Easter Blessings to You & Yours,

 May good health & contentment be in you

 ...sincere friends & family be 'round you

 .... the sweetest song of birds fill your ears...

 ~*and the colors of the creators palette...

 paint the path before you.

 May you come to know your creator and thereby,

experience the fulfillment of your soul.

          May you live this day full of peace and love.
                      ~*Darly~* & ~* Kelly*~
The Ladies of the Abbey

Bejeweled Easter Vignette ...

 the blue bunny with original, german glass glitter patina

 Dainty porcelain vintage baskets....

and crisp colored flowers! Go Spring!!!

Status: Post Flea Market Friday.

 A few trinkets from todays flea market.....vintage Haviland Limoges tea cups and vintage bling.

We are certain to make something fabulous from these.

The Mother of all Flea Market Days!

 We rolled on out EARLY this morning having barely downed our coffee and headed out to the huge alfresco Flea Market! It's HUGE NEWS out here in the east and

 not only did we get great treasures.....

but, we ran into Facebook chicas & shop owners Junxtaposition and Bel Monili for some chat and junk pillaging ! These ladies awoke at 5:30am to travel from Pittsburgh to our fair state, just for the outdoor junk market.!

The shopping spree ended with a piping hot coffee & breakfast at the dutch house then home for some ZZZzzzzzz...........more to come when we "come to" from our flea market induced coma.

 A wee road trip north today to discover some of the nearby areas since I am a bit of a newbie to Ohio. I stumbled upon a very tiny weathered clapboard home that had 2 rooms turned into a "store" by its elderly owners.

 "We were offering 50% off " said the old, white haired man whose twice as wrinkled wife with the forward curving spine completed his sentence...."Today it's 75% off! We are moving to Virginia next week and we are just too old and tired to move all this stuff so, come, take advantage of the elderly!" and she bellowed a hardy laugh.

 I purchased 4 "Grab Bags" of old jewelry as well as an enchanting vintage bone china teacup and saucer, from England , mint condition,,,,,,pale celadon background with detailed Columbine flowers painted on and edged in 24K gold. There were some really sweet finds in my Grab Bags, as you can see.

Everything was 6 bucks. I'm happy and will, forevermore, sip my mornings half cup of coffee from a garden of colorful Columbine.

          Herding Cats !

It feels as though we are herding cats  as of late. It has been a bit chaotic trying to get everything organized so as to get our webstore up and running. We have a cream of the crop graphic/animation specialist so, that is not the problem but rather, the sticky wicket is we ladies of the abbey. Getting to inventorying , pricing, photographing and wording of our offerings is difficult & quite time consuming. I have already received text, emails and fb messages of persons wanting to purchase what very few items we have shown, albeit they are not yet priced. The spotlight photos are our original yet, the actual items , with very sterile, boring, individual photos that then come up are not our creations :(.  They are  generic images of standard ,run of the mill creations and, although they are nice, alas.....they are not our unique handmade & vintage offerings. We hope to have the site full steaming aheading in another week, until then, those who have text me etc. with request for our items they have seen here or, on my personal fb page, we will honor your "first dibs". We thank & appreciate your generous patience.

Sincerely,

~*Darly, Kelley & Kelly*~

The Ladies of the Abbey

Startling Discoveries in the Parlor !!!

 Things can get a little creepy at the Abbey, no doubt. This weekends overwhelming fright was opening ye old flat backed jelly cupboards and finding.........

 FABRIC ! FABRIC ! FABRIC ! FAB...ok, youve got the idea.

 In the front parlor are 2 large, matching, vintage jelly cupboards which, due to a nasty accumulation of junk 'n' stuff, I had not paid attention to for quite sometime. This weekends mingle featured Kelley C. (aka JunqueyGal) and her mystical,magical stitchery machine along with totes of vintage trims, buttons and baubles. It re-ignited the dampened fuse in my brain and ,*poof*!, I recalled the stash stuffed cupboards.

 As with any overwhelming matter requiring sharp synaptic skills to be employed under a certain calm, levelheadedness , we hustled our bustles and got to sorting out vintage linen from lace & barkcloth then began fastidiously cutting, piecing, and sewing........

 Totes, purses, wristlets and whatnots to be worked and embellished like the pantry maids latest gossip.

 Colorful, spring accessorizing wrist cuffs from the artsy, to the feminine and farm girl ~*

 Ohhhhh la la ! Exquisite vintage furrier labels reFURbished with a bit of Paris panache.

 Digging through the hoard, I came upon my small collection of vintage Steiff hand puppets. My wee sister fell in pure love with Daniel Striped Tiger and fond memories of the iconic, beloved Mr. Rogers filled our hearts.....Kelly even broke into her "Mew mew meow meow" Henrietta Pussy Cat voice :)

 Finding wonderful things you'd forgotten you ever had is better than the best of Christmases. Faded vintage pink and violet hued Roses on a background of overcast sky gray ....sigh....

 Antique precision handwork of delicate clover on white cotton caused my heart to skip a beat....

 I fashioned this Fox Hunt Hound wristlet cuff while Kelley went a bit more glamourous and created a thing of bling from vintage trims and lovely bold, blue Pomegranate pin.

 Day lent itself to eve and onward into the night we did sew and forge fabrics while Kelly L. (aka, my littlest sibling) ,wire wrapped some OOAK rings from natural stones and old jewel remnants, befitting of a Queens crown.

 This mingle turned into a sleep-over, weekend retreat as how can one possibly stop the flow of creativity once the dam has been broke ?......as was the case when the old jelly cupboard doorknob was turned......In the morning we had hardy steel-cut oats, piping hot with a large dollop of Fig Jam.....indulgent for we humble tinkers of the abbey.

A cup of berry tea whilst cleaning up the aftermath of creative minds in high gear and then ,we packed up our suitcases, bid one another adieu .....until our next bi-monthly mingle. Care to join us?

Just a quick reminder for all you gardening friends, it's close time to sow those cold weather crops...radishes, lettuce, spinach, kale and my favorite, Peas!

We keep it organic here at the Abbey but, truly,

 any homegrown food is tastier and more nutritious than from the store.

Don't forget simple to assemble huts & houses to attract beneficial friends such as bees, butterflies,bats and toads. These quaint little amphibian houses, complete with vintage statued watchman, were made by some creative neighborhood children with odds n ends from the potting shed, ~*Here's to the start of a great growing season!*~

Welcome to Crafton Abbey !

A charming turn of the century art retreat for emancipating your creative soul and beautifully, boldly ,(and on occasion sipping glass of bubbly), discovering the art within you.

We are Darly, Kelley and Kelly...the 3 tinkers & proprietors of the abbey whose passions for the vintage, the bling, the weathered, worn,and woven keep us discovering more about the capabilities & spirit within us.

 The new and the old come together at the distinctive lilac colored abbey and, even more importantly, the sisterhood of creative women share and discover likes,laughs and lovelies .

 We invite you to follow our blog and even consider joining us for tea. Our goal is to mingle with fellow rouge artisans  for sharing methods, ideas, and networking.

Located in a tiny historical village east of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, west of Ohio and just minutes off the Pa turnpike & Pgh Airport, Crafton Abbey is a relaxing spot for lounging on the balcony...

 lunching a freshly hand picked salad from the organic garden , giggles at the gazebo or taking a wee hike down at the waterfalls. Meditation and yoga anyone?

We hope to hold sessions every other weekend, depending on the number of interested parties.

Pack up your goods and head on over.....email us suggestions or classes and "Learn together" crafting explorations you would love to try.

 Our  facebook shop is currently being designed

 by graphics and animation professional Michael Lesko, (NYC MTV, Nickelodeon etc artist ). Once completed, we will link the site here for convenience .

 As of late, we ladies have been deep into making fun and fanciful jewelry, fabric wristlets and beaded bracelets.

 We want to bring women together for support and nurturing of one anothers dreams & goals.

 All the items pictured here are recent OOAK projects

 we've made. Eager to share and learn from others,

 we encourage you to drop us an email or message here

 if you'er interested in learning more or just becoming

 great blogging supportive friends <3.

 We don't promise perfection just wonderful endeavors and experiments in techniques of art and all things creative......

 May the Sisterhood never stop!

 Most sincerely, Darly, Kelley & Kelly. The 3 tinkers of Crafton Abbey*~

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 Tea cups and vintage fabrics ***

 The lilac abbey, lights on the baclony~*~*~*

 Great old fabrics~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Handmade , OOAK paper dolls from vintage images and ephemera........

 Lilacs in the front parlor...the main studio room

 ~*~*~*~*~Supplies, Supplies,Supplies..perhaps a swap?

 Stitching together old and new fabrics for charming end results..........

 Thrift store finds for shopping or swapping.....

 All different styles from city slicker to country mouse, princesses and pauper-ettes !

 from BLING ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 to very, very down to earth...................homegrown thyme.