Yep - you need this one!

We are still at CHA (more to come on that this weekend!) but I wanted to take a break and show you what to expect at Mercantile tonight at midnight central time zone - you won't want to miss these kits!

This month's Papercrafting Kit is full of muted tones and some unique vintage finds like paper clock faces and a cool flat padlock key!

This month's Antiquarian Kit has beautiful green German foil, a heavy vintage Bingo board with sliders (a great mixed media base!), an unused and unusual antique photo postcard from a single collection I acquired recently, an antique calling card with colorful German scrap and so much more . . .

The Artisan Kit has some great additions for the main kit including the GCD borders and pennants, Ormolu fabric tags and October afternoon cut-outs - just to name a few!

And finally, Doris has designed an adorable Project Kit using a mini 7gypsies tray as a base.  The Nunn design oval bird charm is my favorite detail!

Also, don't miss a new round of Mercantile Exclusives available in the General Store starting tonight including clear stamps and masks from the last 6 months of 2011.

It's gonna be a great month!

A fun local contest to win a photo shoot!! . . .

Hello local friends!  Just wanted to give you a quick heads up that my friend Melanie G. is giving away a couple's photo shoot this week!  The contest ends on Feb. 4th.  Here's the link to her website with the details!

Here's a little inspiration taken in October by my favorite budding photographer, Noah!

Headed to CHA!!!

We are headed to CHA tomorrow, but before I left I wanted to share some photos with you of new projects I have been working on (which also happen to be two of my 2012 classes:  The Chalkboard Easel Album Holder and the Pocket and Tag Album).

And. . .I just posted a fun video on Youtube of a quick view of these projects and more, highlighting all of our new CHA products (and some sneaks not yet seen of our 2nd Spring ship date)!  Here's the link .  Enjoy!!

I have a playdate scheduled. . .

for just me and all of my new CHA products  . . . I already told everyone not to expect dinner tomorrow!

I hope all of you are scheduling a playdate as well!

A sneek peek you haven't seen. . .

So I've had something up my sleeve for awhile . . .

Remember when I got my antique hotel key holder and posted this photo??? . . .

Well I decided that someone really needed to reproduce these, at least a smaller version, and I decided that someone should be me!  So, as part of our Spring release (our second show ship date - end of April/early May) we are offering a reproduction hotel key holder complete with number and hooks.  Ready for hanging or simply to "lean" - your choice!  There are so many things you can do with it project wise (and I have an on-line class up my sleeve already that is "Project Life" -ish), but it is lovely as a simple jewelry or studio supply holder, don't you think?  I wanted to show you guys first!

My sidebar is looking a little bare over there!  I have some exciting travel destinations scheduled for the Spring that I need to let you know about.  Look for the details to show up later this week!

Happy Tuesday!

New Vintage Treasures - up for grabs tomorrow morning!

We have more than 40 new items going up tomorrow in the This Month's Finds and One Of A Kind sections of the Flea Market!  Below is just a small peek at what you will find!

Please note:  Because tomorrow is the 15th, but also happens to be a Sunday, we will be setting everything live by 7:00 a.m. central time, not 10:00 a.m. as usual.  Just a heads up!

Available under This Month's Finds, I have some more thread spools, this time in a beautiful robin's egg blue (perfect as a pin board) . . .

I have these lovely reproduction silk flower pins with silver German glass glitter edging . . .

Also these great vintage matchboxes that were turned into little drawers for holding nuts and bolts by an ingenious someone.  Great graphics!  . . .

In the One Of A Kind section you will find several antique wooden cigar boxes (early or pre -1900's) like this one. . .

A super cool and rare double heavy metal stamp holder . . .

Several lots of vintage and antique Valentines. . .

and other Victorian treasures such as this unique small notebook set (the one of the right actually has chalkboard pages). . .

I also have a limited number of these Vintage 2012 Valentine Crafting Kits . . .

I hope you enjoy!  Now I am off to watch the Denver game.  Been cooking appetizers all day - spinach and artichoke dip, homemade corn dogs, bang bang chicken and potato skins.  So yummy!!!  Might have to challenge Christian to an extra match at Just Dance so I can burn off the calories!

My new muse . .

Those of you that know me well and see me often, have seen me in my red cowboy boots more than once I am sure.  I couldn't resist this little girl when I dug her out of a box at an estate sale.  Hard to tell here, but she is wearing of course, red cowboy boots.

And she is sitting on a pile of books that inspired my new line for CHA - Magpie.  Look for more peeks next week!  We have a mix of paper, stickers and mixed media items for this release.  I have plans to begin creating this weekend - cleaned up my studio AND my entire shelving areas in the basement.  No more excuses!!

Sorry little ladies. . .

He is officially off the market.  Betrothed to a 3 year old who never left his side while in MD.

(excuse the bad photo - can't stand to use my flash indoors.  I refuse! Need to take a photoshop class in the near future . . .)

Have a wonderful weekend!

A blog you don't want to miss. . .

I came across Cathe Holden's blog about a year ago and my heart skipped a beat.  She has such a wonderful eye - everything she touches is just perfection.  She loves vintage, clean lines and simplicity - a woman after my own heart!  I connected with her immediately, put up a blog ad and the rest is history.  If you are lucky enough to take a class from her this year, you may notice some familiar product!

She was also recently named a contributing crafts editor for Country Living magazine (check our her clever paper airplane valentine in this month's issue) and she also writes on-line for the SC Johnson Family Economics website where she just put up a template for this sweet paper tray (I WILL be making these - how clever and what a great gift)!!  So grab a cub of cocoa and head over to her blog - but plan a good hour to do so!