Thrift finds

So, there's a flea market in Utah County. It's called Fleaology and they have a blog HERE. I went with some friends a few weeks ago (they only have it quarterly or so, I believe) and scored some pretty awesome stuff.

I think this mirror is awesome. I think I'll probably give it to Mim some day for her dress ups, but I think I'll wait until she's a little older and I won't have to worry so much about her breaking it. For now it goes on my dresser, which is fine with me, since it totally reminds me of Beauty and the Beast, which is my favorite fairy tale/Disney movie.

 The brown scarf was a DI (Utah's Goodwill) find, but the red with white polka dots was from the flea market- 2 bucks!

 

These are my new awesome flour and sugar canisters. They're awesome. I only wish I had more counter space (since it's so limited in my tiny kitchen, they're usually in the cupboard).

 

 I did not happen to find any zippered pouches at the flea market, but I did get about 2 yards of this awesome strawberry/floral/polka dot for $9. I didn't get any pictures of it before I started cutting it up.

 

 This was not a thrift find. It's from the old swamp cooler that used to go in our living room window. That monster is out behind the shed, waiting to go to the dump, but I noticed this wheel on it a few days ago. I thought it might be kind of a neat little keepsake, plus it kind of reminded me of these from Pottery Barn:

They're no longer available, but I remember seeing them in a catalog and thinking they were pretty cool.

Anyway, I've been pretty pleased with my thrifty finds lately. Anybody want to go garage sale-ing with me?

Appliqué pillow covers

So this is beautiful, right?

It's Anthropologie's Orimono pillow. I've loved it for awhile; it reminds me of THIS pillow I made, probably my favorite one ever.

Anyway, I finally gave it a try, so here's my version:

 I love it pretty hard. I originally wanted to have a lot of different fabrics on it (like the inspiration), but I looked at my fabric stash and I just didn't have what I wanted. I also didn't want to buy any fabric for it. So I used my current favorite fabric (from a set of bed skirts found at a thrift store for a few bucks).
For the design- I drew it all on the paper side of some Heat N Bond, cut out the flower as a whole, ironed it to the cloth, and then proceeded cutting a piece out one bit at a time and placing it on my cut out pillow front. It took some time. After I removed that paper bits and ironed it to the pillow, I did a zig zag around each little petal:

{That also took some time.}

So, like I said, I love it pretty hard. If I ever find the blue pom pom trim I bought to got around the edges of the pillow, I'll probably unpick the whole thing and add it in. Then I'll love it even more. Even more than a fat kid loves cake. But that's only if I ever find that trim.

After the red one, I made a few more. I'll probably sell them in my Etsy shop, but we'll see. They might end up as gifts.

{I would keep this one, too, but the greens look really gross with my wall color.}

I'm not exactly sure what I was going for with this last one. Maybe a wonky chevron/modern interpretation of waves? I still like it, regardless.

So, any opinions out there on what I should do with them? Or how much I should sell them for?

It's a sign

Like a literal, physical sign.

See?

{Do your best, fetcher.}

No cool reclaimed wood story- these were brand spankin' new pine boards from Home Depot. I just cut them down, did some distressing, painted, and then stenciled.

The LAUNDRY sign:
I fulfilled my Pinspired quota for this week (it was actually last week, but my project to blog turn around is not great) with this aging technique found HERE. (HERE's where I pinned it.) In the tutorial, the author says that the vinegar with dissolved steel wool mixture smelled terrible. I didn't think so, but it's possible that my sense of smell is a little weirder than most people's (banana smell makes me gag). Then I did a freezer paper stencil with my Silhouette, waited for the paint to dry, then used a fine grit sandpaper to wear it all down together.

{Freezer paper stencils didn't bond super tightly, you can see how the paint seeped a little in this picture. I only used it on signs that I was going to sand and distress.}

The "wash your hands" sign:
You can't tell in the above picture, but the blue paint is a little streaky. I was mixing up my own blue and instead of mixing up the paints until it was all homogenous, I only mixed them together a tiny bit (it was a darker blue, a white, and a grey) and used a bristle brush to apply. The font for "wash" is Alphabet 05, found HERE for free. (hooray!)

{Love this font.}

"DO YOUR BEST":
I didn't use a stain on the board, I just used my vinegar/steel wool mix after it had sat for a few days. It was much more red and didn't turn the board grey like it did when I used the mix fresh (fresh=24 hours). I was just going to use vinyl lettering on this one, but then got it on and didn't like how fresh and clean it was, so I painted over it, let it dry, then pulled the vinyl off. Then sanded, of course. The font here is Market Deco (one of my new favorites) found HERE again. (also free!)

{These were actually drill holes. I was working on something else and I put the sign boards under it so I wouldn't ruin the bit.}

"You are my SUNSHINE":
Took a new board, added some nail holes in the ends (I did that with the other big signs, too), hammered around on the ends a little extra, then painted it white, then yellow. Then I used a stencil for the letters and sanded it all down.
This was the same process as for the other "DO YOUR BEST" sign, except with that one I did a blue layer, a red layer, another blue later, and finished with gray (because of a mistake I made, not because I really wanted to do 4 coats of paint)

{Probably my favorite sign.}

Easy zippered bags

These have been on my to-do list for awhile. I first decided to make some for my daughter's Polly Pocket things (so so tiny) and then I was like, hey, it'd be nice to have one for her crayons, too. And then I was like, hey, I want one for my make up. And then I told my friend I'd do a boutique with her, so I was finally motivated (a deadline!) and I made a bunch. Nothing sold (ahwell) and so now I have a bunch of pouches (over 20). I have several in use around the house and they're handy little things for sure.

So here's what I did:

First, cutting fabric. Most of what I used was quilting cotton, but I also used other materials I had on hand, like some vintage sheets and scraps left over from other stuff.

I made 2 sizes, a 5x9 and a 7x9. I cut everything an inch larger in each direction to give me plenty of room for seam allowances. For each pouch you need 4 rectangles, two for the lining and two for the outside.

After cutting, add whatever embellishments to the front. Some I sewed stuff to, some I freezer paper stenciled.

Then you make your first zipper sandwich- the front piece right side up, the zipper upside down, then a lining piece face down. Sew them all together along the top, staying right next to the zipper (use a zipper foot).

After that, do the same with your other lining and outside fabric pieces (you'll have to fold the first two out of the way in order to make the same sandwich).

Then you can open it up and make sure the zipper is in the right place and everything.

Then fold the front pieces right side together and the lining pieces right side together.

IMPORTANT: unzip your zipper at least half way. If you don't, it will make trouble when you try to turn the bag right side out. Sew almost all the way around that rectangle. Leave a gap of about 3-4" in the long side of the lining pieces. Clip your corners.

 Turn everything right side out through the gap

 Take the gap....

 

And sew it closed.

{Sorry to switch bags on you again.}

Stuff the lining back into the bag and TA-DA!

 Very easy. It gets even easier after you make about 25 of them:

{I had kind of a really fun time matching linings to outside fabrics. Like, it's kind of weird how much fun it was for me.}

Some freezer paper stenciled (tutorial from HERE).

{My favorite one is the alligator. Makes me smile every time.}

 Some I sewed embellishments to:

Here's most of what I did:

 

Anybody need a zippered pouch? If you need one (and even if you don't) and you're related to me/good friends with me, guess what you get for your next birthday. Go ahead, guess.

I hope you guessed zippered pouch, because really.

Even if you didn't...you will still get one anyway.

Not a party blog

So, I had thought I would take some pictures of the little party we had for my daughter's birthday.

NOPE.

{At least there werre still a few left.}

I got some of the important stuff: my daughter, her cousins, unwrapping presents, etc. But so far as decorations and craftiness and whatnot, the picture above is the only one.


And that's why this isn't a party blog.

Here's where I learned to frost the cupcakes- it was faster than spreading it with a knife.