Look what My Mom sent...

My mom is 82 and still goes to the Country Auction every Saturday night. She lives in a small town in New Hampshire and drives through rain, sleet and snow to find the perfect treasure. Now, she has a list from me each week of what to bid on. Some day, we will drive to NH and Indiana to pick-up all of my treasures stored in relatives garages but that is another story...

A battered box arrived this morning (she uses whatever box and packing material she has-very funny sometimes!), and I couldn't believe what she bought for me last week. She says there is another box on its way with even better treasures in it....

These Tea pots are unbelievable! One appears to have a cross on the top of the lid. I'm not sure if I'll be able to part with these....

This little fish sits on a rectangular lid, not sure if there is a bottom coming but I love this little fish! My mom has no idea why I get so excited about silver-plate but to me it's romantic and gets my creative mind working overtime! (I can tell you that the postage was more than she paid for the entire lot of pieces). Oh, my mom...as I said she is 82, has been an antique dealer most of her life, still restores antique dolls and drives anywhere in New England for a good auction. When I was little, they would pull me out of school for a week to set up at Brimfield! She had no idea what an impact she was making on my future...

Thanks mom!

Happy Valentines Day!

Thank you all for entering my vintage Spoon Heart giveaway. The response was awesome!!!! The winner is Dana from Tutu Monkey!!!! Congratulations Dana.  Keep watching-we'll have a cool giveaway next month and maybe you'll win!

Look what my husband had for me this morning sitting next to the coffee maker with a Red Velvet Cupcake from  Daily Scoop (the best red velvet cupcakes in San Diego)...

Yes, it was a spoon! Now it's an unbelievable 3 dimensional heart!  He's been busy in his shop these days and now I know why. He wanted to show me how he made it and the craftmanship is so simple and pure-no fancy machines, he used wood, a hammer and a long tool thing to pound the shape. Just from the heart. Wow.

Ok, don't forget, I'll be at Vignettes today from 11:00-5:00pm. I will be hand lettering knives and spoons for a short time. Come early-I'm demonstarting first so I won't be nervous all day!

The place to be on Valentine's Day...

On February 14, grab your friends and join me at Vignettes for a soiree to remember...

The festivities are from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Join us for edible art, pink champagne, amour and so much more! All we need is vous!

4828 Newport Avenue

San Diego, 92107

619-222-9244

Valentine's Day Giveaway

Love is in the air! 

To celebrate Valentine's Day, I'm having a special giveaway!

My husband makes these hearts from vintage spoons! Each spoon is hand pounded, cut and then sanded into a beautiful unique heart! They are incredibly time consuming but so beautiful! Everyone is so surprised when they find out the heart was from a spoon!  I put the smaller one on a short sterling chain and the other two on chunkier gun metal chains. One lucky person will win a vintage spoon heart necklace! If you'd like to enter the giveaway here is the scoop:

You will get one "entry" for each one of the following that you do:

1. Post a link on your blog mentioning this contest.

2. Become a follower of my blog.

3. Post a comment below.

4. send me an email

The drawing will be on Sunday, February 14.

Good luck!

(If you have an old spoon that you'd like me to make into a heart, email me for details!)

Little Italy Mercato week 3

Last Saturday was another beautiful day at the Mercato! Of course we started with a latte from Joe's on the Nose and then went right over to Loic Patisserie  for this awesome fruit tart.It had  fresh strawberries and blackberries along with a rich pastry cream and fresh whipped cream-yum!

After a couple of hours of selling and meeting lots of dogs on their way to the dog park, it was time for lunch. We decided to try the gourmet tamales. Mine had feta, spinach, corn and tomatillos-pretty good. They were from Gourmet Tamales of Carlsbad. I generally don't eat tamales but the combination of feta and spinach was perfect-spanikopita anyone?

Before packing up we needed to decide on dinner. We knew we had to pick something other than pasta. As I was walking through the crowd I spotted a new booth with deep dish pizza! My husband loves Giordanos in Chicago and I knew he'd have to try this! We brought home a par-baked pepperoni pizza and 20 minutes later had a great dinner. It was definitely as good as Giordanos' take-home version. I can't wait to try their spinach & mushroom next time. The pizza is available at the Mercato and  for delivery ONLY from

 Berkeley Pizza .

We're taking next week off from The Mercato but hope to see you there on Saturday, January 30!

Are you ready for some football?

Buddy was all set for the Charger game yesterday but,the San Diego Chargers were not destined to go to the Superbowl. Maybe next year!

Little Italy Mercato week 2

It's week 2 at The Little Italy Mercato and I designed some new Dog jewelry in honor of all of the dogs that come to the market each week. Each pendant is a vintage chandelier crystal with an image from a vintage dictionary glazed onto the back. The piece is wire wrapped and finished with swarovski crystals. The vintage images are truly unique. Unfortunately, all breeds are not available.

It's very early at The Mercato as we wait for Joe's on The Nose to open. Our lattes are artfully decorated with a foamy milk heart. We take our lattes and head over to Loic Patisserie for blueberry scones. (We really want to try a new pastry booth this week but they are the only one open as we are setting up!). After a busy day of selling, my husband tries the Pad Thai at Saranya & The Black Thai. It was good but I went for the Eggplant Parmesean from....sorry, the photo didn't come out!

The eggplant was perfect, just enough breading, light fresh tomato sauce and a small hunk of bread. Yum! Ok, the pasta my husband picked out to take home this week? Lemon Basil linguine! I think we've had lemon basil something for 3 weeks now, we need a new flavor. But-it was excellent with their sundried tomato pesto-I could eat the pesto alone with a loaf of bread :)

Hope to see you next week at The Mercato!