New Years Eve Day and the rest of my family is enjoying the zombie apocolypse on television (“Walking Dead” marathon – ick!!) so I decided this was the time to paint up my 2012 weekly planner that I use at work. I had brought it home a couple weeks ago and sprayed the black surface with a soft green base color, and had to practice up a little on my “one-stroke” roses. I am terrible about laying out any kind balanced pattern/design, but I think it turned out okay. Here are a few pictures…

Plain green cover, with paints ready to double-load the brush.

Started with the leaves, which fall into the background.

Added roses and “filler flowers,” and an attempt at numerals signifying the year in the upper corner. Waiting for the clear coat to dry.

Finished roses!

I’m linking this post to “Show And Tell Friday” over at My Romantic Home, and the Creative Bloggers Party & Hop at the Homemaker on a Dime blog. Please click through for hundreds (!) of great ideas and projects!

More soon!

Even though I totally should have been riding my motorcycle today, I decided instead to take on a few small projects that I’ve been thinking about for awhile. A couple of them were just spray-paint projects,. but my favorite is this cute little bag I made using Kate’s super-simple zipper pouch tutorial.

Seriously adorable!!

My little pouch is made up of some favorite scraps: green corduroy from a blazer/jacket – I left the flat-felled seams intact because I really love the look of them…

and lining made from a too-small shirt I bought at Goodwill just because I liked the toile fabric.

The crochet trim is a scrap from a grab-bag of old sewing notions I recently picked up while thrifting.

The whole project took me a little over an hour – I have decent sewing skills, but I don’t have the patience to make anything too complex. I also don’t have a “zipper foot” on my vintage sewing machine, so there were a few tense moments getting past the zipper pull ;)

But, Kate’s tutorial was spot-on simple, and I am IN LOVE with this little pouch. I am not even sure what I’m going to put in it – I just knew I needed it!

I’m linking this sweet little project to Saturday Night Special over at Funky Junk Interiors!

More soon -

I’m linking this post with Metamorphosis Monday over at Between Naps on the Porch, and also to Tuesday Timeout at Reasons to Skip the Housework! Be sure to take a look for lots of great ideas and wonderful transformations!

I’ve been on the lookout for a larger-format address book (because I’m in complete denial about needing eyeglasses) and I recently found this lovely 80′s/New Wave version complete with totally blank inside pages just crying out for a re-do.

For the new cover I chose this pretty floral fabric that I had on-hand.

I removed the inside pages from the book, and using Fabritac I applied white felt (to create the feeling of padding under the cloth cover) to the front, back and spine.

Then I laid the book open onto the wrong side of the fabric, and using Fabritac I simply began gluing the fabric down with some care taken to create tidy corners.

I actually intend to choose another fabric for the inside covers which will cover the raw edges you see here – but, I haven’t decided what to use yet so for now it’s incomplete.

I closed the book and thought it looked great, but still needed a little detail on the cover.

I used one of these small metal label-holders used in scrapbooking, inserted a printed label proclaiming “Addresses” that I made on the computer, and added a couple of small faux crystals in the holes on either side. (The label-holder is secured to the cover with Fabritac.)

I love the finished look – romantic and entirely suitable for a cottage writing desk, don’t you think?

More soon!

I’m linking up to Hookin’ Up with HoH at Allison’s House of Hepworths, to Saturday Night Special over at Donna’s Funky Junk Interiors, and to Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming!  Be sure to visit these other wonderful blogs for a boatload of fabulous ideas!

I recently conjured up the idea for this pretty toss pillow, when I was looking for a way to use the embroidery on an old cotton pillowcase my great-grandmother had worked. (You can see how I’ve used a few more of her pillow cases here and here.)

The fabric of this pillowcase was damaged, but I wanted to preserve the embroidery. My idea was to create a sort of “flap” over a coordinating fabric for the front, with a plain panel on the back. I originally envisioned some lace all around the pillow, but by the time I got around to sewing this project I couldn’t find where I had stored the lace I had purchased. (Not surprisingly, I found it shortly after finishing the project!)

First, here’s the finished toss pillow:

And, here’s how I made it.

1. The size of the pillow is determined by the width of the pillow case. A 16-inch pillow form was a little bit too big, but I made it work by removing a little of the fiberfill.  I cut squares for the front and back fabric panels a little larger than 16 inches to allow for seams.

2. I cut the panel from the pillow case so that it would end up being about two-thirds the length of the front panel.

4. I pinned the pillow case to the front side of the front panel. I stitched these two pieces together along the lace edge of the pillowcase so I would not end up with a “pocket” on the front. I also tacked the other three sides of the pillowcase to the front panel with a quarter-inch seam using long basting stitches.

5. Next I pinned the assembled front panel to the plain back panel, right sides together. I stitched the two panels together with about a half-inch seam allowance on all sides, but left an opening at the bottom about eight inches long so I could insert the pillow form.

6. I turned the whole piece right-sides out. The edges of the opening naturally wanted to fold to the inside, and I pressed them down. Here’s the finished pillow before stuffing.

7. I stuffed the pillow using the 16-inch form I had purchased, but because my finished cover was a little under 16 inches, I had to remove a little of the stuffing to make it fit. Fortunately this was a zippered pillow form so I was able to shove that stuffing back in after I got the form inside the cover.

8. I pinned the folded edges of the opening together and whip-stitched them shut, then fluffed and squeezed the stuffing around til the pillow was nicely filled out.

Voila! A very sweet cottage-ready toss pillow full of vintagey goodness, with a little family history behind it!

Oh! And, just in case this isn’t enough ‘vintage” for you, below is what I’m using for a sewing machine these days: my grandmother Helen’s Singer Featherweight 221-1! I love the machine for its indestructibility, its simplicity, and of course its vintage design. This one is from the late 40′s, I think.

More soon!

Linking up to Vintage Thingie Thursday at ColoradoLady’s blog!

Please take a moment to carefully study the photo below. Be sure you take enough time to fully appreciate the goofy goodness. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Okay. Now your first reaction might well have been: “Wow, that is UGLY!” And I would agree with you, except that it PERFECTLY captures my personal sense of humor and the degree of “quirk” I like to have in my life. Here’s how this item came to be:

When I was a bride-to-be in 1991 (hey that’s 20 years ago – vintage, right?) my groom-to-be and I were preparing to purchase and move into his childhood home. His parents were preparing to move out, having lived there for about 45 years. Ultimately, there were two areas of the house from which they never moved a single item, leaving it all for us: the basement workshop, and the laundry/sewing room.

Around this same time, my mother-in-law-to-be took some time to show me how to make wall-hangings similar to this one out of fabric, an embroidery hoop, and eyelet or lace trim. Simple enough, and I made a bunch of them using various fabrics to give as gifts to the women in my family. But I didn’t find suitable fabric to make one for myself until I took time to go through the stash in the old sewing room.

After wading through the piles of 1970′s double-knits, I was delighted to find a cotton craft scrap that included one perfect imprint of this flower-bedecked girl who reminds me so much of “Elsie,” the friendly representative of Borden’s Dairy. I immediately capitalized on my new-found thingie-making skills and whipped this up. I still get a smile, every time I see it.

More soon!