Content/Sidebar/Sidebar

Friday Favorites

Floral Dreams ◊ Back home ◊ fuzz ◊ whiter

Fun, quirky house tour. I just might need this rug (in her bedroom) for my office. All of the color-ways are gorgeous
I may be jumping the gun on cardigan weather but I just bought this A New Day cardigan in periwinkle from Target and it is so pretty. Periwinkle is one of my favorite colors (and one I made all my bridesmaids wear at our wedding). I'm between a medium and a large and if they had a large I would have gone with that. They just had medium and it's okay but I think sizing up would have been better.
Beautiful duet with Callum Scott and Barbara Favi. If you don't know who Callum Scott is watch his Britain's Got Talent audition from a few years back. The back story is both he and his sister auditioned and she didn't make it but he did. He has such a beautiful voice. And I love me a duet…

Doesn't it feel like Summer is waning? Schools are starting back up (as evidenced by the traffic on my morning commute) and I can sense a shift in the weather. It's darker when we go on our early morning walk and there is a breeze that is feeling very fall like. Not to mention the trees seem to be prematurely losing their leaves.

I'm always hard pressed to pick a favorite season. I think I enjoy the change each one brings. Although January through March tend to be a bit rough so I would say Winter is my least favorite.

I also like enjoying each season as it unfolds so I don't tend to rush things here on the blog. Even though I may be itching to get into Halloween. I promise to wait until Mid-September at least.

Do you have any fun weekend plans? I think we are going to drive along the coast on Saturday and maybe hit up Monterey.

Have a lovely weekend my friends!

Small things

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, since I am all caught up with my projects, I want to start refocusing some attention to the dollhouse. I thought I would use this post to share some things I have created.

While I am procrastinating on the actual restoration of the house I’ve been creating the furnishings and belongings of the house’s occupant. I didn’t intend for this to happen but as I began acquiring and making things for the house a story began to emerge on who actually lives there. I can’t adequately explain it. It’s like I have a muse. She is an elderly woman who has had a rich and intriguing past.

She is very creative, as evidenced by the paint supplies and she may have been a circus horseback rider back in the day. She has many mementos from her days traveling across the county with the circus. Puppet theater inspired by Guignol.

Most of the furnishings I’ve made are actually for the attic. To me that is far the most interesting space to furnish.

Most of what I make is from bass wood I get at the craft store or local hardware store. It’s a little less soft than balsa wood and I just find it easier to work with. I will also employ Popsicle sticks in my creations. I have a box of Popsicle sticks that Rick bought when he was 9 or 10 years old. They are a much better quality of wood than the Popsicle sticks you can buy today.

The attic space is divided into two rooms. The main room with all the stored mementos and cast-off furniture and another room that will be like a dressing room with all her old costumes and vestiges from her life as an entertainer.

Yes that is the Ikea Bekvam stool, painted in my signature shade of green. It was quicker and easier to put together the real size version!

You know I have to replicate some of my own furnishings if you recall the bed, dining set and stove I shared previously. The stool will be in the kitchen next to the Wedgewood. Just as it is in my kitchen.

I fully admit to being intimidated by some of the masterpiece dollhouses out there. There are so many miniature artists that I admire so much but if I try to live up to their standards I will never finish the thing. I want the house to tell a story more than I want it to be perfectly to scale and accurate. So I am going to forge ahead and I’ll share as I go along. Believe me I am completely new to this so I’ll be sharing what I learn along the way.

Also – I just noticed, looking at the above picture, that the oven door handles on my Wedgewood aren’t lined up. They must have replaced one of the doors during the restoration process. So – I’m thinking perfect really isn’t all that realistic anyway.

Ruffles

I had forgotten how completely tedious sewing ruffles is. What I thought was going to be a super simple, whip it out in an hour, type of project was decidedly not.

Our lounge chair cushion is torn and discolored and I couldn't find a good replacement for it that would match the chairs. So, inspired by this picture on Instagram, I decided to make a shabby floral cover for it.

I originally ordered the prettiest faded floral fabric from Carousel Designs but after pre-washing it I realized that I didn't have enough yardage. It is also a very lightweight cotton and I was going to have to line it with another fabric. So I'll save that fabric for another project.

I wasn't able to find anything online or in stores that was quite what I was looking for so I turned to Etsy and found this fabric, which is actually a vintage bedsheet from France. It is a nice weight cotton and I figured it was about as pre-shrunk and as faded as it was ever going to be.

I had my fabric cut out and was ready to go when the ruffling and my sewing machine started giving me fits. I tried the high tension, long stitch method but my machine kept skipping stitches – like two inches worth. It also wasn't gathering it very much so I tried a variation where you also pinch the thread between your fingers to give it more tension. Too much evidently and when I tried to ease up the ruffles the thread would break. I finally settled on the string and zig-zag stitch method which was better but still kept dropping stitches.

If you look closely you can see where stitches are dropped. It wasn't as bad because I could always go back over the areas that needed it. I did try swapping bobbins, rethreading the machine, switching out the needle. What I finally figured out was my thread was shredding and after I switched that out things picked up.

After ruffling over 33 linear feet of fabric I was over it.

I love the sprays of lilacs in the fabric. Just to the left of the lounge chair is a lilac bush. It also picks up the statice right behind it too.

My friend asked if I was all caught up on my projects and it turns out I am! Except for the dollhouse which I can/should focus on. The greenhouse is done, my slip cover is done. I might try my hand on making some dresses for my granddaughter. I could also focus on the Halloween party invitation and my costume. Halloween always sneaks up on me and I find myself frantically trying to get invitations out and my costume finished. I already know what I am going to be and one component of the costume might be tricky to find.

Happy Monday everyone! Enjoy the week.

Friday Favorites

we…girls, 2. pocket of apron, 3. 1950s party dresses, 4. threadfrompcc

My new favorite wine is LVE Provence Rose. By none other than John Legend. Okay so maybe he didn't make it but he has some sort of stake in the game. Not only does it taste wonderful during these wicked hot August days but the bottle is so pretty. Instead of a cork it has a glass stopper. Gorgeous. Sláinte!
Since we are talking favorites – I am loving the lavender candle by Rosy Rings. A true, just cut it out of my Provence garden, lavender. Even when it isn't lit it smells fabulous. Well worth the steeper price.
I loved this salad hack featured on Cup of Jo. Make a grilled cheese (light on the cheese) and turn them into croutons! Genius!!
Ooooh! As someone that loves miniatures and dollhouses The Miniaturist series on PBS looks very intriguing

Isn't Friday just the best day of the week? You have the entire weekend sprawling ahead of you.

This will be the weekend of the roses. I need to feed and deadhead them. This is the time to give a good feeding so you have blooms into the fall. I also need to divide my irises. Something I have been putting off for a couple of years. We'll see how much we get done this weekend.

Have a wonderful weekend my friends!

Summer garden and one year in.

We are hitting that point in our garden when things start to fade because of the unrelenting heat (seriously – high 90s for weeks on end with no rain in sight). Our enthusiasm and garden both wane dramatically.

We do have a few plants that seem to thrive on the heat. The rose above was a Craigslist freebie that Rick found. A women in our area was moving out of her rental and she didn't want to risk the fate of her rose bush to the next tenant so she advertised it on Craigslist. She figured that someone answering an ad for a free rose was a better risk than leaving it behind. Rick dug it up and took a few bags of soil off their hands (they were moving across country and it didn't seem practical to take it on the plane with them…..).

Well it found a good home with us. It is a very prolific bloomer and didn't suffer much from being transplanted.

Hmmm. I think my Dusty Miller has bolted. And is halfway to the sidewalk. Or Milwaukee. This sad state of affairs is in the courtyard. Today I pulled it all out and replanted with fresh Salvia, Phlox, Verbena and more Dusty Miller. I don't have an after because it all looks a bit bald at the moment. But give it a few weeks and it will look lush and full.

Do you do much late Summer replanting? I like to freshen up a few areas and we keep feeding the roses so we get blooms well into Fall.

I have to admit my blog is feeling a bit like my garden at the moment. Still sort of nice but definitely fading as the heat rises. I think I just need to ride both out and my enthusiasm for both will come back when the temperatures start to drop.

It has been a year exactly since I've been back to blogging. I've truly enjoyed it and plan on continuing for the foreseeable future. I'm proud of myself for consistently posting but admit to feeling a bit panicked every so often and then scrambling to get something, anything posted. I find I get the most engagement on project (craft) type posts so I want to concentrate on polishing those up a bit while still having the regular, low-key "let's catch up" type of posts.

Thank you for sticking with me and encouraging me. It is truly appreciated and I treasure the camaraderie.

« Previous Page