Valentines @ Marta's Room

This is the second season I used this prop. It is an empty Victrola case. The logo in the back was so beautiful I could not pass it up.

This is the stuff in the black and white room. I made the lace wreath, it was a lot of fun putting it together. The lady in the old picture is a spit image of Celine Dion.

This is one of my favorite cabinets in the shop. My wedding couples sell really good. The only thing is they keep buying my favorites ones. I got 3 weddings albums from the early 1900s, with the dry flowers inside and the newspaper clippings with the announcements of the wedding.

More wedding stuff.

Just a little vignette.

Love how the red vignettes turn out this year. My favorite is the Valentines tree. I took off the Xmas balls and added small vintage valentines, red clusters of curly ribbon and red feathers.

Some cream yumminess (is that a word in the dictionary?)

This was Valentines last year. So many people find the heads spooky. I love them and I use them a lot in my vignettes. I called this two people the king and queen of hearts.

Mondays and Fridays are my days "off", no such thing, so much to do. I usually run errands and go to the shop for the not so fun stuff, like cleaning. I have started crafting again, which happen in the wee hours of the night. I used to go thru spells of insomnia, which were really creative spells. I will dream pillows and pretty stuff, if I was not exhausted I will get up and write it down or draw it. That is the reason way they said artists and creative people are all cookoos. We are not crazy, just sleep deprived. Anyway, it got so bad and lasted so long that I have to start asking God to take the inspiration away for a break. He did, for a long time, but I found my glue gun and the pretty stuff and here I am, insomnia spell, again. Have this ever happened to any of you? Please, somebody tell me I'm not crazy. Do any of you experience creative spells attached to insomnia? I hope you stop by and visit with me, looking forward to new friendships. Blessings, Marta.

Avatar...Amazing!

Here are my "babies". The handsome in the left is Geremy 13, Tito 18 and Miss Sassy Pants, Chairis, 14. They have the power to make me feel ancient. It seems like it was yesterday I hold them in my arms. They are mine in my heart, but they belong to my sister and brother from the heart, not blood, just love. They call me Titi which means aunt in Spanish. Geremy is my nephew from the heart and blood. I got two more nephews, all boys. There is no difference between any of them, I love them all the same.
We made it to the movies 30 minutes late, not by choice, the info in their website is not updated. We decided to go and have dinner first. We ate so much I thought we will fall asleep during the movie. No way that happened, that movie is too great to miss a beat.

I present to you the Blues Brothers and Sis. Too cute.

We went to TGIF Fridays. Why is that kids will go to a restaurant and order a cheeseburger or mac and cheese. For that I rather go to Mc Donalds, much cheaper. Kids will be kids.

Me and the little diva in training. She is so beautiful, everything about her. She is big on hugs and kisses. You should see the boys when she comes into a room. We will be planning her Quinceanera in June. I'm old.

Geremy the thinker, for real. He move to the US 4 years ago and already speaks perfect
English. Six months after getting here he pass the state Task test and score in the top 10 % for the state. The kid plays sax, first chair in the advance class. He plays tennis, basketball and football and I heard him complaining because he will not be able to play that many sports once he get to high school because of the seasons been longer. He maintains a 4.00 average and is in the tag group. We got big plans for him. Ah, last but most importantly he loves the Lord and his family.

Tito, OK, the boy is 18, he is already in college and works part time @ Goodwill so he can pay for his vehicle insurance and everything else he may need. He got so many friends and everybody loves him. He graduated top 10 of his class. He is planning to become an engineer from Texas A&M. He is a giant 6'3" and 230, not fat, just big and handsome. His heart is just as big, I don't know sweeter or more humble young men.

I can go on and on about mu babies and you can probably tell I'm so proud of them. My biggest prayer for them is that they continue to grow in the Lord and forever serve Him. The rest will come, life will happen.

Now on to the movie. Wow!, no wonder the movie Avatar may become the highest ever grossing film of all times. I have never seen anything more beautiful in film. The 2:40 minutes went by and we didn't feel it because you get so much into capturing the visual feast before your eyes. I always admire the beauty of the cinematography in newer oriental films like Hero, Crushing Tiger, etc. But with Avatar we are talking about something else. No more 3d paper "eyeglasses" with one red eye and another blue. The 3d the glasses look like something out of the Blues Brothers era. They fit really nice even over my regular prescription glasses. The story was so sweet, not completely innovative, just a new twist to it. James Cameron succeeded, I guess he is still "The king of the World", remember the phrase from Titanic? . He got a lot of grief over that one. It didn't bother me at all, when your good your good. He is giving moviegoers another art masterpiece, it was definitely worth the 11$. If you got the time I'm telling you go and see, you will thank me.

I ended up getting home about 1:30 AM. I know I will pay for it tomorrow. Love it, all worth it.

Last, I will love to express to Margo and her friends a sincere thank you for stopping by. I want to feature my town and fellow antique shop owners in future posts but I'm thinking I want to wait until I'm blessed with more followers. Not that I'm not extremely thankful for as many I have right now but in this case the more the merrier rule apply. Tomorrow I will post pictures of some of my Valentines vignettes around the shop. I went to a couple of shops in Roundrock and Georgetown today. I will post those later in the week. This is the end for today friends. Blessings, Marta.

Out in the cold, on the way to the movies

OK, if I was a responsible, obsessed adult I will be @ the store finishing off stuff for tomorrow...but no, I'm out the door heading to the theater. I have neglected my family, the little ones. All the way thru the holidays they keep trying to hook up with me for fun time. I keep apologizing for been so busy and not making it at all. Driving home yesterday it dawn on me that the business and the stuff are not going anywhere, but the kids, before I know it we will be planning weddings and college graduations, just too precious to me to mess up by not taking time. So... dinner and a movie will be. We will watch Avatar, I will critic it later. I will post pictures of my babies, wish us fun. Blessings, Marta.

Alright, I'm a lier

Just cute until I can get my act together. Love the little girl picture and the boy and girl bust .

I promise a post full of pictures for today. Well, I did take a lot of pictures but I realized they were all one color scheme (taupes, creams and whites) and I want to save them for the next White Wednesday. So I'm only going to post a couple pictures, one of my cloches with some Valentines stuff in them. I will take pictures of my two red rooms and the rest tomorrow. I redo my kitchen and one of my toy rooms. I did one room (dining) in yellow roses and taupes. I redo one of my black rooms too. I did not expected much business today been so cold outside. Well, it was really great. I sold 2 big pieces of furniture and made a new friend of a newbe to this area. I think I will see her again. She expend 2 hours @ the store, bought a lot and left a hole bunch of stuff selected for her next visit. I didn't get done as much as I wanted but hey, you can't have it all. I believe the shop will be ready for Saturday, that is if my texan friends decide to bear with the single digit temperatures.

Ok, I got another addiction

This are some of the pictures I meant to post this morning in my first White Wednesday post.

Are they cute or what? I started collecting this kind of dolls but decided to sell them about 2 months ago. I got only 2 of the ones in the pictures left; have sold about 10.

This beautiful room belongs to Lynn's @ Golightys. Love the food @ their tea room and the shop is just awesome. Fort Worth got some of the most amazing shops.
OOOOPPPPSSSSS. I did again. How do I get rid of the pictures I don't want after they been already save and posted in the blog? I told you, computer challenge. Another ?. How do I get to upload more than 5 pictures at a time? I'm uploading from a file in my computer but t is only allowing me to upload 5 at a time. Jessica, Sue, somebody.

I thought that the worst of my behavior towards blogging have already been documented. Yes, I come home late and then I sit in my computer for hours. I got a TV tray right beside the desk, my drink and dinner plate and the remote, see, I'm a multitasker too. I will check the blogs in the morning during my Today Show and coffee time. Sometimes I'm late for work (like this morning) and is all your fault. You have make blogging "my new drug" and I have to have my fix at least twice a day. So... I'm blogging again today, twice.

I spend the day WORKING on merchandising ten rooms in one day. We are talking details. I consider Winter my down time since I can't paint furniture as much. I'm HYPER, I drive people around me crazy. This is the first time in my life that been hyperactive have been very handy. Oh, for the last 4 days I have been having a creative spell. I'm rusty, very. See, I started as a crafter, creating pretty things, dabbing into all mediums. I got a Hobby Lobby if I include the stuff at home and the shop. I got tools, sewing machines, fabrics, turnings, trims, etc. It took me 4 hours to create 2 wreaths for Valentines day. Try working all day, come home, read blogs and post, and then craft until 2:00 AM. LOVE IT. I told, you insane. You may wonder where do my husband fit in the picture. Well, my teddy bear is a self-preserve, non traditional, not needy or clingy kind of guy. I call him my perfect match. We support each other a 100%. I get a lot of looks whenever I mention the fact that I only cook 3 or 4 times a year. No bragging here, my husband acknowledge the fact that I work my butty off and that is his way of helping. Do not asked me about the mess he leaves behind. It is all well worth it. So tomorrow weather permits I will be finishing the decorating @ the shop and I will have tons of pictures for you. I'm worried about something, I'm afraid I will be having tremendously long posts, I'm a talker, blah, blah, blah. So I'm gonna have to try to keep myself in check, No reason to bore you to death, ah?

See you tomorrow darlings, blessings, Marta.

First White Wednesday@ Marta's Room

Yuppie!!!! I'm soooo happy. Why? It's my first time participating in White Wednesday. Kathleen I'm so honor. I will be late for work today, no change of getting fire unless I can fire myself. It was a good morning gift to see my name among the participants of WW. Next Wednesday should be better because my Valentines will be up and I am doing lots of creams and whites. The above photo is some of the beading on purses. I love beaded purses, I got a collection of about 30 and I bring repeats to the shop. it's getting harder to find different ones.

I love putting vignettes together, specially under domes. I like them to be whimsical, no logic to them, just eye candy.

This pillow was @ Lonestar Mall in Fort Worth. The name of the artist is Ms Bountiful. You can see a collection of them for sale @Dream in cream blog. Vintage Sue made an altered pillow and I was the happy recipient. I will take a picture and show to you in my next WW. Dreamy is the word.

This was one of my Spring rooms last year. Can't wait for Spring since I love anything gardeny and my bunnies. Spring flowers and roses...beautiful. The only thing is that we do not get the beautiful garden with spring bulbs. They last a couple of days the most. Nothing like the gardens up north. We Texans get 2 weeks of Spring and what feels like the endless Summer: the over a 100 degree Summer. We are experiencing the coldest Winter since I move to Texas, 18 years. To us 40 degrees is freezing. We can't stop wining about it. I recommend turning on the TV and looking @ Minnesota's temperatures. We are not freezing, we just need to look pretty all layer up.

OOPS, double take and no time to fix it. I want to leave the post publish so...apologies. Blessings, Marta.

What a couple of days!

I have been busy taking all my remaining Christmas down and putting Valentines up. Having a shop is a commitment to a never ending cycle. I consider myself blessed since my sells have not gone down with the economy. This area of Texas seems not to be affected like the national economy have been. I live very close to Fort Hood but my costumers are mostly from Belton and Temple. My costumers are mostly white females between the ages of 20 all the way to 70, which is surprising to me, that is for the older ladies to embrace Shabby Chic and my junk. Some of them have lived with the same furniture for the last 20 or 30 years and are looking for a drastic change. My fellow latinas don't come in the shop. Three years ago I went back home and decide to bring visuals(my decorating books and pictures as testament) so my family and friends will understand what my style is all about. They didn't understand what the appeal of rusted, distressed,crazed, tattered and all forms of yummy could be. They all saw junk. I was told that if a bring my business to the Island I will go out of business in no time. I wish I have the money to show them. I have make believers out of people that doubted I will make a go of my business. I was told my location is the worst, not the right building, not the right stuff,etc,etc...BUT I got the last laugh, Been there, done that for 11 years now. We survived 9/11, Katrina,Bush, etc. God willing we will be here for years to come. I'm praying for the next location since 3,000 sf don't work for me any more. I need 10,000, it will come, you will see. Lastly, I sound like a bragging queen bee. I'm not, this baby have cost me sweat, pain and tears, but the lessons, the blessings, the road here have been life changing for me, you see, I'm not all that. I started with no money, but I figure My Father in Heavens got all the riches in earth and the heavens, Nobody else have faith in the journey that I was about to embark. Why leaving a secure job and paycheck, my desk and professional clothes for painting overalls? I pray about my business for 10 years. I wanted to be still young since I know it was going to be hard work. When God opened the door for my I jump in knowing he was going to back me up. I figure that at the end of the day, if all I have is God favor I will need nothing else. Sometimes I show at the shop with a long list to do, but God have other plans that day for me. I remember praying that my place will be one of peace, that God spirit will dwell there and that people with the need of a word of comfort, or a hug will find it there. So, now you have it. That is what we do @Marta's Room. We got to have church almost everyday. Sometimes I give, sometimes I receive, Isn't GOD good?Blessings, Marta.
PD: photos of Valentines decor in two days