Gardening, Organizing, Modeling

Believe it or not, that's what has been happening at our house today. Here's a new plant on my kitchen windowsill. I hope it does as well as the orchids have there. I love the baby fine foliage on this plant.
Still working on the studio. I have been pitching ruthlessly. But some things are harder than others. I can't tell you how many pairs of little boy and girl clothes I made out of these two patterns. Many of the scraps are in these strip pieced bits above. So I finally pitched the patterns...surely all the pieces might not be there anyway, but I kept the strips. Maybe I'll make some place mats with those bits in them.
I started these heart quilt blocks in high school. I was using scraps and sheeting and regular sewing thread to quilt with....and doing each block individually without really knowing how I'd put them all together. I saved these too, just because I don't have that many things that I worked on while growing up. We moved alot and you weed stuff out when you move often. Maybe I can think of something to make out of these too.
Modeling. My brother-in-law takes amazing photos using the same CannonS3IS as I have. He has actually learned to use all the settings and such and pushes that little camera to the max. Plus, as you can see, he has bought and made some extra flashes and backdrops. If I were independently wealthy I'd buy him the nicest Nikon digital out there and set him up in business...'cause he'd certainly make a success of it! He took our daughter's senior pics, and today he took some more of her and her best friend.
Such cutie pies. I took this one...his are amazing.

I have a closet, er, armoire!

As some of you know, charming old homes often have tiny little closets. Such is the case with our home. I have all of Joe's clothes in the closet in our room and I was keeping mine in the room that is now our son's. So I was thinking of putting my clothes in the sewing room closet or hanging them from a rod in the sewing room. The problem is the sewing room closet also has the access to the attic and I don't want to have to take out my clothes every time we have to get up there. And if I don't remove them, dust and such would rain down on them when the trap door is moved. Yuck. Granted, that's not often, but emptying the closet several times a year is not my idea of a great plan.

Well, Joe thought this would make a good solution, and I love it. It's an old fashioned solution and it works for me...I only have a few dresses and I can store them with his suits.
This cabinet is made by the Ohio Amish and is very nice quality. I was happy that we were able to get a piece that could be an antique of the future. We purchased it at Whitacre's. They have a huge showroom and were were able to take it home that day. Between this and my dresser...all my stuff has a home. Everything has a place, and everything is in it's place. Miracles really do happen.

An Army of Bunny Cupcakes

I saw the cutest bunny peep cupcakes on Bitter Betty's blog, and I knew I had to make some for tomorrow's dessert. Colleen saw what I was up to and she did the decorating.
I think they turned out cute.
A little scary en mass, but cute!

Vintage Embroidery

These linens are part of an estate that I am cleaning up to sell at the shop. I don't think the towels above have ever been used though a couple are yellowed from age. There are quite a few collectors of black Americana. I know that they are not politically correct images these days...but history and vintage items are what they are. They show a glimpse into a past we need to remember. It makes me wonder what the images we choose to decorate our goods with today will say about us in the future.
These two little girls are rather worn but still charming. They are embroidered on pillow slips and hand colored beneath the stitching.
I'm taking these home with me to wash them while I try to get my sewing room/studio straightened out. What a mess. I'm still moving the stuff from one room to the other so we can get Mike moved in this weekend.

Bear with me..........

I'm fiddling around with the settings on my blog. I love the way the black makes the pictures look, but I understand that it's hard for some to read light text on a dark background. I don't mind the white but hopefully I can figure out a way to put some color down the edges. I'm no smarty pants with code so we'll see!

Wanna pop? Wanna see our awesome staircase?

Here's our next project. We tore this up when we redid the kitchen 5 years ago. This stairway ends right in the kitchen/keeping room. Hopefully we are going to get it closed up this spring. We are planning to cut a couple of holes high up and install some stained glass windows in the walls between the bedrooms and the stairwell. I'm hoping that will help bring a little light into the stairs.
This is what a frustrated homemaker starts doing when she is tired of looking at studs. I like doing it ourselves........but it sure makes things take forever sometimes. This wall is at the bottom of the stairs. On the other side of it is the fridge.

The ceiling is way up there at second floor ceiling level. I'm hoping we can put a tin ceiling up there. It's not much square footage and I think it would look so cool. I mentioned this to Joe way back when, but I'm not sure he remembers. We are talking about finishing the walls with horizontal boards-very cottage style. It seems like it would fit in with our home.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Of course we drink pop. All our southern relatives think that's crazy...but then they call all pop Coke! They say, "Would you all like a Coke? What kind? We've got root beer, sprite, diet." Or sometimes they call it a soda. They think we have a funny accent and we, of course, love to listen to theirs.

Vintage Wallpaper

Aren't these cool?! They are vintage wallpaper borders I found at an antique shop. They were still in the box...she said they are selling the stuff from an old hardware shop that closed its doors years ago and is like a time capsule. I'd love to see that place!

I only bought about 24 ft of each design, but I could go back and get enough for a small room if I could think where to use it. Or maybe I could just use what I have to edge some shelves or something. Any ideas?

Sweetheart Ball (no house pics!)

This is just me being a doting mama.