The Norwegian Knitter in Full Color

Norwegian Knitter in full color:
Double Basket Weave Scarf by the Norwegian Knitter.
Norwegian tea cups flea marketed and gifted from Chez Terez.
Nails by Salon d'elegance in OPI's "ate berries in the canaries".
Card by A&P.
Photo by the Norwegian Knitter.

 

 

Be Mine Valentine

Can you, could you, might you, should you--want to be mine, Valentine?

Printing press: on a Chez Terez scale

Do It Yourself! [2000 PLUS stamp kit]

I can't pinpoint when my love of type and letters began.

I think it may have been when I learned to read the "Sam" books in Mr. Thompson's preschool class:

Sam the Lion from the Sam Books

Sam the Lion had a friend named Mat (one T!) the Mouse and another named Sis the Snake. [An aside: my baby brother is named Matt and his best friend is Sam and my brothers and nephews and niece all call me Sis. Go figure]. I just called Mamacat to ask her about the Sam Books and guess what? You can download them all online for free.

I digress.

I love print. I love printing. I love arranging letters and impressing them literally on the paper. Hence my love of typewriters: 

Olympia Deluxe typewriter from HH

And gold foiled gummed letters:

Gold foiled gummed letters

During my highschool hey-day I decided to start self publishing a Zine using my dad's blue Smith Corona, clip art and Kinkos called Aseret Pages. I wish, how I wish I would have saved a copy. I even listed in in Fact Sheet 5 for all you zine-sters out there.

This blog sort of takes the place of Aseret Pages, I suppose.  I love how easily I can share photos and ideas and call up Mamacat and ask her did she see my latest project but it is electronic and kind of ephemeral and not permanent like print. But that's ok. Because for my other insta-print needs I'd like to introduce you to:

2000 Plus DO-IT-YOURSELF TRADITIONAL STAMP KIT:

2000 Plus DO-IT-YOURSELF TRADITIONAL STAMP KIT

It comes with two stamp blocks: one for one line (perfect for a website or blog address) and one with five lines (perfect for a return address or mini message).

Blog stamp

I've started stamping my packages and envelopes with it and it is verrrrry satisfying.

Stamp with purpose!

And for longer messages there's always the Olympia Deluxe Pink Typewriter:

Longer messages

 XO Terez

Candy dish earrings

Candy Dish resparkle earrings

With 9 days to go until the Open Study/Holiday Bazaar, things are in full swing at Chez Terez.  Lately I've been fascinated by the refashioning/resparkling of vintage jewels into new modern pieces. After working in the studio today I realized all my creations were starting to resemble confectionary delights...for the ears.

Don't these remind you of gold-foil-wrapped chocolate eggs?

Speckled Egg earrings

Peppermint candies?

Peppermint Stripe earrings

Cinnamon red hots?

Red Hot II earrings

A candy dish too sweet to eat?

Sweets for the sweet

Smooth melt-a-way rounds?

Peppermint Twist earrings

Minty non-pariells?

Mint Green Goddess earrings

Cherry hard candies?

Hard Candy earrings

Sweets for your sweet {or yourself!}....

Freshly wrapped, delivered to your door. Up in the Etsy shop!

All wrapped up

XO Terez

How the banner came to be

Ethel at her perch

'Terez?!' you exclaim. 'Where did you get that fantastic blog banner?'

Well, settle down. I'll get to that. But first I want to introduce you to someone: Ethel, the proprietress of the blast-from-the-past-time-warp-spectacular: Irvings's Toy & Card Shop.

Irving's on Harvard in Brookline

Ethel Weiss, 95 (!), is a Brookline treasure. She has been running her toy and gift shop for over 70 years. Yes, 7-0. Seven decades. Not much has changed here. The penny candy is now 10, 15 and 25 cents, but that's about it.

Ethel employs just one: herself, and she doesn't take credit cards. Her cash register has punch buttons and makes a satisfying whirl-click-ring as she tallies your purchases.

Staff of one at the register

You can barely make out the numbers but my last spree at Irving's (named for her late first husband who opened the store with her in 1939) set me back a whopping $15.62. Ethel remembered me from last week when I came in to purchase two packs of gold foiled, gummed 1/2 inch letters.

If you've seen the packaging for my shop, you know I adore gold.

I found the letters in a dusty cardboard box/treasure trove. The letters were $1.99 a set, plus tax.

You know when you pick up something and realize you may never get a chance to restock it? I kept thinking about the letters. And the card shop. And the cute little red foil hearts I left behind. I realized: another trip was in order:

Gummed foil hearts, letters, stars

Two more packs of letters, two packs of hearts, three packs of 2" gummed foil silver stars and one pack of six-vintage die-cut red arrows, one conversation, five photos and $15.62 later, I was in business.


I dug around in the box of letters until I spelled out C-H-E-Z--T-E-R-E-Z. A few photos later, sprinkled with some magic performed by TheKimKitch's KRR via Photoshop and we had it:

Ta da!

I love it. Don't you love it? I love opening up the blog and seeing the letters gleaming back at me. Big! Bold! Brassy! Classy!

Back to Ethel. I purchased all of her letters. "Do you want me to get you some more?" she asked. "I would," I said, "but where on earth can you still find those?"

"Oh I know someone who deals in vintage office supplies," she said. "He sells his late father's store's inventory. We go back 70 years."

XO Terez

Resparkling

Daisy Chain

You may have noticed: I am a jewel junkie.

Some day I'll take the time to write about how this came to be (thank you Grandma Helena and Grandma June) but I want to take the time to do that right. So for now, please observe:

Upcycle Jewelry Fixings

This is what came in the mail yesterday. Four pounds of broken bits of floatsom and jetsom.  'Bah! Terez! What are you going to use that junk for?'

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Tiger Beads

 Ooooh tiger-stripey beads. Hmmm. A little gaudy now, for sure. But I see potential.

Blackberry Patch

Mmmm blackberry patch. Reminds me of the thickets that grow wild all over Oregon. Reminds me of picking juicy berries right after college with Angela-Girl, the summer that she stayed with us, and the cobbler and vichyssoise we made with cod (remembered fondly as one of our Top 10 Meals of All Time).

Moonglow

Ahhh. Moonglow beads. Plastic? Sure. Means they are lightweight and I can cluster them together for high impact but low pull on the earlobes.

Coral Field

Coral fields. How I love red!

This is the state of my studio:

Chez Terez State of Affairs

Stay tuned.

Color wheels II

Wheel o' beads: crystal, Swarovski pearls, blown glass, cloisonne, gemstone, pressed glass

Strawberry quartz, cloisonne disks, foiled-lined glass

Sneak peek! Stay tuned.

P.S. Don't you love love love these vintage Fire King milk glass deviled egg plates? They make perfect bead palettes!

Look what I found

As I continue with my obsession with All Things Vintage in the sewing department, I had to share my most recent acquisition:

The trifecta: vintage Singer 301, antique wooden sewing
basket and chaise lounge in my sewing corner

You are probably wondering, what in the heck is that magnificent piece of furniture?

You might recognize her a little bit more easily if you see her in her buttoned up form:

Sewing box closed up

But I like her better with her red underpinnings showing!



She's a vintage sewing box with beautiful curvy legs and a sturdy handle. I ordered her on Tuesday when my $33 of birthday money (one dollar for every year!) was burning a hole in my pocket. I found her on the superb etsy site LookwhatIfound.    I ordered her Tuesday and by Friday night she was waiting at my door, beautifully packaged with clear directions on how to put her back together (legs don't travel so well!). As I was following the careful handwritten directions, putting each screw back into place, I kept hearing little bits rolling around in the drawers.

I figured it was more screws or hardware.

I was wrong.

I opened the drawers and started unwrapping the bits of tissue and tape and found to my extreme delight--bits of vintage beads and baubles in each drawer. Each bit of tissue unfolded to a squeal of delight--vintage glass, lucite, shell, crystal, jars, vials~it was as if the dear seller knew I would love and appreciate these items as a jewelry designer:

Vintage beads and baubles

A wonderful example of a seller going above and beyond. A good lesson to learn as I prepare for my holiday bazaar. Please visit her store!

XO Terez