Welcome to the Dove Wing Diner

The Dove Wing Diner is the latest of four Spring birdhouses I have created this season. Step inside for a casually elegant dining experience featuring our earthworm tar tar with dirt chutney and fresh beatle.

The funky, rusty brooch encircling the perch was snagged recently at the Penn Square Antiques Mall in St. Joe. Ahhhh . . . how I would love to be there right now.

And some interesting odds and ends, all in creamy white, to get that Frenchy old world feel I was looking for with this house.

And as I was antique mall shopping/daydreaming, I got the idea for spoons for the roof. Still unsure of how to cut and bend them, I decided to include them unaltered.

And a slathering of grout completes the look. SOLD

And meet my new man. Thanks so much to Barb at Sister's for allowing me to shop her blog and for shipping this baby from Iowa to KC. I'm taking very good care of him, Barb.

Found this fab certificate at W.D. Pickers, dated 1874. I am so curious about the history of people and just what did this little baby do with her life?

And one of my most favorite antique mall finds, again from dealer #11 in St. Joe - I'm waiting for just the right mosaic piece to feature this one.

And some more fun odds and ends. I'm already plotting about my next birdhouse, the Magpie Mansion, complete with wonky additions sticking crookedly off of one another and lots of dangling chandalier prisms. The Magpie's are the "crazy" people on the block, don't you know.

100th Post Winner!!!

Dashiell was kind enough to do the honors of picking a name out of a bowl last night for my 100th post giveaway and elle binder is the lucky winner!!! elle will receive the switch plate below that is entirely made of plates from my antique mall excursion to St. Joseph on Monday. Congratulations, elle!!!! Please don't forget that elle is a jewelry artist who sells her fabulous wares at Stuff in Brookside. Order your custom piece today! Thanks to everyone who left kind (and really funny) comments about my love of creepy baby heads and all things rusty, chipped, and tarnished.

The Last Hoorah

I had one last vacation day on Monday and spent it in bliss at the Penn Street Square Antique Mall in St. Joseph, Missouri.

By the time Monday rolled around, I had just about hit all of my faves in KC and branched north for more exploration. I had been here once before back in November, but I was with Jason and Brendan and I didn't get through all three floors. This was once a shirt factory, so it is HUGE!

So many treasures! I spent an entire hour in just one section of the main floor. Much of the rest of my three+ hours were spent on the upstairs.

Dealer #11 had a booth on the main floor and one entire section of the upstairs and all I can say is WOW. If you don't have dust allergies or fear of lots of dirt or spiders, this is what heaven looks like.

Oh, and you have to possess some pretty good balancing skills if you want to get at the "good stuff".

All of his stuff was 30 percent off and I got a ton of great mosaic dishes for cheap, cheap, cheap!

The picture above and the next two below were from a place on the way to St. Joe called W.D. Pickers. About 85 percent of the merchandise in this mall is behind glass, not my style. I like to pick it up and look it over, but it was fun to see how dealers displayed things and what they were into.

Can you spy the silver nail buffer and brush above?

This chaise was fun. Imagine it in some creamy or chocolate-patterned fabric.

I like the shape of this settee. The price was good too. If only Sharon were nearby to work her magic . . .

I couldn't wait to get home and mix the new treasures with the old.

The birds below are from booth #11!!!!

And after I finished up at the mall, I drove around taking some pics. Downtown St. Joe is an amazing mix of these types of grand houses near and around what can only be described as urban blight on a small town scale. It's interesting to think about what it may have been like in its hay day.

This wonderful home had been converted into apartments. I would have loved to have seen some of them. Is the molding still in-tact? Crystal door knobs? Pocket doors?

And actually, this was one of my favorites (below), maybe the limestone wall and crumbling brick. Can you imagine it with a lush garden?

It reminds me of an English cottage. What a great place to spend my last day of freedom!

Mo Mojo as My Friend elle Would Say

My friend and jewelry artist extraordinaire, elle binder, said I've had some serious mo mojo lately, as in mosaic mojo. elle's fantastic and inspirational jewelry can be found at Stuff in Brookside and she does great custom work. I have been trying to rebuild my inventory and picked up some religious statues over the last few days. The one above came from my friend Erin's booth at the River Market, second floor.

The thing sticking off the side of the picture frame below was actually a brooch. Yikes!

And these switch plates can now be found at Stuff. The hanging plaque features some lips I made of polymer clay. I thought the "clean" plate would be cute in a bathroom and the earrings on the top of it reminded me of bubbles. I decided to do a "dirty" one soon for the bathroom OR the bedroom, I suppose . . .

I've had this shampoo bottle for awhile and thought this plate was a great place for it.

And I just sent The Tropicana Tweet Club up to Sharon in Iowa for Sister's.

I decided to use pennies for the roof again. I'm trying to figure out how to do spoons on the roof of the next one. I'd like to snip off the stems and just overlap the round pieces with chunks of grout in between.


Hard to believe I took these pics on Thursday when it was about 60 degrees. Today is Saturday and it's been snowing all day long. Yuck!

Enjoying My Time Off . . .

I took a few days off to relax and get some mosaics done. I hadn't been antique mall shopping in a long time and have made up for it over this break. Here are some fun things I found at the River Market Antique Mall and at Sentimental Journey in Olathe.

The wild dog is for Brendan's room. It's signed on the back by a boy scout and it says 1955 Troup (sic), Kansas City, Kansas. I'm not sure if 1955 is the year or troop number, but I thought it was cool just the same.

I love the religious figurines and tiny perfume bottles

This tin is great. I actually picked it up at DAV on Wornall a few days back.

I am always interested in the way things are styled and I dig the unique booths. The next four photos are from the same one.



The tag said "black Jesus".

This booth was awesome.




And another . . .


There's a guy named Donnie on the third floor at the River Market and I love everything he has.

This was a mortuary practice head. The sign talked about the 93 year old mortician who described the history of why it was necessary.

This was a work table from a Kansas City, MO fire department.

Barber shop pole.

Piece from a carousel.
The shading on this frame was fabulous, almost looks like frosting.

I took Monday off, too and I'm already thinking about the next destination. Maybe this junky mall up in Claycomo, Missouri or I might just take a drive up to St. Joe. I wish I could do this every day!