MyLuckyChicken

For a Rainy Day

Just a quick post for those of us here in the North East who seem to be having a summer with out sun. I found this fun blog called Toy-A-Day which will be keeping my little men busy tomorrow.

 

Enjoy!

Plastic is Yucky.

In my day to day life, I go out of my way to try to avoid plastic. I drink my filtered water from a Sigg, use glass containers for left overs and all that good stuff. Then I pack my boys lunch and it all goes down the drain. We've been wrapping sandwiches in butcher paper for about a year now which is working fine, but there is a lot of wasted paper. The thing that really gets me is the little plastic snack bags, both because of the health risks and all the plastic in the oceans. So we tried containers but they were too bulky. I needed a solution fast since my oldest is going to camp next week and will be taking a packed lunch. Here's what I came up with (with some help from my good friend Google)...

 2 reusable, washable snack bags and a sandwich bag. The snack bags close with velcro and the sandwich bag top folds over like the old plastic baggies, before zip-lock came along...

My plan is to make a bunch more with my vintage linen stash. I made these from some new fabric I had because it turns out that 6 year old boys do not appreciate the beauty of vintage linens and would rather not be seen with a flowery lunch bag. Go figure.

These were super fun to make and so some may end up in my Etsy shop.

Despite the rain and total lack of sun the past few days,I managed to snap a few pictures of the garden.

I love the color of this yarrow.

 

Some lavender and daises along the front walk.

and some random coolness... how great is this?  http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/look/look-christmas-tree-made-from-300-water-bottles-072045

Why won't typepad let me delete this picture??

 

Inspiration

Being out in my garden, soaking up a little sunshine and getting my hands dirty, hanging vintage linens out to dry,all makes me feel like I am finally waking up from a  long hard winter and I am ready to be creative again. I've pulled my sewing machine up from the basement and the ideas are coming.

One quick creation from last night...

Bubba is finishing up Kindergarten and one big project was to create a hand sewn and embroidered pillow. (I love his school.) He was sick and needed to do some sewing at home. As he finished up he needed a place to put his teacher's pins. A perfect solution/end of year teacher gift...

 

a needle-book made from another piece of the quilt top from way back and some craft felt I had. His teacher is a man so I tried not to make it too girly looking. I must say I loved the end result.

My very generous neighbor gifted me a box of her grandmother's vintage aprons. Some of them hung out to dry...

 

Beautiful right? They will need a few more soakings. The fabric is unbelievably soft and faded. They have been well loved.

And some pictures of the emerging garden...

a tiny slip of an herb garden, those are radishes near the brick.

 

lambs ear, kind of taking over, I'll divide it soon.

 
 

 

The poppies are really amazing this year!

It's good to be back.

Craft Funk

I've been in kind of a craft funk lately. Lots of ideas but not a lot of actual crafting. Part of it is that my sewing machine is in the basement and it's too cold to sew down there. This was a hard winter, for lot of reasons, the cold and snow being one and I'm sure that has contributed to the funk.

It was finally sunny and not freezing here today. I think I may have actually gotten a teeny bit of color on my cheeks. It's good for me to get some sun, but I will be breaking out the sunscreen from now on.

In lieu of crafting, here is the project for today...

 

This was a sand box, but the kids never really played in it and it was always damp and yucky. So last fall we emptied out the sand and today we finally built the floor. The boys call this 'the fort' now and they are pretty darn excited about it!

We'll get it all stained when we do the rest of the swing-set. Then I was thinking about making curtains (except i don't think you can call them curtains on a boys fort) using big grommets and some rope so they can close it off or open it up. I thought some indoor/outdoor material like this would be good.

   

I was invited to join the Colorful Kitchen- Vintage group on Flickr. Here are some of my favorites...

1. dots, 2. Cathrineholm bowl, 3. Vintage Oval Casserole Dish with Matching Bowls, 4. Vintage Mug Set of 3

Here's hoping for a warm sunny week!

A Slow Week and the Saturday Flickr Group

It's been a slow week. I've been working away on the bathroom, another coat of paint on the vanity, new door & drawer pulls, organize those drawers and finish up the little details.

We are supposed to get almost a foot of snow over the next few days. I can't tell you how sick I am of winter! So for some green, this weeks Saturday Flickr group...

Petite Blythe... in the Garden

1. lizzie, 2. zoe loves pansies, 3. Lemonade, 4. Tulip in her bat dress, 5. Poppy Violet, Pretty in Pink, 6. Petite Blythe en el Jardin, 7. Poppy Violet loves pansies, 8. margalida, 9. Ute Frida is amazed by the huge marigolds!

I'm a closet Blythe fan. I have only one little petite Blythe, but I've got my eye on another. Enjoy!

Sprucing Up

This week I have been working on sprucing up the bathroom. I've got a new coat of paint and some new handles on the vanity. I haven't hung the mirror yet, but that will come. I did finish up the cabinet  from my last post.

A before picture of the interior...

The after picture...

 

I used a stain with some polyurethane in it and gave the whole outside two good coats and the top about 5. I figured this would protect it since it is in the bathroom and has a pretty decent chance of getting sprayed with a water squirter. The interior got one good coat of stain, and we covered the back with this pretty printed paper from Martha. I would have preferred vintage wall paper like this, but we didn't have any on hand.

My favorite part is the handle...

 

I used Brasso Polish on it and I am very happy with the results. I love the ornate detail on such a simple piece of furniture.

Overall I am pretty thrilled with the way it turned out, and even happier to have kept it from ending up in the trash!

The Gods Have Smiled on Me!

Well, it's only Monday but I've had a great week so far.

First a new to me VW Golf.

My 1997 Golf is on her way to a better place. She has served me well, but it was time. Thanks to some great friends (that's you Cami and Asia) I got a great deal on a 2002 that will get me where I'm goin'.

And I've had some great luck with street finds. Wonderful things just sitting on the curb. There are some I'll save for a later post but for now...

2 great little end tables.

 

Cute right? We have a small house and the scale of these is just right. They needed a little cleaning and tightening, but other than that they were in pretty good shape. Plus now I have a place to put my wine ...

 

There is also a fun little cabinet I found for the bathroom. I'll post the after pictures when it's totally done, but here's one before...

 

We got a beautiful mirror for above the cabinet. In order to hang it we'll have to loose the towel hooks, but I think it's worth it.

And one last thing.

The last night of my class I came home to this...

 

Totally worth it.

Saturday Flickr Group

I'm trying out a new idea, since I spend way too much time lurking around flickr groups, I though I'd share some of my favorites.

Let's start with something a bit obvious.

The Pyrex Love Pool

1. Colonial Mist , 2. Vintage Pyrex, 3. Spring Blossom, 4. My Butterfly Gold Collection, 5. 20090124 group shot, 6. 20090110 dots and stripes, 7. Stacks3, 8. flicker 028, 9. flicker 028

Enjoy!

Because I can.

It was almost 50 degrees here on Sunday and there was a nice breeze. The air was crisp with just a hint of that smell that tells you soon grass and flowers will be growing. I had visions of digging in the earth, my seed packets are lying in wait on the dining room table.

I hung my laundry out to dry, because today I can and it wont freeze stiff. 

 

Spring will come. It will. I choose to focus on that. On that new begining and all the hope it holds.

Sweet Little Things

I been drinking a lot of tea lately. Mostly berry herb teas. It's my attempt to drink more water during the day without just drinking water.

So, I have been carrying tea bags around with me. Tea bags must be heaver than I give them credit for because they always sink straight down to the bottom of my bag to be crushed by various notebooks, a pencil case, my laptop and what ever else I happen to be cramming in my bag that day. This leaves the poor tea bag looking rather disheveled and unappetizing not to mention the amount of time it takes me rifling through my bag to find the poor little guys.

So here is my solution. A sweet little tea bag holder book. It's just large enough for 2 tea bags, all I need for a day out, and it keeps my tea bags safe and sound and easy to find.

 

interior view...

  

The pockets are big enough to hold the slightly bigger herb tea bags, but will hold a good old Lipton tea bag as well.  

I'venoticed a few friends hunting in their pockets for their little bags of sweetener so for them..

A sweetener holder book.

 

The closure ribbon should have been a little higher on this one.

 

I don't have artificial sweetener in the house, but you get the idea.  

These are made from craft felt, pieces of vintage fabric left over from my bags, a vintage button, and some re-purposed ribbon.

They are so fun to make! I'll be posting a tutorial and putting some in my Etsy shop later this week.