Happy New Year!!

Hello Friends,

Wow! Where did the week go? I can't believe it's been a whole week since the craziness of Christmas and I don't know about you, but I needed that week to recover. The holidays are always a bit stressful but it was a little crazier than usual this year. But that's all over and now it's time to start fresh. I started doing my daily walks again, which I had to forgo due to painting morning, noon and night. I broke out the gardening books to plan out my garden for the spring. I have walked into my studio every day for only a minute or two to do a little cleaning up. I have been spending time with my boys doing fun things like visiting the zoo.

Boys and a friend in front of a zoo mural

It has been a nice few days of sleeping in and no stress. Now it's time to get back to reality and get cracking! I have some ideas for Valentines day so I will be posting some new things soon.

My sister and I have begun plans for our second annual "Sisters Weekend." I'm so excited because we had such a great time last year and this year will be better because we are going to the same place and now we know our way around...I think. This is the little cottage we hope to stay in for the weekend. How sweet is this? Very romantic you say? There will be no romance going on but plenty if silliness and gossiping and large amounts of chocolate:)

It's a B&B called Living Spring Farm in Adamstown, PA which is a huge antique town. The B&B is on a working farm and they have one little private cottage on the grounds that I'm hoping to reserve for us. I hate to admit it but the thing I'm not thrilled about with B&B's is that I have to eat, and talk (gasp) with strangers. The people are always very nice but I'm not very good at small talk and I would just rather not subject myself to that torture on my mini-vacation:)

Here are a few Holiday pictures I wanted to share...

New area rug for living room...

Alex ripping into gifts at a record breaking pace!


Jake opening one of MANY Star Wars goodies...
(please ignore the mess in the background. It's my temporary shipping station that I didn't get to clean up before Santa arrived)



My boys, including my nephew Cooper.

Living room tree

So what do you all have planned for tonight? Parties? A ball? Evening gowns and champagne? Well if you want to hang out in your jammies eating mozzarella sticks and nachos, playing the Wii till midnight and watching the ball drop, feel free to stop on by!

Happy New Year to all!!!!

Taking a Break!

Hello Friends,

This will be my last post for a few days. As soon as I finish typing this I'm off to my studio to finish up my very last commissioned piece that has to be shipped before Christmas. After that I have a kindergarten party to organize, gift buying to finish and cookie baking to do...whew! I will be back to posting hopefully after the weekend!



These sweet little girls are now in the shop, looking for a new home:)

Have a great weekend!!!

And the Winner is...........

Hello Friends,
I used the "Random Number Generator" and here are the winners!!!

Elma
Diane Duda and
Pam Warden

Congratulations you guys! Email me with your choice of nest head prints. You can just tell me orange or black.

Here is the latest family portrait. A Midevil family! My first midevil and it was fun researching the costumes. Of course I made them a little more family friendly:)


I am also hoping to have a few more Nest Heads in the shop Wednesday...I'll keep you posted.

Hazel in the middle is SOLD but the other two will be in the shop on Wednesday.

Have a great day!!!

It's Here...

Hello Friends,

The last Spooky Time Jingles update before Christmas and we are offering "Site Wide" FREE shipping! You can't beat that with a peppermint stick:) I have been contacted by a few people who wish to purchase "Holly" so to be fair to all, I will accept the first email I receive on the 13th. But never fear, I will be doing more if you like to go to bed early like me! Remember, Spooky Time Jingles is updated as close to midnight EST as possible. Sometimes there are a few technical glitches but for the most part, they have been pretty on time.

Here is a preview of what The Vintage Sister will be offering!

SOLD thank you!!

" Holly" Nestie + Trinket Box

SOLD!! Thank you!

"Hazel" Nestie 3 3/4"

Snowy Angel assemblage 13" tall

Thank you all SO, SO much for all of the encouragement regarding my new clay gals. I couldn't find nicer blog friends, honest! A few people commented that they reminded them of Jenn's "Lulettes" and I have to agree that Jenn has been an inspiration to me. Jenn is not only a lovely artist but a lovely person too and I am a huge fan of her work. In fact, you will see one of her paintings hanging in my living room later on in this post:) My other source of inspiration comes from Christine at DuBuhDu Designs. If you don't know her or her work, she makes to most amazing polymer dolls that you just HAVE to see. A while back she did some paintings of her dolls and I remember thinking, "Hey, that's a clever idea. I should make dolls of my paintings." So that was where the seed was planted. I get bored very easy so that is why I make so many different kinds of things but I hope to make a few more of these figures and have an update soon.

I am in the middle of finishing two more commissioned family portraits that need to go out before Christmas. Here is one I just finished for Liz from TwoLeft Hands. If you buy or sell on Etsy, you probably know her and her fabulous shop. I painted her and her five siblings as a gift to her father who always says he wants "Six Nice Kids" for Christmas. So this is what I came up with. I had a good time with this one! I am also happy to tell you that with my new printer, I can make prints and note cards of your family portraits for extra gift giving goodies.

Last but not least...here are a few pictures of my house now that I am FINALLY getting it together after the remodel and painting craziness. Eeek! This is the longest post I've ever done!

Red living room wall with framed prints from Tascha and Jenn!

The small bit of decorating I've done so far...my vintage bottle brush tree collection with my grandmothers skaters.

Where the red wall and yellow wall meet...my beloved Frida doll by Tascha.



Framed giant number/bird flash cards. I've had these framed and
sitting in my studio for over a year and a half, just waiting to be hung up.

New french doors that lead to , and HIDE, my messy studio:)

Said messy studio....only a peek at the cleaner part!

Awesome red, white and blue tree I scored on my trip with my sister to Adamstown, PA.

My absolute FAVORITE bottle brush tree...it's REALLY old and it makes music when it spins! A delightful gift from my sister years ago.



Also from my grandmother....they have a name but I forget it right now.



...and these are from her too.



They need some snow!

Well, that's it for now. I'm off to fetch my keys from the Chinese restaurant I left them at last night....DON'T ASK!!!

Have a great weekend!

Your Honest Opinion...

"Holly" Nestie

Hello Friends, Your honest opinion is needed! I have long thought that I would like to make my Nest Heads out of clay but I haven't had the time, or when I did have the time I just forgot. But yesterday the boys were sitting so nicely at the table playing with their sculpey clay that I decided to join them. She's about 3" tall not including the bird. I tried to paint her in my nest head style but boy is painting this small hard! My next, if there is a next, has to have bigger hair. Bigger hair and maybe another bird on her shoulder...we'll see. So what do you think?

Alex is "Star of the Week" at school this week so today I'm going in to read his favorite book and bring a snack. I love kindergarten!

Don't forget to enter my give-away in the post below! I will probably do the drawing Monday morning to give everyone a chance to enter.

Have a great day!!!

100 + 100 = Giveaway!!!

Hello Friends,

I always planned to do a fun 100 post thing. A little blog party , and you all would be invited. But, it occurred to me the other day that I am a wee 36 posts too late! Gasp! Where did the time go? How could I miss it?

So to make up for lost time I am going to combine my 100th post celebration with my 100+ Etsy sale celebration and do a nice little give away. Since I am so late, I am going to offer not one but three of my "Nest Head" prints to three randomly picked winners! Your choice of the two above. If Dani happens to enter and win this contest, she will have to choose another print since she owns both of these:) Just leave a comment and if you don't have a blog, leave your email address so I can contact you if you win.

Have a great night!

Yesssssss...

Hello Friends,

It's the weekend! Now for a stay at home mom, that doesn't usually mean anything more than my husband is also home with us but I'm hoping this weekend means getting our holiday decorations up. Well, at least some of them. We put up two trees, the kids tree which has all of our Rudolph and Frosty stuffed ornaments we collected years ago. It's white and sits in the family room. The other more traditional green tree has all of the "good" ornaments and we put that one in the livingroom. I used to love to go out and buy a real tree but my husbands job was at it's busiest during the holidays and it was always such a struggle to find time to get one. So, we bought pre-lit trees and it's the best thing I ever did. The white one I bought at Joann's last January at 75% off!!!! for $30.00!!!! There are so many more lights than I could ever put on and I don't get angry trying and testing lights. So if you're in the market for an artificial tree and you can wait till next year, visit Joann's!

Here are a couple of commissioned pieces I have just completed.

I'm due for a give-away so tune in next week for a chance to win....I don't know yet....but it will be GOOD!!!

Have a great weekend and get decorating:)

RED Friday!

The shop is all updated so click here for some gift giving goodies! I'm off to take a nap...I'm pooped:) Nap? I have a 5 year old, who am I kidding?

Thanks to all of my wonderful customers who have collected my art over this past year. I am truly grateful! You're the best.

Another thanks to all of the wonderful artist's who joined me in this shop update craziness...it was fun and I'm so glad I got to meet so many creative people. You can never have enough artsy friends is what I say!

Another very special thanks to Dani who kept everything organized by creating the blog and keeping it updated! You are the BESTEST!

Have a great weekend!

It's Almost Here!

Red Friday that is! I can't believe how many wonderful shops are joining me tomorrow. What great fun it's going to be!!! I was just telling Dani that I thought I would maybe have three or four people joining me but wow...we're going to have to do this again next year.


Here are a few more sneek peeks for tomorrow. I am going to start stocking my shop in the morning, around 9 am EST. I have a TON of stuff. A few paintings, the cutest new note cards, tree angels, and a few more bees wax ornaments. Oh, and a whole new batch of cozy cottages!

So don't forget to click on the "Red Friday" badge up there on the left of my blog to see all of the great participating shops. Happy shopping!!!

Sewing, Painting, Laundry, More Painting...

This is my life!
I think I have probably lost a few pounds this week, yay! With all of my rushing around I have only stopped to snack every once in a while. My studio is finally complete and I have already managed to junk it up! I just threw all of my stuff back in there...no time to organize just yet. The rest of the house is getting back in order as well. I still need to buy a few tables and a lamp or two and then hang all of the framed photos, artwork, etc. Whew! I need a drink.

Here is a sneek peek at what I will have in my "Red Friday" Etsy shop update.

"Red Trio" 5" x 7"

"Skating, Skating..."

5" x 7"

I'm going to try to get some holiday cards made of these if I have time. I'm also working on some more ornaments. We have a lot of great shops joining in on Friday so be sure to click on the "Red Friday" badge at the top left of my blog to see all of the participants!

Have a great night!