I'm 11 weeks and the due date is September 17! We're excited. :)
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Pret-a-Porter Poodle
A local thrift chain is having a 99¢ sweater sale this weekend so this morning while Maren was in preschool I stopped to have a look. My mom gifted me with a darling handbag made out of a felted sweater and I think it's easy enough that even my meager sewing skills can recreate it, so I was looking primarily for wool or cashmere sweaters. I was also looking for anything vintage or anything that I could harvest buttons from. Further down on the list was sweaters I could sell and last, sweaters I could wear.
I had no idea how few 100% wool sweaters are out there! Even the ones that felt like wool were often made with a blend of a synthetic fiber as well. I don't have much experience felting sweaters, so can anyone in blogland tell me--do they have to be 100% wool for them to felt properly, or will 80% wool/20% synthetic work? I bought a few that were wool blends and figured for 99¢ it was worth the gamble.
In the button category, I did find one that had these cute flower buttons. They were definitely worth 99¢!
I scored in the vintage category as well! I almost passed this one by because it wasn't wool but at the last second the vintage tag inside caught my eye. There was no size on the tag but it looked small, so I figured I would just resell it.
Once I got it home, on a whim I decided to try it on and to my extreme surprise, it fits! Thank goodness for a nice stretchy knit. I can fasten the belt, as long as I don't plan on doing any breathing or moving while wearing the sweater so that's going to have to be fixed. It really is tiny--I could barely fasten it around my size 6 dress form for the photo.
Here's a close-up of the poodle detail. The leash and mouth are made of red rattail satin cord, the knots feel like wool and the eye is a faceted metal bead. There are also vintage metal buttons to fasten the neck in back, although they look very tarnished so they may be replaced. I'm picturing this with a black pencil skirt, and maybe a pair of Laurie's fab glasses--what do you think?
I had no idea how few 100% wool sweaters are out there! Even the ones that felt like wool were often made with a blend of a synthetic fiber as well. I don't have much experience felting sweaters, so can anyone in blogland tell me--do they have to be 100% wool for them to felt properly, or will 80% wool/20% synthetic work? I bought a few that were wool blends and figured for 99¢ it was worth the gamble.
In the button category, I did find one that had these cute flower buttons. They were definitely worth 99¢!
I scored in the vintage category as well! I almost passed this one by because it wasn't wool but at the last second the vintage tag inside caught my eye. There was no size on the tag but it looked small, so I figured I would just resell it.
Once I got it home, on a whim I decided to try it on and to my extreme surprise, it fits! Thank goodness for a nice stretchy knit. I can fasten the belt, as long as I don't plan on doing any breathing or moving while wearing the sweater so that's going to have to be fixed. It really is tiny--I could barely fasten it around my size 6 dress form for the photo.
Here's a close-up of the poodle detail. The leash and mouth are made of red rattail satin cord, the knots feel like wool and the eye is a faceted metal bead. There are also vintage metal buttons to fasten the neck in back, although they look very tarnished so they may be replaced. I'm picturing this with a black pencil skirt, and maybe a pair of Laurie's fab glasses--what do you think?
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Vintage baby dress valance
After I graduated from college I moved home and lived with my parents for almost 2 years before I got married, during which time I repainted the walls of my bedroom in a periwinkle blue. After I moved out, my mom finally got to have a craft room all to herself. Just recently she found some darling furniture and redecorated, and it's so cute! One of the things she did that I love the most is make this window valance out of vintage baby dresses, and I wanted to show you all because I'm always looking for useful things to do with the vintage goodies I collect.
The dresses are beautiful--simple cotton shifts decorated with lovely hand embroidery and crocheted hems. (click on the photos to see the details) I'm not precisely sure of their age but I know they were made without buttons--a special pin was used at the back to hold them together. My mom found these at a garage sale several years ago and I think she paid at most 25¢ for each one--it might even have been 10¢. Either way, they were a total steal. 
To make the valance, all she did was purchase a white wooden curtain rod and slide it through the arms of the dresses--easy as pie! There is already a heavy wooden blind on the window to block the light so the valance is purely decorative, and I love how light and airy it looks! Wouldn't this be such a cute idea for a little girl's or a baby's room?
The dresses are beautiful--simple cotton shifts decorated with lovely hand embroidery and crocheted hems. (click on the photos to see the details) I'm not precisely sure of their age but I know they were made without buttons--a special pin was used at the back to hold them together. My mom found these at a garage sale several years ago and I think she paid at most 25¢ for each one--it might even have been 10¢. Either way, they were a total steal. 
To make the valance, all she did was purchase a white wooden curtain rod and slide it through the arms of the dresses--easy as pie! There is already a heavy wooden blind on the window to block the light so the valance is purely decorative, and I love how light and airy it looks! Wouldn't this be such a cute idea for a little girl's or a baby's room?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Condensed Milk
see more pwn and owned pictures
Seriously, this makes me laugh SO hard! Can you imagine what it must have looked like when the driver was getting the cows IN that little car? That is funny for DAYS. From one of my favorite daily reads, the FAIL blog.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Vintage postcard garland and Valentine's wrap-up
Oh, my poor little abandoned blog! I'm not sure I've ever gone so long without posting but truly I haven't had much to say. I've been sick for quite a long time now due to germs Maren toted home from preschool and I'm just now feeling a bit better. At the same time, The Mister has been recovering from surgery and even the dog has an ear infection, so productivity levels around my house have been hovering around 0%. If it couldn't be done while laying on the couch under a blankie, it didn't get done at all.
I know we're two days past Valentine's now but I did want to show the one and only thing I've crafted in the past three weeks. My mom and I saw some cute garlands in a boutique for around $35 each and we knew we could do them ourselves for much cheaper. We were right--we already had everything we needed! So nice to do a project without having to run to the craft store first.
First, I found a few vintage postcard images from this awesome Flickr group. Next, I resized them and printed them out onto matte white cardstock. I just guessed on the size, making sure to get the approximately even (the original files were different sizes). Next, we ran them through the Xyron and adhered them to sheets of chipboard. We covered the backs with pages torn from a very old dictionary just to make them a bit more finished.
We punched holes in the top corners using a Crop-a-dile, then embellished the edges with sparkly red pipe cleaners, which we glued on using Zip Dry glue. We tried a few other glues (hot glue, tacky glue) but the Zip Dry was perfect because it dries quickly and is a bit thicker in consistency so it didn't run all over. As a final touch we embellished the images using a glue pen and some sparkly iridescent glitter. I tied mine together with pink Martha Stewart seam binding ribbon.
It was an easy craft with satisfying results, perfect for a gloomy day and not so involved that we couldn't visit while we glued. This garland could easily be adapted for any holiday you can find vintage postcard images for, which thanks to Flickr should be just about any of them! I don't normally decorate for St. Patrick's day but I think I have some sparkly green pipe cleaners kicking around my craft room, so maybe I need to make a St. Patty's garland just for fun!
Our V-day was nice, even though we weren't feeling well. We beat the crowds by going out for sushi on Friday night, the Mister brought me an enormous, gorgeous bouquet of flowers and Maren got a balloon that is bigger than she is.
Now that I have a bit more energy I'm hoping to get back to doing something interesting enough to blog about! Until then, take a look back at the cute thing I received for last President's Day. It's still one of my top 5 favorite things I've ever received in a swap!
I know we're two days past Valentine's now but I did want to show the one and only thing I've crafted in the past three weeks. My mom and I saw some cute garlands in a boutique for around $35 each and we knew we could do them ourselves for much cheaper. We were right--we already had everything we needed! So nice to do a project without having to run to the craft store first.
First, I found a few vintage postcard images from this awesome Flickr group. Next, I resized them and printed them out onto matte white cardstock. I just guessed on the size, making sure to get the approximately even (the original files were different sizes). Next, we ran them through the Xyron and adhered them to sheets of chipboard. We covered the backs with pages torn from a very old dictionary just to make them a bit more finished.
We punched holes in the top corners using a Crop-a-dile, then embellished the edges with sparkly red pipe cleaners, which we glued on using Zip Dry glue. We tried a few other glues (hot glue, tacky glue) but the Zip Dry was perfect because it dries quickly and is a bit thicker in consistency so it didn't run all over. As a final touch we embellished the images using a glue pen and some sparkly iridescent glitter. I tied mine together with pink Martha Stewart seam binding ribbon.
It was an easy craft with satisfying results, perfect for a gloomy day and not so involved that we couldn't visit while we glued. This garland could easily be adapted for any holiday you can find vintage postcard images for, which thanks to Flickr should be just about any of them! I don't normally decorate for St. Patrick's day but I think I have some sparkly green pipe cleaners kicking around my craft room, so maybe I need to make a St. Patty's garland just for fun!
Our V-day was nice, even though we weren't feeling well. We beat the crowds by going out for sushi on Friday night, the Mister brought me an enormous, gorgeous bouquet of flowers and Maren got a balloon that is bigger than she is.
Now that I have a bit more energy I'm hoping to get back to doing something interesting enough to blog about! Until then, take a look back at the cute thing I received for last President's Day. It's still one of my top 5 favorite things I've ever received in a swap!
Friday, February 06, 2009
Pink Poodles on Parade
Patience is a quality that doesn't come easy to me, but boy am I ever glad when it pays off!
There's a large antique mall that I visit every once in a while. One vendor was apparently getting out of the business and had everything reduced 50%. Antique store kryptonite, right? So of course I checked out the goods but the problem was that this vendor a) had only a huge locked glass case and was b) way in the back of a large store. The giant hassle of having to go hunt down an employee to open the case and then hover over me while I shopped kept me from ever purchasing anything. The vendor took several months to go out of business, and each time I would check the case just to see if there was anything new. One item in particular caught my eye each time but it was priced quite high, even with the discount, and eventually that vendor's lease ran out and his goods were gone.
Here's where the patience part comes in: last week I happened to be at a thrift that I rarely visit, due to it being a bit out of the way. Whoever does the pricing at this thrift knows what to look for in terms of vintage stuff--anything remotely interesting is immediately put in the locked glass case in the front of the store and priced far beyond what a reasonable person would pay even at an antique store. I always look but am usually turned off by the high prices. That day, though--that day I got lucky, because what should I find in the case but the EXACT object of my affection from the antique mall!
You can see why I love it, right? The perfect shade of pink, the jaunty hat and bow, the spaghetti fur, and best of all, the black cat-eye glasses with rhinestones! Pure 1950s perfection. She even has her original Napco foil label.
I image that vendor just dumped the unsold merchandise from his booth at the thrift and took the tax write-off. It was priced higher than I like to pay at the thrift but still a fraction of the asking price at the antique mall. And I think that after all those months of admiring it, it was meant to be! Thrift seredipity, if you will.
Pinky the Poodle Planter joins Pinky the Poodle Pincushion, another thrifted treasure that has a place of honor on my desk. Pink Poodle Perfection!
There's a large antique mall that I visit every once in a while. One vendor was apparently getting out of the business and had everything reduced 50%. Antique store kryptonite, right? So of course I checked out the goods but the problem was that this vendor a) had only a huge locked glass case and was b) way in the back of a large store. The giant hassle of having to go hunt down an employee to open the case and then hover over me while I shopped kept me from ever purchasing anything. The vendor took several months to go out of business, and each time I would check the case just to see if there was anything new. One item in particular caught my eye each time but it was priced quite high, even with the discount, and eventually that vendor's lease ran out and his goods were gone.
Here's where the patience part comes in: last week I happened to be at a thrift that I rarely visit, due to it being a bit out of the way. Whoever does the pricing at this thrift knows what to look for in terms of vintage stuff--anything remotely interesting is immediately put in the locked glass case in the front of the store and priced far beyond what a reasonable person would pay even at an antique store. I always look but am usually turned off by the high prices. That day, though--that day I got lucky, because what should I find in the case but the EXACT object of my affection from the antique mall!
You can see why I love it, right? The perfect shade of pink, the jaunty hat and bow, the spaghetti fur, and best of all, the black cat-eye glasses with rhinestones! Pure 1950s perfection. She even has her original Napco foil label.
I image that vendor just dumped the unsold merchandise from his booth at the thrift and took the tax write-off. It was priced higher than I like to pay at the thrift but still a fraction of the asking price at the antique mall. And I think that after all those months of admiring it, it was meant to be! Thrift seredipity, if you will.
Pinky the Poodle Planter joins Pinky the Poodle Pincushion, another thrifted treasure that has a place of honor on my desk. Pink Poodle Perfection!
Thursday, February 05, 2009
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