Brenda Walton

Bonjour, Paris

One of my favorite French-themed shops anywhere is preparing for a very special celebration. You won’t want to miss Fleuri’s annual Bastille Day, Paris Flea Market on July 19th! 

This one-of-a-kind shop is filled with exquisite finds to delight the eye: gorgeous antique furniture and home accessories, vintage ribbons, antique French calligraphed documents and truly refreshing gift ideas. I always find something rare and unexpected, each time I visit.

The lovely iron daybed is so inviting. An arrangement of an antique mirror and original florals makes a beautiful wall treatment.

The shop is expertly styled, with inviting vignettes that are arranged by theme and by color. It’s the next best thing to being in an actual Parisian brocante!

So…if you are in the Sacramento area on Sunday, July 19, please join us for this festive event between 8am and 3pm. Fleuri, 7304 Fair Oaks Blvd, Carmichael, CA.

The Gift of Giving

With all the summer birthdays and celebrations going on, I’ve been having fun wrapping lots of gifts for friends and family. Madeline embellishments make them look extra special. On the gifts above, I’ve used a combination of velvet flowers, butterfly chipbox, pleated floral grand adhesions and die-cut cardstock.

I stack the embellishments together and secure them with adhesive dots, for added dimension. It’s an easy way of adding ooodles of ooohlala in a matter of minutes. 

One recent recipient of a thank you gift was my dear friend, Diane. She loved the wrapping so much, she did not want to open the present. I think that’s the best compliment of all!

Sewing Circle

_{^{One of the greatest joys in life is sitting around creating something with a group of friends. It doesn't much matter what that something is. For our recent birthday get-together, we chose a simple stitchery piece that combined all of our favorite things...buttons, scraps of fabric, vintage millinery flowers, sparkley beads, ribbons and laces.}} 

^{_{The inspiration for our project came courtesy of Pam Garrison}}, ^{_{whose whimsical mixed media stitched collages made us want to sit down right now and create! Her "anything goes" approach brings out the artiste in everyone, and is completely satisfying and fun for crafters of all levels of stitchery experience.}} 

We began with 8" embroidery hoops, which we became our frames. Natural muslin fabric was the background. We covered our work table with all the goodies, and began assembling. 

The focal point for each piece was a photo which was transferred to fine linen using Lasertran. We lovingly stitched on layer after layer of hand embroidery without any master plan (these things just seem to evolve as they go!). Some of the embroidery hoops were decoupaged with decorative papers; some were covered with velvet ribbon or pom poms. 

 

Our embroidered samplers made a meaningful and personal keepsake of our weekend together.