Gobble gobble...

Tuesday I found myself wondering what to do on a rainy day when we are staying home due to Sweet Girl having what appears to be the flu (high fever [103], body aches, runny nose & headache).

(The sick girl in her comfy Lands End dress I bought last week at a yard sale for a dollar.
She played the piano while I sewed.)

A few days ago I went to Made with Love and Glue and pulled up Rachel's archives from 2008. I remembered that she made 4 of her 5 kids Turkey Hand Print shirts last year (see picture below) and wanted to make my Sweet Girl one this year. (Picture courtesy of Rachel at Made with Love and Glue)

Aren't these adorable??? Love the little one below...

I followed the link she provided to One More Moore and followed the tutorial she listed. I also googled reverse applique and came across this blog and tutorial that was very easy for me to follow.

First I turned the tshirt inside out. Then I pinned the right side of the fabric scrap to the shirt
I turned the shirt right side out, traced Sweet Girl's hand on paper, cut it out and pinned it to the front of her shirt.


I sewed around the outline of her hand print.




Yes, my turkey legs are a bit small compared to the body. :)


Being very careful, cut a slit in the t-shirt...then cut out the design.
Sew a button on...


and voila (well 30 min later) you have a Turkey Handprint Shirt!



The sick girl modeling her shirt...


I am not a seamstress by any means but I have enjoyed getting to know my sewing machine and seeing what I can make! Do you sew??? If so, check out The Handmade Dress Patterns GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!! over at Grosgrain. I would LOVE to try my hand at one of these dresses for Sweet Girl!

~Victoria~

More Thrifty Finds

So I guess another title would be more interesting, but my brain just wouldn't help me out with one. : )

Here are a few recent finds finds from Goodwill and a recent community yard sale.

We are linking up to Thrift Store Thursday at Homebody



and Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville this week.


Make sure to go and check out all the fun bargains.

Here goes.

A fantastic sweater for my daughter. It appears to be vintage, but who knows.



We had just been shopping for me and Chloe commented on a beautiful sweater display. It was beautiful with camel and pumpkin colored sweaters layered with gorgeous scarfs with golden threads weaving though each one. She and I love a good display--we are both such visual people. She particularly commented on a beautiful camel sweater with large buttons. Not an hour later we were working our way through the racks at GW and found this almost identical sweater. The price in the store was $48.00 or $58.00 and we picked it up for $4.96.



Her old navy top($4.96 w/tags) and khaki belt ($2.96) came from Goodwill. We found the same belt in a local store the same day for $16.00. I won't comment on her non-thrifty jeans or shoes, except to say that she can only wear about two brands of jeans (Levis or Gap) out there and they are not thrifty. Where is the best price for Levis? These are the ones from department stores, not Target. They are juniors, low rise and petite. Madness!

A rattan lamp base.



It vaguely reminded me of the rattan jars (pictured below) in the Ballard Designs catalog. Honestly, no idea what I will do with it, but I picked it up for $1.00.





The stool that the lamp base is sitting on is a project that is not quite finished. I need more staples for my staple gun to finish it off (story of my life). This is a cast iron stool that I bought for $5.00. The lady was holding strong at $7.50. A couple of hours later she took $5.00.



I am covering the top with a piece from a coffee bag that Victoria and I found at a garage sale. The guy was asking $5.00 for it but let us have it for $3.00. Chloe and I separated the back and the front and my sis-in-law is going to take the front half for a project.





Four science books for less than a dollar since I had a big hand full of books and she gave them all to me for $1.00. The others are already on a shelf somewhere. : )
I also picked up a beautifully illustrated Romeo and Juliet in this stack. Fabulous deal for $1.00.




Have a happy Thursday. The weekend is right around the corner. I have two newborn photo sessions----very exciting.

Christina

My Recent Photography Projects

My recent projects have mostly been photography sessions. Photography is something that makes me happy and the fall weather and low humidity make me want to get out and take even more pictures than usual.

Here is a little glimpse of some of the sessions that I have done recently.

A Gerber Baby





Graduation





A maternity session. Joel and Sarah have since had a baby girl. I hope to take some pictures of her this week.







Newborn sweetheart



An engagement





Victoria's sweet girl





All Smiles





I'm in love.





I'm not sure if I have shared this one before, but it is a favorite of mine. This is our beautiful sister in law, Meg (and my brother's neck). : )



What makes you happy today?

Hope you enjoyed the smiles. Have a beautiful day.

Christina

Halloween decor tid bits

Do you recognize this glass??? Remember the glassware makeover I talked about? This was phase 1.

Here is it before....Isn't it beautiful in black? Take an ordinary Goodwill glass and give it a coat of black spray paint. You know, this would work in ANY color....yellow and pink in the springtime, red for summer...hmmmm...now my wheels are turning...

Can you find this jewel ...

in the picture below?

Yep, that's it on the right painted black.

In my living room I kept most of my decorating neutral, like these pumpkins in my Apothecary Jar and the mini-pumpkins above.

My dining area I decked out in black.

BOO letters are just cut out paper taped on the plates.
Brass owl painted black...
Vintage fork holding an owl I printed out last year...
Last year he was in a frame...

55 cent frame and picture I spray painted black (um you'd think I would have thought to say "Eeek" or something BESIDES "BOO"!).

Have to throw in some cute stuff for my Sweet Girl!



Want to see more? Check out Christina's and my decor from last year here.

~Victoria~

Spooktacular

Guest post by our little sis Rebekah who is currently at UGA studying Ag Ed.


In a college town Halloween is a BIG deal, even if you are in a small town in south Ga! So I've found some cheap thing at flea markets and the Dollar Tree to get the house ready for our Halloween party next week.

My roommate and I live in an old historical house which already sets the mood for the season!






Before anyone starts thinking "How does a college student afford that kind of a place?" let me confess that we just rent one of the downstairs apartments!






After entering into our haunted place the witch of the house will great you with creepy surprise and treats!





As you make your way into the room you will encounter other wickedly wonderful delights!



















This little guy came from the Dollar Tree.

No haunted house is complete without skeletons and graves!




Everything that you see here was gotten at a flea market, thrift store, or Dollar Tree.

























Kinda spoooky to most people is that the steer head normally adorns our coffee table and is not a seasonal item to us! In our defense it has an appeal for those of us that are fortunate enough to have a love and passion for Agriculture.














However, its been super easy to make it even spookier for the season!



















I decided to take the dried flowers that I've saved from my boyfriend and turn them into a lonely neglected display you would find in an abandoned house!


























As we move on through the house we make our way into the kitchen. Here you are welcomed by the daily menu at the "Pumpkin Heads Deadly Diner"!
























In this kitchen you never know what you're going to get served!
















We just might gross you out with our cooking ingredients.....jellylike eyeball... one squishy brain...fresh heart

















Well, I hope ya'll have enjoyed the little tour of our haunted house, I must chop it off here because that is as far as I've gotten!

Have a Happy Spooktacular Halloween!

Rebekah

SCARY!

Gold tree anyone????



I saw this in the spring time and remembered the Pottery Barn trees from last Halloween that were around $59. Isn't that SCARY????????? Forget ghosts and goblins, I say scary is overpriced spooky trees. :)



Coat gold $2.92 Goodwill tree with some black paint and voila...you have your own
spooky tree without the scary price.

Curtains

Well...I wish there was a big TA DA moment with my curtains but I've run into a bit o trouble with them.

While the Procrastination Party over at The Inspired Room definitely helped in that I finished sewing my curtains, the rod hanging and finishing hasn't worked out exactly as I figured it would. Long ago I picked up some finials and holders at a yard sale for $1. I decided to use these and bought a dowel rod to use with the curtains. I also decided to use clip rings to hold the curtains but it just didn't look right...
My sisters suggested I paint the clip rings so I painted a few orange shower curtain hooks (I wasn't ready to commit to painting my brand new clips yet) to see what it would look like (forgive the messy look...these clips are barely holding the curtain up there and if I try to straighten them, they will fall out!) and here is the outcome...
then I wondered what it would look like if I sewed a pocked at the top of the curtain and ran the rod through it, similar to these curtains from Ballard Designs.
Since I am a visual person, I pinned the curtains over the top of the rod just to get an idea of what it would look like (again, forgive the messy look...this was a quick pinning job)
and then here they are on the same rod.
Bottom line? I need YOUR help! Please let me know what YOU think. Which do you think looks best or do you have any other suggestions?

~Victoria~