It's Apple Season!

Well, so far there has been apple sauce, apple butter, and frozen sliced apple for use in the winter.  I anticipate a lot more apple sauce as there are a lot more apples as that is the easiest, and my kids are big apple sauce fans.  I was thinking today that there may be too many apples left.

I had to stop to take some pictures though as apples can be so picturesque.

This particular composition has been textured with one of Kim's older textures, Antique Texture using the hard light blending mode.

I hope your week is going well! 

Linking with Kim and Texture Tuesday

Wool: Felted and Repurposed

My focus on finding wool to craft with all began with this book by Maya of the Mayamade blog.  She had a few projects that looked like fun, one being coasters.  I dug through my stash of fabrics and found my tub of wool but I thought it would be fun to add more to my stash. :)

You've already seen my blue sweater, felted, here.

So, at another garage sale this weekend, I found these old men's shirts.  They were in great condition, just needed a washing.  I ran them through the machine twice to get out the mothball/old smell and to shrink them as much as possible.

They turned out great.

This is an Instagram picture I took of them before cutting.

So far, I have a large set of coasters and a tote bag.  There is plenty of wool left.

For the coasters, I cut 4" circles and layered two to three wool pieces together depending on the thickness of the wool.

Then I used the blanket stitch with a coordinating yarn to stitch all around them.  I bought the needle felted acorns and leaf from Lisa of Lil Fish Studios a few years ago. 

The blanket stitch is fairly easy, but if you don't know how to do it, just search a video online.

This was a vintage piece of wool fabric that I had.  Perfect fall colors.

Fall.

The bag was inspired by this bag.  And, I followed these instructions here for a lined bag except my dimensions were 17.75" tall, 13.5" wide and I made my own straps, by cutting pieces 13" long by 3.5" wide then sewing right sides together, turning right sides out, and pressing the seam in the middle of the strap. I also didn't use any iron on interfacing as the instructions stated as I thought my two layers of wool were thick enough and they are.

You can change your dimensions to fit your shirt and whether or not you want the buttons and pockets involved. You can't see the lining in the picture, but it's a beautiful dark green wool.

So instead of $102 for a wool bag, I spent $3.75 and I have quite a bit of wool left from the two shirts I used for more projects. And, it has it's own personality. :)

Linking here:

Friday Finds: Garage Sale Victory

I love going to garage sales.  You probably know that by now...

I'm often getting there at the end of a sale.

It's hard when the person having the sale or in this case yesterday, the volunteers manning the booths, tell you that they had soooooooo much stuff at the beginning of the day and have sold sooooooooo much stuff.  And, you think...hmmmm...did I miss out?

But, the way I see it.  All that stuff was cleared out so I could find the items that are treasures to me!

Some of what we brought home:

 Small tattered Bibles...

Kind of rough, but I love this set of books!  All containing quotes pertaining to the titles.

Beautiful graphics.  Copyright 1911

 This header pages would be wonderful framed...if I have the heart to take the book apart that is.  I may just take time to photograph them well.

 Under "Courage"...I like this by Whittier.

Three jars of buttons, fairly dirty, but will be so fun to sort!!!

I'll wait for a day when a good dose of therapy is needed! Or I have a project in mind that needs just the right button.

Love the shape of a lyre!

What?!?!

I told my girls that we would keep our eyes out for Halloween costumes.  My 9 year old came up with this as she wants to be Barbie.  Snip, snip, sew, sew!

And, my 7 year old found this...she wants to be Elsa from Frozen.  Snip, snip, sew, sew, a LOT!!  She has confidence that I can do this.  I sure hope I can!  I'll let you know at the end of October how it turns out.

The "snip, snip, sew, sew is a reference to this ADORABLE book we've read so many times!

And, speaking of snipping and sewing...add hot washing and drying to the mix.... and this once size large women's sweater becomes child sized and ready for me to use in a felted wool project I have in mind.  I threw it in the washer as soon as I got home, so I don't have a before picture.  Trust me, it was twice this size.

I'm not usually a blue fan but I like this and the texture a lot.

Then there was this cute vintage book!  Of course it had to come home with me.  It's a 4-H story to boot; I love 4-H and my club!

We also came home with some very nice clothing items for myself and the girls to actually wear and not cut up!  So, the trip to this sale was a victory... so to speak. :)

Linking up:

Black & White Wednesday

My freshman daughter golfed in her first meet yesterday!  She let me come to watch a few holes and take some pictures.  She's just a beginner, and it will be fun to see her improve over time.  I'm still waiting to see myself improve....ha!!

I'm linking here with Adrienne:

Let Your Light Shine: Texture Tuesday

This light fixture was in my daughter's upstair's hallway...pre-painting/remodel.  It's a great fixture; just doesn't match the house at all.  I'm glad I got a picture of it before the wallpaper came off.

As I edited it, the children's song This Little Light of Mine came to mind. :)

I textured the photo with one of Kim's old magic textures on a low opacity. She's having a giveaway to one of her classes this week.

Saturday Digest

►I was so excited when I found this DIY network site with some of Carol Duvall's old episodes!  I used to watch her show when my now 20 year old son was just 2 and 3 years old and he would call out  in the cutest little 3 year old voice "Maaaooommm!  Cairl Vall is on!!!"  I loved her show!

►I'm always learning....Quatrefoil:  it's a pattern of four leafed shapes.  This post shows great examples and you may say like me...that pattern has a name?

►Have you ever heard of Slam Poetry?  (me either)  Apparently it started in 1986.  If you worry about this "digital age" and how it's affecting people and relationships, and are are familiar with all the social media terminology, I think you'll like  this slam poetry video.  I know nothing of this artist's other work, but this is worth watching. My daughter showed me this video and, well, wow.  I contemplate our world and technology often...the use of our phones constantly, the social media...   I thought this was really good.  Maybe you will too.

►We made these last night with my 4H club.  The sticky mess was contained, and it was a lot of fun.  Instructions are in the latest Martha Stewart magazine.

 

►This turtle laid eggs in our backyard this summer.  We flagged the spot and marked the calendar when the little turtles should appear, but sadly none made it.  I did get some video of her laying one of the eggs and then filling back in the hole she dug.  That was pretty fun to watch. 

Have a great weekend!!!

Friday Finds: Apartment Coming Together

I mentioned before that my daughter did some projects as she was on the job hunt this summer.  These honeycomb shelves were one of them.  (Or would that be three of them?)

She built them out of pine.  I'm sorry, but I don't have directions for you.  Between the three projects she wanted to build from scratch, she accomplished two and they all involved geometry and learning to use our somewhat middle of the road quality tools to try to accomplish exact measurements.  She really did a good job with what she had to work with!

Because her budget was tight, as in sqeaky tight....she used pine and left over paint that I had.  This is what was left of the Annie Sloan Chalk paint I used on my cabinet in the basement bedroom.  I still need to take pictures down there to show you the finished project.

She scraped the can clean to get enough to cover these. Then she used the black wax I had to give them the finish.  

Minimalistic...which is what she likes.  This was set up after we moved everything in up three flights of stairs so she has tweaked it some more since then.

The three blocks of wood with art prints all came from here.  I love Flor Larios and have many of her art prints and have gifted many. :)

I know you can't see it in the low light photo, but the print washi taped to the wall is one of the prints I won from Kim Klassen.  The print itself is a photo of the original print washi taped to a wall....so it's all very...not sure what the word would be.  My daughter said it was Inceptionesque. I never saw the movie Inception but apparently it was like a story within a story.   The photo of the photo washi taped to the wall is now washi taped on the wall.  Did I lose you?

And then there are these finds...the couch came from the summer kitchen at the farm.  I vacuumed it for about an hour at home before we brought it down. I imagine my inlaws moved it out there some 20 years ago after it served their family for a long time.  It's in seriously good condition considering a family of 9 used it.  Mastercraft...made some good pieces.

The metal cart $4 at a flea market...the glasses $2 at the same flea the weekend before she found this apartment.

Sitting on the bottom shelf...

I bought this for her from a garage sale the same weekend we went to the flea market for $1.  It's a vintage savings jar.

Here with the lock off...you begin to save for a dinner & show, then long weekend, new car, and the final one is a mink!  Sounds like the 1950s doesn't it?  I'm not sure what my daughter will imagine the last one to be, but dinner and show and a new car are definitely on her saving list.

The quilt was a graduation gift to her from my Mom...goes perfectly on the back of the old couch.

Take another peak at those vintage glasses.  If I was one to type *swoon*, I would.

The rocking chair and ottoman (needs to be steamed) came from a friends garage that she was going to donate...came from her son's house...then it went to the baby cave, now they are here!  More on the dresser later, and you've already seen the end table, which I posted about last week.

A lot of very random items and finds came together beautifully for her. 

Linking here with Kim Klassen:

Phillippians 4:8 Texture Tuesday

This text is from one of my favorite scriptures.  

When you find yourself wallering around your mind with worries or stewing about a situation...our Lord gives us permission and encourages us to not only trust Him, but that it's okay and desired by Him for you to think of good things.  I find such consolation in that!

The base image is from an empty room in my daughter's apartment. I've come to the conclusion that I like to photograph empty rooms as much as vignettes, actually, maybe more so.

I pray these words come to you when you need them. 

Before and After: Side Table

At the end of May, I posted about this neat side table with the very interesting accounting on the back of the drawer.  Be sure to check out that post to see how Pat paid off on his boat.

Well, as soon as my daughter came home, she claimed it, and among many other projects, refinished it this summer in the hopes of having an apartment...and job...soon.  

Thankfully, both happened!  And, this table is perfect in her apartment which is in a historically restored apartment building.  She stripped it and stained it with a fairly dark stain. Then she applied a few coats of polycrylic.  The accounting is still untouched on the back of the drawer. :)

She found a knob on clearance at Anthropology and that gave this piece a bit of a modern vibe which brings it in line with her style.

Here it sits on move in day.  I will be sharing more of her apartment and her summer projects as I get a chance.  See that neat book shelf there?  That was one of them.

Linking here: