They're in the Shop

Remember all those lovely vintage sheets from my thrift store adventure the other day?? Well, I felt so lucky to find such treasures (and have so very many more in my vintage sheet stash) that I though I should share:) SO, you will find lovely little fat quarter bundles in my shop. Didn't know I have shop?? It's true. I don't advertise it a whole lot but it's there and active so go ahead a take a look. You'll even find a sweet little apron there...the last of that favorite fabric of mine...

Wondering what to do with all these lovely sheets?? Here are some great tutorials/ideas using just fat quarters to get you started:

Vintage Sheet Wrapped Wreath
Patchwork Pocket Tote Bag
Vintage Sheet Quilt -- So lovely!!
Swatch Portraits
Lunch Tote

I have some very sweet blues and pinks that will join these delicious yellows shortly. Keep checking back!

Kids' Dish Drawer Organization

Now this is organization on a serious budget. I picked up these three wire baskets at the thrift store for just $1.99 and it has completely transformed my kids' dish drawer. (yes, this really is how it has looked for the past two years...)

Hooray! Super simple. Super cheap. LOVE! All those bits and pieces in the back of the drawer are just that...bits and pieces: lids without rubber pieces, random little accessories, bigger water bottles. Who knows, I may keep my eye out for another small basket to house the rest of that little stuff.

Lovely Vintage Linens

So, I hit the vintage sheet jackpot at the thrift store this week. In fact, I felt like somebody had placed all these lovely sheets and pillowcases all in a row, just for my enjoyment...and purchase;)

 I also scored some fabric. No matter the yardage, my thrift store just sells it all for $1.99 a piece. Well, the top two are just about a yard and the bottom piece is well over 3 yards! Yay!I think it will make a lovely backing to a baby girl's quilt...

Vintage Nightgowns

Baby, it's HOT outside! And since we're mega cheap-o...I mean, frugal...we refuse to turn on our AC for a little while longer. It's only MARCH for Pete's sake. Therefore, we are all rather warm at night. The fans are turning and trying to keep the room cool, but the little ones need some summer jammies.

You just gotta love the little man's bedhead:)

Enter: vintage pillowcases. Yum:) One found at a thrift store (the yellow flowers) and the other was actually MINE when I was just a little girl. It was always my favorite because it had ruffles. I distinctly remember asking my mom for those sheets every time my bed got changed. And as I got older and I wasn't supposed to think ruffles were cool anymore, I STILL asked for them and made up excuses like, "they're nice and cool so I don't get hot," or, "the other ones give me life-threatening rashes," because I have always loved ruffles. Always, always. Which is why I think that I should have another girl. Too much fun. But I digress.

Pillowcase jammies. Just lovely.

I used two different tutorials for inspiration.

First, this one. This night gown is ridiculously easy. Perfect for any beginner, that's for sure. In fact, you probably don't even need the tutorial. I switched up the back a little to be sure the sleeves won't be falling down. 

For the second I used this tutorial, sort of. Just looking at her sweet little nightgowns made my heart go pitter patter. I basically just looked at her pattern and took a dress out of Emmie's closet to trace a pattern and went for it. I made the flutter sleeves into actual cap sleeves. LOVE them.

"NOW can I jump, mama??"

Next on the list is something for little Kai....Anyone know of some fabulous summer jammies patterns for the little men in our lives??

Spontaneous Art

I am all about setting up an environment for my children where they can feel free to create something beautiful on a whim. This came naturally for my daughter and she spends hours (yes, hours) a day creating things. My son, however, is just coming out of the "eating the crayons" stage and more into the "Look mama!!! Papa's airplane!!" stage (that's his favorite thing to draw). Well, months ago (as in, back in March) I bought an easel at a flea market for only $3.00. It had good bones, it just needed a little spicing up. So I took it home and finally got around to making it look like new again. It is just so hard to do a big project like this without the kids seeing it.

Here's what it looked like before:

And with a fresh new coat of paint, some new boards (my husband found and cut dry erase boards at Home Depot! We used the backside of one to spray the chalkboard paint on) and some tightened bolts we now have a beautiful new easel.

You'll notice that the new boards are larger than the originals. I didn't think it would hurt to have MORE space for creating.

We'll be adding accessories to this as time goes on: a tray to set cups of paint in, perhaps a dowel across the top to hold a roll of paper, and some clips to hold down the paper. For now, though it is getting a lot of use and a lot of love from the little ones in my life.

Cost:
     easel: $3.00
     spray paint: $6.00 (with some to spare)
     hardware: $3.00
     dry erase board: $12.00
        
               Total: $24.00

Not bad when compared to what they retail for! And I love that there are no plastic pieces that can break and are then very difficult to replace.


Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday: 
Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase

Jackpot

The ladies in my church have a monthly social and at every one of those socials we have a swap. As a natural purger of things, I LOVE this swap. It's always an excellent opportunity to take a load of stuff we no longer need and get someone else to enjoy it. I also LOVE thrift shopping, but its definitely hit and miss, and usually, I don't find anything at our swaps. But good gracious, I sure did hit the jackpot this month.

I could see a sweet Christmas dress coming from that set of three red and green fabrics up there, there's wool, corduroy and a home dec weight. Maybe a dress that uses one of those pretty green trims. And aren't those Strawberry Shortcake and Raggedy Ann and Andy ornament panels fun?? I think Goose will enjoy doing those with me. Anyway, I just love me some free beautiful things:)

Handmade Train Table

Now don't get me wrong, I did not MAKE the table, but I did paint it. I found this table for $10 at the thrift store and decided to make it into a train/activity table for little ones in my life. And let me tell you, it has been a HIT! I debated back and forth on whether or not I should add a rim to the edge of the table to keep things from falling off, so I let the kids play with it for awhile and realized that more often than not, they created track systems that hung over the sides a bit anyway, so I decided to leave it off.

My Method:: This table was originally a very scratched, shiny ugly brown color with a wobbly leg. I got it home and immediately tightened the leg. Then I covered the whole thing with a good coat of spray primer to accomplish two things: first, make it so the top coat of paint would easily stick and second, to fill in the many scratches. Then I spray painted the whole table white, except the top, which would be painted other colors, obviously. And then I took my supply of acrylic paints and had a ball! It was my daughter's idea to make the water sparkly, I just used some of her sparkly craft paint for that. After all was painted and dried I covered the whole top of the table with a nice coat of spray enamel to keep it protected from the inevitable active play it will receive in its lifetime:)

Also, I didn't want to over decorate the table (in paint) with things like trees and houses and such because I really wanted my children to use their imaginations and create those things on their own. I just wanted this to be an open-ended table, allowing them to use for whatever they fancy.

So, next time you get discouraged looking at the pricey train tables, consider picking up an inexpensive secondhand table and doing it yourself. The project, start to finish, only took me about 4 hours (including drying time). It was easily finished in two naptimes:) And only cost me $15, for the table and spray paints.  (the acrylics I had on hand...)

I hope you feel inspired for a little DIY!

Also, I went ahead and entered this into the Crafting with the Stars competition over at Sew Dang Cute. It sounds like a lot of fun, you should go check it out!










Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday:Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase

A place for books and sunshine

I have recently discovered estate sales. I know. Recently? Yes. But I've been out of the country for 3 years, and one tends to lose touch with American life. So here I am now, obsessed with walking through someone else's house searching through their lifetime collection of things. Love it. Most recently I found a very broken chair. There were actually two of them and the color spoke to me. However, one of them only had three legs. No good. So I took the good one for $3.00 and had just the place for it. Yes, I painted over it, but that fabulous, sunny yellow is still peeking through. 

Living its new life. 

I think I may distress it a little more and let that sunshine really come through.

Thrifting

We love good find. It seriously puts (or keeps...) me in a good mood (and helps me justify to myself why it is okay to occasionally shop at Gymboree...). So I have become a bit of a thrift store/garage sale/flea market hound. Because that's where I find the good stuff.

Like this

Which started out like this

Goose needed a place to hang up her kitchen essentials. You know. Aprons. Bibs. Shopping bags. Not to mention, she's got recipes and spices to keep track of. So this "used to be" bathroom cabinet is now her perfectly fitting kitchen cabinet.

And those recipes?? Easy peasy. And Goose just loved helping me make them. Her job was to move my hand back and forth so as to make the stitching look like "real" writing. I think she giggled the whole time.

Next on her kitchen list? A new kitchen. Well, not new. But new to us. Her current kitchen is big and bulky and awkward, so I think I will have to make her one. Out of a bookcase or small entertainment center or something. Have you seen this one?? Amazing. I have no intention of making one that big, but I totally dig to fake window landscape. cute.

Fit for a Princess

So, I found this bed at a yard sale.


Oh. How much, you ask??

Yup. That's right. 5 buckaroos. I almost died that day.

And a little paint goes a long way. (It went an especially long way in this room...which was mustard yellow when we moved in. Who does that to a room?)