Melony's Whimsy Daisy!

Looking back...Moving forward...

This is a little blast from the past involving my youngest daughter, Daisy.

 
Before I even get started I have to tell you about this outfit:

This is a vintage velvet patchwork set made from a 1960's skirt. The hat was made from the "bosom cup" of an old 1950's slip! Isn't that funny? It fit Daisy's head perfectly.

 

I wanted to take a look back in my life to 2003-2005. My husband was dying of cancer and we were either in the hospital or pretty secluded here at home.  It was a dark time. A wonderful friend of mine and I decided we would sort of team up and challenge each other to sew (something I could do from home) and list our items on ebay.  My daughter, Daisy, modeled what I created, and my friend's daughter modeled her creations.

 
  

We had a great time. My sweet late husband enjoyed seeing me busy and taking pictures. I would get all excited when somebody purchased an outfit. It was a silly thing, but something creative and positive that helped to pass some difficult times. Daisy also enjoyed the "modeling fees" I paid for the photo shoots around the house. ($1.00 per photo shoot) 

 
One of my very favorite outfits was the pink one below. It was a bit unique in that It was an original dress from the fifties...already made and sweet as can be. I just dolled it up a bit. I thought it turned out pretty cute with the poodle, the black rick-rack, buttons and bows.

 
Happy Pink Saturday! God has been so good to me, and has seen me through the valleys of life in His own special way. Now...moving forward...I'm off for a special anniversary weekend with a wonderful man who was willing to marry a scatterbrained, crazy, creative widow woman, and be a stepfather to her five kids! Visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to visit other ladies who enjoy a bit of pink in their life!  

Good Clean Crafting Fun by way of 1947

Surely the children will brush regularly if they just had this picture hanging on the bathroom wall. You think? After all...as the ad states, "brushing is good clean fun." I haven't been able to convice my 13 year old son of the entertainment value of brushing, but I'm hoping maybe when he begins to date, he will have better dental hygeine. A mother can dream. This has already sold in my Etsy Store, but it was fun to make, so I thought I would share. 

This is an original 1947 advertisement from Home Companion Magazine for Ipana Toothpaste. I'm assuming Ipana Toothpaste is off the market now, but I have forever memorialized this happy mom with her very sanitized children on this 11 x 14 finished artist canvas. No chance of H1N1 happening in this family!

 
 
I love the pop of the black and white ads layered on modern and vintage-look scrapbooking paper. I have sealed it with several coats of my good friend, Mod Podge. The sides of the canvas are finished in black with white polka dots. I think I once had bangs like the little missy below! Sadly, my husband didn't think it was a good look for me. (Just kidding...I was probably about 5!)

I have really been enjoying black and white toile fabric lately, so I made a hanger bow to make this clean family easy to hang!  Where is the daddy in this picture? I surely hope he has good dental hygeine or the fun stops right there.

She is lovin' her laundry!

It would be nice to have such a great attitude when doing the housework. The lady, below, who has it all together, is from a 1947 Home Companion Magazine. She is touting the wonders of Borax detergent. I am always in wonder of myself, when I actually remember to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer without them sitting there and getting sour. Yes, sometimes I admit, I have had to wash them twice...okay... three times.

 
I think clotheslines are wonderful, almost artistic objects, when the laundry is hung beautifully and waves gently in the breeze. That is unless my dryer is broken and I am forced to hang my clothes, and then it loses all its romanticism. I am truly thankful for modern conveniences, although I am drawn to the time period of the forties and fifties like a kid to kool-aid. I think it's just the "idea", maybe not the actual "reality".

So, instead I spend my time with bits of paper, a paper plate full of Mod Podge, a wonderful old advertisement, and throw in some cute miniature clothespins that wouldn''t hold up a baby sock...and oh, yes...what's a happy housewife without an earring to match her apron? It all makes a lovely picture, don't you think? It inspires me to face my Monday morning dirty dishes with a smile on my face! ( It is also listed in my Whimsy Daisy Etsy Store if you could use some inspiration!) 

Vintage Pink and Black Powder Room Decor

Happy Pink Saturday! After scrounging around in a cardboard box on the ground at Canton Trades Day, I pulled out some treasures…four or five Home Companion Magazines . I have fully enjoyed browsing the pages with a glass of iced tea and a Hershey bar and stepped back in time as I read articles about improving my posture to how to keep my laundry sweet smelling even when it rains.

I am always fascinated by vintage advertising, articles, and well…everything about old magazines. I decided after reading these from cover to cover, they could either sit in a stack, or I would do what is difficult for me…disassemble the magazine and put it to use and make something pretty. I have done several projects and today I have two that pop with pink from September of 1947.

　

These are from an advertisement for Ipana Toothpaste. I have these listed in my my Etsy store in hopes that someone might enjoy them in their powder room. The rose charms are from Raindrops and Roses.

　

　

Who knew toothpaste could be so elegant? I painted white canvases with black acrylic, and added some favorite scrap booking paper with one of my bestest craft friends…Mod Podge. Of course, one has to add a little sparkle. I added a little bling here and there.The cute little rose charms are from

Pink wired ribbon will make these two elegant girls easy to hang on the wall. Don’t you enjoy working with wired ribbon. It’s so forgiving!

Please visit Beverly at Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to discover other ladies who love a bit of pink in their life!

Mushy Gushy Vintage Valentine Sweater

When my eye did spy this over-the-top vintage Valentine sweater, I swooped it up in a heartbeat! Someone was determined to have a Happy Valentines Day no matter what. The sweater definitely had history, which intrigued me. I was off like Nancy Drew to discover clues. It had to do with two very special people:

Did Ann make this sweater? Did Mark break her rose outlined heart? Oh I hope not. I hate sad endings. Forget Nancy Drew. I made up my own story and I'm sticking to it...surely this is exactly what must have happened:

Ann’s mother, Marybelle stitched love in every pearl and swirl on this sweater. She put every good wish for a wonderful man to come into her shy and beautiful daughter’s life (who had spent much of her young life working as a nurse in an overseas orphanage.)

Marybelle’s best friend, Gertrude, had a wonderful son, Dr. Mark. He was a pediatric dentist, who had devoted his life to helping the poorest of families receive dental care in Guatemala. He had no time for dating, but was home visiting his mother for Valentine’s Day.

  

Marybelle and Gertrude put their heads together and planned a night out at Olive Garden with their grown children for a special Valentine’s Day. They planned to “accidentally” run into each other and let Cupid do the rest.

Marybelle insisted her daughter wear the special red sweater. Ann, being the loving daughter, chuckled and obliged as she slipped it on…but prayed she would not see anybody she knew. She was totally unaware of the “Mark and Ann” heart amongst all the other buttons, bits, and bobs.

Olive Garden. 7:35 pm. Gertrude, Mark, Marybelle and Ann all arrive and the plan goes into action. Mark and Ann’s eyes meet and there is instant attraction. Ann cringes when she realizes she looks like a box of chocolates in her mother’s sweater of many doo-dads. She blushes. Mark laughs as he realizes the cause of her embarrassment, and remarks “I don’t think anybody could pull off that sweater as beautifully as you.”

 Gertrude and Marybelle request a separate booth. Mark and Ann do not notice. Their eyes never leave each other…through the salad, the breadsticks, the stuffed chicken marsala, the tiramisu, and….

They lived happy ever after! Happy REDnesday! Please visit Sue for other ladies who like a cheery splash of red in their life. If you think this sweater might be fun to wear, check it out in my Etsy store!

　

　

 

Girly-Girl Retro Room Decor!

Happy Pink Saturday to you all! One of my pet peeves is finding girl's clothing for my ten year old that is fun, feminine, and doesn't make her look like she is going out to a night club. I fell in love with this McCall's fabric which took me back in time with its sweet images of fashion days-gone-by. I just had to make something with it, and here are the results! These decorative pieces are listed in my Etsy store as my husband thought they were a little too girly for our bedroom. Can you believe?  

This blondie looks like a little pink cupcake, so I added a delicate pink crepe paper flower to the top of her head for her "icing". Isn't this a sweet dress?

The young lady below has her act together. She reminds me of a young Jackie Kennedy Onassis. She is very put together, and I decided she needed to not take life quite so seriously yet. A little bling bling in green was added as aspecial touch to her dress.

The blue-eyed beauty has flowers in her hair and wears a pretty blue frock with an added millinery flower to the waist. Does this dress come in my size?

 

Below is the perfect little school girl outfit. My mother would usually sew all of our school clothes. One year there must have been a little extra money because she took us to Sears. They had a sale on dresses...3 for $9.99! This reminds me of one of the dresses I excitedly picked out for the first day of school.

 

The next little model is dainty in a rose petal pink confection with the perfect flaired skirt. Her momma would be proud of the pose too as she shows off her very white gloves that match her perfectly white brushed teeth.

Enjoy your Pink Saturday and be sure to visit the other ladies who love a bit of pink in their lives over at How Sweet the Sound. In fact, why don't you give this blog a visit and see what you think: From the Basement Stairs.  Patricia will tell you about  aging Dollar Store roses today!

   
  
 
 

A Red Cherry Rednesday!

Today is Rednesday at It's a Very Cherry World!  Sue has one of those cutie patootie blogs with great graphics and vintage sweetness everywhere you look...and lots of cherries!

As a fellow cherry lover, I decided to participate. What makes me a cherry lover?

My kitchen is decorated in cherries.
Cherry Cherry Bang Bang is the name of my car. She has cherry decals!
Vintage cherry brooch collection
Cherry socks
Cherry tennis shoes
Cherry wallet
Cherry key
Cherry earrings
etc. etc. etc.

So, surely I can come up with just a few red treasures to show and tell...maybe?  So here is my first Rednesday show and tell, which happens to be cherries.

  I painted the egg plate at a fun place in town called Mud Hut Pottery. It's a paint-you-own-pottery store where you can just relax and be artistic and they take care of the glazing and firing. So far a devilled egg has not touched this plate, but I sure enjoy looking at it sitting on my cabinet. The plate rests in a nifty red cookbook stand, but alas, a cookbook does not give me the warm fuzzies this plate does.  

The candlesticks beside the plate also have a touch of red. They are the last gifts my late husband bought me before he died of cancer. We were in Houston for treatments at M.D. Anderson and were getting away from the hospital a bit. He struggled to walk into Michael's with me, and let me look around while he wandered a bit. When we got back to the car, he surprised me with these and was so proud he had spotted cherries! (We would have been married 30 years yesterday.)  

The red cookbook stand is new and was a wedding present when Bob and I got married! Life has moved forward, and I have a husband who is a great cook. He would probably enjoy using the stand for its original purpose, but has come to accept my wild cherry ways! That's one of the things that makes him so lovable. (We will be married two years on February 2nd!)

So happy Rednesday to you, and I hope you will go check out the other girl's who enjoy a happy shade of red in their life!
  

A 1947 Pink Saturday!

I had to gasp. But only when I was finished with it. Complete. Listed on Etsy. It was only then I realized what my prim and proper self had done... Oh, good heavenly days...I had just listed art work with women in their unmentionables!!! Now, I'm going to totally go off the deep end and post them for Pink Saturday!

I had to laugh and ask myself. Would I ever in a million years be posting pictures of girls from the Victoria's Secret catalog? NO way!!! What, if any, is the difference? Is it the appeal of the vintage goodness of it all? The simplicity of the photos in black and white? The fact that all the advertisements came from the very innocent Ladies Home Companion of September 1947?

  

I turned page after page of this lovely old magazine to find articles and ads full of hope and expectations. World War II was over and women had their men home. They were looking at the world with fresh optimism and yearning for a creamy tube of lipstick and a new-fangled washing machine. I cut and clipped for hours, and with my Mod Podge, glued lots of fresh faces onto complementary scrapbook papers and artist canvas. My ten year old daughter pointed to the shoes below and said, "Hey, we just saw that pair at T.J. Maxx!"

So, I am sorry if I have offended anyone with my 1940's girls in their nylons or bras, but they just seemed so feminine and classy in their black and white charm. What better back drop for a little splash of the perfect color pink? I added some delicate pink crepe paper flowers to the beauty's hair below.

After three months of busy-ness I am back to crafting and blogging. I enjoyed every minute of creating these three Glamour Girl Boudoir Art with little touches of vintage rhinestones, buttons, bits and bobs. May your New Year be full of hope and optimism and yes, a new tube of lipstick!

 
  
Visit other Pink Saturday participants at Beverly's How Sweet the Sound.   You will find a whole bunch of wonderful pink lovers including  Susie at 1st Floor Flat. She has a wonderful pink blog background she made and is giving away with instructions on how to do it. I plan on spending more time at her site for sure!