a bee or a wee fairy

Last week on my way to the Catskills I spent a night in the 18th century river town of Hudson, New York. My son came down from Albany for dinner, and I stayed at a guest house, the dark grey building in the picture above. The small white one is the Quaker Meeting House. It looks very staid from the front,

but I perched in the treetop suite, behind the main building.

I read on my little porch, and Emma the dog visited me.

It could have been furnished by my store.

I fell flat out in love with this marvelous little garden room/porch.

It is the time of year when I wish I was a bee, flitting from flower to flower. Or a wee fairy--I would climb inside a lily of the valley. There is a big robin who splashes daily in my bird bath. We are becoming friends.

weekend in the Catskills

Quiet in the store, but it looked nice. 

There were festivities.

An opening in the art gallery next door;

  a Cinco de Mayo birthday party which involved 

huge quantities of Mexican food, 

laughter, carrot cake, four French bulldogs and a giant full moon. 

Fresh eggs for breakfast. Blueberry muffins. 

A waterfall. Forget Me Nots galore.

I went to an auction

 I had to have this sign. Maybe I should start selling hot dogs in the store. Of course they'd have to be locally sourced, no pesticides, no antibiotics, grass, (organic, of course) fed, humanely slaughtered hot dogs. :)

 The graphics on this side of the sign were singing to me.

 This racy green Haeger cornucopia vase was a steal.

 Hand-colored lithograph, probably mid 19th century. Butterflies and birds never go out of style.

Pantry Queen bread box, tea caddy, and sugar tin. The sugar tin is missing its top, but I think it would look nifty with a jar filled with wildflowers in it. There is a green milking stool peeking out beneath the bread box.

I leave early for the Catskills. The store is now open every Friday. Just letting you know, in case you're in the area.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Jen

Meet Iowa Jewel Julie

Owls of the Night

When I was planning Country Weekend I had to have Iowa Jewel's collage kits—they epitomized my vision for the store: creative, vintage, and whimsical. 

Life on a Dairy Farm

When I contacted Julie she was enthusiastic--she even created special packaging and custom kits for the store. Visting her Etsy store (here) always makes me happy; exploring Lets go Canoeing, Birds in Winter, The Bermuda Triangle, Sherlock Holmes, Fears and Phobias, Circus Dreams, Along the Rocky Coast, Alfred Hitchcock, Firefly Magic, Our Mysterious Moon, and much, much more, fires up my imagination. 

 The Artist in You

You can also find prints and other vintage ephemera on Iowa Jewel. 

owl and bird print

 Julie obviously loves what she does and has fun doing it. I recently discovered that she reads this blog, and was delighted when she agreed to do a little q and a, which I know that you'll enjoy. (As always, click on pictures to enlarge. Captions have links if you want to see more.)

Picasso

Tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to making collage kits.

I live in a small town in Iowa with my husband and three kitty cats. My biggest dream is to travel the world but until that day comes I am happy to visit everywhere my imagination can take me in collage kit land. 

Let's Go Camping in the Desert

When I was little, my sister and I would make collages out of pictures from magazines and make up stories about adventures we would have traveling. It made the whole wide world come alive for me.  I have always found great joy and contentment in creating.

Where do you get the materials for the kits? 

I go to garage, library and book sales. I also shop on eBay and Amazon. Most of my books are children’s, science/reference and travel themed and are from the early 1900’s through the 70’s.  I have way over a 1,000 books, they are in every nook and cranny of our small house; let’s just say I have a very understanding husband!

Julie and her books

Where do you get your ideas for themes?

Mostly from my never-ending imagination! I am inspired by romantic places around the world. California is special to me. My love for animals and nature shows up a lot! I also love science and old Hollywood. I combined two of those in my Mad Scientist and Evil Doctor kits which are inspired by 1950's horror movies.

Mad Scientist in the Laboratory

A lot of times I come across an image that I fall in love with and end up building a whole kit around that one picture. That happened with my San Juan Capistrano kit. Also I get many requests from my customers for custom kits, and they have ideas that I would never have thought of on my own.

The African Queen

Tell us about your work space and work habits. Do you work on several kits at once or one at a time?

I have a small (10x 10) studio that I share with my husband. Since I don’t have a lot of room, I am always looking for more efficient ways to store all the things I use making my kits. I also do my packing and shipping here so sometimes I set up a portable table and use our dining room table for overflow!  I have 2 long tables that my husband made for me and many shelves to hold my supplies.  I spend most of my time here so I am happy to have a big window that looks out over our beautiful backyard and lets in lots of natural light.

I usually listen to music on my laptop when I am creating.  Sometimes I watch movies and they influence the kits I make or I watch the movie that I am making a kit of to help me with images I will add. Example: when making Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound kit and watching the movie I included a real fork to go along with a famous scene where Ingrid Bergman draws lines with a fork on the table cloth.  I enjoy writing stories to go along with my kits too.

I am always working on many kits at once!  Right now I am making a journal for a friend and woodland animal kits for a custom order.  I keep a list of each kit I sell so I can remake one like it and I have a list of all the kits I want to make and am collecting images for too.

Julie in her studio

Do you ever hear from people who've bought your kits?

Yes!  I get lots of feedback and it’s all been positive!  I am so blest to be able to create something I love as a job that brings so much fun and happiness into other people’s lives.

What amazes me is all the different things my customers use my kits for.  Scrapbooking, travel journals and collage art are probably the main things but just recently one of my skunk kits was used at a skunk rescue fundraiser and mad scientist kits for decorations at child’s birthday party in Australia!

I Want to be an Archeologist

flowers in the house

Finally enough warmth in these northern latitudes for flowers in the house that come from my garden.

Azaleas, lilacs,

and a spray of low-hanging andromeda.

 I always like to have fresh flowers on the kitchen table,

and for the cat to play with. 

Visit Jane and friends at Small But Charming for more flowers in the house.

the easy way

You don't find many decorating tips here on Country Weekend, because....I don't have many. But today I have the Easiest Decorating Tip Ever.

 The wall outside of the store was looking a little dingy. I was thinking about stenciling some vines, which I've done before. But I'm always so busy...I took the easy way.

Stickers. My friend Gerry was selling them in his store. 

Please don't sic the decorating police on me.

 I guess I should be embarrassed, but I love them. 

If you click on the pictures you can get a larger view.

 (That's the art gallery next door.)

In the 1980's the windows of hundreds of abandoned city-owned buildings in New York City were covered with vinyl decals of curtains, shutters, and flower pots. I lived in NYC then and remember them well. They got a lot of well-deserved ridicule. I thought of that when I put up my hydrangeas. Why is is bad for the Bronx but okay for me? Maybe because I'm not pretending anything. Just doing a little short-cut pick me up. (That's probably what Mayor Koch said too.)

Gerry had a package of pink ranunculus that I strongly considered, but I'm happy with the hydrangeas.The company has a huge variety available. See here. I'll try to remember to take a close up picture next time so you can get a better look.  If you're still talking to me after this.

weekend in the Catskills

 The garden festival was a success. Lots of food

 flowers

fresh produce

 kids

kids with kids

 music

and more. (See here.)

 In the spirit of things, I oh so artfully displayed gardening books,

  and planted violas in milk glass containers.

 Seed bombs made an appearance.

They are gumball size clumps of soil mixed with clay, earthworm castings and seeds, created for throw and grow ease. Seed bombs originated with urban guerilla gardeners to be used on empty lots. (More on guerilla gardening here.)

I have another flower thing to show you, but I'll save it for later in the week.

I hope you had a good weekend.

Jen