Significance of the Name


My Blog’s name is a tribute to my Dad & my Husband. My Dad because he used to sing the song to me, "How 'd You Like to Swing on a Star?" It's about reaching for your dreams, you can stay where you are & be safe OR YOU CAN SWING ON STAR. Stars also refer to a difficult night just after my husband died. I was talking to him (I often do.) & said how I missed his "I Love You's". That night he gave me a dream... a gorgeous, bright blue night sky filled with thousands of stars, in the middle the stars formed an "I LOVE YOU"....such a gift on so many levels.

So "follow your own path, & don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest”

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Inspiration Post: Art Room/Studio Storage

Ok, ok, I've said it for 2 years now.....going to purge all the built up stuff that accumulates in a home you've lived in for 26 years and GET ORGANIZED! 

One area that really gets out of control is my art room/studio. Between various projects I am working on and the constant additions of my flea market, antique and thrift finds it gets ridiculous. I really do like things in their place it's just that who has time to keep that up when you are working, maintaining a home (for me inside and out), family  and friends, a blog and on an on! Eventually though you walk in the room and it looks like a bomb has gone off and decide it is time. OR THE ULTIMATE MOTIVATOR.....COMPANY IS COMING!!!!

So off to Pinterest I went to seek inspirations. I love finding clever ways to store all the things that accumulate in this area....vintage flea market finds like lace, buttons, jewelry then there's the books, art supplies, papers and on and on. Here are a few of my personal inspirations.......

Ok, not quite sure how this is done, but I like it. What are those metal bands, where to you find them and do I have to have a PHD in Home Construction to do it!????
Ok, this I can handle....hole poking....I can do that without too much self-injury!


I don't sew, but I thought some of you that do may like this inspiration idea.
I have one of these for my acrylics and brushes.... another subject I will be posting.
You've done it... reach in that container to find the zig-zag scissors 10 times before you find the right one.  One exasperation eliminated.

Love this idea of crates on the wall!
Who hasn't already done this, but it IS a great use of space. I've been using these for years...even as far back as when my daughter (now 24) was in her Barbie Era!

Ok...I just had to include this..what an artistic way to organize your colored pencils...trouble is mine would be stubby to tall, slanty and one rush project would have the colors more like a Kandinsky painting....more like this.....
Color coding and canning jars are so inexpensive.
Will show you my version of this ribbon storage.




I'm always looking for ways to organize craft paper and make it easily accessible without shuffling through piles of papers!



This a a great organizing idea for stamps!


Have arts n crafts...will travel....love it!

Paint stirrers...great idea...better than mine:

Handles on cigar boxes...love it!

Think I saw these at Ikea.

Ok here is what I have done so far....believe me these photos don't show all that really needs to be done. I need to paint, but seriously don't know how I am going to be able to move some of this furniture myself. I'm showing you the good, the tolerable and the ugly because I think we all struggle with projects like this. Sometimes you just have to do it in stages.
 I loved finding this old drawer, it's on my drawing table for organizing pencils, markers and tools.
 A peak at my old printers drawer for my vintage jewelry finds....more on that another time.

 Found this old step stool ladder for a couple dollars....great book shelf and table top!

 Old wood box for storage.

Thrift store find...still needs to be given a little somethin, somethin!
$2.00 chair still playing with what I'm going to do with it.
 Big organizing purchase but still got it 40% off at Michaels, 
gotta love those coupons!
 My husband used this for storing nuts and bolts.....now painted and holding all sorts of treasures like vintage chandelier crystals, buttons and skeleton keys.
 My brain-storming board.

Don't laugh...my colored pencil holder...a lot less trouble, Ha!

 I save old brie holders for holding things I may use for different projects. As I go through my storage areas I grab things that might work and keep them in separate ones for each project so they are ready to go when I want to work on them.

I will keep you posted on how I progress. Hope this has given you some organizing inspirations. Please post your own ideas....I would love if you'd share!

Please Enjoy THese LInks:

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Wishing You All a Happy New Year!

 I Hope This Year Will be a Year of Magic and New Dreams for us all.
 "If you don't believe in magic or in dreams....you'll never find them!


Heres to a New Year with new opportunities for fresh starts and new beginnings every day, 
not just New Years, but everyday we are blessed with the opportunity to start anew. 
How lucky are we?! 

Happy New Year to you All!




Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve.


Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season to you all!

It's a Magical Time of the Year!

Make wonderful Memories.
Treasure your family and friends.
Remember what it really is all about.

Wishing you all Magic, Stars, Love and a Merry Christmas! 

Shari


Sharing these links:


Romantic Home
Simply Designing
Craft Envy

A Very Special Heirloom.


As you probably know I lost my husband several years ago.

I have been looking at his baby dishes for quite sometime wondering what I can do with them beside keeping them packed away in a box somewhere. 
.
While visiting one of the many wonderful, creative blogs  out there I saw that one of them had put a collection of baby silver on a tree with ribbon. (I am so sorry I forget which it was so if it's you please leave me a comment and I'll link to you!!)
Inspiration struck! 
I put my own creative version on my inspiration....polished it up, added some of the old vintage tinsel I found at a flea market, some vintage lace and ribbon. I put a vintage ear ring on the top of the display ribbon. 

This is how it turned out.








I didn't have time to do the dish but I found a Christmas picture of Fred and his 2 brothers with their stockings when they were quite young that I plan to put in the center and work from there. This will become another family heirloom for our family to share.
To be continued....I'll show and tell next year.

I am so pleased that we now have an heirloom to be handed down in the family. I am so happy that this will keep his memory for our future generations. I hope to have it engraved after the Holidays are over. If it wasn't for the sharing done by so many wonderful, creative bloggers out there I probably would not have this wonderful heirloom tribute.

Merry Christmas to you all! 
Here's to celebrating so many wonderful memories.
Shari


Please enjoy these Links:


Thursday, December 22, 2011

Wrapping Update

 Remember the Pinterest Post I did on brown paper gift wrap ideas  (Here) to give us some creative gift wrap inspirations which would save us a few Christmas pennies?  I just love gift wrapping...it would be fun to make a business out of it. Here is how some of my gift wrap creativity turned out.


I used vintage sheet music on a tag with the cut out circles from the ribbon and a 
vintage Ear Ring in the center.

 The long thin one with the green ribbon has poinsetta's cut our from another paper. 
 This is my friend Carolyn's gift....she loves all things vintage soooo it incorporates vintage lace, seam binding, vintage tinsel and vintage sheet music on the tag. This was so fun to do. I made the star too with lots of glitter.



 I love polka dots so I had to have this ribbon. The bow has a vintage ear ring in the center! I can't wait for my son and his lovely wife to receive this gift. Do you know how excited you get when you find a gift just perfect for the person/person's?

 I used the Polka Dot Ribbon again with this beautiful gold ribbon...thank-you Michaels! 

 I was pretty pleased with this...it is for my wonderful cousin who is beautiful gardener (hint). I love this ribbon combo! 


I glittered a clothes pin to keep the gift tag I made in place.


 Vintage button at the center.


I am so grateful to be able to reach out to so many positive, creative and supportive people by blogging. I appreciate all of your support, creativity and hard work we put into our blogs. It has to be a passion doesn't it? I love hearing your wonderful comments and finding so many talented bloggers. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! Stars have a very special meaning to me as explained in my profile and the name of my blog. My Christmas stars symbolizes that we can reach for the stars, all of us if we dare... you are all Christmas Stars!

“To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest”


HOPE YOU ENJOY THESE LINKS FOR GREAT INSPIRATIONS:

Monday, December 19, 2011

Just A Little More Christmas

With so much to do in preparing for Christmas I still can't stop adding one more thing here and there...... I just can't stop myself. Do you do that?  Inspiration strikes and I have to go for it. So I'm browsing through Pinterest - Christmas Decor and I see this picture....


I then remembered that I had just packed away some red pillows I was using in the gameroom. I use this same green throughout my home so of course I already had the green ribbon. I preferred not to add any addition "jewelry".

I love this shade of green!!



 Do you believe how the ribbon matched the toss pillows I already had perfectly? 

NEXT:

I bought this soap dish a while ago. Didn't know exactly what I was going to do with it at the time. I bought this cute little bird a couple weeks ago and suddenly I knew what I was going to do with the soap dish......

FINALLY...
My good friend Heather from Larissa Hill Designs has been encouraging me to get back to my pen and ink drawings especially in minature. She is always encouraging me in many ways. We all need a friend like her in our lives. I saw these frames on sale the other day and knew exactly what I was going to do with them. I still had several gift extras I wanted to add.

 They are done on vintage music from a music book published in 1911.

 The inside measurements are 1 1/2" wide and 2" high.
 Pen and ink, water color,  pine cones in silver and brown glitter and Swarovski crystals. I can't tell you how much fun I had doing these. I was thinking of doing more of these in different subjects after the Holidays and putting them on my Etsy site. I'm thinking greenery, rabbits, flowers like violets with touches of color and a little embellishing. I would love to know what you think. I love doing rabbits and birds. What do YOU think?


  

I hope you all are finding some time to set aside all the stress and craziness to enjoy this wonderous time of the year. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to you all.


Hope you enjoy these links:
Polish the Stars
Dittle Dattle
Crafts Keep Me Sane
The Sasse Life
It's Overflowing
Michele Raven Designs
The French Cupboard
Somewhat Simple
The Brambleberry Cottage
Delightful Order