Garage sale score! - plant stand makeover

I spotted this little guy driving by a neighborhood garage sale last weekend. I immediately had visions of yellow paint and a pretty plant for our stairwell.

$1 score!

BEFORE:

 And AFTER!

I had to use a little wood filler on a one leg because of some stray dog bites (if you remember this!), sanded and painted it yarrow root yellow. I put two coats of polycrylic to seal the top where a little water may spill. Then I placed it in our teeny tiny stair-landing.

Then, I did a little plant research to see what plant might be good for a very low light area - and I loved this one! It's called a "snake plant" or a "mother-in-law's tongue" (haha), stands straight up, and tolerates extreme neglect. Sold.

I searched for the closest nursery to our home and we took a little trip to snag this baby. And I love it! (Now I just need to find the right pot to put it in - I'm hoping to thrift something else - so for now it's resting on a salad plate.)

Can't wait to share a few more furniture transformations as well as a new vegetable gardening approach - I just can't seem to give it up!

Before and After: Garage sale chair

I've been collecting items for this year's Market - but before I really dig into those projects, I have a few items sitting around from last year that really need attention. I also need the space in our basement.

Remember the post about this lovely garage sale find last February? Incredibly enough, it is finished!! Finally.

Here is the BEFORE:

And the AFTER!! can you tell I'm excited?

After I stripped 'er down, I painted it with Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White. My paint was a little bit thick, so I'm happy it distresses and sands so well. 

I put a coat of clear wax on top and it is super smooth to touch. 

Then, with the help of my amazing dad and his air compressor stapler, we upholstered this baby with hardware store drop cloth. I love the nuances and imperfections in the fabric. Plus, it's really sturdy fabric and easy to use in upholstering.

After a couple of hours, a few wrong cuts and learn-as-you-go mistakes from amateur (first time!) upholsterers, we were satisfied with the result.

Then this weekend I finished up with natural colored gimp trim and my trusty mini hot glue gun (and yes! it's totally legal in upholstery). 

I am slightly enamored to have finished this project. And I kind of love the result. {Ahem.}

a *new* old Junior tricycle

Our little someone is obsessed with bikes (she can spot one from a mile away!) and got a vintage trike for Christmas from my parents. They waited until spring to bring it down to her and it's already gotten a lot of use.

She loves her "'wed' bike!" She's not able to get momentum going to be able to actually ride it yet, but she makes do and gets around just fine. It won't be long before she's zooming away!

I would probably date it to the 70s - it's a sturdy piece of metal with only a few rust spots on the handle bars. It even has white and red tassels! Woot!

Have a great weekend!

a few vintage dresses for me - part 3

This mustardy gold dress may not be the best color for my skin tone, but it's my first thrifted dress find that dates pre-70s! (Most of the time it's gross 90s dresses at the thrift store with lots of fabric, big shoulder pads and bad prints. If you are lucky there may be a 70s gem in the bunch, but not very often...)

The zipper is metal and chunky like my 50s dresses but I'd guess by the style that this dress is 60s. Upside: the fabric is stretchy and is very comfortable, downside: the neck is so tight it almost chokes! I have to have good posture wearing this dress - or maybe I just have a big neck? :-)

I paired this thrifted dress with a bright red Harold's cape coat - Lawrence Antique Mall (Lawrence, KS), gold scarf - from my sister's stash, brown woven belt - Target, patterned brown tights - Target and Tsubo ankle boots like these. 

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And finally, my "fancy" dress. (I just need somewhere to wear this to... someone, quick, get married!)

Isn't the waistline gorgeous?! I'm guessing 60s because of the fitted skirt although I just ran across a bunch of mid-50s dresses with a very similar bodice. What do you think?

dress: Wild Man Vintage, vintage cream/gold scarf: sister hand-me-down, beaded vintage Belgian clutch: gift, bronze strappy heels (not shown): Germany

 Isn't the clutch gorgeous?! Look at all that beading! And to think it came from a garage sale... (thanks S)!


That wraps up my vintage dress posts this week - thanks for following along! I had fun.

See vintage dress intro, part 1, part 2.

a few vintage dresses for me - part 2

This black and white dress is made from a material that is hard to describe (polyester? swishy? rayon? viscose?) ... and even harder to iron. I thought I might've ruined it after I washed it, but I did end up ironing the wrinkles out (and I won't be washing it again anytime soon!).

My book club had a Night Circus discussion in January and Jeremy snapped a few pictures of my outfit before I left. I went all out (black, grey or white with a touch of red for the rêveurs - followers of the Night Circus) and finally found a use for my crazy feather clip.

Super fun.  

dress: Wild Man Vintage clearance, sweater and belt: LOFT, scarf: scarlet knit scrap, red tights, and boots: Nine West.

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And you've seen this dress before. Probably my favorite of the bunch - it's super comfortable, fits well and can go dressy or casual.

After seeing construct of my grandma's veggie dress (exact same side zipper), I think this one falls into the same 5-10 years, so I'm calling it my 50s housewife dress. And it looks handmade. And I love it.

Stay tuned for 2 more dresses tomorrow!

See vintage dress intro, part 1.

a few vintage dresses for me - part 1

This first one is special - it came from my grandmother's closet. This was a dress she wore in the 1950s when she was a junior in high school! It's snug in the top, but I decided if it fit I was keeping it.

So I did.

(Someone always manages to sneak into the photos ...)

It is actually a vegetable print with tones of cream, yellow, green and purple. The skirt is amazing and I think I need a petticoat. It still has its belt (many, many vintage dresses do not) and it's double rope-like belt that I just tied around my sweater.

I wore this one to church one day and got several compliments. On a vegetable dress, I know!

dress: Grandma, sweater: thrifted, cream tights: Target, brown shoes (not shown): JCP.

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This one is a handmade, crazy pink, 70s print polyester maxi dress that seems to have seen better hippietastic days. I thrifted this one and decided I'd try a dress re-do (you can't get good at sewing if you never try!) - so I snapped a few "before" pictures and then cut it up.

The skirt was a crazy wide bell and the sleeves had elastic cuffs (yuck) so I...

... cut off the skirt length
... narrowed the skirt bell
... narrowed the waist (then took it out again and gave myself a little more wiggle room)
... cut off the sleeves in favor of a cap sleeve
... then shortened the neckline ties.

Probably my least favorite of all of my vintage dresses (first time's a charm!?) - mostly because of the crazy print and because it doesn't flatter my figure at all ... I look straight all the way down! But I still am proud of my first attempt.

dress: thrifted and altered, necklace: my MIL's 80s closet, belt: LOFT, white lace leggings: Khol's clearance, clutch: Korea, black peeptoes: my closet.

a few vintage dresses for me! (*week series*)

This week I'm featuring some of my "new" vintage dresses! One of my goals of 2012 was to "continue to develop my personal style" - which included acquiring several vintage dresses.

This was the first one. Remember this post?

Looking forward to some fun posts showing off my recent finds!! :-) 

DIY Sticky Game for Toddlers

I got a great idea from Parents as Teachers and wanted to try it out with Ladybug - a super easy DIY sticky game for toddlers.

1) Take a piece of (old) contact paper and place it sticky side out on a flat surface about as high as your child.

2) Learn with him/her about the light items that stick and others that are too heavy.

(her baby was too heavy.)

This wasn't a long game (it lasted about 10-15 minutes) but it was super fun and she enjoyed it thoroughly. I had fun, too, collecting items that wouldn't break but may or may not stick.

A few things to note:
- the contact paper did leave a little residue behind on the widow.
- I wanted to leave it up for about 24 hours but in about 4-5 it had fallen down.
- Jeremy came home and thought it was "art" that we made. I appreciated that thought! :-)

Have a toddler? Try it out! It's fun.

Ninjago Birthday Card DIY

One of my piano students shares a birthday with my mom (Happy Birthday Mom!) so I celebrated with an awesome card and some of her favorite candy.

She is also a tomboy, hates pretty much everything girly and loves the color green. For her birthday party she went to a "ninja place" - and her favorite show to watch is Ninjago.

RIGHT. Like this mother-of-a-2-year-old knows anything about Ninjago. (I do Baby Einstein, ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle, not school or Legos or haute kid TV shows.) 

But I digress. So Google was my friend and there was an easy peasy Ninjago idea for multiple things - perfect for an easy card.

I printed off a sample birthday invitation with a good facing photo and printed it off at about 50% of its original size to fit a card. Then I cut the main shape out for a template.

I was going to use black cardstock for the eyes/brows but I had no black cardstock! So I went to plan b and sketched the eyes/brows directly on the yellow cardstock piece cut from the template and then filled it in with a permanent marker.

Perfect! Glue yellow piece on green (her favorite color), cut out a matching piece for writing ease inside and glue.

Pretty impressive for this non-Ninjago Mama, huh? :-)

Except then she told me her favorite Ninjago ninja was blue... ha! Can't get everything right.

Reading about Food.

Lately, I've run across some resources for clean/organic/local/better eating and after our CSA experience last year, I've kept my eyes peeled for different ways of eating. Because, truly, something has to change. 

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser provided an in-depth look into the "dark side" of American fast food from its history to its modern day practices. Overall an informative (and yucky) read on fast food - something that I wasn't overly interested in eating in the first place.

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Many, many of these types of books are very negative toward food, corporations, mass production, etc and understandably so! There is some junk going on in the industry that is controlled by only a very few and will probably not change. However, in presenting the same information, Barbara Kingsolver shared her family's year long eating experience in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and put a completely positive spin on it. I loved that! It was a long read, but well worth it.

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Finally, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan was also a very long but informative read about the author's journey through attaining four (very different) meals in the USA. First, fast food, then a supermarket organic meal, a completely local meal from Polyface Farm and finally a hunted and gathered meal. I have to admit that he pretty much lost my interest at the end with the hunting/gathering so I didn't actually read the last section of the book, however I read what I wanted to. This opened my eyes to the corporate organic companies and takeovers and solidified that local is probably the best. Currently, we're looking for the best organic/local/grassfed meat options for our limited budget (eatwild.com). I'll let you know who we find!

I'm looking forward to reading Pollan's follow up called In Defense of Food.

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We're watching documentaries including Food, Inc., Tapped, Fresh and King Corn.

And I just came across another web resource for Clean Eating (Thanks Jess!). While I was disappointed at the misnomer ("clean" really only means less processed foods rather than truly organic foods) it was a great resource for substitutes and less processed food items in every day places. A great first step for people trying to eat better. 

March's Loaf - Irish Brown Soda Bread

Irish Brown Soda Bread seemed just right for March's loaf on a cold day supper involving a broccoli-cilantro soup.

A wheaty, dense loaf that has no yeast - so there is no resting/raising time required. Just needs about 45 minutes to bake. However, a soda bread really needs to be eaten freshly warm and in one sitting - because it doesn't last as well as yeast breads.  

Mmmm.

After cutting a 1/2" deep cross in the center of the dough, this baby raised in the oven like there was no tomorrow! I love the lack of symmetry in this crusty, handmade loaf.

Happy St. Patty's day, folks! 


See previous loaves here:
January's Loaf
February's Loaf 

**As usual, I'm not going to detail the recipes for sake of time (and my sanity with a 2year old!), but if you'd like a recipe just email me at lisamarie (dot) de (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll be happy to send you a copy.