Showing posts with label Question. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Question. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Vintage Curtains From a Well-used Table Cloth.



My Mom was a picnic person.
Summer days were often spent 
somewhere near a picnic table,
whether it be away for the day,
or at home in our 4 foot deep swimming pool
where lazy summer days were spent making whirl pools
and playing Marco Polo
till our pruney fingers were blue with cold.

Wherever we were,
Mom always had picnic suppers ready.

And picnic tables to a super clean mom like mine
always needed table cloths.


As I have set for myself the goal of finishing the kitchen this month,
after almost 8 years of living here,
to finally have it painted and fixed up,
for the most part,
the next thing on my list last week was
curtains.

I loved the ideas I saw on Pinterest of using vintage towels,
hankies, and
linens


I spent some time looking around for vintage material,
and then I remembered...


the tablecloth:



My Mom gave me this tablecloth.
It is stained and patched where the umbrella went
on her picnic table.

It has seen many happy summer days.

I brought it out from the cupboard,
and measured
and remeasured
then cut it up so that I could get two curtains for the door window
and a valance for each of the two kitchen windows.


Digging through my container full of zippers,
rick-rack,
and bias tape I bought up in huge quantity at a yard sale long ago,...


I found the perfect lime green bias tape for my curtains.

A fearsome amount of measuring and ironing
ensued for an anti-ironing woman.



I stitched the underside with the bias tape tucked under the hem first,
then folded the fronts down,
and sewed across the top on the right side.





The curtain rod was rusty gold metal
and very unbecoming,
albeit quite vintage.

So I opted out of that look
by painting a coat of Annie Sloane Antibes Green paint
and then waxing with Fiddes and Son Rugger brown wax.




Despite the obvious stains on the curtains,
I'm loving it.




The kitchen door now offers a bit of privacy at night...

while letting in the sun when I come down in the morning.


The blooming Christmas cactus seems to mirror it's new pink-flowered companion.






Now, if I can just keep the little hands from adding any more stains to my pretty curtains...



I guess a few more small ones would be worth it
if they see the same kind of love that they did in their tablecloth life.


Do you carry any fond table-cloth memories?


Posted by Tonya at Wednesday, January 18, 2012 24 comments
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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Memories Made of Paper.

 School is fun this year.

Well, I'm not sure that Violet would agree,
but I think so.

We're taking trips all around the world,
learning about different countries.

I use the "My Father's World" curriculum,
and they nicely tie together the subjects for learning.

While studying Mexico,
we learned about deserts in our science class,
a brief history of Mexico,
and the lifestyles of the people there,
as well as how to pray for missionaries there.

When we moved on to South America,
our science included rain forests,
as well as a study of rivers, like the great Amazon.
The story of Nate Saint, and the other missionaries 
who were murdered on the beaches of the Amazon
was included in our Bible lesson.

Our central verse and theme for the year is John 3:16.
We had a fun time using a book we have
that has pictures and information about little children all over the world,
to use as samples for the paper chain people we made for our wall.

 We ended up using the whole day (after getting math, grammar, and spelling done)
just to read that book
and draw our people;
but it was a fun school day,
a rare time to really delve into what we were interested in learning.

 Violet studied the people before she created hers,
trying to get them just right according to the book.



 I'm glad she enjoys doing crafts like this with me.


Our people,
along with the colorful flowers that we made when studying Mexico
helped to dress up our school wall.




A really useful item we made this year
involved a small "decorate-it-yourself" flip calender I got on sale in the summer.

I imagine that they'll be going on sale again soon,
and I hope to pick up another for next year.



Craft stores usually have them.
 They come with just about everything you need to decorate the pages.


Instead of making a calender,
we used the colorful papers to cover the calender blocks,

 and while Violet decorated the cover,


 I typed up the verses she is supposed to memorize
to fit the pages,
trying to use fun colors
and accentuate key words
to hopefully make them easier to learn.



After gluing the verses onto the pages in the order she would have to learn them,
I let her choose stickers and such
to decorate them however she chose.




Some of her choices are kind of funny,...



but I wanted to let her be creative.













 I have to admit,
I couldn't help laughing when I saw the page
decorated with ties.

 Maybe she thinks this verse is meant for men,
perhaps because her dad is such a hard worker.


I hope to find another of these for our verse flip chart next year.
It's nice to say,
"Go through your verse book and say each of the ones 
you have learned two times each,"

and the verses are always neatly altogether.


We're going into our final week of studying Germany,
and the suggestion was to try building a castle of some sort
since Germany has some pretty nice ones.
That sure sounds like fun project material, 
but since we were both sick in the beginning of the week,
we just read a book about them.

Besides going out and gathering fieldstones,
do you have any "castle" ideas?

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!


Joining some of these fun parties:

Posted by Tonya at Saturday, January 14, 2012 7 comments
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Monday, March 21, 2011

Peanut Butter and Jelly Speeches: Can You Spare Some Advice?

I sat at a crossroads this weekend.

My mind has been spinning
churning,
questioning myself,
praying,
weighing,
critiquing.

And so I ask for your help,
for it is you who knows.

You come here and visit me
an often one-sided conversation
unless you very sweetly leave a comment.
I do try to visit you at your blogs,
especially if you comment a few times
making me remember to get over to you.
(My ability to remember is fast waning.) 
Your comments have been so amazing!
Thank you.
I feel so privileged
and a bit scared.

I remember my first speech class at college.
I thought I would faint.
My mouth was so dry,
my eyes wet with the tears that were ready to spill out,
and then the guy ahead of me got up and did his speech.

We were to do one of our first speeches explaining how to do something.
He did his,
with a perfectly straight and serious face,
on "How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

I don't think I'd laughed that hard 
since my nervous feet had hit the college campus grounds.
He made us all roar,
and I don't think I ever thanked him for making speech class achievable to me.

Thank you, Chad.

Life is full of daunting challenges
that are actually small steps taken with courage...
often helped along by a dose of laughter. 

Blogging has been AMAZING to me. 
I have met sooo many incredible people
learned so much
been motivated to do so many projects that have sat waiting for me 
to get the gumption to do them.

You have motivated me.
(Of course, I don't know that my Farmer likes the sudden
onslaught of crafting fares that have crept into the kitchen
and office,
and basement.

Yes, dear Farmer,
I am going to clean them up
just as soon as I finish here.

I promise,
or at least,
I promise to remove most of them).

I have had so many house projects that needed to be done
and they are getting done now.
This is one of the first times in my life that I am making things just especially for my house,
besides when we moved in and HAD to.

Before now, everything I made was to sell
or for gifts;
and that's great too.

But I feel like I'm at a crossroads.

What are my goals in blogging.
Do you have goals?
Yes, I absolutely LOVE to write.
I love that I can share stories and pictures on here for family
and friends who I don't get to see.
My sister started a blog a year before I did,
and I loved her blog because I felt so much more apart of her daily life.

That's a TREASURE when you live 4 hours away.

My little sister got married in May
and I knew that blogging would make her still feel apart of my kids lives
even though she is clear across the country now.
So I have all these reasons for blogging in my mind.
And I wonder.

Am I putting too many categories together?
Do I need to be more organized?


I see many of you have personal blogs
and then your main blog.
Here comes some blatant honesty.

I would like to get where I can do some advertising
(things that I, in good conscience, could advertise,) 
and make just a little bit of money by blogging.

Honestly, I don't want a lot.
I just think maybe if I try so I can help bring in a little extra income,
pay the groceries for one week,
okay, even if it's just a gallon of milk,
to make it worth my time.
I've been reading Blogging With Amy's blog
and it motivates me to want to feel like I'm contributing to our household,
but I don't want to get too wrapped up.

I'm a wife and a mom first of all
and a Christian most.

But even the Proverbs 31 woman brought a nice income to her husband.
She was wise with the use of her time.

Regardless, I love blogging.
It is my relief, helps me laugh at things,
or focus things more clearly when the dust has settled.
It is my written coffee at the end of the day
when the kids have gone to sleep.

And when I need to get away and peer into somebody else's life
your blogs are my printed chocolate.

Oh, there are days when I am completely empty on what to write,
but that is usually immediately followed by a day where 5 subject matters
demand center stage.

I am so thankful for you,
my reader.
I am surprised that you come here so often,
Sue and Michaele;
you have been here and commented on me
and encouraged me almost from the beginning,
and I love both of your blogs.

Your goats milk soap that I won in your giveaway, Michaele,
is AMAZING!
(If anybody wants some wonderful goats milk soap,
she has a great selection and makes it herself!)

I know many of you read my blog
and tell me personally.
I blush because I think it's really kind of you
and that you take the time to do so is,
well,
really neat.

I don't expect everyone I know to read this.
Really.  I know you all have lives!
You probably wonder how I have time to write.
(I wonder that too, sometimes).

Anyhow, the fact is,
I get most of my views on this blog from my craft/painting posts.
I do get people asking me about some of my healthy writings as well.
Should I make a separate blog just for my craft/painting stuff?
Or should I just leave things as they are?
Would you rather just visit for the crafts
and if you want to know the workings of my brain drop in over here?

Or am I jumping the gun?
I do have other goals in my life:
I've wanted to write kids' books since I could pick up a crayon.
I have just not pursued it at this point because
well,
I'm too busy at this moment trying to get these house projects done first.
I know I need to make time
because there are only so many somedays to a lifetime.
So, dear reader,
wonderful blogging friends,
take out your typing scalpels
and let it rip.

I want your opinion,
(Please, don't feel like you need to butter me up;
really, I'm on a diet,
and I know if you are here,
you are taking the time to show you care).
Am I too wordy,
too long of posts?
Too often?
Too much variety: narrow it down to certain areas?
Split off my personal blog from the painting? 
Can you give me any suggestions? 

Truth is valuable to me.
It is the heat that makes the bread rise.

Most of all,
I want blogging to not be a waste of time,
not yours,
not mine.
I want to feel like I am offering something.
I want you to come here
and feel like I have given you something for taking the time to stop
whatever it is you were going to do,
just to listen to my speech...

even if my speeches are often not so grandiose.

After all, sometimes the best speeches aren't the most knowledgeable;
sometimes the most helpful speeches come in the form of
"How to make a peanut and butter jelly sandwich."


(If you prefer to post anonymously, I have changed my settings so that you may do so for this post.)
  Thank you!
Posted by Tonya at Monday, March 21, 2011 18 comments
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