Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Spool Bed

Here's how it started. One day I was shopping at my favorite thrift store and I found a little doll bed made of spools of thread. But it was marked $5.99, and I just thought that was too much so I didn't buy it. I went home and all I could think about was that spool bed. I went back the next day, and of course it was gone. I became obsessed with making my own spool bed. I started searching for spools and found they were hard to find. I ended up ordering plain turned spools on Etsy. I took the bag of spools over to my dad's and told him what I wanted to do. He said, "how big do you want it?" I showed him, and he got out his tape measure and measured the space between my hands. The next thing I knew, he came in from the garage and he had cut pieces of wood for the frame. I left the spools in his capable hands and when I went back in a couple of days, he had the frame all glued together. It was exactly what I wanted.

I took the frame home and spray-painted it white. Then I took some garden twine and wrapped it around the frame for the rope springs.

Then I found some fabric and made a tufted mattress.

I found a piece of a very raggedy old quilt in my stash and cut a piece to fit. And to finish it off, I made a bolster of embroidered fabric from an old blouse I had saved.
Wouldn't it be a lovely place for a nap? If you are a doll, that is.




Thursday, May 2, 2013

Spring Fever


"It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want--oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!"

~Mark Twain

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Busy As A Bee

 I have been working on crafts lately. Knitting, painting, just refurbishing things I have brought home. Take a look.
This pillow was meant to be a hat for St. Patrick's Day. I knitted and knitted, and when it was finally completed, it was ridiculously large. I hated to just put it in a drawer, so I made a pillow out of it. I added a vintage button, and maybe this is what it was meant to be all along!
This cute chair has been living in my garage for a long time. I had a vision when I brought it home - turquoise and a new cover for the seat. Oh, and a couple of those little round wooden screw covers were missing. It's finally finished!
I found this old gooseneck floor lamp at a thrift store on half price day. I already had the shade, but there was no way to connect the shade to the lamp. Do you see the round thingy with the screws at the top of the shade? I finally found those online and ordered a couple of them. A quick fix, once they arrived!
This was a fun project. I found this cute chair at Walmart for Nolan's 1st birthday, and stenciled his name on it.
It fit him perfectly!

According to my "stats", I have lots of views on my blog, but except for my mom (thanks, Mom!), no comments. Please leave a comment! It is easy to do and I'd love to hear from you!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Prairie Girl

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to drive my granddaughter to Brown County State Park so that she could be in a movie. I went to pick her up only to find that she was supposed to look like a "prairie girl", sort of like a character on Little House on the Prairie. So we dug through her closet and this is what we came up with.
It was a beautiful but cold day in Brown County. While waiting, I took some pictures. This is a big shelter with two levels and multiple fireplaces inside.
At the stables, we saw this cute fuzzy pony. We also saw lots of people lined up to go horseback riding. It looked inviting, but we didn't have time.
While we were exploring the picnic shelter, a woman who was with her kids came up and offered to take our picture. 
It really was a beautiful day. There were lots of birds calling from the treetops and the sun was shining.
This is my granddaughter waiting for the movie people. We waited and waited and waited. They were two hours late. We were not happy campers.
But I had my camera and couldn't help but see how pretty it was that day, even if it was a bit cold.
The movie people finally arrived. It turned out to be a high school senior making his senior project, his two buddies and their dad. They had a script and knew just what they wanted to do. My granddaughter was the perfect little actress and ran through the woods looking over her shoulder for the bad guys, and slid down ravines multiple times. She had a ball.
Arriving in movie theaters soon ... !!!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Scenes from Easter 2013



Mom's lovely dinner table.
Yellow tulips from the Garfield Park Conservatory.
Easter cupcakes.
Ethan - age 11, letting his hair grow, has a boo-boo on his nose.
Nolan and Nathan greeting Great Grandma in the kitchen.
Yummy Easter ham.
Easter egg hunt participants.
There's one!!
Nolan's first Easter.
Nolan will be one year old on April 10th!
Mom checking the buffet.
John seems to be enjoying something on his iPad.
More pretty Easter flowers.
Coat on, it's time to go! Happy Easter!!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Death and Taxes

 "but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes."
Ben Franklin

Monday, March 11, 2013

A March Snow

We had a pretty March snow last week.
I ventured outside to take some photos before it melted.
I love how the snow magnified the features on this little garden statue.
The backyard swing looks totally different in the snow.
The railing on the front porch took on a magical look.
I kept getting closer ...
and closer.
Luckily this birdhouse is not inhabited yet. It looks cold in there!

The pickets on the fence almost look like gravestones, don't they?

A Good Goodwill Find!

I have a new charming little Belleek vase. This is the front.




This is the back.
You will never guess where I found it! Yes! At Goodwill! I saw it sitting on the shelf, thought it looked cute, so picked it up to inspect. I had no idea it was Belleek. I noticed immediately that it was extremely light, and then I took a peek at the bottom. I could just barely see the Belleek trademark peeking out.
But there it was! I was so excited I nearly jumped up and down!
Belleek is made in Ireland and usually has a shamrock pattern. This one has sweet pansies, a pattern I have never seen before.
From Wikipedia:  Belleek Pottery Ltd is a porcelain company that began trading in 1884 as the Belleek Pottery Works Company Ltdin BelleekCounty Fermanagh, in what was to become Northern Ireland. The factory produces porcelain that is characterised by its thinness, slightly iridescent surface and that the body is formulated with a significant proportion of frit[1]
Anyway ...

I have a nice collection of Belleek in my china cabinet that I will share with you another day.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Sam's Birthday


March 4th is Sam's birthday. We all gathered at their house for chili and birthday cake.
Here I am getting the birthday cake ready.








Great shot of the candles! Thanks, Nate.








Avery was entranced by the candles.



And here we go ...
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Sam
Happy birthday to you!

He is so proud that he blew out all the candles!
I knitted him a warm scarf to wear at the firehouse.