Back From The Beach ~ Photos from Cuba

Here are a few phots from my recent trip to Cuba. It was gorgeous and I hope one day soon I can return.

Many of the photos are from around the town of Remedious, which was about an hour taxi ride from our resort. It was so amazing to just walk around photographing Cuba itself; the landscape, the culture, it's people and their lives.

JCS Show Highlights

I thought I would post some photos of my table at the JCS Vendors show a few weeks ago. It was a fun couple of hours and it was great to be a part of raising money for their school.

Here are some highlights from the booth, many of which are new projects that I had been working on.

Enjoy!

(By the way, above is my car, it was that full! And that wasn't even it all, my mother- and sister-in-law also drove!)

New chalkboards I had made from vintage frames as well as a vintage-inspired duck cloth pillow that was hand-stenciled.

I was super excited about this glittery garland. It was 40% off and I'm not normally into this kind of garland but it was whimsical and made it a little bit more festive. Plus, I just loved the colour - it suited the vintage pieces perfectly!

Another project, jute market bags that were stenciled.

My vintage inspired Christmas tree. It was inspired by something similar from the blog French Larkspur but I just added my Christmas decorations. There were tags with vintage adverts and ephemera-filled glass ornaments as well as old rusted keys. It was a huge hit with everyone except for us since transporting the huge fragile branch was next to impossible!

Another project, stenciled floursack tea towels. These are the best tea towels I've ever used and the pretty vintage inspired stencils make them so fun.

This was one of my Christmassy projects, little glass ornaments filled with bits of vintage ephemera: old music, bits and pieces from novels, old letters and ledger sheets, along with bits of lace and old buttons.

My vintage-inspired stockings.

The rest of my pillows - a collection of burlap ones as well my remaining bank deposit bag pillows.

BROWSE LIST ~ Argyle Antiques

This is a photographic tour of the Argyle Antique store in Argyle, Ontario. It's roughly a couple hours North-East of Toronto. So far, it's become one of my top favourite antique stores to browse. It's in a tiny little town (one intersection) and each house is now a little shop of some kind; a general store with fabulous coffee, a hole-in-the-wall "antique store", a country goods bakery and shop and this antique store.

I loved it because it was in an old Blacksmith garage style workshop that was actually really large. Everything was half thrown in there and most of it was more rustic than antique (which was all the better for me!). The prices were good and there was lots to wander through. Oh and the best part, Johnny Cash was blaring the entire time we were there! Nothing like some old country, a solid cup of coffee and a warm apple fritter to really make a girl's morning bright!

Old watering cans.

Some sort of dried flower, I just thought it was really rustic looking!

This one is actually my favourite photo! It just turned out exactly how I wanted it to.

Great old blue bottles.

This trunk was another favourite! It was a solid piece of furniture with so much character. The eggshell blue just made it that much more fantastic!

Some old tins.

I also really liked this needlework piece. It was warn and beautiful and the font used for the writing was really pretty.

I'm always drawn to old chandelier bits and pieces - and when it's displayed on chippy white pieces - even better!

This was an old weigh scale of some kind.

Some really old, interesting but of ephemera. I actually ended up purchasing this lot. It consisted of old estate documents, a soldier's calender book, and the best part, an old auction log book. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with them.

Enamelware!

An old floatation device, very vintage, hanging from a rusty old garden gate. I wanted both!