Hello there,
Iâm back finally and have missed blogging with you all so much !
Since taking a long break from blogging, I cannot wait to share, engage, learn, grow and reconnect and hopefully make new friends who enjoy my passions for shabby chic and French home decor, our antique travels and cherished finds, gardening, cooking , crafting and photography.
Thank you so much for stopping by and Iâll be back soon.
Stephanie
Hi there ! I can't believe it's mid February already ? I couldn't be more thrilled about that fact as I sit here in bed while looking out my window where I see a little snow, sleet and freezing rain..... Not that I have a right to complain..... We've had a super mild winter because of El Nino.
I don't know if I told you, but last spring was a huge disappointment for me. All of my roses were attacked by a nasty nasty bug called, Sawfly Larvae !!!!! Have any of you dealt with that before? What did you use to treat your roses to protect them from that ?
I hope and pray that Sawfly Larvae is dead and gone !
Anyway, onto my latest creations ....... That are for Sale also !
This floral piece was inspired by someone I respect and have admired for years..... Christie Repasy. I'm sure many of you know who she is and have seen her beautiful art paintings. To see her amazing work, go to christierepasy.com. I sent this picture to her on Facebook, to share and thank her for inspiring me.
If interested in a piece similar to this, send me an email at [email protected]. Each romantic adornment is one of a kind and full of vintage millinery flowers and vintage ribbons. These adornments are perfect for any romantic occasion, bridal gift, baby Christening, first Holy Communion, first May Prom and Wedding heirloom gift. I also welcome, custom orders because your ideas are amazing as well !
I'm also creating flower girl baskets adorned with beautiful vintage ribbons, ruffles, trims, and flowers on vintage handled baskets. Can't wait to show you those pictures.....
Thanks for popping in and I also wanted to give a big thank you to Rachel Ashwell for asking me to use one of my pictures to feature her petticoat bedding line in an email blast that came out on Valentines Day !!!! I will share that picture in my next post.
Enjoy the pics and feel free to contact me for questions, I will get back to you as soon as possible.
P.S ~ You can also find me on Instagram under the name ~ _steph_bradley, I also sell vintage, antiques, and all of my floral creations every Wednesday and Sunday evenings at 6:30 pm eastern time.
Have a fabulous week !
XX ~ Steph
My signature pink tutu wreath that's adorned with glass pink mini bulbs, vintage ribbon and vintage millinery.
Notice that little somebody ????
Sissy Love
Love the sunlight my daughter bedroom gets in the morning.....
Lastly, here is one type of several types of romantic wreathes I create in my studio. This exact wreath is already sold to a lovely customer in California. She also asked me to create a quintessential shabby chic garland as well. I will share pictures in my next post. I must admit, they came out quite lovely and I wish I could be a fly on a wall when she opens her package this week !
If you are interested in placing an order, please contact me at my email ~ [email protected]
Thanks so much for popping in and hope you have a great week !
XX ~ Stephanie
Hi friends !!!
Happy New Year !!! Wow, have I missed you all and blogging..... I am sorry I haven't blogged since last spring, I must admit.... Hopefully you are still on board and didn't leave me. I have had such an incredibly busy year ! Mostly great opportunities that have come my way and one big unexpected career change that took place last week. After 20 years of being a registered Childcare provider, I"ve decided to take a leap of faith and become a fulltime Designer and Antique dealer. As some of you know, I have an Etsy shop. To find me, type in this link ~ www.etsy.com/shop/spanishdahlia. I also have an Ebay shop called " Vintagenest."
I'll be designing tulle Tutu wreathes, dried flower wreathes and other special pretties.
For many years, it has been my dream to become a business owner to buy, sell and create beautiful creations.
Last year I became inspired to create a shabby chic style Reindeer and a matching pink sleigh as shown in the above picture by the well known designer, Rachel Ashwell. Rachel featured her vintage style reindeer and pink matching sleigh in a book written by her over 15 years ago. To show how much I admired her and the reindeer, I created a Rudolph and a pink tutu wreath and hand delivered them to her New York store in Soho.
I can't tell you how many I've sold, because I have sold so many.... LOL.
I am truly grateful to all my customers and hope I can continue to do what is in my heart and soul to do.
Thanks again, and I'm thrilled to be back !!!!
May 2016 be an even more amazing year and may all your hopes and dreams come true !!!
Xo ~ Steph
I love creating these tutu wreathes so much !!! These were some of the first ones I created for a dear friend !
Here I am !!!
This is a fun selfie I took on Instagram over the summer. Look for me on Instagram , I usually post quite often there because its super quick and easy.
Thanks for stopping by and I'll be posting again soon, to keep you up to date on everything.
Hi all ! How has everyone been these past few months ? I am so sorry I haven't blogged since September. I do have a great excuse though if your willing to believe me. I got a brand new lap top in November for my birthday and have struggled to figure out how to download my pictures to my computer and upload them to my blog. Well I finally got some tech support from my youngest daughter Tasha when we went to go visit her in the city last weekend !!!! Lol, I know I must have other fellow bloggers who can relate...... Anyway, I took the time to get this right and I couldn't be happier I finally figured it all out ! I should throw a " I finally figured it out " party I'm so proud of myself !!!! Ha ha ! Sorry this is such a short post, but I didn't take a ton of pictures lately. Hopefully I will get some sunshine, which has been hard to come by because we've had such a brutal winter as most of you know here in the states. Can't believe that this Friday is the first day of spring !!!!!!! Omg, it needs to be here now !!!! I am so going to appreciate this spring like never before.
Thanks for popping in and so much has happened ( all good ), I don't know where to begin so I'll just be posting pretty regularly now that the light finally clicked on !!!!
XOXO ~ Steph
This is my little living room. I love to play dress up with my furniture, and the lighting that day was just right !
This is a new lace lamp shade from www.shabbychic.com. LOVE It !
I also bought this brown mocha rose tote from Rachel Ashwell Couture !
I bought my very first turkish rug at Brimfield a couple weeks ago ! Only $ 40 bucks !
Love vintage millinery hats !
Notice something different?
The painting is new and was given to me as a gift from Ruth Macotela/ artist ! I am still pinching my cheeks by her very generous gift !!!!!!! Isn't this just so dreamy ? Ruth is someone I connected with on Instagram and I have bought a watercolor from her of a dreamcatcher she created and absolutely adore it. Words can't describe how blessed and honored I am to have been given such a beautiful piece of art that will be a family heirloom. Thank you so much dear Ruth, I am so darn LUCKY !!!!
Hope you all loved the pictures and that you are all blessed.
XOXO ~ Steph
Hi friends! Hope everyone is well. I have had quite the summer, lots of family and friends who came together to meet and have created life long friends with some awesome people. One of the best times I've had is throwing a surprise party / 21st Birthday party for Tasha's homecoming from Italy, getting together with the Carpenter's, ( my daughter's boyfriend's lovely family), and having Shanon Ryan and her beautiful family stop into visit me while on her way to visit her family in Vermont. I really can't say enough about how we connected through Instagram and how much we have in common. Jim and I look forward to visiting them in Colorado someday !
Once again, summer is coming to an end, my daughters are all independent and have returned back to college, and I'm feeling so sad inside. I know in time Iwill feel better and get use to them not being home. I pray an awful lot that Our Lord will continue to protect them and guide them for me.
I just love them so much !
Well friends, have a great week and i hope you enjoy my pics !
xoxo ~ Steph
Hi friends ! Just wanted to share some pictures and to tell you Ive been well and very much having a great summer. As usual, summer is flying by and soon again I'll have to send my baby off to her Senior year in college !!!! My oldest is all independent and loving her new apartment and freedom. Anyway, hope you all enjoy the pics !
I found this gorgeous Italian Venetian dresser at an antique store this past spring.
Made these flower beadsticks with vintage millinery, wire, and beads over the winter.
The wastebasket is from Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture and I created this flower arch.
The arch has paper and porcelain roses wrapped around it ! Love how it came out ! Rachel Ashwell inspired.....
This Tobacco stick star is a recent find from Etsy.com. Have wanted one for a long time !
This is a shot of my Huntington roses in the front yard !
The vintage bench I bought from a dear friend who is also a dealer. I painted it this dusky pink and love it !
Thats it for now, I am off to a really busy weekend. My dear friend Shanon Ryan and her family and my oldest's daughter's family are coming over for get togethers ! Lots of cleaning, organizing and cooking to do !!!
Enjoy the rest of your summer,
XOXO ~ Steph
Hi everyone, I 'm alive and more than well !!!! I must confess..... I've been a very naughty blogger !!!! Please forgive me, I have have had many important things going on in my life and all are really wonderful things. Geez, where to begin ? First, let me tell you that I've missed blogging big time ! I hope you've missed me too ! Once again, let me officially say, " Happy Spring " ! I hope you all are enjoying all the sights, sounds, and scents lovely spring has to offer ! As you well know, for weeks now I've been playing and working in my gardens !
This past winter was quite horrendous for so many of us, and many of my beloved roses took a beating too. I had to cut back 80% of them over 75 % back due to winter kill. So unfortunately, they're all starting over. It made me very sad at first, and then I just said, " It is what it is " and just moved on from pouting. Fortunately, they all survived and are growing quite healthy !
Back in mid April, Jim and I went on vacation to Florida for two weeks ! We had the best time ever and did some great antiquing in Daytona and St.Augustine. The weather was awesome except for the last 3 days we were there. I also got really homesick those last few days too..... I guess I'm a creature of comfort.
Jim and I also had the opportunity to finally go meet and visit with our dear friend, Laura Venosa in Ocala. We had a wonderful time and we were treated like royalty by her lovely family. Laura is one amazing woman, and we admire her many talents.
The other great news to share is Tasha has returned home from her 10 months in Italy. She fell in love with the Italian culture and also learned how to be courageous in many situations. Our visit with her was amazing and we definately saw a beautiful, confident leader in her. Tasha also traveled all over Europe and learned so much about herself and the countries she visited. Her favorite countries are the UK, Spain and France. Such a lucky girl right !!!!! Anyway, she's been home only 2 weeks and she's already landed her second job ! So very proud of my girl and so very overjoyed to have her home sweet home.
Thank you for popping in to see me and I hope you have a beautiful week !
XOXO~ Steph
Hi friends ! Hope you all enjoyed The Colloseum pictures I took. Mere words cannot describe how overwhelming we all felt to be standing there in one of the Seven Wonders Of The World !!!!! So much history took place there and I am truly humbled. My daughter Tasha was kind enough to arrange a private tour and our guide of Rome was very knowledgable and super friendly. It truly was an amazing experience and it was perfect in every way except the fact that it rained pretty much all day and I believe the rain has partially ruined my camera. I will have to send in my camera to get it repaired as soon as I come back from my next trip coming up next month.
Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a fantastic week !
XOXO~ Steph
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