Melony's Whimsy Daisy!

If you've ended up with large lemons...

 
how about enjoying a plus-size lemonade? 

sigh.

I am linking up today to

for my tongue-in-cheek post I have entitled:

I Love Vintage Clothes-and if I Were a Size 8 I Would So Wear This

 

 

But would I wear a poofy petticoat under my I-Have-Slaved-Over-a-Hot-Stove-All-Day-For-You-Dress? Maybe I would enjoy this sweet little apron below with a floral ruffled detail and matching pockets as I cheerfully scrub my sink with Bon Ami... while flirting with helpful hubby... who is doing all the heavy lifting and admiring the flowery details of my pink apron. That is what he is admiring, isn't he?   

 

But, alas, I just seem to get chubbier and chubbier. Until I get my brain wrapped around the work it will take to rediscover my waist line, I will  have to wear the vintage ensembles I can find that fit...or, heaven forbid, I will have to wear regular clothes from this decade.

 
So, for now it's vintage 60's double knit (s-t-r-e-t-c-h) with the ascot tie and large brooch. Kind of mod-fun, but not my favorite style.  I really need to give up the Peppermint Patty kick I've been on and befriend asparagus again. Then I could wear this rose glamalicious dress to a garden party...if I were to ever get invited to one.

 
Photo from Fast Eddies Retro Rags

In the meantime, I'll put on a smile, count my blessings....and sincerely try to lay off the Cheetos.

 

 

Get Your Pig On!

I found something I loved today. Just one of those quirky things that tickled my fancy and sparked me to do a little research between loads of laundry, cooking potato  soup, and other Monday chores. What was it?

 

A vintage Piggly Wiggly uniform. (If you love it too, it's listed in my Etsy shop.)

 Piggly Wiggly began in 1916 and was on the cutting edge of grocery store marketing. Once upon a time you presented your grocery list to the clerk who gathered your items for you. (Think nosey Mrs. Oleson on Little House on the Prairie who ran the General Store.)

 

 Piggly Wiggly turned that on its ear by opening up the store to customers and allowing them to serve themselves and get their own grocery items. It was a revolutionary idea! Think of all the great slogans for this store...we help you bring home the bacon, etc. The cute pig shows up on all their advertising...sometimes even holding plates of ham and slabs of bacon. Ironic, huh?

 

 Piggly was the first to have grocery buggies and checkout stands. They were the first to have every item priced with a sticker and the first to put their employees in a uniform. Isn't this a great photo from a 1950's Piggly Wiggly Store? I love the sign in the photo above that says "exciting" promotional buys!

 

 Roadside Pictures on Flickr has some great retro photos from this era in history that is SO worth a look! That is where I found all these great Piggly Wiggly pictures.

 

Mr. Saunders, the original owner of the Piggly Wiggly brand left it a mystery where he got the funny name for his store. He sounds like quite a unique individual and ahead of his time, and there are still over 600 stores in sixteen southern states that proudly proclaim the Piggly Wiggly name. Look at those colors below...pink, yellow, blue, cream with big diamonds...tre' retro!

Well, if I hadn't already gone to my Sunday School costume party dressed as Angel Hosea, from Francine Rivers' book, REDEEMING LOVE, I would stick a name badge on this uniform, some bubblegum in my mouth and get ready to do a price check!  

 

Clean up on Aisle 4! Have a great week. I linked up with Apron Thrift Girl for Thrift Share Monday!

Back in the day...Pink Saturday.

Let's say it's 1976 and I am 15 again. I would have swooned over this dress in the store. Why? Well, first, it was from Riff's. Riff's was the exclusive downtown dress store where ladies who had social engagements...you know...teas, luncheons, country club dinners, galas, and other events (I imagined to be the most exciting soirees ever) shopped for their wardrobes.

 

My silly head was full of teenage romantic notions mainly brought on by my love of reading. I devoured books. We lived in the country and the library was "way across town" and not especially my mother's thing. Fortunately she did brake for garage sales! I would hide in the floorboard of our green wood-paneled station wagon begging Mother to "please don't stop" at garage sales. She stopped anyway. After she got out I would stay on the floorboard until I could accurately determine if the garage sale was taking place at a school friends' home. I did this on my knees and peering out with one eye out the bottom of the window. Once I figured all was clear and I would not be humiliated for life, I hopped out and thoroughly enjoyed myself. (Why was I so ridiculous? My poor Mother.)

With my hard earned babysitting money in my hormonal hand, I purchased dime-priced romance paperback books by the dozens. These were taken immediately to my lavender-painted teenage sanctuary and inhaled. Pages full of Harlequin heroines who wore creamy confections of lace ruffled dresses, dotted with blushing pink roses and mossy green leaves and whose hair shone like spun gold left me...

INSECURE, AWKWARD, UNREALISTIC IN MY EXPECTATIONS OF LIFE, and constantly DISGUSTED WITH MY DOUBLE-KNIT PLAID PANTSUITS WITH BELL BOTTOMS!  LOL!!!!

Actually, I'm fine...but oh, I would have loved to have owned this dress!

 
 

Oh well, I might could fit one leg into this dress now...but I sure enjoy myself more than when I was 15 and hiding from my imagined humiliations. I proudly brake for garage sales, realize spun gold hair is easily obtained in a box, and know first hand... teas and social engagements do not the woman make!  I never made it to Riff's, but I have my own little Etsy Shop with this dream dress for sale. I hope some silly teenage girl will buy it with her babysitting money. 

Oh, and I am very blessed to have romance in my life.

Blush.

Happy Pink Saturday to you! Check out all the other ladies who love a little pink in their life. It's a great color!

 

 

 

She felt like trash...but she was His treasure...

This will be a different makeover post and I wanted to share for REDnesday at Sue Loves Cherries Blog! ! My Sunday School class had a costume party a few weeks ago, and I LOVE dressing up! I challenged myself to make my costume with bits and fluff I already had. I put my thinking cap on and settled on the characters from one of my very favorite books of all time... Redeeming Love , by Christian author, Francine Rivers. It is one of the most romantic books I have ever read and is a love story to top all love stories. Based on the book of Hosea in the Bible, but this romance is set in 1850's America. I have bought this book and passed it on again and again. I even asked my future son-in-law to read it before he married my daughter. He did!!! (I get no credit for mentioning this book, I would just love for you to read it too and it goes with my craft story.)

So, I began assembling my costume for my interpretation of Angel using what I had at home. My 11 year-old daughter decided to "help" clean up my camera and deleted all my pictures of how I made the costume. She couldn't understand why I would want to keep pictures of glue, scissors, cake rounds and such. ugghhh. So I will show you the finished product. I enjoyed my night of fun wearing my costume and have now listed it in my Etsy Shop for someone else to enjoy.

 

I had a dress from Cato's (5.99) that hung in my closet forever and combined it with a very vintage Goodwill red petticoat (3.99) that I have stashed for years. Then, I just kept adding to it. I had the purse in my closet too. I thought it looked like it went with the ensemble, but I've never really been a saloon girl, so who knows?  This is the first time I've linked up to Apron Thrift Girl's

 
I layered with a red lace camisole from my lingerie drawer and a beaded shawl that's been around forever and I never could figure out what to wear with it. Now I know! Old vintage red buttons and trims gave the teal and black lace overdress a scallopy effect over the petticoat.

 
 
The cameo necklace was pulled from my jewelry box and the hat was so much fun to make. I started with a cardboard cake round and covered it with some extra fabric from the dress, and then added roses from a recent bridesmaid boquet, some Dollar Store tea-stained birds, some feathery boa stuff, and all of it just hot glued to the round and then hot glued to a lace covered headband.

 

I made a bustle by sewing on layers of netting and fabric and ribbon to a big ol' wide elastic and then I just cinched it to the size I needed. I hot glued roses to the bustle too. A vintage, or in this case, a Dollar General Store brooch cinched the elastic bustle and holds it together. Easy peasy...just took some time.

 

Closeup of the hat:

 

We had  such a good time at the party. I carried a copy of the book and sure enough found someone who hadn't read it and got to give it away. Perhaps some are surprised at a Sunday School teacher going dressed up as a prostitute/saloon girl, but it was a blessing to be able to share the story of Angel and Michael, her husband, who chose to love her unconditionally and stood by her as God changed her life. It is a beautiful story of God's unconditional redemptive love for us and I would love for you to read this book! I won't even ask you to write a book report!  
 
Much love to my husband, Bob...who is my Michael Hosea with his unconditional love. He looks so serious and gruff here, but he is as sweet as pumpkin pie...most of the time. :)  

Linking up with:

Life as Lori at Get Your Craft on Thursday!

Colorado Lady for Vintage Thingie Thursday!

The Shabby Chic Cottage and Transformation Thursday!

Great costume ideas here: Costume Link Party at Mad in Crafts and also to:

 

and Apron Thrift Girl's Make and Share.

You won't see this kind of post often from me...

I'm writing about cooking. gasp.

It may never happen again. I was doing some blog-hopping and came across I Love Naptime: A Time to Create One Chocolate Sundae at a Time. It must be that time of the month when I just want to eat everything in sight, because with my little eye I did spy one awesome dish of cheesey goodness with a recipe on Jamielyn's cute blog. I don't know what exactly possessed me, but I decided to cook up the Creamy Chicken Enchiladas.

Just like the little red hen...and so I did.

 
I'm usually awful at following recipes, but I proudly managed to stick to the correct ingredients except I added cilantro and I used about twice as much as she called for of the heavy cream because I used a lot more chicken. Hope that makes sense. I even found the sauce she mentioned that I had never heard of before in my life called El Pato. It was at Wal-Mart!  So, give Jamielyn a visit over at her blog and I double-dog dare you to give the recipe a try. It was very delicious!

11 year old daughter (horrified): Mama! You are taking pictures of our food now???

Me,the happy cooking blogger(innocently) : Of course, is that unusual?

On another completely unrelated note. Look at what my friend wore to Sunday School on a cute black and white polka dot sweater. She said her aunt made it! I didn't have time to ask more questions about "how" her aunt made it as I had to teach the lesson, but I did run to get my camera and take a picture so I could stare at it later. Isn't this gigantic spider something?

 

 

 

This Mayhem Needs a Little Organization!

It is so nice to be participating in Pink Saturday again. Click on the badge above to visit lots and lots of other ladies who love a little pink in their life. I am also loving all the great crafty ideas at the Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello!

My Craft Cottage is a mess! Don't let these pictures fool you for a second. I'm snapping the neat side of the room. The other side is a disaster with a capital D. It is overwhelming, so I am trying to tackle the situation one sack (of Goodwill treasures), one box (of old fabric), and one tub (of vintage clothes) at a time.

Accomplished:

Two old basket purses spray painted and hung on the wall. Every little bit of space needs to be used.

 
The baskets are filled with "stuff"... Mary Engelbreit paper goods bought on the cheap, cheap, cheap and waiting for a craft project or a party...whichever comes first!

 

Little by little, things are finding their place.

 
Hope you have a beautiful weekend! I am still enjoying my newly decopauged freebie filing cabinet. Read about in my blog post below!

 

 

Old Church Filing Cabinet gets Glorified with Decopauge!

I was excited to have the opportunity to obtain an old filing cabinet from a local church. For many years it served faithfully holding the Sunday School rolls from each class. It had seen better days and suffered from some dents and bangs. Nobody seemed to want it, so I was the blessed girl to load it up in the Cherry Cherry Bang Bang (my little red car) and tote it home. There is something very therapeutic for me in giving something old and battered a new life.

 
I have a favorite tool. I never lose it. It is my fingernail. I used it to scratch off all the high-tech labels on each of the drawers. I decided NOT to paint the cabinet, as paint would have highlighted every "wrinkle" so to speak. It needed some major concealer with good coverage.

 
So, I decided to decopauge. I love to decopauge and it was the perfect "makeup" for my well-worn cabinet. I began to gather my supplies.

• four or five different fabrics
• Mod Podge (check out Modge Podge Rocks blog for other project ideas)
• paintbrush
• paper plate (I pour my glue on the plate and then dip brush)
• small jar of water (to dilute glue if necessary)
• a little miscellaneous trim for some rough edges
• scissors
•  iced tea and Peppermint Patties for sustenance and optimal concentration

I used one large piece of fabric for the top of the cabinet. I added several coats of Mod Podge to make sure it was sealed properly as I knew I would be setting lots of stuff on the top. This was very easy and went quickly.

 

Then came decopauging the drawers.

Oh the drawers!!! 

27 drawers.

Twenty seven drawers.

20 + 3 + 4 = 27 drawers.

I mixed, matched, and Mod Podged. For hours I snipped, slapped on and situated, scrap after scrap of fabric onto each and every one of the 27 individual drawers until they were covered in fabric fabulosity. Here is the filing cabinet making her debut in my Craft Cottage!  

I just love how it turned out. I think it looks something out of the Cath Kidston Store. Or, perhaps, Mary Engelbreit could be storing some of her cheery cherry artwork in a red polka-dot drawer? I am linking up to It's a Very Cherry World for REDnesday.  I think Sue will enjoy this Show and Tell.

Here is a side view where I have some wonky trim placement. No, no. Let me call it "handmade charm". I don't know what happened. Maybe I was one Peppermint Patty short in the concentration department after dealing with all those drawers, but I can live with the imperfection.

 

I wanted to be finished at this point, but throughout my childhood I heard, "if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right." So, I completed the back...even though NOBODY will ever see it, I will know it is looking good on the backside too. I admit I rushed through it willy nilly, so don't look too close.

 

At a recent Sunday School garage sale we were raising money for missions. My good friend, Nancy, was like a Queen Bee, buzzing around "staging" our merchandise to show it at its best and get it sold. So, I pulled a "Nancy" and decided to do some "staging" of my filing cabinet. The cherries, you saw earlier, in the glass bowl came from the aforementioned garage sale. I bought the cherries to replace one missing cherry on my red polka dot shoes. They were quite the bargain for 50 cents, as they repaired my shoes and are now serving double decorative duty on the cabinet.

Next, a 99 cent Goodwill old metal colander filled with some of my vintage hankies placed on the top of the jazzed up filing cabinet.

 
Pink roses are at home most anywhere...

 

Bob, my neat, orderly, Windex-lovin', all-the-world-should-be-chrome-and-glass-with-abstract-modern-art, wonderful, husband informed me he had been concerned about me when he saw me glueing fabric to an old filing cabinet. Here is our conversation when he saw the completed project.

~~~~~~~~~~

Bob (shocked): Wow! That looks really good honey!

Me: I know! *

Bob (surprised): You're supposed to say thank you when someone compliments you.

Me: I will thank you tomorrow. Right now I'm basking in the afterglow of a craft project that exceeded my expectations.

Bob (looking at the cabinet again): Honestly, it looks great!

Me: I know!

~~~~~~~~~

*note: I've had many many craft disasters, failures, malfunctions, so I promise I'm not being pompous. I'm just so happy with my filing cabinet! Please join me in my afterglow. Oh, and the pictures that are hanging above the filing cabinet are for sale in my Etsy Shop!

 

Hooking up to some great blogs parties. Visit them for some inspirational creative ideas for your home and the upcoming holidays.