My First Etsy Treasury - "Pee-Wee in Love"!

Please check out my very first Etsy Treasury called Pee-Wee in Love! It's getting a lot of likes and reblogs in my Tumblr blog, so be sure to check it out there too!

Do You Tumblr? Check Out My Bike's Photo Blog!

I really really love Tumblr blog, and I've had one for my business for quite some time where I post photos of my works as well as photos of interiors that I've been collecting for almost twenty years. You can see that blog here.

I recently got my hands on the bike of my dreams- an Electra Pajama Party in green polka dot and am completely obsessed with it. I started riding it around my neighborhood and texting pictures of it in different locations to my friends when I decided to share those photos with the rest of the internet world. You can see photos of my bike in various locations in New York in my new Tumblr blog http://greenpolkadotbike.tumblr.com :) I don't have too many photos posted yet, but I plan on taking some trips into Manhattan soon, so rest assured, there will be some fun photos coming up! I also have a few photos of other Electra bikes on there, as well as various lime green items as well as cute bikes.

This is one of my photos, taken in front of The Sanctuary of Our Lady of La Salette Chapel in Queens, New York. Go check out my pictures and I hope you enjoy them!

My Plush Matryoshka doll is in an Etsy Treasury!

Thank you Miss Mellie's Parlor for including Birdie, one of my Plush Matryoshka dolls in her awesome "To Russia With Love" Etsy Treasury! And take a moment to check out her Etsy Shop, where she has the prettiest pin-up girl inspired accessories on Etsy!

You can see more pictures of my nesting dolls, all of which are embroidered with vintage Kismet cotton thread and vintage fabrics on my Flickr photostream :)

Personal Home Project: The Yellow Chair

I have this old chair that was given to me ten years ago that was used in a window display from an old job. I don't know the history of it, I just know that it's old, hand carved, and stuffed with horse hair that collects on the floor under it any time someone dares to sit on it. Soon after getting the chair, I dug up this fantastic vintage Italian upholstery weight fabric made of silk and linen in bright yellow. It's a damask with unusual tropical animals, including a miscfhievous monkey and a cute Kookaburra. I upholstered the chair and added a great vintage French gimp in this color sommewhere between chartreuse and olive.

Sadly I didn't back the fabric, and after years of abuse from house guests, it was no longer visually appealing...

Fortunately I have just enough of the yellow fabric for one more run of upholstery. But I wanted a little more... I decided to do some tattoo inspired embroidery on the seat and back of the chair. I'm a huge fan of the tattoo artistry of Ashley Love, so I crated a design inspired by her bird cage tattoo and got to work.

Along with collecting vintage fabrics, I also collect vintage threads.  I selected some shiny rayon embroidery floss as well as some silk shoe thread from W. C. Thairlwall & Co. Inc., and mixed them with some brightly colored cotton embroidery floss.  The old Embroidery floss tends to twist and knot up as I work with it, but I absolutely love the result!

I'm about one-third of the way through this design. I'll post more photos as I go along. I'm pretty busy with a ton of different projects going on right now, but I'll do my best to get this one done before the end of October. Stay tuned!

My Vintage Fabric was Featured in an Etsy Treasury! Thank You Roxanna Bikadoroff, AKA Snazzy888!

My vintage Italian fabric named "Les Saltimbanques" in color burgundy was featured in Roxanna Bikadoroff 's Etsy treasury named Kismet (ironically the name of the vintage threads I sew and embroider exclusively with :) Thank you Roxanna! You can click on the photo below for a close up.

Roxanna Bikadoroff is a well known illustrator from White Rock, BC (her works can be seen on her website www.roxannamundi.ca and on her Facebook art album page). Her Etsy store is absolutely incredible! She describes her store as follows: "My Snazzy Boutique concept is based on the boutiques my mother used to take me to in Montreal in the 1960s/70s and the indoor emporiums with many little booths/open shops inside which you find in London." Roxanna also has a blog called Roxanna's Gallerie Mystique featuring her enchanting artwork. Go take a peek!

I love everything in her shop, and I do mean EVERYTHING, but if I had to pick a favorite, I would have to pick Oriental Beauties - a pair of hand painted / mixed media Chinoiserie Harpies. These miniature paintings are super feminine, and have an incredible amount of detail.  I would love to have them in my sewing studio. They would surely inspire me to create!