Thursday, November 3, 2011

Treasures to Come at Hidden House Artists' Sale 2011

Being a decorative artist is usually a solitary profession. Thank goodness for the old movies on TCM....

...Rolling Stones CDs....

....and my Audible audio book subscription.....



....to keep me company as I'm creating. Having an online shop on Etsy is a godsend, but sometimes you need to share and "exhibit" and mingle with flesh and blood people. Even better if those people are those you've known for years, and you add in wine and appetizers! For 12 years a group of artist friends and I have had an artsy gift sale in a private home in NW Portland that started as Keeper's Cottage and now has evolved into Hidden House.


 This year it is November 18th-20th and we've all been working hard to offer wonderful, hand-made and vintage treasures for us to give as gifts to those we love. Here are some new things from Velvet Leaf you'll see there- hope to see you! "Like" us on facebook to see what else is in store....

Dreamy vintage jewelry box

Vintage embellished leaded mirror wall hanging

Shadowbox with vintage beach postcard and beach glass

Oregon stumphouse vintage postcard and nature shadowbox

Pair of framed nature collections

Pair of wood scrollwork candlesticks with embellishments

Vintage framed "Mother" tribute

Vintage forest postcard collage

Vintage corkscrews pair in old frames

Vintage matchboxes in faux tortoiseshell frame

Night owl shadowbox

Vintage embellished metal sign Happy Place

<>http://www.etsy.com/listing/86879472/vintage-painting-paint-by-number-castle
Paint-by-number painting of castle landscape


Vintage shell light up display

Pillow made from vintage pirate flag

Vintage train case swamp life

Vintage Middle Eastern style hanging lamp

Old-time movies lunchbox or purse

Audubon birds and vintage embellisment lunchbox or purse

Frida Kahlo collaged lunchbox or purse

East of Eden vintage book lunchbox or purse

Caribou skull hip flask

Victorian silver glitter shadowbox

Bird in bird cage in nest on pedestal

Victorian treasure box with skull and deaf alphabet

Vintage wall vases made from old frame and bottles

Vintage frame with industrial collection

Vintage woodland opera glasses

Vintage bookpage opera glasses

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Evil blackberries

When I title this blog evil blackberries, you may have this in mind....
Evil blackberry image by fernando-gutierrez

But it's not that kind of evil blackberry. It's this kind:
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Blackberry image by farmersmarketonline.com


Last weekend my friends Judy, Kathy and my sister Leslie made plans to band together for an estate sale adventure. We decided we would meet for coffee, then go off to hunt for treasures, then meet our friend Colleen for lunch to celebrate her birthday. Good plan!


Then- I realized I had scheduled senior pictures for my son Wedge at 11:00 am- right in the middle of our adventure! Argh.


Judy said it was no problem, since she is the estate sale queen and knows all about how to find great sales. She said we would just find sales around the photographer's studio in Raleigh Hills, and I could bring my own car and leave when I needed to and then meet them for lunch. Well, that day, the sales were all in the beautiful area of Scholls, the rural area just past SW Portland, Oregon. So we drove and drove and drove through gorgeous farmland to some sales. And they were worth the drive.


At the first sale, Kathy picked up a little vintage case, opened it, and some oily brown stuff leaked onto her pristine white shirt. It was her favorite shirt and she was horrified. I suggested alcohol-based hand sanitizer, which works so well to take out greasy stains, but my handy bottle was empty. Luckily, Judy had a few drops left in a bottle, and after much dabbing, the stain started to come out! Meanwhile, I found a cool old padlock and some vintage Portland rock concert posters from the 1970's....


The next sale was a popular one and you had to park along a narrow country road. It was hard to get out of the car on the passenger side. But we came to the sale and Kathy said, "Hey, look at how well that hand sanitizer took out that brown stain on my favorite white shirt." We all looked down and saw----that she had very dark blue-black blackberry stains all over her shirt in the exact same place! She'd brushed against a bush full of ripe blackberries getting out of the car. I almost fell down in the driveway I was laughing so hard.


Anyway, the sale was full of stuff including a huge salt and pepper collection. I could have bought all of them and made plant markers for everyone, but just bought a couple and some other treasures.














I went off and had Wedge get his senior pictures taken- I was surprised how into it he got for being a cynical teenager. I think the photos will be great, and afterwards I went off and met my friends for lunch.


The funny thing is, Kathy kept finding blackberry stains on everything throughout the rest of our time together. Finally she figured out some blackberries had fallen into her purse too and everything was stained that beautiful purple-black color- her hands, her address book, the inside of her purse, EVERYTHING inside of her purse....


I love the treasures I found that day and they will soon be made into something cool, but the best part of the day was those damn blackberries.




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Leslie, Judy, and Kathy holding the blackberry-stained kleenex!



Here are some blackberry themed lovelies from some fresh etsy shops......


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small still life painting of blackberries by ShirleyArt

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vegan friendly blackberry eyeshadow by MuseMinerals




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