at Glenna's Garden http://www.gnormyle.etsy.com/ so I am making more items to list. Tomorrow is Feature Friday on my blog here and this time I am featuring Doris from GA. She crochets the most adorable bees and many other great items. I am excited to feature her and her ETSY shop. If you want to be featured please let me know or let your friends know. Next week's spot is already taken but I am open after that. Please contact me ASAP so I can get started on your layout and design. You provide the pictures.

SWEET TEA

Ingredients:
1 pinch baking soda
2 cups boiling water
6 tea bags of any flavor you have
3/4 cup white sugar or use your substitute to your liking
6 cups cool water

Directions

1.Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda into a 64-ounce, heat-proof, glass pitcher. Pour in boiling water, and add tea bags. Cover and allow to steep for 15 minutes.

2.Remove tea bags and discard, stir in sugar until dissolved. Pour in cool water, then refrigerate until cold.
 
You can add sugar to your liking by the glass full as well, that is what I do because I use Splenda or Equal.
 
AHHHH quench that thirst! I cheat and pour the first glass full before it is cooled completely and I add ice cubes.
 
I used Green Tea today! Do you like teas? Tomorrow I will give you a recipe for iced coffee. Remember if you don't want caffeine you have many options for decaffeinated.

Timeless Treasures

At this time of the year I believe I am more affected by the past than any other time of the year...probably just like many other people. I am very nostalgic. I am going to be presenting vintage all month long on my blog. First and foremost there is a website www.rubylane.com you must visit. Just like ETSY you can join for free. Rubylane is full of vintage and antiques shops. It is always my first stop when I want to know about an old piece of timeless treasure I have acquired. Pictured here we have what I call functional vintage. A vintage Pyrex gravydish and saucer in the Crazy Daisy design and a vintage Pyrex princess casserole done in the pink Gooseberry design. Functional vintage means to me that not only are these pieces collectible but also they still can be used in todays modern kitchen. I recently found these two pieces of timeless treasures to add to my collection. I used them at my Thanksgiving table this year. For other vintage pieces start with www.gnormyle.etsy.com and check out the new vintage items available at Glenna's Garden at this time of the year. Best wishes for happy holidays to all!

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY

Today I received a package from my sister. In it was a lot of my Mother's and her Mother's jewelry....oh and my baby ring too which barely fits onto the end of my pinkie finger. I found a Monet bracelet and a Miriam Haskell necklace. Antique jewelry and pieces from foreign countries. I have so many great memories flowing through my mind right now. I took pictures of everything. I would have to say the Miriam Haskell necklace is my favorite. So that is why I am sharing a picture of it here. It has purple in it and that is my favorite color. I see these necklaces listed for close to $200.00, they are vintage and I am keeping mine. The Monet bracelet too.

Rainy Monday

We just can't get a break from the rain this summer. It is cool out too. The plants are loving it. Veggie gardens are coming up nice. We have two large ones outside Glenna's Garden http://www.gnormyle.etsy.com/ Sales were really good through the YART SALE this past weekend. I have everything ready to go out to my customers. I got my sewing machine last night from a friend and for free too. It is a Singer Super Elegance Model 9461 I was like a little kid at Christmas early this morning looking it over. I found the manual for it at the Singer Company website and will have to order it next month. I have a nice collection of fabrics to work with and really just need thread in different colors. I am not sure what I am going to make to sell. I do know that I love to sew and I am very excited to get back to doing it again. The picture I have chose for today is one of my art pieces it is an ACEO with a vintage playing card attached to it. I have done three of these and they will each be done in a very limited quanity. Get in touch with me if you are interested. My art is on display in a gallery check it out at www.putiton.com/glennanormyle

"The Girl of Life" Box

This is a beautiful box that I have made and it is for sale at Glenna's Garden http://www.gnormyle.etsy.com/. I have been busy gearing up for the annual YART SALE at Etsy. So far I have tagged and labeled 12 items for the sale. I am excited and hopefully I can sell some more of my unique items. Sunny Sunday this morning and cloudy plus quite warm this afternoon. The Red Sox are playing the Texas Rangers. I am working on Glenna's Garden and gearing up to list a whole bunch of new pieces. I have more tags, bookmarks, ACEO's, vintage items and I could do a supply destash. Looking forward to a busy week with the YART SALE. Monday morning we are going to do a small destash for the event.

Two Tuesdays

Today was a quiet day here at Glenna's Garden www.gnormyle.etsy.com . I did get a new banner and avatar so the look of my shop has changed. Plus I picked an additional set for the future. Some exciting treasures found their way to us. This bird pictured here I found on Etsy was just shipped to me and now has a new home at Glenna's Garden. Best of all it was FREE. It is vintage and handmade/painted from a gourd. Its' poor beak is damaged and in need of repair. Just the job for me. I will repair it and paint to match. Meanwhile it sits perched in front of me inspiring me to do something with gourds this Fall. I usually have some but they seem to disappear. I have none dried out right now. Perhaps they can be purchased somewhere at this time of the year will have to research that. I have been thinking a whole lot lately about learning how to crochet. Today I was given the addresses of two wonderful websites to get started crocheting with the first one is www.crochet.about.com/library/blbegginers.htm you can learn all about how to crochet and the second one is http://www.lionbrandyarn.com/ I joined for FREE and now I have access to many different patterns to crochet. I checked out the kitchen towels pattern and it said it was easy so I may start with that. I still need to learn so much more. I just hope my hands can do it! Also in my web surfing I do sometimes, today, I came accross the website for the Philadelphia Flower Show www.theflowershow.com/attractions/index.html I checked out the very hefty vendor prices of course and then just dreamed of the day. Today pictured is my second ACEO or artist trading card in "The Girl" Series. She is pictured here before she goes up for sale in my shop at www.gnormyle.etsy.com . This is the Hawaiin Girl with her hula skirt, top and headdress all made out of pressed flowers. I am having fun doing these little ACEO's and I hope someone else will enjoy them one day. So many of the bigger projects at Glenna's Garden with pressed flowers take days to do. These are quick fun and easy. Lately it seems that the pressed flowers are lending themselves to clothing so I started this neat little series of girls.

Thrilling Thursday

I just read the nicest letter from one of my customers that purchased a handmade card I had made using vintage papers from 1940's. It fills my heart with such pride to know I made someone happy today. I was outside Glenna's Garden this afternoon and decided to do an early pick off the lilac bush. I brought them in and they are now filling my studio with the best lilac smell ever. I took a picture of them to share with everybody sorry I can't share the smell too. I was working on clear glass project with pressed flowers today. Azaleas from SC are the first to go on. When I am finished it will look so beautiful with the light from a votive candle shining through. I took a picture of this project and will do so in stages so you can see how it is done. It looks like the glass has glue on it but that comes off with a bit of water now that the flowers are set. I will be adding some more flowers to the sides of the bowl to complete it. It has been raining a lot for the last couple of days and cloudy up here in New Hampshire. I also want to show you a picture I took of not one but two sets of vintage earrings that were given to me recently by a seller on Etsy. They are both extremely delicate. I have worn the screw in pair and got a lot of compliments. Where did you get those earrings? They are very both a very nice shade of blue topaz which is my birthstone.

Yippee It's the Weekend

This is May's picture on the calendar at Glenna's Garden. I like two artists very much. This is Norman Rockwell and the other is Thomas Kinkade. Weekends are for shopping. I shop online and try to purchase most of my supplies from Etsy shops first. I also have some favorite sites like http://www.createforless.com/ . Of course then there my local Michael's store too. most of my purchasing currently is geared towards vintage. I am 50 years old and I feel like I don't want to miss out on things from my past for example I am seriously thinking about buying a vintage kewpie doll. Then I can design and sew clothes for her. Sounds like a fun project. I went to the big forum this afternoon at Etsy. I learned about logos, stationery, business cards, stamp and websites. Most importantly their importance for a business. I got the name of a website where you can create your own website http://www.indexhibit.com/ . I rushed in here to quickly to blog. I am excited I am getting sales now. After dinner I am going to check out about making my own website. I have done it before and it can be challenging. Something I am up for. As I am eating dinner I am searching about how to hand sew. I don't have a sewing machine so I just found this article about making yo-yo's
try http://www.suite101.com/ you will have to type in a search making fabric yo-yo's. I am hopefully getting my stimulus check soon. I am going to buy a brand new sewing machine for myself, nothing fancy. When my two sons were young many years ago I used to make a lot of clothes for them. Pants, shirts and overalls. It saved me so much money. I used to buy cute boyish corduroy prints and cute boyish buttons. From a simple pattern that I designed I would cut the material and on an old sewing machine I would sew away. We are talking at least 30 years ago that I did this. Now I am a new Nana well he is 15 months old now and my angel. I want to make him things like my Mother did for my sons. My Mother loved the arts and crafts world. She made beautiful quilts. Her needlepoint work is very nice She weaved. She sewed and knitted numerous items. She used to make all of our clothes. Mom's pinking shears were fascinating to me when I was very young. I can still see her sitting at her Singer sewing machine into the night lovingly sewing away. She made the smocking on the front of dresses for my sisters and I when we were young. Well I am off to look into making a website for Glenna's Garden.

Wishing for Etsy Shop Sales and Custom Orders

Today I got a surprise gift from a seller I had purchased from a couple of times. Now that is a true PIF. Just like my PIF's which are FREE at my shop http://www.gnormyle.etsy.com/

I joined http://www.vintagepulse.com/ yesterday. Today ironically I was given a vintage meat grinder so now I have two vintage meat grinders. I also was given a creamer today that I want to know more about so I contacted http://www.replacements.com/ they said they needed more info on that item and my Capistrand R8338 Japan soup bowl. I am sure it is vintage as well. It takes about a week to get an answer back from http://www.replacements.com/ so I am waiting. Meanwhile I have been busy at Glenna's Garden I started making ACEO/ATC pressed flower pictures. I made a young lady dressed in pressed flowers. My first one I really hope she goes to a good home. She can be seen at http://www.gnormyle.etsy.com/ . This is the smallest work I have done with my pressed flowers and greenery. I truly enjoyed making her. It took me several hours to do. I now have her protected in a plastic sleeve. My custom projects involve much more detail like this lampshade I did recently. I am learning all about vintage. I have always been drawn to vintage. A lot of my handmade decorated boxes, cards, stationery and bookmarks are adorned with vintage papers. There is much thought and design that goes into using vintage papers so that you can preserve as much of the original vintage paper as possible. I have purchased many high quality vintage cards and papers from seller's on Etsy. So that now I actually have a backlog of designs and projects to do. I have seriously been thinking about opening a second Etsy shop for supplies only. I have collected so many unique and some vintage items over many years. One of the really neat, newest additions to Glenna's Garden is a 2" vintage owl pendant which can be seen in the picture at the top of this blog. Very unique....please let me know if you have seen an owl pendant like this one. Well it is time for me to go back to the garden and plant some more seeds. Blessings~*~Glenna from Glenna's Garden~*~