Happy Mothers Day

"What" you say "is she nuts?  Doesn't she know it is almost Valentine's Day, not Mothers Day?"  No, I haven't lost it yet, as far as I know.  You see, I've been working for the last three weeks on pieces for the Fancy Farm Girl Vintage Market in Moses Lake WA, which takes place the day before Mothers Day.  I've got furniture, vintage pieces, and a few odds and ends like this.

So what do you think this ends up as?  It started as an old cabinet door I got at Habitat for Humanities Restore store, and a couple of Fleur de lis coat hooks which I have a bunch of.

Ta Da!  A cute chalk board/coat rack.  My husband was bored and stenciled on the bird and wrote the Mothers Day note while I was painting some other pieces.

I'll be linking up at:

savvy southern style

diy by design

a stroll thru life

beyond the picket fence

Christmas Wreath 2014

This week I have a quick project and a short blog.

I started out with a cheap estate sale wreath, a broken ornament and some turkey feathers picked up in my front yard.

I bought these cute ornaments at a garage sale this summer and used them to decorate at our Christmas in July weekend.  Unfortunately this one got broken, but he was so pretty I kept him. 

So a little hot glue and voila!

I have it for sale at Paris Antiques, but won't be too disappointed if it doesn't sale and I have to keep it.
 Linking up at beyond the picket fence

Christmas Picture 2014

A couple of years ago I showed a Christmas picture that my genius husband put together for me that I love.  http://chickinthestyx.blogspot.com/2012/11/christmas-art.html  It is just a gift bag that he framed, but I hang it up every year.  What really cracks me up is how many times that post has been pinned.  This year I found a great show poster of a Christmas play done in 1993 in Seattle.  The only problem was finding the right frame.  I finally found this ugly 1980's picture at St. Vincents, it wasn't an exact fit so I made my own matting, painted out the frame and ta-da! 

I really like it and wouldn't be to sad if it doesn't sell, it could be a new addition to my decorations.

Linking up at these parties:

beyond the picket fence

savvy southern style 
diy by design

Zara's Apron

 Well, I thought I was done making aprons.  Don't get me wrong, I love making them, but I just didn't think I would need anymore, anytime soon.  Last summer I wrote how to make 3 aprons out of a shirt and a pair of jeans 1-shirt-1-pair-of-jeans-3-aprons .  For Christmas I made my daughter and two beautiful granddaughters aprons out of one shirt, and my son-in-law a barbecue apron out of some canvas with a duck on the pocket that I printed off the computer.  Sorry, no pictures of theirs, I was in a hurry to get them mailed off for Christmas.  So, like I said, I thought I was done until a friend called up and asked if I could make an apron for her granddaughter Zara.

Jewelry Boxes Part Deux

I have been on a jewelry box revamping kick lately.  It's fun because it is somewhere between furniture revamping and crafting.  I wrote about two blue ones last week, here are a couple more.
As you can see the one on the right was in pretty bad shape, but hey it was only $1.  I painted this one red to match the felt.

Jewelry Boxes part 1

Last summer I found a lot of jewelry boxes at garage sales.  Some were too much for resale, but others were as low as $1.  I thought it might be fun to revamp them into something a little more interesting.  This is a picture of some of the ones I picked up this summer, and at the estate sale I helped out with last month.  Audrey seems to think they were O.K. just as they were (she's pretty, but not to savvy about jewelry boxes).

Christmas Art

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything about furniture for awhile.  I promise my next post will be, but Becky at Beyond the Picket Fence is having a 12 days of Christmas party and I needed a quick idea to share.

 

Silverware Chest to Art Box

    Last spring, when I was just starting to pick pieces to revamp and resale, I found this silverware chest.  You see them all the time at garage sales and estate sales.  The reason is sadly, that the silver prices are up, and people turn in the silver for cash.  Anyhow, I thought this might make a good jewelery box.  Well it's been sitting next to my computer all summer while I tried to get some inspiration.  The problem was that it is too big for a jewelery box.  So finally, one sleepless night I had an epiphany!

1 Shirt + 1 Pair of Jeans = 3 Aprons

I read a post off of Pintrest on how to make an apron out of a shirt gabrielsgoodtidingsmens-dress-shirt-repurposed-to-apron .  I thought I would add some pockets and trim for my version.  A few months ago I had made an apron out of an old pair of jeans, and thought maybe I could use some of the left over fabric from the shirt to make one of these.  Well that still left the whole back of the shirt, so I thought what the heck, let's go for a third apron out of the front of the jeans and the remaining shirt.

1st Apron

 Here is the 1st apron of three made from a shirt and a pair of jeans.  This one only uses the shirt front and collar.  Sorry that the instructions are so detailed (I worked in a document control department in a different life).  It seems like a lot of steps, but it really is pretty simple.

2nd Apron

This is the 2nd apron out of the three made from a pair of jeans and a shirt, it was also the most time consuming.  The ruffle really kicked my butt.  First I had too little fabric for the ruffle, then too much.  Then I found out after I was all done that some sewing machines have an automatic ruffler, well wouldn't that be nice.  Oh well I think it turned out pretty cute.  The only shirt fabric you use for this is the sleeves.

3rd Apron

 This 3rd apron was the easiest of the three once I figured out what I wanted to do with it.  I had such a time with the ruffle on the second apron I knew I didn't want to mess with it on this one.  I thought that I was going to have more fabric to work with on the back and was going to have just a little of the jean featured and more of the shirt.  Instead I ended up pleating the shirt fabric and covering the seam with the ribbon.  I love the way this one turned out, I think it is my favorite.