Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Pillows Pillows Pillows....www.dawnsgardengate.etsy.com

My Mama

My Mama and Me


My Wilson

Vintage buttons, lace, embellishmentswww.dawnsgardengate.etsy.com

Most Popular Marilyn, diff color variations

Anchors Away...Wedding Gift

New adventures into the Artisian in "me"...new word

Hey yawl.....!! Wow !!  I have been soooo bizzy....new adventures !!  I am really tapping into the "artisian" (new word) in my soul....and loving it....I need to say I have a all loving and forgiving God, who saw fit to give me a little talent into the art world...!!  I am soo blessed!!

Folks ask me how did you get started making "pillows"....well (my mothers favorite word)...she says...southern drawwwwlllll "wale..." (well)..sounds like "whale" !!  I know my cuzins will read this and laugh because, they know what I am talking about.....tee hee, my mama doesnt "do" internet, so,, I am safe...

I have been a Floral Designer since my 28yr old baby was born, at 2 weeks old I took him with me to my first florist job, I think Quida Garrett hired me so she could hold him...she made a "nursery" in a back room, she rocked and i learned to "do" flowers !!  I would go to the back just to nurse...I had 2 other children, 1 in daycare, 1 in kindergarten, so , this was a real treat for me to loose myself in flowers for a few hours.....anyway...

I can no longer design florals on a day to day basis, my hands (carpol tunnel) cant take it....and the flower shops these days are NOTHING compared to the mom and pop shops of yesteryear...I loved my time working and learning under the awesome women who taught me everything i know about flowers...weddings, funerals, births, graduations, mothers days, valentines, Christmas, Thanksgiving.....I missed alot of these Holidays working in a flower shop....but wouldnt change any of it...thanks Quida, Suzie, Elsie and Gloria...awesome women, who have spent many nights on their feet with cut fingers, tears over a funeral, missed holidays, no decorating our own homes for the holidays...we were decorating customers and get home and dont even want to think about a "tree"....HA....explain that to families....ugh... I do miss the Weddings....This is the first Valentines Day I have not worked in a LONG time...really not missing it...the Valentines of yore, you stayed all night, stuck by thorns, kids were hired to strip hundreds of roses, and we poked them and bowed them.....carded and someone else routed the endless deliveries, back then we got fed, really well,...so we wouldnt leave and never come back, some kid was hired to fill buckets, sweep under us the mile high greenery that we just forgot what the trash can was, or couldnt find it....and we ALWAYS got a bonus...

Well, the last few Valentines I have worked, non of this was done....younger more corporate folks are buying shops, they are all about the money...we were always about making the customer happy..."no matter what"...and trying to keep "GOOD DESIGNERS'...this is just not happening anymore....sad...I cannot tell you how many corsages I have made over a two day time limit, just to make those Mamas of thos kids for Prom happy......ugh my hands hurt thinking about it.....HUNDREDS........especially when the High Schools cant seem to get it that it is very difficult when 2-3 schools have theirs on the same weekend.....I am really having fun remembering.....or re-doing the Grocery Store corsages...thats always fun...they paid 1/2 the price we would charge and come running in Sat. at 1, begging for us to "fix it" !! now....before the other 70 I needed to finish.....or the woman who brought hers back because the petals turned brown because when we told he 15 yr old son to put it in the refrigerator over night....he thought it best to put it in the FREEZER !!! oh Lawd.....and we quietly fixed it.....wanted to cry but we fixed it....or the man who came in DAY AFTER Valentines, wanted his money back because we cut the stems of the Peonies we paid wholesale mind you of 30.00 for a bunch of 6....oh lawd....people are funnie !! Made my owner cry that one....he was ugly...ahhh...once we had to rent a big rig refrigerated van to store the orders in....ah the memories....LOVE THEM....just glad ...i guess...that i am home on Feb 14th, 2013....quietly completeing orders for Dawns Garden Gate memory pillows and letting the Artisian mind flow.......with my 2 babies, Wilson and Jacz, they are the best fellow employees a girl could have....and Amos Lee on Pandora, as loud or quiet as I want....sitting down...taking a break when ever where ever I want...and loving that cup o joe...... loving my life...

.of course there are some thing I would like to have control over, but, as I have learn thru tears, stomping, screaming, anger, fear......ahhh....Gods got this !! Its that simple if I would remember it....he always does, and always will....I am loved by a gentle, kind, loving man my husband Rick...wish I had met him along time ago, but, as always, God had this......amazing.....I have such a loving, forgiving God...again...amazing, because I wonder sometimes, who am I to be so fogiven...then I remember....he's got this.....I am a loving child of God....and so are you....I try today to ask God to direct my thinking and my words, and not to judge because we dont know what he has asked others to go through....I should NOT be here....I do not deserve everything I have....amazed....I really should be on the Police Stations wall as "missing" or "found"....i really believe this....I have been graced by God for another oportunity to do something right....I try not to do the next "wrong" thing...thats easier for me....then it gets easier when I get "fear"  out of the way...and I do the next right thing....ahhhhh...the releif is unbelieveable....it is really hard always running, fighting, fearful, scared, hungry, tired.....this is soooo much better than I ever dreamed it would be....I have to be either God centered or if I am Dawn centered i can forget it....go ahead and dig a hole....

My "bad" days now are NOTHING compaired to living in a car, getting beat with a ball bat, stealing, fighting...all that lovely stuff for soooo many years.  I now have 11 years clean and sober...that in itself is a miracle...but, I, you see, did not do this...my God did....I had a hole in my soul....only God could fill it....all I had to do was be willing to let him......amazing...it was hard , but very simple...let others make decisions for a while, be clean and sober sometimes 15 mins at a time, lay my head down sober and tomorrow will be different...because no two days are ever the same. never. ever....the same, now, tomorrow may be better ...or...could be worse, but, i might miss the oportunity of it being better if i do the next wrong thing....I am not willing to do that today, because I know I have another drunk in me....I just dont know if I have another sobriety date in me...and I am not willing to take that chance...because I really believe I would not die a drunk, but, I would live as I used to for soooo long...and that scares me more than anything in the world......so today, I will make pillows, wait on the Spring, enjoy making my customers happy and help a fellow who needs it, I have sat in the dark, sober, been hungry, sober, cried over babies, children, family issues, watch a child of mine suffer so much, knowing, Gods got them, but wanting to change the world for them...knowing I cant...is VERY painful....wanting to make it all better.....cant, but my God can, I am proof of this miracle...so, I need to get busy making others happy...love it...Gods got this......

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Hey friend, I have been very busy !!  not working outside of home is alot of work. !!  I have "redone" my bedroom windows..took down the cornices, just to small of a room for them..so, I will post pics of new window treatments soon...making tiebacks now.

these are my dining room windows.



I have also started making pillows...and will be selling them in my friends booth in Statham..

Thursday, June 7, 2012



That "weird" room that we hangout in ....I painted all the trim and the bookshelves, we had to get another TV...lightening came through those windows and struck the big monster TV we had...which is really a blessing...that tv was "oldschool" big...I really like the painted trim/bookshelves, lightens up the room alot....
 It has been a while, flew the nest for a little while, but, I have been bizzy, bizzy !! Had some family emergency stuff to deal with but I am back to work on the nest.....I am putting up some before and after photos..


Oh ! I have also learned how to make window treatments...pretty proud...I researched the price of getting some "made" and realized I could do this....so....they are not perfect by any means but they were fun to make and I am proud....tee hee.

Friday, April 27, 2012




Room #2  Front room of house..has front door, door to screened porch, 2 french doors that are in the garage going into dining room, 1 door going into bedroom. I have NO clue what to do to this room, the only time we are in it is to go to the screened porch..I have lots of nature stuff, bird stuff, botanicals..etc. somehow I would like to use my antiques, desk, yellow antique couch..etc. and the french doors back up
ok fellow nesters, I need some ideas....i am overwhelmed with what to do to 2 rooms in my home..

Room #1..Living room..TV room..where we hang out...Hate all of the "wood paneling", BUT, hubbie usually doesnt say anything about what I do in the house. BUT, he has asked that I dont paint ALL of the wood...so, the book shelves def need to be painted..water damage..just dont know what color...this room is VERY dark.  We will be getting a new TV to go over the fireplace, so that is taken care of. talked about painting 1/2 way up walls, with chair rail? and sheetrock on bottom??? HELP !! I have a love/hate relationship with this room



Oh yeah, when I took the pics the room needed straightening up..so ignore the mess.