Fabric Gift Wrapping and Craft Paper Flowers

This weekend Hubby and I went to a fun wedding shower/reception picnic.  It was held at a local park and the weather was just gorgeous!  Normally, when it comes to gifts, I'm a big fan of gift bags...they're fast, easy, pretty, and you can fit most anything in one.  But on this occassion, our gift was not going to fit in a bag. I was going to have to go old-school and wrap this thing.  No wrapping paper in the house, but I did have some craft paper and lots of fabric. So I went with an Obi sash look using a pretty yellow and pink cherry blossom fabric and a small strip of white cotton.

Next I needed a flower of some sort.  I've seen some lovely paper flowers so I googled for a How-To. I found this tutorial and after unearthing my glue gun, i went to cutting.   I added a few extra layers of petals to mine, but the instructions were super easy.  I made one out of polka dot napkins that I picked up at a yard sale and the other out of the craft paper that I wrapped the box with.

Although I love the polka dots, it was a bit more fragile than the heavy craft paper, so I opted for just the solid one for this gift.  I could totally get addicted to making these little flowers! They are so fun and think of all the possibilities...you could use pretty vintage wrapping paper, newsprint, the sunday comics, sheet music, old book pages, old sewing pattern paper, etc...

In other news, the For Sale By Owner sign finally went up at the Tiny house.  We had the first showing over the weekend and received an offer! Hubby is dealing with the price negotiations and hopefully we'll be able to come to some agreement. Personally, I'm ready to say YES  just to have it done and over with quick, but we'll see.

More Fun 70's Fabrics

After bringing home the cute 70's fabrics a few weeks ago, I couldn't stop thinking of the stacks I had left behind. So, I went back and got some more!

Most are novelty children's prints and so fun!

The red is a heavy weight canvas with calico print toadstools and turtles and the other has jade green and yellow ladybugs and butterflies and is a lovely rayon or rayon/cotton blend by J.Manes co.
And then we have some bright neon pink.

The tulip and daisy fabric is a semi-sheer dimity? And my favorite of the bunch...Fairy Tale barkcloth!

It is a light weight cotton barkcloth by THC Hawaiian Textiles. It has the cutest scenes of every fairytale and nursery rhyme I've ever heard of, plus some. Look at that adorable Alice in Wonderland square above!...and the GingerBread Man! Too cute.  :)
Look for these and other great vintage fabrics on the website. 
I'm tackling a painting project in the basement, today, so hopefully I'll have some before and after pics soon.  Have a great week, everyone!

Vintage Metal Stool Industrial Chic Make-Over

This is a story about a little black metal chair that sat in my Gram's kitchen for as long as I can remember. It was the perfect size for children and my sister and I would fight over who got to sit in it on pizza and cards night.  It eventually made its way to my house and sat collecting cobwebs in the garage for way too long.  So this weekend, armed with a can of brushed nickle spray paint, I decided that it deserved an industrial-chic make over.
As I was cleaning off the dust, I noticed that black was apparently not it's original color. The underside was a bright aqua blue and had the name of the company and retail price was stamped on...Cosco Model 1-B for $2.25! LOL

If aqua matched anything in my kitchen, I may have considered repainting it in the original color...but it didn't. It covered easily and took less than half a can of paint.

After several light coats she's now sporting a new industrial-chic look. (you can also see a bit of my giant bread sign in the background)

Now she sits in a corner of my kitchen, waiting for kids to fight over her again. :)

That 70's Fabric

I recently purchased some amazing fabrics from the 1970's.  Gorgeous brightly colored Flower Power designs:

...this pretty neon pink cotton sateen is my favorite:

These cute polka dot strawberry and turtle prints were in the bunch, too.

They sold out the minute I listed them, so they are already on their way to a new home.  But there is also this little turtle daisy print, (turtles must have been popular in the 70's) :)

And this cute strawberry ladybug fabric.  I think this one is just a bit older, maybe 60's.  It has a 36" selvage width and has the prettiest color combo of red, pink and aqua.

Most of these are listed on the website or will be soon.  Be sure to check out all of our latest finds in the "Newly Listed Items" section!
Have a great week, everyone!

Summer Deck Photos

I just wanted to share a few pictures of the deck and planters before the blazing heat completely fries the poor flowers.

The hanging baskets were planted with sweet potato vine, new guinea impatiens, and a little yellow trailing flower that I can't remember the name of. They took a hit during the stretch of 100+ degree days we had, but they're starting to perk  up again.

I also have a couple of large planters with multi colored coleus, which I love because they seem to do well where ever I put them.

The new patio furniture came from Target.com and I'm very happy with it.  Its very sturdy, not crazy expensive, and the cushions are thick and well made with piped edges. We also have the chaise...so comfy!  I accented with my bright pink throw pillows that I made for the living room of the tiny house.  The color is perfect for the deck and plays off the beautiful crepe myrtle.

I'd like to get an outdoor rug for the deck, but not sure how well it would hold up. I'd rather not have to carry it in and out all summer. Oh well, Hunny doesn't seem to mind not having one. :)
Thanks for touring the deck with me!  Stay cool and have a great weekend, everyone!

Yellow Pottery Collection

I recently started a collection of yellow pottery to use in my kitchen.  I knew I wanted yellow as an accent color in the room and when I found 3 inexpensive vintage planters at the antique mall in the perfect shade, I knew a collection was born.  :)

I've been able to find several more since that day at flea markets and antique stores. So far, they have all been $10.00 or less!  I love the planter shapes and use them to hold all those little items that seem to appear on our kitchen window sill (extra keys, restuarant gift cards, pocket knife, etc.). 

I also made a new curtain for the window.  It is just a faux roman shade, since there is already a working shade mounted to the window. I know the photos are bad, but its impossible to get decent lighting in this room for pictures.

And this past weekend I braved the 98 degree heat and ventured out to the Lawrenceburg flea market.  No fabric finds this time, but I did score a fantastic old store bread sign from the 1930's.  Its BIG...and in yellow! It will be perfect for the kitchen. It has some rough corners, so I want to make a frame for it, but I'll show you pictures when its finished.
Stay cool everyone and have a great week!

Vintage Fabric Flea Market Finds

I have lots of fun vintage fabrics to share with you since, apparently, I decided to take the entire month of May off. LOL ( I blame yardwork and gorgeous weather)  Anyway, Mom and I had a girls weekend in the middle of May and headed north for the Springfield Antique Extravaganza. I was able find a few new pieces to add to the yellow pottery collection that I recently started (I'll share those in the next post), and found a couple of cute 60's fabrics.

And a really pretty rayon? with bluebirds and wisteria.  It is so soft and flowy, I'd love to make some pajama or lounge pants with it.

We also hit an amazing antique mall in the Columbus area (thanks Stephanie!).  They had some killer furniture and industrial pieces that I would have loved to take home, but didn't bring the truck this time.   But I did find a fun feedsack that reminds me of the atomic sputnik or starburst shapes of the 1950's.

I also made it out to the Lawrenceburg Antique Market this past Sunday.  It was a really good day for fabrics! I found these cute fabrics all in shades of blue red and green.

A couple more feedsacks (the gray is from the earlier trip).

A pretty sunny yellow fabric from the 1940's and a tan with yellow daisies.

A lovely Japanese silk wisteria print from 1955. Don't you just love it when they print the date on a vintage piece!

And my two favorites of the day...a lovely pink sheer organdy lawn or batiste fabric from the 1930's and a cute printed dress fabric dating to the 1920-30's.

 The printed dress fabric is really special! The selvage is marked with "SOIESETTE" , pronounced(swah-zet) .

After some research I found out that this was the brand name of a highly mercerized cotton fabric put out by Ponemah Mills from the late 1920's until 1942. The fabric was noted for its quality, luster, and washability.
The dealer told me that several of these fabrics came from the same estate. They are in absolutely amazing condition, 3-5 yards each and not so much as even a dust mark on the fold or attic smell!

I have many of these listed on the website already and will be getting the rest on later this week. Click HERE to see all of the newest listings.
And on a completely different note...this new blogger interface is driving me batty! So if my posts look a little wonky, its because I got too frustrated and just gave up trying to make it look right. lol
Have a great week, everyone!