The Planet Puts on a Party Hat!

Visit my Green Planet Artists blog...and be entered in a very cool give away~

Keeping It Green!

Please join us for shopping with a twist on Friday, April 17, 2009 as we "Keep It Green."Restoring and repurposing vintage products keeps the earth clean while we decorate our homes and our lives. Suddenly following the 3 R's - reducing, reusing, and recycling - is much more than environmentally friendly. Now it's about making everyday things more beautiful. The practice of keeping it "green" can come in many colors... rose petal pink, poppy red, turquoise, pearl and yes, even green. Flea market finds and fragile memories edged with glitter, embossed with jewels, engraved, stitched and woven anew giving old treasures a new purpose.Items lovingly restored to more than their original beauty grace shelves and are welcomed into our cozy corners. Table linens returned to their crisp, former selves discover new life draped over an antique oak table or reinvented as a charming pillow or or tote. Silver pieces, shining brighter than before, sit proudly upon a freshly painted piece of discarded furniture. China and mirrored glass salvaged from cobwebbed corners set a graceful display. Repurposing gives items with forgotten histories new stories to tell. Rescued needlepoints are transformed into luxurious pillows, stitched with beautiful silks and trims, and shared with a friend. Postcard pictures become pendants, someone's love notes worn as special gems. Silk ribbons, velvet trims, handmade lace, are added to vintage finds. Tapestries transform into bags, repurposed into something perfect, just for you. Even the smallest fragments of memories are unwasted. The tiniest scrap of lace from a time-ravaged heirloom can be reused, and add a "just-so" touch to a new creation. Altered art repurposes the most unlikely items from the longest forgotten closets into pieces of beauty with new intent. Whimsical works assembled from many vintage and repurposed items. Shoes trimmed with flowers, pink winged fairies, items put together with nothing more than the intent to make you smile.Repurposed Fabric Tote Image by: Dianne Hadaway -





Mama's PocketbookRepurposed Sweater Chick Image by: Tedi Mercer - Petite Bookstore

Marie Antoinette Pink Friday~...Let them eat cupcakes!

Antoinette was young, tall, blonde and beautiful and she set fashion trends through France and Europe. She was nicknamed "Madame Deficit" or "Queen of Debt” because the Queen spent lavishly on her dress and adornments, exceeding annually her clothing allowance (her overruns always covered by her devoted husband Louis). Her flip remark “Let them eat cake” (attributed to her, but never confirmed) was the spark that ignited the French Revolution. Today, we simply cannot get enough of “Marie”Only 15 when she married the crown prince of France, the dauphin. France was then the most powerful nation of continental Europe, and the royal palace at Versailles the most opulent. She became Queen of France while still a teen. Her excessive fashions for high headdresses, plumes and voluminous dresses were subject to public comment, admiration and ridicule. At Versailles, the Queen also spent lavishly on her friends and on her entertainment. She held frequent gambling parties, masquerade balls and danced all night long.To escape the formalities, boredom, and royal obligations of court, Marie-Antoinette created a private realm of pleasure for herself and her friends at the Petit Trianon, a small retreat palace on the grounds of Versailles, and Hameau, where she planted the first Anglo-Chinese garden; collected all species of antique roses; and revolutionized architecture and gardening trends. It was so much her escape that the King was reported only to have visited her there a few times.So why do we love Marie Antoinette today? All her extravagance, her life of excess, her hairstyles that were larger than life, her reported love of pastries and champagne (some truth and some fiction as Marie was a teetotaler) all create for us a time and place where a young girl can be Queen. Marie Antoinette has become a real inspiration.
Director of Community Relations @MakeMinePink.comDesigner @ CestChouetteHome.com

Image by: The Polka Dot Rose - http://www.thepolkadotrose.com/

One of a Kind TreasuresRemember the days when we wanted to be like everyone else? We wanted to have the same clothes, same hairstyles, same…. everything. Only the very brave dared to be one of a kind.Sometimes it takes courage to say "I am different. I will be one of a kind." But over time, you discover that what makes a thing, or a person, unique is often the same thing that makes them beautiful. Taking chances, standing out, can make you a trendsetter and everyone else followers.At Make Mine Pink, one thing each boutique owner has in common with the others is that her boutique is one of a kind. Our boutique owners are always on the lookout for unique and special one of a kind and vintage treasures that are rich in history. Each treasure in our shops comes with a story, and no two stories are the same.When you browse through the shops at Make Mine Pink, you'll discover unique handcrafted pieces designed and produced by our artists and boutique owners. They hunt through flea markets, thrift stores, unique design shops. They peek in corners everyone else has forgotten to discover treasures everyone else has overlooked. Every bauble, piece of fabric, abandoned item they find might be a gem waiting to be unearthed.Each piece in the Make Mine Pink boutiques is designed and created to give its owner a product that can be treasured for years to come. In our shops you’ll find some of the latest trends, many handcrafted by our boutique owners, right here in the United States.When you shop at Make Mine Pink, you can feel confident that many of your purchases are one of a kind. A piece of art that is unique in its own right, as original as you.?
Joyce Lucas, Founder
Image provided by: http://www.rosepetalsandblooms.com/

Dianne is the winner..

Congratulations to Dianne of Mama's Pocketbook, she won this adorable plaque that I made, part of my new ROYAL designs...that we need to be reminded of daily..stay tuned for monthly contests, items also available for sale on my website~

Pink Friday Be My Valentine

"Yet, O thou beautiful rose! Queen rose so fair and sweet. What were lover or crown to thee, without the clay at thy feet?" ~ Julia C R Dorr

I just love the word "clay" in this quote~

Visit the lovely shops at Make Mine Pink and see what Pink Friday is all about~

Shopping with a twist~

Winter Whites For Pink Friday

Winter Whites

I love winter~ long January days where the snow stretches until it blends with the low white clouds. No definition of distance, just shadows to foretell what is to come. Winter is clean, cold and refreshing. Snowy whites and creamy ivory swirl together creating a sense of calm. The air is still. The whole world seems at peace. As nature rests under a blanket of snow, time is spent in thought. There are books to be read, journals to be written, rooms to refresh, plans to be made for the garden. But nothing needs to move to fast. We have time. Winter is here and we can take things slow, time to relax and get lost in dream world of all white.