Mad Tea Party 2012 Giveaway Winners!!

And the Winners are...

1 - Faerie Moon Creations and 2 - DogsMom! 

Please send me your addresses so I can ship the Alice in Wonderland images to you!  And thanks to all who visited my blog - I still haven't gone to all the parties - there are so many and so little time!!  I do hope you guys enjoyed it - it was hard to do with the heat and having a day long battle with my asthma at the time, but I'm glad I did it.  :)  I really enjoyed learning to make cucumber sandwiches - by the way, the spread is really delicious and you could make it to spread on a bagel or crackers and I think it'd taste even better!  I plan to make some more soon.  I think sweet cherry tomatoes go really well with it.  YUM!

Have a Great Weekend!!
58Cherries

Etsy Update - New Item: Antique Sheet Music Earrings!!

Music Lovers Beware:

You may fall in love with these Antique Sheet Music Earrings. I know I have!

 They are made with genuine Antique sheet music from early 1900's - they are sealed beneath beautiful glass magnifying domes set in antique brass colored scalloped bases and strung on gold colored French hooks.  Beautiful!!

 
Earrings can be found in my shop HERE.  More to come soon, but each on is One of a Kind since they are made with real antique sheet music.  Grab them while you can!  I also make music pendants - you can find one in my shop HERE. 

                      

These are the Bass and Treble Clef symbols.  Very pretty and perfect to wear any day.

And the other new item added to my shop today was a replica of my favorite necklace in my jewelry box...

I wear this necklace nearly every day I love it so much.  It's in my shop right now.

And in other news... I've been enjoying the Olympics on TV this week.  London is such a beautiful setting for the games.  My only frustration is the way they pick and choose which games we want to watch and leave out so many interesting sports - where is the fencing, the equestrian sports, etc.??  Sometimes it seems like they only show swimming and gymnastics. 

But London, ahhh, London - I love it when the cameras give us a glimpse of their great city - wish I could visit there some day!!  Have a great week and stay cool if you are in the heat zone like I am right now!  Whew!! 

Saturday was the Mad Tea Party (post below this one, FYI) and it was super hot.  I had to race to take pictures before the sherbet and ice in the lemonade melted.  When it was all done and photographed I was as melty as those items were plus I had a major asthma attack and was useless the rest of the day.  Eating the sherbet and cucumber sandwiches was rewarding and refreshing, though.  Laters!!

Mad Tea Party 2012

It was a hot day today.  I took a quick walk outside to look

at my sad, neglected garden.

The flowers are blooming, but the weeds are

creeping in and the grass is over long, still the flowers were blooming and beautiful.

It was then I noticed the surprise lilies had sprung up!  So beautiful and fragrant...I stopped to admire them when suddenly...

Two Scottie dogs appeared with a note..

I blinked to find myself at a table full of tea, sweets and refreshments!  Just what I needed after the hot summer sun outside...

There were so many delicious treats, I didn't know where to start... 

There were Cherries, and Root Beer, Cola and vintage bottles of 7-UP,

Lemonade and Raspberry tea...

 Cucumber sandwhiches, cherry tomatoes and cookies, galore!

The buttery cookies had raspberry and apricot jams,

chocolate and powdered sugar.

 The lemonade was chilled and served in beautiful glasses with N's on them!  As if they were made just for me!

 There were also Gum Drops and Nonpareils and even Orange Sherbert

in tiny vintage glass ice cream cups - all my favorites!

I thought I was alone until I spied a miniature Alice drinking tea and eating

an enormous (to her) cookie, too!  She bid me hello and told me to

sit down and enjoy!!  Thank you for visiting my blog today, be sure to drink

and eat all you want!  The cucumber sandwhiches were especially delicious. 

And as soon as I was full I found myself getting sleepy and woke up again amongst the flowers of my garden.  I dusted myself off and came to share the tale with you!

It's the first time I made Cucumber sandwhiches - I'll share the recipe

at the end of the post if you'd like to try them yourselves!

And now - 2 Giveaways for my party guests.  I have NEW Alice in Wonderland Images available for the first time ever.  These will be in my shop later this week, but for now I'm offering them to you lovely readers for free!  If you'd like a chance to win be sure to comment to this post.  I will pick a winner for each of the giveaways - let me know which one you prefer or if you like them both.  I'll announce the winners next week!!

#1 has an Alice drinking from the bottle that says 'Drink Me', another image has the bottle with the note on it.  The other two images are of the Mad Hatter.

#2 has images of Alice and the Cheshire cat, one Mad Hatter, a set of wobbly tea cups and a tea pot.

Both of these are very cute, you can use them in scrapbooking, decoupage, or you can frame the images and group them together.  They'd look lovely anywhere, but especially in a studio or bedroom. 

And now - the Cucumber Sandwiches...

I looked at various recipes, but experimented a bit in the end, I used:

1/2 pkg. Cream Cheese

1 huge spoonful Mayo

1 huge spoonful Sour Cream

1 1/2 tablespoon Ranch Dressing Mix

Dash of Garlic Powder

Dash of Beau Monde

Plenty of Dill

Mix these ingredients and season to taste.  Refrigerate overnight.

Day of:  Cut crusts off of white, wheat and/or rye and pumpernickel breads, slice cucumbers thin and make sandwiches, I served mine with super sweet heirloom cherry tomatoes from my garden - delicious!

Thank you so much for visiting and do take a look at my other Mad Tea Parties from previous years if you haven't already - links along the ride side of my blog. 

Have a Great Weekend!  Don't forget to comment and leave your email address for a chance to win the giveaways!!

58Cherries

Vintage Cat and Fox Postcard Pics to Cheer Me (and You) Up

Having a rather tough few months - real life can be such a downer at times...so I was amusing myself with some cute vintage pictures/postcards of two of my favorite animals and thought I'd share some of my faves...

 So dapper!  I wish I could get my kitty to sit still long enough to wear one!

So sweet!  Who wouldn't be cheered up on your birthday with this on your doorstep?

 Or soothed when sick by these sweet kitties?

And then we have...

 I love foxes!  The fact that my last name means fox in gaelic is a point of pride.  I even named my dog, Fox.  (Okay, he's named for Fox Mulder from X-Files, but also because of our love of foxes - it's a win/win kinda thing...)

This postcard has both a kitty AND a couple of foxes...plus rabbits!  All my favorite animals in one!  If you like rabbits, too - do be sure to see my old post with vintage rabbit pics as well!!

Ah, I feel better now, don't you?  ;)  I spent the day running around craft stores trying to get more jewelry supplies and I just wore myself out.  I've had such a headache and backache all evening and it is just too darn hot for running around.  And now I checked the weather and see that it will get back up to 99+ degrees again this week.  How ever will I cope?? 

Have a great weekend and if you are where it is hot - stay cool and hydrated!!!  Drink lots of lemonade and hit the pool, I know I am!  The Mad Tea Party approaches...

Happy Birthday, Frida

It's Frida Kahlo's 105th birthday today. 

(July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954)

I admire the artist for many reasons, her independence...

Her art...

Her sense of style and fashion...

And her great passion and zest for life, even in the face of tragedy and pain. 

Happy Birthday, Frida!

A little of this a bit of that...

Need a bit of luck?  I've got a new pair of earrings in the shop that could help!

These are two #7 keys from two different typewriter sets.  They are antique white keys that are set on scalloped settings and strung on French wire hooks.

I love numbers and symbols so I love the little ampersands, too.  I kept them simple, but if you check my shop I also have a pair of typewriter key earrings with fancier Art Deco settings.  I like both styles.



 

And this necklace was a custom order for a wedding gift...

I'm sure they'll like it, this piece of jewelry makes an excellent gift for anyone who likes vintage items or wants a one of a kind piece of necklace.  The filigree setting is delicate and a pretty contrast against the simple typeface of the L. 

Mad Tea Party!!

It's that time again...

Yes, indeed!  It's a Mad Tea Party time!  This'll be my fourth year and I'm sure it'll be a great one!  There will be tea, sweets, mad guests and most importantly - Giveaways!!  Yes, multiple giveaways!  Be sure to come back and visity my blog on July 28th!!  And don't be late!!  ;)

Happy Monday!!

Popping in with a few new items...

Spring is always a busy time - tons of birthdays and events happen within a few short weeks, but now that it is summer I hope to be able to post again with some fun recipes and interesting pics soon.  But for now I wanted to let you guys know of a two new listings that went up today: 


                                      

I'm offering matching sets of necklaces and earrings with the French poodle balloon animals.  I got a request (from a balloon twister!) for a set and found I had no matching earrings and pendants so I went shopping and then had these made...

The first set is not the usual - I found some very pretty translucent like pale pink beads that look extra balloon-like and were luckily available in both sizes needed to make the pendant plus smaller earrings.  They look pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.  This pair is RESERVED for the customer I mentioned, but I do have another set I will put up soon.  Gotta grab these while I have them as I only got one strand each of these beads and I doubt I'll find more anytime soon.

 

The other pair are the traditional glass pearl beads - sky blue.  I offered earrings in this color before, but this is the first time I have a pendant to match.  This item SOLD already, but I have another set ready to post tomorrow.

So that's all for now, I'll be posting a few other colors soon.  I'm very happy that summer is finally here!!  ;)

Etsy Update the Second

I'm just tickled to announce my first pair of antique typewriter key earrings are in my shop! I love these Art Deco settings - they make great fancy earrings.

Find these pretty earrings here in my shop.

They are asterisk and underscore on one and question mark and slash on the other. They make a great gift for a budding writer or anyone that loves to read and write. When I finished making them I was sorely tempted to keep them for myself I love them so much!


I put fancy filigree settings on the back to make them every bit as pretty as the front!

And there are actually three settings on each earring - the back filigree setting, the main Art Deco setting and also a scalloped edged base setting - just look at them from the side...

These are really cool earrings - I've got to make myself a pair!! Check out my shop for bigger pics.

Also - another necklace in my shop...

A beautiful antique white key with a simple black font - this 'S' necklace makes me wish my name started with that letter!

Grab this pretty necklace here at my shop!

I love all the crackly shabby chic goodness in this key! So pretty. I put it on a delicate filigree setting and it just shines.

So many pretty pieces to make still - so little time. I'm waiting for an extremely slow package to come so I can finish off some pieces. Have a great day!