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Be Mine...

Today is my first day off with no commitments since early October...I'm so happy!  I'm puttering: organizing, reading, and little bit of crafting.  

New Play table

Toby was home sick today and it was pouring, so we decided to set him up with a new play table. I scored this shabby train table at a church sale last summer for $5 and it's been sitting in the basement.

I got out a box of maps I had and trimmed one to size...

We glued it down...

And an hour later...

Play time!
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What a fun party!

This Artful Blogging Party is wonderful.  I have learned so much and found so many cool, creative blogs.   I didn't have time to prepare, so I thought I'd share what I've been doing recently.

I've been making Hanging Picture Pockets the last few weeks.  Very simple!

• I take a sheet of chipboard,
• wrap it in vintage wallpaper,
• attach a ribbon or second sheet of wallpaper across the bottom to create a pocket,
• decorate with doodads like buttons, lace, old flowers,
• glue a ribbon loop to the back to hang it from
• finish the back off with a piece of felt to protect the wall

And voila!  I have them hanging all over and tuck pictures, notes, and old postcards in them.  Since it's  a pocket it invites people to come examine what's peeking out and you can change the contents often.  I get to use up all my bits!

Thank you so much Kari for a wonderful idea and an inspiring afternoon!

First crown

A friend who works at my shop had a 50th birthday party and I decided to make her a crown.  I was inspired by a post on a lovely blog called Creative Chaos.

It's all vintage papers and flowers.  I loved making it so much fun!  Check out the crown/tiara swap hosted by Holly Doodle Designs.   I made another for a baby shower but forgot to takes pics.

Rings on my fingers...

I found some vintage carved plastic cabachons that were lovely;  I had to have them.

Some glue and adjustable ring findings gave me this:

Aren't they lovely?  Easy peasy.

Catching up

My step-daughter visited all last week and we crammed a lot in!  Lucia and Toby adore their big sister!  We went to Great Adventure, visited Grandpa, and took Haley to a taping of the MTV Show TRL where she met Sandra Bullock and got more than her share of camera time.  Daddy pulled a few strings!
We also stopped by the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn and bought some goodies.  It was so, so cool!  I kept wondering if you any of  you were in the crowd!

Not a lot of crafting happening here, but I snuck these in this weekend.  I made a set of those glass magnets that pop up  a lot, using a vintage greeting card.

They came out great.  Better than I thought they would.  This was a just a quick test set, but I see a lot of small Christmas gifts coming!

And look at this cute shelf I got at an estate sale this weekend.  It was grimy, but it cleaned up like new using Borax.  I swear this stuff is great.  It gently cleans pottery, china and all sorts of grimy garage sale finds.  If you thrift at all, you need this stuff!!

It didn't harm the delicate paint on this at all.  I also use it on painted wood surfaces.  I swear I could do a commercial.  More uses here.  Sorry for the random post, but it happens!

New life for old linens!

I have tons of vintage linens.  And most of them sit in storage.  I'm always trying not to go totally overboard with all my vintage stuff and somehow keep a slightly modern edge to my decor.   This crocheted tablecloth is lovely, but always felt grandmotherly to me when I put it on the table. 

So I decided screw it, I'm going to dye it.  It takes the same sort of courage you have to muster when cutting into  your favorite piece of fabric in your stash.  Somehow it feels wicked to permantly change a piece of linen that made it's way through time in good shape and unstained.  But I wasn't using it. So into the wash with a box of RIT.

A few cycles later and voila!

A throw for my bedroom.  I love how it turned out!   The pinwheels look more modern in color.  I'm going to do a pink tablecloth for Lucia's bed.

I'm a follower

Okay, so I've jumped on board the freezer paper train.    I decided to start small, with only one tee to see how I could do.  I went the  hip toddler route and decided to make a "DJ Toby" tee for my one year old.  I traced the image and ironed it on.

I painted with the cheapo paint from Michael's. 

And voila!

Okay, so it's not perfect.  I learned a few lessons.  I think that I used too high a setting  ironing on the wax paper because it rippled.  And at a few of those ripples the paint leaked a tiny bit.  You can see it in the close-up.  The lines aren't quite as crisp as I wanted them to be.  And Amy's (Angry Chicken) tip about putting freezer paper on the inside was a good one.  My paint would have soaked throught to the back.  And I needed mulitple coats to get any sort of solidness to the color.  I used a foam sponge brush and it left little streaks.  Any advice about this?  And as for the image I just traced a dingbat that I enlarged.

I'm definitely going to try again.  My daughter wants a shirt!

To cut or not to cut?

I love, love, LOVE this quilt I found all crumpled up at an estate sale.  Two or three of the blocks have damage on them so they sold it to me as a "cutter" for $5.  Orginially I thought I would cut it up for big playroom pillows, but it is so lovely I have cutting anxiety.  I love all the little florals combined with the bold polka dot fabric.  So mostly we've been using it as a playmat.  I don't think I'm talented enough to repair the fans (or to even learn how!) so I'm in limbo...to cut or not to cut?

Also I have been spending a fun morning on my mailorder project. Very cute!

And lastly...

..isn't this button card perfection? I was so happy to find it in a jumbled  up sewing box I thrifted.  A few more goodies here.

Valentine's Day Decorations

We made a Valentine's banner with our initials on it and had cut hearts for a second one, but ran out of steam.  So we just stuck them on the windows and it's just as nice.