Happy Birthday!

Today is my hubby's birthday.  He doesn't look a day over 35, does he?  LOL  (Ok, he WAS younger when this picture was taken last New Year's Eve.  It was the most recent picture I could find.  He's making the best meatballs our family has ever eaten - his specialty!)

Those of you who have read my blog for a while know that nearly six years ago, Phil was diagnosed with a relatively rare blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma.  Unfortunately, this cancer has no cure, although with new treatments, patients are living longer than when Phil was diagnosed.  It has been a very difficult year for Phil, as he has endured one painful medical problem after another, most not related to the Myeloma. 

And so on this very special day, I wish you a very happy birthday, Phil, and if God grants it, another year of walking with the Lord and growing in His Grace.  I love you!

Birthday Flowers

My birthday was back in October, and my sweet daughter, Grace, came home with these lovely flowers, which she arranged herself.  (She's so talented!  You might remember that she made the bridesmaids' bouquets for her wedding, and did a wonderful job.)  Don't you agree that sunflowers are such cheerful flowers?  They certainly brighten these dull fall days!

Let It Snow . . .

. . . but not yet!

Seriously, I purchased this 2006 Lizzie Kate design at my LNS.  I didn't realize until some time later that the chart states at the bottom, "This design may be reproduced for newsletter or handout.  It is not to be sold or kitted."  It was actually both SOLD and KITTED.  Not sure what's up with that.

I stitched this design in just a few hours.  I don't recall whether the fabric came with the kit or not, but I tend to think it didn't.  The color isn't true; blame that on the dark, rainy, and dreary days we have this time of year. 

I plan to finish this as a pinkeep, and will use my Spinster for the first time to make the cording to go around the outside. 

Indian Summer

 It's taken me a long time to photograph this finish of Indian Summer by With Thy Needle and Thread, but here it is.  I couldn't get the color to come out right, despite manipulating the photo in my editing software; the fabric is much darker than how it photographed.  You may recall that this is the fabric that I coffee dyed, which you can see here. 

This project is now on the craft table, waiting patiently while I try to decide how to do the final finishing.  I have an idea, so we'll see how it comes out!

Make Do and Mend Mondays

Today I'm joining Heidi in Make Do and Mend Mondays.  This project has been well over a year in the making; sad, but true.

When we built our home, we couldn't decide on kitchen cabinet door and drawer pulls, so we told the builder to leave the cabinets without them and we would choose something later, which we did.  In September, 2005, I drilled holes for and installed 23 pulls*, leaving me with a great sense of satisfaction and tendonitis in my left elbow (which still occasionally bothers me to this day).  By last summer, here's what they looked like:

Ridiculous, given what these things cost!  I had seen an HGTV show in which they had spray painted these types of handles with a product called Plasti Dip, and thought it was worth a try.  I had saved some pieces of packing styrofoam, and by placing toothpicks in it, I was able to line up the handles for painting.

I'd like to say this was the end of it, but I discovered that it's imperative that the paint make contact with itself all the way around the handle, because I missed the underside of quite a few handles, and had to peel the paint off (really!) and repaint them.  All's good now, which is great because it's turned too cold to paint outside.

Don't you think these look better?  For about $6.00, I have "new" handles, which look almost new again.
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*You might think we have a large kitchen based on this number, but the reality is we have only four drawers and many little cabinets in our small kitchen.

Decorating with Vintage Items

The definition of antique varies, even among experts.  According to the U.S. Customs Service, an item must be over 100 years old to be considered antique, but the term can be used loosely and applied to items much younger than that.  I'll use the term vintage to describe a collection of items I received recently from my mother-in-law, since I know none of these are over 100 years old, but may well be 50 years old. 

This is one side of my U-shaped kitchen.

 Close-Up of the above items.

 Horlick's Malted Milk jar.  I looked on Ebay and this is worth some money!

 See the two metal cans stacked up on each other?  One is a lard container.

  This is the cabinet to the right of my sink. 

 Close-Up of the above cabinet.

You can see that I mostly got old Ball jars, some with zinc lids.  I appreciate my mother-in-law sharing what she can no longer use with the family, and I'm thrilled to have these vintage items to display in my kitchen.

Shhh!

There's been some secret stitching going on in my house!  I had set a goal of stitching three ornaments this year, and unbelievably, they are all done, except for the final finishing.  But of course I can't share them with you.  Not yet.  I'll be back soon with some other pictures, though.