creative little daisy

Sometimes I feel helpless...

Do you?  Times you want to do something, help in some way, make things better but you just don't know how. Some people seem to have a gift, they know just what to say and do when there is a crisis. They spring to action and take charge. They make decisions and delegate tasks. No hesitation.

Not me. I'm the type that watches from afar, wishing I knew what to say, and I usually say nothing out of fear of saying the wrong thing. Not wanting to impose or get in the way. Not wanting to seem like I'm trying to be in someone's business.

I'm not proud of this. I'm just paralyzed by my social unsteadiness. I don't visit sick people. Not because I'm not thinking about them and praying for them, but I worry I'll be in the way. I worry they'll wonder why I'm bothering them. What if I come at a time they want to rest?

I've gotten better about going to funerals, although for years after my mother and granny died, I just wouldn't go. Couldn't.

I have a couple of friends who are wonderful in times of need. They are the first ones to offer to bring food, send flowers, just visit. I so wish I had their gift for being angels at just the right time. 

When a terrible tragedy happened this past spring touching very close to home, once again I was struck with that paralyzing feeling. That desire to do something but inability to know what or how. I found out about the accident at church. A young boy, a car accident. A life ended too soon. He was Alyssa's age, they had gone to school together since kindergarten. He dated and planned to marry a girl very close to our hearts. Sara is also Alyssa's age and they have been friends since they were babies. Our families attend the same church and have known each other for as long as I can remember. We also live on the same street. When I heard about the terrible accident, that had happened just the night before, I wanted to go to Sarah, to hug her and say how sorry I was, but stayed frozen in place. What if she's too upset for visitors? What if she thinks I'm just being nosy... what if my presence upsets her? My heart ached for her, for Zack's family. For everyone who was hurting. I prayed for them and cried for them and I was mad at myself for not doing more. So a week later at church when Sarah's mom came to me and asked if I would do something for Sarah, I couldn't say yes quickly enough. Something I can do. Something I feel comfortable doing. Something that in perhaps a small way can make things a little better. Sarah wanted to have a quilt made from Zack's tee-shirts to give to his mom. We talked it over and the next day she brought over the shirts. It was heart breaking to listen as she pulled each shirt out and told why it was special, what it meant, how it represented this life too short. She cried and I cried, Alyssa was here and she cried too. I was heartbroken for Sarah and for his parents but was so glad God had given me the ability to sew. I am not socially gifted, but I do have God-given gifts and here was a way I could put them to use. I was so thankful.

As we discussed how it would be laid out, the materials to use, we decided on a khaki colored cotton for the sashing and borders, since he typically wore khaki pants or shorts. She mentioned he also had lots of button-down cotton shirts she didn't know what to do with. I told her to bring them and we'd use those for the binding. We even used some boxer shorts on the back. I cut them in six inch squares in a strip across the back.

 

I'm wishing I got a better picture, boy does it need ironing! (honestly, it looked better in person) But after taking way longer to finish this than I wanted, I  was too eager to get it into Sarah's hands. She cried when she saw it, I knew she would.

I'm so glad she trusted me with this endeavor. I'm so glad God put the ability in my hands to give her this gift.

Another family heirloom or two...

My great-grandmother's sewing machine.

And a boat oar made by Mitch's grandfather.

Once the table an bench were in place, my grandma's sewing machine was already there, it struck me how much history was gathered in this little room. It also struck me that the history was a little one-sided. There was nothing there from Mitch's side of the family. His grandfather was very good at wood-working and made some wonderful things. Dough bowls, wooden buckets, various tools. All by hand. The only thing Mitch has though that his grandfather made was the boat oar. He had been using it in the pool, to stir the water after adding chemicals. Men  tend to be that way, they find the practical use for objects. Me? No, when we discussed the history in the room and how I wished we had something his grandfather had made, like one of those dough bowls and Mitch said I have a boat oar in the shed-  He barely had the words out of his mouth before I snatched that oar up, and hung it on the wall. He'll have to find something else to stir the pool with.

A new bench and an old chair

I hope you aren't tired of dining room pictures. I have a few more. First a bench, made from a head and foot board. I've seen several around blogland and so when I saw this particular bed I knew it would make the perfect bench. At  $38.00, it was more than I really wanted to pay, but I told myself, it will be great in the end. Worth way, way more than $38.00. Still I was a little queasy.  I mean, it's not really a thrift store score if you didn't get it for an amazing deal, right?  I knew it would still need quite a bit of work to become what I had in mind (plus a little more cash for materials). My queasiness got even worse when the lovely lattice work that drew me to the piece in the first place got busted by the guys loading it. Argggg!!!! Oh well, I told myself, it's not too big, maybe I can fix it somehow. Glue the lattice back in place.  It didn't take long once home to realize there was no fixing the paper thin lattice work, so I tore it all out and replaced it with some galvanized wire and burlap. Mitch did the construction work, I painted it and made a cushion.

The stripe on the cushion was done with fabric paint and masking tape. I still need to make some pillows for it, but there are only so many hours in the day, right?

In the opposite corner of the room is a chair that has been all over my house and has been painted and recovered more times than I can count. This is my favorite so far.

While we're here, I'll just mention a couple more thrift store re-dos. The chandelier over the table once looked like this.

I removed the gold stripe that was painted on using acetone and spray painted the brass. I took it completely apart, painted, reassembled and hung it. All. By. Myself.

Now it looks like this.

I'll probably add some shades eventually.

The runner on the table was also a thrift store find. It's just a remnant of fabric. I washed it in hot water and added a monogram on either side. I'm wishing I had gone a touch darker with the thread. I was going for that heirloom linen look. 

I like the look of the frayed edges, so I opted not to finish the sides.

Just a couple more items to mention tomorrow and I'll move on to something else, like the road trip to IKEA my friend Kelli and I are scheming to take very soon.  (it involves new countertops for the kitchen)

Just a reminder

I made this banner by cutting triangles from burlap and stenciling on the letters to spell give thanks. I attached the triangles by stitching jute twine across the top with a zig-zag stitch.

Want to see what I've been up to?

I've been dressing up the dining room. I started to say I've been redecorating, but that would imply that it was decorated before. There was a table and chairs and a few odds and ends in there, but since switching back to dining room duty, from sewing room central, it's really served as a dumping ground for that which had nowhere else to go. I knew while I was in fall nesting mode, I was going to tackle  that room, but a new table wasn't in my plan. I liked my table, it was made for me by my uncle and was special, so when my sister asked if I wanted our great-grandmother's table, I didn't immediately jump on the idea. I was all,  I don't know... maybe.... I'd have to take a look at it... How big is it? BIG, she said. That's why she was willing to give it up. It was much too big for her house and she was feeling the need to scale way back. I went to take a look and measure the table and that was all it took. Love at first sight. I knew she had to come home with me.

Can you tell how long she is? Long! Seven feet long. Not only is she long and lovely and big and strong, she has a story behind her. She was in my great-grandmother Mamie's childhood home. My sister and uncle refinished it (and did and amazing job)  years ago and she's had it in her home since.  When I told my (great) aunt Mary that Erica was giving me the table and I needed Mitch to build me a bench, she said, just get the bench out of the old farm house. No one is using it anymore. The bench (and a matching table)  was made by my great-great grandfather when my great-grandparents were first married in 1920.  My granny and her eight brother's and sisters all used this bench and when I was growing up it was in my granny's house.  I couldn't contain my excitement waiting for Mitch to go bring my "new" old table and bench home. In came the table, ahhh..... a perfect fit. Then the bench... uhh, not quite as perfect. It was ORANGE! Really, really orange. Not noticeable when it was paired with the pine table in my granny's house. It was lovely there surrounded by pine cabinetry. Here, that lovely pine, was a hideous shade of yellow/orange. Granny had refinished the table and bench about 25 years ago, I remember her laboring for hours bringing it back to it's original beauty. She used tung oil, and hand rubbed layer upon layer of protective finish on the wood. Next to the table, the bench just glowed in a less than appealing way. To make a very long story short, after two long days of stripping (the chemical kind- no lingerie was involved much to Mitch's dismay) , and scraping, and sanding and sanding, and sanding... I was able to see wood that wasn't orange. I gave the newly bare wood a coat of stain, then three coats of Wipe-On Poly.  It reminded me all the more why I love a good quick coat of spray paint, but I couldn't have any relatives doing flips in their graves over me painting such a special family heirloom. No, I'm giving this pair the royal treatment they deserve.  I am totaly in love with my new table and bench and can't beleive just how fortunate I am to have these special pieces in my home.

The room has several other projects that took a lot less time and involved no stripping. I'll share those later this week.

Are you excited about Autumn?

Not me Autum, the season autumn? I am. I love the cool crisp air, and the lower humidity. Ahhh the air just feels wonderful in the fall, doesn't it? The latest Pottery Barn catalog had some great fall decor in the back. Out of my budget, but great. I already have some pumpkin topiarries I made at least five years ago,  I'll drag them out of the garage, but I wanted something else to spice things up, add some fall fun to the place. I found a couple of white plastic urns at Roses for $2.50 each.

I got two grapevine pumpkins at Hobby Lobby (40% off 14.99) and a string of 35 Christmas lights.  I had some fake fall leaves in the craft room and spray paint in the garage. Now I have a Pottery Barn inspired decor not only for myself, but for less than the cost of PB's version, I was able to make one for my sister as well. If I remember correctly, PB's price is for the pumpkin only, urn not included.

Faux Coffee Sacks

The buffet I bought from Walmart has been a great place to keep the pet food, but I don't really like seeing those plastic containers. I searched for some baskets to camo the containers, but had no luck finding anything affordable that were the right dimensions. I considered frosting the glass, and mentioned it in an earlier post. Someone, I'm sorry I don't remember who suggested putting burlap behind the glass. That got my wheels turning. Then I got this little glimpse of how Layla of The Lettered Cottage was lining her china hutch with vintage coffee sacks. Brilliant! I did a google search for images of coffee sacks to get some ideas and made my own version with burlap and stencils.

 

 

 

The camera doesn't pick up the weave of the burlap behind the glass, I think they look more authentic in person. I'm just happy to have the ugly plastic bins hidden.

Rope covered lampshade.

I love these lamps from Ballard Designs. I'm cheap and not about to pay $79 (plus shipping) for a lamp.  So I spray painted a lamp I had in the closet and glued some sisal rope to a plain white shade. It's not hand braided natural sea grass like the Ballard lamp, just a $1.50 roll of sisal twine, but I'm happy none the less. And it didn't cost me $79 dollars, plus shipping to be happy. 

 

Seasonal nesting

Some people make redecorating a big event. An event that is planned months, sometimes years in advance. Carefully thought out, budgeted...  Those are usually the same people who live with that redecoration for 10 years. I'm not one of those people. A typical room around this house stays the same for about 10 minutes. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, I'm constantly changing things up. I don't usually plan it out more than the length of time it takes me to hop in the car and drive to Lowes or Goodwill. That's how the recent living room mini makeover came to fruition. I was in there with Bayleigh trying out a DVD with not much luck. Bayleigh has no interest whatsoever in TV. Not that I want her glued to the set for hours at a time, but I wouldn't mind 15 minutes of distraction so I can load the dishwasher now and then. 

This was a photo of the living room before we put in the hardwood floors, taken in July of '07 and I'm shocked to say, besides the change in flooring, and moving that chair, everything else stayed pretty much the same till recently. I'm really, really surprised by this. Maybe it's because decorating that mantel is not easy and once I came up with something I could live with I was just tired of trying?? Anyway back to Bayleigh and the TV. I noticed the only time she would even pay one second of attention to the sweet little children singing to her was if she stood on the hearth and looked right at it. Hmm...  I thought to myself. I wonder if she would enjoy it more if it were more at eye level for her. Right then I had to stop everything and go in search of a lower tv table. I wanted something with a shelf on the bottom to hold tapes (we still have a VCR) and DVDs. A couple hours later I had just what I wanted. Almost. I was stained a dark cherry color and had nail polish around the edges. I'm guessing the previous owner used the coffee table to prop her feet on to paint her toenails. Just a guess.  For $24 and the cost of some paint, you know I already had that on hand, I have a new lower TV table. Bayleigh still isn't interested in the sweet little children singing to her, but you can't have everything.

 

Of course with the new black tv table the white bookshelf seemed out of place, so I replaced it with my granny's old sewing machine cabinet that had been in the hall. Then as things go in my decorating method of madness, the items on the bookcase would need a new home, and the domino effect continues with a  mantle makeover.

The old shutters and window came from the Habitat for Humanity re-store (7 for the shutters 2 for the window) The tall dark candle holder was less than a dollar from Hope Harbor the hydrangeas where a from a sweet blogging friend Kate. The photos were taken by my mom, years ago. Bayleigh's little red rocker was originally three dollars at thrift store, but I bought a few other things and talked him in to throwing in the chair for free. I planned to paint it, but have since added a few pops of red to the room, so it's staying as-is. The table the tv was previously perched upon was actually the lower portion of a hutch, the white "bookshelf" was the upper portion, turned upside down. Confusing? Now the pieces have been reunited on the other side of the room as a hutch.

 

The wall behind the couch is naked. I moved the three bird prints from that wall to the wall adjoining this hutch wall.   I've commissioned Alyssa to make me a sign to go there. One of those hand painted antique looking signs that says something inspirational. She's crafty and artistic, so I'm sure she'll come up with something wonderful.

 

See that pop of red I was talking about? In that pillow up there? Pottery Barn has some really cool pillows made of linen and hemp, but 45 dollars is out of my pillow price range. Since I know how easy it is to sew a pillow cover, my pillow purchasing budget is really low. I had some natural linen and some red fabric paint, so I went to work and made my own. I really want to put a rug in here, maybe something sisal, but with  dogs who refuse to be completely housebroken, rugs just don't mix.  Have you seen the commercial for the potty-patch? Any rug I put down is automatically a potty-patch to those little @$#@# sweeties.  I'm home all day and take them out 75 times a day and still, they think all rugs deserve a good christening. I wish I could get the dog whisperer to pay me a visit. Anywho, that's a little TMI and has nothing to do with decorating. Nothing good anyway. 

Did you notice the little rusty wire basket on the hutch? It isn't really a rusty basket. I just painted it to look that way. I found it in the dollar bin at Target and sprayed it with three different colors of spray paint till I thought it looked old and rusty. 

 

I just grabbed what I had, I used the chalkboard paint because I wanted something flat not shiny. The rust is colored one is actually red oxide primer.

 

I just kept spraying and layering till it looked old to me, no real method.

 

That's what it looked like before. Older is better, don't you think?

Tomorrow I'll share how I covered the glass doors in my Walmart buffet with faux coffee sack to hide the plastic dog and cat food bins.

I've got blogging on my mind...

Getting from my mind to my fingers and onto the computer has been the problem. My days are full, there is so much I want to save and to share. Bayleigh is 16 months old!! How did that happen? She's growing so fast and does something new and exciting every day. I should be documenting more, that's why I started this blog. To record whatever it was that I felt record worthy for that day or week. It's been mostly a sewing blog with life experience sprinkled in along the way. When I look back and read old posts, I'm almost always glad I captured those moments because in this busy life, so much gets overlooked and forgotten. It's just finding the time at the end or beginning of those full days to sit down an write. It's a challenge.

Since my last post Bayleigh stared daycare. The intention was/is (the jury is still out) for her to go a few mornings a week. This would give me a few hours to do some laundry and other housework (maybe even sew a little) and give her a few hours to play with other children. Just to explain the situation, Bayleigh's dad, Derek works in Alaska several months out of the year. Bayleigh's mom, Alyssa is in her final year of nursing school. While Derek is in Alaska, Bayleigh and Alyssa stay here with us (most of the time). I watch Bayleigh while Alyssa is in school, and try to help keep her occupied in the evenings for Alyssa to study and do homework. We are all exhausted by the end of the day. The idea behind daycare was to give me a few hours of free time during the day.  She went three mornings the first week and by that Friday had a runny nose. She went one morning the next week and woke with a fever the next day. That was this past Wednesday and she's still not feeling good. She shared the cruddy love with Alyssa and myself so it's a house full of snot and tears. Nice, eh? I'm really beginning to think those few hours of free time are hardly worth it.  

I've been in a real nesting phase of late, changing this, moving that, and of course painting lots and lots of this and that. Perhaps it's the changing of seasons that gets me itching to change my surroundings, I don't know. I suspect my recent addiction to some really wonderful home-dec blogs may have something to do with it.  I've already shared some of the impromptu changes that my kitchen went through, the living room wasn't far behind and dining room, be warned you're next. I'll post the crafty stuff I've been up to in another post as this one is already boringly wordy and I won't wait a week to do it, promise.