A Blustery Day in North Texas

It's Windy here at the Cottage! Humid and Warm...so I'm playing indoors.

Just finished my Camera Case with quilt fabric from a crazy quilt vest so I cut the 5 inch squares into strips to weave. It turned out so cute and little, like my new camera...Pinkie.



Pinkie, more formally known as Sony Cybershot, was on sale and Office Max matched Office Depot's ad for a 4 Gig Mem stick (saved $20 woot!) and Pinkie is the most delicate shade of PINK!!

AND

takes videos! I had NO idea. My son discovered it and made a video while petting our little adopted abused Siamese mix.

Here it is with the flap open up the little camera case. Woven in one piece, no sewing!



I added a skirt of pink fiber...



Made the loom one night, then began weaving while listening to my favorite radio show. Then finished it while watching TV after dinner. It's amazing how quickly small items get finished.

Pinkie loves her new home. She is joining the Cell Phone in my Pink Purse. I may have an addiction to weaving. But that's ok, I am using up the smallest of fabrics in my craft chest as well as items cut from clothing I couldn't part with.

I have one kink to work out this weekend, then the How-To will be available.

Till then, Here is our little Jordie...

Garage Sale Fun and Flea Markets

Staring off, lost in other thoughts, my mind slowly recognized this little jewel hanging from the bedroom ceiling.



And I remembered the day I found it. It was already hot as blazes, about 10am on a Saturday morning. Walking up a driveway, I had to step in front of a box to let a lady piled high with her goods get around me. Without thinking I looked down in the box and there is was. NO one was looking at it. I bent over to see the price tag, $25. Thought I'd faint! At the bottom of the box was all the Vintage prisms.

Suddenly I was a guard dog, trying to get hubby's attention and not look like I had found a pile of GOLD. He rushed over, saw the goods and began orchestrating the process. I would go to the owner and stand while he picked the box and followed me with $$.

$25 lighter, it was loaded in my car and I was hyperventilating and talking non-stop, making NO sense. Got it home cleaned years in an attic off it and Hubby hung it up for me.

I still love it!

Enjoy this gorgeous spring we are having,
Melissa

Flash Back and Fun

Have you ever run across something on the internet that was just totally gorgeous, totally YOU and then you find out your live 1200 miles from where the classes on how to make them are being taught?

Happens to me frequently or the cost of the item is too high and I am thankful not to have the temptation. Couple weeks ago I was looking at lovely woven purses with dangles and photos, jewelry and handmade tags, they were gorgeous! Made from ribbons, somewhat loosely woven with fabrics and fibers that were just to die 4! AND, I could actually take the class half and hour from my home.

I'd love to show the photos but that wouldn't be right as I am sure they are copyrighted.

Of course I wanted to learn how to make them, really bad I wanted to learn. So I checked to see how much the class was...$60. Hmm.... Now I am a tightwad from 2001 and no way was I parting with that sum of cash...so I began wondering why they looked so familiar and yet obviously an art form with a twist for Today.

Then it hit me!

A Flash Back from 6th grade. We made things with the same basic format. Now to figure out the weaving loom and pull out all those fabrics from the thrift store, pretty doilies and other items I had saved for years cause I couldn't bring myself to throw them away.

I was thinking of all sorts of things shapes, usefulness-es, and after a few hours of trial and error with the first loom and a few more hours of enjoyment, I had made my first bag!



A beautiful crochet dresser scarf provided the covering and a wooden bead from on of my mom's purses (from WAY back) provided the perfect closure!



Now, I am NOT a crochet person. I know enough to get by with no one looking. But, I managed to link up the edges of the dresser scarf and chain stitch it to the woven area on the back. Look hard and you can see it isn't even, but doesn't bother me one bit.



I've pulled some beaded embroidery work to go on it and will add a hook for my keys. I want to add a few other items and fibers but for now a handle...



I wove it pretty tight so nothing could possibly fall out. Also I'll plan to leave more dangling fabrics on my next purse...here is a look at the inside



Before I could add other items I wanted to make a cell phone carrier which morphed into a Mini-Bag and then another idea I just had to try out and now I am working on a camera case. Oh, and I made my mom a cell phone carrier as she is always leaving it in her robe or in the other room. Hers has a hook for her keys and a long strap allowing her to carry it everywhere. It took a couple hours to make that, the longest time was putting the blanket stitch over the strap as she likes a more finished look.

Well more to show later, I've been dying to start on the cell phone case!

I'll make complete instructions on how to make the loom, drawings to go by, how to get your loom ready for weaving and the tools you may want to make or purchase to help you along the way. I'll place them in a PDF file and make them available for a nominal fee so you can Get Your Weave On! FAR less than $60 bucks!

So go through your craft drawers and cabinets, pull out those bits of fabric you couldn't bare to throw away cause you can use them to Get Your Weave On!

Details coming soon,
Melissa

Lessons Learned

Don't delete your blog thinking you are just going to start over with a few new things.

NOPE...you won't.

When you hit that Delete button, everything disappears.

EVERYTHING!

Your Header, Sidebar Pics, Everything you ever put on your blog goes totally Bye-Bye.

As you can see the settings for Fonts go away too...

Thinking back...I can see it...hope the Males don't find out, they'll have more ammunition for teasing me.

BRB,
Melissa

Kid friendly moms and growing up the hard way...

I don't mean you grew up in the Projects or with extreme difficulty in your life each day. What I am talking about is After you had kids. Kids make you grow up fast and it isn't always easy, ya know?

Many of us try to 'un' do what was done while we were growing up and at the same time try to 'do' what was not done that we feel should have been done.

All this agenda managing while taking each day as it comes in the midst of the craziness we call LIFE.

However, in all our planning, hoping, protecting, teaching and letting them fall off the bicycle to help them understand balance, we really screw/ed up sometimes.

So, we ask friends, we ask our moms, we ask our grandmothers.

Then, we are told by teachers, coaches, tutors, physicians, counselors and still... STILL we get it wrong in the midst of all the 'right' we are doing.

I Twittered onto a site today while sipping morning coffee. And I realized: we are all on our OWN journey with this Mom Thing.

And it ain't easy, nope, it is all out action.

And, it's as critical as a soldier standing ground in Afghanistan. There are demands on him/us we never see coming, demands that must be handled perfectly, in a heart beat, in a split second of time.

There are no DVRs to rewind or place on hold while we think things over and nuke a bag of popcorn.

We are in this Motherhood thing for a Life-time. Bottom line is this:

You can't get it right all the time. You can't.

And your friends don't, and your mom didn't.

Well, I read that site till I cried. I had to let it sink in.

And I realized something to add to my LONG list of things to be a great mom...Comfort.

Comfort your kids. It's a small thing. A gentle hug. A smile. A few words that say 'it will be different tomorrow', 'this difficulty won't last forever', 'you are ready for the task at hand and I believe in you and love you'.

Comfort.

Whether your kids are 5 or 45.

We know they need it when they are young but I think as they age we want them to be strong and we tend to withhold Comfort...not meaning to but thinking they aren't babies anymore. We older moms may be more encouraging when Comfort might be a better option. My kids are 20 somethings and I realize they need comfort just like I do at twice their age.

I think we all find little gems along the way, things no one tells us like I did by reading this site.

Might want a box of kleenex handy...OR you might want to skip it entirely and get a mug of hot chocolate and watch Fried Green Tomatoes or the Family Stone (fill in here with your chick flick, crying catharsis movie).

I challenge you this weekend to:

Comfort someone's child...old, young (you) or in between.
Take in the scent of a real rose.
And have TWO mugs of hot chocolate, the calories really don't matter.

((Hugs))
Melissa

A Bit of Small Town Eye-Candy....

A bit North East of Dallas lies a small town that has AMAZING Older homes...the kind of old homes with History and Character that get you thinking about commuting long distance just so you have the pleasure of weekends in the country at a Bed n Breakfast called 'Yours'.

I stumbled on such a house today and thought about punching numbers on the calculator.

Notice the front porch is screened in for enjoying those cool summer evenings sans mosquitoes.


This is the balcony off the Master bedroom upstairs


Here is the original wood stair case. There is another stair case, most probably in the back of the home. The front door looks original too.


The 4th bedroom, one of 5, is located on the third floor. Look at the old wood and the old windows. I would have that painted white in a heart beat and a window seat would be where those treadmills are. That blue carpet would be gone and wood floors would be polished. An old iron bed, lots of pillows, sheers hung at the windows. And spring nights would be spent reading then dreaming as cool breezes wafted through.


It sets on over an acre, backed by lush trees.


Looks quaint in the height of summer as it does when snow whispers into North Texas.


Photos from over a century ago...





A piece of the past. This humble Lady certainly merits a bit of time with the calculator and cup of hot tea, don't you think?

All things Sparkly

"In the end...sparkly will always win." TheCottageRose

It was 11 years ago we had one of those BIG white trees that was as wide as it was tall and it was beautiful loaded with all the Victorian Roses, Burgundy Vintage looking ornaments and Pink and Gold balls with glitter and ribbons. Two moves and one bad fall 5 years ago left us without a tree.

Since then we have had a variety of green trees small to tall, somewhat leaning, sparse in areas, grace our living room. 'Christmas Twigs' they were labeled by the two younger males. It was their way of saying my frugal reuse of past decorations and hand-me-down trees were just not cutting it.

I had to agree. Saturday Mr. Rose I began earnestly looking for a white tree. There simply were none over 3 feet tall! Until finally we landed at Big Lots and found this sweet little 6 footer, narrow diameter (which I prefer) iridescent white tree. It was smaller than what we were looking for, but with none to be found elsewhere it became our new Christmas Tree!



Garden Ridge had a sale on Ornaments so we headed over there and found all the sparkly, dangly, shiny, pretty, shimmery ornaments in every color imaginable! I wanted watery greens, blues and plums. And I love the way it turned out. Simple, sparkly, with butterflies and baubles.









Called my very traditional mom to tell her about the new tree and baubles, butterflies and sparklies.

"Hmm...Butterflies" she said. Then added, "Well at least you don't have grapes hanging off it."

I laughed, "You'll love the Butterflies!" She'll be here for Christmas Brunch next weekend. Maybe she won't notice the grapes...