Free Frame Cottage Garden Brief Tutorial

One of my favorite thirft shops has a free-shelf. When things have been at the store a long time and not purchased, they will put some small items on the free-shelf. As you are leaving, you are invited to check it out and grab anything that tickles your free-fancy.

A couple weeks ago, two free frames started me on a new journey.

Free frames!

See?  They really were free.

First, I primed and painted them white. I love white....and purple.

Never. I repeat, NEVER forget about purple.

I decopaged parts of the frame with rippings of pages from an old, yellowed reference manual of some sort. I am a firm believer that books should not be destroyed on purpose (or for no purpose at all!), but when I got my hands on this one, it was already in shambles - so I am ok with that.

I added a few other adornments (rub-on's, etc.) and then sprayed with two coats of poly spray. You can use any kind of poly protector, but the spray is so easy to use.

Then I prepared some "gardens" with a recycled wool blanket for the background and different flowers, stems and leaves from recycled wool. The blue flower was created using an old button and crocheting a "slipcover" for it from very thin wool yarns. I used the pre-cut cardboard that came with the frames as the backing and discarded the glass pieces. I know, you'd think I could have found some way to use them, but there's a limit to what I can save...

Waa Laa! Two new simple-chic cottage garden pictures!

The one with the blue flower was already given to a friend for her birthday and the other one is now posted on Etsy. I'm very pleased with how they turned out. Hmmm...think I might run to my thrift shop again today and see what awaits me.

A Quiet Day

I'm feeling quiet today.

Not sad...

Not blue...

Certainly not angelic...  :-)

Just quiet.

I am enough.

Well, am I?

I know deep down in the furthest reaches of my mind and soul I AM enough.

However, too often my mind can get stuck in the preconceived ideas that society or I have determined what I should-be in order to be "enough". I'm not pretty enough. I'm not thin enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not wealthy enough. I am not organized enough. I'm not good enough.

And my mind makes me think sometimes that I won't be happy enough until I can achieve certain things. Lose weight. Earn more money. Get rid of debt. Clean and organize the house. Find a loving partner to share my life with. Get with it. Basically - I'm just not enough.

And then I remember. . . I AM enough. Maybe I've made mistakes. Maybe I still make mistakes. Maybe I'll always make mistakes. Maybe I'll always be in debt. Maybe I won't be 125 pounds ever again. Maybe I won't find my soul-mate and will be by myself forever. Maybe I'll continue to doubt myself based on what others think. Maybe I will always be a little messy. But maybe - just maybe - that's enough.

I've recently found my little self- life-lesson in my garden:

ME. Unfortunately, sometimes I feel like this. I feel like I'm worn out and not all I want to be. I feel like I've failed and I've let others down.

ME. Then sometimes I feel like this. I feel like part of me is not in full bloom, but that's ok - because there's still other parts of me that are shining and doing great.

ME. And then sometimes I feel like this. In full bloom. Glorious. Enough. In fact, more than enough.

The Meaning of a Chair

Weird things happen to people everyday. I've had alot of weird things happen to me in the past. But yesterday I had a very interesting (ok - weird!) thing happen to me.

I anxiously headed home from work as I do everyday. However, as I pulled into my driveway, I noticed a rather unique addition to my yard. While I was away, someone had placed four bold-multi-primary-colored children's folding chairs in my yard - positioned around my birdbath - as if the birdbath were a table.

I'm rather stumped. I have no idea where they came from - or their purpose. But if anyone needs four children's folding chairs, just let me know. I've got some for a good price. . .  :-)

Love Birds - Recycled Wool Pillows

I promise I won't blog about every darn creation that I post on my Etsy shop - but I guess it's a good way to let you know what I've been up to.

Lately, I haven't been dreaming-OF love birds - but I've been dreaming-UP love birds. I really have fun making these pillows. Birds and flowers are some of my most-favorist things to make with wool. I hope you like seeing them as much as I like making them!

World's Largest Knitted Fish Hat

Now I've seen the World's Largest Knitted Fish Hat. My life seems almost complete. :-)

During my lunch break today, I happened to stop into my local yarn shop, Miss Elsie's (where I love to yarn shop and have also held classes teaching some of my recycled wool projects). I haven't been in the shop for quite awhile. Seems that time, energy and my schedule have kept me away.

It appears that if I HAD been in the shop lately, I would have known that they have been busy, busy, busy. Shop owner, Pam, and other knitting enthusiasts have been knitting what they have labeled as the World's Largest Knitted Fish Hat.

Hat in progress

The goal was to complete the hat in time for a grand introduction to the community during the town's summer celebration, Karl Oscar Days's - held in July. They finished just in time for the main street parade - worms and all!

Fish and knitters in parade

They even "lured" one of the news channels from the Twin Cities to come and see what they were up to - check it out here. Good job folks!

http://www.kare11.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=110833900001

Toooo Much

It's either too hot, too cold, too buggy, too late, too early, too dry, too wet, too windy, too still. Or I'm too busy, too stressed, too lazy, too tired. 

I just haven't been able to get myself out into my garden very much this year. I have just too many excuses why I haven't. Maybe I've been too happy, too sad, too fat, (no...not too thin!), too hectic, too relaxed.

But I know one thing. I'm too darn happy that my garden is continuing on pretty darn good without me.

Felted Slippers: Steps One, Two, Three

A couple weeks ago, I bought a pattern for knitting and felting wool slippers. They are actually called "slipper clogs" because they are similar in style to a clog-type-shoe.

I decided to use some wool yarn that I already had a home. (What?? Extra yarn at home?? Never heard of such a thing!) So, if you look closely, the bottom of one slipper is dark brown and one is gray. I ran out of gray yarn but didn't want to buy new yarn until I tested my ability to correctly follow the pattern.

Please pay no attention to the model's unattractive legs. Photos are only intended to show slippers, not skin.

Slipper one:  I kept hearing the old saying "three strikes, you're out" over and over in my mind - but I chose to ignore it. It was actually on the fourth time of starting over that I finally was able to follow the pattern without getting totally lost. I'm glad I took the time to start over - but at the time, I wasn't quite sure I was happy about it.

Slipper two: Slipper two went fine. I developed what I thought was a rather smart way of having a "guide" that helped me keep my place while following the written directions. It consisted of moving a paperclip and a piece of paper. Who would have thought?

Washing machine: Two washes through the "whites" cycle while inside a small garment washing bag and the slippers were felted nicely. I washed some wool sweaters at the same time - killing two felting projects with one stone...er...load. A little stretching in each direction pulled the slippers back into proper shape. I also slipped them on my feet for about 5 minutes to help shape the right and left difference.  Then I air-dryed them on my back porch. (Back porch is not required.)

Slippers one and two: Done and ready for winter in Wisconsin.

Sorry for blurriness. For some reason, I can't hold the camera steady while looking at my feet!

Recycled T-Shirt Scarf

As promised, here is a picture of the knitted scarf that I made from recycled t-shirt strips. I decided to dye it with a denim colored dye (which meant an extra trip to the store). It's ok, but I'm kind of wishing I would have just stuck with the black/gray dye I first thought about using.

At any rate, I still am thinking that I may add fringe of some sort to it but haven't yet decided what to do. Someone suggested adding some fringe with beads - which would look very cute - but I'm afriad it might make it a big heavy.

I did knit/crochet a dish cloth as well. Maybe a photo will be coming soon! I used a simple knit stitch throughout and then added a row of single crochet around the outside to create a border. I used a t-shirt that was already colored, so no dying was required. (Which is just a little bit of a bummer - I like dying fabric.)

I've crocheted round rugs in the past with strips of cotton fabric, but I'm thinking I may want to try one with t-shirt fabric as well.  Hmmm...

Recycling T-Shirts

I adore the works of Alabama Studio (Natalie Chanin). She works with repurposing t-shirts to make new, very lovely items. So, when I recently came across an overabundance of leftover t-shirts that - nicely - have never even been worn, I decided that I best try a few upcycled t-shirt tricks myself.

For starters, I decided to cut two of the t-shirts into strips and knit them. I just finished a nice, narrow scarf with it, but I would also like to dye it.

Knitting in progress (it's not really yellow on the side, it's just bad lighting)

 Knitted scarf up close

I was going to dye with denim dye - but dang, I forgot to pick some up when I was at the store. So after digging through what I already had at home, I came up with black dye and decided to give that a try. Since I wasn't sure how the dye would take, I decided to test with a little "flower" that I made.

I love the black-washed-denim look it gave the t-shirt material.

Dyed flower-ette

I think I'll go ahead with dying the scarf this weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I've heard that knitted t-shirt strips also make great dishclothes. I think I might try that next. But I can't get so involved in cotton that I forget about my wool!  I just read an article that I should have some of my winter items posted already on Etsy!  Yikes - I best get busy!

Calming the Nerves

Thanks, cocosparkle, for your suggestion to try Bach's Remedy Rescue for Charlotte's fear of storms and fireworks. I've never heard of it before - and it's sure worth a try! I've already ordered a bottle and it's on it's way to our doorstep. I hope it can help - at least a little - to alliviate her loud-boom fears.

Charlotte

(blurry...she never sits still for the camera because she hates having her picture taken almost as much as she hates thunderstorms)

Charlotte thanks you!

Pride in America

I ran into this article/video of a man in Texas. Take a look - it's quite the story.

CLICK HERE

Gosh, if this man can have that much pride and respect for a country that he isn't even able to have a solid home in, I definately need to step back and look at the overabundance in my life that I have to be thankful for.

(Sorry, I wasn't able to figure out how to put the video directly onto this page.)

Four-Legged Children

Oh what we will sometimes do for our four-legged children.

Charlotte, my black lab, is terribly fearful of thunderstorms and fireworks. Fireworks are the worst. I've come to dislike them - only for that reason.

Tea Rose Home

We visited the vet a couple weeks ago and he gave us some "stress medication" that was to be given to Charlotte about 45 minutes "before the event" (ya - just try to figure out when all the neighborhood folks are going to start their firework celebration).

With the town fireworks being held on July 4 - I thought we might be fairly safe on July 3. Not so. The neighborhood was full of Independence Day enthusiasts.  Hmmm... let's try the medication. Thrust the little pill far back in the throat - and swallow. Ok. We got it down. (Thankfully, Charlotte has always been very good at taking medications.) Ahhhh... I figure we're now in business. Nope. Charlotte seems to be a very strong and determined young lady. The medication fails to alleviate any fire-pop anxieties. Darn.

On to July 4. Knowing full well that our town would be celebrating with fireworks (of course, being set off only a couple blocks from our home), I decided that we'd take a drive with semi-loud music during "the event". We anxiously head out the back door at 9:15 pm. I've got a destination in mind - one that takes me on a main highway - thinking that it best to avoid back-country-roads for fear of beautiful four-legged-deer that didn't get any anti-stress medication from their vet.

The plan seems pretty good. We head to a town about 30 miles away. Drive through the Dairy Queen. It's a hot, humid night. A cherry Mr. Misty (I think they are now called Arctic Rush - but I refuse to give up my old familiar Mr. Misty name) tastes delightful. I'm careful not to drink it too fast...brain freeze is no fun.

We head back toward home. So far, so good. But, oops. I forgot that our drive goes by numerous lakes. Lakes with boats on them - waiting for the many lake fireworks to begin. We drive by several areas that seem to be firing from very close to the road. Charlotte, who always rides in the seat behind me is now next to me thinking that maybe she should snuggle near my feet. 84 pounds of Charlotte do not fit by my feet. I spend the rest of the trip with one arm on the wheel and one arm on Charlotte.

Unfortunately, we also arrive back in town before our local "event" is over. We meander through our town's streets - waiting for the sky and firework smoke to calm down. We pull into our driveway at 10:45 - a rather long 1 1/2 hours later.

We've made it through another year.  :-)

Patriotic Knitting

I just started knitting some slippers with a size 13 needle.  I thought that was big enough. . .

Picture Perfect

It's wool time...
I actually did a piece similar to this a couple years ago - but kind of forgot about it until now. So, I've resurrected the idea and created a "picture" to post on my Etsy page (The Lavendar Tree).

The frame was an old tag-sale find that has been sitting in my shed for some time now. After blowing the dust off it, I grabbed a can of spray paint (one of my close friends!) and coated it white. Then I decopaged torn pieces of an old, yellowed dictionary or textbook of some sorts around the frame. I topped it off with the word "blossom" to add a little extra whimsy.

I used a wool blanket for the background, and recycled felted sweaters and vintage buttons for the flowers. The flower stems are made of the "seams" from the sweaters - don't ever throw those away - they have a bajillion uses!

I'll let you know if it sells or not. If it's well received I'd love to make more because it was quite fun. Heck, even if no one likes it, I think I'll make more. Half the fun is in the making - and half the fun is in the liking. :-)

Have a blessed 4th of July if I don't talk to you sooner!