vintage finds Archives - girl. Inspired.

Vintage Typewriter Makeover

August 27, 2012 by girlinspired 39 Comments

I have a favorite antique shop. I’m telling you, this guy is awesome. It could be because I’m a stay at home mom that doesn’t get out much to socialize with adults, but I really think Paul, the shop owner, has a special fondness for me. He always has something that I like and always gives me a price that I can’t resist. One time, last year, I stopped in with wild abandon to snatch up an iron bed for my mom. When Paul said he thought of me when he found it, I knew I was part of the inner circle. Made my whole week. Really, though, the guy probably thinks I’m nuts. He must wonder what I do with all my treasures that I drag home. He rarely asks. Last week, he had two typewriters stashed in the shop. I asked how much he wanted for them, but I had to leave them behind. See, I have a rule that I have to come up with a legitimate use for an item before I drag it home. Mostly, I need a good story for my husband. A “this is why I’m stashing another old, dusty thing in the garage” sort of story. So I came up with a “good use” and went to get one of the typewriters. I was so excited, this treasure went straight to the top of the project list. I cleaned the cobwebs out of it with a toothbrush and taped it up good. A few coats of pink spray paint and I have a great little photo prop.

before


after

It’s funny because Paul actually asked what I was going to do with the typewriter. I mumbled something about painting it pink. I don’t think that was the right answer; he seemed to cringe a little. Oh well. I think she came out preeeeettty. That’s a good use, right? To look pretty?

What do you think? Do you like the pink typewriter?? Do you have a favorite antique shop? Why is it your favorite? Does anyone else ever pretend they’re part of an inner circle?

Roses are ‘Abraham Darby’ by David Austin

visiting Napa Valley

July 21, 2011 by girlinspired 7 Comments

Last week, Graham and I snuck away for a couple days to visit beautiful Napa Valley. My sister stayed home with the girls, which gave us some much-needed adult time. We’ve left the girls overnight a couple times before, but only to attend a wedding or work function. This was so incredibly nice to go on a real mini-vacation with no agenda and just each others’ company. We strolled the shops in Sonoma, ate some fantastic food, visited the wineries of our favorite wines, and took the long, windy way home. My camera’s battery light started flashing as soon as we set out, so I limited my picture-taking, but here are a few favorites from the trip….

favorite estate sale treasures

favorite landscaping

at Clos du Val

favorite architecture

at Beringer

favorite wow, that’s a lot of vineyards moment


from Silverado tasting room

favorite wine

Stag’s Leap

favorite summer flowers

Have you had a getaway lately? Where’s your favorite place to go? I’d like to start a list for “next time.”

the party details

June 20, 2011 by girlinspired 17 Comments

warm. romantic. innocent. whimsical. carefree. soft. nostalgic.

When I plan one of the girls’ birthday parties, I have to start with a theme, either an object or a color scheme or a feeling. When they are too young to dictate these things, I get to choose and I typically choose the birthday girl’s favorite animal, toy, or activity as the springboard for my creative process. I knew this would be the last year I’d have free reign on a birthday party theme, so I could. not. resist. the tea party theme.

Once I have a theme, I start looking for fabric or paper that coordinates and the details develop from there. In this case, I was already working with a particular line of fabric for Addie’s bedroom and I was excited to work it into the decor. I knew that bringing some fabric outside would soften the environment. Plus I love dual function. Bedroom decor that doubles as party decor. perfect. Finished pieces included several throw pillows and a quilt. Fabric line is Penelope by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods.

With the leftover material, I made a very scrappy streamer thingy. Tissue paper puffs, knotted fabric strips, fabric pennants, coffee filter balls…I draped the streamer from the outer tree branches to the chandelier in the middle and it totally dressed up the whole area.

For extra whimsy, I tied a few huge balloons on really long ribbons to float around the perimeter of the party. This balloon was tied to a little chalkboard arrow sign that read “Tea Party”. (Sometimes I like to balance my dual-purpose items with totally purposeless items….)

HAD to have hats for the party. After the royal wedding, can anyone honestly say they don’t want an excuse to put something big and extravagant on their head? I got so giddy making hats for the girls and myself, I called my mom and sister to make sure they wanted one, too. “Oh, no, I just can’t stand wearing something on my head,” they both said. Suit yourself. Then mom came over to play tea party treat making with me. You should have seen her face when I showed her my hat. She spent a good part of the rest of the night making hats for herself, my sister, and my sis-in-law. You can find more details on how to make fascinators here.

After coming across this blog, I was smitten with the idea of including little food labels on the treat table. I had purchased some digital brushes from House of 3 before they closed up shop and this was the perfect little project to play around in Photoshop. I don’t know a drop of French, but it was great entertainment typing the names of my desserts into an online translator. Whether they translated correctly or not is a mute point as none of us read or speak French. (another purposeless detail…) The “eat Cake” accent was also a House of 3 printable. I just recently saw some of these designs at a scrapbook store, so you may be able to get stamps or printouts that way. They are part of the Parisian Anthology line. Olivia and I just doctored everything up with a little glitter.

And finally, the tea itself. You remember the china and the cups and saucers and linens that we thrifted? Well, they all came together beautifully, don’t you think?

Water was the preferred base for the girls’ beverage concoctions. Want to make some adorable little sugar “cubes?” just mix some granulated sugar with a few drops of water and a little food coloring and stir into a paste. Pack into a candy or butter mold and immediately dump out onto wax paper; allow to dry. I need to do a little more research on the coloring part of this because my sugar cubes faded after a couple days – thoughts on that? Also, how much fun would it be to serve pink “tea?” I didn’t remember that trick until the day after the party when I was taking these sugar cube closeups. aw, well, I can do the pink tea for Olivia’s birthday in September. Her party theme choice has evolved from “butterfly” to “butterfly tea party.”

What do you think? Does it look like this two year old is having fun?

Details of the Secret Garden Cake can be found here.

chandelier love

May 25, 2011 by girlinspired 12 Comments

I am so SO excited to share with you my little chandelier love project. Sometime last summer, I drove up to the stop sign in front of my little antique shop. While the drivers around me scowled, I scanned the storefront for new treasures. Seeing two shabby chandeliers hanging in the window, I drove on trying to dream up a use for them. I had none. But I couldn’t stop thinking about them. When the objects of my fantasy chandelier makeover were still hanging in the window a couple weeks later, I made my move.

I lugged home both chandeliers and tried to avoid the rolling eyes and disapproving glare of my dear husband. They were stashed in storage since, still, I had no use for them. Recently, I started thinking that a chandelier hanging over our tea party table might not be a bad idea.

So, I got out the big chandelier, which cost just $10 because it was missing some parts, and I started layering coats of spray paint (Rust-o-leum heirloom white). Then I added some shiny new light bulbs. When I realized that she was looking pretty good, I did some online hunting and found all the parts I needed to spruce her up (I got the parts here). I used E6000 to adhere new leaves on the bottom of the arms as several of them were missing. I drilled holes in the tips of the leaves with the tiniest drill bit I could find; this worked great for adding some extra crystal pendants. I hung various sizes of crystal pendants and a string of crystal beads.

I can’t get over just how great of a transformation this was! In fact, my disapproving husband has changed his tune entirely and agrees with me that the shabby chandy just might make a perfect new light fixture over our kitchen table. I do still intend to hang it outside for the tea party so it’s just rigged up above the table in the name of pictures, but don’t you think it will look nice in the kitchen?

What “treasures” have you stashed away? Why not tackle one today? There’s an extra long weekend coming up, perfect for a new project…

I’m linking up at Tatertots and Jello; come join the party.

dainty girls need dainty napkins

May 20, 2011 by girlinspired 10 Comments

If you haven’t met my girls or already guessed by the nature of most every project that I post, let me be the first to tell you that I have three very girly girls. They love all things pink, lacy, puffy, twirly, sparkly, dainty, and girly. Which, I suppose, is how my friend, Christene, knew I would love a little collection of hand-embroidered flowers.

Her husband’s grandmother, who was a seamstress for THE Charlie Chaplin, made them and passed them down to her. Amazing. So, Christene gives me this little pile of flowered goodness and tells me to make use of them. And as I’m walking out the door she says, hey! you should make little napkins for the tea party with the flowers! Brilliant! So I did.

This is a very quick project. You finish a set of four basic napkins in less than 30 minutes. I used Kona cotton because that is what I had on hand. Use any material you’d like. I cut 6-inch squares, pressed them well, then serged a rolled hem around the perimeter, and pressed them again on the diagonal. I used my sewing machine to embroider Addison’s name on the napkins and then sewed just a couple stitches to hold down the embroidered flower.

Christene thought it would be fun for each child to have their own little napkin. Yes. darling, right? And since it was such a quick project, I made a little set of four for each of the girls. I haven’t sewn the little flowers onto all of the napkins and I think I may put something else in the corners so that I don’t use up all the treasures. I like to hoard things, you know. But I thought the napkin sets would make cute party favors! See?

If your sewing machine doesn’t do letter embroidery, don’t sweat it! Try some of the other stitch functions or just plunk a little accent on! Like this….

Here, I did a scallop stitch all the way around the napkin and then just trimmed the fabric close to the stitching! Soooo sweet!

blue skies with a side of sunshine

February 28, 2011 by girlinspired 20 Comments

The snow came. It lasted only a few minutes. It was beautiful and quick. Then the sun came out. There was no sledding, barely a chance to put on mittens and run outside. Despite my disappointment, I’m looking forward to spring, to playing outside, to summer clothes, to outdoor projects, to warm sunshine.

I created this dress in a frenzy of sewing late one night. I wanted to use some of the lace that I found last year at my little local antique shop. I embellished the knot dress pattern a bit and added the lace all the way around the bottom. I also added some vintage trim around the top of the bodice. By securing the straps in the front of the bodice and adding buttonholes in the back, the knot dress easily transforms into this alternate style. I love that, by tying the bow in the back, the front of the dress has extra room for a pretty flower. It reminds me of a little burst of sunshine. I struggled with the finishing touches, but once I put the blue ric rac up top and the little white ruffle on the seam between fabric and lace around the bottom, I knew it was perfect.

I was planning to sell this dress, but when I tried it on Addie to confirm sizing, it looked so cute that I think I might just have to keep it and call it her Easter dress.