Amazing giveaway

If you like vintage items head on over to Miss Mustard Seed for a chance to win an amazing box full of goodies.

I hope I win!

Entry Way II: The Bench

The bench for the entry way finally met the can of spray paint this week. Here it is outside so I could get better pictures of it. I built it using more of the plans over at the Knock Off Wood site. Sadly it is one of my last building projects for now. I am running out of room in the house! Matt has accused me using a small forest worth of wood already so he is lucky our house isn't big enough to accomodate more big projects.

You can see in this picture the splotchy finish on top. You can only see this at a certain angle for some reason. If you look straight at it you can't tell. It was windy when I was spraying the last coat on the top and I was having some trouble with the paint going on even so I think that caused it. I put a coat of poly on it this afternoon so I'll see if that solves the strange effect.

Sweet Ride

This is actually a post about my man. For years he has been wanting a motorcycle. Thankfully he wasn't looking for a super bike with super speed. He wanted a classic looking British bike with great character. Of course every time I thought of motorcycles the word DANGER in neon flashing colors filled my head. I gave the thumbs up in the end though.

Here we are at the shop picking up the bike. Matt was like a kid on Christmas day with a big grin on his face.

I don't know how good it shows up in this picture but it looks like the bike paint job and the truck paint job were matching. They both have gold, red, and black. The owners of the bike shop thought this was funny.

I don't think Barnsley cares too much about the new bike. He sniffed it over and sat for his picture.

Matt is still in the learning stages of this process so I am just going to stay off of the bike until a later date. We still need to get the seat attachment for the back unless I want to sit on the fender, I think not. The great thing about getting the bike was that it made us clean the side of the garage with all of the junk piled up. It looks a lot better in there now.

One more bag for the auction

I stitched up a more simple sack tote to be sold at the silent auction in addition to the bag I made in the previous post.

Here is a mirror shot so you can see the size of the bag in relation to a person.

The outer fabric is a canvas I picked up in Japan. The lining is a solid gray.

Loud print for a silent auction

My mom asked if I would sew a bag to donate for a silent auction that will benefit the pregnancy help center that she works at. I was more than willing to help out the cause and went through my fabric stash to find the fabric. I settled on some loud Alexander Henry prints for the outside and a coordinating solid for the lining.

The finished size is about 15x19" and is bigger than I expected it to turn out. I was using a Japanese pattern as a guideline but was improvising many of the steps and trying to convert measurements from a picture. I lined the bag and straps with cotton batting so it has a nice soft feel. The bow in the front is in a casing and can be pulled tighter to close up the bag more.

The corner pockets have elastic on top and wrap around the sides of the bag.

The lining has 3 pockets

Some close ups of the interesting fabric. Everything girly from perfume to lipstick.

an I-Pod???? Not sure why that is on there

Hope you like it mom! I'll mail it shortly.

Entry Way Part I

I have started working on our front entry way so guests will feel a little more welcome. It will have a place to hang coats and a bench to slip on or off shoes. First project was the coat rack.

My parents brought me a lovely collection of craftsman molding that they removed from a home that burned. The wood was a little damaged and smokey but still very usable. I decided to use the piece above to make the coat rack.

First I needed to cut out some brackets to support a top shelf.

You can see I played with the design of the brackets so much that I had to use a black marker to make sure I cut the right line.

Two brackets sitting on top of the dog kennel, which actually makes a pretty good work surface.

After screwing the brackets to the molding piece I cut a 1/2 inch plywood top to fit the top.

Using some trim I removed from another piece of molding, I trimmed out the plywood. After all of that I filled in the holes with wood filler, sanded and painted. Once it was dry I added some coat hooks.

Here the shelf is installed.

Dresses for 3 Little Girls

I have 3 nieces under the age of 5 and sewing for them is always fun. Two of the girls are sisters and have a real desire to be princesses decked out in pink and purple all the time. They also love to be matching so the pink and purple dresses are for them. The blue and yellow dress is my favorite one of the bunch and is for the only girl in my brothers family. She has two older brothers so she needs some sweet dresses. They are almost all the same size, which is little. I used a size large in a baby pattern to make these. For the oldest I did add 2 inches to the length and an inch or so to the width. Hopefully they will fit. They are on the way in the mail.

The pink and purple fish seersucker fabric is from Japan.

Yummy Lemon Dreamsicles

I have found a wonderfully delicious frozen treat recipe and it is too good not to share with my readers. I was skeptical when I read that the ingredients called for buttermilk but you have to trust me, they are so good.

Picture from Pinch My Salt

The recipe originated over at Whipped and has appeared on several other blogs since then. Once you make them you will know why. The picture was so amazing on Pinch My Salt that I didn't think I could improve on it.

I have renamed my frozen treats Lemon Dreamsicles and have slightly altered the recipe. They are really tangy from the extra lemon. You can adjust the amounts to suit your taste buds.

Lemon Dreamsicles

Ingredients:

2/3 cup of sugar

5-7 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

3 Tablespoons of grated lemon zest

1 pinch of salt

1 2/3 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Combine the lemon juice, sugar, salt, and zest in a 4 cup measuring cup. Whisk together. Once the sugar has dissolved whisk in the buttermilk. Pour into popsicle mold or cups and freeze 4 hrs.

Sewing Machine Cozy

I have been hanging on to this fabric for almost a year now with the intention of making a sewing machine cover. I found the fabric on one of our trips to Tokyo while we were still living in Japan but it has taken me a while to finally sew it into a cover. It is the perfect sewing room fabric.

I had just enough of the blue piping left from the Doggy Duvet project to add to the cover. I only had 3" I didn't need. It was meant to be used for this!

I used iron on interfacing in a medium weight to help keep the shape of the cover.

The cover is actually a bit wider than my machine so it can sit over the cords without bunching on the side.

The colors tie in well with my colorful vintage inspired sewing space.

The small wire dress form with hooks was also a Japanese find.

Doggy Duvet

Have you ever noticed that a dog bed looks a lot better when it matches the rest of the decorating style in a room? I wanted our dog bed to blend in a little better with the style but also needed to get rid of the faux sheepskin covered bed that my terrier mix was shredding with all of her digging.

Most importantly, I wanted to make a completely washable dog bed so when the bed gets stinky (which doesn't take long) it will all get washed and not just the cover like most dog beds. Even the ones that say they are washable really won't fit in your washing machine. For those of you without big dog beds just trust me on that one. 

I found this orange indoor/outdoor fabric marked down to $3 a yard. Best of all it is made in the USA. (That always feels like a rare but happy discovery.) I chose to make contrasting piping with a pale blue fabric. This was my first piping experience and it went fairly well. The corners are tricky but by the end I knew how to navigate them more easily. I just bought a piping foot for my machine and that made things easier.

It took no prompting for the dogs to climb on the new bed and test it for comfort.

I made the bed the size of the space between the wall and love seat, which is 32x40. It is big enough for them to share if Lilly will allow. She may weigh 50 lbs less than Barnsley, but she's the boss.

Barnsley seems to be looking off dreamily like he is pondering where the other bed went to and how this one arrived.

Happy 4th of July!

Picture Credit: Country Living

Hope all of you have a great 4th of July!