Easter Is Past & Spring Has Finally Sprung

Well this is long overdue....as you can see.  I shot these a long time ago and between my health issues and some family health issues.....blogs and extra stuff get set aside.

Even though Easter 2013 is past, I thought I would go ahead and post my pics any way.  We are finally seeing spring-like weather here in Ioway!  It has been a loooong time coming.  

I am wanting to do a give-away some time soon.  When this blog reaches 50 google followers, I will do a drawing.  So if you just follow with your email, please consider signing in as a google follower, it is easy to do and makes writing a comment very easy.  I might even let you pick your gift, how would that be for fun!!!

 Chicks, bunnies, & eggs, oh my!

The ceramic bunnies, eggs, and chicks were made by both my grandma's.  Can you find the one with my name on it?

I have several dozen ceramic eggs from the grandmas, they are all so cute!  You can also see several cross stitch ones that I did many years ago.

I have been filling my grandpa's toolbox with more eggs, chicks, & bunnies.  The tins have easter puzzles in them for the grandkids to do.

Even more ceramic eggs on a deviled egg plate....lots of spring quilts on my ladder and Easter postcards.

I love vintage postcards, I bought this postcard collection book at an auction years ago....love to display them in this book!  We had all of our local family here for Easter and the grands had a great time hunting their eggs.  We had a great day just being together.

One of the three table-fulls we had set up for the day....I think the big kid fits right in!

This is my cutie patootie.....she is my girlfriend!  I miss her!

What a sweetheart and oh that beautiful hair!!!!

Then these two nuts....playing with the old glasses that are in the dress-up box....gotta love those faces!

Then we had entertainment.....

I love that boy.....he played the guitar for us too.....what a hoot!

This would make a cute little cupcake poke, if you printed out on cardstock half facing right and the other half facing left, cut them out and glue a toothpick between.  Very sweet!!!  Or a larger one stuck in a Easter basket....or a bunch of them on a garland or glued to the top of a place card on your Easter table or.........

The Year of the Little Black Dress Part Deux

Remember this?  I wrote about this at little lovely at Coldwater Creek right after Christmas while shopping for a pair of black jeans.  If you haven't, go back and check out the December 30, 2011 post.  So this won't get too wordy, I am going to add a few random valentine's pics for you to enjoy!!!! 

This week was a big week around here.  After 3 years of study for my "Silver Fox" it came down to 75 questions to pass his RN boards.  We ended up traveling to Rochester, MN to pass Iowa boards.....now doesn't that make sense?  It was the closest location we could find so he could take it this week.

A cross stitch piece I did several years ago, I love the frame too.

So while he was taking the test I was at the nearby mall, shopping and praying for my guy to do his best.  And what was the first store I happen to spot......Coldwater Creek, here I come.  Now just remember I don't have one close by.....  so this gets me excited.  I head to the sale racks and start going through every item and what to my wondering eye should appear but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer........no that's not right....couldn't help myself.  :)

But there was the little black dress I so loved 8 weeks ago, marked down twice since then and then an additional 50% off.  I was beside myself.  So I hauled two different sizes to the "dress up" room.  And while I was trying them on.....Adele came on singing .......Rolling In The Deep.....  which for some reason that is still not clear to me, I LOVE this song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV9IQ_JzDhg&feature=related

Well, I took this as a sign...the clearance price pretty much had me as long as it didn't look like a sack on......which it didn't.  So I now have this little sweet thing hanging in my closet waiting.......

I made this valentine for Jeff last year.  On a whim hung it in front of Susan  Banch's book.....looks so neat!!!

After checking my watch a couple times thinking of my guy killing himself on this test.  He finally called ....the test took a little over an hour and the computer shut down at question 75, which was the minimum number of questions you could take.  To say this was an emotional moment right there in Apache Mall was an understatement as he met me and burst into tears as soon as he saw me.  We stood right there hugging, crying and pretty much oblivious to everyone around us.  As we finally could say this journey is finished. 

A beautiful valentine that my Grandma K. received at some time....isn't it stunning?

After pulling ourselves together I told him about finding the dress, the song, the clearance, the sign......then the bag with said dress.  He loved it.....now where to wear this baby on it debut.......stay tuned!!!

P.S.  I am taking a little break, but will be back in a couple weeks hopefully with some inspiring things to share with you. 

Christmas Cards

The house is pretty much decorated for Christmas.....I am down to the tinkering stage....which pretty much lasts until I pack everything up till next year.  I wanted to share with you some of the things I do with Christmas cards.

As you know I have a hankering for all things vintage and especially paper ephemera.....not so snobby that I exclude modern reproductions.....a lot of bang for you $$ in my book.  In past years I have used the bathroom mirror as my canvas and using plasti-tak......put up my very favorite vintage looking cards and postcards around the outside edge of the mirror in a collage style as a frame.  But since I have a framed mirror in the remodeled bath....that won't work.  So decided to use my collection of flower frogs to display some of them on my window sills.  Let me just say, if you have wide window sills....I am jealous.  Isn't that silly, but I like making little display vignettes, but my "little, teeny, weeny window sills limit that.  Bummer.

The Silver Fox and I have exchanged the most beautiful Christmas cards almost every year and I have saved everyone of those.  So I have a huge stack of them and I enjoy having some of them displayed each year.  The side board in the the dining room with a piece of plate glass cut to fit the top is the perfect spot to show off some  special paper or textile items.  So here you can see some of my favorite cards that we have given and received. Of special note at the bottom of the photo is a horse drawn carriage....a beautiful laser cut card.....now look at the other end of the side board.....there is the same card....mirror image.  That year we bought the same card for one another, isn't that a hoot!!!

This is the Longaberger tray that I pretty much keep on my kitchen table year round and again it has a clear protector in it.....so it lends itself to more display space and tucked underneath are several more cards from one of us.

Then I have a special affinity for shaped cards....here is a sweet little coffee pot from one of my quilt friends that I have in a flower frog and looks like it belongs to Susan Branch.....isn't her artwork, but pretty much looks like her with a tiny little painted birdhouse with a real shingle on the roof....also made by a very talented quilt friend, as a party favor.  Don't you want to be included in that party, where the hostess has gifts for all her guests?  :)

The rest of the Christmas cards go into my gift wrapping basket to be cut up at some point into gift tags for another year.  I used to use decorative scissors to cut out various shapes including some of the sentiments and titles if there was enough white space on them to use as a tag.  But since getting a die cutting machine, they look pretty professional using the many dies to cut various shapes.....very fun and simple to do.

You might want to make up a little gift wrapping basket to keep your supplies in during the month of December, so you aren't wasting time assembling/putting away each time you wrap.  Don't you like my Christmas gift wrap scissors.  A very fun little gift from one of my quilty friends.  Then my fav tape holder for wrapping, which you wear across the back of your hand and it pulls out just the right strip of tape.  I've been known to pick up lots of refills for this puppy during the after Christmas sales.....just a thought.  :)  You can't see it, but there is a ribbon cutter tool in there and then my "bag-o-tags."

Here are the remainder of our cards to each other.

I love this little container made from Christmas cards.  I don't know if this was made by my Grandma K. or her mother.  I am thinking Grandma K., as it was at their house for as long as I can remember.  It is a nice little container with a flip type lid all crocheted together with pearl cotton.  The cards are layered with some clear plastic, which is probably the only reason it has survived.

Just in case you just don't have any vintage looking cards....here is a cute Santa to start a collection with or to add to what you already have.  Would be very cute printed out on card stock or a heavy presentation paper and cut out around the shape to display in a flower frog on your window sill.....enjoy!!

Send me a picture.....I like mail.  :)

Autumn is Here

I finally have gotten most of my autumn decoration out and my patriotic things put away.  My grand-daughter, Kate Anne was a great help with that the other day.  She liked putting all my vintage candle figures out on my dining room table and hanging ornaments on the tree.  Then we put the "little people" autumn play sets under the tree.  She had to stop and play with them after we got them out.  :)  I gave away all my Halloween decorations to my girls a couple years ago.  I decided I didn't want to take the time to change my decorations from October to November.  So I just kept my general "fall" things and let my girls and grand-kids enjoy the Halloween things.

The squirrel is from my Grandma Kullmer.  There is a pair of them and she had them out every fall.  The wax turkey was either from one of my grandmothers or my mother-in-law.  They all seemed to collect these wax candles for various holidays.  I went to a friend's garage sale yesterday and she had several of these for $20-40 each.  I have a whole table full of these things.  :)  The ceramic turkey was made by my Grandma Thedens.  The brown toile tablecloth & table runner I made several years ago.

Looking down the table.....it seats 14.  BTW, that is just enough room for the grand-kids minus one.  At family celebrations we feed the kids first, clear the table, then the adults eat while the kids play or watch a movie.

These turkey trays were found in my Grandma Kullmer's house.  I had never seen them before and I loved them immediately.  There are 8 of them and I lay them out on the table to enjoy.  I am sure either she or her mother used them when they had their lady's circles and club meetings.

My friend, Mary had her annual garage sale yesterday.  It is not like any garage sale I have ever been to before.  It is pretty much like going to an antique store.  EVERYTHING she has I love.  The trouble is I have so much of my own....I need NOTHING.  But I did come home with a hand full of vintage postcards.  I bought all the thanksgiving postcards she had.  I have a vintage postcard display book and I try and fill the two page spreads with postcards from similar themes and then display it open in a stand.  You can see I NEED a couple more to fill this page.  :)  Thanks, Mary for letting me paw through your stuff....you truly are a kindred spirit.

Happy 4th of July

Here is wishing you a Happy 4th of July!!!!


I haven't done much sewing this past week.  My mother had some medical issues and we continue to work on our bathroom makeover.  The "Silver Fox" laughs as he measures again for the umpteenth time......he tells me he doesn't get paid by piece work.....I believe it.    We are progressing slowly, but everything that is done looks great.  So slow and steady seems to be working.  So this week I am going to share some sights outside my front door.  We have had such good rains that everything is just lush here in Eastern Iowa.  I also tucked in a nice piece of clip art to share with you.

 Here is the view outside my front window as I sit in my living room and write to you.

I keep my hand garden tools and my knee pad in the old mailbox.

 We built a "civil war" type fence in the background.  The kind that go zig-zag....which I have never understood the concept around that.  But we have piles of wooden fence posts around here and it was a good way to use a bunch of them up. 

Let's just say these are even more breath-taking in person.  I love the lime green buds against the red flowers.....stunning color combination.   These babies are about the size of my hand.

I have tucked in a special piece of patriotic ephemera for you to save. Right click on it to save it to your computer.  I love to collect pieces of paper history....repros and originals.   This would make a wonderful pillow......print this out on fabric and sew it up.

Tis the Patriotic Season

I have been collecting Americana for a very long time.....

 long before it was popular or collectible.

It is probably my favorite season to decorate.....maybe because it is during the warmer months of the year or because I LOVE red and blue or because I enjoy the history of our country, 

 or all of the above.

Well my goal is to always have my patriotic decorations up before Memorial Day....so we can enjoy it all for not only that weekend, but Flag Day and July 4.....but this year I didn't get quite that far.  I did get my tree done...only to have one of the strings of lights burn out on me.  UGGG!!!

I don't have a window above my sink....but I do have a mirror and two lighted glass shelves and I usually place some of my favorite pieces there to enjoy while  I work in the kitchen.

I still love this piece of Rowe pottery from Wisconsin that I bought many years ago.....it is filled with vintage kitchen tools from my grandmothers laid on a vintage crocheted  red, white and blue potholder.  The patriotic angel was made by one of my quilt friends and the little sailor is a fun Hallmark card, setting on a patriotic doily made by Grandma K.  I am not sure Hallmark makes those kinds of cards any more.  At least the last time I looked, which wasn't recently.....they had nothing like this.

This little still-life includes a sweet framed print, Longaberger flag basket and an old "American" scale loaded with dish towels ready to use.

This shelf includes a metal ice bucket from a thrift store, and a wonderful paper honeycomb decoration of George Washington.  I got a set of these from a special life-long friend.

Another Hallmark card surrounded by a vintage food chopper and a wooded flag bowl.

Hope you enjoyed these little vignettes above my kitchen sink.

Counties of Iowa & Hazel

I was recently reminded through a couple conversations with a cousin on Facebook about a neat poem that named all the counties in Iowa.

I used to do a 4th of July party every year and invited any and all family and friends and my great uncle and aunt would come.  She had a huge raspberry patch and she would make me a fresh raspberry pie and bring it to share at the potluck....BUT she would always tell me...."You know if you put this in the refrigerator and forget about it, I won't mention there is a pie and you can have the whole thing for later."  So guess what I did every single year.  :)

My husband always had a patriotic game for us to play and one year to all our amazement, Hazel recited this poem that she had learned at country school of all the counties in Iowa.  It was unbelievable.  I had never heard of it before.

So after talking to my cousin about the poem, I was able to find it online.  Then I used the poem and included it as a part of a digital scrapbook page for my family members.  I took mine after printing it out and included a special Iowa paper, ephemera, a couple family pictures and journaling to tell the story.  I love the way it turned out.

I included the link for those who would like their own copy of this special poem.  A little piece of Iowa history.

http://publications.iowa.gov/2152/1/Iowapoem.pdf

Happy Easter

May you have a blessed Easter weekend with family & friends!!!

I have included a special piece of Easter clip art for you to download.

Enjoy!