This little piggie...

I made this little prim "piggie" pillow tonight. It's one of those "long" pillows. I had intended it to be a yard long, but then got nervous about shipping it and settled for two feet. LOL! Even that might prove to be a hard box to find. :) The embellishments were done with fabric yo-yo's, felted wool and vintage buttons. The pigs were appliques made from antique quilts that I purchased from a friend and fellow crafter, Patricia. She sells by the Ebay ID, vintage_crafter. Click here for her current auctions. And on Etsy, her seller ID is vintagecrafter1.




The pillow is on Ebay. You can click here to follow the auction.

The One That (Almost) Got Away

I made my bi-monthly run into the airport to pick up the husband from his work shift. I usually stop in a thrift store or two on these trips. Craig (DH) and Casey (our youngest son) were going shopping for a laptop so they dropped me off at a thrift store while they ran on to the computer store. I didn't find much, but what I did find made me VERY happy. Two gorgeous FOURTEEN INCH!! vintage white peacocks with the most amazing tail feathers and jeweled accents. And only $1.50 each! I snatched those babies off the shelf and proceeded to the register with a dozen projects already forming in my mind. To my dismay I didn't have my debit card in my wallet and they didn't take checks. I had no cash with me! Major bummer!! I sadly petted them one last time, bid them farewell and went to the curb to wait for my men. I told DH about my loss. Thank goodness for a man who understands such things! He turned the car around, dug out his wallet and handed me the necessary cash. I came out of the store grinning happily with my birds in my grubby little fists. What can I say??? Some women need $500 shopping trips to Nordstrom. Three dollars worth of crafting supplies and I'm good! One of the smartest things I ever did was grab that man before someone else did....



Charity

More of my Forest Fairy

I had an email asking for more photos of my Fall Forest Fairy and some questions about the dress. The dress was made from a polyester shantung type fabric with an oversized print of fall foliage. The back was shirred for a snug fit. The skirt is a balloon-style. The bodice had silk leaves sprayed painted in copper, gold and bronze arranged on it. Then a layer of copper metallic netting was put over the top and the piece was randomly quilted with copper metallic thread. Then charms, beads, sequins, buttons and such were hand-stitched to the bodice. There was a shawl that was attached at the hip on one side and then wrapped around the shoulder and the other end was tucked into a fall foliage wrist corsage. The elaborate headpiece was made just as you would a floral arrangement on a styrofoam base. It features a bird nest, fall foliage, a fabric bow and copper wire wrapped branches. The model's name is Karess. She goes to my church and isn't she adorable!?

I no longer have enough of this fabric left to recreate this piece. However, I might be able to make something similar with a different fabric. If you're interested in custom work, contact me at lovelace@mtaonline.net. I also do Christmas special occasion dresses for girls as well.

New on Ebay

I created these dessert or display stands from vintage Franciscan saucers and some marvelous Tracey Porter-esque candlesticks. Also included is a large glass cloche with knob created from a 60s era daisy earring and large cake fairy tag. You can follow this auction by clicking here

Let's Pretend!

While I'm not particularly fond of Halloween as a holiday, I do love costumes! My number one creative passion is clothing design. I simply do not do enough of it because it is not particularly profitable as a business venture. But it remains my first love. Particularly designing for children. And dress-up is a childhood essential. Imaginative play is so important to a child's development. How fortunate the child who has access to costumes that give full rein to their imagination. Last year I had great fun designing the Fall Fairy costume below. While the dress was a one of a kind and long since sold, the mask IS available on Etsy for those who might be interested.





And as long as I'm revisiting Costumes, these are a few others I did last year. My little model had so much fun dressing up and becoming these different characters. I will probably make a handful of costumes this year and make them available on either Etsy or Ebay. I haven't decided what I will make this year, so if you have suggestions...sing out! I do not do anything "gruesome" and like to focus on historical, fantasy or ethnic-inspired costumes.

Indian Princess


Russian Folkwear



Mongolian Snow Queen

First Day of School

At 16.5, this is Casey's second day of First Day of School. :) We homeschooled him until last year when he asked to attend a private Christian school. So this whole dropping them off at school thing is still new to me. And still makes me wistful and a little teary. We have so little time with our children. Each moment is precious to me. I am grateful for all the years we had together at home. Such wonderful memories. Good times. Lots of laughter. Last night I was making a late night run for lunch snacks. The cashier, picking up on the night-before-school cart contents, made a remark about how I must be doing the happy dance to have my kids out of my hair and my days to myself again. I don't get that and the whole mentality makes me sad.

Mission Accomplished!

I did it! I got the antique shelf unit in place. And it only took the drill gun, marking chalk, a t-square, stud-finder (or a Craig-finder as my husband so modestly calls it) and about a half dozen sheetrock screws. Didn't even need Google. LOL! It's not going anywhere. After I installed it, I grabbed it and did my best to rip it off the wall. It didn't rattle an iota. So I took a deep breath and loaded it up with my goodies. I'm tired, heading to bed and hoping I'm not awakened by things that go shatter in the night...




I'd really like to learn how to manage a power saw next. I'd love to make some rustic shutters to dress up the house exterior. Something kind of like this...



If you've made shutters, I'd love to hear from you! Ta-ta for now...

Charity

If Your Friends Jumped Off a Cliff...

"If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?"

Did you hear that one growing up? It always cracked me up to hear that one come out of my mother's mouth because if anyone was a trend follower, it was my mother. My Mom is a stylish woman. A natural Dramatic if you're a follower of the Dramatic/Classic/Ingenue/Sporty fashion philosophy. She was usually one of the first to wear the latest fashions and looked great in them. The only faux pas I can remember was her brief experimentation with those hideous pantalooned, puffed sleeve jumpsuits of the late 80s.

But despite the Mom'isms of my youth, I followed the rest of the lemmings off the fashion cliff this week. I had to try those cropped pants. Not quite gauchos. Not really capris. I'm not sure what you'd call them, but I love the look. At 47 years old and 5'9", my legs are about the only decent thing I've got left going for me. So I figured this was one trend I might be able to pull off. When I found a pair of wool herringbone cropped pants at Burlington Coat Factory for (drumroll, please) a mere $4.99 I figured it was my fashion destiny to follow in my mother's footsteps and try a new trend. Even though I live in a semi-rural Alaskan valley where dressing up means a clean pair of jeans and your leather loafers instead of the usual steel toe boots.

There is no way on God's green earth that I'm modeling these babies for you. Not until I lose 25 (okay, okay...35 pounds). But these are pretty close to them. You get the general idea. And I'm happy to pretend that this is me. Missing forehead not withstanding...


Today, cropped pants. Tommorrow I might even try...a cape (inside joke for Jana!).

Charity

PS - Can SOMEONE tell me what you're supposed to do for shoes with these things????!!!!

PSS - Cabinet update: Paint is drying. As soon as it's done, the cabinet gets hung and then the fun starts with dressing it up!

PSSS - How DO you pronounce "ingenue" anyway? Seven years of French and I'm still clueless!