Marty Mouse-Vintage Magazine Craft of the Month!

Good Morning!  The sun is shining brightly today in SW Virginia with a forecast of 58 degrees!  This has been the warmest winter I can remember and I am NOT complaining!

So keeping on track with making at least one project out of all those vintage magazines I bought, this weekend I decided to use the McCalls Needlework and Crafts Fall and Winter 1974-1975.  I would have been 13 years old when this magazine came out!

Anyway after glancing through I decided to make the yo-yo mouse.  That's him down there on the right standing next to that freaky upside down clown thing.  Did you know I HATE, no loathe, clowns?    I debated on making the dog but the mouse's little yo-yo ears just called my name.

So I chose to make him with a valentine theme to add to my decorations in my Happy Shelves and here is how he turned out!

I used a fabric remnant with white hearts for his body and ears.  His face and yo-yo hands and feet are made with solid red fabric.  I happened to have some shiny red pipe cleaners in my stash and used those to give him a little bling for this arms and legs.

I really like how he turned out!

I added a little red button detail to his already adorable ears.

Here are a couple of other "lovely" items that I could have chosen to make

I'm sure my dear husband and son would have loved for me to make them these sweaters but unfortunately, I can't knit.

I actually do like these little bibs, except that string around the neck looks dangerous to me!

I do wish I could knit!

I am joining Cozy Home Scenes for her Cozy Home Party!  You can find her and other wonderful home and craft ideas here http://cozyhomescenes.blogspot.com/

Hope everyone has a fantabulous day!

Linda

Hmmm... What would you do?

Good Tuesday morning!  The weather is SW Virginia could not be any better!  A little bit of chill this morning but warming up to almost 70!  Could this really be January?

Last Saturday, as usual, I headed out to an estate sale with my sis and niece,in a neighboring town.  It was a small but really nice sale and I bought a few things that interested me.  But one of my favorite things to buy is old magazines.  (of course,besides elves).  In the basement I found a stack of Women's Household magazines from the 1970's.  I had so much fun looking through these this weekend. One particular section in each magazine intrigued me.  They had a section for missing persons.  The readers would write in and ask if anyone had any information of family members they were trying to find. 

Yngwie and I had a discussion on how hard it must have been,in before the age of the internet,to try and find someone who was missing.  How would you get the word out?  Who would you contact?  We talked about how now you can just "google" a name and try and find them on a social network, through work connections, any number of sources. 

So just to see what would happen, I chose one of the letters from a 1974 magazine from a lady who was looking for her granddaughter who had disappeared two years before.  The letter didn't seem like the girl had been kidnapped, perhaps just left home and never let anyone know where she was.  The girl had a very unusual first and last name.  So,  I "googled" the name.  I FOUND HER.  Her name came up as a poet, and singer and she has a facebook page.  She is the right age and has the exact name.  It is a very unusual name.  So, what to do?  Would you send the lady a message through Facebook and tell her about the magazine article?  Or does that seem "stalkerish"?  After 37 years maybe it's best just to let sleeping dogs lie?  Maybe she went back at some point and let her family know where she was?  I think I would want to know that my family was looking for me, but she could have had a very good reason for leaving.  Maybe she was in an abusive situation and didn't want anyone to know where she was.  I'm kind of tossed up.  What would you do?

Anyway, here are some photos of some other things that followed me home.

Christmas tree toppers that look very much like Tinkerbell!

A bottle brush tree already trimmed with adorable little ornaments. 

This greenfaced pixie hanging on to this shoe for dear life!  Is that a brush in his hand?  He kind of reminds me of Jiminy Cricket.

This wee lad and lass that someone made in their ceramics class in 1963. 

Elves just seem to appear to me!  Isn't he adorable even with his chippy paint?

Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to buy anymore cookbooks.  So sue me.  There were just too neat to pass up for $3.00 each.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Blessings

Linda

Estate Sale Finds

Last Saturday was a cold and rainy day and I decided it was a good day to hit an estate sale that I had seen advertised in the paper.  I hooked up my handy, dandy GPS (what did I ever do without it?) and headed to town.

The first thing I noticed as I went in was a small box of vintage patterns sitting on the display case.  So I went though them and only selected two. (The ones in my last post) But... I thought if there are patterns there must be more sewing stuff!  I asked someone and they said there was some sewing stuff in the basement.  There was an entire room devoted to sewing!  I rummaged through the fabric and found a few pieces of interest and then I saw the box of patterns!  I was so excited!  Unfortunately, they were all very ugly patterns from the 1980's.  Drat!  There was no prices on the fabric and I was told a lady in the den was pricing everything.  When I went over there I saw a pile of vintage patterns along with a pile of vintage fabric.  Then I realized someone else had them!  Someone beat me to them.  I said out loud (apparently), DRAT!  Then the girl who had that pile of goodies turned around and I realized it was my niece!  She had picked all the vintage patterns out and was getting them.  Disappointment turned to happiness quickly!

I also bought a few vintage Christmas items to add to my ridiculous volume of decorations that I already have.

Isn't she beautiful?  An Inarco planter filled with some fake plastic greenery!  I love this piece.  She is rather large and I probably over paid for her ($12) but when I saw her lovely face, I knew she would be coming home with me.

Another Santa planter, again filled with the ever popular plastic greenery!

And this next item is just bizarre.  Even for me..  Which is exactly why I bought it.

Looks like a big jumble of stuff, right?  It's actually some kind of gold metal Chirstmas tree shaped thing and someone has hung tiny model T cars on it!  There was a lot of model T stuff in the house, so I am guessing they must have owned one at one time.  But this was just too cute to leave!

I don't think I am going to leave the cars on the tree like they are, or maybe I will, I haven't decided yet!  I think the tree is supposed to hold Christmas cards.  When DH saw this come in the door he just rolled his eyes and shook his head.  After 31 years of marriage, he still never knows what I might come dragging home!

ETA:  I am linked up with  http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/ for Vintage Thingy Thursday!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Linda

It's My Birthday, It's My Birthday

(You are supposed to kinda sing that and do a little twist sort of dance with your arms making a circle in front of you)  Good Morning everyone and welcome to the beginning of another week!  What a weekend!  Did you know that my sister and I almost share the same Birthday.  I was born January 22, 1961 and she was born January 20, 1966.  Both of us were born during snow storms! 

But there was no snow yesterday as we celebrated our Birthday's together like we have always done.  All our loved ones came down to my house for lunch.  I made a beef roast, carrots and potatoes, green beans, corn, and had a tossed salad bar.  My Dad brought a bucket of KFC chicken and of course we also had cake!

I wish I could show you the picture of us blowing out the candles on our cake but I forgot to put the memory card in my camera!  Now I have the picture on the internal memory but no way to get it off because the cord thingy is long gone.  Does anyone know if there is a way to transfer the internal memory to a memory card???  After I realized there was no card, I found one and was able to carry on!

Anyway,  here is a photo of what I made my sister,

This adorable cat apron was made for McCalls pattern 6132

I can definitely see more of these in my future!

And my DH and son went in together and got me something that I have been wanting forever

A FoodSaver!  I am hoping this will keep my vegetable that I freeze from getting freezer burn over the winter.   My niece who knows me so well, got me all this wonderful vintage Christmas stuff

Tinsel, mica snow and some beautiful ornaments!

On Saturday I went to an estate sale in a neighboring town and found some awesome things.  I haven't photographed all of them but I did take a photo of these two vintage patterns

.

I love the red, white and blue outfit on this pattern, especially the skirt and it's in my size!

This next pattern I bought just because I thought the illustration on the front is hilarious!

Look carefully at the illustration in the corner.

When is the last time you saw someone in a two piece bathing suit and an old fashioned sun bonnet?  LOL!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday! (I think that may be a oxymoron)

Linda

Vintage Valentine Decorations

Good Friday morning everyone!  It is sunny and 38 degrees here today in SW Virginia, but they are calling for rain all weekend.  That's okay because that will make me stay indoors and maybe do some crafting!

I kinda quit enjoying Valentines when I got too old to give them to my friends at school.  I loved  decorating the box to sit all lined up with everyone's on the shelf awaiting those adorable valentines that were available in the 1960's and 1970's.  I would choose so carefully who got which valentine.  I sure didn't want to give one to a boy that I didn't like that would make him think I did! 

I would never haven given the above Valentine to an icky boy! 

We never had any Valentine decorations at home when I was growing up.  The only thing my mom decorated for was Christmas.  But, I do have a few decorations in my home now.

Isn't this little fellow adorable?  He sits on a cloth heart with a ribbon that says Valentine.  I bought him at an estate sale a couple of years ago.

This one is my very favorite!  Of course, it's a Pixie planter! 

And take a look at this little miss with her heart shaped planter!

Why did they quit making such cute things?  Whose decision was that?

In other news, it looks like my sewing machine may be history.  My step-brother worked on it for 4 hours yesterday and couldn't fix it.  He is going to try again today, but he thinks it may be the computer card in it and if it is, it will cost more than the machine is worth to fix.  So I guess I am on the hunt for a new sewing machine!  Hmmm... this weekend is my Birthday!  That's a good reason for a new sewing machine isn't it!

Blessings

Linda

p.s. I'm linked up to : http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ for Friday Show and Tell!

Cute Vintage Finds and bad news

First the good news. The first estate sale of the year!!  Whoo Hoo!  The house was pretty small and they didn't have a lot of things except bells!  Oh my goodness, the prior owner of the house had the bells!  However, I DO NOT collect bells, I am not going to buy any bells, and I just had to keep repeating this over and over so that I didn't buy the bells, but she had some really cute ones!

Anyway,  I found a couple of cute pieces.  As anyone who has ever read my blog knows, I love elves or pixies and found this adorable pixie sitting under the polka dotted mushroom house.  Talk about cute overload!

Can he possibly be any more kitschy?  The little butterfly is on a spring. 

I also bought this adorable little tablecloth.  I paid more for it than I normally would have ($5.00) but I love the applique and hand stitching so much, I decided it would be worth it.

Don't you just love the colors?

Would you like to come over for tea?

I also bought a glass basket and a couple of Sarah Coventry rings that I haven't taken a picture of yet.  I am terrible about taking pictures of things I have bought or made.  I am in such a hurry to get them washed up and put away that I forget to photograph them. 

Now the bad news.  My sewing machine is broken!  I have no idea what happened to it.  In the last couple of weeks I have made 2 skirts, an apron and a pair of pajamas (none of which I have taken a picture of) and it was sewing along just fine.  Then I cleaned it.  Something I do about every 6 months.  After that it started skipping stitches, then it started bunching up the bobbin.  I tried every trick I knew to get it to sew properly, to no avail.  So now my beloved 20 year old Kenmore is sitting at my Dad's waiting on my step brother to fix it.  He does sewing machine repair as a side job.  I hope it can be fixed.  I really like my sewing machine and do not want to buy a new one.  Maybe without my machine I will take the time to photograph and the stuff I have made!

I am linking up with http://holly-girlsatheart.blogspot.com/ for Dotty Wednes day and http://www.freeprettythingsforyou.com/ for Whatever you want Wednesday!

Have a great Hump Day!

Linda

Larry, the Long Eared Rabbit

Sometimes craft projects just go awry.  Take for instance this one.  A couple of years ago I bought a whole stack of the old Stitch and Sew magazines.  I love old magazines, I love to sew, so I figured these would be perfect for me.

While cleaning out my craftroom I wondered if I needed to keep all these magazine because I have probably 20-25 of them.  So I reasoned with myself that if I make at least one thing out of each magazine, then they would be a keeper.  So I started with the magazine above and decided to make this rabbit

Pretty simple in design ( I forgot to photograph the second page of the pattern) and I was happy that the pattern was full size, something very rare in older magazines.  They show them on graph paper and you have to increse them.  Imagine how hard that was in the days before copiers!

Anyway, I cut out all my pieces and started sewing.  The very first instruction is the one that I failed.  Sew the felt ear with the fabric ear, right sides together and turn.  The sewing part I got, the turning part not so much.  I tried for at least 45 minutes to get one ear turned and could NOT do it to save my life.  It just wouldn't turn and I don't own one of those "turning" things.  So I gave up and cut out the ears again and sewed them on the right side out.  Easy peasy.  Except this gave poor Larry gigantic ears!

Poor Larry!  He doesn't seem to be very happy with his ears!

"What are you looking at!  Haven't you ever seen a big eared, pink floral rabbit before"!

So this is a crafting fail.  Although Larry will become a part of my Easter decorations, because once I've made something with a face, I can't throw it away!

(Larry also doesn't like the fact that he is pink and male, but he will just have to get over that stereo-type!)

Hope everyone has a great Hump Day.

Linda

The Barbie Wardrobe

If you are just reading my blog for the first time or are a new reader, you may not know that I am a Barbie Rescuer.  I can't help myself.  If I see a poor, neglected, naked Barbie at the thrift store or yard sale and she is $1.00 or under, then she will be coming home with me.  I wash them up and dress them and sometimes I keep them and sometimes I give them away.

I had bought a CD on Ebay last year that had about 25 different vintage Barbie patterns that they had copied and put together on this CD.  I printed them off, hoping that they would run true to size and have found to my delight that they are!

So this weekend, having done most of my housework at nights during the week, I spent the day making up all the view on this pattern:

Wouldn't you like to have these clothes for yourself?  I would!

I think this Barbie may have once been Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz, but she came to me naked and now she sports this adorable red and white striped shirt dress with a red jumper over it.  Excuse her wrinkles, she had been sitting on my sewing counter.

This lovely lady, who I think has had a haircut at the fingers of her former owner, is looking springy in her white and floral sheath which she can also wear with the long green and white polka dot vest:

I need to invest in some Barbie shoes!

I changed this little suit up a little bit as I had just a tiny bit of this decorative lace in my sewing box and thought it would look lovely on this navy skirt.  She also wears a white jacket trimmed in yellow edging.

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This lovely lady isn't a rescue, she was mine when I was little.  At one time she had different wigs to change her hair style but they are long gone!  But I think she still looks sophisticated in her black dress with lace trimming and rose accessory.

And last but not least, this pretty redheard looks stunning in this yellow gown.

I had so much fun sewing these and I like to make them look as much like the pattern as possible just for fun. 

I also made an Easter rabbit that turned out .....uummmmmm... interesting.  But I'll save that for another day!

Hope you have a great week!

Linda

Only 74 more days until Spring!

It's only January 6th and I have spring fever!  I must say that I really dislike winter.  I like the "look" of snow but dislike having to navigate to work through it.  I work at a presort mailing company so the mail "has" to go out no matter what.  We have never closed for snow in the almost 17 years I have worked here.

But there are some fun things to do to get through the winter doldrums and one of them is planning that perfect garden you will have in the spring.  I have been gardening since I was about 5 years old and live for those seed catalogs that start filling your mailbox in late December and January. 

My favorite seed company is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds you can find them here Baker Creek Heirloom seeds

Their catalog is the most beautiful seed catalog I have ever gotten!  I save them from year to year just for the photos!  The variety of seeds they offer is overwhelming!  They are all pure seeds with no GMO's and are not hybrids so the taste of these vegetables is so much better than the frankenfood that we get at the grocers.

Every year I start circling everything I want in the catalog, which is pretty much everything, so then I have to start paring down my list because as inexpensive as their seeds are, when you want everything in the book like I do, it gets rather expensive. 

This year here are a few of the things I am looking forward to growing:

Cosmic Purple Carrot!  Purple carrots!! Get out!  I can't wait to see these!

Edrine Purple Striped Eggplant!  I really don't care too much for eating eggplant, however I LOVE to see them grow.  Such a pretty plant and I know lots of people who do eat eggplant, so they aren't wasted.

Striped Roman Tomato.  This looks more like a pepper than a tomato and I can't wait to see how they look in my garden.

Amish Paste Tomato.  I grew these last year and they are amazing!   Not only are they very prolific they taste so good and make the best canned tomatoes.

Feverfew.  This will be the first time I try this.  I have acute migraines (2-3 per week) and I have read where feverfew could help them.  I have the instructions for making tea from the leaves of this plant and hope it will help.  I do take medication for them and 99% of the time I am able to stop them when they start but I am hoping for a more natural way to have less headaches.  Maybe this will work.

Of course this is just a drop in the bucket of what I ordered.  Can't wait to get my seeds and start planning out that perfect garden with no weeds and no pests!  Only in my dreams!

Have a great weekend!

Linda