Where Bloggers Create... or my little shop of bliss

Hello Everyone,

I am so happy to be a part of Where Bloggers create.  Click on the top image on the side bar on the right or HERE to go to the home page of the event and see all the other wonderful creative spaces of bloggers everywhere.  However please visit mine first!!!  Be prepared for a VERY long post though.  I am a creator not an editor (which involves eliminating! LOL!).
I will whet your appetite by showing you this picture of my workspace with one of the costumes I create...

However a bit of business first.
If you like my blog and are interested in following, please sign up and leave me a comment and I will put your name in a drawing to win this Butterfly Faerie wreath.  If you are already a followers just leave me a comment and I will put your name in too.

It is hard to tell in the picture but it is completely covered in glitter and very sparkley.

To give people lots of time as there are so many participants I will host the drawing on August 1st.  Good Luck!

Anyway back to my wonderful workspace and what I do...

In my life I wear several hats, one is an event/floral designer another is the caretaker of many, many cats for my husband's and my charity called The Lucky Few.  I also create costumes for fun as well as for events (click here to see a fantastical Faerie wedding I did).  I also paint and draw and just generally like to create.  I also have an Etsy shop where I sell my art pieces and vintage Native American jewelry which I adore.  The workspace that I am happy to call my own my very sweet husband built for me.  We call it a workspace but it is really a blissful playhouse!  The above picture is the outside front.  

It sits in the driveway of our home.  We live on a beautiful old ranch and most of the houses are on one street within the ranch.  All the neighbors know each other and most are workers on the ranch.  It is a wonderful old fashioned street with kids and animals parading up and down the block.  The foreman rides his horse down the street with a clip clop clip clop which I hear with enough time that I can run out and say hello.  The families on both sides of us are related and each have beautiful toe headed boys about 2 years old.  They wait for the foreman and the other Hispanic workers so they can yell "Holla" every time they go by.  The men on the ranch love these kids and slow down so they can speak to them and show off their trucks and horses to their admirers.  As I work on my events I inevitably spill out onto the driveway where then all the neighbors want to know what event I am working on and exclaim at how beautiful all the flowers are.  Often when I am slammed I will have all the moms on the block helping to create the flowers, washing the vases or the dishes, folding the napkins,  and such.  They are particularly helpful when the wedding is on the ranch.  We have a wonderful old barn that we rent from time to time.  The picture below is of a lovely couple that were the first to marry in the barn.  This lagoon is on the ranch too (I know...  this place is beyond beautiful!)!

It really is a most magical and beautiful way to live.  We are a small extremely precious community that is fast disappearing in these modern times.  My husband and I feel so incredibly fortunate to call this ranch our home.   Sooooo.......  the following LOADS of pictures are of my work-bliss space and all my props and goodies and some of the things I create.

I will start with a couple of pics of the inside and the costumes I made for the Faerie Wedding. These were taken by  Elizabeth Messina whom I was fortunate enough to have shoot the faeries for me.  She came by a couple of weeks in advance to see what I was up to and spontaneously took a few pictures of my workspace and costumes.  They are so much better than what I could ever possibly take.

This is the Faerie Brides dress  and wings hanging in the front of the workspace looking out towards the driveway.  You can see a couple other costumes as well.

This is the Faerie Bride's headdress.

Some of my ribbons and trims.

One of the Faerie Costumes.

Another costume, this is the Green Man (I didn't make the mask, it came from

a wonderful company by the name of Mythicalmasks.com).

So now begins my own pictures which pale in comparison to the master works of Elizabeth.

The entrance...  cone on in!

Looking back out the entrance towards the driveway.  A beautiful view!

Looking across the street at the field at sunset.

My china hutch.  I rent out my vintage china.  The statue on the right 

has been painted gold and used for a Versailles themed event, 

painted black and used for a Halloween party, etc, etc.  Now she is 

dressed and ready for a party!

I love to create vignettes of china, jewelry, etc.

Those are beautiful Haviland china mini dishes.  I used them as

salt dishes for the last wedding.

I am in love with the Haviland tea cups.  They are so delicate!  

I also collect vintage millinery flowers.

Occasionally I will use my stemware for intimate parties.  I also have quite a collection of cake plates.

This is one of my all time favorite tea sets.  The first bride that had her wedding in the barn (the lady in the boat) on the ranch gave me a gift certificate to our favorite store Anthropology, kind of in fun as her description to me as to how she wanted her wedding to look was to..."make it look like Anthropology".  I did and she loved it and I am happy to say it has been published in among other things China's Elle magazine.  I bought this tea set and treasure it!  I think of her every time I use it!  Not to mention I am obsessed with mermaids and faeries!

There are so many things here...  Vintage type trays, buckets of vintage lace, antique floral frogs,

vintage bottles, candelabras, apothecary jars...  so much!

Up close of the apothecary jars and a lovely bird house.

I have several beautiful bottles.

That's a vintage ink well.

More vintage bottles.  I use these all the time with flowers in them for wedding decorations

Look at these wonderful frogs... The tin is vintage, I use it open with 

flowers spilling out of it.

I am always collecting feathers which I use in my faerie costumes.  The jar is filled 

with sandalwood and the liquid is Lavender oil from the ranch which we sell in 

small bottles as party favors for weddings.

These are some vintage beaded flowers bouquets which I make and sell on Etsy.

I am forever using cloches (the glass domes) to put over flowers 

as centerpieces or sweets on desert tables.  I just love them and 

have several of all shapes and sizes.  Here are more cake stands, 

these are made from wood.

In vintage weddings I am forever using antique found bits 

like these door knobs and crystals.

I just love this vintage mini enamel ware tea set!  I will put tiny flowers

 flowers in them for an adorable look!

A tub of tea stained lace table cloths and several vintage crates and type trays.

My costume corner.  Most of these are for my faerie events.  I am also a complete nut for old trunks, vintage suitcases and treasure chests!  I use them all the time in my events and when they are not rented they work as storage.  These house lots of costume goodies.  Beyond the curtain is a huge space for prop storage which I will show you in a bit.

One of the costumes from the Faerie Wedding (look in the side bar for the full slide show).

I just love them all in mass, it feels like an eccentric Victorian woman's 

old fashioned boudoir...  hmmm... maybe that describes me?!

The top treasure chest has makeup, face glitter, elf ears and other goodies.

The next treasure chest has costume accessories and the Faerie Brides 

shoes from the Faerie Wedding.

Then comes a lovely huge trunk filled with more costumes or 

bridesmaids dresses that are awaiting costuming.  

Those vintage boots I use as vases.

That is the inside top of the trunk...  isn't it wonderful?!  The left compartment is filled 

with faerie shoes and bits and the right is a lovely old drawing.

Up close...

All my wonderful ribbons, tassels and stacks of Indian Saris...

Up close of the saris.

 

That's my mom!  I come by creative side naturally.

Storage...

All my bits of jewelry and beads.

My vintage lace and fabrics bits.

My bits and pieces of inspiration, reminders of whats important.

I love this vintage antique box.  I have used it filled with flowers as a centerpieces for a vintage wedding.

On the left are old watch parts and gears, the center are antique optic lenses and on the right lots of wonderful skeleton keys.  I use these in the costume making as well as weddings.

More lace and bits...

All the boxes function as storage as well as props.

Lace and velvet ribbon.

One of my Buddhas decked of course with vintage broaches and funky glasses.

That red vase is from my childhood home.  My parents got it in Mexico 

for a song where it was being used as a trash receptacle! 

An antique candelabra on an old trunk.  

As you are no doubt figuring out I use a lot of props in my events.  The typewriter I used in a centerpiece at a recent wedding where the groom is a writer. The vintage sewing machine was used for the bride as she is a clothing designer.  All the containers, boxes, tubs, etc I store goodies in.

As you see here the leather box contains some pictures from the Faerie Wedding.

Glitter!!  LOVE glitter!  I have tubs of glitter...

See!

The rafters hold various sets of wings which I have made.

Also my costume hats and wreaths.

Behind the curtain lies more shelves with more props and supplies.

Shelves upon shelves of vases, platters, bottles...  all grouped by color.

Lots of Moroccan plates and bowls for wonderful African feasts!

Tons of silver and candelabras,

Wrought iron, wooden boxes...

Wonderful Moroccan lanterns...

As assortment of pillows in every color of the rainbow.

Looking from the back of the workspace storage area to the front out the window to the driveway.

One of my muses...

Just so you do not get too impressed with my organization.

Here is the workspace in full event flower mode...

Not quite as organized now!

Some examples of my work...  the Faerie Bride.

The Faerie Wedding... (recognize the green costume?).

The Faerie feasting table... (recognize the cushions?)

This was a fund raising event for the local Natural History museum.  We turned the auditorium into a turn of the century archeology encampment a la Indiana Jones.  As you can see we tented the auditorium, hung vintage lanterns and crates of "supplies"from the ceiling.  Each table had a different display from the museum's teaching "library" of specimens and equipment.

A long feasting table for a wedding that was held in a winery.

Lanterns hanging over the head table at a wedding.

Some examples of centerpieces...  recognize the crates and bottles?

A cocktail arrangement using a cloche and crown.

Recognize the suitcases?

A formal table on a huge lawn for a dinner party.

Well if you made it all the way to the end I am very impressed!  Thank you for your interest!

Also a huge thank you to Karen at My Desert Cottage for hosting the Where Bloggers Create party.

I can only imagine how much work is involved and I for one really appreciate it!

If you like what you saw don't forget to sign up as a follower and leave me a comment to win this Butterfly Faerie Wreath!  

I will have a drawing on August 1st.  Thank you again for visiting, I hope I didn't take up too much of your time (well I know I did and I appreciate it!).

Blessings,

Tricia