shades of blue

Excuse my poor quality photos... as I invite you into my kitchen and share my favorite blues, as inspired by Sadie Olive...I love these cool summer shades of blue!

feathering their nest

The girls have made a certain corner of our family room their club house. The corner nearest to me while I'm on the computer. Right up my behind if you will.
It seems that every stuffed animal, blanket & pillow are required to properly cozy it up. Imagine my surprise when they also carried a small cabinet down stairs (in the 10 minutes I was cleaning the bathroom, I swear!) . Last night they had a sleep over plopped amongst their cuddlies. I slept on the sofa since I'm up 2-3x times with a certain puppy anyways.

And even though they slept soundly, the law of sleepovers prevailed and they both woke up grumpy. No SB on TV this morning. Yeah for me. They're making up for that nonsense by being super cute in summer sleuth mode - complete with hats, magnifying glasses and notebooks to record details.

Off to pool with a pile of old Country Living & Country Home. Have you noticed how timeless the summer issues are? Somethings are just classic - blue & white linens, lemonade in vintage glasses, rumpled slipcovers. I've begun to lighten up the house. If I could, I'd make some slipcovers for my tapestry sofa & chair set...

TTYL!

The Capris from Hell

I was just chuckling at Alicia at Posie gets Cozy. And a bad dress she made. Ahhh the delusions of crafting our own garments.

It's the pattern covers - they never, evah, put a picture of the actual plus size person wearing the big ole garment. And really, making our own clothes - like everything we buy in a store is going to fit perfectly. Anything that requires computing your waistline into YARDAGE is a very, very bad idea.

Last week, I made a charming pair of capris for myself. Or so I thought. I'd never ventured into the world of wearing my own projects, I like to make sweet little girl dresses. I was starting to sweat at the AMOUNT of vintage fabric required to make a pair of capris look like I was wearing a sofa slipcover. A rather tight, ill fitting slipcover.

I can make tiny little capris without blinking, or glancing at the instructions. But, I tell you, I got confused. There was so much fabric. Sooooo confused that I sewed the wrong parts together. And had a really bow legged pair of capris. I still tried them on thinking it was just looking a bit homemade, less factory perfect. Honestly, I made them sideways AND upside down. Go ahead laugh. If I weren't so vain (and chubby), I'd have taken a pix of me. I am obviously a solid square. I'd mistakenly thought I was a pear all these years, but I am a short as I am wide. And I've got the pants to prove it.
Here's what the fabric looked like on a girl's size 6 sun dress. Try not imagine about 2-3 yards of the same fabric around my bottom. Btw, it only takes about about 5 yards of fabric to cover an arm chair. You do the math. I'm almost as big as the chair I'm sitting on.

That's it! Store bought clothes for me...

what's red and white and...

blue, and toile, and chenille, and vintage, and retro? Yep, my Americana inspired dresses.




Offered on Etsy. Many more are ready for purchase, I just have to sit down at this pc and do that dreaded part of the job.Who knew that you could lose your whole description if you google something while doing it? Yep, I do now!

If you're looking for a certain color scheme or style, I do custom jobs as well, email me.

Thanks for stopping by, must be Monday as I have a trip to Walmart & the pool planned!

my family room

I've lived with white walls in here for over a year. After the initial painting frenzy when we moved in, I had paint-overload and just could not paint again. I've regained my mental strength and I'm ready to tackle the these now dingy white walls.

Most of the room is a hodge podge of toys, tv, wii, pc, scanner, dog crate...And I'm hoping a simple coat of paint will transform this space into a bit of French Country. Yeah, optimistic, I know!!

These fabrics are for my bff, Dana - she selected the navy & floral fabrics for a chair she's going to upholster for me. I'm less inclined for a floral, and more for a nice damask - if not for the kids and pets - I'd go a champagne or dusty gold for the chair with some pops of color in throw pillows. An entire chair in navy floral, not feeling it.

What'd ya think?

A Tale of Two Friends at a Craft Show

"It was the worst of times, it was the even worst of times..."

Despite warnings of approaching thunderstorms and the promise of rain, our heroines, Lucy & Ethel, (aka Dana & Kelley) arrived promptly at 6am with vehicles loaded with lovingly hand crafted & upholstered treasures. Mine - carefully pressed to perfection and labeled. Our biggest fear - that we didn't have enough stuff. How naive. Sunscreen was applied as proof of further optimism. The tent was the only stable thing there, thanks entirely to Mr. Doe Hill's expertise the evening before. We braved the first rain drops under the shelter of a huge old tree. And carefully redid our displays. It was cozy. Then it would clear up and we'd bring the stuff closer to the sidewalk. We were like dogs chasing our tails.

I would love to tell you that we sold it all and are sun burned. The truth is - we sold very little and got soaked. And muddy. And our stuff got wet and dirty. And then Lucy heard thunder and insisted Ethel abandon the inventory and dash for the safety of our cars. And then it poured. Other vendors stuck it out with a ton of tarps. We went in search of a tarp, but decided to get our stuff and leave before more damage was done. Refreshed by chocolate from RiteAid and after a near violent encounter with a sweet, but slow cashier, we bagged it, Literally. (btw Lucy was right - they didn't sell tarps. But Ethel was stubborn and didn't want to drive across the river to buy a tarp.)

I resorted to tossing my dresses in garbage bags and racing to the car. We raced upholstered chairs to her tailgate, through ankle deep water. And in defeat, accepted a low ball offer on a chair. Funny how easy it is to lower your prices when you're drenched, and hungry. Which brings another issue. Where the hell were the funnel cakes??? Lucy started the day with a bowl of cold cabbage & noodles, sans salt. Ethel went straight for the pizza that was just so-so. Even Lucy's ice cream wasn't anything to go back for. Truly, I may quit sewing and open a gyro stand as their line was the longest at all 300 booths!!

Other high/lowlights of our day - my children screaming from the front door at 5am - "don't leave us, please don't go to work!" . The smug look from DH and his inquiry as to when we'd "knock off this shabby chic stuff. It never sells!" The historic cannon salutes that almost gave these 2 middle aged women heart attacks. The call from a certain party at 11am saying she'd slept in, thus the lack of photo evidence of accompany this narrative. Lucy and Ethel pinky swore in the pouring rain to never, ever do this again. And Ethel said a certain F word at least 500 times. On the ride home, Ethel decided to never sew again. Until approaching the Salvation Army and the promise of vintage fabric. Where she was mistaken for a homeless woman, with her now dry, but filthy feet, dirty pants, the cute craft apron/purse mangled around her waist that had morphed into a rag sling, and once the soaking baseball cap came off - disheveled & dirty hair. Knowing looks were exchanged as she got into her car - filled with black trash bags, wooden crates and vintage luggage.

And from the picturesque gazebo, the band played on...

PS - Lucy already called and we've started our plans for next year. The only thing that'll stop is the weather, certainly not common sense!

sew busy!!

The gang at Doe Hill Antiques & Decor is doing a craft show this Saturday, June 14th - Garrison Days in Beaver, PA - booth 24 on Market Street. Think good thoughts for us as the weather is mentioning 50% chance of scattered thunderstorms!! If you're in the area - please do stop by and say hello!

Dana is upholstering her heart out - and has some fabulous pieces, including a goose neck rocker in shabby chic floral with a creamy coat of paint. And Darlie will be bringing her camera to capture the event, perhaps we could get her to print and sell some of her stunning photographs next time (hint hint) and will be finessing the booth with her decorating skills.
I've been concentrating on 2T-3T, as I have a bunch of size 4-7 already made. These little capri sets are my new favorite thing - especially out of old sheets & pillowcases - wish I could wear one! And I used my quite rusty executive secretary & scrapbook skills to crank out some tags.
Don't you love this purple chair - a thrift store find!
I ran out of bias tape and elastic, but this baby is almost done. I Love it!!!

Day 2 - summer vacation

Buying water shoes on our way to the pool and I decided to multi-task and grocery shop for snacks and such. And my little 5 year old would have none of that. Then I passed on the salt-free chips that Cathrynn had had at a play date, b/c I'm the meanest mom in the world. Seriously, why buy chips without salt?

Give me strength. We were those people. I was tight lipped with my head hung in shame. At one point, a grandmother said sweetly to Liv, "Ahhhhh honey. What's wrong?" Liv hid her face and gave one of her throaty growls. I swear.

Other kids looked at her in disbelief and righteous innocence. Their mothers tried to give me BTDT glances but we all knew it. I had the worst behaved kid at Walmart.

Margaritas, anyone?

Halter & Capri Set

My girls call have always called capri pants
"capr-easies".
Liv is modeling a pair that are just that, breezy capr-easies... I feel in love with this retro fruit fabric from Joann's and knew I had this checked sheet from a recent thrifting.

I tried a new style of halter top and used vintage bias tape as the ties, not sure if I love it or not yet. There's a nice big ruffle of eyelet that doesn't really show that adds a big pouf to the top. Only little gals can get away with so much fabric and ruffles!! The pattern is for a size 5 and Liv is a size 6-6x & it fits perfectly, and I've been informed that it's a keeper. I did all French seams which usually takes it down a size so this pattern must run really big. I still need to sew a few buttons to finish it off. And may take the girls for a photo op at a local gazebo for some better quality pictures. I need to get serious about selling my stuff and my cell phone camera just doesn't cut it!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yummmy!!

If you noticed that I've been MIA, it's been because the sewing machine has been humming with some special orders and making some inventory for an upcoming craft/antique show. And, I got a bit weirded out by the fact that I've been doing this blog for a year and was questioning WHY? Do you ever have moments like that? It started as nice way keep track of my kids' daily lives. And then I got sucked in, kwim? But lately, life's been the end of school year/dance recital madness...

Gotta run...puppy, kids, phone, life...