BOO!

Besides sewing for my business, I have done a couple of other big projects during the month of October.

I really haven't done any Halloween decorating since my boys were growing up. I love Autumn, Fall and Thanksgiving decorations. and I usually just  do those. But, this year I saw a couple of patterns that inspired me to maybe do my entry bench and shelf with a touch of Halloween. This is one one of the patterns. It is a large bench pillow and since I have done the spring one, you can see here, I already had the gigantic pillow form made for it. 

I had all the fabrics I needed in my stash, except the background white with black polka dot.

I did it all hand applique with blanket stitch, then hand and machine quilting and binding like a quilt

so it took me a long time, but I finished it in time to take a picture for today. lol Well I'll have it next year so  I can do my little entry way corner in what I will call "soft" Halloween.

My new sidelights next to my door let in light and I love that, but it kinda spoiled my photo op this morning.

This is the end of the pillow you can't see in the other picture. It's also my granddaughter, Drew's birthday date, so that is one of the reasons I liked this pillow design. Another is the cute candy corn flowers with vintage black button centers.

I also found this cute pattern on Facebook and really wanted to make it this year for my corner. It is small and perfect for the wall behind my bench. You can find a link for this and the pillow pattern on my Facebook.

The fabrics used for that cute little quilt above are from Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill. I found some at my local fabric store, Cherry Berry Quilts, and some I got from Shabby Fabrics on line. It is a sweet little collection, not scary Halloween and the bottom orange is more a tangerine, I can use with other combinations.

I didn't get this one made, but am all set for next year. That's the way us quilters do things sometimes.

Since I mentioned my granddaughter Drew above, thought I would show you her picture from her very first formal a couple of weeks ago. Happy 17th Birthday Drew.

While I am on the subject of  birthdays, yesterday was my middle son's birthday. Happy Birthday Eric.

I won't say his age, because it would hint at how really old I am. This was taken a couple of years ago.

One more sewing project finished this month. Worked on yo-yos for this for longer than I want to admit, but this was for my cousin. I should do a tutorial on yo yo quilts. It really turned out a lot nicer than some I've seen. I learned a lot.

Last, but certainly not least. I posted this on facebook, but wanted to put it here too.

The view from my porch yesterday afternoon.

Until next time...

                                               

A Little Uplift to the Front of our Little Cottage

  

Once again, it has been awhile, hasn't it? Everyday, I think about something I want to blog about and somehow the day goes by and I haven't. Well, today I was taking pictures of our front entry and decided it was time to sit down and journal the changes on my blog. I've put some things on Facebook about it, but this is a little more detailed.

This is the only before picture of our cottage I could find. As you can see the front door is not centered under the portico. I have wanted it moved since the first time we looked at the house. When Mr. SS decided to move it, I suggested that we add sidelights as long as we were changing things. Well, things went kinda crazy from there. That is typical of us. We are fixer uppers at heart and knew from day one, that the front of this house was going to change. You can't see them, but there are 4"x4" in posts at the front of the portico.

From the inside after door was removed.

The out side. The top of the portico had a ceiling right above the door. Mr. SS removed it and started designing.

He cut out the opening for door and side lights. Wow, it really opened up our entry. Loving it already.

From the outside.

Framing it all in.

Sidelights are in!

Door back in and all trimmed out on the inside.

We did not change the size of the portico at all, just subtracted and added to make it look so much more prominent.  He removed a paneling to expose that area under the roof line. The center brace and beam were already there, but he added the two pieces of wood.

From the inside.

Now bead board and two columns have been added to the wall surrounding the door. The 4x4 posts have been wrapped and trimmed. Every thing already looks so much bigger.

Bead board  and a center beam was added to the roof of the portico and it is primered.

Painting done

Look at those columns.

The ceiling with bead board and our new little chandelier. It only has 3 lights and lots of little crystals. At night the crystals sparkle on the all that shiny white paint. It is so pretty.

We still have to paint  front door and are leaning towards red. Our last house had a red one, and I never tired of it.

Okay, done for today. Some sewing next time and then the new window makeovers.

As always,  I am feeling blessed

because...

                                               

Lexi

I really have been trying to post more often, but it just seems there is something always going on and time gets away from me.

I had great inspiration today to do a post about my granddaughter Lexi and her 8th grade graduation.

Lexi (Alexa Marie) is the 2nd daughter of my son Brandon and his wife Olivia. They have 6 total - 5 girls and one boy.

Last summer the whole family decided they would home school. Olivia was a trooper and did the work to home school a Kindergardner, a 2nd grader, a 4th grader, a 6th grader and Lexi who was in 8th grade.

Drew was in HS and wanted to continue there.

Two weeks before Christmas they all voted to go back to school except Lexi. She wanted to continue being home schooled. They were connected to Valley Oaks Charter School and she loved her time there too.

A few weeks ago she told me about her graduation and that it would be held at the Fox Theater downtown. She wanted to make a dress for it. So off we went to my favorite quilt store Strawberry Patches(ok, another blog post coming up about my happy place) to find fabric. I have taken the girls there since they were little to pick out fabric for special dresses and that's where Lexi wanted to go.

She has made a few things and started on her own, but needed help last week. I went and picked her up and we sewed at my house. I don't have to do any of the sewing, I'm just there for support if she needs it.

She wouldn't look up because she didn't have her makeup on. At 14 that consists of Mascara.

She tried it on and it is perfect. Again, I couldn't get her head because she didn't do her hair. She is so beautiful without makeup and her hair done, but try to tell a 14 yr. old that.

So today we went to graduation. I wish I could have gotten a picture with her in it of the Marque. This theater has been  refurbished and is an historic part of downtown Bakersfield.

Right after the program in the lobby. She made the little jacket too because she couldn't wear sleeveless in the ceremony.

Our family always goes to Rosemary's Ice Cream Parlor after special events, so sister Drew got some pictures of her  for me. I love that the decor matches her outfit. She will too when she sees this.

Did I tell you she did a professional job on this dress with side zipper, pleats and insisted on hand stitching the hem. (yep, she's her Mamaw's girl)

This girl is amazing and she knows just what she wants when it comes to sewing and wants to design her own clothes. She can sketch a picture of what she has in mind. You can't see it here, but the waistband has writing on it. She knew she wanted fabric with writing and there was no changing her mind. it was the perfect combination.

One more picture of a dress she made for the Nutcracker performance she was in last Christmas.

Again, she had something in mind and I helped her change the pattern to fit her design. I didn't sew a stitch on this. I supervised only.

She is a ballerina and loves dance. She just found out last week she would be "on point" now which I'm told is a big step up for a ballerina.

As I come to the end of this story of Lexi, I think I should feature each of my grands, one at a time as they all are so special in their own way.

Don't I just sound like a Grandma.

Happy Mother's Day

I know it's almost over, but  I wanted to wish all of you a Happy Mother's Day.

Hope you got to relax and enjoy family as I did.

Mr. SS asked what I wanted to do for Mother's Day. Besides spending time with family, I wanted to go to church. Because two grand boys play travel league baseball, we miss a lot of Sundays going to church.

As much as I love the games, I was happy to attend church this morning.

Then home for a late breakfast and a little napping  relaxing, and over to our youngest son's house for an early dinner and family fun. Middle son and his family were there too. I was happy to get a call from my oldest as he had to work.

As soon as we got there, we got escorted  to the back of the property to meet new members of the family.

Camy has two, Romeo and Juliet

Brooke on the left with Penelope and Emmy on the right. I'm having a senior moment and her little friends name just slipped my mind.

Anyway they are all going to show them at the fair this year.

These two are pygmy goats, but Camy's will be quite big.

My youngest, Brandon has a new toy to work on in his back yard. Because I am a lover of all thing vintage and red, I got to have my picture taken with the 8 grands that were there. So this is my Mother's Day 2016 picture.

In 1956, on my 10th birthday, my Dad, Mom, sister and I left Illinois to make our home in California. We traveled in a 1956 Red and White Ford pickup pulling a Red and White 42 ft trailer.(I have a picture of that truck and trailer somewhere, but couldn't find it tonight.) Brandon's truck is a 1958 Ford. I guess it won my heart not only because it is red and vintage, but because it reminds me of a time long ago.

                                                

White on White

Right after Easter, I put all my Easter decorations away that I had in my hutch and the few things left were white. It was too early to start my Red White and Blue decorating that I do before Memorial Day and leave until after Labor Day. I kept looking at the white and it hit me...White on White. I have a board on Pinterest with that title so I searched it and got some ideas. 

I was headed out the door to shop, Home Goods and Hobby Lobby when I thought, silly girl, I bet you could shop your own house, cupboards and storage and come up with enough to decorate that small hutch.

So that's what I did.

Here's what I came up with without buying a single thing.

I have to confess, I have a massive collection of vintage linens too and I searched through a tub in the garage and found so many white ones I had forgotten I still had.

 It really helped that Mr. SS changed the back of the hutch to white bead board before I decorated for Easter, so the stage was set.

 I still have some of my Milk Glass collection, so of course I pulled it all together from other places in the house

 It isn't all white. I used some glass too. There are vintage white hankies tucked under the lid of a Crystal jar. A small glass cloche has a dollar store white candle in it.
The plate and creamer and sugar are Sweetheart Milk Glass. They are the only pieces I have of that.

 More of my Milk Glass pieces including a short cake plate that is usually on the center of my table.
The small vintage pitcher is Royal Crown Ironstone with Wheat on it. It has a million hairline cracks in the surface, but I love it.

The Milk Glass Rooster is from Martha Stewart a long time ago. A Crystal vase and another Dollar Tree candle and glass holder. There are about 12 large napkins in the basket that were Martha Stewart from Kmart almost 20 yrs. ago. They are pique and really stained, but perfect folded for display. I love the little Milk Glass Bowl with the lace design around the edge.

 More lacy napkins folded and hanging over the edge of a crystal bowl.
The Milk Glass candle is new and given to me by some special friends on an antiquing trip. There is a tiny milk glass chicken on a bowl in front of the platter. I bought that in the 70's at a World Softball Tournament in Wisconsin. I didn't even collect chickens or milk glass then, but we were so poor, it was probably the only souvenir I could afford.

 This is probably one of my favorites. An ironed and folded stack of different size white hankies just tied with a ribbon.

All in white, it gives my hutch a bright cheery spring look until it gets ready for the longest decorating season of the year.  (Red, White and Blue)

Oh, almost for got to say, I had all the white put together and it just seemed blah. It needed some greenery to add to that springy feel.

Keeping in my spirit of not buying anything new for this display, I pulled out a bag of the little clover like small pieces of greenery and placed it around everything.

To add a little color here, I thought I would show you my first edible strawberry out of my little strawberry patch. I've had some other tiny ones that ripened but got mushy before I got to them. These went on top of my yogurt this morning. Yummy!

Another spot of color on the center of the table. Probably my last full bouquet of Sweetpeas. First the wind blew them down from the lattice and the the two hard rains we had beat them up pretty bad. They had a good run though. Can't wait for next year.

In the 70's and 80's I loved anything tea stained or off white, but starting in the 90's I have loved everything white. And that love hasn't ended or ever will. Although I am a lover of color,
White on White
is just me.