My Retro-Themed Kitchen: the tea portion of the garland.

Happy little people drinking tea! This is right over the section of my counter devoted to tea-making. I often stand at this spot while pulling together everything that goes into making and serving a nice spot of tea. And this sign below always cracks me up!
And now let's all sit down for a good cup of the wonderful brew. Shall I pour?

Once More into the Breach! My Retro-Themed Kitchen: the Betty Crocker illustration garland.

Don't you just adore old cookbooks? The thing is, though, in my own experience I have not found them to be particularly great sources of recipes. However, I have a soft spot for the illustrations in them. So one day this winter, I got out my scissors and attacked this old Betty Crocker - - and made a garland for my kitchen cupboards. It is right at my eye level, and is nice and inspiring to see as I cook and clean and such around my little kitchen. Here it is:
The story seems to begin with a lady in an apron planning, then shopping,
then stocking her fridge,
then working in the kitchen,
then taking the fruit of her labor out of the oven, then presenting it to loved ones,

and then repeating that age-old process. Thus, the life of a homemaker! This garland of illustrations reminds me that I am joining the parade of women homemakers who have gone before us. They may have had kitchens that appear slightly different from ours, but they were doing the same thing: serving their families and making (I hope) tasty and healthy food. Onward, my fellow cooks, mothers, wives, homemakers! Once more into the breach!

My Retro - Themed Kitchen: the new wall hanging.

Hi! Things are going well here at home; I must say that the addition of a second child seems much more peaceful than the arrival of the first. I'm still groggy and not as organized as I strive to be, but our days are basically in pretty good shape.
Here are pictures of one of my latest projects: I've made a dear wall hanging for the kitchen. Above you'll see the before and after photos, and then close-ups of the hanging itself.

The fabric was from Fabric.com and all I did was finish off the edges, sew on ribbons, and hang it by a dowel at the top. The little retro images show ladies in aprons doing various everyday household tasks, and the motto reads Domestic Divas Do It All.

I find it greatly encouraging throughout the day as I pass by it doing the billion-and-five domestic tasks that only show if I do not do them!

Oh, and don't be alarmed by the background of the ironing close-up shot: Baby Madeline was under my attentive supervision as she stretched upon the guest bed.

Heirloom Baby Card Garland (or, what to do with all those lovely New Baby cards!)

Here's a way to both keep and use a stack of special cards:

Using strong ribbon of whatever length is long enough to display all the cards, make a garland by machine stitching along the folds of the cards. Make sure they all are positioned with the front of the cards facing outward.

To the right, note the penguin toddler pajamas which I mended right before doing this craft. :o) *ha ha ha* I hadn't noticed that they made it into the picture until now.

The third photo here shows a card as it is being stitched to the ribbon: the card is all the way open under the presser foot of the machine.

I made 2 garlands - one which is made of New Baby cards, one of baptism cards. These can be strung up as decorations at her birthday if we want, or on her baptismal anniversary.

I think this is a good way to make use of the pretty cards rather than have them either get lost or languish in a file folder for the rest of our lives...this would be a good idea for wedding cards, too - I could make garlands out of them and string them up on our anniversary each year.

Painting My Childhood Dollhouse Part 2 (the end)

Here it is! I finally was able to choose the paint, do the work and take a photo of my newly-painted childhood dollhouse!

My 23 month old daughter now keeps her small dolls inside it, along with her collection of correspondence from her Maine grandparents.

This project spanned many more months than I thought it would, as we moved across the country and then I gave birth...and painting a dollhouse is a rather low-on-the-totem-pole of importance type project.

Anyway, I'm very pleased with the results.

Painting my Childhood Dollhouse, Part 1

Welcome to the Special Projects Department of our hearth side! Today during the quiet time of my daughter's afternoon nap I worked on my old dollhouse.

In 1981 my paternal grandfather made this for me in Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA. During my childhood I played with this 3 room townhouse often, and it seems I was also a bit rough on it! While cleaning it and priming it I found some toddler graffiti and lots of fingerprints! At some point in time, as you can see in the photos, the tip-top piece of the house front actually fell off and became missing, and some window frame pieces are missing as well.

I would like to paint this house a nice pale cheerful yellow, with either pale blue or maybe forest green shutters. Today I taped off the windows and the wooden roof and chimney, then took it outside and primed it with white paint to prepare it for the color.

The house is far more brittle than I had thought it would be and after working with it today I've decided that I can't pass this dollhouse along to our Elena until she is maybe 4 or 5, depending on whether she is a careful sort of girl or not. Although I was given the house when I was 2, it was stronger and in better shape then.

Do any of you have dollhouse memories? What is a good age for giving a little girl a dollhouse?

I'll keep you posted on my progress!

A Sweet Surprise in the Mailbox!

Ta-da!

My dear friend Melissa embroidered two adorable matching tea towels and mailed them to me as a surprise. Talk about a wonderful trip to the mailbox! Thank you, sweet friend! I am so grateful for these treasures, and for our friendship, which I also treasure very much.

Little Elena thinks these tea towels work great for peek-a-boo! I am very impressed by the fine workmanship of the needlework, look at that!

Anne and Diana Topsy Turvy Doll

Topsy-turvy dolls are simply delightful; I've been working on this one for a while now and have just finished it this week.

Here is a fanciful version of Anne dressed as the Lady of Chalotte! This style is reminiscent of neither the 1880s or the Lady of Chalotte's time - it is simply a dressy and imaginative Playing Dress Up sort of outfit that a dramatic girl might dream up.

And, of course, on the right hand side is Diana. The bodice of this high-waisted gown is cream colored lace and doesn't show up very well in the photo.

I've made this doll as a Christmas gift for my daughter, and also to earn my expert level (!) Safe Toys badge in the Mary Jane's Farm Farmgirl Sisterhood merit badge program.

To learn more about Anne of Green Gables Fashion Week, visit Ashley at Bramblewood Fashion.

To learn more about Mary Jane's Farm, visit MaryJane's Farm.