Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom's birthday is really tomorrow but we celebrated (last week) early to accommidate everyone's scheduling, especially Kipp being home from school.
Anyway so we decided to get yummy fish sandwiches from a lil fish stand on the way to St. Augustine. Didnt take pics but wish I had, I think the place is called JT's Fish House. The food was very good!
We decided to drive further north and visit Washington Oaks State Park. Admission was $5 for the car and worth every penny!
Pulling into the parking lot.


At the entrance gate, thats Kipp me my sis and mom


Just beautiful! What a way to spend the day and the weather was brisk.


I felt like a kid surrounded by such loveliness really makes one's soul so happy


Her smile is lovelier than those blooms!


sis and mom in the very sparse rose garden


Dan and I resting and enjoying the view. Wish we had brought our sandwiches here. Next time.


Not sure if you can see but there were lots of quoi fish


This picture reminds me of those old Florida postcards. My mother loves flower and plants and has a green thumb. She showed ALOT of restraint in not pinching some pieces of the plants there.


There were soooo many butterflies and all the pics we took we didnt really have a good repesentative of them on these bushes



But Kipp got a good photo of a red dragonfly! Never have I ever seen one like this and there were blue ones there as well! This one actually allowed his photo!



And we saw this fella sunning but none of us were scared, well my sister was a bit.


Look at the magnificant trunk on this tree. I wonder all it has gone through.


Like mother like daughter



We went across the highway to the beach but it was way too cold so we decided to hit the European Villiage in Palm Coast. Its a place where people live and shop in an inclusive environment meant to look like a place in Europe. I liked it but the shops were not for me, no antiques or folk art more very upscale shopping. The restaraunts were fantastic and there was live music and some artisans set up.





All in all it was a great day!

Here We Go Again!

Mrs Patty Alexander and me off to find the finds! Back at the Deland Flea Market and yesterday was SCORCHER! But we had a great time and got some goodies to boot!

From Tee's expression I take it, One man's junk is still junk to another man or women in our case.



So this week Andrea the unofficial Queen of the Hunt, PA (Patty), Teresa (Tee) and me, met up and scowered the market. It was a meeting of the minds as we all love and collect the same type of items.
Check out PA the rookie takin the lead!


I'm eatin her dust! (literally) No longer a rookie PA can hang!



I think PA found the most unique thing and I believe our lil girl has grown up or maybe I should say the grasshopper has taken the pebble from my hand as she found and purchased an antique opium measure.


Aaaaahhhh the joy of the deal!!!

Heres a better pic of Tee and her maniquin! We all were so jealous, but we just thought about it to long. But we know when she tires of it.......







I know the Queen here is thinking "ok as they are busy with those old bird prints, I'll get ahead start!" I'm on to you Andrea!




You can always find interesting (and not) stuff and people there. Check out these gator heads!!! I mean who doesnt need one!

And here is a man with a belt made from the pelt of a bear! You can't really see it in the pic but... oh and he had for sale a matching belt buckle trimmed in bear fur. He definitly got the Dare to be different memo and Thank God for that! He was a really nice person.


No pictures of the spoils this week but I did spend $5 on a dresser w/o drawers at the end of the morn. I thing the heat had scrambled my brain. Its still on my front porch today. Yes your welcome neighbors! Its filthy and I'm to tired and lazy today to clean it up. Seriously I'm terrified of the cobwebs in the corners but it looked good as a display there and they went down to $5.
We were all a mess at the end of the morn and tooooo tired from taking our bounties to the cars. I got the dresser thing,some vintage tomato people S&P, blocks, old buttons and a bee bite! a very tiny bee thing went in my shirt and stung me.How on earth it got in there?!

PA got the heroin/opium thing,a ton of lil stuff,

Tee got the figure AND a vintage pair of alligator skin cowboy boots (SCORE!!!!)a ton of old luggage, plants and God knows what as she was on her own most of the time, strategy?

and finally the Queen got a beautiful old painting and I cant remember what else. She was showing some serious restraint! However her dress strap broke, a casualty of war!

Hmmmn maybe I know why the bee made it in my shirt I think there was more room to fly in there! giggle

PA needed another fix of wood and rust so she drove to an architectual salvage yard/bar/outside cafe in Deland and for the life of me I cannot remember the name, hhhmmmm Da Vinci Cafe I think anyway its been in mags before and this fella was working there and wanted to take a picture of his bird (I know right?!) so I let him and he wants me to send him a pic. Will do in a day or two or three. He was really nice but REFUSED to let me photograph him. I asked if he was in some witness program but he thought he wasnt worthy. Um maybe he was just embarrased by this stinky sweaty greasy group of ladies with torn clothing! Anyway enjoy the pics! No purchases here everything was very expensive but delightful to see and well a girl's gotta have her dreams.

Happy Birthday TDIPT!

Join in the fun and maybe you'll be lucky enough to win one of the birthday gifts TDIPT is giving away. http://todwellinprimitivethymes.blogspot.com/ just take a visit leave a comment and cross your fingers!

Winner Pet Contest Prize Picture

Annie of Chickadee Primitives was the winner of the TDIPT Funniest Pet Contest and here is a picture of the sign she won made by GoldiLoo Woodworks. Such a cute sign and such a beautiful display !!! I'm So inspired to decorate outside for Halloween!

Artists At The Metro

A nice promotional flyer done by Nancy Neeb, who by the way makes amazing jewelery. To see a bigger pic of the flyer just click on it and to see more of Nancy's work check out Turtle Love Designs (click on the banner on my Nostalgic Friends button on my website)

Something Wonderful Comes This Way!

TDIPT turns 3 Oct. 13th and so to celebrate the gals at TDIPT are giving away prizes! So starting on the 13th leave a message on their blog and you could be eligible for some really neat homemade folk art prizes from some of the best around!

I take terrible pictures!

True I do take terrible pictures but one thing I know that isnt terrible are the lovely things I have gotten from my TDIPT sisters. I started out thinking I'd show my lil bit of Halloween decorating in my den and then realized almost everywhere I turned I had some folk art from the talented TDIPT gals. So here are the best of the blurry, off centered,dark and generally crappy photos.

of course there are more Boston thingies but you know the best Boston is my lil Henry(who is on my lap at this moment)Oh and the cutouts are from Big Brown Dog Primitives, the metal dog is a Hot Metal Mama piece


Now this is absolutely a horrid photo but its proof I own a Dogpatch Primitive piece (well I have a couple of Christmas ones)you can never have too many of her pieces! and you can see some Hot Metal Mama crows on the window sills and I still dont have enough of those rusty metal crows!


A very Brady Bear! Couldn't you just die?!


This lil doll from Curds-N-Whey is so precious! My mom keeps giving me the "guilt eyes" but she is not leaving this house with her.


This cardinal from Countryfolks Keepsakes touches my heart as it was inspired by my dad who passed away in 2005. Long story but this lil guy really is great.


another Hot Metal Mama crow!


Ahhhhh look at all the halloween lovelies from GoldiLoo Woodworks, Winding Vine Designs, Big Brow Dog Primitives,Hot Metal Mama,Beecharmers Cottage, Nostalgic Folk Art (giggle) and Curds-N-Whey.


here's one of my kitchen witches or kitchen angels and I do have some of my work here and there. Most are in my studio waiting for a good home but I randomly switch them out.


Ahem um well Audrey from Bay Ray's Child is my partner in a Christmas swap we gals at TDIPT are having and soon I'll have a fantastic piece of her's!
Oh and um look at this this very bare (well yes those are my bird in cages and yes they are for sale)metal tree that screams for another bird um possibley brown and or faded blue colors without alot of fanfare or plumage.

Just sayin!





And by the way here is a piece of "art" (the sign) my friend Tee from Hot Metal Mama picked up for me at the Deland Flea Market. hahaha Tee your so funny! Thats another metal Henry piece from her.


I guess you should check out the TDIPT Mercantile and shop for some wonderful home decor and gifts. Oh and theres gonna be a couple of giveaways there soon!

Yay!