Thursday Thrifting

Though the rains tried to keep us away we couldn't help but find more treasures this past weekend...

:: Finally, something to hang on our vast walls!

beautifully framed and so perfect for our space, I'm in love (hello, Helvetica!)

:: Some supplies for our camping and picnicing this summer.

:: Some office-y stuff. And books.

love these illustrations, and a perfect reader for Lil!

:: The inevitable crafty stuff.

old!

even older!

:: More for the kitchen.


:: Just for fun ;)


:: A sure sign that I'm destined to open a vintage Etsy shop:

:I have absolutely zero use for this, but it is so pretty I couldn't pass it up! I suppose it was only a matter of time...

Happy treasure hunting!!

85 Days of Summer

Friday was the last day of school for the kiddos and yesterday began the 85 days they have off until school starts again in September (not that I'm counting or anything...). I've been trying to psych myself up for being on as Mama much more than I've grown used to and am determined to really engage with my kids. I want them to have a really great summer, which in theory will mean that I will have a better summer, too.

Lyric and his Great Kid award

Tigerlily receiving her Determination award

I've decided to start a weekly blog post to both chronicle our adventures this summer and keep myself honest and accountable to the plan I'm trying to hold to. Through the week I'll take photos of our adventures and do a weekend post of the highlights.

I'll also be adding a few more weekly standard posts in the hopes of posting daily. At the top of that list is offering tutorials, which has me really stumped. I can't seem to wrap my brain around how to do it! Luckily I've found a few tutorials on making tutorials that I'm hoping will help me. For now I will share this idea that I couldn't formulate into a tutorial--this year's gifts for my kids' teachers at the Free School: personalized tote bags!

It was a bit of a process to come up with this final product. It all began with the idea to give all 10 staff members at the school personalized "World's Best Teacher" mugs as a kind of joke but I couldn't find an affordable option for this. I then decided to make 6" embroidered hoops with this wording for each teacher. Here's what I came up with in Photoshop, with a ton of help from this video:
:The fonts I used are C rial and School Script Dashed (love dafont). I printed one of these designs out for all of the teachers and traced each with a layer of transfer paper between the printout and fabric. It worked wonderfully but it wasn't long before I realized that a.) the C rial font was a bit small to embroider easily, and b.) I might be able to finish all of the embroidery by the end of the next school year, but certainly not this one.

So, plan B. I realized I really love the School Script font and wanted to continue with that. I decided to make the embroidered names into patches and started thinking of something clever to affix them to. But when thinking about what that might be I had to remember that there are three male teachers, and as enlightened as they may be I wasn't sure I could imagine them rocking personalized zipper pouches (I'm dying to make some of these). I decided everyone uses tote bags and opted to make morsbags for everyone (I love this pattern but probably should have chosen something a bit more simple with the quantity needed and the time constraint I was facing). True to form I finished them up about an hour before graduation :)

I kept the guys' bags really simple and used up some larger pieces from my stash. All in all I think they were pretty successful, and appreciated. Now to make one for me...

Thursday Thrifting

Another fruitful week of thrifting!

be still, my heart!

free!

yellow!

I can't pass up good (or cute) reference books

to keep the flies at bay

rounding out some collections

bought as a lot but I really just need the cups for our picnic set

...And then there is this beauty. I cannot pass a piece of needlework like this by, it just breaks my heart to see someone's handiwork cast aside like this. Look at all of that detail! I found this in a box of random junk, coated in dust, and bought it for $1. I've already hung it next to our kitchen table and love to look at it each mealtime.

Please, if you see a piece like this at a tag sale, save it from an unjust fate of neglect and disregard! Grab it and add some warmth and character to your home.

Summer already?!?

I'm in full-on freak out mode this week, coming to grips with the fact that school is over on Friday and that beyond lies a whole summer with the kids home and very little planned. Why does it always sneak up on me like this?

In addition to trying to ready myself for the coming months I have teacher gifts to make!! Here's a little sneak peek:

:The kids go to such a small school and have a relationship with all of the teachers so I always like to give them all something. It works better when I don't put it off until the last minute, of course. I'll reveal the full project next week.

Then I'll need to get really creative to keep the kids happy and myself sane through the summer. What are you planning for the summer? I could use some ideas!

Thursday Thrifting

While treasure hunting this weekend we found...

Lots of fabric!...

...some art for the bathroom...

...an amazing vintage portable record player...

...the cutest hat ever...

...a glove for the boy...

...a bunch more vintage suitcases for my collection...

...more cool stuff for our kitchen...

...a bag for me...

...and lots of shoes!!

There's so much treasure to be had--get out there this weekend and find some!! I'd love to see what you find ;)

sew and staple

I upholstered something!!

We got these really cool vintage chairs for free from a friend and we use them as our kitchen chairs. They were already a bit grungy but after several spills of yogurt and milk I decided it was finally time to reupholster. I considered making removable covers and then I thought of the perfect upholstered kitchen chair solution--VINYL!

These were super easy to upholster, though pulling all of those staples from the seats took some time and elbow grease. After I removed the fabric from the seat (and discarded the crumbling, gross foam, eeeew) I ripped the seams and used the two component pieces as patterns to cut the vinyl. Just one seam to sew per chair and the rest is stapled. So simple! And just the thing for our kitchen.

Though it pained me a bit to buy new foam to replace the old it really had to be done. All told we spent $75 on the materials for this project. Not too shabby for 4 totally awesome newly upholstered kitchen chairs!