Lavender Cove has gone 'Etsy'

Yes, Lavender Cove now has an Etsy store...although, there's nothing in it for sale at the moment, lol.  Once it does, you'll be the first to know, I promise.  I plan to sell my homemade one-of-a-kinds, as well as quite a few antique and vintage rummage finds.  Where am I gonna find the time?  this crosses my mind many times a day.  With Lavender Cove's 'sister' blog, Thrifty and Frugal, getting more and more popular, it requires that I maintain it more and more frequently, then I have medical appointments on M,W,F that I don't get home from until 2-4 pm, plus my kids' extra-curricular activities several evenings per week...BUT, alas, this is my plan.  The upside of Etsy is that items aren't auctioned, they're listed for up to 4 months, and are sold (or not, lol)...so that helps a bit, maybe, or at least, we'll see, lol. Anyhoo, the above pic is Lavender Cove's Etsy Store banner...what'a'ya think? I like it, too!

I've found the bird templates I plan to use

As you all know, I (and thousands of others), LOVE The Graphics Fairy's images that she posts for FREE use...they're generally vintage or antique, copyright free images, from vintage/antique post cards, cards, pamphlets, books, score sheets, music and various other things.  Well, I went over to The Graphics Fairy's blog and scrolled through her Birds section (where there's over 100 images of birds alone to download) and found a few that I think will work for the ornaments that I told ya'll about here.  I enlarged them by a few pixels on my computer and printed them on regular paper.  I have quite a bit of scrapbooking cardstock to choose from and plan to use some that will have a solid color on the back (some will be pink, some buttercream).  I'll cut them out to use as templates on vintage sheet music and the cardstock, cut those out, and spray glue them to the cardstock, then decorate to my heart's content.  Here's the bird images that I've chosen for this project...if you want to give it a go, as well, head over to her birds tab and download the images to your 'puter to print out...if you decide to download them, give her a lil 'thank you' by 'following' her blog, she works so hard on the images she provides for us.  What'a ya think? you think these images would make for good bird ornaments like the ones in the pic on my post? NOTE: DO NOT PRINT THE BIRDS FROM THIS PAGE...FIRST AND FOREMOST, THEY ARE NOT MY IMAGES TO GIVE...AND SECOND, THEY WON'T TURN OUT RIGHT, WHEN YOU INCREASE THE PIXELS, THEY WILL BE DISTORTED.  MAKE SURE TO GET THEM FROM THE SOURCE, The Graphics Fairy SO THAT THE DOWNLOAD AND PRINTING WILL BE SUCCESSFUL!

Look at the pretty faux goodies I've just made...

These are some of my recent faux goodies that I've made.  They are all lightly scented with pumpkin spice essential oils and smell wonderful.  The smell is long lasting, as well, so the rooms smell wonderful without burning candles.  Don't they look yummy?  the Eiffel Tower bowl was adorable, I thought, and perfect for a spray-foam mounded cupcake.  you can't see it, but there's a pink mirrored ballerina at the top next to the puffy heart and Eiffel Tower pick.  The Santa cake is just a foam cube from Dollar Tree that 'iced' and decorated...I was lucky enough to find a pkg of vintage flocked Santas at a thrifty store for 50 cents.  The cups of faux cocoa are just that...spray foam inside of tea cups, with faux whipped cream and faux marshmallows and choco chips on top.  A few of the cups are for everyday, but about 6 of them are for Christmas, including a vintage inspired Santa head mug..I'll need to get a pic of that up for ya'll, it's aDORable!  The little round cakes w/a berry on top are just the foam rounds from Dollar Tree that I 'iced.'  And finally, that large faux cupcake is actually a plastic bowl or planter or something that I got on clearance for 50 cents at Big Logs (I picked up a few pink and a few blue, as well).  This was my first one to decorate, though.  I put a 25 cent porcelain bunny on top w/a plastic tiara from Dollar Tree and lots and lots of flowers.  I 'iced' it in swirls for a poofy effect, I think it came out okay, don't you?  of course, all of the items are sprinkled lightly with fairy dust (I LOOOOOOOOOOVE fairy dust, lol), to give a little twinkle and feel of sparkly romance.

A 'must have' right now: Martha's pumpkin carving kit

For several years, my daughters and I have rustled around the house collecting this and that, or anything that we could use to make interesting carvings, holes, and such on our pumpkins...we have a tendancy to use a my metal pastry tubes to poke holes, but we often come out with scars from being cut, lol NOT safe...I've tried everything from taping them at the end to using plastic cap covers to keep the ends from cutting us, to no avail, as the metal is thin and cuts right through whatever I use.  BUT, I've been eyeing a kit from Martha's kitchen and fall line for a couple of years now, ever since she put it together.  I've looked all around this year, and everyone says it's 'out of stock,' online and instore, yet I just saw her carving pumpkins with Johnny Knoxville on her new Hallmark show today, they were using the tools, AND she gave him a set...ughhh, no wonder they aren't in stock, lol.  But, alas, I will continue to search...it looks a bit pricey, but it'll be an investment for future year's use, as well, and to make the carving a bit easier on mine and my youngster's hands.  The scoop looks a bit cheesey, I think sturdy ice cream scoops work better, or heavy metal cooking spoons.  So ar, I've searched Macy's and Amazon...haven't tried eBay yet....KMart use to carry Martha's junk, I mean, products, but don't anymore...I forget who picked her line up, is it Target? hmmm, dunno, but I WILL prevail!

I plan to make these 2 aDORable Christmas ornaments!

I was at JCPenney today and was looking at their Christmas section, which is always quite small, ughh...anyhoo, I saw these two adorable ornaments on a tree that I thought I'm just gonna HAVE to make...and they look like they're going to be super simple.  A small box, diorama-type ornament which is open (doesn't have a window over it), w/lots of faux snow, with a vintage scene, which many can now be found on Christmas cards at the store, downloaded for free at places like the Graphics Fairy, and such.  And then the 2nd ornament is a thin posterboard bird, trimmed in vintage looking tinsel roping, and covered in vintage-look sheet music, which, again, is so easy to find nowadays, thanks to scrapbooking sections in stores, OR just use vintage music that you might have on hand or look for at the thrift shop...and it's decorated with the simplest and cheapes craft item, pipe cleaners.  And they were charging 5.99 and 7.99 for these ornaments! wowzers.  Don't these just look adorable and so simple to make?  I'm gonna...I'll post pics when I finally get around to doin' it, lol...I'll add it to The 'LIST'

THIS is what 8 lbs of pears gets you, lol

So, we have an elderly couple for neighbors, that live across the fence behind our backyard that have a couple of pear trees.  Last Sunday, I'd stopped by for a visit and they sent about 10 lbs of pears home with me.  What were we EVER going to do with that many pears?  We ate some....then a few more, but then everyone was tired of eating them.  So my bestie says, 'make some pear butter...it's easy, just peel & core them, and toss'em in the crockpot w/a few light spices and 1/4 cup of water and cook overnight...they'll be ready to can the next morning.'  So, I did, and she was wrong, lol...they cooked in the crock for about 20 hours before they cooked down to a consistency that could be made into butter (just some quick stirring), but I fudged...I put too much water in it, about 1 1/2 c, plus the juice in the pears boiled out and then I was stuck w/aLOT of juice that i had to sieve off, which was time consuming as hell...but here's the result.  8 lbs of pears processed down 6 half-pint jars, lol...that's it.  So, tomorrow on the way home, I shall take a jar to the nice neighbors that gave me the pears........and see if they'll give me some more, lol.  And I couldn't resist making the little tags...I stamped a small bee on it in coffee colored ink, then wrote the name across it w/'made w/Splenda' at the bottom, and my name & date on the back, and tied them on the rings...aren't they adorable?!
note: if you're interested my crockpot recipe for pear butter made with splenda, just give me a holler by leaving a comment or clicking the 'contact me' tab.

Printed picture on a vintage book page

so, the next time you're at a yard sale or thrift shop and you can find a larger vintage book for 50 cents or so, you should grab it and put some of those pages to use.  I'm a book fiend, seriously...I think there's support groups for people like me.  And being such, it took me quite a long time to finally say, 'ok, I can use some of these pages for crafts'  and the first time I actually cut into the book and page, I almost cried.  It was almost as if I was cutting a friend...destroying them to where they would be no more.  I tried this and that w/the book, tags, bookmarks and such...and then I stumbled across this lil craft.  I've not made any yet, but I plan to...I just can't decide which picture to use yet, lol.  I do know, that I'll use pictures from The Graphics Fairy...who shares copyright free vintage clips for free download for one and all to use as they wish.