Salt an Peppa

Friday afternoon I packed a bag and headed out. No kids, no husband -
to a great little town south of here for a little SPA treatment (Spiritual Purpose Awakening) - a women's retreat through my church. What a great time - very insightful, relaxing, and a great time with friends.
On the way home Saturday, I had to stop in to an antique mall along my route.

These are some of my finds.....
A great retro set of salt and pepper shakers. You can see they sort of match my canisters in the background (which came from my husband's grandmother's kitchen).

I also picked up this cute apron - just loved the colors mostly - I thought it looks especially springy.

















And..I found this apron pattern. It seems to be unused and all intact. I'll let you all know when I make an apron from it.























This is a burp clothe and taggie set I made as a custom order - just wanted to share! You can see it in my Etsy shop soon.

Jackpot Thrifting and Snow in Texas!

I went to a garage sale this past weekend and think I scored some treasures. I managed to get this assortment of linens (love the Chick table scarf)....
This little cookbook..... (have to remind myself, that yes, "Food is Fun....."



















And this little book. It has the cutest pictures I wanted to share. Those of you who are into paper crafting - maybe you could give me some ideas as to what to do with it. I don't want to tear any of the pages out, but maybe doing some color copying, then displaying the pages somehow....any ideas???
This one with the little pony I love....you have to love a pony that puts up with little children (they are rare to find believe it or not!)




















This one I thought was funny - love how they show the dad in slacks and a button down shirt working in the garden!


Then, yes, we had snow in Texas yesterday - here is a picture of my back yard. This is very unusual for Texas, especially the part of the state that I live in. Being a "yankee" though - growing up in the midwest - I get a kick out of these southerners making such a huge deal out of a few inches of snow. I think all of the schools in the area closed early, and many started 2 hours late this morning. O well, it's still fun! My little munchkins had fun watching the big flakes come down all day.

Fresh Color and New Inspiration

The other night I clocked out a little early from my "mommy" job and my awesome husband took over for me while I went to go get a haircut and fresh color - let me tell you, those little grays popping up all over my head along with the fact that my 5 year old was bringing them to my attention, indicated that I really did need a little sprucing up! So - I took off from 5pm until about 10pm.....took care of my hair, then headed over to the bookstore to check out some of the newest crafting and sewing books I've been reading so much about on everyone's blogs.

I ended up purchasing these two:
Sew What! Skirts 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics

The Apron Book

I have to say, I am inspired! The skirt book is very simple - not anything that is really educational from my perspective, since I can sew pretty well (depending on the project - please don't ask me to make you curtains!). But, I like this book because it's all right there - all the simple instructions that I don't keep in my head, the ones that are scribbled on random sheets of paper and shoved into a drawer. I'm really inspired to make some cute wrap around skirts - for myself as well as my little girl. I'd really like to sew more for myself. Don't you just get sick of seeing all of the same clothes for sale in the stores?? Plus, I just LIKE the fact that I can MAKE that, instead of paying someone else.





Now, The Apron Book, is just darling! I love the fact that other women love aprons as much as I do. I love the history behind them and I love the creativity that they allow. This book has a little of everything - it's got instructions for making your own apron as well as a bit of history.

So, needless to say, I had a very enjoyable evening. thanks honey for feeding the kids, bathing the kids, and tucking them in.


Since we're on the topic of aprons - here is my latest. It's my first using my new serger - I think it turned out pretty cute. If you're interested - you can purchase it on my Etsy Site
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Men In Trees is Back!!!!!

Anyone else love this show? I'm so glad it's back on, even though they keep changing the days/time slots. I just happened to catch that it was on last night while surfing through the channels looking for Clifford, Arthur, Blues Clues, etc.


Here is a great synopsis of what's going on in case you missed it..... Men in Trees

The characters in the show are so endearing, their relationships are complex and I love the mix of humor, drama and love. The scenery is just gorgeous also. Makes me want to pack it all up and move to a mountain.

Here's the link to the actual ABC site....
Men in Trees

Let me know if you're a fan - happy viewing!

Thrifting is Fun! (so is eating Chocolate Chip Cookies!)

Some of my most favorite things are finding treasures, such as these sheets, in thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales, you get the idea! I love to find something that someone else thought was of no use, and make something beautiful from it.
Besides the fact that it can bring back to life discarded items, it can also bring back memories - in this case, I suppose 60's or 70's. Anyway, these just look like the sheets I had on my bed growing up.
I'm planning to make some really cute skirts and aprons from them.
Now that the weather is warming up, I'm getting the itch to start hitting those garage sales and flea markets.


Another thing I love to do is bake - particulary cookies! and I almost always have little helpers under my feet these days. While #1 stirred the batter, #2 got into the lazy susan and helped himself to a box of corn starch. He then promptly poored it's entire contents onto the floor. Seems pretty proud of himself though, huh?
Needless to say, my kitchen was absolutely a mess - but everyone seemed happy with the end result!





























Just in case anyone is wondering, yes, I did complete 8 hours of serger class - and no, I am by no means an expert! I have decided to start another apron - here's the material layed out so far.
This serging business just takes a lot of patience at first - lots of fiddling with the tensions, stitch width, stitch length, number of needles, differential feed, etc, etc,........
I think I'll really love it, once I learn to keep good notes on all those settings.

More Vintage Creations and a Challenging Morning

I wanted to share this darling little set I made for a baby shower gift for a great customer of mine!
It's made once again from my favority green floral tablecloth and bits and pieces of vintage lace, rick rack and chenille.

I had plans this morning first, to run to the post office to mail this order - but....President's Day! Post office closed. Seems like I always need to mail something during a National Holiday.
So...I dropped #1 off at PreSchool and came home with #2. We proceeded about our morning, and my little monkey boy decided to open up the pantry and help himself to a can of Dr. Pepper. (Note to self.....MOVE the Dr. Pepper) He dropped it....and it sprayed...and sprayed....and sprayed. All over my floor, walls, my boy, and the contents of the pantry.

So....I spend the rest of my morning cleaning up sticky Dr. Pepper off of the walls, floor, boy, and contents of pantry. Of course little boy had to "help" clean also.

Anyway, no sewing this morning - unless I can get something accomplishe in the next 15 minutes before lunch time!

Class Report

Well, after 4 hours of "serging"....this is what I accomplished!
I decided to sign up for Serger II....I'd like to learn how to do those Rolled Edges.
I think it's something I'll just have to practice with - it's sort of like learning to sew all over again - well, it's just a different machine. For those of you that sew - you know what I mean when I say that you just "know" your machine - you spend so much time with it. I think I just need to spend some "date" time, getting to know you time with my serger. Maybe if I give it a name, it'll treat me nicer, and feel like a true member of my family! Got any ideas???
If so, leave me a comment!
These are just some fabrics I found at Joann's the other day. My little boy loves, loves, loves puppies. So, I think I'll make him a little camp shirt, or maybe jon jon's out of the puppy material.
Then, I just loved the other two. I'm thinking circle skirts, either for my little girl, or to post on Etsy. The brown fabric is so pretty - it's chocolate brown with white embroidery.
Then, this little pattern I found in my stash the other day.
It's just too cute- I'm planning to dig into this soon and for sure make some for my shop.

Hope you all have a great day! Thanks for stopping in!