Smile Saturday

Fall...

This was one of the very first quilts I made. I don't think I would pick this pattern today, but it still holds warm memories and I love taking it out every year.
It is machine pieced, and hand appliqued and quilted.

(click on the photo if you want to see more detail)

1 million...

...french knots

These are my buttons for the embroidered button swap organized by Michelle over at Greetingarts. If you haven't visited her blog yet, do yourself a favor and hop on over there.

Now you know why I haven't posted anything crafty for days...

Actual Wisdom

It's been a while since I've brought you a bit of wisdom from the 1961 version of the "Better Homes & Gardens Decorating Book". Some of you may remember Chapter 1 - "It's your home, what kind do you want?", and Chapter 2 - "facts about color".

Up to now I've been making fun of the concepts in this book. Today I realized that, though very dated, some (I repeat: some) areas of this book hold a little truth. That is definitely the case with Chapter 3.
(As always, clicking on the picture will provide you with something more legible.)



Well, maybe not wallpaper...
...but an inspirational fabric sounds like a good idea.


I think, if updated a little, this could be a stunning room.

This chapter is just full of cool stuff, so I'll have to spread it over more than one post.
Tomorrow, however, I will have some craft to show. I promise. Please don't leave...

Today...

- wait for plumber
- get a new, clog-free toilet
- take care of my sick child
- get a "sample" from the dog
- take sample to vet
- make dinner
- watch TV
- go to bed

What fun!

la vita e bella

The crushing of the grapes...




critters,


fruit,

food and wine,

friends,

views,


a little bit of exercise,

a wonderful day.

life is beautiful, indeed

Food Friday

No crafting, lots of eating.

"Lighter" Chicken Pot Pie from Martha's Everyday Food magazine. Tip: four carrots are WAY too many.

Lemon Loaf. Looks good. In reality a little on the dry side, but great toasted and smeared with butter. Very healthy, I know.

Mint Julep. Now who couldn't do with one of those every so often?

And a little something I grew up with. You have to really hunt around for a specialty import store to find these. Thanks honey!

I'm so old...

I'm finally cleaning out the loft in our garage after more than four years in this house. We still have many, many unpacked boxes from our previous house, as well as those boxes that move from house to house and never get opened. I'm opening them all and rediscovering things from long, long ago.

Does anyone remember candlewick embroidery? This is at least 15-20 years old, since I made it before Josh was even a twinkle in our eyes. It's heading straight to the wash and then I may remake the little pillow cover. It has MAJOR ruffles straight out of my 80's romantic phase.





(The photos suck. White on white is hard!)

Something Practical

Wow! Thanks for all the kind comments about my little pincushion yesterday! I wish I could personally thank each person, but there's that email issue again...
I'm actually in the process of switching over to Wordpress and running the blog on my own server. It's a long and time consuming process however, so I don't know when this will happen.

Yesterday I made something practical. Not pretty, just practical. And, thanks to my rush to get it done, I measured once, cut twice, and sewed about four times.

Two potholders - three hours!!!

Love, Laughter, Sewing, Friendship

I posted a photo of this pincushion in progress back in August. Although it didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned, the message is still great.

This is part of my contribution to the "Finish what you have" challenge. May there be many more.

Two sheets

The duvet cover on our comforter was horrible and faded so I ripped it off and dumped it last spring. With winter around the corner I figured a new one was in order.
My bedroom is, however, in shambles right now since I'm getting ready to replace the carpet and redo the whole thing. I have no idea what I'm going to do in there, so it was important for the new cover to be 1. cheap and 2. neutral.

Here's what I came up with:

2 king size flat sheets (unfortunately I got the wrinkly kind, but oh well.)

This wonderful snap tape from Joanns. No buttonholes. Woohoo!

Ribbons on the inside of the cover and corners of the duvet, a la Martha
(Did you see her new stuff at Macy's!?!?!)

Not bad.

The only problem now is that the cover is really light and I have two really dark cats. I'm probably going to have to make a little blankie to cover this with and keep hair off the duvet because they're cats and guaranteed to find the softest spot in the house to shed on.

Here it is...

I wasn't going to show this to anyone, but it seems like everyone wants to see it. I promised a teenie photo and here it is.

It's scruffy looking and way too small. Actually, truth be told, when I looked at it this morning it didn't look quite as scruffy as it did yesterday, but it's still too small.
OK, here's a bigger photo so you can see all the flaws. Please send any advice you have because I'm gearing up to knit another sweater (not this one though).

Stalling...

My little cardigan is done, but I'm not sure I even want to show it to anyone...

So...
I found this book at Half Price Books a couple of weeks ago and could not resist. I don't have small children but I think I may just have to knit a couple of these little outfits.




There are also patterns for more hats, toys and even blankets in this cute book.
When browsing Amazon for the link I noticed that she has a few other books too. I'm hopping over to the library's web site next to put them on hold.

Corner of my Home

While I'm binding off the last little piece of "the sweater", I have nothing else to share, so I thought I'd post a couple of photos of the last "redo" we did.

The powder room cabinets were light oak (as are my kitchen cabinets and they're next) and the backsplash and edge of the countertop were oak strips.
I painted the cabinets and distressed them a little by sanding off bits around the edges and rubbing some thinned down wall paint into the cracks.
I tiled the backsplash and mosaic, removed the big old "stuck to the wall" mirror and replaced in with a framed one.
Gavin helped me replace the faucets, light fixture, towel and toilet roll holder, and door knobs.
I repainted the walls.
All in all the little redo cost less than $500. I wish I had a "before" photo because I'm quite amazed at the transformation.

Blocked

A short post today. Pizza lunch at the school. 13 cases of water in the back of my car. 55 pizzas. 400 napkins. Priceless.

The little cardigan is almost done. I had BIG problems setting in the sleeves. Any advice out there?

(Thanks for all the wristlet and emergency bag love!)

Correction: it was 90 pizzas!

Another emergency

Last Saturday, right before camp, I lost my camera case. I had to come up with a replacement really quickly.

I measured the camera carefully and wrote down the measurements, but...
I'm always worried that things will be too small so I added an inch or two to each measurement and, of course, ended up with something way too big.

It was a happy accident though because the too big pouch allowed me to put my lip balm, sunglasses, notepad and a pen in there. This was pretty much the only thing I had to carry around camp. Perfect!

The pouch/wristlet is three dimensional with a single narrow panel running across the bottom and sides, and then, of course the zipper panel on the top. I used cotton batting and stipple quilted the front and back. (click on the photos to see more detail)

The little drawstring bag in the bottom of the photo is for spare batteries. I figured if they roll around loose they'd scratch the camera.

Emergency Supplies

Having gone to the school camp before, I knew that girls always forget something or the other. Toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, bodywash, tampons...

So...

I decided to make a little "emergency" bag and get some extra supplies to take with.

If you look closely you'll notice that this bag has an extraordinary amount of seams. In true "use what you have" fashion I decided that I needed to use the 10" muslin squares that have been lying around for years. The bag, however, needed to be bigger than this. I will say no more.

It came in REALLY handy at camp. What a wonderful mom I am...