Sparkly Christmas Trees

I found this while checking out Pinterest, one of my favorite activities these days. So here is another Pinterest challenge for me.


source

I have a lot of neat old thread spools just sitting around gathering dust and in my quest to either use it or get rid of it I decided I would make some of these cute little trees. I checked through all my stuff and had everything needed to make my own version of these trees. I didn't include a tutorial since she already had a really good one.

I used a vintage star shaped cookie cutter for the base of this one.

I had an old silver tea pot lid that didn't have a tea pot to go under it so I used it for the base of this one.

I then decided to glitter some of my bottle brush trees and came up with this idea. Love the rust next to the fancy glittery tree.

What do you think? Cute huh? My husband even asked if they were for us or to give away. I said for us, but I also have put some in my Etsy shop. They were too fun to make to stop at two. So hop on over and check them out.
Awesome, I was featured on Cowgirl Up this past week, thanks Linsey:


Sharing at:
Blissful White Wednesday
Cowgirl Up
Inspiration Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Songbird

A Tale of Three Dresses

This is a true tale of how three different dresses came to be. 

Once upon a time there was a young maiden who wished to marry her Prince Charming. She went shopping in the kingdom and found a beautiful gown, all chiffon and satin and lace. She felt so beautiful on her special day, just like the princess in the fairy tales. After the special day they rode off into the sunset, but unfortunately since this is real life, they didn't live happily ever after. (But that is another story.) One day about 28 years later the young maiden, now the mother of another young maiden, pulled out the lovely gown for her sweet daughter to wear on her wedding day. Alas, the dress was so outdated that they decided that the sweet daughter needed to start her own memories and purchase her own beautiful gown for her own special day. The young maiden, now much older wondered what to do with the beautiful gown. Since the sweet daughter would not be wearing it should she donate it to Goodwill? Should she dump it in the nearest dumpster? Lucky for her, she decided to not do either. A year and a half after the Sweet daughter married her own Prince Charming she gave birth to her own sweet daughter. The now not so young maiden decided to take the beautiful gown and cut it down to make a beautiful blessing dress for the newest young maiden. 

Princess Zoey

Princess Brooklyn

Princess Zaphren

Not So Young Maiden and Princess Emmie

The Not So Young Maiden cut the beautiful fabric that now had mellowed into a lovely ivory color. She sewed the fabric into a lovely dress that all the The Sweet Granddaughters could wear on their blessing days. She even left intact the long ruffle on the bottom. Now to date four Sweet Princesses (Granddaughters) have worn the lovely creation of the Not So Young Maiden.

The Not So Young Maiden put the left over fabric from the original dress in a drawer and forgot all about it. One day as she was cleaning the castle she found the lovely fabric. She tossed it in the throw away bag, but then feeling some remorse, she decided to rescue it. An idea came to her, a way to use the rest of the lovely fabric. She could make her Lovely Granddaughters, now nine through four years old, a beautiful dress for each of their favorite Barbie dolls. (And if you look closely you will see that the Barbie Dress is really a small replica of the Young Maiden's original dress.)

And this is how the Young Maiden (and all the young maidens in the story) finally was able to live happily ever after. 

THE END

This truly is a true story, not a fairy tale. Hope you enjoy the dresses as much as I had making them. 

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Blissful White Wednesday

 

Ruffly Pumpkins

I saw these beautiful pumpkins on Pinterest and just had to make some of my own. But I needed to put my own spin on it since I didn't have any ready made pumpkins like what she used.

Source

I found some drop cloth fabric in my fabric stash and took a dinner plate and traced around it. This is what I used as the body of the pumpkin.

I ran a long gathering stitch around the whole and gathered it up.

I then stuffed it with some polyestered stuffing I had on hand.

I then found some muslin strips I had already torn, how lucky was that? I sewed a long basting stitch down each strip and then wrapped them around the body of my pumpkin and hot glued them at the top. I used four strips for each pumpkin.

I used cinnamon sticks for the stem, gluing them into the center with my glue gun. Then added some silk leaves and acorns to one.

And for the other I took a piece of an old linen doily and made some shabby leaves. I then glued an old earring in the center to add a bit of bling. 

I like how they came out. Now for sale in my Etsy shop for your fall enjoyment.

I am sharing at these great parties:

Under The Table and Dreaming Sunday Showcase

Wow Us Wednesday

Fall Into Fall Party

Feathered Nest Friday

Home and Garden Thursday
Cowgirl Up

Pillowcases For Grandkids

Wednesday night our church group got together and made pillowcases to donate to a local charity that helps out homeless children and their families. We bought pillows and made the pillowcases to go on them. They turned out so cute and were so easy that I had to come home and make more. I got a bit carried away and made more. Now my grandchildren will each be getting one for Christmas.

You will need:
3/4 yard (27 inches) of the main fabric
1/4 yard (9 inches) of coordinating fabric for the cuff
2 inch strip of solid fabric for trim or 44 inch long crochet trim
I didn't do a step by step but if you would like a great tutorial you can go here. As you can see there are no exposed seams, all are enclosed when you sew. Makes them really wear well too. And you can taylor the fabric to the persons interests.

This one is my favorite one so far, it is funny too since I have had this fabric around the house for several years and never really cared for it. Someone gave it to me and I could never think of anything to do with it. This is perfect, just right for my three year old grandson.

These are for my granddaughters. I made them each just a bit different so they could tell them apart. Now to make some more superhero ones for the grandsons. Even though I didn't get this idea from Pinterest it is out there so I am counting this as another Pinterest challenge. I haven't kept up on the weekly challenge like I had wanted to, life takes over, but I will try to do at least a monthly one.

Posting to these great parties:
Sunday Showcase Party
Wow Us Wednesday
Inspiration Friday
Feathered Nest Friday

Sew and Tell Saturday

A Visit to Crater Lake and a Sewing Machine Table Redo

Wow, I haven't blogged in a long time. I have had reasons to not blog, the best was a visit from some very special people. If you check out my granddaughter's dress, I made that for her birthday. She loves it so much her mom said she has to wash it when she is sleeping! So nice to know the dress is loved though.

We had a great time and took the kiddos to Crater Lake. It is so beautifully blue that at times when you take pictures it looks like a backdrop in a photo studio rather than the real lake.

This is my oldest son and his wife and children. The youngest is only six months old.

Well now to the business at hand. I have this awesome old sewing machine cabinet, with an old sewing machine inside as well. It had seen better days and I wanted to update it so it would match the other items that will be in my new craft room. But as a really bad blogger I forgot to take pictures until I was all done.

 I painted the whole in DIY white chalk paint. Then I sanded and distressed it. After that I put a stain on it but I really hated the way it looked. I know, I should have waxed it first but I was in a hurry to get it done. You can tell since I forgot to take pictures of my steps.

 Anyway I started drybrushing on white and turquoise paint, here and there and all around. More and more and finally I started liking how it looked.

 Then after some more sanding and some clear wax I was done.

I love the way it came out and I love the old pulls. They were pretty dirty so I took some steel wool to them and polished them all up and I love they way they look with the new paint job.

I really like how she turned out. Don't you?

She now is in my soon to be craft room. I can't wait to get that all organized and painted. Or maybe that should be painted and organized. I will be blogging along some of the projects for the craft room so stay tuned, I do have some pretty interesting things in store. And I really do promise to start taking before pictures.

Linking to these parties:

Wow Us Wednesdays

Restored it Wednesday

Feathered Nest Friday
Furniture Feature Friday
Inspiration Friday
Brambleberry Cottage

Child Sized Dresser Redo, Part 2

Thanks for stopping back to see how I finished off my small dresser. If you want to see Part 1 you can check it out here. It turned out pretty cute if I may say so myself. Hard to believe it is the same dresser.

Since she was so old I painted most of the surface inside and out to help preserve the wood.

Using the drawer pulls as inspiration I masked off the outside of the drawers and painted them off white. I then painted them in a pink and turquoise plaid with gold dots at the intersections. I didn't do it too perfectly so it would look a bit old. Sorry for the blurry picture.

I found some old glass knobs in my stash since all the ones it came with were broken and unusable. I found two that worked well with the small drawers. I at first tried some painted ones, but the vintage glass ones just set it off better.

Check out the cool texture on the sides as well. Taking a page from MMS book I left some of the old paint on and just painted over it. Love the way it looks.

 I painted the drawers inside as well, I like the finished look.

What do you do with old books that are falling apart? Use them to line drawers with of course and use the never failing Modge Podge to finish it off. I like a bit more random look so tore some of the pages to give it a bit more movement.

I sanded the edges to give it an older look as well and then went over the whole with some cherry stain.  Waxed the whole with MinWax and buffed it out. Got to use what I already have!

Here is Zeus checking out the finished dresser. He thinks it is pretty nice too.

So just to refresh your memory, here is the before and now...

tah dah it is finally done. I am listing her on Craig's List to see if anyone might wish to give her a home. If not I won't be disappointed, I will keep her for my craft room. And in case you are wondering, this is the picture that is closest to the true color. Thanks stopping by.

I was featured at Better After

I am sharing at these great parties:

DIY Showoff

Sunday Showcase Party @ Under the Table and Dreaming

Cowgirl Linkup Party

One More Time

Restored it Wednesday

Wow Us Wednesday

What's it Wednesday Linky Party

Feathered Nest Friday

Lavender Garden Cottage

At the Picket Fence

Miss Mustard Seed Furnature Friday

Its Overflowing

Granny Jo's Memory Quilt and Pinterest Challenge

If you remember I gave you a preview of the quilt I was working on here for my Mom's 81st birthday. Well I finally finished it and my siblings and I presented it to her at our family reunion. She loved it. She said she had always wanted one so that made all the hard work worth it. I have to warn you there are quite a lot of pictures, but I did want to showcase a few of the quilt blocks.

We each made one or more quilt blocks representing our family. Some did it with pictures, others with pieced blocks. I then used a technique called twist and turn to tie the whole together since all the blocks turned out to be different sizes. I also did something totally different than I have ever done before and that was using the scraps all sewn together to sew around the outside of the quilt. I really liked the different colors used to tie the whole together.

If you remember I have been giving myself a Pinterest challenge, to use at least one of my pins each week. Well Pinterest came in very handy when I went to finish out this quilt. Not knowing how to properly bind a quilt I went to my go to resource guide and found this link. The turorial was so easy to follow I had the quilt bound in no time and it looks really great. Thanks Amy for an easy to follow tutorial.

Here are a few close ups and a picture of my Mom with her finished quilt.

My youngest son Alan and nephew Karsten holding the quilt.

Butterfly Quilt block behind my mom's head represented me. When I was a small girl I always told my mother that I wanted to be a butterfly. Also the hanky it was made from belonged to my father's sister who is now in her late 90s so the block has double significance. It is also another of my pins which you will find here.

And here is a close up of said block. I went by Vikki Jo when I was younger, much younger! :-}

My dad was a character and this quilt would not be complete without a representation of him as well. He always wore bib overalls so this square has a piece from his bibs. The picture is of him as a young man when he grew a beard for the Montana centennial.

 Cute caricature of my niece Rue and her husband Brice.

And another pin to represent my husband and I. We have both been divorced and now have a wonderful marriage. I really liked the sentiment so even though the heart I made is a bit different I used the poem and the idea I found here. This was my first paper piecing project. If you check the block to the left you can kind of see my nephew all dressed up in my father's old scout uniform. Loved that my sister-in-law included that.

Quilt block representing my second son and his wife.

And this one to represent their son. Can you believe she had hardly ever sewed before this?

Even my 8 year old granddaughter made one. I was very proud of her for doing that. She is learning to sew and loves it. She is going to be just like her Nanna one day.

This one was made by my youngest brother's wife. Love the colors. My mother's favorite color is purple and so is mine, I am really loving this.

My oldest brother's wife made these two beautiful blocks.

My oldest son's wife made this one with all the handprints in their family. Such a unique idea.

And last but definately not least, the block my daughter did to represent her youngest daughter. Her name is Zaphren, but she calls herself Zappi, she is three and full of energy and noise. Hence what Becky wrote on the block, "The Hills are alive, with the sound of Zappi!" Love the furry sheep.

All in all the quilt was a lot of work for all involved, but will give my mother much enjoyment and isn't that what life is all about? Thanks for taking the time to look at all my pictures.

Linking up here:

Wow Us Wednesday

What's It Wednesday Linky Party

Welcome to Feathered Nest Friday

At The Picket Fence

Funky Junk Interiors

Its Overflowing