Grammy and B's day of fun.

My daughter is in town and went to photograph a wedding today, so our grandson spent the day with us. He had a full day. After his nap his Auntie took him to the beach, then we had spaghetti...yum.






Then playtime in the bath, and then craft-time. He took on the important task of making sure the crayon paper would not hinder our creativity.





We made cardboard horses from Ann Wood's blog. (One of my favorites.) I tried to make it a little more child-safe by making "cardboard buttons" to replace real buttons, and used curling ribbon instead of wire to attach the legs.












Tomorrow: horse races!

Resurrected.

At least a year ago I bought the cutest little chaise lounge at a yard sale to slipcover, and after it sat in my garage for quite a while, I would have given it away, but no one would have taken it. The upholstery is in pretty bad shape, and the seat cushion was near non-existent. I even bought some yellow fabric to cover it, but was having doubts about the color.



This is the old upholstery.


I've really been loving shades of coral lately, so I decided to try to dye the yellow fabric. I do some work for an interior designer who is very adventurous when it comes to dyeing, and so I took courage from her. First I dyed the fabric with Rit rose pink dye, but it didn't change it dramatically, so I got some scarlet dye and that did the trick.



I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I made the seat with a six inch box and stuffed it with a folded, full sized feather bed that we weren't using. It is heaven to lounge on!

I had some extra pink dye so I decided to dye this little throw. A while after I took this picture, it accidentally got into a bleach load in the washer and some of the fabrics yellowed.



I can't wait to do more of this! I love the way the different fabrics reacted to the dye. And I always have beautiful little pieces of fabric around.



My new favorite spot.

Sewing session #2.

I got together with my little friend Mercy again for some sewing time, and she wanted to make this bag from Sew Pretty Homestyle by Tone Finnanger.



She used a scrap I had for the outside and a thrifted "housecoat" for the inner lining. Since there were pockets on the thrifted piece, we centered one of the pockets inside for some instant gratification.




So cute!



I love all the reds and pinks in this photo. It almost looks like we planned it.






I am getting more slipcover work lately, but will definitely be setting aside time for more sewing sessions too.

Seedlings

A couple of weeks ago I got to spend some quality time with my grandson.




He helped me plant some squash.





This morning I took some pictures of the seedlings.






Since the moles seem to be eating some of my garden plants, I will need to plant these in wire baskets.

I can't wait to have some squash blossoms to cook up. Stuffed with cheese, drizzled with olive oil and baked, they are soooo good.

The cherry blossom shirt.

Here are the pictures my friend took of the sewing lesson from the previous post. (They were taken with a nicon camera, not a phone.)



Here she is sewing the string tie for the top of the shirt.





She really did a great job. I am told that she didn't take it off for about a week. To me, that says it was a successful sewing session!

Sewing lesson.

Over the years there have been lots of people asking about sewing lessons, and I've always said, "Sure, give me a call and we'll set something up.", but it never quite comes together. A friend recently bought a sewing machine for her daughter and I went over the other day to do some sewing. It was lots of fun. I picked up a couple of easy patterns and she picked out a halter type shirt with a ruffle on the bottom. She cut it out and did all the sewing, I just did the pressing and helped her a little with the ruffle.

My camera battery died before we got any pictures of her actually sewing or of the finished project. It turned out really cute and she seemed pretty proud of herself. My friend took some pictures with her phone, and if I get them I'll put them up.





I'm looking forward to doing this more often.

Keepers

A couple of weekends ago a neighbor had some things out by the curb for sale, sort of a mini yard sale. Among his things was a cardboard box of old bottles that came from a local bottle-dig. He was selling them for 25 cents each. I love the shapes and subtle colors.

The dice and game pieces came from the Nipomo Swap Meet on Highway 101. I pass it when I go to Ventura to visit my daughter.




One of these days I would love to map out all the swap meets and flea markets between here and there and hit every one.