Playing house~

While busting my hinny in my backyard recently I had to take some time to spruce up my g-kids playhouse. The first thing needing my attention was the unsightly sink/stove, cabinet area. Yuck.I bought the Krylon brand spray paint that paints on plastic... It took about 3 coats to get it to cover the green, but I think it turned out very nice. I don't know how it will hold up to kids banging on it with toys... but in the mean time, its lovely.

I also added carpet... I know right? I had told my 3 year old grandson I had cleaned up the playhouse and that he and his sister could now play in it... he asked me, "You put carpet in it Nana?"... and of course I replied... "Not yet" So, now it has wall to wall beige carpet, the color of dirt. *wink* Here is a cherry tomatoe plant next to the front door of the playhouse. (there are actually 3 tomatoe plants all tied together growing as one)I've got it staked to a copper pipe with a cute white cage around it, that sucker is going to be kept teathered to the pole so its neat and orderly! Here is a photo of the other side of the walkway to the playhouse...

Everything is growing nicely, including the lawn I planted from seed. Lastly, a photo of my polka-dot dog... Buddy. Guess I had better get in some time behind the ol' sewing machine...... I'm making curtains for the playhouse!

Mad Hatter's watch~

With the Mad hatters tea party right around the corner and me stuck in pirate mode.... I was needing to do something for the upcoming party. Hmmm a pirate mad hatter party?... nah~ Anywho, I have had this outdoor two sided clock and temperatue gauge hanging in my backyard for about 5 years now... until it finally decided to stop working this past winter. Bummer. When I took it down to replace it with another clock ---I thought it looked like a huge pocket watch.... DUH! Soooooooooo I spray painted the casing gold and added a chunky gold chain that I picked up at a yard sale recently and taaaaaaaaaa-daaaaaaaaaa! The Mad Hatter's watch! On the flip side of the pocket watch, (the temperature gauge side) I'm going to do something extra special-- if time premits! I am needing an "Alice in Wonderland" dress for my grandaughter to wear to the party. Luckily, I happened upon two things that will hopefully come together for a dress for her. I picked up this little white lacey dress and a pair of blue silk pants from a thrift store for a total cost of $2.50 cents . I didn't want to spend a lot for this as its only going to be used once. The silk pants said to hand wash them, but they came out perfectly from the washer & dryer :-)Being the overly crazy person that I am... I also signed up for a "Show us your craft/art/studio space. Who needs sleep right? My studio isn't exactly ready for a big reveal, but at least this will get me to clean it up-- so its all good!

Pirate Pennants

I'm still working feverishly on pirate stuff... I just whipped up these pirate pennants today. I have gazillions already, but these are new and improved, they are not the normal pennant shape but long rectangles with burlap hanging out the opening at the top. I'll string them along some rope closer to party time~

I made a stencil using cardstock that I covered with some clear plastic contact paper. I drew a skull and crossbone shape onto the paper and cut it out with a blade. Then I stenciled it onto the fabric using a foam brush. I then cut out the face details and stenciled that on once the white paint had time to dry. Easy-peasy~Along with making these... I've sewn 4 tablecloths and 2 pirate-ship sails, built a mortar and wood fence & gate (plus stained all of that) built two wooden decks, laid a couple hundred brick... made two new "roofs" for two matching gazebo's, weeded-put down a drip system-laid down some weed barrier-poured bag after bag of bark over all of that... and I've still got a lot more to do!

Outdoor pennant~

I made a pennant for my g-kids play-yard. I was planning on using fabric, but never made it to a fabric store, so I decided on using a vinyl tablecloth.I cut off long 2 inch strips of the tablecloth from one end so that I could hang the triangle pennants from it once they were made. I made a large pennant shape out of cardstock to use as my pattern.... I lined up my plastic cutting ruler and used my rotary fabric cutter to cut the vinyl tablecloth. I unfolded it slightly and cut several at one time. Once everything was cut, I stitched two together for each pennant then I used my pinking shears to cut two sides of each one. Once that was finished, I sandwiched them in between the long-long matching 2 inch pieces to make a long pennant.

Easy-peasy~ Wouldn't this be fabulous made to match the same vinyl tablecloths on your tables? Think fourth of July...caute huh!
I've linked up to "Under $100 Linky Party"

Brown bag Card~

I made my very first card using a brown paper bag for my mother for Mother's day. I think it turned out kinda caute for something made using a paper sack. I took a photo of myself as a small child (eh gawds, I guess you could say a vintage photo of myself!) and made a transparency with it. (if your going to do this as well, make a mirrored copy so the emulsion will be on the inside of the card) Anywho, I used some velum paper under the transparency which I then colored using some chalk to give the picture some color. I stitched on the bag, inked it, painted it and stitched it somemore. I turned the folded section of the paper bag into a pocket to hold a gift card~I also made a pocked on the backside to hold one of my info-cards~I made a sheet music envelope to hold the card and tied it up with some vintage fabic that I stamped with one of my favorite stamps.I happened upon a bundle of smaller bags recently at a second hand store for super cheap.... I'm thinking of making tags out of them. Another... "one of these days I'm going to do that projects~ "

Merit Badge~

This past previous weekend I went to 3 block sales and one parking lot rummage sale. The weather was beautiful, my sweet-sweet '66 Mustang was purring along, my grandkids were coming over for the day to play. Everything was right in the world. Soooooooooo the first block sale... nothing fancy-pancy, there were four houses set up when I got there at 6:30. First house, two magazines--- .20cents. Next two house, nadda-zip-zilch. The last house.... interesting. Tons of things nicely set up. Gag, those are the yard sales that always charge an arm and a leg. Wait... whatdid'ya say? Cheap stuff? ok... how much for these 5 frames? .50cents you say? I say SOLD. They had a desk top covered with some jewelry and watches. I was wanting some odds and ends of jewelry. The gal said I can have it all for $5 bucks. (The following two pictures shows the stuff I'm keeping) Most will be used in art, some will be worn and the other things will be tossed into my grandaughter's play jewelry box. There are 12 watches, bracelets, sterling silver earrings, brand new earrings with $20 prices still on them... Necklaces, chains, goldtone hair barrettes, 3 sterling silver bangles.... I spotted a little black box on another table... opened it, thought ok, more jewelry... I was to lazy to put on my glasses to actually see what it was. -- I asked how much, they looked at it and said a buck. Ok, toss that into my bag, I'll take it. See the small black box on top of the other box? Howza'bout a closer look to see what my dollar got me?....There were two chains and two pendants.... cute~There were these three...A sterling silver ring, a sterling silver charm and a sterling silver band around a crystal. Very cute~Lastly, there were these three.... Two 14 carat rings with diamonds and a 14 carat heart charm. CAUTE!! Seriously, had I had my glasses on, I would have put the box down and walked away from it figuring it was going to be a huge amount being asked for each piece.... I calculated $1 by 8 items... and it worked out to 12.5 cents apiece. The big gold ring is my Merit badge. Who's laughing now? um yea, that'd be me, out loud I might add! I am wearing it as I type!
Inside the garage I found a dagger letter opener that will be a perfect little addition for my pirate outfit .50cents, bunches of silk roses for .50cents for the lot, yards & yards of fabric with roses on it all for .50cents, X-mas ornaments .50cents and here is a picture of those wooden gold frames that I got for .50cents for the lot that started my shopping frenzy at that yard sale.I also got a huge gold key for $3, a wooden tiki guy for $2, and a brown round suitcase for $2. And a lifetime of smiling at my new 12cent diamond ring~Below is this weeks haul! A chiming clock that works... $1 I'm not a big fan of chiming clocks, I was going to pull this one apart and use it for a mixed media piece--- but it has a soft chime, so it might live like it is for awhile~ But its sooooooooo getting painted white & distressed.Two rose paintings $5 for both~Twiggy garland was $3.... there are two of them and they are both marked $16.98 each. *gasp* Man-oh-man, I had a hard enough time forking over three bucks, can you imagine paying close to twenty bucks each???Antique rose painting $1~Look at the beautiful chippiness of it.... I'm going to seal it with some matte shellac to prevent any more of the paint from coming off. (don't try this on anything of value)A mirror $4, a china clock $1, bingo game cards .50cents, a milk glass candy dish with roses on it $1 and lastly, a .25cent bottle that I'm going to use at my Mad hatter tea party. I guess I'll get busy paintin'~

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Well, its almost time for this years Mad Hatter's tea party, the date is June 26th-- the same date as the start of my weekend pirate parties. (I have three days of pirate parties one on Saturday, Sunday and one on Monday evening as well) I've got so much to do, why not toss in a tea party as well? In between doing piratey things... I've whipped up this Mad Hatter's hat.It was easy-peasy.... I bought a hat at a rummage sale for .50cents. As soon as I saw it, I thought to myself, "You'd have to be a crazy person to wear that hat".... so I bought it~I took the whole thing apart and using some spray adhesive I adhered some stretchy brown suede looking fabric to the pieces. I cut the pieces close to the original pieces and did a zig-zag stitch around each piece.Then I just pinned and stitched the whole thing back together.Easy-peasy~ If your wanting to host a Mad Hatter's Tea party on your blog as well, you can go to A Fanciful Twist and sign up to join in on all the fun.

Fairy lanterns~

I picked up these solar lanterns with the matching hook stands a few years ago at a yard sale for $2. They no longer worked, but I liked the look of them and they were only .50cents each...so I bought them. I decided to put them in my grandkids play yard that I built them last year. But looking the way they do, they just wouldn't do! This is a photo of them scrubbed.... still not to cute. So, I had to take drastic measures~After masking off the glass, I spray painted them silver. I then cut foam core to fit inside each lantern. I painted the foam core pink and hot glued some pink Easter grass to each square. Have you ever noticed that Easter grass smells like candy... tis true, next time you'll have to sniff it, it smells sweet :-) I added a fairy, some berries and flowers to each little square inside each fairy lantern. Here is one of the lanterns hanging in the play yard. I can imagine my little grandkids peeking inside each one and seeing the fairy sitting inside them.Panning to the left.... the g-kids play house. I recently put down some grass seed to get a little lawn area for the g-kids to roll around on. The large white metal thingie is where I planted 3 cherry tomatoe plants.I didn't have enough of the metal pieces (painted baby blue) to make a complete circle around the little garden, soooooooooo I used some plates to fill in the open sections.I've got so many ideas of things I'm wanting to do/make for this area... I guess I need to make a list and prioritize them and get busy!
I've linked up "Under $100 linky party"
Also, to Show & Tell

Computer desk~

I picked up this black computer desk with a fitted glass top at a yard sale last year for only $40. I had plans of painting it white (as is everything in my home) But I must admit, I liked the black..... My mother gave me this beautiful Ethan Allen hutch-- she knows all to well what a hoarder I am. Thanks Mom for feeding my addiction! Isn't it beautiful? A great quality piece..... and yes, I'm paintin' it--- black! I had to drill two holes in the bottom/back of the hutch to feed my computer wires and any other wires through. You can purchase different size covers at any hardware store. I got two of the 2 inch circle covers for a total cost of under ten bucks. Here is the hutch painted and on top of my computer desk. I also stitched up a little curtain of sorts to hide the computer wires and the white fireplace brick that is under/behind the desk. I used tension rods to keep it in place, easy-peasy~ I wanted to lighten up the desk just a smidge... I adore the shabby chic look and the black I just knew would be a little to much for me. I took a Pottery Barn duvet cover and cut to fit a piece that fits on top of the desk (under the glass top) I've been holding onto this fabric for a long time not knowing what to do with it, just waiting for something perfect. I just love the look of this fabric with the black desk. I used the same fabric to cover the chair...and also the pull out keyboard as well. I covered the fabric on the keyboard pull out shelf with contact paper-- this house is very dusty! Now, I've got to spend some time sewing... you know your going to spend a lot of time behind the sewing machine when you start buying material by the bolt...*sigh*