Take a look at this wonderful shadowbox

Isn't this just enchanting?! It's from this wonderful French blog. (If you click on it, it will grow, however if you go to the site and click on the photo, you get a very large zoom image, so you can get a really good look!) I was originally directed there by Ulla, who posted a gorgeous reliquary from the same site. Because my French is rudimentary at best, I'm not completely sure what the site is dedicated to - but it has some wonderful and varied photos. Take a few moments and browse around!

Black and White Pierrot Mini Theatre

Last night I started working on a small black and white theatre which might display a Pierrot or Pirouette paper doll puppet. I had planned on it being tiny, but the more I started playing with the black and white papers and trims and beads and feathers, I decided it really needed to be a larger theatre. So it grew into this 16" display theatre. I took a detail photo of the balcony, because I think the Dresden scrap 'railing' and and the antique jet beading trim are especially lovely. I found the black button that is in the middle of the back wall at an antique shop years ago and it's finally found a home. It's multi-faceted and looks like a big jet bead - though I don't believe it is. I think this is going to be a really pretty mini vintage theatre. Jon asked me if I was going to put a "splash of red" on it and I said that I hadn't planned on it. However, the idea of a black and white and red piece intrigues me, so I'm sure there is going to be one of them this year!

Today's Mini-"Vintage"-Theatre Construction

I was going to work on doing an out-doors-y sort of woodland faery theatre piece.

But, it just seemed to get fancier and fancier as I went along, and it turned out a tad too royal for a forest scene.

I think maybe it's going to require a Marie Antoinette character inside it ...

I used papier mache (as usual) for the basic structure, and added vintage and handmade papers, a beautiful piece of antique brass filigree, an Anna Griffin crown embellishment, glass fringe in the shape of leaves, crepe paper, silk ribbon (for the bunting) and paper-and-ribbon covered dowels for the columns. As I look at it more and more, I think that maybe I'll need to add something to the facing of the balcony to add to the rhinestones. They're looking a little lonely there by themselves.

I guess now I'll need to see if I can get that natural forest-y stage structure started!

What a discovery! Hand printed and bound paper theatre book!

This gorgeous book, hand printed and hand bound by Wendy Addison is a real treasure. As she states on her blog, ""Notebook for an Imaginary Life"- That is the sub-title for my book. For the past twelve years I have been drawing in my Theatre of Dreams notebooks, keeping track of ideas before they evaporate, making notes for future projects and drawing things I love. I also wrote a poem years ago about the making of an imaginary life, and the poem and the illustrations have come together to make a book!

I am piecing it together carefully and will complete a limited artist's edition of 350 copies. This book will be hand assembled and hand bound here at my studio in Port Costa, and will include collage, letterpress and a unique drawing on the flyleaf of each copy. Your copy will be signed, numbered and inscribed to you."

More information - and pictures of this gotta-have - can be found here. Be sure to check out the rest of her site which has pictures of her wonderful creations and finds and stuff. Everything here is well worth the time!

Usually, my taste in furniture goes to the extremes - either I lust after gorgeous period Regency pieces or I crave the clean simplicity of contemporary/modern austerity.

However, this fabulous pair of period deco chairs from Sweden really floats my boat! The curved wooden armrests and the gorgeous ultra-suede new upholstery make them look both comfy and stylish.

Unfortunately, at $7,000 for the pair, they won't be coming to live with us in New Haven.
These and other wonderful pieces can be seen at "Pieces" - the online catalog of a fabulous shop located in Georgia.

I found this chair/litter/sled/sleigh/amazing thing on the wonderful blog A Thousand Clapping Hands.

There is much to love about this piece - the creamy tufted upholstery; the lovely shade of green; the detailed and lush painting; the exquisite dare-I-say-perfect silhouette; but most of, the utilitarian pupose!

Yes, indeed, some lucky person in Russia got to sit in this and get pushed across the ice and over the snow, keeping all bundled up and cozy in the confines of all that lavish (what looks like) silk brocade fabric!

Perhaps I'm finding this most attractive today because it would be wonderful to have Jon push me across the drifts in Wooster Square in this while I walk Dusty.

Who am I kidding? I would be pushing Dusty around in it. Without question, he's the most royal thing that lives at 293! And he never lets us forget it for a moment!

Maybe I'll have to made do with watching "Doctor Zhivago" this afternoon.