Thursday, June 23, 2011

New flower Pins

I threw together a few more flowers for the consignment shop.

I love making flowers because,
while I always have a vision in mind,
I never know exactly how they're going to turn out.

And since I hardly ever make the same one twice, they have a uniqueness about them.

These ones are much more time intensive...I don't make them very often.
This one is a new favorite out of all the ones I've made.
Just gotta love those red polka dots on white.

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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Dressed up Dresser

About a year ago, at the very beginning of my crafting endeavors, I bought this hideous mini dresser at Goodwill. It was only a couple of bucks...and really, I wasn't going to ruin it any further...
Well, long story short, I finally finished it today. The paint is a sample bottle of Martha Stewert's Cornbread, which I bought at Home Depot. The little sample jars are perfect for small projects like this, and don't cost much. It isn't perfect, but I love how it turned out.Cute, no?

Since our pansies are in the background, I thought I'd show you an update. When we first bought them, they looked like this...
Today they look like this...
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Monday, June 20, 2011

Weekend with Nature

I promise to get back to regular crafting posts this week, though I wanted to share pictures from our beautiful weekend.On Saturday we took our nearly-weekly trip to the gardens...we weren't disappointed...



We're lucky to live so close to the Rockies. When we got married we actually lived and worked at a Christian retreat center in the mountains, so yesterday we took a trip to our old stomping grounds.
There's a place called Devil's Bathtub, it's the prettiest place around...at least in that area. It's actually where Husband proposed to me.


Hope you had a weekend filled with beauty.

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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Treasure

This is my grandma's house in TN. Beautiful, no? The original two rooms were built in 1913, and various owners, including my late grandpa, added on to it. This is what my family calls the summer house. When my grandparents bought the place, it was a shed. As there was already another shed, as well as a large barn on the property, they cleared this one out and and put beds in. I've always loved sleeping out there!


It's impossible to turn around inside the house without seeing multiple African violets. She even accidentally bred this speckled one. Also around the house are my grandma's paintings. She used to do a lot of tole painting.
She also has a large collection of tea cups from all over the world. I always love to hear her tell their stories.
During this trip, my grandma pulled out some treasures that I'd never seen before. This is the recipe box that she put together for her 9th grade home ec. class (she's 90, now).


Also for the same class, she was required to put together a sample book of sewing stitches and techniques. Since I've just started sewing, I found it particularly interesting.
She also had to sketch designs of her own clothing. She's quite artistic.

While there, I also got to do a little "shopping" around her house. I accidentally came across this box of scarves, many of which are vintage. I didn't take all of them, but I did take a few.
I also raided her button stash.

As well as her old book stash.
She had a whole stack of these Reader's Digest books with beautiful covers. I wish I'd had more room in my suitcase to bring more home (you know, so that they could sit in my house for the next 40 years. This particular one is from 1969.
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Thursday, June 16, 2011

My First Sewing Project

I'm so excited to share my first sewing projects with you! I know many of you out there are expert seamstresses, but I just started sewing...Monday, while I was in TN. My mom asked what I wanted to make first, and I decided on decorative pillows for our bed.
I absolutely love paisley right now, so I thought this green fabric was a great way to incorporate a little color to our shades-of-brown bedspread.
I love the way they turned out, and they were super easy to make. I'm very excited to keep sewing, and learn more.


I made these on my grandmother's old, but steady machine.
And in support of my new-found excitement for sewing, my mother (who has been waiting approximately 20 years for me to take an interest) bought me a Singer Curvy sewing machine (it was on a great sale at Jo-Ann's).

This evening Husband, who is wise in the way of machinery, helped me set it up, and together we figured out how to get it threaded. Of course it helped that it came with an instructional dvd. Anyway, I'm excited about the possibilities.

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