Saturday, March 17, 2012

Gnomes and Critters in Clothes - My Collections

Saturday - My Style

When I decided to organize my blog posts by the day, I really wanted to save one day to just share the stuff I love, the stuff that sort of makes me who I am, thus the conceptual birth of Saturday - My Style.

 Thanks to all our you who took the time to read about the plays I have attended recently last Saturday.  Today I would like to share some artist created 'creations' that I adore.


This is most of my collection of Nettie's Gnomes.  The creator lives in a neighboring town and I actually met her when she came in to the antique store where I work to buy unique and vintage elements for her gnomes.

She is super talented, and I love her work.  I took some pics at her Witches Party last fall if you would care to take a look.


This wonderful couple of gnome peasants are my earliest of her gnomes.  Aren't they adorable?

 

The sweetie on the left is 'Dorothea',  she is a stylized Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz ... to the right is a sweet little charmer that I was lucky enough to run across at a second hand store ... have to wonder who could have let her go, but then, I am glad they did.  I did have to pay quite a bit for her, even in her 'pre-loved' situation, I guess even the workers at a thrift store could see her value ...
This little lady was custom made for me, after 'Nettie' found an antique chandelier she liked at the Antique Store,  she wanted my 'best price' and I wanted another sweet gnome, one that would fit the color scheme of a room I was doing.  Her Gnomes are not often pastel, so I thought it was sweet that she created Emelia just for me.  (You get to name them yourself when you custom order  :-))

Now just for fun, I thought I would show you my collection of whimsical animals.  The sweet hippo ballerina in the middle started it all.  She is a creation of my sister Julie, who was at one time a very active doll artist.  (That was before she moved to the woods in West Virginia to live off the land ... did I mention she is amazing?)  Well, Miss Ingaborg Hippo got lonely, so when I ran across the girly giraffe on one of my buying trips, she came home to be her girly best friend.

Then Bunny Ballerina came to dance with Ingaborg, and of course who could pass up that funky monkey?

And last of all the grand dame Kitty came into my life compliments of my business partner Cathie.  Don't they make a fun community?  I think I will stare at them for a while before I go to bed tonight, so that I can dream in their world ...
 Last of all I want to tell you a little story of love.  Above we see Elfaba, not to be confused with Elphaba from 'Wicked'.  One day I was busy adoring my Gnome collection, and the idea popped into my head that maybe Nettie could make me a witch and name her Elfaba (which is what it says on my personalized license plate) ... since I was talking out loud, to my husband in the other room, who usually tunes me out, I was so surprised when he walked into the antique mall three months later, on my birthday and presented me with this amazing witch, ala Nettie of Nettie's Gnomes.  At the time I didn't even know that Nettie made these larger witch dolls as an alternative to her usual little people.  It was so amazing ... Thank you Dear, I am still feeling loved.

6 comments:

  1. Your collection is so fun! I love collecting bunnies but I want to start collecting gnomes. Thanks for sharing, it made me smile.

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  2. I especially like the story of Elfaba! What a lovely & thoughtful gift from your sweetheart. . . I would feel very loved too. Thanks for sharing, friend!

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  3. Thank you for showing us your collection. I love the Bunny Ballerina!

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  4. What a nice husband you have! Love your collections. Mimi

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