Stuff I Didn't Buy at Goodwill

I ran away from home yesterday. Just for a couple of  hours. I don't remember the last time I left my house alone to do something I wanted to do. And I was feeling the strain. You know where I went, of course.  I bought a pair of jeans and a glass tumbler to replace the one I broke day before yesterday. These are a few of the jewels I left behind. 

Here we have a set of Emancipation Proclamation commemorative drinking glasses, featuring portraits of all your favorite emancipators -- Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, George Washington Carver, and the like. Why not enjoy a history lesson with that refreshing beverage?

What could be more charming on your breakfast table? Perfect for all of your lobster-eating, champagne-swilling occasions.

Apparently this washPOD is all the rage for infant bathing in Europe. Just fill 'er up and dunk Petit Junior in. It's the most natural way! Olivia would have fit in this for approximately 10 days after her birth.

I think the less said about this the better. 

Now this is a tricky one.  Why -- you are most certainly wondering -- didn't she buy this? Besides the fact that it is a fantastic movie with which I have a long and glorious history, the price is a steal. ($19 on Amazon!) But when I picked it up the case felt suspiciously light. So I opened it up. 

Heartbreak. What kind of a wretch pulls a stunt like this? Unconscionable. 

So, how about you? Had any major retail disappointments lately?

Read more...

Good-Night and Goodwill

You will be relieved, I am sure, to learn that Olivia is, in fact, completely normal. Which is to say that after 3 glorious, miraculous days of laying down in her bed and going right to sleep, she has discovered the advantages of unfettered access to toys at bedtime. Also, it is fun to get up in the middle of the night and stand in the (gated) doorway and yell for milk to be brought on a silver platter. Okay, I made up the silver platter part, but the rest is true. Unfortunately. Like I said before, I'm no fool. I figured this was coming. I was holding on to the tiniest shred of hope that it wouldn't, but who am I kidding? Naps are still going pretty well, though, so I shouldn't complain too much, I guess. And really, as much as I like sleeping at night, I'm pretty used to dealing with wakeful children at this point. Just please, please don't take nap times away from me. I'm so not ready for that.

In other news, I took Ginny to the doctor yesterday (no big -- her allergies are just wretched this time of year) and, according to our custom, we went to Goodwill to wait for her prescription to be filled. Here are a few things that I did not bring home.

This beautiful, weird 55 year calendar (made in Pakistan) caught my eye. I've never seen anything like it and it took me a few minutes to figure out how it worked. I almost bought it, but decided against it. I mean, it's only good for 6 more years.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. My only hope is that Jonathan has not moved on to actually building this horrifying device. Poor LEGO guy. He doesn't stand a chance with that spear/bazooka.

Gorgeous antique sewing machine. Ginny spent the longest time trying to figure out how one would go about threading it. I couldn't figure it out either. I don't think the table is original.

Oh, how I wish I had a record player. Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town AND Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Is In? Gold, indeed.

I circled this drop-leaf table several times before I accepted the reality that we have absolutely NO place in our house for it. Sad face. It would make a great sewing table. In another color, of course. I don't do... whatever color that is.

There were several racks of Halloween costumes -- both of the "boughten" variety and the DIY variety. Basically they stuck all the formal dresses on the same rack with the Elmo and Elvira costumes and called it a day. This little number caught Ginny's eye. Naturally.

I did buy a pretty, insulated Corning Ware coffee pot to decant into when we have guests. Do you take cream and sugar?

Read more...

On taste and how it changes (or doesn't)

Want to see something funny?

Are you laughing yet? No. That's okay. I haven't told you the funny part yet. I tore this page out of the April 2006 issue of (sadly now-defunct) Domino magazine. I love magazines but I figured out long ago that if I kept every issue of every magazine that ever entered my house we would not longer have any space for slightly more important things like clothing or toilet paper, so I recycle past issues (Don't we all? Wink. Wink.) but not before I tear out the pages of things I want to remember -- pretty rooms that I just like to look at, ideas that I'd like to try, products I want to look up online.  Sometimes recipes, but not so much anymore, because I find I rarely wind up using them, delicious though they may be. All of this I stuff into a big folder, which I look through a couple of times a year. If I can't remember why I tore the page out months later I toss it. Sometimes I'm completely stumped. As in, "Sweet Moses, what was I thinking?" 

Tastes change. Fashions come and go. Fortunately I am not such a slave to trends that most of what I save I still love months, even years later. Which brings me to the page above. See that Urban Outfitters bedspread in the top left corner? Cute, right? Now check this out. 

This is my kitchen window. Look familiar? I bought this fabric (a table cloth and matching napkins -- which we now use every day) at Goodwill early this year and made cafe curtains to brighten up my kitchen. 7 years later, having no memory of tearing that page out of a magazine, the exact same print caught my eye and made its way into my house. I love it. Still. 

Read more...

Rescued

I rescued a quilt from the Goodwill last week.  I had some stuff to drop off, and hadn't really planned to go in, but Ginny begged to go in to look around for a few minutes (That's my girl!) so I relented.  I spied this quilt hanging among the bed linens.

It is hand-pieced and quilted, and quite fragile.  The puckering you see is the result of some very poor mending where the fabric is worn through.

There are some darling prints in it. 

 

 The quilting is also lovely.  

What do I do with it, though?  It really can't be used as-is.  I started snipping the mending threads so I could get a better idea of how damaged it really is, but now I'm not sure that's the right approach.  Any suggestions?  Now that it's been rescued, I don't want it to spend the next 10 years stuffed in a closet because I can't decide what to do with it.

Read more...

Please step into my Way Back Machine.

I found this post from last spring in my drafts -- previously unpublished because I never bothered to take a picture of the finished project.  So enjoy this crafty trip in the Way Back Machine, be reminded of how adorable Ginny was at age 4, and amazed at how she's changed.

A while back my mom told me about a really expensive sign she'd seen in a fancy homegoods store that said, "Fleurs de Virginie."  That is "Virginia's Flowers."  I think it may have been a painting of a French florists shop with that name.  Anyway, she didn't buy it (see: "really expensive"), but I've had a bee in my bonnet to make a vintage-inspired florist sign for Ginny's room ever since.  I started with this lovely piece:

If you painted this, dear reader, I apologize for what you are about to see.

At first my plan was to sand it a bit and give it a couple of coats of white spray paint for a clean start.  Then I realized that the look that I was going for was "fleurs" and there was already a fleur on it.  "Why waste a moderately good fleur?" I always say.  Actually, I don't think I've ever said that.  Nevertheless, Ginny and I gave it a quick sand:

It's never too early to teach these important life skills.

After a quick wipe with a damp cloth to remove the dust, it was on to the next step.  Here's how you can DIY this at home:  Choose your flowery font, and print out your words.  Make 'em BIG.

Lay them out to make sure everything is going to fit, then prepare your computer printouts for the transfer process.  (I feel like I'm maybe getting a little carried away with these instructions.  Do you get the feeling I might be about to tell you how to do a brain transplant or something?  It's not that complicated.)  Then do this:

Scribble over the entire back of each word.  It's so easy a 4 year old can do it.

Now turn your pages over, place them on the surface to be painted and trace the letters with a pencil.  It works like carbon paper.  When you lift up the paper, you should see your letters transferred lightly onto the surface, like so:

(I used this same technique to paint on my dining room walls.)

Now use a paint pen, or a thin paint brush to outline and fill in the letters.

When that was dry, I outlined the letters again in gold, just for the extra je ne sais quoi.

I added a fake date of establishment.  Why fake?  Because 2011 sounds too futuristic for a French florist.  I don't know.  Just go with it.  When it was totally dry, I did a bit more sanding here and there, to give it a more aged, distressed look, and there you have it.  

Read more...

A Party for Clara

Two weekends ago I hosted a tea party baby shower for my sister-in-law, Mary.

The shoes were Mary's when she was a baby.  Pink roses and honeysuckle from my back yard, and daisies from the roadside.  The vintage children's storybooks are from the free bin at a used bookstore.

Red roses from my mother-in-law's yard.  Tea tin from Goodwill.

The gown on the far left was made by Clara's great-great grandmother for my mother-in-law when she was born.  The rest of these tiny things were Mary's. 

Peonies from my yard and my mother-in-law's with more roadside daisies

Menu

Mini Cherry & Almond Teacakes

Chicken Salad with Croissants

Bacon Cheese Ball with crackers

Grape Salad

Cream Scones with Strawberry Jam and Lemon Curd

Punch, Coffee and Assorted Teas

 
My only regret is that I don't live near enough to my brother and his wife to have hosted parties for their babies, too.  Happy Birthday, 3rd birthday Anna Beth!  Aunt Bek loves you.

Read more...

What Now? (Expert sewing advice wanted!)

 I went to Goodwill yesterday and bought this dress.

Yellow tags were 50% off, so I only paid $4.

It doesn't fit me perfectly.  The bodice is a few inches short, and I'm not totally sold on the neckline.  I think a scoop would probably be more flattering on me.  And I'm not sure I like the sleeves.  And the fabric is scratchy polyester.  Why, then, did I buy it? 

Well, there are several things about it that I do love.  I love the pleated skirt.  And the pockets.  I want to use it as a pattern to make another dress that does fit perfectly.  I know I'm going to need to turn it inside out and study how it's put together.  But I have no idea where to go from there.  Should I take it apart and use the pieces to cut my own pattern?  And (horrors) that hidden zipper.  Yikes.  Is there any way I can make a similar dress without putting in a zipper? (I'm guessing not.)  I may be in totally over my head here.  If you're an experienced sewer and have any tips, please leave a comment!  I need help!

Read more...

Red

Have you ever painted with red?  Oh.  My.  Good.  Gracious.  I seriously think I could have kept on painting coat after coat, until I had not a drop of paint left, and I still would not have achieved even coverage on this thing.  I finally gave up after 4.  I just decided it was enough.  Eventually I may give it a good coat of spray paint to even it out, but for now, I'm living with the imperfection. 

(Rotten picture.  Sorry.)  This is what it looked like before.  Not terrible, but not that special, either.  I picked this little tiered side table up maybe a year ago on 1/2 off day.  I intended to paint it all along, but I hadn't been able to settle on a color.  I knew I could paint it black, to match our dresser and the desk, but that seemed kind of boring.  I wanted a color, I just didn't know which color.  I had a can of Glidden Candy Apple Red, that I got when they did their 1 quart giveaway, but until I got this duvet cover and the Euro shams, red didn't really make sense in the room. Yes, it's eggshell finish wall paint.  I decorate wrong and I don't care.   The duvet cover is from Pottery Barn and the shams are Martha Stewart for Macys.  I found both at Goodwill.  I love the lightness they bring to the room.  They do push the look a little toward the feminine, but I don't think Travis minds.  I hope. You don't mind, do you Trav?

So here's what happens when you paint with red:

Before

1st coat. 

Nothing says, "Boy, have I made a mistake." like one coat of red paint.

2nd coat

4th coat

If I had primed it (or sanded), I probably could have gotten more coverage.  But we all know that's not the way I operate. I did wipe the dust off, though.  Also, those turned legs and spindles?  They put the pain in paint.  I tried every painting tool I had and nothing made those things any easier.  So I just kind of slapped it on as best I could.  Don't judge me.  (See the stool in the background?  It's painted this same color.)

Is it crazy that I actually sleep better in this room, now that I think it looks pretty?

Read more...