Thrift Treasure

I love thrifting.  It is treasure hunting, ecological, inexpensive (if you just buy what you need) and appeals to my creativity.  I think I have found a terrific treasure. 
First, a little background.  We have just moved into a new house and the kids are getting their own rooms.  I have been working on a series of projects to reflect each of their personalities. The little one predictably wants a PINK and PURPLE room.  Preferably with FROZEN princesses everywhere and a lot of glitter thrown in to boot. 
Pinterest has a lot of great ideas for updating thrift projects.  And I found a terrific update for my little girl's room, a chandelier, can you get more princess than that?

Check out this old brash finish chandelier I found at the thrift store.  In this photo I am starting to remove the glass panels by melting the solder between the panels and gently pulling them out.  It took a bit of patience with my trusty soldering iron but I managed it with no prior experience.  I am setting them aside--maybe I will be able to make something with them?
Here you can see all of the glass pieces off.

And here is the finished piece, pink, per request.  I sprayed it with Krylon Paint plus Primer glossy pink.  It is pretty tricky to get an even coat on such a detailed piece.  After the paint was dry, my daughter and I went to the store and picked out the embellishments; beads to hang for sparkle and cording to trim the area on the platform the beads are hanging from.  I also painted the 'candlesticks' with turquoise glitter.  The last touch was to purchase dimmable LED bulbs.  Her room has a dimmer and regular LEDs do not dim well.  OK, really the last touch was to hang the lamp but that was Dad's job.  Thanks Dad!

Stripey Walls and Ornaments

The two for one fat quarter sale at Spoonflower has been extended one day so head on over there because the twelfth is the last day.  While you are on the site, please consider voting in the Ornaments giftwrap contest.  My entry is simple and a little retro with silver tinsel in the background.

Snowflake Ornament Bright

As you know from a previous post we are getting settled in to our Michigan home.  Sadly, though, we still do not have our household effects from Africa.  This means that we are all sleeping on the floor until they arrive.  The best thing about that is that instead of unpacking I can focus on other aspects of decorating, like the nightstand remake from my previous post or painting my eldest son's bedroom.  

A little background...my oldest son was not very happy with the house we selected.  He feels crowded with all of the trees surrounding us but the biggest problem is the lack of basketball hoop. Pretty much every other house we looked at had one, except this one.  All of the flat parts of the yard are right next to big windows and we are up on a hill, so there isn't really a good place to install one. We offered him a budget to decorate his bedroom so at least he feels like he has some space his own.

My son decided he wanted a grey room with a blue feature wall.  At the paint store he selected seven blues but just could not not narrow it down.  He decided he needed little 8oz samples of all of them so he could get a feel for which would look better with the grey.  Still he couldn't decide.  So I suggested we find a way to use all of them.  That is how we ended up painting the subtle hombre stripes seen in the picture below.  He is pretty happy with how it came out.  I used this tutorial to get really clean lines.  And now you also know why his bed is on the floor.  :)

Upcycled Nightstand & Fat Quarter Sale

I purchased this nightstand as well as several other pieces of furniture for my daughter's bedroom.  She needed us to acquire almost everything since when we left Maryland she was still an infant.
The photo above does not reflect how this nightstand looked when I purchased it.  I was so excited to get started, I forgot to take a photo of the 'before' view.  The nightstand was painted in white matte paint and had a baby blue and leaf green sponged overlay.  Since that was not quite the look I was going for, I spray painted it with white gloss Krylon paint plus primer. 
I knew as soon as Spoonflower announced their ballet contest theme I could work with the design in her room.  She is such a girly girl and loves ballet and princesses.  So, I purchased a 2ft piece of Graceful 1950's Ballerinas in Turquoise and Coral wallpaper (they sell wallpaper by the foot) of my ballet design from Spoonflower to upcycle the drawers.  The process is really quite easy and instructions come with the wallpaper.  The hardest part was embossing the wallpaper around the rectangular ridge on the drawers.  When I was done, I had enough paper left over to also add a wallpaper inset to the top. I added new drawer pulls.

In other news, Spoonflower has 2 for 1 fat quarters starting tomorrow and the sale runs Nov 6-11.
I plan on purchasing some knit fabric in Hexie Roses Deep Hues and the coordinate Profusion of Roses in Red  to make a dress or leggings for my daughter.  I plan on covering some dining room chair cushions in Yellow Wagtail Birds on Dogwood Branches in one of the heavier polyesters.  Many of the knits and polyesters are 56 inches wide.  That makes a pretty big fat quarter.  You can find out the specs on the different fabric types here.  I bet you have some projects that you could use this sale for too.


Profusion of Roses in Red

Yellow Wagtail Birds on Dogwood Branches

Hexie Roses Deep Hues



 

Hi from Michigan

the view from the front door a week ago of my new home

Hi from Michigan.
I have been here two months now.  I moved from very hot and muggy conditions in Dakar to summer time weather here which turned quickly into a very condensed autumn.  It is predicted to snow already by the end of the week. 
In that period of time, we purchased a house, entered the children into school, and have begun to unpack our long term storage items.  We are still awaiting our items from Africa.
There is a lot said about reverse culture shock by expats. One of the things I find overwhelming is all of the stuff easily available everywhere, and at such great prices!  It is so easy to spend money.  Another difference is everyone seems to have a smartphone and expects you to have one too.  I haven't figured out how to get a prepaid phone yet and it seems like one is required to have a plan whether you have a contract or not.  This might sound weird but I also notice I am not 'special' anymore.  I don't stick out anymore and believe it or not that is a little uncomfortable since I have gotten used to being the foreigner.  I also miss my friends in Dakar and the amount of time I had to spend with them and pursue my interests.

Deer and other wildlife walk through my backyard daily

Life in the US goes so fast and so I am intentionally trying to move slowly while settling in to this new environment.  So many things to do but I feel I need to just set up my house and make sure the children are settling in too.  Luckily the new house is so grounding that it soothes me whenever I look out the window.
Lastly, if you get a chance, please vote in this week's Spoonflower Calavera contest, ending Thursday.  In honor of Day of the Dead, here is my entry based on Calaveras and Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass Calavera.

Classically Feminine

Graceful 1950's ballerinas



This week's contest theme at Spoonflower is Ballerinas.  My entry was inspired my our new home, a 1950's build, and the anticipation of decorating my daughter's bedroom.  In case you haven't been reading my blog she is very girly, so I tried to fit all of that in to my design.  Please consider voting this this week's contest.


Other feminine designs I have created lately are the new editions to the African Inspired collection.  Theses new designs inspired by cranes and flora from my time in Senegal.  There are four color ways available.


Crowning Glory of West Africa

I have also added designs to my Profusion of Roses collections. This is one of my favorite recent designs is Hexie Roses Deep Hues.  I love the colors and it is such a usable print for many applications.  All designs are available as fabric, wallpaper and giftwrap.

Hexie Roses Deep Hues

Recent Fabric Projects: The Leaf Edition

After four years of living in warm climates it is nice to see the colors and smell the scent of fall leaves again.  All of the projects in this week's post have been inspired by leaves.
I love it when customers give me permission to share their projects.  Here is Rose Leaves Ditsy Vintage as a very lovely dress.  Thanks for sharing!

I took my own advice from back in July sewed this easy project.  I lined a yard of my Trash Art Rose Leaves Multi on White with a golden khaki knit to make a terrific scarf for cooler weather.

And I am very excited to continue supplying the wonderful children's clothing designer, Dandy Lion Company, with my Yellow Gingko Leaves design. It is used in a tunic that is part of their fall line.

Calendula Healing Salve

My friend Hannah was kind enough to give me a share of some of her dried herbs and the following recipie for Healing Calendula Salve.  I did this easy project with my children.

Here is her recipe:

2T Calendula Flower
2T Comfrey Leaf
2T Chamomille
2T Plantain
2tsp Rosemary
1/2 cup olive oil
add herbs to an airtight container and pour oil over them
store in cool, dark place for 2+ weeks
and then heat strained oil in double boiler with .5 ounce beeswax pastilles until wax melted.  Pour into tin or other container. 

Along with the recipe Hannah gave me, I followed the slow process at The Nerdy Farm Wife.  Our results were a little less volume than hers but that maybe because we used more plant material.  We reused a mint tin and another small vial poured our salve into.