Raised In Cotton

~Vintage Wrap~

I love making my own wrapping paper for gift giving and special occasions~I pick out some vintage paper goods from my inventory and go to my favorite Kinko's. Since I like to use lots of black and white or sepia pieces the trick for me is that I always use the color copier. It just makes the graphics pop while retaining the vintage paper feel. You can even reduce or enlarge the picture of your choice to add greater details to your wrapping paper. For my recent Soap orders, I took three vintage French bags an old Christmas song book and dictionary pages to Kinko's and copied away~                                                                                                             

Use twine and sprigs of greens to top them off~

Old photographs are great to use also, you are only limited by what you can't fit under the copier!

~Crown Soaps~Sold Out~More To Come~

My goodness, just have to say "Thank You" for all of the Crown Soap orders. This batch is currently Sold Out! But I will be getting more before Christmas if you still would like some~

Crown Soaps!

Well Good Morning! I hope everyone had a special and Happy Thanksgiving with your families. I know that I did, a little sad though because both of my College boys headed back to school last night. When is Christmas break? Not soon enough for their empty nest Mama.  Until I get to see them again, I will stay busy with the Shop, working on the online site and Christmas plans. Of course I can't forget my Dear Blog Friends! Per your request, I am offering our Crown Soaps that are crafted special for us. They smell devine and are hand milled using  natural ingredients with honey and crushed vanilla bean. They sold out at Silver Bella and are popular at our Shop. The generous bar is 7.50 that includes shipping and will come wrapped in the Raised In Cotton vintage style ready for gift giving. Just send me an email if you would like to purchase some of these creamy white beauties RaisedInCotton@aol.com In turn I will send you back a paypal invoice, please include your address~

~Give Thanks~

I am Giving Thanks to all of the wonderful and creative people that I have met through my blog. It was so fun reading your responses on how you like to decorate for the Holidays. I love the way you all take something simple and turn it into a gift of beauty for your Homes.  Dawn, you won my little drawing for my open house gift!!! So Dear Friends, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. You truly Light Up My Life:)

~Open House Idea's For You~

Thanks so much for the lovely comments you left on the last post regarding the Vintage Bottle Toppers! I will be sharing with you on a regular basis my embellished decorating ideas for you to try. Taking something simple and using it in a different way just adds a creative touch to your surroundings. Chic to Rusty but always with a Vintage flavor is my focus that I will be showing you~so continue dropping me a comment because I love hearing what wonderful and unique idea's everyone has!!This past Saturday I was at the Shop fluffing and decorating for our Holiday Open House that we are holding this Friday and Saturday from 10am~5pm. I knew when I found this darling child's Winter fur collar and hat how to use it. I wrapped the fur collar around the base of a silver Christmas tree and made a bow from the little snowball ends. Then I nested some white pine cones inside the petite hat to sit beside the tree~

I love glass jars of any kind, especially the apothecary ones that come in all sizes~I just put two battery candles and placed them inside the jars with pine potpourri to make some easy Christmas lights with the lids still on top! This past Spring, I used the same idea for a Wedding I was doing but replaced the contents with a white battery candle and pale green dried hydrangeas for the inside.

This is a photo of two black and white checked chairs with pillows flanking a white pedestal stand sitting on top of a wreath that I sprinkled some shredded white and silver tinsel paper on. You know that bag of shredded paper you can buy in all colors at Michaels, love the stuff!

Crystals, postcard and a vintage bottle I encrusted with lace, glitter and a rhinestone pin.

Bring out the silver! The older the better~using postcards, garlands and bottle brush tree's to trim the tarnished beauty of the metal~

In honor of our Open House this week, just leave me a comment on a fun decorating idea you use for the Holiday's. Then on Wednesday, I will draw from the comments and send the winner some lovely hand milled Lavender soap that we will be offering in our online shop soon. Don't forget to leave me your email!!!

Vintage Ornament Toppers

After working on my Silver Bella things all Summer, it finally came to me the style of decorating and crafting that I adore.  Carol Spinski~Embellisher Of Vintage Goods~My self titled description of taking old and sometimes new decor and re purposing them into ornamental fun.  I am not sure why it took me so long to figure out that when I go to auctions, estates sales, flea markets and antique stores I tend to go for the obscure or rusty item just so I can redo it and save it's beauty. My mind is constantly thinking of ways to use a vintage item in an unexpected way. Many of you have emailed me about offering for sale more of the vintage camera box vignette's. I will be making more and offering them for sale on the blog and in February on our website.  I have lot's of ideas and in the coming months I will be sharing with you some of my embellishments.This first idea is very simple but a way to showcase those old Christmas bulbs and trims.

Taking from my stash of old and blurry glass bottles, I placed two 1940's Christmas light bulbs to use as bottle toppers.

Pink faded strand weaved through and dripping out of an old silver cup and snowy house on top.

Another old bottle capped with a vintage pearl white Christmas bulb.

Hope you have a great weekend, I will be working at the Shop. Next week I will be posting pictures of the Shop as we ready for our Christmas Open House~

Silver Bella!

What do you call an event that brings together over one hundred creative Women with glittering personalities that have a common passion for paper arts? Silver Bella of course! I returned yesterday from this amazing gathering and have to say it was absolutely the most fun I have had in a long time. Just the idea of sharing a hotel with Women who enjoy living a creative lifestyle was simply wonderful. Finally meeting some of the amazing friends from blog land was especially fun. I picked up Ms Sparkles Heather at the airport and I don't think we ever stopped laughing the entire weekend! Then hanging out with Sweet Beth and adorable "The Karla" was perfect. I can't forget about Ms Stacy from Texas (girl get that blog) who was a life saver and helped me at vendor night. We had the very same class schedule and it was so much fun being with her! When I signed up for Silver Bella a few months ago, I decided to take part in the whole experience~classes,swaps and vendor night! The prima Bella herself Teresa also treated us to a fantastic luncheon on Friday and we were delighted to have the Senior Editors from Country Living Magazine, Frances Bailey and Monica Michael Willis as our guest speakers. They were there the entire three days photographing the event for Country Living~more about that later! Vendor night was unbelievable. The booths were beautiful, I had several favorites. I scurried with the help of Texas Stacy to set up my booth, and I must say the response that I received was truly overwhelming. I just had no idea what to expect. I sold almost everything that I had brought with me for vendor night which made packing up much more enjoyable. Thank you to the sweet girls who bought my things, I  am so glad we are such kindred spirits. I was also very fortunate to be one of the booths photographed by Country Living and get the chance to speak with Frances and Monica, they were so nice and very interested in my little shop in Missouri. Thank You!

The whole weekend was such a blast and I will be posting more pictures of the swap I was in and classes!

~Silver Bella Sneek Peek~

Silver Bella is in 4 days! I hope you can see me smiling because I am really looking forward to this wonderful event. As promised I have a few sneek peek pictures to share with you~This first photo is some of my vintage embellished art that I am bringing.  I took and old camera and made a winter vignette shawdow box,

Handmilled crown soaps.

Paper cones filled with Lavender buds.

How about a few sparkles!