A Shelf in the Life - Home Portrait #2

Above you can see: an altered matchbox from the Santa Fe Flea Market, 3 little New Mexican pottery birds, a blue fish angel I got at Jackalope, a miniature South American casa, a fabulous fused glass frame partially hidden by a floor lamp, outsider art by Helene Lacelle, a small tile by one of the cool Zinnia peeps (maybe Joe?), a Ganesha tile, and a piece by the lovely Linda Woods. This, and all of the snaps following, are sections of the scene seen along our mantel, including the lower section. The last shot shows how it all lays out across the left side, to the middle of the fireplace.

Continuing to the right: an elephant from one of the several San Antonio Zoo Mold-A-Ramas, a Hindu wooden block set I made, a tiny Lakshmi statue and postcard, a cool lime enamel frame with a print of Krishna, an unidentified but nonetheless lovely vintage photograph, a Guan Yin statue nestled within a cloth poppy, a photo of some kids in Rwanda taken by one of my kids, a snapshot of one of my great-aunties in a darling enameled frog frame, and finally an almost deco $1 Buddha from a grocery store in Little Tokyo (LA).

Pass Buddha to find: a retro pearlized glass birdie from Urban Outfitters, via Lisa, shells from a shop on Balboa Island, big hunks of seaglass from Merchant Voyage, a couple of slender starfish, a Holden McCurry ceramic Prayer Tower with bird, a found photo of two girls in a boat, in a swell rhinestone frame, a shell a bird dropped in front of me as I rode my bike on a visit to my mum in Sebring, Florida several years before she died, a darling little piece by Erika Tysse in a seashell frame and a votive holder from St. Thomas. . .

Sand collected from here and there (ongoing), and shells from Florida . . .

Continuing down the mantel: Doggie Taco (well, that's what we call it) by Caroline Douglas (you can check her out in time lapse work mode in the YouTube clip below!), little stones Silver gave me, a shell fossil I found years ago on the rocky, windy, Oregon coast, another exquisite little piece by Caroline Douglas, (with a removable head!), a framed copy of a piece by Jennifer Davis, a silvered shell from Merchant Voyage, another altered matchbox with a glittery Arizona scene, a vintage glass glitter star, a Snow Baby reading box, a glittered up pine cone, which when open, reveals a tiny fox curled up in his nest, another framed miniature by Erika Tysse, a glass pup that was my dad's (wearing Colin's "Gerety" baby bead bracelet), and a darling little tin poodle JoFish gave me, which always makes me think of a book I got from my Great-gram Hon when I was 10, called The Davenports and Cherry Pie, written by Alice Dalgliesh.

This (right) section of the mantel is dropped down - I will include a pic of how that works in a later post: The colorful vintage vase is from Spain; I found it at a junk shop years ago, the sunflowers are from my Tournesol garden, the small birdie-topped picture frame is so pretty I have never even bothered to put anything in it. That's a portrait of me in my sunglasses by the amazing artist Jennifer Gordon, the pink and blue canvas is another by Erika Tysse (can you tell how much I love her art?), and the polychromic stencil piece at the end, well, that one is mine.

Above is a pic to put it all into perspective. It's grainy for some reason I couldn't discern, but I think you'll get the gist. As you can see, I didn't include every inch of the mantel in the running description, and obviously this only shows across the first half of the wall. Hope you're enjoying my "home tour"! More soon. . .