Seed Bag Curtains

DISCLAIMER:   I am NOT a good seamstress - I lack patience and a lot of the time I also lack desire.  I view sewing as a necessary evil.

Having warned all of you . . . .

I found an old seed bag at a local flea market on my lunch hour - I knew exactly what this would become as soon as I saw it.   New kitchen curtains!  The seed bag is at least semi-local since it says "Kansas Grown Hybrid Seed Corn". 

After a good washing I was ready to begin.   First I had to decide if I wanted a full length curtain or a half curtain, I decided to go with the half.  Next I measured the window and realized that my window is wider than I though.  I have some feed sacks that are a bit lighter in color but I think they will work.   I had to add 14" of fabric to have be wide enough and for seam allowance.

After cutting it to size I pinned the seed bag and feed sacks together.  And got out my sewing machine.  Insert a few bad words here - as I said I'm not a very good seamstress :(   Then I pinned for the hems and cursed sewed some more.

After the hems were done, I measured and pinned for the rod pocket, I decided to use a simple cafe rod just to make it easier on myself.  A few more bad words (sorry) and one very nosy cat later and I was able to put that silly sewing machine away! In the five minutes it took me to put the sewing machine away and get back to the kitchen, Grover had already made himself a little place to rest. 

The result - $5 curtains for the window above my kitchen sink.  At least I know Grover likes it. 

UPDATE:  Yeah an update after just one day.  Mr. Manly Man is not such a fan.   I did a slight alteration so he can actually open the curtain.   I simply cut the curtain in two and did a quick hem (curse him for making me sew again!)  Please pretend my windows are nice and sparkly - I'm a busy mom, I need to clean.  I'll let you know what he thinks of this change.

Linking with:  Todays Creative Blog
 http://lbratina.blogspot.com/
 http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/ 

http://www.thethriftyhome.com/
http://sunburntcowhandmadeshop.blogspot.com/2011/04/sunburnt-cow-link-party-7.html
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/
http://www.sistersofthewildwest.blogspot.com/
http://hazelandhoneysuckle.blogspot.com/

Mr. Manly Man's Stash

Mr. Manly Man cleaned out the garage the other day.  Look at this stash he was hiding from me!  Old jars! 

He's been collecting these for years. Now this is father/daughter time, as he and our our eldest daughter spend hours upon hours searching for bottles. I had no idea their collection had gotten this large. I decided to clean up a few of them and put them on display. I love all the different shapes, sizes and colors. The different blues, green, amber and white milk glass. My favorite is the green one.

Somewhere, sometime Mr. Manly Man found this Vaseline bottle, label intact and it still has some Vaseline inside.  

He also found a couple with their rubber stoppers.

My daughter’s favorites are these tiny little bottles.   The small square one in front is the size of a dice and even has the dice markings.  

I did have a hard time arranging these in the cabinet and finally got to the good enough point.  I had to shuffle my granite ware to the bottom shelf which is no big deal I kind of like it all bunched together down there.  Someday I'll get around to sharing my granite ware collection with you.



linking with: http://www.skiptomylou.org/   http://todayscreativeblog.net/  http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2011/04/upkeep-and-wow-us-wednesdays-12.html

Table Makeover

This has been one of, if not my most frustrating project in a long time.  I found this little table at a flea market for $8 and though this would be a quick easy project.  Sand, prime, paint, stencil and clear coat.  Two weeks max.   Sanding – easy.  Priming – no problem.   Black paint – looked great.  Stencil – well that’s another story.  

Let's just say that I had problems.  I had all sorts of problems, I was not a happy camper.   The final score.   Stencil 3, Pam 0. 

That was to be the end of my table saga. I was ready to leave it black.  Mr. Manly Man knew I was frustrated.  The entire family knew I frustrated.   When I got home from work one day last week, I came home to this.  He decided to give the stencil a try, with the airbrush.  Success!

I am so glad he jumped in and finished this up it looks like I wanted it to. It can now go to it's new owner, my niece, at the KU (Rock Chalk) dorms.

linking with: Savvy Southern Style, The Thrifty Home, http://sunburntcowhandmadeshop.blogspot.com/

I Got My Birch Box!

First a disclaimer – I am not a representative of Birch Box nor do I receive any perks from the for mentioning them here in my blog.

I received a one-year subscription to BB as a gift from a close friend.  I love getting this little box of tester size luxe products.  I try them - especially the skin car products on Friday night or Saturday morning - just to play it safe - I hate to have to explain blotchy irritated skin at work on Monday.   This month looks like some really good stuff:

For starters, some LivGrn-earth parfum.  Wow does it smell great!  My almost 15 year old also likes it so I may end up loosing it to her. 

Three different skin samples one being Weleda Smoothing Facial Lotion.  And the other two are from juice beauty – one is a Green Apple Peel and the other is a Repairing Eye Treatment. 

They also sent a sample of Zoya nail polish, I received the color Caitlin, it’s a very pretty purple that will be on my toes by the end of the weekend. 

What I like most about this is getting to try the products and then being able to hop on their website and actually find the products to purchase. 

Last month's best product sample in my opinion was the Pangea Organics Lip Balm.  I received the Pyrenees Lavender with Cardamom - it's full size and works so well and smells so good.  It's like getting aroma therapy every time I put the lip balm on. 

Fleur De Lis x 3

Look at what I picked up a while back.  Three cast iron Fleur's De Lis for the living room. The dark brown looks so good against our blue walls. I've always been a fan of them but never had the right decor to put them in, they just don't go with a Western theme.  I'm so glad we decided to re-do the living room. 

 The classic ones are my favorite.

or maybe the filigree one

or this scrolly one

And I got them for half price on one of my trips to the city.   They were in the garden section but I think they work great in my living room.

Investment Worth Making

I'm cheap.  There I said it.  Over the weekend I got taught a lesson about being too cheap.  I will be investing in the following soon.

Our humble little home is a 1950's ranch.   Back in the 50's they did not believe in large closets.  Therefore, I switch out my summer/winter clothes and USED to store them in trash bags - they were cheap and I could reuse them!  I've been using trash bags for years to store off season clothing.  Well last weekend I learned an important lesson. I went to the storage slash laundry room to retrieve my summer clothes.  I looked where I put the bag last fall and all that was there was some cardboard.  I looked high, low and in between.   No luck.  Hmmm, why was there cardboard back there?

We purchased a new washing and dryer back in November, Mr. Manly Man tends to keep stuff like cardboard and apparently throws out my summer clothing just because it's in a trash bag.  Yep - he tossed it out back in November. 

So I guess this weekend I invest in a couple good storage containers and a black Sharpie.  Oh maybe a few spring shirts too!

I also don't feel so bad about outing him on the bird cage.

Frog O Phobia

Many times over the winter I heard “I don’t like the cold” and “when’s it going to warm up?”  I was happy with the cold weather. I prefer the cold weather. Spring and Summer - not my favorite.  Here is another reason why.

I suffer from frog phobia – well it’s more of a frog and toad phobia.  It’s actually called Ranidaphobia.  Go ahead you can laugh now – but they totally freak me out!  I'll take a spider or garden snake any day.  Worse yet we have at least two that live in our yard.  

I blame my siblings for my phobia.   I can recall my sister chasing me with the toad that lived in mom’s flower bed.  My brother also got in on the act once and a while.  I was terrified of getting peed on or worse.  To them it was probably great fun to torment me.

I never outgrew this fear and I doubt that I ever will.  I knew with warmer weather the little suckers would come out of hibernation.  This morning this was in our back yard, I swear it doubled in size over the winter.

I knew it was there so I was able to control myself outwardly; inside I couldn’t wait to get back in the house and get away from that slimy green monster.  The family thinks I am over reacting and very funny.  My husband has offered several times to take me frog hunting, you know, middle of the night with a light along a pond or stream and then fry up some frog legs the next day.   Um, no thanks.   I shudder at the thought.  

Are Birdcages Manly?

Here's a cute little number I picked up on one of my recent outings.  It was sitting in the back of a booth in a large flea market, it just kinda caught my eye.  I like that it's not too big and I love the finial on top. And for $9 why not?  I was debating painting it but I was told to just leave it alone, the hubby likes it they way it is.  Yeah you read that correctly - the hubby likes it. 

Kudos to my daughter for the pic.

He told me that he likes birdcages. Who knew?  My Mr. Manly Man likes birdcages?  It kinda threw me for a loop! After almost 18 years I'm just finding this out?  I mean he's a jeep kind of guy - he has three.  You know tools.  Fast cars. Building Stuff.  Mud.  Dirt.  Birdcages?

Junkyard Trellis

I went to the junk yard with the hubby the other day.  He was looking for some sheet aluminum for one of his projects and I was just looking.  It amazes me the stuff you can find out there and I didn't even venture too far as I had on ballet flats.   Several trucks came in with stuff I was desperate to go through and I saw several goodies I would have loved to have - washtubs in particular - they make such good planters. 

In my "stay on the gravel" nosing around I spotted this gem hiding between some dragon embellished lamp posts.    It stands about 8 foot and it's going to be a trellis for a rosebush in our yard.  It was a steal at $4.00.  Bryan had to do some spot welding to reattach some of the scrolls to the frame otherwise it was good to go.

 

I briefly thought about sanding it and giving it a shot of black paint and then I came to my senses.   Why mess with the nice rusty patina?   

I have a date with him this Saturday to go back.  This time I'm wearing my boots not ballet flats!

A Copper Watering Can and Ketchup Spice

Yesterday we trekked up to Garnett & Ottawa to hit the antique shops and flea markets.  We hit several in Ottawa and just two in Garnett.  My mom collects pink depression ware and found a mayo scoop and a cherry blossom coaster.  It's nice to see mom treat herself once in a while.

I found this great copper water sprinkler. I passed it up the first time through but latched on to it the second.  I'm so glad I did. 

I also found a couple of older spice containers.   I just liked the chili powder one and I've never seen ketchup spice before.  Both will find a nice home in my kitchen.

I also snagged this little wooden finial for a couple of bucks.  It was just sitting there all lonely, desperately in need of a home - my home!  

I got a few other goodies but they will have to wait for another time.