Moss Rock Festival- preview

I am completing pieces and adding them to my displays. Such a feeling of accomplishment when you see you work done and displayed! I love this funny Christmas tree that is just bands of greenery. It is perfect for display. I cannot wait to set it up at the festival. See mt sneak preview of the first wave of completed pieces below!

Outdoor art show season- my checklist for the season

It is always helpful to make a list- especially one that I can amend and use over and over again. Here is my running list for the art show season... in no particular order.

1. Solar phone charger- sure I could get a plug in kind, but I am outdoors at the shows and I can continue to keep the battery charged! Because your phone is basically your cash register these days.


2. THE box- the box contains pens, cash, the credit card swipers, extra tags, receipt book and extra receipt book, a pen to use with the phone, a kleenex or two, a bit of candy or gum. It is my main container for the register and everything stays in the box all year. I use a cigar box.


3. A dry erase board to keep the To-do list and the To-take list so I can make sure everything ends up in the car. I like a board that is magnetic so I can hang drawings from it.

4. floor plan for the tent

5. a list of any display items I need to make, fix, buy, or amend. This list always rolls because many shows are different and some of my shows in the coming year will be antiques as well as art. The next show I am using magnetic boards as my "necks" to display jewelry on. I can also attach info with a magnet!

Library candles now available at Interiors and Antiques in Vestavia

 I am very excited to carry a new line of candles in my booth space at Interiors and Antiques in Vestavia Hills! I smelled these in a friends shop about a year ago and remembered then when my sister suggested a line of candles.

 They are lovely to look at, great for small gifts, perfect for book club and hostess gifts.

Best of all the full size candles come in a box and the travel size is perfect for sampling all the scents. They would be perfect for under the tree and you can stock up on the travel size- which is actually a nice sized two wick tin of candle- for the gift shelf. My gift shelf is called the prize closet, because everything on that closet is a winner and something fun to share. Candles make a great gift for all the reasons people like candles, but also for the reason that you can give them year after year and not have to remember what you purchased for someone so as to not duplicate. With candles, they will have used it up but the time the holidays roll around next year!

I'd tell you my favorite... but they are all fantastic.

By the way, check out that nice barrister bookcase! It's is vintage from grandmother's basement. It did break my heart a little to pain quarter sawn 100 year old oak... but the interior of the shelves needed some light. In the end, I will be glad I have added the white paint.

6 days and counting- Moss Rock Festival

It is 6 days until Moss Rock Festival art show, or as I see it, 5 days until move in for Moss Rock Festival. I am busy, busy, busy with making for the art show, a new client project, and planning for my adventure to Scott's in Atlanta in 9 days.

Here a few working shots... or maybe beauty shots before I really trashed it by working.

Feverishly dyeing pieces for the show- some to be felted.

                                                   Some work table beauty shots.
                         I have moved my normal operations to the kitchen table for the great light!

Featured on Better Homes and Garden's blog

I was so excited to see that Better Homes and Garden's blog Style Spotters featured one of my vintage finds. Such a cute nursery that features great color, and pattern... and my fantastic brass tiger.

Check out the post! See something you love, click here to see the full article.

Appenzell handwork- a treat for the eyes and hands

I am a sucker for lovely handwork- lace making, drawn work, shadow work, delicate embroidery, and if it is on a handkerchief, even better. (If words like "drawn work" are foreign and you didn't think people actually made lace, please read on!) This weekend, I stumbled upon a collection of lovely handkerchief- 32 to be exact. Obviously the previous owner like lovely handwork as much as I do.

Though I appreciate the effort, skill level, and delicacy of the pieces, I do not always know what to call the style of the work. Today's stash was an education. The handwork word of the day is Appenzell.














Appenzell handwork comes from the region at the base of the Alps in Switzerland. The pieces you see most often is handkerchiefs from the 18th and 19th centuries.







The hallmarks of the pieces are Swiss batiste linen base fabric with linen threads used in the drawn work. Typically there is drawn work around the parameter as well as drawn work patterns on the inside. Also you will find satin stitch embroidery and shadow work with a small piece, like a handkerchief, will have the fancy work on every corner. These handkerchiefs were designed to be used by a bride with the more elaborate pieces are tablecloths and napkins.

Picks from this weekend- animals and nature

Are you a Georgia Bulldog fan? Love gnomes? Understand the luck that Koi fish can bring you? Well you should have been picking with me this weekend. But never fear, you can still have any of these! I'm selling and shipping.

Here's my picks from this weekend... so far!

Fitz and Floyd bulldog bookends from 1976. Fan-tastic!

Brass koi fish, needs a bit of polishing... which is my favorite thing for do. Nothing like it for job reward!

I think Ashford and Simpson were singing about these brass dogwood bookends. They are "solid as a rock" and heavy as one as well.

"Gernumblies Forestsi" for the Harry Potter Fans or Forest Gnome for the Tom Clark fans. Love this 10 inch gnome from 1983 and part of the Tom Clark Gnome series. He just seems perfect for this time of year!

If you are interested in any of these items, please contact me via the social buttons at the top of the page. Soon, they will be in my Etsy store, or available locally in my stall at Interiors and Antiques in the Vestavia Hills, AL area.

The lighter side of Scott's Antique Market

Today was a run to Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta. A wild ride where I was left in no doubt of Atlanta driver's death wish! I only screamed once- when a convertible tried to... well achieved... to squeeze between me and a big truck.

So, here are a couple of images from the lighter side of Scott's Market to balance the lunacy of the drive to get there!

A great collection of vintage holiday. 

love this! I found in "behinds the scenes" i think this might have been in a sold area... maybe I was not even supposed to be here. Either way, this is stellar and destine to be copied, by me!

Sale, Sale, Sale! Interiors and Antiques Market in Vestavia!

Interiors and Antique Market in Vestavia Hills is having a HUGE sale this month. In my shop, everything is 30% off! Cash, check or credit card! Let the shopping begin!

Halloween treat bags- DIY

I have created new items in my shop to dress up your Halloween treat bags! Halloween orange and black twine, orange and black seam binding, black doilies in two sizes or a kit with a mix. Easy to just add your candy and tissue paper.

Please click on the link to take you to the item!
Halloween Divine Twine


Super cute boxes for popcorn balls, bags of caramel corn, popcorn, or thickly layered caramel apples.


Perfect set-up for treat bags, includes, bags, twine, ribbon, doilies and tags all in one kit!

Then it dawned on me...

My mom has always said that her best thinking, maybe problem solving is a better term, time came just as she was waking up. Perhaps that is part of the origin on the phrase "dawning on me" from great thoughts occurring at dawn.
My dawn is more like daylight, I'm a late sleeper, because I tend to work late into the night. So, I wish my down looked more like the image to the right... maybe if it did, I'd not work so late and get up earlier!



Today was one of those dawning on me mornings. I know I was thinking, read solving, some problem as I was floating to consciousness and my dog was burrowing for a warmer spot on the bed. Then that thought morphed to a visual display problem I am having in my shop... or will have once the merch comes in. Then it dawned on me! I have an old barrister's "stacking bookcase" in the garage from my grandmother that was waiting for a refinish... but for display I just need a bit of interior paint because I need this display to look old. And, this really is old.

(please know this pic to the left it not actually the bookcase but a pic I found on the web... I really cannot get a decent pic from it's current location. But it looks like this one.)













Now my visual display musings do no compete with James Watson who dreamed of intertwining snakes and realized that it was the solution to what  DNA looks like as a double helix... but I wonder if that thought occurred to him not as a dream in the night but as part of the near walking dawn.

Bluff Park Art Show- this weekend

Bluff Park Art Show is one of my favorite art show, and not just because it is in my neighborhood. I love the size, the high quality, and the variety. This year is the 50th annual, maybe I will try to show in the 51st!


Great image for the show! Click HERE to go to the website. I'll post picture tomorrow from the show!

30% off sale in the shop at Interiors and Antiques

I have marked down selected items that, though I love them, it is time for them to find their forever home! You can find them at Interiors and Antiques in Vestavia Hills on Highway 31. My booth is number 6- Laurl Designs.

Fantastic tables, lamps, and vintage pieces are not 30% off, sometimes more, than the original price. It is time for me to move these pieces so that I can add new items for the holidays.





Here are some of the items just marked down!

Love this pair of tables!

Lovely tall black lamp with striking high end shade.                                        Great black shutter with ribbons for messages.

Great vintage bedside table or an end table! I love the pale moss green, of course it could easily be painted!