Happy New Year-Favorite Projects of 2009!

Last year I did a top 10 favorite projects post. Actually, I did it in January, (which you can see here), but since this is the last day of the year, I thought I would just go for it. After looking at my posts from the year, I realized that I was pretty lazy about taking pictures of many of my completed projects.

So, here we go! In no particular order, here are some of my favorite projects of 2009!

Lined shopping cart trio.

Vintage wallpaper clipboards

Vintage wallpaper jewelry boxes

Another shopping cart trio

Barkcloth and vintage floral pillows

Display cabinet with vintage wallpaper

Shabby sewing drawers

Shabby buffet

Fancy blingy belt buckles

Cute vintage minty dresser

Soldered Collagey Christmas Ornament

Ruffley pantaloons

Reflector ornaments

Soldered charms

Cute apron

I forgot to include the project craigslist furniture I got this year and transformed, but you can check it out if you want to, on this post.

Wow, what a slacker I've been. ha ha Seriously, I do feel that way a lot. I always seem to have so many ideas for projects I want to do, but like some, I struggle with what to do first and waste a lot of time doing nothing. I don't like to make New Year's Resolutions as I always break them, but if I were to make one for 2010 it would be to spend more time being creative. That sounds like a fun resolution, don't you think?

As this is my last post for 2009, I want to wish you all a wonderful New Year. Here's hoping 2010 will be a great one!

White Wednesday-Another Simple Project

Several months ago, my sweet and clever friend and biz partner, Isabel, posted a tutorial on making easy pillows out of button front shirts. You can see that post here. Last week while out thrifting, I came across this little shirt. White, lace, buttons. Too small for me to wear, but...ah ha! It would make an adorable little pillow and I had recently bought a feather pillow form that would work perfectly.
This project was so easy and took less than 30 minutes to complete. If you have been reading my blog for while, you know I love me some easy projects. I am all about the instant gratification. Probably one of the reasons I stopped making quilts. Took too long. I will make quilted pillows which can be completed a lot quicker. But these shirt pillows take the cake for a cute, and quick project. Now that I made one, I will definitely be on the look out for some more shirts that can be made into pillows.

I had hoped to show you pictures of my completed holiday decorating, but unfortunately I'm still not finished. The tree is mostly done, just a few more things to put on.

I just noticed that I have reached 100 people who have signed on to follow my blog. Wow! I'm so touched that you all care enough to stop by on a regular basis to see what I've been doing. Thank you so much! I'll be back soon with those holiday pics I keep promising. Until then, I hope you are all having a great week!

Holiday Fun

I have been busy this past week spending time with friends, making visits to my mall spaces and getting ready for the holidays.

Last Sunday was the Christmas Cookie Exchange Party at Laurie's house. This was my first year and let me tell you, these ladies were no amateur cookie makers.

Isabel made her yummy Palmiers with chocolate drizzle this time. Yum!























I made some Spicy Pumpkin Cookies. (Recipe at the end of the post)























Sweet Natalie made her awesome Coconut Lime Bars which won the Barn House Flea Market Cookie Competition last year, so it was no surprise that they won again as best, non-chocolate cookie.

Overall, it was a really fun time and I met some amazingly talented women including this gal. Have you checked out her blog yet? She is a fabulous photographer and such a fun person.

On Tuesday, I hooked up with some of my old friends from college. Paul, who I recently connected with through Facebook is currently "between jobs" and is housesitting at an incredible, almost 6 million dollar house directly on Lake Oswego. I was lucky enough to get the jaw dropping tour and fortunately it was still light enough to witness the fabulous view of Mt. Hood. Here is a link to the house if you are interested in checking it out. Paul assures me that if I help sell it, I will get a cut of the commission. ha ha

After the grand tour, Paul and I drove up to see Stephanie in Camas. She was recently married and it has been years since we last got together. I even got to meet her adorable 5 year old daughter, Sydney.

Here are Stephanie and Paul.

The three of us.

Sydney

It was hard to get a picture of Syndey as she got a little tired and grumpy as the evening wore on. But she did entertain us with her Hulk hands. We had a great dinner and visit and made tentative plans to have a pizza party with all of our families at "the mansion" in January.

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to be invited to the adorable Sheila's house to craft. Remember Sheila from this recent post? Isabel, Joy and another sweet lady named Jan also came to work on soldered houses.

Here's a picture of the one I made already hanging on my Christmas tree. It was fun to do both sides so I can turn it over if I want. Almost like having two ornaments in one.

I still have to finish up the tree/house decorating, but promise to share some pictures when I do. Hopefully by tomorrow, I'll be done. Until then have a great weekend and here's my recipe:

Spicy Pumpkin Cookies

1 c. shortening

1 c. flour

1 c. canned pumpkin

1 egg

2 c. all purpose flour

1 T. pumpkin pie spice

1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

1 recipe cookie glaze (below)

chopped nuts (optional)

In an extra large bowl, beat together shortening and sugar with electric mixer until fluffy. Add pumpkin and egg; beat until combined. In a medium bowl, combine flour, spice, baking powder and baking soda. Beat into pumpkin mixture until combined. Spoon by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets and bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes. Remove and cool on wire racks

Spread glaze over cookies and sprinkle with chopped nuts, if desired. Makes 42-48 cookies.

Cookie glaze: In a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 c. packed brown sugar, 3 T. butter and 1 T. milk. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and stir in 1 c. sifted powdered sugar and 1 t. vanilla. (If frosting becomes too thick, stir in a few drops of hot water)

White Wednesday-A Fun & Easy Project

Ever since I saw Isabel's pantaloons at Farm Chicks, I wanted some too. Then last summer when Linda was visiting, she had some cute ones too. I definitely had pantaloon envy and have been looking for some to call my own. I think they are just too adorable poking out from under a skirt or dress.

I decided if I was going to own some pantaloons, that I would probably have to make some for myself so that's what I did.

First, I found a pair of cute linen crop pants at Value Village a few weeks ago for $4.99. I thought I would just add some rows of lace or ruffles to the bottom. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with them so they just sat there while I did other stuff (like watch netflix movies on my computer.)


Yesterday I was in my very messy sewing room and I picked up a Shabby Chic curtain panel off the floor and spied the ruffles running along one side. (Insert lightbulb moment here!) I had bought that panel at a thrift store awhile back not really knowing what to do with it, but hello, it had ruffles, it was white, it had swiss dots and it was cheap. Enough said.


I decided that I would just cut off the ruffled part and sew it on the bottom of my pants and voila!



Instant adorable and super duper easy! I think I will just have to wear these to a Christmas Potluck I am going to tonight. What fun! I even have enough of the ruffles left to put on a cute apron so that will be another project to work on later.
For your viewing pleasure, here are some more White Wednesday pictures from around my house.

Hope your week is going great! I'll be back soon to show you those Christmas ornaments I made.

What I've been up to this week

My hubby has been home from work this week. Well, not so much at home as off of work. He's been fishing a little, diddling in the garage a little, going to the gun club, you know, guy stuff. I did manage to get him to fix a few things for me this week which is always greatly appreciated.

Hit a few thrift stores this week on my way to Monticello. Here's what I found.

Worked on some projects for both Monticello and Farm Chicks. Here's one.

I found these sewing cabinet drawers. They were pretty sorry looking. I painted them, gave them a good sanding, added the glass knobs and put in some of my pretty wallpaper scraps left over from previous projects and I'm loving how they turned out. These will be added to my growing pile of goodies that will be heading to Spokane with me for Farm Chicks.

I took a few things to Monticello this week, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of them. If they are still there next week, I'll try to remember to take their pictures. I did get a picture of this though.

This was something I sold several years ago. I forget where, maybe a flea market. I had found the folding chair frame and put on the fabric. A simple project. Funny to see it again. That happens sometimes. Someone will buy something of mine and then years later I see it at another sale.

The other day I went grocery shopping at my favorite Fred Meyers and decided I needed a spring fix so I bought some flowers to put in some of my long neglected pots. I am no green thumb, but it did feel good to get my hands dirty and now I have something pretty to look at when I step outside. Trust me though, there is so much more to do in the yard.

I even planted up a mini herb garden to put on my patio table. We'll see how long these survive.

Yesterday I found a great seller on ebay. Her name is Mechelle and she has a blog too. It's called Pink*Daisys. She sells great vintage fabric and other cool stuff. She even has an etsy store as well where she sells some lovely hand crafted items. I was lucky enough to find a couple "bin" items on her ebay listings that were so cute and a great price.

Love this cute little pair of vintage barkcloth era curtain panels.

I also got a long piece of quilted rose covered fabric. This would make an adorable liner for one of my vintage shopping carts, cute pillows or a fun vintage tote. Maybe all three. I hope Mechelle doesn't mind that I borrowed her pictures as I am a really impatient person and can't wait to actually get the fabrics and take my own pictures.

I also went shopping with my Mom yesterday to a little town nearby called Aurora. Lots of cute antique shops there, but again, pretty expensive. I did manage to find a few items which I'll share on my next post.

Well, that's what my week has been looking like. It's suppose to be a really nice weekend here with some sunshine and much warmer temperatures. Good for painting furniture and I have a lot of that to do. Wish me luck!

Keepin it Real/New Projects

Awhile back, Sue was brave enough to show a picture of her garage. Since then I have been toying with the idea of showing you a picture of my garage. I'm kind of embarrassed as it's really awful. A giant mess, really.

Tracey talks about her favorite part of junking here. She, like me, loves the find. That is my absolute most favorite part. Don't get me wrong, I do love transforming my finds into something lovely, but, finding the thing in the first place is what really gets me excited. Unlike Tracey however, I don't bring those special items home and get busy transforming them right away. I sure wish I could/would. So, all those special items that just need a little something extra end up here.

Or here.

This room used to be a lovely sitting room (was supposed to be the formal dining room, but we are definitely not formal people) and free from clutter. Somewhere along the way it became the dumping ground for the stuff I bring home and can't fit into the garage. Usually it's smalls on route to Monticello or upcoming shows, but as you can see, I have some bigger furniture in here as well. And, like the garage, there is some great stuff in here, but most of it just needs some TLC.

My goal, and I have said this out loud to more than one person, is to make a better effort to find things that are ready to sell as is. The problem with that is my budget. Usually, those items cost more and I just don't have the funds to go to an estate sale and say, spend $500 on a bunch of furniture and other items that are ready to be tagged and taken to the mall. So, I look for the bargains and more often than not, they are usually things that need work. Repair, paint, fabric, sometimes all three. In a perfect world I would be more like Tracey and transform my finds before buying any more. But once again, the find is my favorite part. It's my therapy, my bliss.


My husband really is a saint to put up with all my mess. He will even help fix stuff from time to time if I ask real nice. Also important to note, I do work well under pressure and since my next show isn't until June (Farm Chicks) I haven't been as motivated to work on stuff as I would be if I had a show sometime sooner. I always think I have so much time, but when it comes down to the wire, I usually get the stuff I want to get done, done. Of course, that's not to say that if I had been more organized and more motivated, I could have gotten a whole lot more done.


That said, here are couple things I have transformed over the last week.

This is the little bed side table I showed in my last post. It got the creamy paint, shabby treatment and has already been taken to Monticello.

Recovered this little vanity bench. It already had the great creamy chippy paint that I love.

I've had this little cabinet door for several years just hanging out in the garage. I think I bought it with the intention of making it into a sign. Dug out some of my vintage wallpaper, added a little glass knob and voila, instant cute.


Another easy wallpaper project. Got this adorable display cabinet from Diane. It already had the cute black and white stripe paper with vintage receipts that you can see in the background, I just thought the rose paper was more me.

This little shelf I found at the auction and decided it needed to be prettier. It was already painted white so all I had to do was add the wallpaper.

This cabinet came home from the last Expo with me. I gave the whole thing a fresh coat of white paint and added the wallpaper to the side panels.

And finally, this little shelf was a find at the Value Village. It was brown and not too cute, so it got some white paint as well.

Well, that's it for now. I have a couple posts in the works including one about another little road trip I took with my family last weekend. We here in the PNW are experiencing the most lovely spring weather. I couldn't be happier. I even rode my pink cruiser to Home Depot today. What fun!

That Manni is Such a Ham

On my way back from Monticello last week, I called Isabel to chat and she told me that my picture of Manni made it into a mosaic that Tara Frey had done on her blog. I hadn't read Tara's blog in awhile so I thought I would see what Isabel was talking about when I got home. You can see Tara's mosaic (featuring Manni) here. What a nice surprise. So, it made me think. Maybe I should take a picture and show you what Manni is looking like these days. She has been moved to another part of my bedroom and is currently hanging out with my vintage hats.

As you can see, she is currently sporting lots of pearls, her favorite cropped denim jacket with a few rhinestone pins, what you can't see is her newest vintage slip. Here's another, less arty picture.

Sally Ann, on the other hand, is currently residing in the living room next to the rustic cabinet with all of my wedding toppers and other miscellaneous keepsakes. She's sporting pearls around her neck too. She thinks the more, the better and I have to agree. She has been wearing a tattered part of an old wedding dress that I found at the GW bins and a raggedy crinoline underneath that. I thought the old millinery rose would add a nice touch even if she is topless.

Now that I think about it, I'm wishing I hadn't sold this amazing antique dress I found last year. It would have been perfect on her.Maybe I'll find another someday. A vintage wedding dress would be so cute on her too. Hey Isabel?!

I have been working hard on some projects the last couple days including painting and recoving this little vanity bench.

I also got one coat of paint on a little cabinet that needed it, but it started raining before I could finish the job. Yesterday I took a few things over to Monticello, including this cute white corner cabinet I found a couple weeks ago at the Deseret shop.Only thing it needed was some glass knobs and a tiny bit of distressing. I love those kind of projects.

My friend, Mitzi, went with me over there and of course we just had to stop at a few thrift stores along the way. We met Isabel over there to help her gather some things for Expo which she is doing this weekend. Today I will be helping her set up do a little shopping as well.

I want to acknowledge an award my BFF Timi gave me a few weeks ago. I apologize, Timi for not mentioning it sooner. What does this award mean you ask? I copied this quote from Timi's blog to explain.

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

Those are some big words in there. I didn't know what aggrandizement either, Timi, thanks for explaining it.

Anyway, I gotta run and get ready for my busy day. I will be back some time this weekend with pictures of my day at Expo and hopefully some good stuff I found there. Hope you have a swell weekend!