Paper Journals & Books & thrifted furniture part 2

blank books ready for little storytellers and artists

I've been interested in sewing paper for awhile and finally sewed some journals last month. After some difficulty with needle breakage, I went with some heavy duty denim needles and that's worked well. I also tried doing pockets in my first journals, and I like that, but it's more difficult to get my machine to handle it, plus more time consuming. These are just one seam down the middle, each journal/book only takes about a minute total. woo hoo!

Supplies ready for book making.
I made a stack of paper journals to give away to my friends. So awesome!

I made a picnic blanket/lap quilt. Oh my goodness, it was so easy! I have a stash of fat quarters and chose 6 of them, then because I wanted a rectangle, I cut 2 of them in half to sew on the ends of the square (which I made with 4 fat quarters). Then I used other larger fabric scraps for the backing, cut about an inch smaller than the quilt front, and folded the edges of the quilt front over and sewed, so the pattern of the front dresses up the plain backing. I really love this blanket.


Time for a part 2 to my part 1 here.

This bookshelf is perfect for this corner here! Found it at Goodwill for $10 and painted it the same color as the walls.

This table was about $5 I think.

This is our craft cabinet, which I found at a yard sale for $30. It needed new shelves inside, which Rob did for me, and then I repainted it white.

And this interesting chair was $1. It was brown and had no seat. Rob cut a new seat from plywood and I just stapled fabric on and attached it and painted it white (well, I painted it first).

flowers, vegetables, vintage & other stuff

Anyone who knows Lily knows the girl loves to pick flowers. So the other night I set her loose to pick a bouquet of shasta daisies and coneflowers. She went to town.

I'm working on a fabric birthday book for my (gasp) almost one year old. I printed these images on fabric...only I realized after the fact that they are not waterproof. Trying to decide what to do now. Spray them with a clear coat? I could, but I don't want them to be stiff and scratchy. Hmm.

first tomato haul from the garden! Eric was so proud to pick his 'babies'--yellow pear and chocolate stripe tomatoes.

Went to an annual church rummage sale today--and SCORE!! Got this wool dinosaur rug for Eric's room by Pottery Barn Kids. $20.

Grace found this for me--a vintage music box that plays Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I have a Jack and Jill one from when I was little, but it's really beat up. This one is in great shape. 50 cents.

And a twin Holly Hobby vintage sheet set. What's cool about this is that I had this same set when I was a girl. I still have the pillow cases, but I don't have the sheets anymore. I remember many hot summer nights lying in my bed on my HH sheets reading a book with the window fan blowing over me. Sweet memories. This was $2.
I love, love, love vintage books. I've never seen this one, it's by Margaret Wise Brown. Very sweet. 25 cents.
Here we have a school reader full of stories, a vintage Jack and the Beanstalk, and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (a must for every cook, don't you think?) 1.50 for all 3.

I am also a sucker for milk glass, though let it be known that I did pass up a bunch of it today. I got this vase for 25 cents.

A friend of mine found this under her house and gave it to me. Sweet! I haven't seen a lid like this before.

Hoop Hideaway & Dyeing Rice

we made a hoop hideaway--hours of fun right here. http://www.mandalahoops.com/hoops-blog/2009/6/30/hoop-play-forts-for-kids.html

yesterday we dyed rice--so very easy and fun!

3 different times this week different people have asked me 'how do you do it' (meaning how do i manage a home & children and still be able to make things and do this and that) and 'do i ever sleep?' and things to that effect. Well, I do sleep plenty and wanted to talk a little about how i make time for what i do...and perhaps more importantly, what i DON'T do, since i by no means 'do it all'.

things i don't do:
--watch much tv, at all. the only time i have to watch tv is in the evenings, and usually we have other activities going on that preclude any tv watching. that's fine with me, i would rather be socializing, going on walks/to the park, playing, bike riding, etc. i do enjoy watching *some* tv though--usually it's netflixed movies or episodes of The Office, when i can stay up to watch it.
--go shopping. well, i *do* shop of course, but it's not fun for me, therefore i spend as little time as possible actually shopping. going to the mall is not recreational for me. not only is it pricey to buy things there, but it keeps me from doing other things and habitual buying of 'things' means more work to maintain, more clutter to deal with, and therefore less time to do the things that matter to me. for example--none of us has a *ton* of clothes, as i am constantly culling and donating them, plus i just plain don't buy that many.
--work full time outside the home. i did that for a time and was very stressed out. i truly don't know how *those* women do it!! part time is just the right balance for me.


so those are just some random thoughts. i am by no means where i want to be as far as discipline or time management goes, i'm always striving to be better. i also have a helpful husband and (usually) helpful children. i do love to thrift shop though, it's environmentally friendly, frugal, and simple. i also must make time to do the things i love--and i love to create, whether it be sewing curtains, planting flowers, baking a loaf of bread, or making my own deodorant. it connects me with the earth, with those who came before me, with God...it's incredibly centering for me. my children, then, when they see or think of something they want, ask me to make them one. and so we have this whole experience for them and for me, and this joy of making things together. wow, what a cool thing!

vintage vermont vacation finds

so we have: wooden bowls (will be used in our craft cabinet to hold various beads/for sorting etc), a tupperware container, juice glasses, a vintage pyrex refrigerator dish (YAY!), pyrex bowls, and awesome plain white corelle dishes. as best I can remember, I paid .50 each for the wood bowls, .10 each for the glasses, .25 for the tupperware, .75 and 1.25 for the corelle per piece, .75 for the vase, and between .10 and .75 for the pyrex bowls each. The biggest pricetag was the 3.00 for the vintage pyrex refrigerator dish, but heck, why not?

so adorable!

so lovely! I adore milk glass.

a very random piece--but I love the color, and it's heavy and hand made! 1.00 I think.

handknits, in the 3 bags for $2 section

wonderfully soft cotton sheets. These were in the 3 bags for $2 area too, so they were about .25 each at the most!

oh yeah--my loot from our vermont vacation! I knew I wanted to do a bit of thrifting. Malls? No way. Thrift stores? Yeah, that's more like it. Beforehand, I scouted out some thrift stores in Burlington and tagged along with my parents to places they knew of, plus we got a recommendation from one of their friends (and a fellow thrifter) of where she likes to go. I found treasures at every stop! Loot is from the 2 thrift stores in South Royalton, Recycle North & Salvation Army, both in B'ton, and Listens Thrift Store, somewhere near the Vt/NH border. The challenge was packing it (luckily I had brought extra bags for this), and getting all the stuff loaded up for the trip home. Did I mention that we also bought a piece of vintage luggage (1975), a bottle of wine and 2 wine glasses from a vineyard, and a dozen bottles of beer? So we were pretty weighed down with breakables. Luckily we all arrived home intact. I even caught a falling suitcase with my knee (ouch) but it was worth it--it contained my 'new' kitchen pieces.

yes, I bought everything....including a vintage wastebasket! Packing for home was fun, let me tell you! Rob was a real trooper. It made a good container to hold bottles of VT brewed beer, in the vintage suitcase. 1.00 for this gem!

henna, hooping on the hill, a hat...and sewing paper

here is my henna--below is a blurry slightly faded pic of my arm....we love doing henna around here.

on a perfect summer day i enjoyed spinning round and round on my parents vermont hill--just up the road from where i lived as a baby/toddler.

i knit my first hat! ok, it didn't start out to be a hat--just a rectangle that would perhaps become a washcloth, but i couldn't bear to do another boring washcloth. so i kept knitting and made a long rectangle, sewed up the sides, and added little tassels. see it there? NOT on calvin's head? my sweet son apparently hates hats!

so here's a pic of it on the table instead.

i sewed up some sweet paper journals, loved by me and the big kids. super easy and fun to sew paper!