Sunday, April 19, 2015

Well, it's time to get off the roost and cackle about Ostentation (the Etsy shop, not us).

Let's see - what have we listed lately that will get you flapping your wings?  Well, we did locate a great tool for you crafters.  It's a Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite.  It's the big brother of the Crop-A-Dile I & III.  Those have a limited depth to punch things,.  This one will let you go 6 inches into the project to add your embellishment!  Plus, you can easily do several pages at once so if you are working on a tag swap for can easily get the hole in the same place on each tag! And, the color is (unfortunately) egg-yolk yellow.


We also came across some darling blank note cards.  They are in the original box and have the envelopes.  What makes them special?  Well, they were sanctioned by the Smithsonian Inst.  They just don't put their name on anything.  Then, they have fantastic pictures of fruit on the front (our favorite after seeds & insects).  Then, as an added bonus, they have a delicious recipe on the back using the fruit pictured on the front.  Doubly good deal.  Makes us wish we cooked instead of scratching!


Well, that's it from the barnyard.  We are getting together a list of French, German, and Spanish books from our stash.  Look for an update here after we get them listed.


Thursday, April 16, 2015

Playing Card Decks & Ephemea Packs

Today, as we were scratching aroiund the homestead, trying to get things under control, we decided it was time to post some more playing cards.

We had a deck of cards that you Deadheads should enjoy"  The are a 1989 deck featuring a Grateful Dead theme.  Quite colorful and they definitely fit the Grateful Dead memories.


Well, all those skeletons ruffled our collective feathers so we decided it was time to do a few posts the show some of our relatives.

First was a double set featuring little love birds sitting on a branch!  They are so cute!  But, I digress.  They are part of a complete set from your friends across the pond - West Germany.  Oh!  That's right.  The Germanys united in 1990.  I guess this makes that boxed game a true vintage offering.  Here are the little darlings, now!



As if that wasn't enough, we listed a couple ephemera packs of playing cards.  One listing has a chipmunk, baby lions, and Teddy Bears.  The other features boats - sailing and fishing.  Naturally, almost all the cards have other little relatives tucked away in them.  Here you can see the little darlings playing their supporting cast to a tee!



So, That's the excitement from the barnyard for today.   It's about time for all the peafowl to hit the roost.




Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Today's Flights of Fancy

Well, now that taxes are done for another year, we can all start thinking about those projects that have been gathering dust in the barnyard.  Time to quit flapping our wings and strutting around.

In order to help get the creative juices moving, we made four posts today (so far).  Actually, only three are new - the fourth is an update of an existing listing.

First was a revision of the wooden spool listing.  We came across 7 more wooden spools with thread on them so we decided to just modify that listing rather than make a new listing.  These are the new ones that were added.


One of the new listings is for 28 spools of thread (got them the same time as the additional wooden ones above).  So we made a listing for that thread.  Hummpph!  No use listing this one!  I went back to the shop to get the link and find it's been sold.

So, onto another.  We have a paper ephemera listing of 7 religious-themed cards.  They could be used for their original purpose (condolences - write your personal message on the back) or add a touch of gentleness to a scrap book, journal, wall hanging, etc


The last listing we have just posted is for a destash of 7 pieces of a mocha-brown fabric.  It's slightly heavier than your run of the mill cloth.  It might be more for draperies or such.  But, with it's neutral color and heavier texture, it would be great for wall decor, scrap books, altered art. etc.


Oh, did I mention that the pieces are a funky trapezoid shape?  Somebody didn't finish their project!

Well, enough cackling.  Back to the henhouse to get some real work done.




Monday, April 13, 2015

Crowing Our Own

We want to take a minute and unabashedly mention that once again this year, we are proud to be a sponsor for this month's gathering at Rachel's Handmade U in Waverly, NE.

Please visit her blog and consider signing up for her September classes.  Or if this year doesn't work, start planning for next year.  The classes are always informative and since the size is small you have  lots of opportunities to interface with fellow crafters and the staff at Handmade U.
For those of you who are interested in books and magazines in foreign languages, you might want to visit Ostentation and pull up the section on "Books (Foreign Language)".  We decided to make a section just for those items since they can easily get lost in other areas.

While some of those are true antiques, most are vintage and a few might be relatively current.  In this way a serious collector can find the hidden treasure, and for those of you who need some nifty ephemera with a foreign twist can easily locate something to fill the bill.

At this time we have books (and a couple songbooks with the music) in German, Spanish, Swedish, and Finnish.

And as always, if the price doesn't seem quite right, or you are interested in a few, convo us on Ostentation and we'll see if we can set up something beneficial to both parties.


New Addition - Poppy Talcum Powder Tin Container

A few days ago (I'm behind, again), we listed an adorable tin container at Ostentation. It is from Poppy Talcum Powder (the container itself was made in England). The central theme is an old-fashioned (think late 19th century) lady's portrait surrounded by flowers galore. The surface of the paint has been lightly crazed to simulate aging. It can be a very interesting addition to a display, or fill it with goodies for that older person in your life.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Doesn't Time Fly!

Well! I must say, time flies. I hadn't realized that almost two years has passed since I posted anything here. With a busy work schedule, extracurricular activities, travel, medical appointments, and on and on, it became very easy to slip into the forgetful mode. The Ostentation flock (a play on words) is now going to quit scratching, clucking, and crowing, and get this blog back on track. Mostly we will be posting little snippets of what's new at the Ostentation shop on Etsy, but we will try to add little other tidbits as we go along. With that in mind, I'll caution all of you that we, Ostentation, will be working together to keep things flying along. So, any one of the peafowl might be posting something even though it is really my blog (and with my blessing!). So, if at times the language seems different, it might be another peahen or peacock. Meanwhile, let's cover a few new things at the shop. We are getting great offerings in, and we have a bunch of treasures sitting waiting the usual picture taking, description writing, editing, etc. In other words, we sat on our tails on that, too, and laid an egg! We've been busy, again as a collective, to get the shop more fully stocked. That's when it became evident that we dropped the seed ball on this blog, too. If you haven't visited Ostentation lately, you might be surprised. We have original hand-crafted items and we are offering more and more odds and ends that might fill the bill for that project you are working on. You might say we are working on the "trash to treasures" idea - some peacock's trash is some peahen's treasure! And, if you are pecking through the shop and see things that you'd like but the price doesn't seem to fit the budget, convo us and we'll see if we can set up a special buy for you, our special customers. Or, it you are looking for something similar to what we already have listed in the shop, convo us. We might have it in the wings and can get it posted within a few days. And one last thing. Even though we don't show shipping to countries outside the U.S. on our listings, we are willing to figure out shipping to your country. Just convo us. One of us will get back to you as soon as we can. Well, this should be enough to get things rolling.