Water Marbling Nails

I love looking around on Youtube for inspiration & ideas, there are so MANY creative people uploading tuts there. I tried water marbling my nails, my first try-in lavender, purple & gold. I painted 2 coats of plain white polish first, then I taped the nails of my left hand only-my 1st MISTAKE! As clumsy as it might feel I suggest taping BOTH hands before ANY marbling is done. I used a paper cup, an orange stick, tap water, scotch tape, & nail polish: opi revlon milani. I discovered I liked marbling 2 nails at once, it goes faster & uses less polish.

Vintage Reverse-carved Pansy Ring

I had this beautiful vintage pendant & I wanted to turn it into a ring. So I finally got around to getting it done-I found a really good glue that dries clear & is very strong(hopefully)enough to keep the beaded band stuck to the back. I LOVE pansies, can't say that enough....So I used some twisted bugle beads in light lavender & some seed beads I got in a vial at JoAnn's. After I beaded the band I used a thread-burner to seal the knot...then came the moment of truth-I used an epoxy glue that comes in 2 tubes, I mixed a small amount for 1 min. then I pressed a small piece of clear plastic & sandwiched the beaded band between the pendant & the plastic strip. Oh I also removed the jump ring from the pendant, I don't know if I'll attach a teardrop bead to it...maybe later.  Pardon the cat hair, & yeah the side angle pic is blurry so the amazing 3d effect of vintage reverse carved lucite is not on full display.

Hand Made Blue Cellophane Bag

I bought some vintage straw/cellophane, it was a large flat braid & I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it so I just put it aside for awhile. OK, so it was for a few years, BUT I finally found a good use for it-a small clutch! I used a book as the template, just wrapped the straw around it, then I hand stitched it together-I soon discovered that I had to use large running stitches or else the cellophane would split. I lined it with a dark blue taffeta, you can easily see the running stitches attaching it to the straw. I embroidered 2 patch pockets, 1 with a star, & sewed the top edge using a decorative stitch.

A Red Dragonfly

I have no idea what kind of dragonfly this is, but I took a few pics. It was just flying around the backyard so I went in & got the camera.

French Bread Made at Home

A few pics of a pair of French bread loves I made.

Today's World & Downward Quality

I was browsing Etsy today & noticed the vast difference in crochet patterns back in the 1930s-1940s vs. 1980s-now; crocheted blouses in the 30s & 40s did not have holes in them, as crochet has become known today for those holes. 
        This same trend towards less sophisticated work, designs, & the efforts put in to make things by hand is not isolated to crocheting alone.                              
        I look at vintage hats on eBay, & I have noticed that hats made in the 1930s, 1940s, & the 1950s were all well made-they exist today, most of them in excellent & wearable condition. Hats made in the 1960s began to shrink-well they grew smaller in the 1950s because short hairstyles were "in" so the hats were adjusted in proportion. By the mid 1960s alot of the hat was gone-it had shrunk to a single floral with veiling, held on by a comb; there were beehive hats & berets, but only the beret has survived all decades.
        The 1970s saw hats that were without decoration, a downgrade in quality, effort, & artistry from the 1940s-which was for half that decade at war.
        
         Quilts are another example, I've seen quilts at a museum that were made when the lighting was supplied by whale oil-these quilts had LOTS of intricate, closely spaced quilting. This was at a time when women had to boil water by wood-fires & use lye & other difficult & physically demanding steps merely to do laundry.     
          The 1930s quilts, with electric lighting, were still quilted, but less meticulously, with the stitches further apart. This was when sewing machines were around & washing machines.
          
           I hear all the time about how today's culture is bad, etc. They haven't looked at what I've been studying, & I think there is an underlying cause to all of this general decline.
           You can partly blame corporate culture, with their single purpose of pursuing money-cutting corners, cheapening the quality of their goods while chasing ever higher money/profits. Yet why was it that people were investing less of their time in what they made themselves? The early quilts were in a time before radio, but you don't use your eyes for it-so why the degeneration of quality in quilting techniques? The same with crochet, in the 1930s & 40s the patterns for nearly every item-whether hats, doilies, gloves, blouses-it was all for the more experienced crocheter. Today we have no shortage of crocheters, take a look at Craftster, but the doilies today are made in bedspread weight thread-not in size 20 or 30, like back in the 1930s. Today we have lots of other hobbies, all competing for our attention, but they had to churn butter by hand in the 19th century, had to make most of their clothes by hand-unless they could afford to have someone else sew their clothes.

Some Oranges Have Navels, Some Have Butts

These are 2 pics or oranges I picked from my orange tree, it came with the house so I don't know what kind it is, it may be valencia oranges, as they are seedless naveled & very sweet. BUT (pun intended) I found an unexpected orange & photographed it; it had a deep wrinkle right down the center, making it look like it has a butt.

Wizard of Oz in an Egg

The World of Oz in an egg. Crowning Leo 'king', look for Toto at Dorothea's ruby-slippered feet.

Egg Show

These are all done by different artists, I love the spring-themed ones especially; they look like the Victorian post cards & some images in Victorian Trading Co. My very favorite is the mermaid at the top, a lady from Louisiana made it.

Star Nails

This is a design I did using gold nail polish, tiny star-shaped glitter, with a very pale pink polish(with micro-glitter) as the base.

Vintage Navy Patent Envelope Bag & Purple Suede Clutch

Vintage Lewis Clutch Envelope Purse

2 Vintage Eelskin Purses