Holiday Inspiration: Common Folk Co.

I have long been jealous of my friends who live in the Midwest who have easy access to antique shops filled with affordable vintage treasure. Here in Seattle we only have a few such shops, but until recently, I had never one visited a shop like Common Folk Co.

For one thing, it is located all the way out in Crossroads, on the East Side (for you non WA readers, this means I have to drive over the water across a floating bridge into some suburbs--a terrifying prospect for a citygirl like me (j/k). The other thing that I really liked about this shop was how welcoming and friendly it was. I walked in and as I was being dazzled by the treasures inside, I was offered hot cider and cookies by one of their very attentive staff.

It is delightful a delightful place with so many pretty things to see. I was quite inspired.

They have a mix of vintage and new things...perfect for gifts and for when you want to buy yourself a little something special.

I myself picked up one of those little porcelain birds and a vintage style Merry Christmas sign. After I finished my cider, of course.

Unfortunately, their website link is broken.. but here is an alternate link with some info. If you ever get the chance to come to this area, I really reccomend you stop by (because it is also right by the Michaels and a Starbucks).

Happy Friday!
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NOTE: Speaking of local activities, this weekend is the 5th annual winter edition of Urban Craft Uprising. While it is not as big as Renegade, it is still a pretty respectable showing of Northwest Indie crafters.

It will be my fifth year attending, and I'm really looking forward to supporting my local crafty community (and getting some holiday shopping done). Be on the lookout for a full recap after the weekend is over.

Baby it's cold outside...

Strange to see frost on the leaves and the window glass in the mornings now. I guess it really is December.

I shiver at the thought that it might snow again soon. Brrrrr.

Looking forward to weekends all snug at home with crafts, hot cocoa and my sweetie. Enjoying my new winter boots and picking out a scarf every day from my trusty collection (one of which I got when I was in Paris).

Hope you are enjoying the posts. If you are on Twitter, you might want to follow me... I've been posting pretty frequently there as well.

My username is coffeegrlcrafts.. or you could click the link on the sidebar.
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 Back tomorrow morning with a biiig eye candy post. :)

p.s.
I just found out that my label tulip kit has shipped, so when it comes there will be major scrappiness happening there too.

Holiday Music Mix

For your listening enjoyment:

In a few days I'll add a link to this post on the sidebar---because eventually this post is going to get buried underneath all the other posts and I wouldn't want you to be without your tunes. ;)

My Winter Forest (part one)

For a long time, I've seen those lovely white bottlebrush trees in all the home decor shots during the holiday season. I've always liked the look of the white ones better than the green (or pink). But for a long time, I was under the impression that the white ones were strictly a vintage thing.. and so I'd always kept my eye out for some while on the thrifting hunt.

Until I found this tutorial that showed me how to make my own!

I picked up some of the green bottlebrush trees from M's and grabbed a stainless steel bowl and some bleach and water and threw everything together.

I did use a ratio of 3:1 on the bleach/water solution.. but I was low on bleach so I didn't have enough to completely submerge my trees. (And watch out for bleach fumes.)

I stirred them occasionally, and became amazed at how well the bleach worked to remove the scary green dye. I also liked how distressed the paint on the wood bases became as the time went on...

And then, one by one, my little trees became snowy white.

And this is the finished set. I love them so. I have some good stuff planned for these little babies as we go through the month (bwahahaha).

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Making Christmas (Cards)

One of my very favorite memories from this holiday season (already, I know)... was a few weekends ago when two of my friends and I met for coffee and crafting. We went shopping at PaperZone (and I finally picked up some gold embossing powder---and I'm totally hooked).

Although this event happened prior to December 1st, I wanted to include it with my December Daily posts because it was just so fun to hang out with my very charming friends and watch movies and eat snacks and make christmas cards (with a fire roaring in the background and cute puppies to snuggle with). See?

(Thank goodness I'm not the only messy crafty person in the group.. We kind of took over the whole dining room. Note, all the MSCrafts punches shown are mine. I have a SERIOUS addiction...)

I made a few different cards... which I will share in later posts. It does get very dark so early this time of year. Not so good for taking photos of crafty things...

Anyway, big news! Catslife Press has released a bunch of very cute new stamps! You can check it out here... I totally ordered a few today. I am such a sucker for their clean, text based designs.

And that's my post for today... back tomorrow with a crafty project. ;)