Melony's Whimsy Daisy!

On and Off-the-Wall at the Craft Cottage

Happy Pink Saturday to all of you patrons of pink. I have a touch of pink here and there I would like to show you on one of the walls in my Craft Cottage.

I was tickled to discover an old chipped yellow feed store seed packet holder at an antique store. I spray painted it a perfect pink and have added some of my old patterns. No! Sigh. I have not sewed one of these patterns...not even one... but I think of it as art on the wall. I just enjoy the look of these wonderful ladies posing.

 

This holder is made where it can sit on a cabinet, but that kind of space is not to be had at the moment, so it was better to hang it. I'm not so sure what these two girlies think of it. One looks pretty miffed, but the other chicky is just concerned about her hair. Oh well...

 

I have had the little dress below for a long time. I cannot remember where I found it, but it really represents everything wonderful about vintage in one teeny tiny little dress. It combines sweet, the perfect shades of pink and aqua rick-rack, a frilly petticoat underneath, and an adorable old-fashioned brand name...Lucy Jane. What's not to love?

***Okay, right now, I'm daydreaming if I had a baby it could be a girl, and I would name her Lucy Jane and she would wear this dress.***  (By the way, that was the off-the-wall portion of my post today.)

 Ironing is not such a chore when I have this cute ironing board cover...or so I have tricked myself into thinking. I am one of those strange people who actually enjoys ironing, but I must admit it is more fun with these enthusiastic ladies.

 

and my old Goodwill iron with aqua accents and cord...

 

Also on this same wall stands my dress form wearing the vintage apron that was the color inspiration for my entire Craft Cottage. Look at detail in this apron and I think the combination of these colors are so cheerful.

 

Somebody had such patience with all these beautiful stitches. I like the little touch of pink.

 

On and off-the-wall adds up to this in my Craft Cottage. It could all change tomorrow!

 Please take the time to click in my sidebar and visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound and all the other Pink Saturday participants...like pinkbuttercreme's blog. 

I showed restraint on Pink Saturday!

At a local antique store I discovered a homemade little chest or caddy that was supposedly made by a young son for his mother. The price was right and the story was appealing and I brought it home. Oh, how I longed to paint it pink. But, I wrestled myself and gave myself a talking to about trying to show some restraint and challenge myself to do something a little different with a touch of the pink I loved, but no so blatantly pink.

My goal is to have a cozy little guest room for a visitor. I want to offer a room that has the feel of comfort, sweetness, times-gone-by, and offers not necessarily entertainment...but hospitality. (Entertaining and offering hospitality are two totally different matters.) So, this little chest is going to be a Hospitality Chest to fill up with nice little treats and comforts for those who I might have the privilege of hostessing. It is the first step to providing a bit of a cozy retreat in a guest room. Visit The Inspired Room to read about other ways to enjoy a Beautiful Life.  

Here is what I started out with. Homely but with good bones. Even the photo is sort of sad looking.

 

I left the paint "as is". I still can't believe I was able to leave it alone. I got out my vintage cards and made some copies of my favorites. I cut out bits of the card and made little scenes that were pleasing to my eye. Using some Mod Podge I glued them to the piece.

 

 

and a little rose in the corner...

 

I added a Cath Kidston napkin to the bottom shelf and another kitty image from a vintage greeting card. I also hot glued some rick-rick for added charm, which will show up in a later photo.  

I did add a little pop of green...can you BELIEVE...green???? I really like it, especially with a Cath Kidston stationary sticker added to the center and a little pink rick-rack added through the latch. I take that back. I adde a Cath Kidston sticker to the center, but it just didn't go, so then I glued an image of a little boquet off another old card over the sticker and Mod-Podged over that.

 

I've been hoarding back some sweet perfumed drawer liner paper. I lined the inside of the piece with it, which was sort of tricky and isn't very neat. Oh well...I am not a perfectionist and I plan on filling this little chest!

  I just love this little wienie dog.He is a copy of an image on a vintage greeting card. I added some vintage buttons to the rick-rack frame. I think it's my favorite part of the little chest.

 

Using the drawer liner...I cut out hundreds of little roses and glued them to the chest. I still was fighting myself from stopping the whole process and painting the whole thing pink. Here is the finished chest empty. I plan on using it in a guest bedroom as a Hospitality Chest. The last picture will show it full of stuff that might welcome a guest and say, "I'm glad you're here. May your stay be blessed."

I threw this stuff in to give you the right idea. I think I will have to put some chocolate and other goodies in when guests come.

 

So, there it is Pink Saturday...restrained! Thanks for stopping by. Please go and pay a visit to all the other creative girls who love a splash or two of pink in their life at

Beverly's How Sweet the Sound! 

 

 

Happy Pink Saturday is running late...

I've got to go to bed girls. I want to get my Pink Saturday post up, but it is nearly one in the morning and so I'm giving up for the evening...morning...you know what I mean! I just finished putting the last little finishing touches on my project, but need to take pictures. Won't you please come back later today and see what I've done? I think it turned out pretty cute and I'm excited to show you. My project involved:

small piece of furniture

Cath Kiston paper tissue

vintage greeting cards

lots of glue

rickrack

roses

drawer liner

vintage buttons

paint

PINK!

Yawn....

Operation Arkansas

I'm hopping down a little bunny trail from my crafty blog today, but will be back in the next little bit with some completed pictures of Craft Cottage projects.

Bob's Marine training kicked in as we prepared for our 4th of July annual pilgrimage to visit my family. Operation Arkansas went into full steam ahead as the truck was cleaned and shined, gassed and oiled, and strategically pre-packed with suitcases the night before. I received a special Husband Waiver to do a last minute loading of my makeup and hot rollers. Departure time: zero dark thirty.

We arrived at our destination successfully (and without a lot of "unnecessary" stopping) and I got to meet and kiss on one of my brand new kinfolks! Are babies just not absolutely heavenly?

I laughed as I watched my daughter, Daisy, being so dramatic with her cousin as they watched the family firework extravaganza. Where do they get their flair for the theatrical?

Tears were shed too, as my sisters and I watch my Mother struggle with Alzheimers. She didn't know me much of the time and how I miss her! What a cruel disease and what a heartbreak for those, like my Daddy, (and my two sisters who live nearby), who live with its horrible affects on a daily basis. Yet...God was good to give us happy moments amongst the sad.

There were new adventures to be lived out as my husband enjoyed "playing" with a Big Boy toy! He had so much fun digging a hole! (and to think I was always happy with a little shovel and pail!)

 

No summer vacation is complete without a little swim time! I heard on the radio today that blended families, such as mine, can take up to seven years to truly gel. This picture allows me see how far we've come in a year and a half. Bob married me, a widow, and stepped in to be the father of my two youngest children. I am so thankful families can come together and love each other even when there is not a gene shared amongst any of us...we are a family!

 

Here is a goofy picture of me. Why? So much of the time my Mother was behind the camera taking pictures of us. I wish we had more pictures of her! So, on a whim, I took this silly picture of me while the kids were swimming. I want them to someday look at this picture and laugh, and know they had a silly momma who loved them!

   Life is full of fun and fireworks, laughter and tears, fresh sweet babies to kiss, and dear old ones to hold close while you can. Cherish the moments and snap a few goofball pictures of yourself along the way. Your children will be glad you did!  

Pink Mama Saturday!

  What a special Pink Saturday with Mother's Day to follow tomorrow! I couldn't let the day go by without a little stroll down memory lane. I am blessed to still have my mother. My heart goes out to those of you who would dearly love to hug or call your mom this Mother's Day,but she has passed away. 

My mother has Alzheimer's. This is the first time I've written those words here on my blog. It is hard to see those words in the starkness of their reality, and accept all that word means for my mother, my sisters, my father, and for me... my mother's child. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and I cherish the time I have with my mother and those priceless moments when there is a connection... a shared memory, or a shared laugh. Those moments are truly pink wrapped gifts from God and I thank Him.

 Mother was 20 years old in the picture above, and I (her first born) was 3 months old... my mouth wide open. Isn't Mother beautiful?  She has been an inspiration to me throughout my years of raising children. Fast forward twenty years to a picture of me below with my first born...mouth wide open. What's up with that?

Mother is now 67 years old. Still beautiful. She doesn't even color her hair and only has a tiny bit of gray! My mother has always enjoyed pretty things. I can remember her gluing fabric to our living room wall back in the early 70's. It looked awesome and I now wonder where she got the idea. This was before HGTV, and I don't remember her having the luxury of extra money for magazines. She was great at arranging pictures and her knick-knacks in a cute way. 

Mother loved garage sales, which was totally humiliating to me in my teenage years. I would lay in the floorboard of our wood-paneled lime-green station wagon, and pray the sale was not at a house of a schoolmate. My first pair of blue jeans came from one of those sales. Once I pulled myself up off the floorboard, I was thrilled to own a pair of jeans!!! Thanks Mother!

Here is a little bit of pink to wind up another Pink Saturday and to pay tribute to my mother. I took some doors off the kitchen cabinets, so my garage sale pink goodies could be seen and enjoyed instead of shoved into some dark cranny somewhere.

The ceramic set on the top shelf looks very Mary Englebreit-ish to me and was the last gift my late husband was able to physically go into a store and pick out for me before he died of cancer. I have put lots of my pink odds and ends together on the middle shelf. I like the impact of all that pink together...the old glass pitcher, refrigerator dish, salt and pepper shakers, and old melmac dishes...and probably a few dust bunnies here and there. I love the old SPICE shelf, even though I don't use it for such, and I enjoy the colors of the advertisement measuring cups. Aren't pink, turquoise, red, and yellow a wonderful combination?

Check out  Bevery at How Sweet the Sound to visit other girls who have a thing for pink. It's so much fun to get a glass of tea and sit down and visit all the sites. 

Happy Mother's Day to all! 

A few more peeks through my sister's window.

 

Maw-Maw loved posing us grandchildren for pictures with all of her sentimental doo-dads. This particular day, my younger sister, Jill and I are posing with our grandmother's childhood doll, Frankie (bottom left) and DeeRay (her oldest son's rag doll). I can see my Skipper Barbie doll sitting beside me on the arm chair. The Barbie kitchen sits on the floor below.

Jill and I spent hours...no years... playing house together as children. Maw-Maw says I would never let Jill pretend to be the Mama, and when friends asked Jill what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would sigh sadly and pitifully answer, "I guess I'll be a daddy." Thankfully, I didn't warp my sister for life and she has a wonderful husband and is the mama, not the daddy, to three children. 

Here are a few more little peeks into my sister's home.

 Unless I have lost my mind, which is quite possible, I think I bought this sweet figurine as a gift for Jill. These girls sit on a shelf with other sentimental objects my sister has collected through the years, and represents our little visits to see each other and the fun we've shared over the years. Jill, if you read this and this is totally not true...well, I don't know what to tell you. I SHOULD have bought it for you! ha ha!

 

Jill doesn't have a huge kitchen, but I love the way she carefully displays what she has, and has had to go UP the wall with a lot of her decor because of space. Lots of eye candy...old cookbooks, tea pots, good vintage reds and greens. Jill's kitchen is very fresh looking and homey.

 

When Jill and I shop together we are often drawn to the same items. Somehow we have never had any catfights over a vintage item! Our mother raised us to share, right Jill?

Jill makes a lot of her stuff instead of buying it, and I think that gives her home lots of personality. She painted the friendly sign below. 

 Jill and her family lived in Australia for two years. She learned to love tea time with her friends over there. I'm pretty sure everything on this shelf is sentimental in regard to tea time, and I recognize the polka dotted album. I have one just like it that my Maw-Maw filled with family recipes.

 

I have two other younger sisters...Wendy and Lori. When I go visit them, I will have to ask if I can blog about their homes. That would be great fun, as they both have their unique personalities too.

Thank you, Jill, for allowing me to highlight some of your home's special nooks and crannies!

Yes, it's Monday...but...

 It is....

No matter what happens on Monday I enjoy knowing I have clean, sweet-smelling sheets to crawl into at the end of the day. The debate today was making the decision to keep out the cozy flannel sheets or get out the crisp summery cotton ones. I just couldn't put the flannels away just yet, so on went the polka dot flannels for tonight. East Texas weather can fool you. We could have a cool spell, or high winds, rain, or drought. One never knows.

 (NOTE: Clean Sheet Monday is NOT written on our wall.)

For those of you new to my blog...Do you wonder how in the world I ended up with this gigantic abstract painting in a black lacquered frame in my vintagey-cottagey old farmhouse? I promised my husband, when we married, I would not fill the bedroom or his office with my treasures and we could use his (cough, cough) art work for those rooms. My Bob LOVES this piece of art and finds it so soothing. I think it looks...disturbed and confused. But, I LOVE Bob and so I've grown adjusted to the painting as he has had to adjust to my (cough, cough) treasures. 

Plus, Bob didn't put up a fuss over polka-dot sheets. I'm sure he would rather be snoring on a basic, plain (boring) blue. He also accepted my homemade pillow even though I added one pink (heaven forbid) snowflake for embellishment. Marriage. Compromise. Give. Take.  

These petunias volunteered to come up again for me this year. So beautiful. I want to introduce you to a dear sweet friend of mine who is an amazing mama and now an award winning volunteer! Amy and I met each other online in 1999 as we were preparing to adopt. We became fast friends and our families were thrilled to travel to China together to meet our daughters. Oh, my. I can't even begin to tell you what an adventurous time in our lives that was. 

Amy grieved with me after my husband Kent died, and last year when I remarried, she was there to celebrate with me. She is a lovely dear person inside and out.

 

I want to celebrate with her, as she is in New York City tonight receiving an amazing award from Cookie Magazine ...along with Debra Messing, Salma Hayek, Uma Thurman, and others.   Amy came home with her daughter, Anna, but also a huge heart full of love for the children left behind in China's orphanages. She didn't just fret or wish or wonder...my friend got to work! She has poured so much of her life into helping the orphans of China. You can read her story on the link above.

Friends Forever... Anna (Amy's daughter) and Daisy at my wedding last year.

So, here is a big huge thank you to Cookie Magazine for honoring my very humble and much deserving friend. $35,000 will go to the foundation Amy began: Love Without Boundaries. Please read about this unusual charity that is operated entirely by volunteers because they want every donated penny to go to the children. 

 

Here is Amy's picture in the upcoming issue of Cookie, which hits news stands on April 22nd! Isn't it wonderful what God can do through one mama with a willing heart? Amy is so happy. Not that she is being recognized. Oh no. She is not a limelight kind of girl. She is so excited to know how many children's lives will be changed with the money she will receive.

I am so proud of you, Amy!!!

Life can change in the blink of an eye...

and so it did. One minute we are eating at Pizza Hut and the next we are being lifeflighted to Dallas Children's Hospital. My ten year old, daughter, Daisy has been diagnosed with a kidney disease. Thank God it is treatable, although extremely serious. We have been learning how to adjust and she will not go back to school until next week.

So, there has been zero times for crafts and fun, but lots of time for praying for my little girl. Now I am thanking God for all the wonderful friends and family I have who have seen us through a rough few weeks.

I hope to be back to blogging before too long.  

Daisy is relaxed as she gets ready to go on the jet plane to Children's Medical. She has no idea how sick she is...neither did I. Her blood pressure is 158/118.  

Our ride. I have no idea how much this ride will cost us...but, when it comes to your children, one is just so thankful to have this option.

 

Three of Daisy's brothers and sis-in-law met us in Dallas. They actually beat the plane.

Daisy's kidneys are not functioning properly and her body has gone from 60 pounds to 80 pounds. She is upset how she looks and so her sister, Molly, takes her for a walk and a pep talk.

Daddy Bob sits by Daisy. She is miserable and exhausted from all the needles, doctors, and questions. Daisy hides under her huge stuffed animal, Tiny Jr. 

We are released from the hospital. Daisy still looks swollen and looks worse than when we first arrived. I don't feel confident about the situation.  

 

Daisy continues to be swollen and miserable. Her blood pressure is sky high. We end up in the emergency room again, and are told to make our way back to Dallas. Things are not as they should be.

Daisy is put on high blood pressure medicine. The steroids at last kick in at the hospital, and the kidneys start doing their job. Daisy loses twenty pounds in two days! I call her the Peeing Princess!

 

Below is a picture of Daisy today. She is still not totally 100% and has lost a little too much weight now. She is regaining her strength and I hope she will continue to improve. The name of her disease is Nephrotic Syndrome Minimal Change Disease. God has been good to us and I am so thankful to be home with my daughter. She is a blessing to me and her family!

Clean Sheet Monday!

Monday started out with the usual "yucks". I love being a stay at home mom.  Addressing the yucks is part of the job, so this isn't a complaining post. It's more of a eat-the-squishy-English-peas-first, so-you-can-enjoy-the-macaroni-and-cheese on your plate kind of post.

I don't have the Fly Lady routine down at all. My first picture will make that quite clear- if you are familiar with the Fly Lady. She has a great philosphy about not going to bed until your sink is emptied of dirty dishes and scrubbed out. That way you will be greeted with a clean sink in the morning. It's a great idea, but I don't always pull it off. So here is the ugly "English pea" Monday morning Before picture.

 

and then the macaroni and cheese After picture. So much better, isn't it?

 

Yucky squishy pea picture below...and apologies to all of you who LOVE English peas.

and then cheesy warm macaroni and cheese After picture:

 

Ugly green pea pile of towels:

and now, the nice, sweet-smelling, folded and put away macaroni and cheese picture:

Getting the English pea portion of the day out of the way allows me to have a little fun. I found a 99 cent Retirement Fund bank at the Goodwill for my husband who...

1. gives me a hard time over my fondness for Goodwill and

2. schools me often on the seriousness of retirement savings.

I figure I have made us both happy with this purchase, and have been so nice to include twenty three cents to get him off to a good start!

 

Then, I took two packages of pink Valentine hearts from the Dollar Tree, threw in some pink colored felt into an old vase, and stuck a bow on the front, to make a quickie arrangement. I sat it on an old hanky, along with an embroidered frame with pictures of my two oldest boys when they were little, and a vintage teacup with a candle. I am now a satisfied woman, and have clean sheets to look forward to tonight on this dreary, cold, rainy Texas evening!

 

Wishing everybody clean cozy sheets for this Monday night!

Sometimes this is what it takes

When I was a little girl, I just hated when my mother put her hair in a ponytail. It was a sign. A bad sign. That ponytail said, "We are all going to be cleaning house today." All of us girls dreaded to see that ponytail, as we knew it was officially the end of our Saturday goof-off plans.

Now, I have my sign. I should say signs! It takes a certain mind-set and wardrobe for me to pull off a big job. I would rather be crafting. Not only do I put my hair in a ponytail, but I also have to be wearing these shoes. They are old and ugly. I bought them because they were so cheap, even though they are a size and a half too big. I cannot clean wearing flip flops or being barefoot. Ick. It is one of my many quirks.

I prefer to wear something with elastic in the waist. Who wants to be wearing tight jeans to have to constantly bend over, stretch, and clean stuff out from bottom shelves, or drag out things from under the bed? I had to dig to the bottom of my drawer to find these old sweat pants that are WAAAYYYY too short (nothing else suitable was clean) but nobody was going to see me, so I didn't care. I am not showing you my old t-shirt I'm wearing. It's sort of sad too...and no make up.

The good news is, donned in my clown-like unmatching work wardrobe, I accomplished what I wanted to today! I cleaned out a closet that was absolutely atrocious. I couldn't see the floor, and it was at least a couple of feet deep in clothes, shoes, new stuff with price tags, in bags, that never were taken back (very bad of me and I'm ashamed), and future Christmas presents. 

Yes, I deserve to be on the Homemakers Worst Dressed List, but I have a clean closet! Loads of laundry have been folded and put away, and  macaroni and cheese has been made to finish off the day. How did June Cleaver ever clean in her heels and pearls?