My 1st Booth Pics

Updated Display

Please refer to June 12 post, as a reference. Or, better yet, scroll down past Twitter, to just beneath my photo (tags) and click on "display."

Table one. Found a nice, tall "T Bar" for $5.00 at a store closing, that will hold 24" chains.

Rotating display rack was a Thrift Shop find for $3. Handmade earring cards finally allow me to eliminate those DREADED dangling price tags!! YUCK!

Table two at the very posh

Linda Rich Salon, 32 Church St, New Milford, CT

April in Boston

"stately" beacon hill, boston MA
Originally uploaded by cookievf

The first of four trips this year, April 2010 clearly rates as one of the TOP FIVE ALL TIME (out of 50) trips to this fine city in the last 15 years!

Following any day game, no matter what the weather, it's a tradition to walk from fenway park to dinner in the north end by way of our favorite martini bar! That afternoon we decided to take a new route through kenmore square, down comm ave through the neighborhoods of back bay and beacon hill across the top of the commons and on through faneuil hall to hanover street.

We had to slow our pace to take in all the history and fine architecture, courtyards in bloom and vintage facades that surrounded us on this rainy day under a leaden, overcast sky!

Umbrellas or not, the air was crisp and fresh, the walk and the company invigorating and the lighting perfect for my photo shoot. Truly memorable!

Ice Cold and Dee-lish!

And don't forget to look down!

Creating a Brand...

New Etsy Header

... and hopefully a following!

I'm so lucky to have a very dear friend like Michelle, who is a brand consultant & marketing and social media strategist ~ giving me advice these days! Check out her website here.

In addition to stressing the importance of daily "tweets" (check it), she has always stressed the importance of "continuity" as I began to market my handmade jewelry business (she even had a hand in sparking the flame by gifting me with some of her amazing beads & gemstones last fall!) This aspect has had me completely STUMPED for 6 months and I feel as though I've finally had a breakthrough.

The problem. What to name my business:

- email: cookievf
- flickr: cookievf

- twitter: cookievf

- ebay: vickstress (not selling there)
- etsy: vickstress for continuity.. 4 YRS AGO, when i was just a b-u-y-e-r!
- blog: beautyofthegarden

Ever the goal:

• Create a clear message
• Convey accurate representation
• Convey the need for your product/service - or make it beautiful and impossible to resist =D
• Convey QUALITY
• Make it easy to remember, so potential customers can find you!

The solution:

As I am still in the very early stages, I've decided NOT to give the business a name, therefore avoiding having to create a new etsy shop & set up a special FB page, etc... I have decided to simply use my given name. Sounds easy, but "WHEW!" what a relief now that the decision process is finally over.

For continuity sake, I added my name to my flickr account and created a business card ands etsy header with a similar theme. It's a beginning! Now I am making earring cards to better display my jewelry and working on blog ideas....... gotta run!

New Business Card

Hipstamatic.. my 1st choice for "grunge"

Hipstamatic is an iphone app that came on the scene with great fanfare, in late 2009 that's described as "digital photography turned analog."

There are a CRAZY number of combinations to choose from with interchangeable lens, flash and film which, i have to say, is so UP MY ALLEY as I've had a life-long love affair with anything old, vintage, retro, faded, rusty, broken & chipped!

It didn't take very long to see just how popular this app has quickly become with flickr groups, websites and contests popping up everywhere!

The Big Hipstamatic Show monthly contest
Official Hipstamatic website
Official Hipstamatic TWITTER
Hipstamatic FLICKR (60,254 items)
365 Days Hipstamatic FLICKR (1,207 items)
Hipstamatic NYC FLICKR (793 items)

Well, you get the idea!

Being keenly aware of the grunge-y, gritty effects available with Hipstamatic, I just HAD to take a few pics when I noticed we were standing in a "warehouse" surrounded by beer kegs and brewing equipment. Actually, the brewmaster took the first one =D

Monthly Trip to Captain Lawrence Brewery, Pleasantville, NY
Originally uploaded by cookievf

Turning Vintage Trading Cards Into Jewelry

Repurpose! An upcycled game piece becomes wearable art by taking an image from my ephemera collection and resizing it to fit a creamy, 2" x 1" Crisloid domino (2" x 1").

These days I use Microsoft Office Word 2007 for basic cropping and to bump up the contrast, which saturates colors very nicely. No fancy software required. Another no-cost option is using flickr's Picnik program or my own image editing software from my scanner.

I typically start by cropping out any unnecessary portions such as text, etc. Once printed, I simply cut around the gold, decorative edge, attached it to a domino with acrylic gloss medium, coated it with same for protection and added a tiny bright red swarovski crystal for added sparkle. In the final step, I attached a silver plated bail with jeweler's cement and, voila! ... a pretty necklace with a colorful ad from the 1880's. My kind of "bling" =D

"Wild Iris" Domino Pendant

Partial description from Etsy...

"Iris, most beautiful flower, Symbol of life, love, and light.."

Vintage botanical image enhanced with text from my 1919 copy of Webster's Condensed Dictionary and a tiny, swarovski crystal. It is suspended from a sterling silver bail and comes with a FREE 24" dainty, ball chain.

FLOWER SYMBOLISM: faith, wisdom, friendship and hope. The iris is the emblem of both France and Florence, Italy. The fleur-de-lis, one of the most well-known of all symbols, is derived from the shape of the iris flower.

Custom Pendants: Strong Women To Inspire You

Excerpted from my new Etsy listing:

"Fearless! We are ALL Goddess, Angel, Friend, Heroine, Artist, Dancer and sometimes even Fashion Icon! Choose from 13 gorgeous images of strong women, handpicked from my collection with words to inspire.

✢ VINTAGE COLLAGE PENDANTS ✢ MAGNETS ✢ KEYCHAIN

There are several ways to customize:

IMAGE - Take your pick from my "Dare To Dream" collection by simply selecting number 1-14 (it will be a high resolution version, unlike the version shown here)

ITEM - Decide if you'd like her on a domino pendant, magnet or keychain.

YOUR WORD/MY WORD/NO WORD - Any way you like it! I can use my words, yours or none at all.

Buy with confidence! A paper artist for over 15 years, I have amassed a large collection of vintage ephemera and graphic images spending hundreds of hours carefully scanning, digitally enhancing, printing, cutting, working with ink, adhesives, and embellishments. I am very excited to share these new items with you in my etsy shop.

✢ Pendants have a silver plated bail. Chain is extra
✢ Magnets are Neodymium/Rare Earth and are Super strong!
✢ Keychains use a sturdy ring.

Summer Workspace ~

Here is a SMALL PORTION, approximately 25%, of my "summer" workspace on our screened porch. Showing only one corner.. I am spread out over the entire table!! And it's all packed up in time for dinner =D


A little peek at a WIP: "Moon Goddess"


Here are a few of my latest creations (available on Etsy) and since all are one-of-a-kind, when they're gone... they're GONE!

...thanks for stopping by!!!!

flickr picnik fan

"BEFORE" Dull, washed out and somewhat flat. Doesn't showcase the rich colors and natural beauty of a favorite beach scene in Ocean City, NJ. Frankly, I liked it until I saw it tweaked on flickr today!

"AFTER" bright, contrast adjusted, sharpened, color punched up slightly to show pink hotel. Better, overall and WAY faster for my simple purposes than to launch and dig into PSE!

A few more examples of what keeps me up at night!


My father, age 16

My mother, circa 1960's

100 year old photo FOUND!

Happily digging through a "new" box of my dad's photographs and things, I unearthed another very special TREASURE! A large (9" x 5.5") Atlantic City Boardwalk souvenir frame around a beautiful, silver gelatin photo postcard of my

paternal grandmother.

If I'm correct, and Julia Kelly Cook is in her late teens or early twenties, then the date would be about 1910.

"J.A. Walk Studios"
Boardwalk ----- 834 Arch St
Atlantic City ----- Philadelphia

Happy Father's Day!

My father was a very special man.

Born 1920 in Brooklyn, NY, John "Jack" Charles Farquhar grew up in Gloucester and Haddonfield, New Jersey. His parents were well-respected in the community and founding members of the methodist church. They were second and third generation immigrants from Scotland and from Germany and those ancestors, like so many, worked their fingers to the bone to ensure that the successive generations THRIVED! For that I am eternally greatful.

In my father's family there was a shoemaker, a seamstress and several business owners: Philadelphia - a few butchers, a whiskey distillery, a textile dye house, a weaving mill for paisley scarves both here and in glasgow, scotland. New Jersey: a bakery in gloucester city, NJ, a grocery store and even a mayor, Samuel T. Murphy, who was also a member of the New Jersey State House of Assembly, Camden County in 1877. (my father's father's mother's father!)

My father was the middle child of five and quickly became a favorite son and brother with his sweet, easy-going nature. A much beloved child, he was filled with confidence and an extremely positive outlook which he maintained throughout the course of his lifetime, spanning 85 years. In addition to his great physical beauty, I can assure you, everyone who came in contact with him sensed his INNER beauty as well!

Dad was a star scout in the Boy Scouts, an accomplished gymnast, baseball and football player, popular with his classmates and voted Class President in his senior year at Haddonfield High School at the tender age of 16!

During the depression years, his parents scraped and saved so that he could attend Springfield College, MA as a Physical Education major. Dad was captain of the (exhibition) gym team, travelling extensively throughout the east coast performing highly stylized routines with a Triple Balance team and the team as a whole. Thanks to his "pack rat" nature, I have his scrapbook from college, his 16 year old Diary, dance cards, post cards along with BOXES of photos and have developed a clear picture of my father as a young man, of which I am extremely proud.

To understand why I have hesitated to write anything in any great detail about my father's life before today, take a look at this list of his interests/accomplishments:

knot tying, astronomy, camping, tree identification, gardening, growing roses, gymnastics, cub/boy scouts, acrobatics, senior HS class president, editor of HS/Camp/Church newspaper, cartoonist, crossword puzzle design, wordsmith, limericks, cloud patterns, Springfield College NEAAU - Tumbling Champion with a silver medal in 1941 and a gold medal in 1939, pilot, flight instructor, squaredance caller, dance instructor, lettered in both HS and college sports, camp counselor, circus acrobat, captain of college gym team, HS basketball coach, ballroom dancer, jazz aficionado, educational jazz radio show host (with parkinson's disease in his late 70's), competition badminton player, senior olympic SILVER MEDALIST (with parkinson's disease in his mid 70's), emcee, learned to ski at age 60, ski instructor to my brother and I (at age 61), spun records for college parties, jazz piano, big band jazz, classical music, "night course" teacher of Jazz Appreciation, son, friend, brother, father, husband, uncle, grandfather...

More pictures and stories to follow!

~ end of Part I ~

hiking near his home in VT with ever-present camera bag

Local shop display

Have another Sneek Peek of what will be filling my etsy shop (currently closed & undergoing maintenance until 6/16/10)!

• Over 40 one-of-a-kind earrings


• Vintage and contemporary artisan necklaces


• Glass pendants


• Upcycled domino pendants in two sizes


• Custom photo items for you or someone you love! I specialize vintage restoration. If you have a treasured memory, I would love to put it into a necklace for you... or create a set of magnets, keychain, charm bracelet, bookmark. Pets are extremely popular!

"Bella" - a custom photo pendant WIP:

web store excitement

The last few months I have been so busy making pendants, altered dominoes, magnets, earrings, necklaces... the list goes on! I have SO many pretty things still to list on vickstress.etsy.com and I hope you will take a moment to click the link on the right.

Any and all feedback is welcome and I do hope you will BOOKMARK it and peek in, now and again! "There's always something fresh, here, in the beauty of the garden!"

Offerings will include:

Photography
Artisan OOAK Jewelry
Altered * Pendants * Magnet Sets * Bookmarks
Rusty Bits <-
Vintage Items
ART!!

... and I have my 2nd country flea market on saturday so I must wait until Sunday to list any more items. Wish me luck!!

I've been told...

....that I am a very sentimental person and, I suppose, that is why so many posts are reminiscences! Today is no exception!

June 2, 1945 my parents were married SIXTY YEARS AGO today. Even though my dad passed away in 2005, I still call my mom to let her know that I'm thinking of her and have told her I will always celebrate this day in my heart, forever!

They left quite a legacy of love that I'm blessed to be a part of.