ArtsyMama turns Two!!!!

The table is set, the candles aglow...it's a second birthday party for ArtsyMama blog!! Wow, what a FUN two years this has been:) For a look at my first year of blogging, check out my birthday post last year. Come inside and have a seat. Lets reminisce about the fun times that we've shared together. The highlights of the second year of blogging for me have been:

*The Journal your Christmas online art journal class Shimelle hosted last year and I plan to take again this year. *

*The Cabinet of Curiosities prompts I hosted with Bonnie*

*Hosting my first Virtual Tea Party!*

*Attending ArtFest*

*The May Basket Swap!!*

*The Spring Secrets Round Robin*

*Being published for the first time and my virtual Artful Blogger party*

*My first vendor experience at Junk Bonanaza*

*The Sweet and Sinister swap*

*Cape Cod and Silver Bella...need I say more?!*

**Meeting SO MANY of you in person this year. What a treat!!**

I hope you have many fun memories as well. I'm curious, what do you like most about my blog? What would you like to see more of?

All photos are from Nature's Harvest, my go to place for inspiration. It is the same store as I shared with you here and here .

Look who decided to join in the party! I made these little pixie ladies with vintage millinery flowers. They're all dolled up with rinestone earrings and sugar coated wings. They're all in my etsy shop looking for good homes!

Amy Bauer even made me a cake!! Thank you all for visiting this blog over the past 2 years. Your support and inspiration truly fuels my creative life. You are all so greatly appreciated and are such gifts on this journey. In other exciting news, I'm only 6 posts away from my 500th post, so I'll have to think of something extra special for that one!

Thank you!

My day with Ulla...

I didn't go shopping on black Friday, but boy did I make up for it on Saturday! Ulla was in town and I wanted to show her a good ol' fashioned Minnesota estate sale. First, lets back up a bit. Ulla contacted me a few weeks ago to let me know that she was going to be in the twin cities to visit her in-law's for Thanksgiving and she wanted to meet me. I was thrilled beyond belief. Ulla is an amazing mixed media artist with a blog chock full of visual inspiration and she also teaches paper arts classes at the Castle in the Air in Berkeley. I have a been a fan of her work for quite some time. So we arranged for me to pick her up on Saturday morning....Naturally, the first thing we did was exchange gifts with one another. She gave me some wonderful vintage millinery goodness (above) and this absolutely stunning NOEL Christmas banner that she made (below).Then she gave me a packet from the Castle below. I was speechless and couldn't stop touching everything as I ooohed and ahhhed at the wonderful treats.I gave Ulla these cones that I had made filled with a U mug from Anthropologie, a chenille orament that I had a picture of in my last post, crown soap from Carol at Silver Bella, and some vintage ephemera. After hugs and kisses for the special gifts we moved on to our first estate sale. It was a bit of a drive, so we chatted the whole way. Didn't buy much there, so we moved on to another sale. Here's Ulla in front of a Birkeland Estate Sale sign. When you see one of these signs, you know there's fun just ahead!

The sale was in a grand old Edina home. It was filled with vintage treasures of all kinds. We looked at old books for at least an hour. Ulla bought the absolutely gorgeous book below.I bought this handmade throw in wonderful greens and browns for $4!! Also found this neat old baby book. The flash cards came from a store we went to later in the afternoon. Stay tuned...Here's Ulla exiting the sale with her treasures.Our next stop was the wonderful store Hunt and Gather in Minneapolis. It is brimming with a wide range of mix and match finds. What a welcome this is!!
This store is filled with room after room of vintage pieces. So much inspiration.
This room was my favorite. Love the color combination.
Then there's a whole room of bits and pieces of games, ephemera, toys, etc. You name it, it's there. A bit overwhelming...in a good way!
Downstairs is another labryinth of finds. Ulla and I especially loved these winter scene paint by numbers canvases.
Ulla found this one in another part of the store and I bought it:)
Amazing little vingettes over every square inch of this place.
I bought this vintage German calendar header. Beautiful color palette and scene.

Here we are beaming with excitement at the end of our shopping foray.We realized we were very, very thirsty and quite hungry, but another antique shop across the road called us in. This pink wreath below was made of dyed corn husks. Only in Minnesota!!
I bought this whimsical felt silhouette picture. We were both very inspired to play around with this idea.

I had found this book at the estate sale earlier in the day full of wonderful poems for children with silhouette pictures.

All these glamour dolls will make fun pieces to use in my art.

We finally had to end our shopping extravaganza and sat down for a nice bite to eat. We then had to say goodbye. This was the view as I came to the lake by my home with the full moon shining down on the still water. A thin layer of ice starting to form from the shore. What a picture perfect ending to an inspiring day with a talented artsy woman!! Thank you, Ulla.

P.S. My two year blog birthday is this Thursday the 29th. Stay tuned for some fun!!