it's a zoo + finish-a-long...

My name is Heidi and I love vintage kitsch. There is my confession. I enjoy my small, but lovingly currated, collection of vintage pyrex. When we cleared out my grandparent's farm before auction, I picked the items no one else wanted {furniture with "character", bits of old fabric, christmas ornaments in disrepair, rusty bits and bobs}. When I saw the Indygo Junction patterns for these little circus performers, I knew my shelves needed them!

The elephant came first... I think he is adorable with his little stick legs. That sparkly bauble is a button salvaged from my grandma's house.

This little piggy went to the circus. The elephant and piggy are similar in construction. I really enjoy the decorating and detail work on them - choosing that perfect trim or paper for their hats.

Mouse in the house. She is just adorable. What's cropped out in this picture is a little pink balloon made out of paperclay. Paperclay is a wonderful air-dry clay that is easy to work with and acrylic paint friendly. If anyone has some great suggestions on how to store paperclay long term, I would love to hear them. I don't use it often enough and it seems I am always throwing some dried-out bits away no matter how many ziploc bags I use.

Monkey see monkey do. I love this little juggler - again with the help of paperclay! In case you wondered what the rest of the monkey {& mouse} look like, here is a full photo. The legs are pipecleaners wrapped with floral tape and then painted - a new technique for me!

This post is two-fold: I wanted to show off my circus folks, but also share with you the Finish-A-Long happening over at Quilter in the Gap. I have long talked about my box of unfinished objects {UFOs}. Each quarter you share what you plan to finish, link up to her site, then add links to your finished projects at the end of 3 months. I'm excited to get to work + there are great prizes at the end of each round! Worst case scenario, I get some work done! So my first hope-to-finish is the last 2 circus animals that I want to make - a lion and a horse {possibly a unicorn}. I have all of the supplies out to make them - even little legs and arms all painted up for Mr. Lion. But these little guys are pretty time consuming with all their details.

Next up is this wreath. I had grand plans to get it finished in February for valentine's day. I want to make a variety of felt flowers just like I did for the Christmas wreath I made.

My last hope-to-finish is the binding on this queen sized quilt. I don't want to reveal too much until I am completely finished.

I hope you are enjoying Spring - it always seems like the best time of year for a fresh start!

around the house [in way less than 80 days]...

This post goes out to those home dec/improvement projects that [sadly] do not warrant a whole blog post all to themselves. Above is the last of my outdoor-furniture-recovering-extravaganza. Again using my crazy low priced JoAnn's fabric.

My New York Beauty is finally quilted, bound, and hanging in its rightful place in our dining room. I still love the 'I-Spy' of it all - seems like a treasure hunt every time I walk by it! I have the pattern and the fabric stack for a pickle dish quilt, but it has to get in line behind my pile of UFOs. Also not quite ready for another intensive paper piecing project. [You can read all about my adventures with NYB blocks here]

New curtains for the bathroom! The former curtains were faded and on their last leg, so it was definitely time for a change.

This is the first time I have made a shade that operated like this one - fairly simple, but looks and works well. I used the same book that I did to make my roman shades in this post.

Currently have some top secret Christmas projects in the works. Hoping to share an update on my quilt swap blocks this week.

yes, my house is aqua...

Did you ever [temporarily] forget that you live a small rural community, with traditional little houses painted white, tan, or grey? Where even a yellow house is a bold move? Only to drive home and see the 2" swatch of color you chose is now the entire side of your house? No? It's only me that thinks beach houses can exist in the midwest [hours from a lake, let alone the ocean]?

This summer our house underwent a transformation from unnoticeable to unmistakable. The house has received mixed reviews - but we get quite a few compliments and people seem to think it 'looks like me.' [hopefully this does not mean I look like a 2 story aqua house]

These are just a few of the before and afters I took. We had the front porch completely ripped off and rebuilt to look like the original. [on a funny note - at the 'porch ripped off stage' one of our neighbors shared how nice the house was looking... hmm wonder how bad the house looked before :]

We only intended to replace the floor, but apparently the two bricks serving as a 'foundation' do not meet current construction standards. It was fun to see the porch come back to life!

It may be worth noting that the 'before' pictures were taken after our house was power-washed - so we the paint was definitely in need of a new coat, but not as bad as in these pictures.

Lookey, lookey - no more suicide door! The former owners ripped a decaying balcony off the house. So for years we have been living with a door to nowhere.

We are enjoying our porch - as is Miss Sophie :D {new cushions for our wicker furniture made with my 60cent/yard home dec fabric courtesy of JoAnn's moving sale!}

past presents [aka aprons i made]...

Here I am - blogging; astonishing really... Between two full time jobs, a part time job, technical issues, and a variety of other things [known as life] I have sadly neglected my blog, as well as my online persona. So let's give this a try - really, I have things to blog about, heck, I even have pictures edited of things to blog about :D Let's ease back into this, a few pictures, brief descriptions, nothing fancy...

I like aprons. I like to wear them. I like to make them. I like to gift them. The folks in my FCS classroom [I am long term subbing currently] think aprons are a strange, foreign concept reserved for black and white pictures of grannies. I however, know better - they are clothes savers and even fashion statements in their own right. Above is the one I made [for myself] that I wear when we cook in class. I love those crazy veggies! The Emmeline Apron is easy, fabulous, and reversible! This one has a Sweetwater floral print on the back.

Yes, it is another Emmeline Apron [I actually made 3]. This is my best pal Jordan - she works at a coffee shop and needed an apron [though she decided she didn't want to bleach it up, so she doesn't actually wear it to work...]

Nope, I don't know what pattern I used to make this apron for my sister's housewarming gift. I think it's super cute with a vintage vibe.
Well, that wasn't so difficult - hope to be back online Friday with some more things to share! Thanks for sticking with me :D

recipe box redu...

I have a crush on vintage advertising and labels. The wonderful artwork, the neat fonts, the retro colors - the sense of nostalgia. When we cleared out my grandparent's home for auction a few years ago there was no shortage of ephemera. My great-grandparents built the house, and like many during the depression years, they saved everything!

One of the carry overs of food packaging that has lasted to this day, is the inclusion of recipes. [usually the recipe calls for another product that the manufacturer makes] Some of the recipes I found were much more appetizing than others, but the artwork was lovely. I am a big fan of the old school Betty Crocker cookbooks with the 'sketchy' looking art, so I was super excited when I found these 'free with purchase' recipes.

I already had the wooden box, it just needed a handle for the top. With trusty modge podge at my side, I went to work. Some scrapbook paper, vintage images, and even a few of my grandma's handwritten recipes later, I had a great place to store my little tin recipe boxes and all of the misc. recipes I have printed off from websites that were previously hanging out in my cupboard.

The result is a little kitsch - just the way I like it. I hoping that it will encourage me to try out more new recipes and to cook at home more often [too bad I can't reach into the box and pull time out :]

fun & games [outside]...

Today we begin some work on the outside of our home, so I thought it only fitting to show you some projects I have worked on that find themselves in the out of doors. First up is a set of cornhole boards and bags. [I am not sure if the game cornhole translates everywhere, so here is a quick run through of the game]

This was definitely a handmade project - one of our high school friends built the boards for us and the I painted and varnished them. We used these instructions, and found them pretty clear and easy to follow.

I bought the home dec fabric for the bags before painting the boards, which meant I could paint them to coordinate :) Interestingly, I paid more for the half yards it cost to make these bags than I did a few weeks later for the entire bolt of fish fabric! [read more here] Always something new: to finish these bags I had my first experience at the feed mill! They were a little curious about what I was going to do with such a small amount of feed corn [perhaps they thought I had a really tiny chicken]

Another outdoor addition to our home is a lovely and relaxing hammock! Definitely not handmade, but we did assemble the stand all by ourselves :) We are enjoying these last days of summer. It's so strange; first it was too hot to enjoy the season, now it is beginning to feel like fall already! If anyone knows where the summer has gone to, leave me a comment, maybe I can get some of it back :)

of benedryl & pillows...

Oh the agony of sick days... If I were to be forced to take nearly a week off of life, I would have preferred to be able to function! I mean how much fun is a week off where you can't manage to even sew?! [I think missing my sewing machine may even have made me sicker] But I am back in action [mostly]. I wanted to show you the latest addition to my pillow obsession. Meet the crabby pillow!

Inspired by the Caribbean. We have many grand adventures while cruising, some more comical than others. At one of the beaches, they had these collapsible 'tents' for shade. So we picked one up and when we did the tiniest, and daintiest of crabs wandered out. Surely, as a lover of nature and crabs, I lept for joy and scooched in for a closer look.... umm no, I squealed fearing certain death if it came near.

This crabby pillow is much more cuddly. I am very proud of my original design. He was a time consuming little number. I made about a billion half square triangles to make up the zig-zag wave. It was lots of fun to use up a bunch of scraps: Summer in the City, Amy Butler, Flights of Fancy, and MoMo coupled with kona in bone. Then the million lines of zig-zag quilting :)

I was disappointed to have to miss out on this round of the Pillow Talk Swap... Just too many other life commitments this time of year. But if my crabby pillow has peaked your interest, and you are looking for more pillows - check out the flickr group!

ties that bind...

This handy little potholder is just one of the many things I have been binding lately! This was a fun little foray into the world of potholders [I have been seeing them everywhere and had to try my hand at it]. The main panel is a piece of osnaburg that I drew on with a pigma pen, colored with crayons, and then heat set. This has been hanging around the UFO bin for no less than 7 years [yikes!] I actually liked working with the InsulBright batting - I am always a little scared to sew through something that appears to contain metal, but the needle cruised through it! I backed it with a scrap of Arcadia and added a handy little hanger on to the back. [Does anyone how to make the binding loops like on the store bought potholders?]



So lots of binding going on around here - which means lots of finished projects to show you soon! And I haven't forgotten about my promised giveaway - it will be a handmade little number and it is ready for finishing as well!

pillow talk swap...

If you have been following along for a little while, you know that I have been overcome by pillow fever. They are just such quick projects for the wow factor that they provide. Plus they have given me the chance to practice my machine quilting [still nowhere near ready to take on a full size quilt]. I joined the Pillow Talk Swap in round 3, which is currently wrapping up. [WHAT?! you haven't checked out the beauties in that swap? You need to click on over there right now... well finish readin' this post first maybe :]

I didn't realize how much of a challenge this would be. The bar for quality and creativity in this swap is set very, very high. I went through no less than three pillows and zillions of design ideas, before I settled on this pillow. This isn't exactly like any of the pillows in my partners inspiration mosaic, but all of her/his faves seemed geometric and I think this fits the bill.

This block is a combination of different patterns: kaleidoscope [using my new ruler!], coin, and bunches of half square triangles. Fabric used is Blush by Basic Grey for Moda and a white Bella Solid - and a tiny bit of French General. The binding fabric is something from my stash, so I'm not exactly sure of the designer or line.

Hope s/he likes it - I'm super nervous!

pillow basics: two...

When we last left our pillow, we had basted and quilted our pillow front. A note on the size of your pillow front: for a really full pillow, add 1/2" to your pillow form size; for a more relaxed fit [I prefer this] add 1.5" to your pillow form size.

Now we are going to cut out the rest of the pillow. These instructions are for an envelope style back. I tend to use this method because: a) you can easily remove the pillow form for cleaning or when changing decor; b) it's fairly simple; c) no scratchy zipper.

From your backing fabric cut 2 rectangles. In this equation y = the measurement of one side your pillow [this is for a SQUARE pillow]. Measurement of each rectangle: y" by [(y/2) + 4]" For a rectangular pillow you will have two different side measurements, just plug these into the equation.

Fold one long edge of each rectangle over about 2" and press.

I will show you two methods for finishing the edges of the pillow.If you want to bind the edges like a quilt: cut 2.5" strips the width of the coordinating fabric. If you want to add piping/cording: cut 1.5" strips the width of the coordinating fabric. The amount of strips you will need is determined by the size of your pillow. To be safe I usually add up all of my sides [find the perimeter] and then add 10-12".

Look at the selvage edge of your strips. [A tightly woven edge that runs along both outermost edges of a fabric's lengthwise grain. Selvage edges keep the fabric from fraying.] Generally one of the ends will be printed like the rest of the material i.e. it won't have words or be a different color. If your fabric has fringy edges, carefully cut the fringe off. Using this method will lessen the bulk where your ends meet as you sew around your pillow. If the fabric you are using no longer has a selvage or both ends are printed, just fold one end under [WST] 1/2" and press. This is your 'start' end once we begin adding the binding or cording to the pillow.

Leave the 'start' end alone - go to the other short edge of your strip. Take another strip and lay it perpendicular over the other strip.

Sew at an angle from corner to the other. Trim off extra triangles. Press seam open. Repeat this step until you have one long strip. Using this method as opposed to sewing the strips end to end reduces the bulk.

ps: If you are enjoying these tutorials, feel free to add my button to your blog :]

year one...

We celebrated our first anniversary yesterday - it is hard to believe 365 days and all four seasons have gone by already! Many have asked what has been most difficult, what we have learned about one another, and what annoying habits have been discovered. I have no real answer for these questions, we dated for a very long time and knew each other pretty well before we got married. Certainly we grew together over the past year, but there have been no major hiccups or aha moments - it has been a wonderful year for us :]

I wanted to share some wedding cake pictures. I made the topper myself, and it turned out to be the jewel of the wedding decorations, certainly my favorite thing. Recently, I finally threw away the five or so 'test birds' that were in various stages of completion. For being only inches tall, they certainly took quite a bit of work!

I used several pieces of vintage lace and trim that came from my grandparents attic. Nearly everything is made from scratch: the top hat from cardstock and glitter, the birds are entirely hand sewn, the legs are wire wrapped in strips of papier mache and then painted, the beaks are a sharpened dowels that have been painted... lots of work, but great results :]

The cake is vanilla with layers of raspberry cream, made by Camelot Cakes. She is a wonderful baker and decorator. Aren't the flowers lovely? The fondent 'branches' are great touches.

On Sunday we unwrapped our cake topper. Layers and layers of aluminum foil and saran wrap inside and outside of a Tupperware cake saver. I'm happy to report that it was just as delicious as June 20, 2009 :]

Still to come this week:
* Pillow Basics #2
* Pillow Talk Swap Wrap-Up