One lonely iris

I fear my patch of irises have been hidden from the sun by neighboring plants because only one bloomed this year. Pretty little thing.

Nature walk

Bring on summer

We have a new thing for summer over at Collage --
theme stockings on the first Thursday of each month.

June's theme is "SPLASH" with items perfect for a day at the beach or poolside.

What fun it was combining my previous Collage design work with illustrations from my collection of vintage children's books.

For my contribution to the stocking, I've listed 3 dresses/swimsuit coverups made from upcycled vintage pillowcases and trims.

I made them last spring and now have the impetus (and clean studio) to make even more.

Such sweet results from combining the vintage flowers with bright ribbons, ric-rac and other trims.

Come check out what my co-vendors are selling.

Silver pincushions

Here I was thinking I made something totally unique. Turns out there are real vintage versions similar to mine.

Here's another one from Tiffany and one with blue velvet.

You can find mine on both Collage and Etsy -- for much less than the antique versions, lol.

More blogging distractions

It took me another week, but here are linky dinks to some of my favorite posts from the blogroll to the right.

•Thanks to Orange, I can now oldify my photos.

• Look at the cuteness here.

• I just bought a folk art tablecloth that would work perfectly as a zippered pouch like this one.

• I want to make mollychicken's little houses. I might just create the form and let the boys decorate them.

• I'm just loving Norththreads redwork drawstring bags.

• Just look at these shelves and shelves of gorgeous vintage fabric. And my dh thinks I have a lot, lol. Oh, and I want that craft room!

• Look at these creative cards made of vintage papers, cardstock and fabric. Simple yet so elaborate.

• I'm having troube just making a simple flower and Penny made a whole chrysanthemum hot pad.

• And since I can't even understand crochet patterns in English, I'd certainly will be totally lost following them in Japanese.

If it's Memorial Day...

...there must be parades. Four parades down, one more to go this weekend. Here are pictures of our bagpipe bands marching.

Flowers for Mommy.

Scotia-Glenville Pipe Band warming up before the Stillwater, NY parade on Friday night.

My oldest is the drummer on the right.

My second is the banner carrier on the left.

On to Lake George, NY on Saturday morning.
Dh needs his own dresser to get into the drum major gear.

Oldest, aka the Verizon guy with his new glasses, shows off some stick tricks.

The other boys, of course, were drawn to water.

Grandma and Grandpa found us.

No prettier place to warm up than the southern end of Lake George.

Saturday afternoon, it was on to the northern end of the lake for Hague's parade.

Waiting for candy!!!!

Hope you are having a great holiday weekend too!!!
(Head over here if you want to see other parade participants and spectators.)

Making beautiful music

I'm up to my eyeballs in yearbook stuff this week,
to the exclusion of mostly everything else.

The photos I took a few weeks ago make up the cover.

I have a few more classes to visit for more photos then have to add the text and proofread, then it goes to the printer. Phew!


I was asked to help design a CD cover and label mainly
because I had the program that would open the template.
Not able to let it go at just slapping down text,
I took over the design too. I hope they like it.

I used the same fonts and photos from my yearbook design and added their words.
Above is the outside of the cover.

Here is the B&W inside with all the song lyrics.
They are such cute songs, written by the kids themselves.
I can't wait to hear them.

This is the label for the actual CD.

I hope I get asked to do more work like this for the school.
It is fun and I get to spread my design wings a little bit.

The real teal

The weather has cooled here in the Northeast. It feels more like April than almost Memorial Day. Perfect timing considering I just finished my first long-term crocheting project -- a long cushy scarf from thrifted yarn.

I stitched together two yarns at a time -- a textural mohair/silk/wool/acrylic blend from Italy and a solid teal alpaca/acrylic blend from France. They look so pretty and soft together.

I have officially mastered the double crochet stitch after this project. I just know the wonky sides will bug me years from now when I am better at crocheting, but for now I'm happy with the results. (The scarf was carefully photographed so as not to show the wonky sides.)

For a fun finishing touch, I added fringe on the ends. I can't wait for fall so I can wear it with my favorite Harris Tweed coat. Well, maybe I can wait. I'm really looking forward to summer.

Catching up

Lots going on IRL -- job change for dh, school yearbook, garage sale prep, yard work -- and I feel like I've really neglected other bloggers, so today I am getting caught up on each and every one listed over there on the right (scroll down a it).

• The Tooth Fairy visited Rachel's house recently, bringing much much more than she brought to my kindergartener last night for his first lost tooth. I think we need "Nana Toof Fairy" too.

• The Poo's mom hauled out her basement like we did last week. I hope her sale turns out as profitable as our garage sale was.

• The three little mouses and their mommy Rebecca came to our garage sale. Scooby Doo now has a good home full of girls. My little guy cried when Baby Mouse left. Is there still such a thing as arranged marriages? Those girls are soooooo cute!

• Every time I read Mrs. MK's posts about the loss of her daughter Ellie, I get an ache in my heart for her. I hope she finds peace soon.

• In the it's-a-small-world category goes this post. Wow!!!

• I just went shopping for lavender at Apifera Farm in Oregon. What I really want are her animals ... maybe some day.

• Easy repurposing ideas here and here and here.

• Crafty Cindy altered Rummy-O tiles and made them into pretty pendants. Maybe I shouldn't have sold off our second copy of the game yesterday....

• I wonder if Kim at Daisy Cottage would be thrilled or upset if I stole her house's color palette. I get inspired every time I pop over there.

• Joyce is an IRL friend and co-vendor on Collage. Now that I know how to crochet I may buy some of her lovely yarn! (I'm eying that Lariat colorway.)

• I'm in love with these family doodle pillows given as Mother's Day gifts, maybe because the dad doodle looks a bit like my dh.

I had every intention of reading every blog, but I only made it up to Letter F and my family is clamoring for my attention. To be continued...

Altered dominoes

This was a good example of "use up what you've got."

Even though they are new, the minute I saw the colorful pack of miniature dominoes, I knew what I would do with them -- découpage scenes from vintage picture books.

Once done, I found small round magnets in our bag of refrigerator magnets to add to the back.

"Peter Rabbit's Green Garden"

"Swallows Soaring on Blue"

"Red Roosters"

"Sunny Yellow Playground"

"Cowboys Campfire Songs"

"Blue Hawaii Beach"

"Cinderella's Orange Pumpkin"

Now that I see how easy and fun this is, I'll be doing more, maybe on the letter and word cubes I have from other board games. These will go up on Etsy tomorrow.

Like I need more stuff

Our house may be topsy-turvy in preparation for our own garage sale this weekend, but I couldn't resist stopping at a few others when I had some free time this past weekend. I can't believe the deals I got!!!

No, this isn't a sign we are having another baby. All I did was ask the woman how much the old portable crib was and she told me to just take it. Don't have to tell me twice -- I quickly loaded it into my van. My plan is to use it at craft shows since it folds up so easily.

The brown jointed teddy bear and pale blue bunny were free too, at another sale. I am going to steal take inspiration from Dawn's idea and dress them up with vintage bits of this and that.

Does anyone know the chap in the orange coat and beanie cap? He's a rubber squeak toy from Asakusa, Japan. He might just be a generic character but he looks like an advertising character to me.

I just realized the stuffed toys weren't really free, lol. I saw this little gem on Saturday and passed it up because I thought it was just a toy sewing machine. I remembered it was a Singer, so I looked for it online and then decided to go back for it on Sunday.

It cost all of $10, but then my oldest picked out a compound bow for $5. We then had to go to the sporting goods store for arrows and accessories. Ka-ching! See the stuffies weren't really free.


Aren't these cute? They are a lighter and salt and pepper shakers, all about 2" small. I think they will make a nice gift for a tea lover. On the bottom they say "Nu-trend by Cory, AA Chrome, U.S.A." I wonder exactly how old they are. They cost a buck.