May CupboardScape

Happy Memorial weekend to all of you.

Hope you are doing what you enjoy!

I spent yesterday cleaning, doing laundry...

and then it hit me.

After going back and forth from my suitcase display,

I realized I did not do one for May yet.

Gosh, Geez Oh My I declared.

So here it is.

Dedicated to gramma H.

May was the time gramma brought out her

ringer washer and did laundry outside until Fall.

Once she let me try it..and I almost got my arm caught in it.

Gramma also loved her lilacs.

To this day, I have never seen a grove of purple lilacs

like she did on the farm.

It was also the time she would haul out her tick pillows

and throw rugs & beat them to death with her rug beater. LOL

She would bring out her clothespins in a dress like this one.

(this one used to be my moms)

Together we would hang the clothes on the line,

and I would make sure gramma never ran out of clothespins.

Although she did not use a wood mangle like this one,

she always wore her bonnet so as not to get too much sun.

I loved doing laundry with her in May,

because the lilacs smelled so good.

Plus the scent reached the clothes, so this time of year,

the farmhouse smelled of lilacs...especially the sheets.

It was like getting scented dryer sheets for free.

It was a time where a gramma and granddaughter,

spent time together doing a chore 

that at the time seemed fun.

The bloomers on the right are early ones.

The crotch is open, so that ladies of the day would be able

to pick up their dress or skirt and do their business.

Here is the opening.

Well of to enjoy the sunshine and finish

 weeding my front garden before the storms come in.

Scented Lilac Blessings To All!

Janice

Americana Star Tutorial

Can you believe May is almost over?

Yeah I know right...where has this year gone?

June is next week.
It warms my heart that you liked my last tutorial.
It's been long overdo since my last one.

Well as promised here is my next one.

I am creating these for my next

Americana Summertime Christmas tree.

It all starts with these glass beads.

I decided to create some Americana Stars.

Material List

Czech Glass Beads in White, Royal, Turquoise & Red

Blue Wool 

 Embroidery Floss to match the wool

Tan Fabric that looks similar to cookie dough
Embroidery Floss to match your fabric

Stuffing (I like Morning Glory Brand)
Needle

Today my tutorial is to make these yummy
 Americana Star Cookies.

To start I went to Google and searched for an
image of a primitive star.
I printed out the free primitive star image twice.
One star I cut out immediately.
{white star}
For the second star I drew a line a half inch
 larger around the entire image. 
{to show the difference in stars, I placed the first star
on top of my second one which was already cut from fabric}

Using blue wool, cut out smaller star pattern.
With your tan fabric, cut two stars from your larger pattern.
Trace once onto tan fabric and then flip
 the pattern & trace again.
{If you do not do this,
 your pieces will not match to sew together} 

Using 2 strands of Embroidery floss that matches your wool,
add the glass beads randomly all over the blue wool star.
Start by double knotting the end of your floss.
To begin bring your needle up from the back,
to the front of the star, add a bead and bring needle back 
through to the back of the star. 
Continue doing this until you have 
completely covered the star with beads.

Next cut a slit in the middle of one of  the tan fabric stars.
Place fabric with right sides together. 
Using 2 strands of matching tan floss,
 stitch the 2 star pieces together. 
{I sewed these by hand}
Once sewn, turn star inside out and lightly stuff.
Close up your star with a straight stitch,
using 2 strands of the tan floss.

Now place your blue star on top of the tan one,
and using 2 strands of blue floss, straight stitch
all around the star.

Now you are ready to hang on your Summertime tree.
I just tucked mine on a branch.
These would also make great bowl fillers!

You can also use white wool instead of blue
for a totally different look.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial as much as the last one.

This weekend I am going to finish this tree and then
show you the entire set up.
You can see that I already added some
 RED ~ WHITE ~ BLUE
ribbon

Hope everyone enjoys their Holiday weekend.
Remember those who lost their lives 
so that we could be free.

Americana Star Blessings To All!
Janice 

Americana Bunting Tutorial

A great evening to all!

The last two evenings after work have been

spent at the store getting ready for

S U M M E R T I ME

Will have to share photos soon of our window display.

Tonight I would like to share my prim

Americana Bunting.

I created these 3 prim buntings using muslin.

For those who would like to make some for yourself,

this is how I did them.

Materials list at end of post.

For each banner

Cut 6 strips of muslin into 12 x 1 and 3/4" strips.

Using an old coffee cup, heat 1 cup of water

in your microwave for 1 minute.

Add 5 heaping TBS of instant coffee and then

add some cinnamon...enough shakes to make it smell nice.

Let sit for a minute to rest the cinnamon.

Using an old cookie sheet pan, line with wax paper.

Next grab yourself 2 more old mugs or throwaway Solo cups.

Add your coffee mixture to each of the cups.

Now add your paint.

I just squeezed the colors into each cup until

 I liked the color of each.

Stir up the coffee/ paint mixture with an old paintbrush.

Now add 2 strips to each cup until covered.

(wear rubber gloves if you do not want painted hands)

I like to get paint on mine. LOL

Take the strips out and squeeze until a bit dry.

(If the color is too dark, rinse under cold water)

(If too light, add more paint, mix and re-do strips.

Place the dyed strips onto your cookie sheet,

keeping the colors separate from each other.

Since I did 3 banners, I did each color separately,

changing the wax paper after each color.

*** remember these instructions are for 1 banner***

{ I made 3 banners all at once }

Bake for 10 minutes @ 225  degree oven.

Baking time may differ depending on your oven.

Just keep baking until dry.

(if you prefer to air dry, then it will take overnight)

Next make yourself another cup of coffee with cinnamon.

Once your strips are dry,

 add both the red and then the blue to this mixture

and squeeze out excess. 

This time add your remaining 2 muslin strips as well.

This will be your prim white colored one.

Again either bake or air dry.

Now for the assembly.

Attach each strip to twine using the Macrame

Lark's Head Knot.

If you Google this you will see how it is done.

For each banner add 2 red, 2 white and 2 blue.

Once you have the amount of banners 

you want tied to your twine,

turn entire strand over on a flat surface.

(table would be fine)

Gather together each banner & using 6 strands of floss,

tie a knot 2 inches up from the bottom.

This is why you turned the strand over...

so you cannot see the knot.

Now you are ready to hang your banner(s)!

Material List

Muslin

Craft blue & red paint

(I used Craft Essentials Blue Velvet & Dark Red from JoAnn)

Instant coffee

Cinnamon (I used Dollar Store brand)

3 old coffee mugs or Solo cups

Paintbrush

Cookie Sheet Pan 

Wax Paper

Off White Embroidery Floss

Twine

Hope you were able to follow my tutorial 

and enjoyed my prim banner look.

Am working on my second Summertime tree,

and will have another tutorial on one of the items I am creating for this one.

Enjoy your evening.

 Americana Blessings To All!

Janice

2 Old New Finds

Happy Sunday sweet friends!

It is a rainy one here in Michigan.

Storms in the wee  morning hours,

rain right now with more storms later.

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend.

Today I will be lugging down

more of my Americana decor from the attic.

I have plans to create two more small

Summertime Christmas trees...

maybe a third if I have the time.

Right now I would like to show you the two

items I found to keep.

This 2 gallon jug was calling me.

It has a bit of ochre on it which means

the yellow clay was mixed in when this beauty was glazed.

It does not deter from the beauty...

and after all it is really old.

My next old beauty is this well worn teddy bear.

He is missing an ear and part of his eye broke off.

In my eyes this just lends to his well loved character.

He is an early straw filled one.

His red and white striped night shirt came with him.

I told the vendor which I purchased him from,

that my other teddies would now be jealous.

As they do not have clothing and are quite bare.

She laughed.

Our buying trip was a success.

We bought prims for our shows,

and goodies for our store.

We walked for 5 hours before the first storm came in.

Stayed in our van til it passed and then went back

out for another 3 hours.

Saturday we spent another 4 hours shopping for more

items until the rain came again.

We decided to go home them.

Our van was full, we were tired, and ready to get home.

Arrived home last evening to more rain.

Well off to get to my chores, and get into the attic.

Hope today finds you doing something you love!

Will catch up on my blog reading later on.

Old New Find Blessings To All!

Janice

Americana Table Display Part 2

Happy Tuesday sweet friends.

My kitties decided to have a roue this morning,

and woke both Bob and I up much earlier than usual.

Not sure what the fight was about...

as all is well again.

Brothers fight at times I guess.

As promised here is my second half of the table display.

I changed up my bowl rack to feature Americana too.

This is what the left side looks like.

Now I added a script jug to the right of this teddy.

Tucked in this 48 star flag.
I am older than both Alaska and Hawaii.
(Are you?)
Red painted bowl to the right.

Decided to put the red bowl inside another,
and added this americana wood toy top.

Placed a tree inside the canvas suitcase,
for Christmas in July.

Diamond Ray Red, Silver and Blue icicles.
Plus vintage and antique silver ornaments.

I love how they sparkle in the light.

My antiques feather tree fits perfectly in this suitcase.
A Christmas present from Bob.

The entire display finished.
Well, somewhat finished.
I looked at this picture and decided the bowl rack
needs something else.
Stay tuned!
I have a plan.

Hope everyone has a great week.
Bob and I will soon be going on a mini buying trip,
so this will be my last post for the week.
I hope to purchase some antique(s) for both
our store and maybe a few for myself.

Table Display Blessings To All!
Janice

Happy Mother's Day

Just a quick note to wish

all of the mother's out there a

A very

Happy Mother's Day!

Even fur baby moms!!

Mother's Day Blessings To All!

Janice

All Crocked Up

Evening friends.

First of all let me apologize for not emailing

those who left a comment on my last post.

I am trying to be good and not use my arm that much.

I so appreciate each and every comment,

and appreciate that you take the time to comment.

Today I feel all crocked up...or cracked up.

So it's fitting to show you these pics

of my favorite crocks.

I woke up at 2am and could not go back to sleep.

I had it in my head that if I did go back to sleep,

I would not hear my alarm go off at 5am.

So I sat on the love seat and started to grab my computer,

all while in the dark and started playing Soda Crush.

Now this made my kitties wake up and come sit

 on the floor next to me.

You see they are on a routine,

that when I wake up, they get fed.

 So naturally all three are staring at me.

"mom where's our food?"

I get up and feed them and resume my game.

They continue to fight and play....

which is their normal behavior each morning;

except this day its 2am.

I come home now and find all three sleeping,

when they should be up.

So you see I am or we are all crocked up over here. LOL

In other news, the therapist told me this morning

that a normal rotation should be 175 or 180.

I am currently at 155. 

I say to her...geez that's not good.

But then she reminds me when I started therapy,

I was only at 90.

So I am happy it is progressing.

Bob is bringing food home as I write.

Going to eat and hit the bed for some much needed rest.

Thank you all again for your sweet comments.

I even laughed at some of yours!

All Crocked Up Blessings To All!

Janice

I Am A Rebel

Yes, I have always been a rebel,
ever since I can remember.

My mom had a pink bathroom that I never liked.
I decided to take green toothpaste
 and painted the one wall with it. 
Yep I sure did.

First grade we had to color pictures
from coloring books...
seemed like day in and day out.
So I decided to color my pages all green one day.
Yep I sure did.

I was on a horse as soon as I could walk.
I would get on my pony bareback...
no bridle ~ no saddle.
Grandpa B would yell at me to get off,
but as soon as he went back into the house,
I was back on my pony.
Yep I sure did. 

So being the rebel that I am,
I decided to start decorating for July 4th.

Hung this old antique tin horn to my horse.

Placed my teddy and doll on top.

The other teddy below.

This is the left side of the table in our living room.
I used a red and white quilt for my base.
Stay tune to see what I have in store for
the other side.

So I am not really suppose to be using my left arm.
But I had to move the table I originally had here,
and moved in my bigger one.
Then moved the other one to the back room,
where my small one was...then moved the small one
back into the living room behind our chair.
Musical tables is what happened.
Yep I sure did.

You have to come back when I reveal the other half.

I wanted to start changing things up
because we will be gone the next
few weekends, and I wanted a bit of
Americana for Memorial Day.

What are your plans this weekend?

Rebel Blessings To All!
Janice