This is our sweet Bluebird Wedding cake topper!

Etsy has chosen our Blue Bird Wedding Cake Topper to be included in the voting for Best Topper!

Voting is open until Monday, June 8th.

Here is the vote link!

http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=53

As we say in Chicago, “Vote Early and vote often”.

Thanks Friends of Middleburg! –Susan

It all started with a grand plan that got grander, pick up the son from college, do a show, build Mt. Vernon, have a historic jacket custom made, make a petticoat, a bum roll and 40 new pieces. Sounds like a weekend to me. Did I happen to say son is in Virginia, 700+ miles away, show is in Newport News another 200+miles, Mt. Vernon is being built from foam and sticks, and I have all the parts of the 40 pieces in the studio waiting for me to assemble. All in all I’m a optimist and feel everything you want can be done if you just try hard enough. Well we tried, through the down pours of rain here in Illinois we worked every weekend all weekend long, and still we failed. But failure should never detour one, you can learn so much, and just the effort of trying produces some great things!

Hubby is working like a madman these days at the real job, so the new historic line we are calling “Coach House Heritage” will launch slower than expected, some pieces are up on Etsy now and others we will be adding over the next week to our site and Etsy. It will feature pieces inspired from the mid 1700’s through the Civil War. Lots of new hard-stuffed, fabric pieces in very limited editions of 25, which are all hand-painted. Very classic papier mache pieces, soldiers with wired on arms, and pieces which combine papier mache with fabric in one piece.

We will be re-erecting Mount Vernon here some time in mid June and having a show right here on our studio grounds. I’ll post some dates and details soon so you all can come out.

But my trip to Virginia was great and wanted to share some wonderful parts with you all.

American in Paris–excellent antique shop, in Paris Virginia. Call first and the darling owner Carol will open it up to you. Paris, VA is a very small, quaint town nestled in the Blueridge Mountains. Here is their link so you can pre-shop, www.american-in-paris-antiques.com

The Red Fox Inn-a quick lunch and one of my most favorite places, located in Middleburg Virginia, which had to include peanut soup.

Oh yes and the boy child is now home and my family is all here again. And really, what more could one ask for?

Some have seen her around already in photos on the website and others in person. But I just wanted to introduce you all to the newest member of the Middleburg family, our black pug dog, Gigi. This one is for my daughter. Our other pug is VeeVee, and she became our sons from the beginging. We love great name for pets so we just continued the naming in the same vain. My husband always gives the dogs a middle name and what better than Channel, so her full name is Gigi Channel. She is now 11 weeks old and full of energy.

We’ll soon be looking for some fab collars, so here are some of my daughter picks from Etsy.

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We’ll keep adding puppy pictures from time to time and you can watch her grow!

As an artist I have been thinking about this issue for over a year now and considering what I could do that was more than just making a donation. Knowing I’m just a little tiny voice who is here shouting and there are so many bigger voices shouting awareness. But all the voices coming together is only that much louder, that much stronger so that was my start. I know for me it was a matter of creating something bigger than me. A way to share my art, to hand-make something from my heart to give others a little hope, and extra ounce of courage, a smile or a feel-good moment. Art transcends so many things, the feeling I can bring to someone is always a driving force behind what I create. Winter for me is such a reflective time, while I’ve known of people who have been diagnosed, some who have survived, the impact in not personal..not yet. So I created these pieces so maybe we can offset it becoming personal, so that number of 1 in 8 people can go down.

If you too would like to donate here is the link:   http://ww5.komen.org/donate/donate.html

This is our sweet Bluebird Wedding cake topper!

Sometimes the simplest little things in life are the best. I’ve collected some fun facts about bluebirds here to make you happy:

In symbolism – the bluebird is the universally acknowledged sign of happiness, prosperity, good health, and arrival of Spring. The beautiful blue of its plumage is associated with the sky and eternal happiness.

Myth 1 – the Bluebird is a “man of laughter” and symbolizes happy love. I always knew they were good luck, but didn’t really know why. 

Myth 2: the Bluebird flutters around humans and reports back to the gods. It very well could be that the phrase “a little bird told me,” spawned from it.