Surprise for me!!

Oh my goodness! I received the sweetest surprise today from a wonderful blogging friend, Kathleen of Yesteryear Embroideries . I picked up yesterday's mail and among the bills and cards, I found a little package for me. I know I should have taken a picture of it to share, but I was so excited to have received it, that I just ripped it open. Inside, I found two sweet linens tied up with gold and red ribbon, a beautiful note, and the nicest Christmas card ever!

The doily is hand embroidered by Kathleen and features a wonderful little basket overflowing with yummy spring flowers: daisies, lavender, tulips and the cutest pansy right in the middle. Notice the edges? All hand finished. I love pansies because they look like such happy little flowers. They always make me smile when I see them whether they're in my garden, on a post card, or a beautiful hand embroidered linen (like this one)!

This darling tea towel is also made by Kathleen and is hand embroidered with two yummy roses, floating flowers and the cutest little blue butterfly. It's hand hemmed and then blanket stitched with a matching floss all the way around the edges. Talk about work! I can't imagine doing all that.

She does "hand embroidery for all occasions in all varieties of stitch and style." So if you need custom work, please contact her. Imagine having pillowcases or guest towels personalized with a hand embroidered monogram or your favorite flower/colors. You'll enjoy her blog and get to see some of her work, too. Drop by and tell her I said, "hi!"

Thanks, Kathleen!!

Blessing to all this Christmas season,

Patricia :o)

Yeah! We have a winner and then some...

The winner of my give away is Sunday Girl from The Crafty Corner. I used a random number generator to pick the winner. But I had so much fun meeting new ladies and everyone left such sweet comments, that I had to have a 2nd and 3rd prize.

So I used the RNG again and got Jan at Jan and Tom's Place who won this lovely hand embroidered vintage pillowcase,

and Lea of Farmhouse Blessings who won this pretty hand embroidered vintage table runner.

This truly was so much fun! I met the nicest people and visited the most beautiful blogs, and found some new friends along the way! I'll have to do it again, soon. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Blessings,

Patricia :o)

Add your name to my GIVE AWAY!!

Because give aways can be so much fun, I thought it was time to do another one starting this month. You can add your name to the "hat" all the way up until December 7th. I'll be drawing a name on the 8th. The rules are super easy.

1. Visit my eBay store (From the Treasure Box) or Web store (Vintage Linen Treasures) then come back and leave me a comment on which linen you like the best. You can get your name added one more time by linking your blog to mine. Be sure you tell me if you do, so that I know to add your name in twice.

2. Make sure I have a way to contact you if you win. Either an email or blog will do great.

3. That's it...No third step!

Here's what you get if you win:

A lovely vintage pillowcase hand embroidered with sweet pink daisies and minty greenery. It's finished with a lovely, white hand crocheted trim all along the bottom edge. It's 100% cotton and will fit a standard size pillow. Very sweet and chic.

You also get a sweet little heart made from an old vintage pillowcase. It is hand embroidered with pretty flowers and I added a pink ribbon bow just below them. The trim is vintage hand crocheted lace, and the back is a soft pink fabric. I also added organza ribbon so you can hang it on a door or in your closet because it has french lavender tucked away inside. It smells wonderful!

This sweet Hanky Angels is hand made by a lovely lady. I purchased several from her and am including one in this give away. If you'd like to see more of her angels, please visit her at her blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Patricia :o)

Lost Maples Canyon

This weekend we took a short (1 hour) drive to Vanderpool, a town about 70 miles from San Antonio. We hear that there are beautiful trees that are turning color in a state park called Los Maples Canyon. We love trees, so we took a drive. Here are some of the beautiful leaves and trees we saw.

We've lived in Texas for a little over a year now, and this was the first time we saw a live armadillo. It was so much bigger than I thought they were! He stuck around for a long time rooting around for grubs, but he wouldn't turn and face us. So all we got pictures of was his tail end.

This is my hubby and I. My two kids came with us, too, and we had tons of fun. Lots of laughing and being silly. It was such a great day, and a beautiful place to visit. We'll be back for sure!

~The Handmade Quilt: Win This Quilt

Click on the link below for a chance to win a gorgeous quilt. Abbie made this quilt for a neighbor who donated her bone marrow for a total stranger. It's a wonderful story and very touching to see how people reach out to one another. Be sure to visit Abbie's blog, you'll be glad you did.

~The Handmade Quilt-er~: Win This Quilt (My Giveaway)

Yea! Some fun treasures!

It's always fun to go treasure hunting, but when there's lots of treasures to be found, it can be better than chocolate!! My hubby and I drove around in our neighborhood for the annual community yard sale. We didn't find too much here because it's a fairly new development, but we did pick up some great silk flowers and that gorgeous Victorian lady and child wall art.

Then we went to a very small swap meet were we found tiny, hand made refrigerator and sink, an English teapot, water color painting, beautiful hand sewn quilt top, a gorgeous rug and lots of other goodies.

These are hand made of wood. Aren't they cute?

I'm going to paint the butterflies white and maybe paint pink roses on their bodies.

This child's toy dresser is my favorite find today. It has its original vintage pink color and has a scarecrow and darling bunny transfers on the drawers. Notice the cute little pig on top? It's a vintage potpourri porcelain sachet, and is hand painted with darling pink roses. It's adorable!

The drawers are a little stained and drawn on so I lined them with some vintage wrapping paper. I can't believe I happened to have paper that would match so well. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the background color of the paper is a lighter version of the paint on the dresser.

This was a cool find. It's an all hand made, vintage under the bed storage box. All I had to do was wipe it down and it was ready for use. It's already under my bed and it fits perfectly. Now all I have to do is fill it with treasures (but hubby wants to put his hockey cards and sports memorabilia....)

Check out the key. I've never seen anything like that. Very cool!

Most of these things I bought to sell, but they're so cute, that I'm having a hard time wanting to do it. Does this happen to anybody else? I only buy things I like, which makes it really tough to give up.

Blessings,

Patricia :o)

EBay & Web Store Listings for this week

I love sharing pictures of my linens. Mostly, I post pictures of the ones I'm going to keep. Here are a few that are for sale this week in my eBay and Web stores. Even if a person is not interested in buying them, I think it's always fun to look and admire the work from ladies long (and sometimes not so long ago).


These first two items are listed this week in eBay. You can click on the pictures to get there and see the details.

This blue bird runner is so sweet. It doesn't show in this picture but there's a blue crocheted trim that goes all the way around it. So much work!

The handsome couple of a rooster and chicken is hand appliqued using black and white ginham fabric with hand embroidered details. This lovely dish towel would look adorable in almost anyone's kitchen.

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These next two items are listed in Vintage Linen Treasures.com. The first is a beautiful pair of vintage pillowcases hand embroidered with pink and lavender tulips. So pretty!

The pillowcase case below is a beautiful pink rose with red detailing. It's so cottage chic and feminine! Roses are one of my favorite embroidered designs, (blue birds are a very close second).