Uncategorized

Thrift Store Sewing/Craft Finds

Posted by

1

Recent thrift store goodies that I am thrilled to fully organize and start making some
fun little projects with.

I found the three of these plastic bags full of random sizes of neatly folded fabrics, perhaps someones quilting cast aways?  I was really drawn to some of the vintage looking prints, each bag was $2.99 plus I am sure I had a 20% off coupon from a previous donation.

These look like some great colors for Halloween!

My hubby found this little treasure box at the SAlvation ARmy for $7.99, I have yet to get through all of the treasures that are in there…can you see the needles for 30 cents…so cool, I am thinking this was from an estate, it has a bunch of name patches and random lace ends, bra hooks, zippers, can’t wait to get through all of it;

It is like a golden treasure box of sewing/crafting booty….arrgh;)

And look at these pinking shears, man they are sharp and give you a perfect zig zag edge great for the pennants that are so popular right now:

I hope to have some fun things to show you from all these goodies in the near future!

White plastic globe birdfeeder upcycle

Posted by

1

I am having trouble fitting all the pinterest ideas that inspire me into the short 24 hours per day, unless I go without sleep some will just probably never get done.

However, there was this amazing chicken house that was pinned, which led me to Karens’s blog: The Art of Doing Stuff , where I saw these:

From The Art of Doing Stuff

I knew this was a doable project and the next time I was at Savers I scored one of these orbs.

The orbs in the picture above are glass, and on her blog Karen shows what can happen if one slips out of your hands while crafting one of these, I lucked out and got a plastic one.  With 4 young ones around the house I knew a glass orb did not stand a chance.

So you will need, a plastic orb and some sort of strong string, we used twine:

You can see this is not going to be a  spendy feeder so if some hoodlum decides to snag your bird feeder some night, it won’t be a huge loss, except for the birds:

Take your plastic orb and drill 2 holes across from each other on the top third of the orb:

Next take your string, twine, rope or what you are using and string it through the two holes you just drilled, you can ties these in a knot and hang it from your tree.

Tie the string in your preferred knot and hand from a tree limb….also pretty important to fill with birdseed, which you can see we need to put on the list.

Total cost: $1.99 since we had the twin already, who know how much the bird seed will cost, but you can factor that in.

Total time, about 5 minutes.

Renewed floral chairs.

Posted by

1

The narrow farmhouse table I made here via some slight modifications from Anna White’s amazing website was in desperate need of some chairs.  Luckily I had a set of chairs that I has snagged from an estate sale for $10…for teh pair, I thought this was such a great price.  then I got them home and they just did not fit anywhere.   I have had them for sale at 2 maybe three garage sales and even moved them from one house to another.

Perservenece….or maybe just an inability to let a good thing go for fear of wanting it again someday has won this battle, I recovered these chairs with some cushion and fabric from Hobby Lobby and am totally in love!!

I am sad that I can’t find a before picture to increase the wow factor, I am sure I will find one in the archives at some point, anyway here are the chairs:

County Fair Submissions

Posted by

0

We do not belong to 4H, nor or we farmers in the sense that we rely on our bounty for profit.  However, we are a creative bunch that likes to get our hands dirty in the earth and create projects, and what better way to celebrate these than to participate in the county fair.

I know we all have memories from childhood, the midway rides the animals, and cotton candy on a stick.  I just love the fair, I am a cowgirl at  heart.  Every year we take the kids to look at the animals and get a milkshake from the diary trailer.

Now that the kids are a little older we have started a new tradition of entering projects garden grown goodies.

The 3 older kids entered their Lego projects and were given participation ribbons.

Santanna’s Project and her ribbon.

Raiven’s project and her ribbon.

The little girls also entered onions and kohlrabis:

Santanna’s first place kohlrabis.

Avalon’s 3rd place red onions.

Solomon entered red mulberry jam and won first place.  I am so proud of him, he spend at lest 4 hours harvesting the berries from a tree in my mom’s back yard, then he rinsed them, took the stems, off and followed a no cook freezer jam recipe.

I entered the growth chart into an adult woodworking hobby category, I was very pleased to receive a second place ribbon.

The kids take from this experience a pride in participation.  They were very gracious about each others winnings and were already buzzing about what to make next year, taking inspiration from so many wonderful other projects on display.

We did also earn $4.50 in prize money, just enough for one more milkshake…or Tom Thumb donuts….mmmmmm, fair food!

It is such fun participating in the fair and it always seem to come and go so quickly.  Can’t wait until next year!!

There’s a new Godfrogger in our yard…

Posted by

0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found this little frog chilling on the shelf at Saver’s and picked him up for $2.99 is he not the most chill frog you have ever seen? Plus there are daisies around him, I suppose you could argue they are water lilies but daisies are my favorite, so I am sticking with daisies.

Anyway I envisioned him as a metallic green color, lurking somewhere around our yard. Here is his new coat, I love the color, I think I want him to blend a bit more.  So now I am not sure this color is a keeper. Should he get a new coat?
What color would you paint him?

 

 

Almost done..Corner Fireplace

Posted by

2

What took the longest on this fireplace project was not the work, but the decision making. We cruised along through the framing and even the stone was an easy choice.  We freecycled the mantle our of a tree that had fallen  at the end of the street, we really llove the natural look of it, but are not sure if we want to leave it “raw, or add some color?

Hubby wanted to have a hearth, I think he is envisioning that cheery Christmas card photo in front of this beauty. This is where we hit a major stall. Since we added this hearth we cannot figure out what to put there, stone won’t work, we can’t find a tile, granite or marble that we like with the stone and wood, plus I don’t think we want to add any more types of material to this project.

We decided on the tile in the picture…it is a bit dark but we think it works best :

 

We really love the way it is turning out we jsut have to finish the hearth and do something with the matle…stay tuned!

Farmhouse Table….New Kids Desk

Posted by

13

one thing I love about all the wonderful people blogging out there is that there is no shortage of amazing inspiration and the generosity of the same people sharing the how-to’s for said inspirations.  Once again I fell victim to a must create over at Anna White’s Site.  This narrow farmhouse table here, sent me into the garage once again to recreate the table.  I even had a place for it!!  Under the windows in the office, a perfect place for the kids to do homework and e near Jon and I when we are working in the office.

We made the legs out of reclaimed pallet wood, the top we bought the top and side boards.  I sanded the crap out of the top to make it look as much like a solid piece as possible.

I stained the top and put 3 clear coats over the stain.

I painted the legs white, then I distressed the paint with a hand sander.

I did a top coat of Trewax mahogany wood wax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Markers, colored pencils, a small light, plain paper, lilacs and lillies out the window, bring your imagination to this table and put it on the paper kids:

I do have chairs for the table that are in teh process of being reinvented…I will add a post about them when they are home….but here are a few more shots of the table:

Making a Growth Chart…Girls with Tools

Posted by

1

Yep, we are those kind of girls, we get our hands dirty, we grill, and we use power tools.  I have had it in mind for quite some time to make a growth chart of some type that is more than a door or piece for trim that is part of our house.  We are not positive that this is our “forever” house and so I wanted to make a growth chart that was almost like a piece of art to hang on the wall that we could easily take with us if/when we move.

What better project than this for my 6 year old to help me with, we used a square and power saw to cut the board to the proper length…6 feet.  Then I showed her briefly how to use the power wander and she went right to work, and did a great job.

Now we are deciding on a color/pattern/look that we like. Below are some ideas that I like, I will post ours when we finish it!

This one is from growingupvintage on Etsy

This one from growingupvintage on etsy

There are always cute one from Pottery Barn kids…..but I am sure I can beat the price with my DIY skills.

 Super cute, but $129.00!!!

You can check out our finished DIY growth chart here.

Literature advent

Posted by

0

I am finding it more important to teach our children creativity and frugality through well thought out traditions, as well as everyday life. This year I decided that the advent calendar for our house would belong to everyone and be made from things we have at home.

I  had the kids run around and gather all the winter, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, etc. books from their shelves.

I  then wrapped each book in red paper, except for one, the books do not have numbers, giving the child whose turn it is a chance to choose the book.  The 24th book is wrapped in green and will be the last one to be opened…can you guess which one  it is? 🙂

Each night, starting with the oldest each child will take a  turn choosing one book from the shelf, they will get to unwrap it, pass a chocolate to everyone and we will all sit together and listen to the book they chose.  Who reads the book will also be their decision.

Things they will learn from this are that excitement can come from items you have around the house when given a new purpose. Patience and taking turns.  It also gives our family a chance to enjoy some of that precious together time.