allsorts

We made it!

Today was very long and very full and I want to be sure to get up a final post for May before we sit down for dinner and get lost in a movie.

These were the photos I took yesterday of some of the little dresses.  At first I tried hanging them in the dogwood by the front porch but the light was too blue.

Then I tried up in the dogwood in the courtyard. But what with the tricky sun and shadows thing coupled with an active breeze, nothing really turned out in focus or unruffled...

These two behaved themselves pretty much...

but this little shift wanted a picture taken all by itself.

I want to congratulate all the bloggers who participated in A Post a Day in May! Personally I had a blast, and found it very motivating. And I actually posted every single day! Woohoo... I always wanted to win a perfect attendance award but never even came close! And hats off to everyone who kept with it, even with a missed day here and there, it was fantastic to see so many postings. Well done!

This has been so much fun, I feel like I'm into a nice rhythm that I'd like to keep up. Here's hoping!

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - Happy Birthday Jeffrey!!!!

How to make a new ironing board cover and why I'm an idiot

The vintage baby clothes are ironed and lovely. As soon as I started ironing I realized my huge iron and ironing board wouldn't work on those little things, so I used my travel/craft iron and my Ikea tabletop ironing board. And oh so typically of me, I decided to make a new cover for the ironing board since the one it came with was not... cute enough... as seen in its usual ho hum state by my sewing machine:

So I chose some cute Moda fabric and laid that right side down on the table, with a layer of quilter's flannel on top of that. I put the board upside down on those, then freehand sketched on the flannel about three and a half inches out from the edge of the board, and then cut through both layers. I folded the edge in a scant half-inch and pinned, and then stitched that. Here it is before stitching:

I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the next step - I folded the edge in again, but fitted the string in as I pinned so I wouldn't have to thread it through after I'd sewn the casing up. I hope that makes sense. I left two long tails of string at the end near the hanger thingie, and sewed the casing, leaving an opening where the tails were. Then I plopped on the board, cinched the top snug around the board and tied up the tails. Tada!

Now for why I'm an idiot. While touching up a little dress for a photo shoot, it looked so cute, I decided to take a quick photo...

But... while looking through the viewfinder I didn't like the reflection in the iron (you can guess what's coming next) I reached down and grabbed the iron to move it, forgetting it was still on.

Hey, no one can say I don't suffer for my art...

Oh, and now I can show you the bracelet Ro brought me from Singapore. Its the silver cable and pearl combo one. I love it! The other Katy gave me. She got another just like it for herself, and we both wear them constantly. As a reminder.

Pics of the vintage baby clothes and stuff tomorrow. I can't believe we've reached the end of May already!

Cheers,

Jenny

Eye candy

A mosaic of some lovely creations from my Flickr favorites...

1. Rose pouch, 2. Springbean the Bear, 3. fairyville house, 4. bloquinho, 5. Mini Quilt from Swap, 6. Pretty Millinery Flowers, 7. Bike and tree - zippy pouch, 8. 1950's dolls, 9. bitty bootie, 10. Meninas para pôr ao peito!, 11. redwork  embroidery pinkeep, 12. Sending You Cheer Bluebird in Red

Cheers,

Jenny

White linens

Last weekend I pulled out some boxes of vintage baby things and saw that some had not been cleaned properly before storage. So I hand washed them and gave them a good long soak in Vintage Soak (sorry, but I bought mine a while ago and I can't give you a current source). That stuff is amazing. It will bring the most stubborn of yellowed linen back to a nice snowy white. I confess I didn't do the soaking in this washbasin, but it makes for a much more attractive photo than the plastic tubs I really used. ;o)

After soaking I laid them out on toweling to dry and now they are nice and bright and crispy. There are a lot of sweet dresses, little suits and even a child-sized dutch apron and cap. I have a bit of ironing to do!

But I'm one of those crazy people who like to iron, especially such sweet things as these.

Cheers,

Jenny