Best. Present. Ever.

The other day when Mom came home she had THREE big boxes that she had picked up from the Post Office. She had helped pack them while she was still in CA- boxes of vintage fabric, that is. my aunt and grandma had gone through stuff and sent it to us.

I totally love vintage fabric and it's crazyness, so it was a great surprise!

 I love the teacups and teapots!

 This came with pieces cut out- appliques? I so wish there was more than a quarter yard, this was one of my faves.

 Love the Raggedy Ann and Andy too!

I don't know what I'll do with this stash yet, but the wheels are spinning!

I kept about half for myself, the rest Laura wanted or it was just too ugly! There is good crazy fabric...and bad crazy. Ha ha.

This is also a lesson NEVER to leave pins in your fabric/projects long term- it doesn't take much moisture to cause them to rust! There were a lot of pieces that had rusty pins in it, leaving rusty holes that will hopefully wash out or take some kind of treatment. Some pins were so rusted that they had bonded to the fabric- it took pliers to pull them out!

Creativity

"Attempt to be creative for the joy it brings. After their noble husbands were called home, Sisters Camilla Kimball, Amelia McConkie, and Helen Richards learned to paint. They not only leave legacies of art, but they will never see a sunset, a face, or a tree the same again. They now perceive subtle nuances of color and form and rejoice in the abounding beauty around them.


Select something like music, dance, sculpture, or poetry. Being creative will help you enjoy life. It engenders a spirit of gratitude. It develops latent talent, sharpens your capacity to reason, to act, and to find purpose in life. It dispels loneliness and heartache. It gives a renewal, a spark of enthusiasm, and zest for life."

-Elder Richard G. Scott
"Finding Joy In Life"

For the Birds

Knowledge is power, right? Well I love having crafty knowledge cause that gives me more and more power to change my world to my liking!

I found these three brown plastic birds at a junk store- they cost no more than $3 for the set. I liked their forms but the color was not so desirable.

Enter the magic of spray paint:

And voila! Blue birds. Who'da thunk it? Had to go to several stores to find a decent shade of blue spray paint, most stores do not have a large selection of colors.

And funnily enough right after I did this, I saw very similar birds in a magazine! Same color and everything. I make the trends, what can I say?

I haven't decided yet where to hang them, but one of these days they'll get a place of honor.

Pin Holder Frame

So I bought this empty frame for seriously $2 at a local flea market...and I wondered just what to do with it:

It's small, the opening is about 9x7 and it's meant to sit on your dresser. It likely had a mirror in it in a past life. Should I put a mirror in it? A picture? What picture would work?

And then I had an epiphany- I'll make a padded insert and it can hold my collection of pins!

I measured and cut a piece of very thing corrugated cardboard (got it from a shoe box) to fit in the frame and then hot glued some very thin batting (no thicker then felt) to it. I trimmed the batting so that it didn't hang over the edge. I had bought a small amount of tan fine wale corduroy to use for this project- I wanted a neutral color. A vintage distressed tan velvet looked good in my mind, but that's a little hard to come by.

I cut and ironed a piece of corduroy a little larger then my cardboard and wrapped it around the batting and hot glued on the back to secure it. I didn't want hot glue coming through the fabric on the front!

I tacked it in the frame with some hot glue, making sure not to use too much or it would bleed out on the front. It didn't need much to hold it in and I can peel it out if I want to use the frame for another purpose.

But the ugly back didn't thrill me so I glued on another thin layer of cardboard over the edges of fabric and then picked a piece of Amy Butler scrapbook paper from a pack that I have (got it on sale, love it!).

The colors went perfectly with the shade of off-white.

I imagine this living on a dresser with a mirror someday, so I wanted an attractive back on it.

And I loved how the front turned out- totally shows off my pin collection well.

My little bride doll likes it too. ;)