Hico Texas

If you have never been to Hico, TX then you need to make the trip. It's about two and a half hours from my house. Past Cleburne and Glen Rose. This weekend is a special antique shopping one. They had a weekend similar to this one in May, Mother's Day weekend in fact. A friend of mine went and said it was worth checking out. So another friend and I took off earlier this morning.

This is one of the streets and lots of the buildings have signs painted on their sides. I should have got more pictures of the signs. On the way back out of town I saw one with Dr. Pepper on it and one with a Coke advertisement.

I just thought this column on one of the buildings was great!

This is Homestead the store. It is housed in the old Opera House. Fabulous vignettes and displays inside the store!

Love the shoes hanging above this bed! Wouldn't you love to hang these animal hoof hooks in your house? NOT!! But they were fascinating.

Another view of the shoes above the bed.

Lots of great linens and bedding to buy.

Found out these wire deals are industrial whisks. Cool huh?

This is not a very good shot but it's letters hanging up above a table.

Outside the Homestead store there was a tent set up with lots of vendor booths. I even recognized a few that are normally at Canton.

I thought these were cute! Hold a photo or a piece of collage art.

This is a wonderful metal I guess shelf or something that has been painted with chalk board paint then decorated. The spoon hook is very creative.

Can't say enough about these birds. Some had collars on. Really cute!

These were lined up on a door. The scrolls are fabulous.

These are dried hydrangeas. Beautiful! This booth was called Bloom & Bee Swanky http://beeswanky.com. They are located in Waco, TX. Really nice stuff.




This is also in the same booth. I really liked the birds hanging from the branches. The silver shoes were cool too.
Same booth, Bloom & Bee Swanky. I didn't get a picture but there were these wonderful lavender covered chairs there. Very modern. Of course fabric with script printed on it is so in right now. I saw lots of pillows and furniture covered in this kind of fabric.

Check this out. It is made of book pages. So creative!

Some Fall decoration.






Other booths in the tent.


It was really nice to get out of Dallas and see the countryside. Ate lunch at a small steak place and the onion rings were to die for! Fresh cut onion and hand battered. The steak fingers were wonderful too. Even the Texas toast tasted better than normal.

Paper Cowgirl Treats

Paper Cowgirl http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/ is this coming weekend and it is sure to be a fun Halloween themed experience. I have never attended any classes at the previous retreats. Only vendor night at the last one in June of this year. Which was really a great night, and I love Halloween, so I decided to sign up for this event.

We are to bring treat bags and name badges to the retreat. My friend Mary is going with me and I decided to make our name tags and bags. I forgot I had this cute little pumpkin face die cut from Sizzix http://www.sizzix.com/ . So I used it on the name badges. Then I found these tote bags at Target and got an idea. All I needed was a large felt spider, rhinestones and some stickles! They were decorated in a flash!
I also used the Halloween definitions and mini flags from House of 3 http://houseof3.com/ to complete the name badges. Check out their other Halloween printables. They have some wonderful stuff! I can never get enough ruffles! I used orange shiny tulle for these.

Halloween Swap Projects

I finished up a Halloween swap project today. These paper mache cones were really fun to make! I painted them with orange acrylic paint then ruffled some black crepe paper on the sewing machine to go around the top. Sewing the crepe paper on the machine makes the ruffles so much more even, and it doesn't take very long at all. Then I glittered a copy of an old postcard and mounted it on a die cut black card. Hot glued that on the cone. Oh I did add some tinsel around the ruffled crepe paper at the top. Tied ribbons on the wire hanger and hung a crystal on the bottom of each cone.



These are some pete cups I painted and embellished with German Glass Glitter and a copy of an old postcard. This crepe paper I bought already ruffled. It is much smaller than the black used above. Not sure of the manufacturers name that makes it. I also spread orange stickles on the painted areas of the cup. These are for two of my friends. I hope they like them!

Halloween Garland

I taught this garland at an art group meeting I had last week. It's very easy and just made mostly with strips of pattern cardstock. I added some skeletons and ribbons for a hauntingly good decoration.

End of Year Mouse Cards

I finished up the Mouse cards for this year. Here is October. He ate to many marshmallows!

This is November. Funny that the month before is sleeping too. Must be all that eating! LOL

This is December. Everyone enjoys presents. Even a mouse!

Book Folk Art Angel

A few months ago I gave a dear friend of mine this angel made from a book. I bought him at Canton and mentioned it in another post because I had gotten myself one before. Here is the link for the original post http://artstudio522.blogspot.com/2010/08/solder-crown-folk-art-angel.html. I did not post a photo of her angel so here it is hanging in her home and a close-up of him. The friend use to be a teacher so I thought the book was perfect!

Halloween Art

I put some Halloween decorations out this past weekend. Not a bunch. I do have lots but have not wanted to pull it all out this year. I am the one that has to do it all and I have not been in the mood. This little pretty sits on my kitchen table.

I bought this pumpkin potpourri in downtown McKinney on Saturday at a shop that sells primitive items. I have forgotten the name of the shop, bad me! The bottle brush tree came from Smitten http://www.smitteninmckinney.com/ ! I do remember that and the skeleton hand was purchased at Heirloom Antiques right off the square there. McKinney is a fun place to shop!

Oh bought the spider on top of the glass at Michaels.

Here is a close-up of inside the jar.


These gorgeous pumpkins are the faux ones you can purchase at Michaels. I covered them in black lace. They are stitched up on the bottom and that is covered with felt to finish things off nicely. I added a little tag to the stem. These are going to some special friends of mine. I hope they like them! I am keeping one for me!! I saw this idea in one of the new Halloween magazines at the book store. I think it was a Home and Garden one.

These witch wands were really fun to make! There is one on display at Stamp Asylum so come by and take a look up close. The store has the stamp I used in stock. The witch was embossed with black ink and clear powder on the painted wooden disk. I drilled a hole in the disc and glued in the painted dowel. Both the dowel and the disk were purchased at Hobby Lobby. Silver German glass glitter was glued on the disk with Glossy Accents. I sewed the black crepe paper on the sewing machine to ruffle it and attached it to the back of the disc with hot glue. I did cut a circle from decorative cardstock and attach it to the back of the disc to finish it off. The ribbons were hot glued on and a button was added to the center of them. The drilling of the hole for the dowel was the hard part because the disc is not a flat surface, it is beveled. But it can be done! Just be careful with the power tools!