The Wood's Secret Garden

Vintage jewelry, ribbon, beads, glitter, ceramic tile, vintage cotton trim, and a pine cone. Voilà!   When I was a little girl, I remember seeing a pine cone that some clever person had turned into a one-of-a-kind, rather magical, Christmas tree.  They had used all types of vintage costume jewelry as ornaments.  I  have always wanted to make one. This year was the year.  But, instead of one, I ended up making ten!  There really is no limit to the variety of themes and colors one can come up with.  Go through your craft supplies, jewelry boxes and junk drawers and pull out anything and everything that you might be able to use.  Find yourself a Pine Cone and start creating.  You might find it somewhat addicting and not be able to stop at just one!  Kind of like eating potato chips. Here are ten of mine to get you inspired. 

While preparing for a Harvest Fair, I came across those little metal magnetic tins that some people use to put spices in and place on their refrigerator as an alternative to a spice rack.  You know the kind I mean, right?  Well, I thought to myself, "What can I make using those cute little tins. Naturally, I wanted to feature Otis Munkenheimer, so I first thought of just placing one of my photos inside for a decorative little refrigerator magnet.  Well, as is usually the case with me, a simple project evolved into a time consuming and tedious undertaking.  After cutting out different photos into the right sized circle and than placing the photo inside the lid of the tin with a dimensional glaze, I decided once they were dry, to line the inside of the lid with a faux suede fabric.  Once that was complete, I lined the bottom of the tins with a thin layer of cork.  Okay, we are now two days into this refrigerator magnet project.  Clearly, one ...

The Story of the Butterfly Many of you know that I spend many hours photographing the wild life that visit the Woods Secret Garden.   There are always plenty of birds, squirrels, and even a couple of chipmunks.   Rarely do I see a butterfly.   I would, on occasion, see a couple of butterflies; however, we do not have many flowers for them to enjoy and with so many birds, they don’t hang around long enough for me to capture them with the camera.   Fast forward to yesterday.   Lindsay and I have been meeting regularly for approximately a year for coffee and fellowship around the Word of God.   I have never brought my camera to our meetings, accept once when Lindsay agreed to model one of my handmade, cross shoulder bags. Yesterday morning, as I was getting ready to meet with Lindsay, I decided to bring my camera and I wasn’t even sure why.   Even my husband found it odd and said, “You are bringing your camera?”   I answered, “Yes, I ju...

Many of you might remember when I transformed over 250 "Bratz" dolls a few years ago during the Tree Change Doll frenzy.  Since retiring and moving to North Carolina a year ago, I had given that up in order to get settled in.   Recently, I opened a box in my art room to find several dolls that really needed rescuing, so I decided to see what I could do. I have made the decision to only remake these dolls as specialty dolls, all which will have hand braided (some also hand beaded) single braids.  These take over 12 hours to braid.  I thought I would share the first three.  I have no idea how many I might make.  It will all depend on whether there is an interest in these first three dolls.  I have already listed them for sale in my etsy shop.  I hope you enjoy viewing the photos.  Please contact me if you have any questions.  You can find them here:   CLICK HERE