Monday, July 31, 2017

Flea Market Sunday


The weather has turned absolutely gorgeous after a few weeks of BOILING hot and dry.  It was in the 60s this weekend in the mornings!

We are on the short countdown to school now - 16 days to go!

This week's junk:
Gorgeous pillowcase.
Pair of Japanese Santas.
Random glitter, the silver is SO sparkly.
Quilts. It's time for a quilt sale on Instagram as soon as the kids are in school, piles everywhere! I never leave a hexie behind.

This one is waiting for my washing machine to wash 12 loads of clothes so it can get a bath.
Highs on Friday in the 70s, perfect junk weather!





Friday, July 28, 2017

2017 Peach report

The squirrels started decimating my peach crop early, so I resorted to tree netting.  It worked mostly. They only got a few. BUT it made it so hard to thin the crop.

Then I picked the first tree clean and discovered every single peach had moth larvae in it. In the trash they all went.  I left the second tree to ripen a full week longer and it seems like those might be ok. This pick is what came off that tree, minus the ones that were ripening and falling down and being snatched by thieving squirrels.

I am not sure yet because I have peaches and tomatoes coming out of my ears! We've had cobbler, peach cheesecake, made jam, made peach lemonade (YUM! The most surprising use of the peaches and my favorite actually), and I attempted fruit leather. The fruit leather was a very sad waste of my peaches actually, a total disaster and with fruit I worked very hard to grow. Lesson learned there, only use the homegrown on a more sure bets.


My dad, on the other hand, grew one million beautiful peaches. We picked a bunch of those too. We've been eating peach everything and I REALLY need to do something with the ton still in my fridge. 

Abundance of yum this year!

Next year we spray for pests though. And net again.

P.S. heat and drought completely killed one of our much loved apple trees. Seven years, down a tree and still not one apple. Fruit growing is hard work man.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Epic Thrift day

I was absolutely DYING to get out of the house and do something I wanted to do yesterday. I took the littles and braved some thrifting with them in tow.

I knew the thrift was calling! It was an epically good thrift haul.

Vintage fabric and feedsacks.
A holy grail feedsack.

My favorite napkins.
Vintage duvet cover.

Quilt top made with feedsacks.

Another quilt top made with feedsacks.
Towel and pillowcase.
Semi ugly start of a quilt - I will salvage the pieces of interest to me.
Very cute flirty apron.

Vintage apple core quilt.

Button box.

The keepers.

Score!












Wednesday, July 26, 2017

A quilt for my cup

Usually I use a gas station Styrofoam cup for water. I use it for at least a week, then get a new one on sunday.  It keeps my water cold!  Everyone else in the house has switched to steel cups and Dave thought I should try. But I hate the feel of steel. Shiver.

So I used a few vinage fabric scraps and made a cup quilt.
I still wish the cup was bigger, but the bigger ones are too big and heavy.

Plus I am feeling pretty clever with just how far my sewing skills really have come. I can apply tiny binding with ease, graduate the cup cozy to fit the curve of the cup, make all my edges meet nicely...just five years ago that would've been a struggle, not a sit down and spend thirty minutes sewing proposition! 



Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Shiplap for the kitchen

When we repainted the kitchen last week it was hard to decide where to stop. The kitchen is open to my sewing area and the dining room and there is no real defined stop.

For about a year I had been kicking around ideas on what to put behind our trash can to make the wall there easier to clean. I have repainted that wall 10 times and it is ALWAYS so dirty!

On a whim one night I said let's put some shiplap there. It gives a nice place to stop the paint and will be more scrubable if I coat it with super duper paint.
Dave had home depot chop up a piece of 1/4 inch plywood. They made all the cuts in the store for him, but because of the space he was filling he had it cut long instead of the short length. He would want me to tell you this does result in uneven cuts because its a LONG run. Also, there is some chattering on the edges because it's cheap wood. Ours are cut to 5 3/4 inches wide because that's how the math worked out to cover this bit of wall with one sheet.

Then he cut different lengths. It's put up with finish nails - no adhesives, glues, etc.  It seems like a lot of the internet tutorials advise painting the wall behind it a dark color, but we didn't do that either. I really do not need things to be "perfect" though.
Primed.

Done! The kitchen feels so much cleaner already.

Cost $20 for wall supplies (one sheet of ply, a box of nails), paint from my hoard, $20 (ridiculous!) for the piece of trim on the edge.

Now, what should I do next with my HGTV fever?




Monday, July 24, 2017

Beeswax fabric jar covers


The kids and I have completely fallen in love with these Yoplait French Oui! yogurts. They come in the cutest glass jars which are handy but you are left needing a lid. I'd been wanting to try beeswax wraps for a few years but was put off by the price. 

A quick google led to a million tutorials, (here's one on using the oven, and the one I very LOOSELY followed using the iron. I didn't have parchment paper so I used wax paper and a ton of newspaper and it worked out just fine, BUT I have a lot of iron experience from quilting, so proceed with caution if you are too lazy to get parchment paper like me!)

I ordered beeswax beads off Amazon prime and whipped a few squares this morning.

Now we have the cutest little jam jars!

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Flea Market Sunday

Whew, what a week that was. 107 degrees! I hit some garage sales Saturday morning while it was cloudy.  I found nothing but couldn't resist a thrift store pop on the way home. This beauty was waiting for me.  Late 1800s/early 1900s for the win.  So much cheddar!
I didn't get out of bed for the flea this morning because last night INSANE wind came through at about 2 am. We desperately need rain but most of what we got was just 2 hours of crazy wind that kept me awake. Fun!

Friday, July 21, 2017

Apple stamping craft

With the summer clock finally winding down I've decided its time to get my crafting ass in gear.  The apple themed mantle will be going up soon, so we made some apple fabric to make into pillows.


Grant.


Sammi.




Thursday, July 20, 2017

State Park Field Trip

So, here we are. 8 weeks into summer *vacation* (cough, cough) and I barely have the will to live. I decided I had enough of the fighting and we set off to the powder valley conservation center this morning.  I had taken Jack here once when he was small, but Jack has really never enjoyed this type of thing. 

The little kids this morning told me "it was the best adventure ever!"

We saw deer and turkey and squirrels and fish and did crayon rubbings and touched fur and bones and really it was super good for them. (And small. And not crowded.)

Sam told me this week she is going to be a scientist when she grows up.
These are clever - they are magnetic so the kids can build birdhouses.
This is a kid sized birdhouse.


Really an awesome free place to visit!




Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Christmas in July flea finds

Just about the only things to buy at the flea this week were Christmas things, so Christmas in July it is! (We are not doing our usual Christmas in July this year because lord willing we are taking the kids to Florida in October.)




(These are teeny hinges)

ho ho ho!