The 29 cent polyester patchwork lap quilt

Yes-it's polyester-not the most glamorous fabric in the world. But aren't the colors and pattern fabulous? I think so!

I can just imagine someone cutting up old polyester suits and sewing this together. Awesome!

I'm loving this pattern so much I might be trying to make one of these (only bigger) from vintage sheets. Yes-I think I will do that.....someday.....hopefully in the near future.

Have a great day!

Dirty dishes

After the torrential rains we had yesterday-I have a lot o' dirty dishes:)

Quilt strip pillow

What do I do when I should be cleaning? Why, I make the quilt strip pillow project from Handmade Home. I used a chenille bedspread scrap, a cutter quilt and a pillow form I had on hand. (I've used that same cutter quilt many times before. I've used it for the family heart, a scarf for my nightstand, my desk, and a scarf for the little cupboard in my bathroom .)

It was a pretty simple project, I really like the results and now I know how to do an envelope pillow cover. Easy, peasy:)

Seven more projects to go!

More Flickr favorites-photos that make me happy!

1. Liberty fabric swatch portraits (Purl Bee project), 2. My Liberty (and a few other) swatches in the hallway, 3. use what you have soap box kitchen..., 4. 5-5-07 097, 5. 8-17-07 026, 6. 10-7-07 005, 7. 9-26-07 008, 8. 10-7-07 001, 9. 10-7-07 010, 10. 9-26-07 002, 11. Untitled, 12. lots of tiny strawberries, 13. vintage sewing books - love them, 14. end of the day, 15. early fall table, 16. fall :: inside, 17. the other side of the mantle, 18. in the studio, 19. art supplies all lined up, 20. bags for my fabric scraps, 21. 41/365: art supplies and inspiration, 22. I cleaned up the mantle, 23. Bright green vase on recently cleaned up mantle, 24. My new studio, 25. Daily fresh bouquets, 26. Making Jelly, 27. Our Studio, 28. Our Studio, 29. It's still 4 o'clock..., 30. globe lamp and new quiltP1030723

My backyard

I'm playing with the panoramic feature on my daughter's camera.

Click on pic to enlarge.

Papa's healing cozy

I finally did another project from my Handmade Home project. This one was Papa's healing cozy. Basically it's a flannel shirt cut down to the size of a hot water bottle, then sewn up. We've never owned a hot water bottle, so I ordered one. It's kind of cool and will come in handy, I'm sure. I bought the flannel shirt from the 29 cent rack-at Goodwill, of course.

(What we use for heat now is a corn bag-which is a tea towel or material sewn up with dried field corn in it. Then you microwave it a few minutes. They're so great!)

25 projects done, eight to go! I better get a move on if I want to finish by the end of August.:)

From bowling ball to gazing ball...

in no time flat!

Somebody won't let me alone when I'm trying to 'garden'. Good thing he's cute!
What do you do when the top of your bird bath breaks? Well, when a lovely friend emails you an idea about turning a bowling ball into a gazing ball-you do just that.

Yes-we happened to have a few bowling balls lying around-doesn't everybody? (I guess hubby found them and brought them home. I guess I've taught him right!) I found a can of gold spray paint that's at least 10 years old. You are suppose to prime your bowling ball (I didn't, but I thinks it'll be okay), then paint it on one side, then the other, repeat. Then tada-a gazing ball, looking oh so lovely in my under the deck flower garden.

Thank you, Rhonda, for the idea.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the fathers in my life!

Hope's father-Larry-and my husband of (gulp) 22 years.
My father, Poppy B.
Davey, my bro-out-law!
Sadly, Larry's father-Poppy C.- is no longer with us. Wish he was;(

Goodwill hunting and Pyrex in action

Again-Goodwill has been good to me this week.

I stopped in to take a peak almost every night when I was in town for Bible school. I was quite tickled with the 'antique' spools I found, as I love sewing notions. The nine of them were six dollars-more than I usually spend in there-but I didn't mind, I felt they were worth it. And the lovely green well used Pyrex dish was 99 cents. After much cleaning and dishpan hands, I think it's quite lovely in spite of the scratches.

I'm adding these photos to the Goodwill hunting group (as you might imagine, I have a lot of photos to add to this group) and the Pyrex in action group on Flickr (which I am really enjoying-by the way).

Ladder planter

I saw plants sitting on an old ladder in a florist's display window a couple of years ago and decided I wanted one for my humble little flower garden under my deck. So-at Walmart I purchased this ladder for 20 dollars and I brought it home and aged it. To age it-I rubbed water based black paint on it with a damp cloth. Then came the fun part-I got out a bunch of different colors of paint and a couple paint brushes and started flinging on the paint. Good times!
Then I picked up these tin containers at Dollar General for a dollar a piece. Over the years I've had to throw out some and replace them because they rusted. Before I planted them...
I decided where I wanted the boxes to sit, hammered in some nails that had little heads, sat the the tin on the nail and scratched the paint a little to mark it and then drilled holes. After the tins were planted I slid the nails into the holes (which double as drainage!). This prevents the wind from knocking the plants off:) I also made a flower container from a paint can as well as a little steel bucket I had on hand. I was quite tickled with my ladder planter and it's held up pretty well over the five or so years I've had it. It's also cute using a small ladder too.
And.....a million points to anyone who can tell me what that 'C' actually is. (Not you Jodie-since you gave it to me and therefore know what it is!) And dang-my bird bath broke. That's what I get for being so lazy and not bringing it indoors this winter;(

New old Birdie plate

I saw this decorative birdie plate at Goodwill on Sunday-it was 99 cents. I passed it up on Sunday-but yesterday when I stopped in before Bible school-it caught my eye again and I decided to get it. It's brass with glass-with a birdie print underneath the glass. The paper is wrinkled-probably from moisture-but I think I'll keep it in there for now because I think it's cute.

A few years ago, I don't think I would have purchased this. But now, I think it's quite lovely. I guess everything old is new again:)

Planting-posies and plates

I planted a (very) few flowers this weekend along with some thrifted plates (15 cents each). I think I'll be filling in the gaps as I find more plates. Getting myself to plant flowers this year has been like pulling teeth for some reason. Anyhow-that red petunia-she was a volunteer. I love volunteers! Now, if I would just volunteer to finish planting.........

Rhubarb soda

I finally made rhubarb syrup for rhubarb soda this morning. I've wanted to make rhubarb soda since I saw it here on Soulemama last June. Well, it was here again on Soulemama this morning, and my neighbor had just given me rhubarb a couple days ago-so it was the perfect time to try it.

I doubled the recipe and I have a feeling that I shouldn't have doubled the sugar. It's a bit too sweet, if there's such a thing. But it's still very tasty. I think I'll also be making some rhubarb popsicles with this syrup. It's starting to heat up around here again. ICK!

Wild strawberries

I discovered these wild strawberries today when I was out with the pup this morning. I knew of wild blackberries and raspberries-but I've never seen wild strawberries. I was quite tickled as you can imagine. I happen to like strawberries!

Doily love

I found a box of doilies in my closet and I decided to put more out. I mean-why not?
Look at the teeny tiny stitches on this one. I can imagine this would take a long, long time to do. I'm not certain, but I think hubby's grandma gave this one to me. I wish I could remember for sure.
This pink and white beauty came from Goodwill. (When I wallpapered my dining room-I wallpapered the back of my one cupboard right over the wood. It was too dark before, I thought.)
The lovely tulip doily was sent to me by my good friend Rhonda.
I took this one from my sister, Jodie's, house. Oh and see that glass jar? There are tin noise makers in there. I think they might be old (not sure). Made in the USA. (That's a little unusual.) I picked them up at my sister, Kim's, 'pre-yardsale' for 40 cents!
A yellow beauty from good ol' Goodwill!

I want to crochet a doily one day. In fact, I'm putting it on my 'bucket' list!

The olden days

My mom and I went to my youngest sister's place yesterday for her 'pre-yardsale'. She had the above photo of us three girls framed and I just loved it. So naturally-I grabbed it out of the frame and ordered asked her to scan it and email it to me!

When I saved it and had to name it and I chose-3sistersonChristmasmorning-because that's what it was. I think it must be in 1978. I just love the story it tells with the jammies, the missing teeth (I wonder if Jodie got her two front teeth for Christmas that year), gold tinsel, Santa in the background, and those drapes. Ahhh-sweet memories!
Mom asked me to scan these two photos of me and print them out for her. I tried not to crop them too much, because backgrounds tell great stories, you know?
Me circa 1969. Such a cute, happy, little thing I was :)

I'm the mother...

of the graduate. And the mother of the graduate (please bear with me-this still seems surreal to me) was given a red carnation to wear as a little corsage last evening at graduation. When we got home I reached into the cupboard to get a small glass for it and found the perfect one. Kind of funny, don't you think?

P.S.-I did fine, no blubbering. I think the brightly lit auditorium and not too much mushy stuff helped!

Have a great Friday:)

Pineapple popsicles

Today-instead of dumping the pineapple juice down the drain, I made some pineapple popsicles!They'll taste good-cause it's been hot here. And it makes me feel not wasteful.

When I was little my mom would always drain the pineapple into a cup and me or my sisters would drink it down. When Mom made buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate)-she always dropped the leftover chocolate onto a plate covered with wax paper and popped it into the freezer. We waited a little bit-then my sisters and I wolfed down those waxy chocolate wafers. We loved them. One last thing that comes to mind-pie dough. Mom would take the leftover pie dough and roll it out, sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on it and then bake it-and you guessed it we scarfed that down when it came out of the oven.

Now-I think I've offered my daughter these things over the years and she has either turned her nose up or she didn't get excited about them. Go figure-I think it's probably because she had treats readily available to her pretty much all the time. (Probably a mistake.)

Anyhow-anybody have any memories about how their mom didn't waste food back in the olden days??? Teehee-I am feeling pretty old today-my daughter graduates from high school tonight-unbelievable, really!

I just thought of one more thing-after we kids ate our chicken off the bone-Mom would take the piece and clean 'er up!

Making

::Making-a zippered pouch for a friend's birthday.
I placed a little something inside and called it a gift.
::Making-a bedside bouquet from wildflowers (that's right-not weeds) and some snapdragons that came up from last year. I believe it's the first bedside bouquet I've had in my life!

::Making-me very happy :)