T-SHIRT MORPHED INTO A PILLOW

A couple of years ago while we were in Paris, we went to this department store called 'Galleries Lafayette'. The architecture was amazing.

While there I bought my granddaughter a sparkly, Paris t-shirt. She came bounding in the other day with this pink and bling t-shirt on. After I commented that she had just about out-grown the shirt; she said, "But, I love it sooooo much!"

So, it was decided that it would live on in a pillow. I found some fabric that coordinates with her shams and comforter and added them to the knit of the shirt. This is the result:

I cut out the label and put it on the back of the pillow.

She was excited today when she came after school to find her new pillow.

This is a good solution for those much-loved t-shirts that just won't disappear!

A couple of hints:

When combining knits with a woven fabric, it helps to stabilize the knit with an iron-on interfacing before sewing to your fabric. This eliminates any stretching that might occur.

If you don't want to spend the money for a down pillow insert, or even for a quality fiber-fill insert; check the pillow section at Wal-mart. I found this 14" x 20" travel pillow to use for the insert and it was just $2.00. You certainly can't make it for that money; and they are great for teen-age rough and tumble!

I'm linking to Donna's Saturday Night Special
on Funky Junk Interiors.

and

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday
on Between Naps on the Porch.

Check these two blogs out for inspiration beyond belief!!

KITCHEN ISLAND

The theme this week at Funky Junk Interior's
Saturday Nite Special is Kitchen Islands. I'm joining Donna and other kitchen island enthusiasts with pictures of our island. Be sure to go by Donna's to check the others out.

Our island happens to be an old meat block from a grocery store. Bob grew up working and cutting meat in his Dad's grocery store; so when we had an opportunity to buy a meat block, we jumped on it. This particular block came from the country store that was close to my family farm. They sold it to us for $50 when they went out of business in 1969.

The block part measures 24" x 30" x 13" high. It is made of solid maple. It was assembled with 1 1/2" strips of the maple, and is held together with bolts and pins that run through the entire block. Then it has these wonderful maple curved legs.

This island is so much a part of our daily lives, and our kids remember it as always residing in our kitchen. One of our criteria in buying a house has always been, "Is there a place for the meat block?"

It is lower than regular kitchen counters, so it is perfect for us 'shorties' to roll pie crust or knead bread. I'm always amused when there is a group in the kitchen, you will always find Bob and I and our two kids crowded around and jockeying for position around the meat block to make our lunch sandwiches. The grandkids and others are always relegated to the regular kitchen counters.

A SIDE NOTE OF NOSTALGIA:
When we first acquired the meat block, our first born was still sleeping in a crib. His crib had these sturdy casters on it; and he soon learned that if he jumped up and down in the crib, he could move it across the hardwood floor all around his room. After a couple of near-miss accidents, he, at the age of one, lost the privilege of wheels. We took the wheels off of the crib and put them on the meat block to give this 300 pound hunk of wood more mobility. Even today after 41 years, I always think of my bouncing baby boy when I'm able to move the meat block to clean under it!

By the way, he is a very good driver today; but at the age of one - not so good.

RUST!!

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors
keeps coming up with unusual themes for her Saturday Nite Special party. This week the theme is "Rust". And, of course, I have rust to show off.

This is the biggest hunk of rust in our yard. This grill came with a house that we bought in 1976. That was four houses ago, but it keeps following us around. Not an easy feat as it weighs a ton.

We used to cook the best hamburgers on this grill. It's too rusty, now.

Originally, it was a unit used in public parks.

Here are a couple more things masquerading as garden art (?). This milk can came from my family farm years ago.

I have no idea what this is, but it was in my parent's yard for years and years, and now has been in ours for eons. It's rusty for sure.

Our son, the high school teacher, is spending the summer in Japan living with a family and working in their orchard. Recently, he did a post on his blog,
Saulmon is in Japan
about "Rust". Check it out by clicking here
for some great pictures of rust in Japan.

Be sure to go to Donna's blog, Funky Junk Interiors
for more rusty inspiration.

FUNKY DRAWERS

The theme on Donna's Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special this week is drawers. I couldn't miss this opportunity to show a couple of my funky drawers. I can't pass up any drawer that in it's past life was handmade or used in a shop or store.

This one has tin sides and a wooden front. I think it must have been used in a store to sell hardware of some kind. Now it stores towels in our guest bathroom.

I love this little unit for its quirky knobs made out of thread spools. Inside of the drawers are little compartments.

Here are a couple more little drawers that, at one time, held bolts and hardware. Their sole purpose now is to just sit there and make me smile!

Be sure to stop by Donna's for more fun drawer inspiration.

JULY 4TH WEEKEND

My family thinks there is nothing better than Strawberry Shortcake with homemade biscuits.

Personally, you can give me chocolate and nuts any day!

Do you have a preference?

I'm linking up with Michael at Designs by Gollum
for Foodie Friday

and

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors
for Saturday Nite Special (cooking section).

Have a glorious 4th of July weekend.

BOXES, BOXES, BOXES

When I read on Donna's Funky Junk Interiors
blog that the theme this week for her Saturday Nite Special party was boxes, I thought now that is a party I can revel in. If nothing else, we have BOXES.

In the kitchen, I corral rice, macaroni, etc. in a fruit picking box.

The recipes that I'm going to try someday, find a home in a wooden silverware box.

An old wooden box with a tin bottom laid on its side become cubbies.

I always need more dish storage.

A beat-up red box becomes CD storage under the TV.

This double-hinged box is an old ballot box. It is divided into two sides, and the divider has a hole in it. Traditionally, one side held both white and black marbles. When voting, you would pick a white marble for yes or a black marble for no; and put your choice through the hole to the other side. When the votes were counted, they could be tallied as to for or against. Thus, the term - blackballed. We just store our childhood marbles of all colors in it. It has entertained our kids and grand kids for lots of hours.

A huge home-made box that we found at a yard sale years ago. We keep catalogs in it.

Graduation boxes -- in the small town that my grandmother, mother, and I grew up in, it was customary for the local furniture store to give girl graduates a small cedar box. They were small samples of larger cedar or hope chests that could be purchased. Below are three generations of graduation boxes.

This box came to us through Bob's family, and holds old family pictures. Originally, the box must have held cigars.

In our bathroom, we store wash cloths in an old tool tote box.

This milk crate box is from the Rocky Ford Creamery and now holds cast iron camping equipment.

This is a hunking-big tool tote box that sits on top of a bookcase holding postcards, books, and pictures. I love this type of old homemade tool box -- the rougher the better.

We use my family's big tool box for a coffee table.

Some tool boxes we use for their intended purpose.

My newest acquisition - a wooden cheese box. I haven't decided what I'm going to store in it, yet!!

These are some of our old boxes -- I didn't go out into the garage or photograph our collection of old tin document boxes. Another day----

If you made it this far through this long post, please go by Funky Junk Interiors.
Donna has a lot more going on beside boxes!

I'M PONDERING PILLOWS AGAIN

I'm in a pillow making mood again. I've always wanted some wool pillows to use in the living room during the winter . Last year, I made one pillow from a wool Ralph Lauren skirt that I found at Goodwill (click here to read about that, if you wish). That was as far as my wool pillow project went last winter. This year, I'm determined to get an earlier start. (Is it too early to think about winter???)

Always on a budget, I checked out Goodwill for more suitable wool and found several pieces of new fabric from some one's fabric stash. It was $4 for as much as I could stuff in a plastic bag. I ended up with several different wools for a total of over 5 yards of wide fabric.

I decided on a monogram pillow, so I thought how hard could that be now that I had all of this luscious wool. At first I was thinking I could hand embroider the monogram like my grandmothers always did, but I decided that was too much work for these arthritic fingers. Since I have had some success with the satin stitch on my sewing machine, I thought that would be the answer. But as I was doing a sample run, my 41 year-old sewing machine decided it was tired of doing the zig-zag, and the lever broke. No replacement parts could be found by anyone for my trusty, old machine. It still sews a nice straight stitch, however. So, now on to plan C - applique. I decided to cut out my monogram from felt and sew it on. Did you know that you can buy felt made from recyclable plastic that washes and dries wonderfully?

In anything that I make, washability is important to me. I always prewash and dry all of my fabrics before making a project. I washed all of my Goodwill wools in Woolite in the machine, then dried them in the dryer on low. They came out great.

I used osnaburg (sometimes called hop sacking) for the background of the monogram. It's cheap - $2.99 per yard - and has a nice texture after laundering.

All in all, the pillow cover cost me under $2.00. The most expensive thing was the zipper for the closure and I had a 40% off coupon for that.

Just call me frugal --- but then I'm not even going to talk about what a new sewing machine is going to cost me!

I'm linking up to the following parties. Be sure to check them out for lots of fun posts.

Cindy at My Romantic Home
for her Friday Show and Tell.

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors
for her Saturday Night Special party.

OUR NEW (OLD) CUPBOARD

My husband, Bob, has been at it in the workshop again! In February, we went to a super farm auction at my great-grandparent's homestead. (You can read about the experience here.) While I was plotting to score with a winning bid on brown transferware, Bob had won a bid on the bottom cupboard below. He had previously made the top hanging cupboard several years ago to house part of my ever-growing collection of brown transferware.

I questioned his judgment when he won the bid, but it is just the type of project he loves. We think this cupboard was probably a store fixture in its prime; but who knows how long it had been in the family's barn and who knows what it might have stored. It was pretty gross.

Bob stripped, sanded, reconfigured, etc., etc., ETC. On the outside, he used an ebony stain; and the inside was painted in Sherwin Williams Antique Red paint with an ebony glaze to match the hanging cupboard.
The left sliding door now opens to reveal the television, and the right side has more shelves that are empty for now. I envision using this side for future brown transferware storage!

Those finger holes are brass; and the door sliding mechanism is all original.

The cupboard is the perfect size for our small living room; and since this is not our primary TV viewing area, it is nice to be able to hide the TV behind the doors.

I'm linking to the following fun parties. If you have never checked out these blogs before, you are in for a treat!

Susan at Between Naps on the Porch
for Metamorphosis Monday

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors
for Saturday Night Special

Miss Mustard Seed
for Furniture Feature Friday