Everyday Beauty

Ruffled Totes and Ready to Go

 

I made these simple ruffled canvas totes for all of the girls attending En le Jardin this weekend. I just bought really thin canvas tote bags {so they wouldn't be stiff and scratchy} and dunked them all in instant coffee. I threw them in the washing machine to get rid of the coffee smell and make them even softer and more wrinkled. {I was going for a broken-in wrikled feel.}Then I stitched a pre-made cotton ruffle and a length of velvet ribbon onto the top of each one. I pinned a velvet flower & some leaves on and added little cardstock "streamers" with each girl's name.

 

All of the attendees participated in a swap, and these totes will hold the goodies we are exchanging. I hope they like 'em!

{photo below is so cloudy/faded/weird. But you get the idea.}

 

For my swap, I put some crafty treasures inside these cotton muslin pouches and stamped each girl's initial and a little crown on the front.

 

Then I added some millinery flowers and more ribbon {we can never have enough, can we?}

 

Alrighty....I'm heading to Georgia now, girls. See you next week. Can't wait to tell you all about it!

p.s. I have an insane amount of emails in my Inbox right now. If I owe you a reply, I'll get on it as soon as I return. Promise!

Well, Hello There!

Gosh, I've been gone a while, haven't I? Thanks for all of the sweet birthday wishes in my last post.

I hope all of you mothers had a beautiful Mother's Day. I picked these Lily of the Valley from my garden to wish you a happy day, and then never got around to blogging on Sunday. So, here are some belated wishes. If only you could smell these...

 

These vintage "Mother" charms are store stock I've had since last October. Never listed them....kinda missed the boat for Mother's Day, didn't I? And the wrinkled pink silk ribbon is from Heather's shop. She hand dyes them and sells out as soon as they're listed. Because they're THAT beautiful!

 

So, anyway, I got so much accomplished in these past few weeks. It feels good. And lots of family fun was thrown in the mix as well. We spent a Day Out with Thomas:

And someone was so excited he could hardly stand it!
We also visited family in New Jersey {where I neglected to take any photos, 'cause I was too busy gabbing and eating...and eating...and eating.}

We went on some bike rides together. Sam is loving his seat. The whole time we were riding he was yelling, "Go! Go!" It was so funny.

 

And I found a little time to make myself a new necklace from old bits.

George hung up my birthday presents in the foyer and hallway. It was nice to get rid of the  octagonal brass ones that came with the house. I can't believe I lived with them for 5 years!

And tomorrow I leave for Jenn's event! Very excited to spend time with all of these girls and craft and shop and chat. It's going to be a true retreat for me. I made some goody bags for everyone and I'll post tomorrow or Friday and show you.

It's nice to be back. I missed you guys!

Sunday Kitchen

I was in the kitchen this morning photographing some new products, and I just got a little carried away. I knelt down on the floor next to kitchen table and took a picture of my morning cofffee and journal. And the hyacinths I cut from the garden. A simple centerpiece that perfumes the whole house.

A pile of our napkins.

A stack of teacups on a shelf. Along with an egg I kept for myself. {since I didn't keep any last year, my basket was looking pretty sad!}

Looks a bit fuller this year.

These are the ruffles on some prize ribbons I have to put away with inventory. Still sitting on the kitchen table. I WILL put these away today. The goal is to clear off the counters today. It's a tall order!

Aprons hanging on the wall.

Let us not forget the beautiful refrigerator art. W is the letter of the week, didn't you know?

I made some more bookmarks and I think I'll sell a bunch. They, too, are on the kitchen table. It's a wonder we can eat there.

I'll package them in One Hundred Wishes cotton pouches.

I'll spare you the other kitchen photos... {dirty dishes, bananas smashed in Sam's high chair, etc.} You're welcome!

I hope your week is off to a lovely start!

A Dozen Eggs

Hi Girls! If you're interested, the Fancy Ostrich Eggs I made will be listed in my shop at 4:00 EST today. They're a little foofier than the ones I made last year. I was in the mood for fluff and just couldn't stop! There are a dozen of them.

  

I also have a few more of the Nicol Sayre large nested eggs that I sold last Easter. They're trimmed with crepe paper ruffles and just as pretty as they can be.

 

And Easter flash cards are back too. All of this will be available at 4:00.

Thanks!

Decorating the Ceiling

When there's no more room on the floor, on the walls or on the shelves....look up! The ceiling holds endless possibilities for creative decorating. This is a view of part of my craft room ceiling. As you can see, I'm still loving sewing patterns. A month or so ago, I made these pom poms from a pattern similar to these here. And I think they're basically the same thing as the kits in Martha's line. Same general idea, just different sizes and papers. They're hanging with fishing line and cup hooks. Lots and lots of cups hooks in my ceiling. I'm sure the next owners of this house will NOT thank me for that.

I also have an old ruffled crinoline hanging up there along with some Japanese paper lanterns. Just today I found an old parasol I'm going to somehow rig and hang upside down as well. Eek! I was so excited when I spotted it! I'll post pictures when I get it hung. 

The now-tarnished glittered letters {that spell WISH} are from Wendy Addison. And as for the honeycomb bells, I had the wild idea last spring that I would sell them in my shop. Well, I just never got around to photographing and listing them, and ended up giving a bunch to friends and hung several in my craft room. 

Then I saw some on Pam's blog and also on my friend Gabrielle's new blog. {Gabrielle made pretty sewing pattern pom poms too.} Pretty bells are ringing everywhere!

Well, if you want dangling tissue paper things hanging from the sky of your house, you can get every tissue paper decoration you heart desires right here. Bells, balls, fringe, garlands, giant eggs, ice cream sundaes, hot air balloons {and yes, I have them all, but then again.....I'm nuts} and more! Fun stuff. Happy festooning!

Greening my Cleaning

I try to do all the "basics" like recycle, grocery shop with reusable totes, use only cloth napkins and generally try to avoid being wasteful or using disposable things. I consider it the least I can do to spare our landfills from filling up any more than they already are. But I would like to do more. For my family. For myself. For the environment. For future generations. Is it just me or has the amount of "disposable" products gotten to be ridiculous? 

So, little by little I've been trying to think of changes I can make in my daily life. Nothing major, but every little thing can help.

Inspired by my mom and sister-in-law, I crocheted a few of these cotton dishcloths. They work great and can be thrown right in the washing machine and used over and over again. Buh-bye disposable dish sponges that harbor bacteria and other yuck.

For this project, I used Lily brand Sugar 'n Cream yarn. Because it's 100% cotton, the cloths absorb and wash up well. The color shown here is Taupe Twists.

This book, A Guide to Green Housekeeping is a wonderful resource if you're interested. Did you know you can clean most of your house with nothing more than baking soda and vinegar? It's true! No nasty, toxic chemicals or irritating dyes and chemical fragrances needed. This book has become my housekeeping bible, and I refer to it time and again.

         

It was written by Christina Strutt, the owner of Cabbages & Roses. On a side note, she's also the author of this book, Decorating Vintage Style. One of my favorites on vintage-style casual decorating and living. No fussiness here, just down-to-Earth decorating with vintage fabrics, furniture and accessories. I like it lots.

 

I'm very interested to hear from anyone who has other book recommendations or tips for "greener" cleaning. It's good to share tips, sources and ideas so we can all learn things from each other. Let me know!

Sewing Pattern Twinkle Lights

Here's the other paper-flower project I was telling you about. It's the same idea as the Fiesta Flowers in the previous post, except this time I used old sewing patterns.

{a quick note about sewing patterns: I heard someone say that cutting up and using sewing patterns for other things made seamstresses cringe. I understood the point, but there are thousands of old sewing patterns for about 25 cents a piece at thrift shops from shore to shore. So, I'd like to think of this as recycling and repurposing patterns that would otherwise eventually get thrown in the trash.}

I already had this strand of Candylights that I had gotten last year. See the pink silicone tips? I thought they would make nice little centers for the flowers. They come in several different colors too.

So, for each light, you need to cut a strip of paper 40" long and 2" wide. I used a scalloped scissors for the top edge {you can see it there in the picture} and a straight scissors for the base of the flower that will be covered with floral tape. Fiskars makes metal scalloped scissors, and they are awesome! Once you use them, you will throw away the plastic decorative scissors that cut through 5 sheets of paper before they lose their edge. If you like scallops, these are worth buying. {Sorry, I can't find them on the Fiskars website for some reason. I hope they still make them!}

Anyhoo, so you just gather and wrap the paper around the base of the light bulb until there's no more paper left to wrap. Then secure it all together with white floral tape. So easy!

I have them strung around a mirror at the moment, but they'll probably move into my craft room eventually.  I really really really love these lights. Beige is one of my favorite colors {does that mean I'm boring?} and sewing pattern paper is such the perfect shade.

 

This photo is awfully dark, but the sun was so intense, it was like my camera was wearing it's sunglasses to block out the light. It wouldn't capture a bright picture. I'm sure there's a technical photography term for this, but in any case, it was frustrating. You get the idea though. :)

 

I told George I loved these so much I wanted to wear them like a big ridiculous necklace. He just looked at me. He's used to it.

Fiesta Flowers

Lately I've been planning my evenings around which new movies are premiering on the Hallmark Channel. Well, not exactly, but pretty close. A couple weeks ago the new one Expecting a Miracle was on. {loved it...tear jerker}. The movie takes place in a village in Mexico, and the plot sort of centers around an upcoming festival.

Anyway, long story short, they had the traditional Mexican decorations and garlands of crepe paper flowers hanging about in some of the scenes and it inspired me. I've always loved those flowers and the whole handmade nature of Mexican paper decorations. I figured they couldn't be too difficult to make, and I ran and grabbed my stash of folded crepe paper sheets, some scissors and white floral tape. I sat on the couch, ate a bowl of ice cream, and then made some flowers.

I didn't end up stringing them into a garland and I don't think I will, but maybe a bouquet would be nice. I'll wire them to stems and wrap the handle in some pretty ribbon. Just to have it sitting around in my craft room, just for decoration.

It turns out, they're pretty simple to make. Just cut a 4 inch {or whatever size you like, really} band of folded crepe paper from a new pack. Unroll it all and, starting at one end, use your thumb and finger to gently roll one of the long edges of the paper {roll the entire length of the paper}. Then, once you have your rolled edge, you can begin wrapping the crepe around a little bundle of stamens, with the unrolled edge at the base of your flower. Here are some new and old stamens I have gathered from various places....craft stores, flea markets, ebay.

Stamens really bring a flower to life. Otherwise, it's just kind of a pretty gathered paper thing. {I'm so descriptive today.....laughing}

So, anyway, keep wrapping and gathering and pleating the paper as you go around and around the stamens. Then secure it all together at the base with floral tape.

It's a good couch project, at the end of the day when you don't have a lot of energy.

And I think a wrapped cluster of these would make a beautiful gift topper!

After I was done with these, I made another variation of this same idea, but with different paper. I'll photograph and post them soon.

Ok, off to make some dinner!

Bookmark Bijoux

I'm always playing around and thinking of new uses for my old jewelry. Here's an easy little project that uses nothing more than velvet ribbons, vintage jewelry bits and some findings. I love the easy ones....instant gratification!

 

It occurred to me that I needed some pretty bookmarks one evening when I reached for a used dryer sheet in the nearby laundry basket to stick between the pages of my book. How sad is that? Usually I stick an old receipt or some other ugly scrap of paper in my books when I need a bookmark. No more!

In a matter of minutes (if that) you can make these pretty bejeweled bookmarks. The ribbon clamps can be purchased here, and are available in several different widths.

Simply cut the ribbon to the desired length and squeeze a clamp onto each end using jewelry pliers. Then attach a jump ring and your chosen bauble to the loop on each clamp. That's it.

I also made some clips while I was at it. I had gotten the clips a few years ago at a scrapbook store, but I'm sure they're still available. Just a dab of hot glue {I should have a holster for my glue gun since I use it so much} or E6000 and you've got a pretty little clip.

Just thought I'd share with you, in case your books have dryer sheets stuck in them too. :)

Angelina

 

I finished a few more of my Silver Bella projects. Yay! It's not too late to share another one, is it? This was Teresa's Christmas Pageant class (which I loved), and I decided to change it up a bit and do a non-Christmas theme so I could enjoy it all year long. It's an old book whose pages were carved out to create an area perfect for showcasing a special photo.

This is a picture of my mother-in-law, Angelina Carmella Guglielmino Singarella (just a little Italian), taken when she was a baby in Sicily. Doesn't she look like a little porcelain doll in this photograph? When I was trying to decide which picture to use in this class, this was the very first one that popped into my mind.

Angelina passed away 9 years ago, when George and I had just recently started dating, and sadly I never got to know her very well. In the few days I spent with her, she taught me how she made her homemade meatballs and sauce, and she told me she knew I was "the one" for George - a man no one ever thought would settle down and start a family. She was a teeny tiny thing at just 4' 11", and I had to literally bend down and fold my 5' 10" self in half to give her a hug. She was quiet and selfless and as just sweet as can be. She never had anything mean to say about anyone and never judged a soul. She was an incredible seamstress and cook. She told me she wanted to make my wedding dress, and I'm sad she wasn't around to do it. She would have been a wonderful grandmother to our boys. This is my little tribute to her.

 I thought this little Bakelite statuette of Mother Mary was appropriate.

 

Old velvety flowers and crepe ruffles.

 

Words that reminded me of her.

 

I used the rosette from one of my vintage prize ribbons and added some sparkle and lace and new velvet streamers.

I have this sitting on a table in our hallway upstairs, and we walk past it everyday. A pretty little reminder of her.