Good Junk: feedsack quilt squares

On Monday I popped into Goodwill looking for...well, I'm not sure what I was looking for, but while I was there I spied a bag full of old feedsack quilt squares in the locked glass case. This particular Goodwill is usually pretty lousy, although I have found a few treasures now and again. I've seen antique quilts in the glass case on more than one occasion, but they're always marked at some ridiculous amount for a thrift store ($70+) and have been in poor condition. The price on the quilt squares was also too high, so I didn't even ask to look at them.

Yesterday afternoon we were on the way to get Porter's hair cut and I knew that the 50% off color tag at that Goodwill changes on Thursdays, so I thought we'd do a quick stop and see if, just by some lucky chance, the color of tag on the quilt squares was the color on sale. It was and I was surprised to see that the quilt squares were still in the case, so I wasted no time in snapping them up!

I finally had a chance last night to go through them and I'm so happy I bought them! They definitely qualify for the title of Good Junk:

There are 61 squares total. Nine of them have been sewn together in a line, and some of the other squares must have been sewn together at some point because they have pressed seam allowances and needle holes down two sides. Most of the squares (50 to be exact) have nine little feedsack strips at the top of the pink wedge.

One square has 10 strips, one has 14, and the remaining squares have 15 strips.

I have no idea why there is a difference, unless the quilter started out doing the 15-strip squares and decided it was just taking WAY too long and dropped six strips for a total of nine.

The squares themselves are made of what looks like unbleached muslin.

Some of the muslin has yellowish spots on it, and I don't know if that is damage or just part of the unbleached-ness.

The feedsack fabrics are just darling and I know it must have been an awful lot of work to piece all those tiny strips together. Here is a sampling of some of the squares:

I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do with these squares. I don't sew so it's way beyond my abilities to make them into a quilt myself. I know that there are quilters out there that will take old squares like these and make them into a quilt for you, but I imagine that's a pretty expensive service due to the time involved. The sewing is not as precise (notice how most of the wedges are different sizes?) so I'm not sure it would be worth the great expense. They're too small to be made into pillows, and there are too many to frame and put on the wall. Any suggestions?

I figure each square cost me just over 25¢, which was some consolation after Porter's disaster of a haircut. He has portraits scheduled for tomorrow morning and his hair ended up way shorter than I wanted it to be, and I could just cry about it! I don't know what possessed me to get his hair cut right before pictures, but it really was looking shaggy and needed a trim--just not that much of a trim! He's not bald by any means, but all of his long curls are gone and I'm just sick about it. Maybe I'll feel better if I go look at my new quilt squares again.

Where the birds sing words and the flowers croon...

Maybe it's the dreary weather we've been having for nearly two weeks (including SNOW on more than one occasion), but right now I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of having a Tiki Party this summer. I can trace the germination of the idea back to two sources:

First, the posts Danielle Thompson wrote about the Tiki Party she threw recently (I don't want to use any of Danielle's photos so pop over there and check them out yourself). I just love the bright colors and retro vibe of her decor and invitations!

Second, I went to a craft/vintage market on Mother's Day weekend and came across what I think is such a clever business idea: Hula Moon, which is basically a mobile Tiki bar that you can hire to cater your events. I love this idea, and think it's a great niche to fill and hope that the girls who run it find much success. At the market, they were selling delicious freshly-made mocktails and mocktinis and ice pops and judging from the line at their booth, they were doing a smashing business! I had a mojito, which was delicious and refreshing.

Ever since then, I've been pinning and dreaming about how I could turn our deck and (tiny) back yard into a Tiki lounge. The whole idea is kind of ironic because we don't drink alcohol and neither do any of our friends, so I'll be hitting the Google for some fun tropical mocktails that I can serve. I've even started shopping--I picked up these little dudes at a yard sale on Saturday:

They're vintage, made by Steve Crane and Associates. I sold a vintage Steve Crane tiki mug a few months ago on eBay for around $60 so maybe I can even resell these guys after I'm finished. Because for pete's sake, I do NOT need another collection, and I can see myself getting sucked into the Tiki thing if I'm not careful!

Sooo...ya have any good mocktail recipes?

Hello from the Turkish bazaar and future projects

In the past five days, I've purchased no fewer than FIVE 5'x7' rugs (whew, that's a lot of fives!). My front room is starting to look like a Turkish bazaar. Yesterday alone I purchased three of the rugs, two from my new favorite store--Lowe's! I bought a clearanced jute boucle rug for $10--seriously! Regular price was $60. Actually, I got it for $9 because of the 10% discount they generously give to military folks. It has actually crossed my mind that maybe I should go back and get the other two $9 rugs and throw them up on Craigslist and see if I can't make a little profit.

The other rug from Lowe's is for the newly-painted aqua room, and was on clearance for $78 (I also bought a clearance floor lamp for $23--see why Lowe's is my new fave?).

I'm going to return the HomeGoods rug I asked you about in the last post. Design- and color-wise, it's actually my favorite, but even with a rug pad I'm just worried that it won't ever lay nice and flat and will drive me crazy forever. So it's headed back to HomeGoods, along with the other jute rug I purchased for the front room, as is the $50 outdoor rug I bought at Target yesterday morning, also purchased for the front room. Whew!

I finally finished the painting yesterday, exactly one week after I started. That'll teach me to be impatient! I am still proud that I did it myself and love how it turned out, and have several more painting projects in mind for the summer. One of them is this cute dresser,

which I bought at a yard sale on Saturday morning. I like the scalloped piece on the back and the turned front legs (which I think would be made even cuter by the addition of some vintage-style casters). It's not the finest piece of furniture, but I think it will work once it's been repainted and had fun new knobs added. I have it in mind to replace this dresser

which I still love, but have finally come to grips with the fact that it is simply too small for the space. I'm not going to get rid of Short Stack here--it needs a trip to rehab and then it will find another place in my house. I need to scrape off the existing (lead, I'm sure) paint, fix the drawers, and rip off the too-large and warped top and replace it with something nice and solid. I think I'll paint the dresser a creamy white and stain the top dark, a la Miss Mustard Seed.

I also purchased a can of bright red paint to paint my little wooden desk chair, another yard sale find that I don't seem to have a picture of. I bought it from a guy who said he meant to refinish it but never got around to it. For several years I've been fine with the shabby white paint that has hints of blue peeking through, but on one of my many trips to Home Depot last week, was seized with the desire to paint it a pretty red to match the remade vintage curtains from my office re-do:

I'm anxious to get started on all of these projects! Now all I need is for the stupid weather to cooperate so I can get going before I lose my painting mojo.

Need advice on an area rug

The painting is *almost* done--today I have to touch up the corners where the aqua paint meets the Rice Grain on two walls. I also need to get a small pot of gloss white paint to touch up the door frames, and then I can finally put away the painting supplies that have been taking up space on my kitchen counter for a week and get the furniture moved out of my front room and back where it belongs! I'm anxious to get it all done, because I'm tired of the mess. I LOVE the color, though!

 I bought a new area rug on Friday at HomeGoods and put it down last night, but now I'm having second thoughts. I like the colors, but it's quite a bit thinner and lighter than the rug I had previously, and I'm noticing that doesn't want to lay flat and gets all bunched up when we walk on it. Will a rug pad help with that, or am I doomed to have a scrunchy rug? It was $99 for a 5'x7' which I know is a super price, and I was thrilled to find it because I just don't want to shell out $200+ for a rug when the last one I had was purchased for $20 at a yard sale! Any advice for me? Do you get what you pay for in the rug department?

Vintage hankie cuff bracelet

How weird..I know that yesterday's post about the vintage tablecloth & glass beads posted at one point, because Rebecca commented on it--but then it disappeared and went back to being scheduled! I know Blogger was acting up for many people yesterday and I suppose I must be one of them.

I had high hopes to finally FINISH my painting project during today's naptime, but my hopes were dashed when the paint roller left hundreds of tiny pieces of fuzz in my wet paint. Grrr! I've been washing and reusing the same roller all week and apparently the limit on number of times you can successfully do that is three. The baby is asleep so I couldn't just run out and get another roller cover, so I'll have to pick one up after school and finish during tomorrow's naptime. I just want this darn project to be over!

I did go through the entire gallon of Sherwin-Williams Super Paint just doing the first coat, and purchased another gallon of custom-matched Behr to act as the top coat. The color match is pretty spot-on, but I'm really surprised at how thin the Behr paint is compared to the S-W Super Paint. It's like the difference between chocolate milk and a chocolate milkshake. And now I really want a chocolate milkshake! Yum. Also, the Behr paint is much stinkier than the Sherwin-Williams was, even though the Super Paint is not marketed as low-odor or low-VOC.

I found some old project photos I never shared, so I thought I'd throw those up today so you have something pretty to look at. I don't know how I got the idea, but I wanted to turn a vintage printed hankie into a cuff bracelet.

I used a hankie with a pretty floral design and ironed it onto a piece of stiffener to give it some body. Then I cut out along the edges of the flowers and leaves and used prong-set rhinestones to add some sparkle to the flower centers. (sidenote--I had no idea how difficult it would be to find glass, prong-set rhinestones anymore. I could only find them at Michael's and only in one or two sizes, and only in clear.)

For the cuff I used a wide piece of vintage lace and sewed a straight line down each side of the flower piece to tack it down. I hand-sewed a pair of large snaps to keep it closed, and it was finished! It's a fun little piece (although I don't think I've ever worn it!) and a fun way to repurpose a vintage hankie.

What are your plans this weekend? I think you know what mine involve...

So THAT'S what was yelling so loud

I could hear something calling me from the thrift store, so I was obedient.

Glad I listened! I only bought two things, but they were worth the drive:

A bag of seven (!) strands of various-sized vintage gold mercury glass beads (this from a thrift that only recently started putting out Christmas items year-round)

A vintage Cactus Cloth printed California souvenir tablecloth, unused and sporting the original paper tag.

 Sometimes it pays to listen!

Out of the navy, into the swimming pool

If you have the May 2011 issue of Country Living magazine, you may have seen this photo in the antiques appraisal article:

I've been kind of obsessed with it--I love the combination of the aqua walls and the red, and I love the bold graphic quality of the doily stretcher and the ticking stripe pillows. I've just kept thinking about the photo and how much I loved it and how I wanted that same feeling in my own house, but I didn't think I could get it because I don't have any aqua walls.

And then it hit me--duh, I can make aqua walls! My family room is connected on one long wall with my kitchen. Last year we repainted that portion of the walls and the kitchen in good-old Sherwin-Williams Rice Grain.

The other two walls of the family room are painted navy blue.

Here's The Mister painting in his sexy short shorts. ;) We painted the navy walls right after we moved into this house in 2004, before we even had any furniture. I was shocked that it was so easy to convince him to paint the walls such a dark, bold color--he's usually pretty conservative on those types of things.

Here's how our living room looked yesterday.

Nice that I cleaned up to take this photo, right? I don't dislike the navy, but once I got a bee in my bonnet about painting the walls aqua like that Country Living photo, that was it for me. I went immediately to Sherwin-Williams and picked out this gorgeous color

which is appropriately named "Swimming" and today I got started painting.

The Mister is out of town this week so I'm on my own for this project. Oh sure, I could wait until next week when I have his help and could probably get it done in half the time, but I want it done NOW so I'm willing to go it alone. I'm pretty sure The Mister is thrilled that he gets out of painting! Today I had two hours to paint during the time that Maren is at school and Porter naps.

I knew I wouldn't get very far and unfortunately, I was right. If you look at the photo of my room, I painted the short wall with the HOME letters and the tiny hallway right next to it. That was maybe 1/3 of the total area, and it took me two solid hours! Sheesh. I did have to do a lot of tricky cutting in, because that little "hallway" has two doors right next to one another at a right angle, and painting the tiny sliver of wall between the door frames is challenging. The rest of the wall from here on out is nice and flat so it should go much faster.

Once again, my proclivity for underestimating the amount of paint needed for a room has shown itself. I knew that going over a dark paint with a much lighter shade would require some kind of priming. I bought the Sherwin-Williams Super Paint that's supposed to be self-priming, although the salesman told me I'd need two coats because of how dark the navy is. He was right, it will. And although I've only done 1/3 of the area, I've used nearly 1/2 the paint, and then I still need to do that second coat.

The Super Paint is regularly priced at $43/gallon and I specifically bought it last week because it was 25% off. I'll be darned if I'm going to go fork over another 45 bucks (sale is over, of course) so I think tomorrow I'll make a visit to Home Depot or Lowe's and see if they can match the color in Behr or Valspar. I'll get as far as I can with the remaining S-W paint, and then use the new gallon as the top coat so it will all match. I do really love how the new aqua color is looking and I can't wait to see the final result!

Any advice on Behr vs. Valspar?

Mother's Day gifts: antique canning jar soap pumps

Now that I'm sure that my mom and MIL have received their gifts, I wanted to share with you what I did for Mother's Day for them this year. A few months ago I came across this pin on Pinterest (do you Pin? That needs to be another post entirely) and was determined to make one for myself.

http://theblissfullycontentlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/homemade-christmas-canning-jar-soap.html

I realized that they would make fun Mother's Day gifts, so I've been on the hunt for antique pint-sized blue glass canning jars. I know that the quart-size jars are usually pretty plentiful at antique stores, and I figured that the smaller ones would be easy to find as well. Boy, was I wrong! I went to one antique mall, one consignment store, and about six other antique stores with ZERO luck before I threw in the towel and went to my go-to giant antique mall on the other side of town. Even there, I really had to search for them, and they were more expensive than the larger quart jars!

For the pump portion, I purchased two bottles of Suave lotion because although they have a plastic pump, it's a nice matte silver color and I like how it looks with the zinc lid. I did look at Michael's to see if they sold pumps with the soap-making supplies, but they didn't have anything. I imagine you could also purchase a soap container from a thrift store or yard sale and just harvest the pump mechanism, but I was in a hurry so I went with what I knew would be easily available.

From there, it was easy! I traced the top of the lid on paper and cut out the circle, then folded it into fourths to determine the center. Using a hammer, I tapped a nail into the top of the lid to make a mark for the center.

The zinc lids for these old jars have a white glass insert that you have to remove so you can put the pump through. I flipped the lid so the inside was facing up, then put a paper napkin over the glass insert and gave it a gentle tap with my hammer. The insert broke, and I used a pair of needle-nose pliers to pull out the pieces and discard them.

I enlarged my pilot hole from the nail by using a Philips head screwdriver and my hammer; I just tapped the screwdriver gently until it went all the way through. I thought that would be big enough to slip the pump through, but then I looked closer at the pump and realized that the portion that needs to fit through the lid is wider than the stem. It's the part the pencil is pointing to in this photo:

To make the hole bigger, I used my needle-nose pliers again and basically jammed them through the hole and twisted. I don't have a photo of this very scientific and precise maneuver because I needed both hands to perform it, but it was easy. The metal lids are really soft and it only took a few twists to make the hole just big enough to fit the pump through. I wanted a snug fit so it would stand up straight, but I'm sure you could use some glue to stabilize the whole thing as well.


The last step was that I needed to trim the plastic stem, because the pint jars were shorter than the original lotion bottles. I just eyeballed the length and cut them with a regular pair of scissors. And then I was done! It honestly took me maybe 20 minutes, and that was because I had to figure out how to do it. I could make one in about 5 minutes now that I know what I'm doing. The hardest thing about the whole project was finding the darn jars!

To complete the gift, I used a pair of darling embroidered vintage flour sack towels that I found at an estate sale last summer. I rolled up each towel so that the embroidered picture was showing and tied it with pretty ribbon.  I searched and found this cute little poem called My Mother's Hands (which I admit I altered very slightly to make it more appropriate from a grown child's perspective). I printed it out on colored cardstock and slipped it around the dishtowel under the ribbon, and tied matching ribbons around the jar lids. I'm very happy with how they turned out; I know it's a gift I'd be tickled to receive!

I definitely want to make one (or more) of these for my own home, so I'll either have to get lucky and find more pint jars or break down and use the quart size. If you want to purchase your soap dispenser lid instead of MacGyvering one like I did, both Post Road Vintage and Midwest Finds are Etsy sellers who carry them. Now, wish me luck finding those pint jars!

Overstock Script chair round 2

Back at the end of March I posted about the cute Signature Tan Linen Slipper chair I ordered from Overstock.com:

I'm still really happy with it! I also still need to spray it with Scotch Guard, but I need help because it's almost too big to fit through the door without bumping it on the doorjamb and I don't want to get it dirty. Back when I first received the chair, I showed it to a friend and mentioned it was so big that I wasn't sure where I would use it in my house. She knew I was also looking for a love seat, and she very wisely suggested that I purchase another chair and use them together in place of a love seat. Brilliant! I'm so glad I have such smart friends. :)

Today I finally got around to ordering a second chair and was tickled to find that the price has dropped even further from when I originally ordered it! I did a little digging and found a coupon code that took off another $12 and even though I had to pay $2.95 for shipping (as opposed to the $1 last time) I still think I got a great deal!

While I was ordering, I noticed that Overstock has added a few new chairs with a similar look:

This is the Tapered Signature Chair which comes with a black accent pillow. This one looks a little more like the original Ballard Designs Brockton chair:

And there's also the Script Bouquet Arm Chair:

Which is a pretty shape and has lovely blue upholstery and floral script phrases.

I can't wait for my second chair to get here so I can get it put together and really get started on redecorating my front room. The next item I'll be hunting for is a large area rug, and if the weather ever cooperates I have a refinishing project on the horizon as well!

Florida vacation highs and lows

We're back from our vacation to Florida and I'll tell you, I think I need a vacation to recover from my vacation! We returned on Tuesday and on Monday morning as I was dragging the kids out of bed at 7:00 am for Day #4 of our Assault on Disney World, I was never so thankful that my vacation was coming to an end. I don't think we could have lived through another day of fun at that point. We were all exhausted!

You all know by now that the chief reason we went to Florida ended up being a bust. We were literally on the bus headed out to the VIP viewing area on Friday morning when our friend called and broke the news (before it even hit the wires--the NASA employee on our bus had no idea) that the launch had been scrubbed. We all returned to Kennedy Space Center and golly, that must be what it feels like in the stadium after your team has lost the Super Bowl. What had been a festive atmosphere totally tanked and the mood was pretty low after that.

See, this is exactly why I don't gamble--I hate to lose! We knew going into it that we were taking a gamble that the Shuttle would even launch; we knew not to get our hopes up because launches get scrubbed all the time--and I truly tried to not get my hopes up, I really did. But my heart won out over my brain and as the launch time grew closer and it looked more and more like it would be a GO--well, I got excited. We all did, can you blame us? So even though we knew that we shouldn't be surprised, it was still bitterly disappointing to hear that the launch was not going to happen, and that the chances of it happening on Monday were slim to none as well.

We were lucky--we still had three more days of Disney to take the sting out of the launch scrub. My poor mom and dad had to go home early the next morning, so that meant their trip ended on a bummer. I wish our schedules had worked out differently so they could have stayed. Four days at Disney World is a pretty good consolation prize, you have to admit.

I will say that if we ever do Disney World again, I'm going in January because that's the only time of year that I can guarantee it won't be ridiculously hot! The previous two times we visited WDW were in June and July and you can imagine how unpleasant the weather conditions are in those months. I thought for sure that April would be lovely--not too hot, but a nice warm change from springtime in Colorado--and I was dead wrong. The first day we spent at Animal Kingdom was around 93 degrees and subsequent days were in the mid- to upper-80s with intense sunshine and high humidity. We went through an entire bottle of sunscreen in less than a week!

My kids, bless their hearts, were troupers. We broke our cardinal rule for Disney parks and neglected to go back to the hotel for a break during the day, so Porter was accordingly cranky due to missing his naps for seven days in a row. We went from early morning until late at night every single day, and my sweet kids kept up pretty darn well under the circumstances. We tried to go at their speed in the parks and to do the things that they would enjoy, even if that meant standing in line for Princess autographs or letting Porter strip nearly naked and play in the water fountains at Animal Kingdom like a street urchin. I'm pretty sure it was the most fun he had all week.

In all, it was a wonderful trip and I'm so thankful that we had the opportunity to go and especially to share part of it with my parents. We never thought we'd be able to afford to take our kids to Disney World without years of saving up, but the stars just aligned for this trip so we couldn't pass it up. I won't lie--it would have been even better if we had been able to view the Space Shuttle launch, and whenever it finally does launch I'm not sure if I can stand to watch knowing how close I was to seeing it in person.

On the upside, Porter got to stick his toes in the ocean for the first time,

The Mister got to have a Dole Whip float and too many Mickey Premium ice cream bars to count,

Maren got to meet Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen,

and I enjoyed photographing the amazing topiaries and displays at the Flower & Garden show at Epcot:

Oh, and the humidity brought more curl to my hair and gave me hope that pregnancy hasn't ruined my curls completely.

And now it's back to real life!

Why today is the most important day of the year

Easy sweater refashion for spring

Last fall I purchased three plain 3/4-sleeve cardigans on clearance from Target with the idea that I would use stuff in my stash to refashion them. Here's what I did with the turquoise and the light green cardigans, which left the white one. I purchased the white one because I wanted to recreate this cardigan from White House Black Market:

and although I love it, I've never gotten around to it and at this point I know it's just not going to happen. So in the interest of just getting it done, I turned to another tutorial I have in my files that used a white cardigan: this 20-minute Spring sweater re-do from Jen at Tatertots and Jello.

I loved the way the bright colors of the buttons and the rickrack pop against the white sweater in Jen's version, but the only fat rickrack I had on hand was black, so I decided to go with it anyway. I followed Jen's tutorial and first removed the existing buttons, then pinned on the rickrack and sewed down the length of it.

 

I turned it under at the top and bottom but if I were doing it again, I wouldn't trim the end of the rickrack so close. Jumbo rickrack is woven and thus unravels badly and at the bottom you can see it peeking out. I attempted a fix with some Fray Check and fabric glue, but I wish I'd just left it longer to begin with.

I didn't have enough of the same size of covered button blanks, so I couldn't make cute covered buttons like Jen did. I do not have a shortage of buttons, however,

so I dug out a few of my favorite vintage plastic buttons and sewed those on instead. They were larger than the original buttons so they do not fit through the buttonholes, and I had to sew the sweater shut. That was a pain, but the cute buttons are worth it!

Sewing on all eight buttons took me longer than 20 minutes, but the rickrack part was a breeze. I wore my new sweater yesterday and the rainbow of vintage buttons made me so happy!

And if I ever get tired of the sweater or need to throw it away, I'll most definitely be removing those buttons to use again!