Kentucky Derby Special

To celebrate the weekend of the Kentucky Derby - and to celebrate Bodemeister - who is the favorite - and from my favorite farm AUDLEY FARM - just west of here in Berryville, VA.

For my blog followers - I just wanted to let you know that I am having a Kentucky Derby Special in both my Handmade shop, and my Vintage shop, this weekend.  If you are 'in' either of my shops today through Sunday at midnight - you can search 'Derby'.  You'll find equestrian items that I am offering at a 15% savings.  You can message me before purchase and I'll adjust the price OR I'll refund your account after purchase!

In my vintage shop on Etsy - Missing Heirloom

And the winner is!!!

Too cute leather cowboy boots

I have a number of Walter Farley books available...and other 'horsey' items

and in my handmade shop - bittersweetdesign

some fun cowboy boot earrings

any of the "Pin the Tail on my Donkey" Cards

Raising a glass to Bodemeister - let's hope he wins on Sunday!!

Until then,

ride tall in the saddle, Liz

Curb Appeal - via Yard Sale Signs

So - do you want tons of people to come to your next estate/tag/yard/garage sale????  My friends David and Jennifer have a running joke about yard sale signs - and so they 'critique' everybody's signs.  And it's true! - is it legible - can you read it?, did the lettering run and drip because of rain or heavy dew?, is it too small?, is it flopping over because you didn't back it with something or use stiff enough cardboard?, is the contrast between the sign and the lettering strong enough for people to read it???? 
David always says that his sign is going to be HUGE, Neon and Purple :))  Not a bad choice if you want to attract attention!


This year at Purcellville's Town Wide Tag Sale - we had more people come to look at our treasures because of our great signs.  Did we think they were great? - sure - but even better - our customers thought they were great,  We kept them at our sale - buying, because we had a variety of great stuff at good prices - or because we were willing to negotiate.

This is 'Miss Directed'.  She is wearing a Mark Shale 1980s dress with a Peter Pan collar blouse, as an under layer for modesty.  She was in charge of getting everyone's attention and sending them down the street to our sale - which you could NOT see from the corner.  She is definitely attention grabbing, the words are legible, good contrast, concise, and tells you exactly where the sale is.  We only had one of her - but she was at the corner of Main and Maple and 'looking' towards where most of the sales were happening further in town.

This is my lady, 'Miss Bittersweet'.  She is wearing a sleeveless 1930s house dress with a 3/4 sleeve, round collared, 1980s eyelet blouse  - again modesty!  I added a ruffle at the bottom of the dress to make this a bit longer and actually wore this while pregnant at two different craft shows that I was juried into years ago - East Berlin Colonial Day in East Berlin, PA, and the Waterford Fair in Waterford, VA.  These two shows required 'period' costuming to exhibit and demonstrate there.  Hence wearing this 'get up'.

There is also Jennifer's lady, 'Miss Lucketts', who for some reason or another didn't want to come out of the barn this year :(  But here's her photo: She is on the left - wearing a very pretty, handmade, floral, floor length gown. 
Miss Directed got everyone to the sale, Miss Bittersweet caught their attention as they drove down the road, and the large sign 'Best Tag Sale in Town' just told it like it was!


We had used our 'ladies' and the large 'Best' sign three years ago when I did my first sale with Jennifer - and pulled them of 'mothballs' for this sale.  And yes - I made them - of course!  The large sign is an old piece of metal that I repainted.  The color and 'typography' on it matched the ladies signs that they held. For the ladies, Jennifer said she had some great 'blow ups' of old photographs, and wouldn't it be fun to use them somehow for the sale?  I cut them out, glued them to Luan (a thin plywood), and then used my jigsaw to cut out the shape once more.  Then I screwed their head and shoulders to a piece of wood I had around (really - you had wood hanging around?) and then screwed the signs to their chests.  Then of course I let them rummage around in my costume box so they could pick out their outfits.  They may like a change for next year - maybe Halloween costumes, if you don't think it's too early for that???

 And I end this post with two more photos - a Haphap happy customer in his NIB - [new in box] Stetson  :)  

 and a shot of our AWESOME customer service -  Jennifer and David delivering a lovely buffet down the street for the O'Connor family.


Many thanks to Jennifer and David Huffman for drinks, snacks, wake up coffee (a.m. and p.m.), their great location and fantastic front yard, and all of their help, unpacking, display, packing; my husband, Bob Pickett - who loads and unloads with nary a complaint; my daughter, Virginia Theerman, who helped through the weekend, and my 'sister' Jennifer Bowders, who came and pitched in all day Sunday.  It only took us an hour to pack up - Yes we almost sold it to 'the walls'.  
Was there a piece of jewelry, clothing, beanie baby, hankie, or antique that caught your eye - but you didn't pick up?  Google Bittersweet Design Studio for our location - our town Paeonian Springs - west of Leesburg, VA; east of Purcellville, VA, is having our own small town version this coming Saturday October 15th.  I will be set up in my yard next to my shop, and several other neighbors throughout town are combining forces and will have yard sales as well.   


Look for Miss Directed, as well as Miss Bittersweet.  Stop and say HI!

MOO Cards and Stickers

I just took advantage of an offer by the company MOO www.moo.com the other day. 
 Through an Etsy and MOO combined promotion you could get a set of 50 free business cards.  The only catch - Etsy and Moo's branding is on there as well.  But no big deal! 
 Okay the other catch - is that I also bought 2 different sizes of stickers.

But really there is no catch!  These are fabulous!!  You can upload any amount of your own fabulous photographs and have them made into:

Business Cards!  Fabulous! The paper is sustainably sourced and has a smooth matte laminate finish.  And printed on both sides  :)

Stickers - these round ones measure 1.5"  I think I chose about 15 images for these...I purchased a set of 104.

These measure 7/8" - I purchased one book that holds 90 stickers. I will use these for 'branding'.  I will probably make magnets with these and include them with my Etsy sales on bittersweetdesign and MissingHeirloom.


The cost - I thought very reasonable at about $30.00.  I received them in about a weeks time.  I am a very happy customer.

Here are the goods!

This stash is destined for Missing Heirloom and Bittersweet Design online.  Look for it SOON!

This group has yet to be sorted!

I'll be pricing these goodies for the Purcellville Town Wide Tag Sale to be held on October 8 and 9.  Coming soon!!!

Jewelry organization

These peg racks originally occupied another wall in the room.  Since I was giving up some drawer space (remember - 2 dressers into 1) I needed to reorganize - as well as down size - my costume and vintage jewelry collection.  Of course everything is in ROY G BIV order.  You know Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet?

So where are the down sized goodies going?  To Missing Heirloom for the vintage, Bittersweet Design, for the handmade, - some of these perhaps as early as today! (check the side bars on the right for the two shops), and the Purcellville Town Wide Tag Sale for the newer items.  

2 peg racks - already owned, hold my beaded necklaces.  2 wrought iron bird and vine wall decor pieces (purchased at It's Bazaar, Purcellville, VA) have enough tendrils, etc... to hang bracelets and other necklaces.  

I had a handmade primitive wall box that held my bangles - but they were overflowing.  Time for another solution.  I did have a mish mosh collection of Transferware on my dresser - but the pieces didn't work the way I needed them too, and the many colors were too busy.  I edited the grouping down to 3 vintage Milk Glass pieces to hold the bangles - again organized - ROY G BIV.  I kept 3 smaller Transferware pieces - (all in various red patterns) - a lidless sugar bowl for a votive candle holder, a heart dish - given to me by a dear friend Patty, and a pin dish.  The 2 smaller pieces will be a good temporary place for 'catch alls'.    

 More later!

From Drab to Fab!

Entered in MissMustardSeed's Furniture Feature Friday (http://missmustardseed.com/2012/03/furniture-feature-friday-favorites-a-link-party-7/)- to anyone coming from her blog - Welcome!!

My continuing mission to simplify my life - is resulting in a new vision for my sweet 1909 home.  Yes - this is all related to the workroom organization, etc...
I started with the Living Room and the Master Bedroom.  The major work on the Living Room is just getting my jewelry/other crafting items out of there - and up to the workroom.  Some of this has gotten done, but I have put that on hold so that I could make major changes in the Master Bedroom.  My friend Jennifer came down for a few days - and we went to work!  I love the overall look of this room - but it had been in the same basic configuration for 20 years.  I know, I know!  Some of this is because it it a small 1909 home and the room has windows/a door on three walls, and has NO closets.  First we took the two biggest pieces of furniture - the bed and the wardrobe - and moved them into place.  Then we determined that one cupboard would stay - but the two taller chest of drawers had to go. 
 I would have to find a low, 6 or 9 drawer dresser to take their place.  That meant doing a wardrobe overhaul as well (as in making some of my clothes go away - ouch!).  Luckily for me, Jennifer is one versatile girl!

Fortunately, within days of needing a new dresser - I found one at an estate sale for $25.00 (I loved that!).  Ugly - but I saw that it had potential - hence the title of this post - from Drab to Fab!    

Here it is - The top was all scratched and had paint splotches all over it - and the wood  finish was questionable.  It did, however, have dust protectors between each row of drawers, and was well built - even though it was only about 10 years old.  It also had great lines or good bones - very important!!

The 'stuff' on top is just there for now - I am still working on what will stay and go - although I an pretty sure the transferware will stay!

I removed the hardware, washed the dresser inside and out, sanded where I needed to, and then gave it a first coat of paint - I wasn't sure what color I wanted, so I started with a blue/grey.  The second coat was a cream color, ending with the top and base being painted a taupe color - a suggestion by another friend Jennifer Huffman, who sells awesome furniture and other cool stuff at the Old Lucketts Store.  I shabbied it up just a bit, and then gave it a coat of Butcher's Paste Wax.  The hardware was a really ugly color of dark/bright brass so I used a dry brush technique and hit it with the blue/grey paint, and then used the same light touch with the cream color paint.  This whole process, from beginning to end, was done over the course of three days.  So no big deal - Really!

I love the way it looks - and it was definitely worth getting rid of some clothes to trade out 2 dressers for 1!

More photos of the rest of the room soon!  

Spring Favorites

Felted flower brooch:

http://www.handamade.etsy.com/ - featured my felted flower brooch in her lovely Spring Treaury - check it out! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=87997

Sleigh Bells Ring

A lovely Treasury on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=101648

by Etsy seller paisleybaby featuring: A vintage cape by lonesomebrown, Cardinal photograph by mingtaphotography, Jingle bells by trimgoddess, Sleigh ride photograph by ceejay60, Black wool beret by andjane, sleigh ride fingerless gloves by mickieandbetty, red felted earrings by WildWomanJewelry, sterling deer pin by greatbarbarian, knitting pattern book by elanknits, 1910 French postcard by DogDayAfternoons, handmade wooden sleigh by bittersweetdesign, and winter bells earrings by ShySiren. I feel honored to be included among these other sellers!

Merry Christmas!

Treasuries - Two in One Day

Take a look at these two Etsy Treasuries -
The theme for the first one is teardrops by www.PynkRoseDesigns.etsy.com view it at :
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=73956

and the theme for the second is horns of plenty or cornucopia by www.morrigae.etsy.com view it at: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=73897

Many thanks to these two Etsy shops for featuring:
Pair of milk glass vases - teardrop pattern
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27852081
and a vintage ceramic cornucopia
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31874727

How fortunate to be featured in two treasuries in one day!

Tomorrow A Handmade Moment Etsy tv

I am sososo excited! The video came out really well today - we (Anna - really...) will help me synch the music with it tomorrow. Thanks goodness for agile younger minds...

I love the way it works, looks - everything about it!

Stay tuned - tomorrow I will post the link here - then please, please, please go VOTE for ME !!!!

My Computer Friday

All day long - on the computer. Not exactly my cup of tea, but something that needs to be done! I have started stocking my new ebay store shelves: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/bittersweetdesignstudio__, stocking my artfire shelves: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&seller_id=14927, and putting a few more things in my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5589402.

dream forest

I started listing this forest on etsy yesterday... I need to do individual photos of the trees today. I also need to 'create' more of the items that make up the forest. So keep a look out!