Tweet ~ tweet!

Good morning! I've been up early, drinking coffee & browsing the net... with my doors open so I could hear the birds singing and see the sun's rays bursting through the trees. What a beautiful day!

Speaking of birds singing ~ my mixed media collage, "I Love to Hear the Little Bird Sing" has been featured today! Just go to etsyitemoftheday.com (the May 31st post) and you'll see it. I also have a little thing in the sidebar at the left that will take you to it. A big thank you to Jackie for asking to feature this piece!

I hope all of you have a gloriously blessed day!

Lana

of

Honeysuckle Lane

~*~

handwrought Simple Joys

I thought I'd share a few sneak peeks of the things I'm working on. Items that are elaborately embroidered with silk ribbon are absolutely beautiful, however I haven't done too many fancy pieces. For some reason, I tend to gravitate towards the simple, pared down look ~ though you wouldn't think that when you visit my home! What you see are Simple Joys, nothing grand, but little things that bring a smile to my face and hopefully to yours.

There's not a lot to talk about today, and I should get back to work. I have coneflowers, beebalm, ferns, snowdrops, daisies, bleeding hearts, sunflowers, hummingbirds, honeybees, and dragonflies flowing from my fingers to the fabrics and I'd better work while they flow so freely!

These items (and many, many more) will be available in my booth at the Lavender Festival in Oak Ridge on June 20th.

~enjoy!~

~*~

this and that...

Ooooohhh..... Sam was feeling soooo good! He was rolling around in the grass, and purring.

And you know why?

Catnip!!!

Oh he really loves that stuff! I have it growing along the side of the house and it has taken over the entire bed! When I'm outside and Sam is nearby, I pull off some leaves and crush them a little, drop them on the ground and here he comes. I used to have a cat that everytime he ate it he became very hyper, not Sam though, he just loves to chew on it and then roll around in it.

The little rambling rose that I brought from my parents' homeplace is blooming. Mom loved that rose and I made sure to dig it up and bring it here to keep it going when she passed away.

I don't remember the name of it though; I wish I could. I do know it came from another old homeplace years and years ago. I think it's so pretty.

~*~

I finished another wreath this morning and listed it on etsy. This is another one from a vintage Alice and Jerry book:

I don't have little boys anymore, mine are 19 and 24, but I still enjoy making things for children and children's rooms.

Thanks for dropping by today!

~*~

Honeysuckle Lane / Simple Joys Paperie work in print!

I happened to be thumbing through a magazine at the store several days ago and saw a familiar name, so I decided to splurge that day and purchase the issue. Later, when I was looking at the articles again, I saw something familiar hanging in front of a fireplace ~ one of my glitter cones (!) similar to the ones in the photo below. If you'd like to see, it's the Spring/Summer issue of Romantic Country, page 16.

I emailed the lady in the article to congratulate her about being featured and she said there would be an article that mentions her in the June 2009 issue of Sunset magazine. She also said she thought they would be using a photo of her door with one of my paper wreaths as the decoration! I can't seem to find Sunset here in TN, so I looked for it online, and today the June issue came out. Here's the feature: http://www.sunset.com/travel/southwest/santa-fe-toca-activities-00400000046181/. If you look at the small photos on the left underneath the large photo (in that link), you'll see my wreath hanging on a beautiful blue door. You can click on the pic to enlarge it. The wreath is similar to the one below. It is made with vintage sheet music instead of my usual vintage book pages.

As far as I know, my work wasn't mentioned since it just happened to be part of the decor, but no matter, I was thrilled to just see it in print!

I've got to come down from the clouds (cloud nine to be exact) as I have A LOT of silk ribbon pillows to get embroidered... in less than four weeks... yikes! I used to dye some of my ribbons, and hadn't done that for some time, but will hand dye more ribbon this year to use in my embroideries and ribbon rose accessories.

I'll try to check back in later this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Take Care & God Bless,

Lana

~*~

sprechen Sie Deutsch?

...neither do I, so... maybe I should have kept the 1898 German Composition book instead of making a wreath from it? Naw......!

It seems the my web host chose all of Memorial holiday to do web maintenance and I wasn't able to update my website, and still can't update it this morning. So... I listed this German text wreath on etsy, instead of on my website. Just click on the photo to read more about the wreath and to see more photos, and perhaps to make a purchase!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Lana

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Happy Memorial Day

My country,' tis of thee,

sweet land of liberty,

of thee I sing;

land where my fathers died,

land of the pilgrims' pride,

from every mountainside let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,

land of the noble free,

thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,

thy woods and templed hills;

my heart with rapture thrills,

like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,

and ring from all the trees

sweet freedom's song;

let mortal tongues awake;

let all that breathe partake;

let rocks their silence break,

the sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to thee,

author of liberty,

to thee we sing;

long may our land be bright

with freedom's holy light;

protect us by thy might,

great God, our King.

And the winners are.....

One of these days, I really will find out about the random number generator that makes giveaways so easy, but for now, I wrote the names by hand (yep, my printer went out this morning), cut them by hand, folded them by hand, and drew out the names by hand!


How do you like my old ironstone compote? You know what I paid for it?

Four dollars! I thought that was a pretty good deal considering how heavy and big it is.

Ok, let's get to the drawing. The first name drawn was.....


DOT!

and the second name was...


LORALYNN!

Dot will have first pick of the pillows, and Loralynn may choose from the remaining two pillows.

(Update ~ Dot chose the red beebalm and Loralynn chose the blue fern and both ladies will be getting a little something extra to go with these. I have listed the pink coneflowers in my etsy shop... and it has already sold, thank you!)

I really appreciate everyone who entered and those who posted about it on their blogs.

Be sure to come back for a visit now and then since you know where to find me!

Go to this post to see all the photos of the pillows.


{pictured below: Pink Coneflowers, Red Beebalm, Blue Fern}

Have a safe and fun Memorial weekend!


Take Care & God Bless,
Lana
~*~

A nice surprise this morning and in love with aqua...

I went to etsy this morning to spiffy up my shops a bit, and look what I saw on the front page ~ a treasury picked by etsy admin that included one of my vintage ribbon roses!

What a nice surprise! Don't you just love everything in that collection? It's hard for me to choose a favorite, but I really like those simple crystal dangle earrings.

~*~

I have loved aqua and its variations for a long time, but lately it seems like nearly everything I make has shades of aqua in it.

This first piece, though not aqua, does have blue. I enjoy making these folk art fraktur paintings once in a while.

This is another acrylic painting / collage I recently did. It has a very distressed, crackled background, and I couldn't resist adding little vintage words and paper birds:


...and here are several soldered charms I made last week using aged and watercolored papers:

...and this last piece was something I had wanted to make for a while after finding the wonderfully tarnished and aged vintage brooch in Karla Nathan's shop. I found an aqua suede belt, a few brass components such as the chain and jump rings...

and added a pretty little glass flower to the dangly thing on the chain...

If you'd like to see more of it, just click on one of the photos, or go here.

~*~

My giveaway is still going on this week, just scroll on down and read the post below this one.

Have a lovely day!

Lana

~*~

200th post / 2 years DOUBLE GIVEAWAY!

Ok everyone, this is my 200th post, and I passed up my 2nd year of blogging a month or two ago. Whoo-hoo!!!

I'm going to make this easy-peasy to enter. Just comment on THIS BLOG POST (the one you are reading right now) and you'll be entered in the giveaway. Please make sure there's a link back to your blog or email, or add your email address to your comment ~ so I can contact you if you win.

To have your name entered a second time, tell about and link to this giveaway on your blog (and please come back and let me know).

The giveaway ends Friday night (the 22nd) at 10pm central time. I'll draw 2 winners Saturday morning (the 23rd) and announce them that day. Hopefuly THIS time I can figure out that random number generator thing.

What are the 2 prizes? Original silk ribbon embroidered pillows! I will have a few for the winners to choose from. Thanks for playing along and good luck!

Lana

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Simply Miscellaneous

I tried to write a title for this post, but it was going to end up looking like an entire paragraph!

There's several things to share so I'll jump right in:

Update: Since I don't want to use my 200th post yet, I'm adding this bit of news here:

Thank you to Chris of Shop Indie Online for featuring my Vintage French Text Paper Wreath today! You may see it and all the other features here: http://www.shopindieonline.com/blog/archives/2390.

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I wanted to share with you my birthday gift from Suzanne / Painter of the Past / Pear Tree Primitives. First of all, she painted this WONDERFUL early American style portrait in colors that I love! It's perfect and matches my decor to a T! She also added some pretty cards made from prints of the portrait, a lovely old tarnished silver platter / tray, and a old, soft leather sewing kit / manicure kit that still has some tools and needles in it! It's great to have a friend who "gets" you, isn't it?

Next, I was going to tell you about the May Apple theme that's going on at American Folk Art right now and show you what I had for sale. I painted a folk art style botanical of the May Apple plant. They grow in abundance here on the plateau in the spring. After listing this watercolor yesterday, it sold last night (thank you dear customer!) but be sure to visit the link to see all the other offerings. Suzanne has some new items listed there too!

Another item I recently made is one of my Bird in Hand pieces. This one is made of linen, cotton, velvet, and paper. Everything has been aged with a coffee / vanilla mixture and smells delicious! If you'd like to purchase it, there's a link at the top left of this page.

And last, but not least, I am very close to my 200th post AND I think I just passed my 2nd year blog anniversary, so....... I'll be having a giveaway in a few days. My next (200th) post will be to announce the details of the giveaway, and my 201st post will be to announce the winner.

Thanks for visiting today!

Take Care & God Bless,
Lana
~*~

Happy Sunday!

I have finally posted again on my Simple Joys, no more, no less... blog. My intentions are to keep it simple, without a lot of chatter, just sharing photos and verse.

I have made another wreath, this time with a few more paper whimsy embellishments. Visit my etsy shop, Simple Joys Paperie, to read more. The beautiful silhouette was a gift from my friend, Suzanne of Pear Tree Primitives / Painter of the Past.

I hope all of you have a beautifully blessed day!

Lana

~*~

Whimsical Artwork

(update... SOLD ~ thank you so much!)

A fun and whimsical piece I recently painted is now for sale at Prim and Whimsy Girls.

Click the photo to go to my page and please be sure to visit all the other pages, too!

Generous Bloggers & Thoughtful Friends

I've been meaning to share a few beautiful creations with you, and have finally taken the time to sit down and show you.

First, let me share with you this fun necklace that I won:

Dana, at DLK Designs, was having a giveaway and I entered... and won! I was very surprised (& happy) when she emailed me asking for my mailing information. I had seen her jewelry on etsy and was already an admirer of her work. It features a snippet from a vintage map of London. And look at the little paper birds that were in the package.... so sweet!

Thank you again, Dana!

~*~

Next, look at this lovely thank you gift from Eileen at Star's Fault:

She made Day Journals for everyone who entered her giveaway. What a generous lady!

And extremely talented too! I love mine!

~*~

Both of these extremely gifted ladies have etsy shops, so when you visit their blogs via the links given above, don't forget to visit their shops, too!

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I had one more thing (well a group of things) to share and didn't have very good light today because of the rain. I'll take photos tomorrow and share some things that my dear friend, Suzanne, sent to me a while back.

See you tomorrow....

~*~

Americana Offerings and a Gallery Hop!

Hi everyone ~ this (I think) will be one of two posts today. I have things I'd like to share: a giveaway win, a gift for entering a contest, a birthday gift ~ from back in February ~ yes, I am that far behind! I will be back tonight with those ~ really! I have just been sooooooo busy and am finally seeing the light of day... jusy a teeny-tiny bit.

So for now, I'd like to invite you over to TDIPT Mercantile for an Americana themed shopping experience. You'll be sure to find something you like!

Also, I have re-joined Prim and Whimsy Girls and will have a little something for sale in their Gallery Hop tomorrow. I belonged to Prim and Whimsy Girls when it first began, then decided to drop out when I had way too much going on. I still have a lot going on, but in different ways.

(the snippet above is a peek at what I will have on PWGL

just look for Honeysuckle Lane when you visit the site.)

I have marked several things 1/2 off on my website and they will remain on sale for a while. I am getting ready to start work on different things and need to clear out overstock. Come by and see what's on sale: Honeysuckle Lane. The sale prices are marked in red.

Don't forget to come back tonight or in the morning to see a few beautiful things I was blessed to receive from some very nice ladies...

~*~