Chair Make-Over 07/01/09

I bought this ratty old chair at a garage sale last year and it has been sitting in the garage begging for attention. This week I finally got around to getting the darn thing done. I bought it because it had good strong bones and I especially liked the curved arms.

The paint was peeling so I gave the wood a fresh coat of paint. Then I dug around my stash of material for something pretty.

I decided on this vintage blue fabric that I had gotten at the Salvation Army. I had about 2 yards. It only took one to cover the chair.


Here she is!  $2 for the chair, .50 for the fabric, paint I already had. I'm giving her a thumbs up.

Cottage bathroom 06/26/09

Here are a few "before" pics of the bathroom. This is how it looked when we bought the cottage. Where the tub was, will now be the laundry area. (Boy, that tub was HEAVY to remove! Lucky for me, I'm married to the Hulk....short but powerful.)






Here is what it looks like right now. I am hoping to get it finished this week since I am off work for the whole WEEK!





Before the new ceiling.



During installation...it is so hard to put something on the ceiling! I drilled my finger...twice!

Vintage Laundry bag pillow 06/26/09

I purchased this vintage blue satin laundry bag for a dime. I brought it home, put it through the washer and stuffed it with an old bed pillow. It has a drawstring opening so I just stretched it open, kept the string inside and hand stitched it closed. It is embroidered with "Laundry" and has the most feminine ruffle all the way around. How do you like it?





The pink satin pillow was a .50 find last year. I got two similar larger ones that are just as pretty.



Do you know what this is? Besides being a mulberry tree, it is a sure sign of summer's arrival. My neighbor's tree is FULL of the tasty black berries and she has given me free reign to any fruit from her trees. (She also has a pear tree and some grape vines!) I can't understand why no one ever makes mulberry jelly or why they don't sell them in the stores like they do raspberries, etc? They are SO good!

All those little black spot are berries! See Mr. Squirrel sitting on the branch in the middle? He is STUFFING his face!

Even though it's in the 90's here, I sure thank God for summer!

Running WATER! 06/26/09

YES! The cottage has WATER! After a year of trucking water over in coolers, we now have the modern convenience of stepping over to the sink and...PRESTO! Welcome to the 21st century!

The plumber has hooked up my kitchen sink, bathroom sink, tub and toilet. So not only do we have water for washing, we have water for flushing! I won't tell you what we did during the year whenever nature called....

Here is a picture of my son removing the old sink in the kitchen. Notice the burned formica countertops and lack of backsplash. (I removed the peel-and-stick tiles that were up there.)

I wallpapered the backsplash in a pretty embossed paper that mimicks pressed tin ceiling tiles. I will paint it with enamel white for durability. I covered the formica with crisp white ceramic tile....ah...Dad would be proud. Check out the old medicine bottles found on the property. 

Here is a close-up of some of the many layers of wall paper on the old backsplash.

On a side note, we had a HUGE blessing last weekend with a surprise visit from some dear friends of ours on their way traveling on vacation. We hadn't seen then in about 5 years.
They have 10 of the sweetest children you will ever meet! They were driving home from a week at Suzuki Camp. You can see the older kids with their instruments in tow. They drive a 15 passenger van and haul all their belongings in a horse trailer. Clever! I hope to see them again soon!

Mother's day 05/12/09

I hope every Mom has as nice a Mother's Day as I did. I got the only thing I asked for...help demolishing the bathroom at the cottage. I even got some extra helpers...my brother and sister in law. My husband's Mom came along to to keep things light!


Here is my daughter helping to rip out ceiling tiles. Note my new electrical panel! Lights!

My sister in law and brother in law worked hard to pull tiles and remove remaining bathtub framing.

My son and husband were out mowing the lawn and gathering an armful of Poppies that were in full bloom on the property. Aren't they beautiful? (See photo above.)

After burgers at a local "Drive-In" we came home and I opened my gifts.

My jewelry-making daughter took this lone vintage earring and turned it into a brooch for me. It SPARKLES!

My 16yr old son made this sweet charm bracelet out of Sculpey clay. He baked all the pieces right under my nose. I never saw a thing. The charms are: a cross, our dog, pepsi logo (I'm addicted), a heart, watermelon (my favorite food) and an ebay logo (I've been selling there since 1995!). His sister put all the charms together on the bracelet.

Work at the cottage 04/25/09

I've been getting work done on the bedroom at the cottage. I love the blue we picked out for the walls and it's so pretty with the sun shining through the large windows.

While my mom was visiting, we hit a few garage sales and I got some GREAT treasures for the cottage.

I got this really pretty bed for $10. I forgot to take a "before" picture, but it was painted fluorescent yellow and green and was upholstered in maroon. But I saw past that, to what it would be. Here it is:

I painted it in white, re-upholstered it in a tiny taupe houndstooth and covered it in an old hobnail cotton bedspread that I had. No pillows yet. Look at the pretty detail in the siderails and foot.

Here is more detail in the carved roses on the headboard:

Now, I know this is absolutely crazy but check out this adorable side table I picked up for $3!. There are 3 huge brass flowers that spring out on the base. They are like tulips on steroids that have been bronzed! Inside each of the flowers is a light bulb that lights up when you plug the thing in! How great is that?! Anyway, the flowers look just like "Audrey 2" in the movie Little Shop Of Horrors so I have loving dubbed this little table "Audrey 3".

At the same sale where I purchased Audrey 3, I bought this massive mirror for $15. Is it gorgeous, or what! 

My amazing daughter used lots of elbow grease to get this old fridge to shine! This is the old thing I bought last month for $25 from a farmer who had it out in his barn. It is an old HotPoint with a tiny freezer on top. But the best thing about it is its PINK interior! It is too SWEET and too perfect for my old kitchen. It's a little shabby on the outside and I may paint it in the future. But for now it is fine.

How to make a barrister wig 02/24/09

Our Homeschool Teen Club is performing "Wind in the Willows" in April. My daughter is playing the role of "Mole", my son is working on sets and behind stage and I am working on costuming. Our costume committee has done a fine job with all the outfits and they are almost complete.


One of my tasks was to figure out how to make a judge's or barrister's wig. You know the kind...it looks a little like a George Washington wig. I searched everywhere on-line for some simple directions and came up with ZIP! So I'm hoping this will be helpful to others who might want to make their own instead of shelling out the $30-$40 to buy one. This cost me less than $5 and took about 3 hours to make.


I bought a cheap fiber Christmas tree skirt ($2.00 after Christmas sale), like the blanket of snow you might put under your putz Christmas houses. It is the same rolled polyfill batting that is sold at fabric stores. I used a ballcap for the base ( after I removed the bill) and just started molding the batting around it. (Everything was handsewn. I didn't bother dragging out the machine!)

I made a seam down the middle for a part. I gathered the back together then added a "ponytail" made from two flat pieces hot-glued together. Then I tied it with a black grosgrain ribbon.



For the side rolls, I took long strips of batting (approx. 5" wide) and rolled them up like pastries, sewing them shut with a running stitch. I left a little flap so I could sew one roll to the next. I removed the wig from the ballcap base and tried it on periodically to make sure it fit and looked right.


I had a hard time figuring out how to make the "bangs" because they are supposed to look like a "crewcut" in the front...not easy to do with fiber batting. I cut 3-4 lengths of batting 2" wide, clipped the top side of each row and glued them, one below the other across the forehead area, then "fluffed" them out.
The last thing I did was to take a black sharpie and draw in some "grey" hairs to outline the various parts, especially the bangs and the swirled up end of the rolls. Without the black outline, the whole thing looked like a bright white towel sitting on a head!

The young man who will be wearing this wig in the play tried it on and was happy with it but asked if I could add a few more rolls to make it longer, so I'm going to do that. You could make yours as long or short as you want.

I must get moving. I have one rat tail and 16 weasle tails to complete by Friday!