Opening A Little Shop In Old Town, Lilburn, Georgia

Opening the second week of January 2011!

I will be open for business the second week of January! Can't wait. The Little Shop of Arts and Antiques will be a gathering spot where I hope you will come and sit a spell over a cup of coffee! In addition to being a place for some sweet antiques and gift items, there will be night events with book signings, writer workshops and gallery openings!

If you are a jewelry maker or other type of artist and would like a small event, please contact me! If you've published a book, let's get you in for a signing! I have some special people lined to teach writing classes.
Follow my shop blog and see how this all comes together! As soon as I am in business I will be posting events and updates there.

Oh, dreaming of a shop of one's own is so fun. I've missed being at Lakewood if anyone remembers me from there! Since then, I've written a book, launched an online dog magazine, started my own publishing company, and now am opening a little shop. I am so happy to have come full circle back to what I love!

Please visit my blog and say hello. Leave a comment with your e-mail so I can put you on my events mailing list!

Have a Merry Christmas and we'll meet again in the New Year!

Christmas Decorating With A Little Help From The Thrift Store

My antique mantel is adorned with my buys from Last Chance Thrift Store in Decatur, Georgia. I love my Dorothy red glitter shoes with a shiny brite ornie in them. The Santa is a bit vintage. And on the modern side, the gingerbread metal tree and reindeer. I love the beaded bag with Christmas colors.

A Merry Christmas Thrift Store Style

I am the laziest gal in town. I just did not feel like climbing the attic stairs to bring down my Christmas decorations this year. My old feather tree in its Victorian metal stand is exactly where I left it two years ago. To the left of the of the pull down stairs on the attic floor.

Once again this year I headed to my favorite thrift shops and Goodwill. I knew there would be treasures enough to decorate my mantels, and trees with twinkling lights, to set on my tables. A quick fix to a lovely Christmas decorating plan, cheap as can be, and not a box to unpack.

I did this last year. Bought all my Christmas decorations at Goodwill! Then, after the holiday, I donated them back. Now that is what I call recycling.

I am doing the same this year. I did find a few treasures that may get tucked away with my vintage collection in the attic. Someday I will bring them all back down and visit with them again. But not this year! It's a thrifty decoration season for me again!

The farm table at the end of my kitchen is a catch all for treasures! From silverplate, nicely tarnished, to frogs peeking out around tin boxes of Peppermint Bark. The tree was a purchase at Last Chance. It has a straw wreath with a poinsettia hiding its base. The tiny white ornaments, a huge bag, filled the tree completely. The bag cost 69 cents! Plus tax, of course.

Every tree needs an angel! 99 cents! And she is so talented, a little ballerina.

 Kermit insists on greeting Santa in the dining room. Metal wreath 99 cents. Kermit $1.99. Pink window mirror, priceless, from a favorite antique dealer.

Vintage tinsel boxes at 29 cents each, tall brass candlestick $4.99, and my little wooden angel 99 cents. Part of a display on my living room mantel.

A few Santa books and a lovely silverplate pitcher with fake Poinsettia compliment my garden statue collection on an end table. My fake Poinsettias are safer for a house full of dogs that sometimes like to help themselves to a tasty treat.

Foxy is so bedazzled by the brilliance of the season, she had to put on her cool shades.

From Our House To Yours, Warmest Wishes For A Wonderful Holiday Season!

A Little Cottage In St. Augustine And A Mother's Love

I love Geraniums. I can't get them to grow at my house. They wither, dry up, or rot from overwatering. On the other hand, my mother seems to have a green thumb and a charming eye for gardening. Her small cottage backyard is blooming in Technicolor!

It doesn't hurt that her garden blooms against robins egg blue!



A Bougainvillea stands tall where it was planted a few months ago.

Is it that Florida sun or my Mom's green thumb and eye for color? My bet is she is hard at work in her garden. The sun would fry my garden, and often does in Atlanta. And I don’t have the patience to watch over my plants to make them bloom.

But Mothers seem to do everything with love, from gardening, to taking care of her friends and family. Love, that ingredient that is important to cultivate the best in everything, from plants to people!

A nurturing Mother has that special touch that makes her children grow into the best they can be.

I know mine continues to help me blossom and showers me with love on the days I feel like withering on the vine!

A Thanksgiving hug to my mother that is full of love!

Halloween In The Garden

Vintage Postcards with a delicate Halloween message! 

Wishing you a Halloween that fills your garden with dreams of beauty!

Vintage Photos To Celebrate Time In A Garden

I love old photographs of women in the garden. For your viewing pleasure a few Victorian women enjoying the final days of summer.

I wonder if this grew to become Stone Mountain?

If I had watered more, perhaps my potted plants would have looked like this!

Now this looks more like the growth in my garden!

The perfect Garden Party look. I adore her hat.



The Awful Truth - My True Confession

A recent book review of The Unfaithful Widow by Helen Ross in Australia refers to me as naughty and cheeky. Since I had my fall on June 29, and my rotator cuff surgery on July 12, I have been behaving badly! Trying to enjoy being the laziest gal in town. So today I am confessing my awful truths on how naughty I've been recovering from surgery! Check out Helen's blog and meet one of the most charming gals around. Leave a comment below on your true confession on how naughty you've been!

My dear, that simply won't do.

The Awful Truths Since I've Been In My Sling:

I have not watered my garden and my plants

are now brown!

I eat ice cream at night and have gained five pounds.

I've found I like taking mid-afternoon naps rather than going to the gym.

My dogs were not let out timely since I couldn't move well - now I am housebreaking them again.

It's fun to do nothing and then talk about it on my cell.

I haven't been able to make my jewelry, but still order vintage parts.

I bought a beautiful cottage dresser and can't lift it out of the van.

I drive in my sling with one hand, but just to meet friends for dinner.

Margaritas are better than pain pills (of which I have taken zero pills, but have downed a few frozen Margaritas!)

I had to buy larger jeans to pull up with one hand.

I still dream of kissing the boys and making them cry!

What are your awful truths?

Visit a wonderful free art site! I found these charming images there. Art Freebies, a great blog you will love.

Meet Eliza From Canada And Her Wonderful New Jewelry

Well I haven't been visiting my own blog here since I've been working on promoting my book and I had rotator cuff surgery which has slowed me down a bit! My new friend Eliza who I met on my blog book tour last month has designed a wonderful jewelry line that had its launch this week. I am giving you a link to her blog and putting some of her comments on her dream job here. Be sure to check her out. You'll love Eliza - I do! Talented, funny and so cool! (excuse any typos, I am typing with one finger while arm is in sling.)

Lily Pads
Triple strand 20″ necklace with 3″ extension chain.
Tidbit: the water lily is the birth flower of July. We have them in our water pond and our white Koi, Alice, loves to hide amongst them. Price $35.

In Nancy Anderson’s book Work With Passion in Midlife and Beyond, she says the key to your dream job is to do what you truly love. The rest, she assures, will simply fall into place.


What do I truly love?


My generic answer is being creative. But it’s more than that.


I love to work with my hands and my mind at the same time


I love variety


I love my creative endevours to enhance the well being of others


It all started out so innocently. On a whim I went out and bought some beads, wire and chain, and made myself a necklace.


My mind was fully engaged figuring out colour combinations and bead placement. My hands were bending wires and stringing beads. Way cool!


Next thing I know, different designs are flying into my head. To the point, I was actually having very vivid dreams of designs and waking up not only remembering the dreams, but able to turn the dreams into actual necklaces.


Then a friend wanted one for her very own. Then another friend. Then another friend. Soon my friends were wandering around wearing my necklaces with big smiles on their faces.


I was working with passion, and just like Nancy promised it would, everything simply fell into place.


There I was with my dream job!


Today, I am thrilled to share my passion with the Silver & Grace community and introduce the Silver & Grace Jewelry Collection.


Each piece in the Collection is inspired by one of the four classical elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water. By thinking about an element as I create a design, I truly believe I infuse the piece with the essence of that element. The Collection as a whole represents Spirit.


Quantities of each design are deliberately kept low so that only a handful of Collection piece owners share the essence of that design.


On Fridays, I will feature a single design which will be discounted for seven days. Make sure you come back each Friday to check out the feature design and get your discount code.

However … !!!


To honour the gift of passion, until July 29th, 2010, all the designs are discounted 10%.


To immediately start your own Silver & Grace Collection:


head over to the Silver & Grace Collection store by clicking here


select what calls to you


at checkout enter discount code A8889


It’s as simple as that!

May each piece in your Silver & Grace Jewelry Collection bring a smile to your face.

What beautiful jewelry. I may go shopping myself. Having a bad hair day (days) with my sling and a piece of inspired jewelry may just inspire me.

Check out Eliza's blog Silver and Grace for the woman over 40, but for anyone who loves feeling beautiful at any age.

PRETTY IN PINK

Flowers really do intoxicate me. ~Vita Sackville-West

I love pink. This lovely cart was a display item at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Gift Shop last year and I brought it quickly when they decided to sell it. I painted it pink. It sits out in the back flower bed and a few weeks ago my tiny pale pink roses started to burst forth giving me a Kodak moment I had to take advantage of. The large garden angel is a vintage iron piece that is as tall as any human. I call her Anne, who was my special angel.

We Have A Winner!  The Lone Dollier.

Congrats to The Lone Dollier for winning this lovely one-of-a-kind botanical necklace! Winner picked with a random number generator. Check back the first of June for a new giveaway worth commenting about!

Perfect Sunday Morning - What Do You Do On Sundays?

Hot Summer In The City! Or Rather My Yard!

Oh, how fun it is to be lazy. I rolled out of bed at 10 AM (although six dogs were up and let out at 6 AM and then all back to bed). Filled my cup with coffee and sat out on my new deck. I love my new deck. A luxury for me with all the work I had to do on the house. The dogs and I let the morning sun shine on us, a few ran down the steps to roll on the grass, and April In Paris took off after a squirrel. She was stopped by the fence and I think I saw the squirrel wave goodbye as it dashed up a tree!
What do you like to do on a Sunday morning? Today I am the laziest gal in town. My town that is.
The fabu deck built by my handy man Jimmy!

The infamous pea gravel sand box which makes me crazy. Looks like a litter box! Live and learn!

My Thrift Store Chairs - $6.00 each. Cool.

My David Austin rose finally blooming.

Can't wait for my flowers to start growing! Thyme anyone?

My little wagon from the thrift store $9.00

My resting spot for my late dog Jake. You can read about him in my book The Unfaithful Widow, available on Amazon.com

OK, we've had enough fun!

Oh these smell good! But can I eat them?

Foxy Likes To Sniff The Pansies

Yes, dear Foxy. There are edible flowers. You Can Eat Flowers From the Viola Family.

A perfect spring treat! Pansy popsicles!

Ingredients:
Lemonade made from dry mix and water. Violas or pansies.
Directions:
Mix lemonade as per package instructions.
Pour into forms or paper cups about ¾ of the way full. (Use small paper cups). If using paper cups place cups on a baking sheet.
Place a few pansies or violas into the lemonade and place cups or forms in the freezer.
If using cups wait a few hours then when mixture is hard enough but still soft insert popsicle sticks and continue freezing until hard.
Pop out of form or cups and serve.
Yummy and cool. A perfect treat while sitting on your patio after a hard day of gardening!

PS: Don't forget to leave a comment for the free giveaway on May 21st.

Win This Time In A Garden Necklace By May 21st

Remember to Enter!

Just a reminder friends that you are missing a chance for a fab one-of-a-kind necklace.  I am always confused, I have had lots of hits but maybe the fact you can win something is not clear! So here is your daily reminder. Enter a comment or become a follower on this blog by May 21st and you may win.  Vintage beetle on large piece of Turquoise colored Howite. Chunky gem stone necklace chain.

A little garden elegance to greet the first of May.

Invasion Of The Caterpillars, Floral City, Florida

Remember to leave a comment or become a follower to be in the May 21st drawing to win a one-of-a-kind necklace by Time In A Garden design. You can leave a comment on any entry on or after April 12th to be included.

Photos from my sis in Floral City, Florida.  So creepy they are beautiful. Nature and spring. Gotta love it.

Next time I complain about the ants crawling over the hood of my '79 Corvette, I'll remember my sister's tires.  I think I'll stick with the ants.

Yikes!

Welcome Spring In All Its Glory!

photos from Pam King

Vintage Seed Catalogs

Remember to check my April 12th entry for my giveaway this month. Enter a comment there to be included in the drawing on May 21st. Don't miss out!

Is there anything as lovely as vintage seed catalog illustrations?

Dreaming of an old fashion garden today!

Remember to leave a comment to be entered in the free giveaway!