Weekend Shopping Up North

My daughter, Rachel and I are both into miniatures right now. Rachel likes to use miniatures for her clay projects and I like to use them for my mixed media work. My sister Diana told me about this miniature store in Novato, "Dollhouses, Trains & More".  http://www.dollhousestrainsandmore.com/about-dollhouses-trains-more We went up there Saturday morning and boy, was it worth the trip.

The store is really big and they had so many miniatures, it was amazing!  We had a ball there and must have spent almost 2 hours in there.  I can't show what I bought, since it will be used for my future class.

Sunday, I went out with my sister Lana back up North again...this time to San Anselmo and Mill Valley.  French Nest was our first stop - what a great store. http://www.frenchnesthome.com/

I picked up this necklace there, 50% off.  I love the thick chain of this necklace the most.

I wasn't crazy for the middle crown piece. So when I was home, I turned the crown piece over and embellished the other side.

I added a small bling piece with a piece of transparency and a pearl. There, I like it better now.  It's a good layer piece.

We hit a couple more antique stores in the area. I picked up this wire paper holder...got a good price and it will be great for holding my papers.

Lana picked up this wooden ornate mold...love it!

Then we were off to Mill Valley. We went to Tyler Florence's store.  Very cool store...kinda reminds me of a Williams Sonoma store.  Love the forks in the sign and the black and white striped awning.

They have this cozy book store section in the back.

I bought this chalk board there.  I just had to buy something so I could get one of his shopping bags.

Thanks Lana for showing me some great stores up North.

And last but not least, tonight I made another doll art from one of those small boxes I bought the other day.  This time I used one of the rectangle boxes, 1" x 2.5".  I stamped various images from Catherine Moore for the head, bodice and skirt.  I added black netting for the skirt.  I added a silhouette of a ballerina inside the box.  I love the shoes, it's from Paper Whimsy http://www.paperwhimsy.com/store/home.php.