Make Over Monday and Stuff...

I think I finally finished the Christmas decorations!! Well, almost, still some tweaking to do, but I did take pics and I'll share those tomorrow. I figured I had better take them while the house was fairly put together and clean, because with 6 munchkins, it doesn't take long for it to get messy.

For today, I'm sharing some of the stuff I got from 2 weekends ago and some make overs...

The first pic shows some glass ornaments and garland I bought at a church sale for a $1.50 total. I try to buy some glass ornaments each year to add to my collection for my tree, so this is this years contribution. I love this glittery garland, but ironically, I couldn't find anywhere to use it, it was just too sparkly to go with my decor this year. But I will save it for some other year.

And here is a nice big black and cream check table cloth I got at an antique store for $8.
Lastly, this large 3 tier shelf at an antique store for $3. This is the best antique store around, it's a lot of junk but a lot of treasures and so cheap!!

Now for the make overs.... Here is a little cupboard I picked up from Goodwill about a month ago for $9.99.And painted over.... I still need to sand it and rough it up, but for now it looks better. And I didn't paint is black! Mostly red with some black grunging.
And then there was this dresser at goodwill that I just had to have. It was a big purchase for me at GW, $22, but well worth it. It's a vintage Sears dresser with a cloth label in the drawer.
I loved the lines of it and the hardware was usable. The red paint actually looks OK in the pic, but trust me, it was hideous, almost a pinky color.

Here it is done, well almost, not primmed up yet, just the base coat. And no, I didn't do black paint again, mainly because I was out. So it went green. I couldn't find an adequate spot anywhere for it, so right now it's in my sewing room.Like I said, tomorrow will be house pic day, actually I may make it over several days because I took about 100 pics, and that's just of the main floor.

I'm just glad it's all done, I'm so tired and don't have the energy I used to have, I'm definately feeling very pregnant these days:)

Have a beautiful night,

Tiff

Cookie Cutter Swap Package Sent...

I mailed my swap package yesterday to a lovely woman in Texas. She doesn't have a blog, so I thought I would show you what I sent her. I made 3 crocheted cotton dish cloths in a Christmas red, these work up pretty quickly and you don't really need a pattern for them(it's all single crochet). I also made a decorative Christmas towel from a piece of linen like fabric I picked up at goodwill(I have a ton left and plan on making more because I love how it turned out). The holly is done in wool and then I just stitched on the x's along the bottom. And then I included 11 cookie cutters, 4 vintage tin ones, 3 new wood handle ones, one red heart, and 3 vintage red ones. The swap never stated how many we were supposed to send, so I hope I did enough.

Here is the towel, I just zig zag stitched the edges, folded and ironed into thirds, then hand stitched on the wool holly and the x's along the one bottom edge.
Everything wrapped and read to go...
I've been busy painting furniture and moving things around. The two big trees are up, but not decorated yet(that is today's job) and some smaller trees are out. Things are going slower than I planned, but that's OK, it will all get done.

Have a great weekend,

Tiff

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving!! Enjoy your day and be thankful for your Blessings.

Love,

Tiff

Cows....

Sharing yet another collection with you, my cows. I always have trouble getting good pics of this window, because during the day, the sun shines straight through it, so night time shots will have to do. This is my kitchen window, over my sink. I added the shelf in the middle just so I had a place for my cows. Some are ceramic, some are plastic, and one is tin. Oh and the big one in the window is wood and was found at a yard sale 2 years ago for $3.

The house is getting there, I just need to put away some stuff on the kitchen table and finish my sewing room and then all the Christmas decorations are going up, I can't wait. I'm doing two full size trees this year, one in the kitchen with all my cookie cutters and vintage utensils on it and the other one in the family room with my glass ornament collection. Then I will have 5 or 6 smaller trees through out the house. Oh and I forgot, I still have two large painting makeovers I need to do before I can say the house is done for now, not sure when I will get to those, and I still have to show you what they are!!

I have realized that responding to blogger comments does not work the way typepad does. I have tried to directly respond through email and apparantly no one gets it, so sorry if I'm not responding, I think I will just start commenting on the actual posts when others comment and that will be easier.

Have a fantastic day,

Tiff

Working outside...

Sorry, no pics today. We spent the day cleaning out the front garden and putting up the outside Christmas decorations. I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving to do it, but I wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous weather outside. Of course I won't turn the lights on until Friday, but I'm so happy they are all up. We did it a bit different this year, still pretty simple, but I think it will be nice. Plus, I didn't have to buy anything new,YAY! I still need to finish the front porch, but all the major work is done. I'll share pics as soon as it's done.

And no, the house still is not finished.

My good friend and I spent the whole day Saturday running around to church fairs and stores. We left at 8:30 in the morning and didn't get home until 5 !! We only intended to be out for an hour or so, but the church fairs were so disappointing that we kept searching for more places to go to get our shopping and deal fixes in :) We ended up going to three church fairs, one school fair, two antique stores, one second hand store, one goodwill, and four prim shops(well, one was supposed to be prim according to pics on their website, but it was a total waste of time and oh so tacky, and happened to be the furthest away). We really did quite well towards the end of the day with our finds and I didn't spend a ton, which is always good. I'll show you pics later in the week. Plus, it was fun and well needed to get out of the house for the day and hubby did fine with all the kids. (they had it easy too, mommy wasn't home making them clean!).

Everyone, including hubby is off this whole week, so I plan on cleaning and then putting up the inside Christmas decorations all before Thursday.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend,

Tiff

Bread box is done, plus...

I finished up the bread box makeover yesterday. Sorry the pics are so bad, that isn't pink or orange, it's actually a red undercoat, but it didn't photograph well. I won't be using it for its intended purpose, but instead for a place to throw the mail or school papers before they can be filed or thrown away.

And my 3rd grader came home telling me that the janitor accidentally broke their marble jar at school.(they earn marbles and when it gets full, the class gets a reward) So he wanted to be nice to his teacher and surprise her by bringing in a new jar. Of course, I couldn't just send in a plain glass jar, I had to make a little sleeve for it....

And hubby cut me a cat hole! I was tired of having to leave the basement door open for the cat to get to her litter box. So now she has her own little passage way and I'm much happier being able to shut the door :)
Still need to use some wood filler on the corners and paint it, but at least it's functional right now.

And have I mentioned how much I hate the tile flooring in my kitchen?!?! It is so cold and uninviting. But I talked to my dad this morning and he said that he can tear it up for me and replace it all with big pine flooring. So, hopefully, maybe, with some of our tax return in the Spring I will be getting a new floor! And hubby, if you are reading this, thank you in advance, I know you had no idea of this scheme of mine! And it shouldn't cost too much to do.
I'm still working on organizing and cleaning the house. I did find a new spot for all the pictures, but that meant I had to move something else, which in turn made me take down the mirror over the fireplace to put the blanket hanger back up, etc. etc. etc. Yes, it is a sickness!!!

Have a dry day(we are getting rain here),

Tiff

3 Makeovers down....

I'm taking a quick break from the house to show you 3 of the makeovers that I got done from the church sale. I don't know if this is the way it works with the rest of you, but my whole house ends up a mess and rearranged when I try to add some new items to the house. I have to move one thing to make room for another, which means moving yet another thing, then I think that something may look better in another room, etc..... UGH! I end up doing more work than initially planned for.

Anyway, I told you I wasn't too thrilled with the way those two lamps were turning out. And in the end, I just didn't like them. So, I tore them apart and made a new lamp out of one, and am using the base of the other for my tin candle holder. For the lamp, I used the wood legged base and part of the wood top, then I added an old grater I had for the middle(hubby was kind enough to drill a hole in the handle for me), then I rewired it with new lamp parts and added a shade. The shade was actually given to me last year by a neighbor, but I never used it. It was a yellowey/cream paper shade that was just screaming to be made over. And yes, I made it over. I painted it brown and painted the berries on it and it looks so much better. Then I just added the berries to the top of the grater.

Of course, then I had to figure out where to put the lamp, which made me switch out the treddle sewing machine that was on this wall for the gateleg table that was in the hall(which I then moved my pie safe too).(you see where I am going with all this, total chaos!)
Here is the little shelf with drawers. I painted it a blue black mixture and sanded it, easy peasy. I first hung it in the family room over the couch and put my little Pfaltzgraff crocks on it, but I didn't like it there. So then I moved it to the hall and put it above the new home of the pie safe. Of course that meant that I had to take down the 20 or so black and white family pictures that I had hanging on this wall, which I still have no idea where I'm going to put them now. Oh, and that white thing above it is my doorbell chimes, I need to find a way to cover that and I still need to put something on the top of the little hutch.


And last is the little green shelf, which is now red. And I sanded it so that you can see the green underneath. I really love the lines of this piece, but I had no place for it downstairs, so I decided to give it to my 9yr old son who collects little ceramic dogs. He needed a better place to display them and it looks cute in his room.

My house is turned upside down right now, so there are no full room shots, but I'm hoping to get everything redone by the weekend and then I can finally share house pics next week! Of course I have two big pieces from goodwill still to redo(which I haven't shared with you all yet) and some small stuff from the church sale, but I'm working as fast as I can.

Have a productive day,

Tiff

Wool Dresden Block Charger Finished!!!

Remember how I found the Dresden plate template the other day? Well, I cut the pieces out at the library, right in front of person who is going to receive this, I wanted to make sure she liked the colors. And she did comment that she liked them, though she thought I was making a turkey at first :) I finished the rest up today, it's all machine stitched and actually went together quite simply. And I'm really loving how it turned out! I think I may make some more.

It's all wool from my collection of Goodwill skirts.

The back...
It came out a bit bigger than I planned, so it is more of a table topper, for under a bowl or something. So I made her a small wool pad for under her tart burner in Christmas colors(which was my original intention of the Dresden block). Tomorrow is her birthday, so I will drop them off in the morning.

I started painting the lamps today, not sure if I'm going to like them or not, but I'll hold off judgement until they are done.

Until next time,

Tiff

A Thank You and a Great Sale Day!!

First, a very big Thank you to Birgit of the Primitive Country Bug for being so sweet and sending me this adorable prim stocking. It was such a nice treat to open the mail box and find something for me, other than bills.

Thank you again Birgit!!!

Today there were craft fairs and open houses all over town. I was kind of bummed yesterday because I knew I really didn't have the spare money to spend at the fairs when I still need to do all my Christmas shopping. But then I realized that I had about $20 cash(which I rarely have cash now a days, I always use my debit card) and that the church sale would also have a white elephant sale. So, I figured I would hit that sale first then just window shop at the actual craft fairs(because honestly, I can make most of the stuff myself anyway and a lot of it isn't my taste or is way too pricey). I got to the church sale right as they opened and boy was it packed. They had small rooms set up full of treasures, but such tight quarters and it got hot fast. Everything was priced really cheap, but when they rang me up in each room, they gave me even better deals on it all.

Here is what I all got, for a grand total of $15 !!!! And yes, you just have to imagine it all made over.
This wall shelf with two little drawers on the bottom, a spoon rack that has a hand written note on the back that says "merry Christmas, 1967 Duluth Minn.", two new silver baby spoons, small wood sled for my doll house, vintage snowman ornament, and a little boy angel ornament.
A Huge wood Cheese box with lid and this green shelf.
A wood bread box, 2 evergreen wreaths with acorns on them, 3 little wooden bowls, and 3 copper molds.
A large basket with wood handles, two vintage lamps(I loved the footed wood bases on these and the glass in the middle is like a pineapple, we will see how they look painted), and a musical glass snow globe(not pictured) that my daughter wanted.
I walked out of there so thrilled with all my treasures and how little it cost me. It really made my day.

We then went across the street to the craft fair at the school and my daughter got a really cute walnut mouse ornament for $1(I'll have to take a pic of it and post it tomorrow).

So for a grand total for the day of shopping, I spent $16 and didn't even have to take anything out of my bank account!! I love thrifty days like this, I really never realized how cheap I am, lol, I hate to pay retail for anything!

Oh, and my day got even better when we stopped at the grocery store to pick a few things up and I ended up getting my Thanksgiving turkey for $10.48, it's a whopping 25 lbs!!! I also picked up a 18 lb one for $7 to put away for later. So that's one thing off my Thanksgiving shopping list and I couldn't beat the price.

So now I have a bunch of makeovers to do and I'll be sure to share the results when I'm done!

Have a marvelous day,

Tiff

A treasure in the sewing room!!

Look at the little treasure I discovered while organizing my sewing room! A new Dresden Plate template that I must have bought awhile ago at Goodwill because it has their $1.99 sticker on it. I was so excited when I found this because I have been wanting to make a dresden plate charger out of wool after I saw this tutorial over at Moda Bakeshop. But I didn't feel like buying one more thing(the template) at Joanns when I have a room full of craft supplies.

I'll have to modify it a bit to work with the wool, but I think it will make such a nice and prim little charger to put under a tart burner or wood bowl. I'm going to start cutting out the pieces this morning while at the library(I have a little craft and chat group that meets Friday mornings at our library).

I also wanted to mention that I am horrible about responding to comments, I read them all and mean to write back but then life happens and I forget( I know, lame excuse). I really need to just take one day a week and write everyone because I'm really not ignoring you!!

And last but certainly not least, a BIG HAPPY 39th BIRTHDAY greeting to my hubby!!! He unfortunately has to work today, but I hope he enjoys the cookies I made him. I love you dear.

Have a spectacular day,

Tiff

Word of Warning!!

I just want to give a bit of a warning to everyone that you really need to make sure your security software is up to date and pay attention to it. I have come across a few of our prim friends sites lately who are infected, luckily my software will not let me enter and thus protects my computer. But, just your visiting these infected sites can infect your own computer. I can see that these sites were most likely infected from a central site that is infected(a place to get fonts, siggies, and counters). My hubby does computer security for a living, so I'm not just pulling this out of my rear. Just please be aware. It can be a real pain to get an infected computer and can really mess things up.

Cookie Cutter Swap!!

This is right up my alley and I thought I would share it with the rest of you in case you didn't see it. Sue over at Country Pleasures is hosting a Cookie Cutter Swap, and it's a pretty simple and inexpensive one, so go sign up!!!

Have a fantastic day,

Tiff

Little White Dresser Makeover...

Remember this little white ugly dresser I picked up at a church sale? Well, I'm finally ready to share some pics of it all primmed up.

And here it is....
I put new wood knobs on it, that I could paint(the old ones were ceramic), I added molding to the top and the bottom, painted it a chocolate brown at first, but it looked way too Pottery Barnish. So it went black, and with some sanding, the brown added a nice under coat. This poor little dresser went through many knob changes before deciding on the simple wood ones. My dear friend had a brilliant idea of using some of my vintage wood handle cookie cutters as knobs. We tried it out and it looked really "cute", but that was the problem, it was too cute for the look I wanted. It would have worked well in a 40's farmhouse kitchen , but wasn't prim enough for me. Then I tried using some distressed vintage wood toy blocks I had, that too didn't give me the look I wanted. So, this is the final result and I'm pretty happen with the transformation. Though, I still want to stitch some little labels for the drawers that say "mittens", "hats", "scarves", etc.
And I found two more pieces of gray enamelware down in the basement while cleaning on Sunday. So I hung one on the wall and the other is on top the dresser for us to throw our keys and such in when we walk through the garage door.(that way I don't see them out in the open).

Happy Veteran's Day to all who have and our serving, Thank you!!! My grandfather served during WWII, hubby's father served during Vietnam, and hubby was in the Navy for 8 years during the 90's. And A Very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling son Gavin, who is 9 today.

Have a lovely day,

Tiff

PS, is anyone else getting a Malware Detection Warning for the Primitive Place blog?

Ugh!

So as I said in my post last night, I had to make 42 cupcakes for today. Well, I didn't know I needed 42 until my son told me that after I had already bought the cake mix. I thought I only needed 20 some, but because his class works with the class next door(they open the wall up) he has to bring in some for EVERYONE!! Ok, fine, I bought two boxes and two things of frosting. At 9:30 last night I start baking. Make the first 24 cupcakes(luckily I have 4 cupcake pans). I then go to make the 2nd batch and quickly realize I don't have enough batter and I'm out of eggs. I end up with only 38 cupcakes!!! And it's 10 at night and I have no eggs so I can't even bake cookies. I could have just bought something on the way to school this morning, but honestly I didn't want to spend another $30 or $40 on "treats" for 2 classes when money is tight enough around here.(and hubby just had to spend $200 to get two new tires for his car yesterday and I have barely started Christmas shopping). So you see where I am coming from.

So I look in the cupboards and hatch a plan. I see a new bag of pretzel sticks, white chocolate chips, the cans of chocolate frosting for the cupcakes, and sprinkles. I'll make dipped pretzel sticks! It's now 10:30 pm and I'm melting chocolate and dipping pretzels, I make 90 all together. Each kid will get 2 and there will be some for the teachers.

Then, I had to have something to put them in. So I cut paper plates into quarters, folded them, and stuck them together with double sided tape. Wrote who they were from on them and they were good to go...
And here they are with the 2 pretzel sticks in them, the chocolate sides are in the cup.
I figured that was a good enough little treat considering there is another child in the class who is also bringing something in for their birthday. And with the day I had yesterday, I'm surprised I even made these. Let's just say, I was in tears as I was baking last night, it was just one of those days.

But today is a new day.

Tiff