Little Baking Vignette

Aimee Weaver recently added this to her kitchen:

I love the jars of flour and sugar and the vase of baking utensils.  

And I had pinned this recently, too.  Gotta love the bow on the tall jar and the collection of baking cups.  Pretty!

I was in search of a change in my kitchen area, so while these baked.......

...... my youngest son helped dump about 1500 of these into a recently thrifted jar.  

Look at all of those pretty colours!!

Of course - I tied a pretty bow on and poured some of my all-purpose flour into another shorter jar.  The mini-muffin pan was a yard sale find (but used often) and fit perfectly into the little baking vignette in my mind.  

Another baking necessity - chocolate chips! I go through tons of these.  I wonder how long these will remain in the be-ribboned canning jar??

Hmm...something is not right......There we go- more height needed in the baking tin department.  Up on a couple of clear lids and everything seems more balanced.  

And the final touch -  some wint'ry cookie cutters.  

Done and done.  The perfect vignette for the top of the  cabinet that  holds my selection of baking books, cookie cutters and sprinkle collection!!

Camden's Quilt

Way back, at the end of last summer, I purchased this selection of fabrics to make a quilt for the foot of my youngest son's bed.  Camden has a set of bunk beds in his room- one bed already has a antique quilt made in 1941 across it, so my plan was to make a matching one for the other bed.  

 Within a week I had the 6 rectangles cut and sewn together into strips and lined up in between rows of cream coloured cotton.  Ta-da!

My hope was that it would turn out looking like rows of bricks.  I didn't get the layout quite right, but the colourful blocks still look eye-catching.  

Finally, in the fall, my mother helped me pin the backing and quilt batting together so that I could proceed with machine quilting it all together.  

After the "quilting" was complete, the Christmas season was upon us and it became lost in amongst all of  the seasonal crafting I wanted to do.  But last weekend, mostly by request of little Cam  - "Where is my quilt, Mommy?", I dug it out again and sewed on the edging.  This is the hardest part, if you ask me.  

It turned out far from perfect, but I don't think my little guy (and girl) mind! (Within minutes of its completion, Mr. Quilt became a cover of warmth while the kids watched "Astro Boy" for the 27th time that week!)

Here, Cam and I are admiring mommy's handiwork from above.  

When the movie was over, onto the top bunk it went.  It works perfectly with the brown bunk beds, the yellow walls and the blue bedcovers.  

Here it is with the yard sale purchased antique quilt.  The older quilt is definitely more delicate and was created by a far more talented sewer than I!!  But I do believe Camden likes the one made by Mommy more!!

Already, I have begun searching  out my next big sewing project.  Hmm...I think I'll choose something that practises my edge-binding skills.  That needs work!!

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Cornflowers - In Memory of Dad

This is my dad and my 3 children.  This photo was taken about 3 weeks before he passed away from complications from ALS.  ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) is a progressive neuromuscular disease in which nerve cells die and leave voluntary muscles paralyzed.  My father's diagnosis and  death at the age of 63 were a great blow to my family, yet we take great joy in sharing our remembrances of him and caring for each other in our sadder moments.  

Like many other charities, the ALS Society of Canada has chosen a flower to represent its work  in  the community.  The Blue Cornflower, which grows abundantly here during the month of June, has become such a symbol for ALS.  

One day, browsing through Etsy, I searched "cornflower" to see what  lovely things I could find featuring our family's new flower. Without a thought, I jumped at purchasing 4 of these (1 for me, 1 for my mother and 1 for each of my sisters):

It is a specimen painting of a bouquet of  cornflowers printed on a vintage dictionary page.  It came from here:

My plan is to use my cornflower print as a centrepiece to a gallery wall in our family room.  To unify all of the items I plan on displaying, each piece will be displayed in a black frame. So, several frames got hit with black spray paint this weekend!!

The largest frame, an 8x10,  has become the home of my cornflower art.  

I look forward to filling a few more frames and getting my wall display started.  My goal is to have the wall complete for Easter Weekend  so I have 5 weeks or so.  Plenty of time, right??

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Searching for "Pretty"

Today was dull and gray.  After work I needed a little pick-me-up that was easy on the wallet and high on excitement!  I had a hour before the kids needed to be picked up so I knew right away what I wanted to do - SHOP!!

Trying to keep the outing inexpensive, I hit the "vintage shop" first.  Look what I found lying in amongst all of the ugly old picture frames:

Isn't she lovely?  And she was $1.00!  Oh Yeah!  A few aisles later I grabbed this chunk of red and white cotton fabric.  So pretty- and a huge piece for $2.00!  I have plans for it already!!

These wreaths are new with tags  and are bout 8 inches across.  I think they may become the basis for my spring door wreath, stacked like a snowman and tied together with ribbon.   

And look at these!  I don't think they are vintage, but they are plain and simple.  I have been "pinning" a few things lately that use old spools.  Now I have the beginning of a collection for one of those projects.  

After my journey through the thrift shop was done, I headed to Michael's.  I still hadn't used a gift card from  my brother-in-law and sister-in-law from Christmas - so anything I bought at the craft store would be FREE!

In the theme bins I managed to nab a few more flowery baking cups.  My hubby estimates I have well over 1500 paper cups - ready for  more muffins or cupcakes then I'll EVER make! Maybe, but they sure are pretty!

This flowery bag was $1.50.  It is small but the perfect size for a small crochet project. Pretty!

And at the scrapbook store - what did I find there?  This is a new line of papers from Echo Park. Love, love, love!  

My daughter has an ugly orange cat-shaped piggy bank.   I can't stand it.  And I don't think she is big fan of it either. So when I came across this little piggy at the next stop, a discount decor store, I just HAD to buy it for her! Not only is he purple AND pretty.......

...he is also Polka-dotted!  Love it!

After picking up the kids, we headed home for dinner.  My primroses looked pretty darn good. Look at that awesome magenta colour.  

Because it was Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day!) we had these for supper:

Pumpkin Ginger Pancakes with delicious breakfast sausages. Mmmmm...  The perfect meal after an exciting shopping excursion!

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The Bookshelf - A Few of My Favourite Things

I hate dusting. I usually save it for a special occasion.  Hee,hee.  However, this weekend,  I decided to change things up a bit and hit the bookshelf in my Living Room for no reason at all!! (Okay - there was reason - my shelves were starting to look grey-ish with dust!!)

Of course, because I had to take everything off the shelves, I took special care in re-arranging them all as I put them back. I took some shots of my favourite things after all was said and done.  

After Christmas, I needed some low-colour, restful , decor for my front room. I switched a lot of the colourful, sparkly items out for low-key white and cream.  

At the top pf the bookshelf went a few of my white pitchers and a milk glass bowl.    

Books add some much warmth to a home - I used several here.

I have often thought of painting or wallpapering the back of my bookshelf - but I always come back to the simplicity of the solid wood behind all of my "objet d'art."  

My in-laws gave me  this set of flower vases for my birthday last year.  I love the script on them.  

I found this in a little gift shop a few summers back on a weekend away, just hubby and me.  I was just about to have our third child and we couldn't have felt more blessed!

This is a stack of my hubby's travel and wine books.  He had read each of them several times, but never tires of them.  They need to be kept close by!

We are off on our 3rd trip to Europe together this summer.  Hubby has been to UK only once before - this will be my 4th trip.  I love it there and I am so eager to return.  Our travel guides have been well-read already and we don't leave until August!

I am not sure what to call this "rose-covered thing."  I bought it years ago at a discount decor store.  Its little porcelain roses caught my eye. 

I guess the dusting was worth it.  I got to pay a visit to some of my favourite things.  I hope you enjoyed the tour!

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Ripples - TA-DA!

Hi there!  Do you like my new blog header?  I'd been wanting to change it for a long time, but just didn't know how to do it.  So last night, I downloaded "Smilebox" and created a collage.  Hubby helped me pop it on here - and I LOVE IT!!

Now...... onto the  TA-DA!!

I began this ripple baby blanket back in January.  After a week's work, this was how much I had completed:

I had hoped, at the time, to have it done by Valentine's Day - and you know what?  Success!  I crocheted the last row of edging  a whole week before!

So - what do you think?  My daughter loves it. She has already tried to claim it as her own on several occasions.  At almost six, she still cherishes the blanket she received as a infant.  It's on its last legs (even though my mother has mended and re-mended it several times) and I think she might be on the prowl for its replacement!

I would have loved to have made the blanket a little wider, but I ran out of the pink coloured yarn!  It is still plenty big to wrap a baby in, or to drape across the stroller on a chilly day.  

My stack of baby blankets and quilts continues to grow.  For awhile there, I couldn't keep up with the demand for hand-made baby things at a time when all of my friends were having their children.  Now most of us have completed our families and these cozies don't leave the house as often as they used to.  Oh well.  I just keep making them - I DO enjoy seeing the pile increase in  size!!

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Birds in the Bedroom

As I was tidying the master bedroom, putting away all the loads of laundry I had recently done, I realized that without any pre-meditation, I had used a bird theme throughout in its decoration.

Here is the vinyl wall decal that decorates the window wall:

And it continues around the corner onto the next wall.

 These little porcelain birdies  cuddle up next to my wedding photo (taken 10 years ago!)

And atop this pretty little jewellery  tray sits another couple of lovebirds.  

I recently hung a handmade quilt given to me by one of aunts on this antique quilt bar.  There was a fair bit of space above it, so when I found this blue and white china plate in a nearby discount decor store, I knew exactly where I wanted to hang it!

I love its scalloped edges!

I have recently been working on another bird-centred decor project.  Here is a sneak peek:

Hopefully I'll be able to complete this little project while hubby is out after later. I love getting my sewing machine going in the quiet of a winter evening!!

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