“I Remember Laura” blogathon

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Quill Cottage is hosting an “I Remember Laura” blogathon on Mondays through the month of June in memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author if the “Little House” series of books. Each week will focus on a particular theme: this week is quilts, week 2 will feature buttons, week 3, family recipes, and week 4, books and music. There will also be an art swap going on each week in connection with the theme: Click on the picture for more information.

I don’t remember when I was first introduced to the “Little House” series. I must have read some of them as a child because I was familiar with some of the stories, and in me early married years I bought and read the whole series and thoroughly loved them. I think I have read them more than once and probably will again.

This week’s theme is Quilting Memories, and participants can be found here. I appreciate that in Laura’s time girls were taught needle arts at an early age, and I wish that trend continued. It was a necessity then: there were no Wal-Marts in which to but inexpensive bedding. But besides the necessity, it was a way to teach industriousness, neatness, and even math skills. Years ago I read a quote from an unnamed pioneer woman that went something like, “I make my quilts warm to keep my family from freezing. I make them beautiful to keep my heart from breaking.” That resonated with me. We can kind of romanticize pioneer life in our minds, but it had to be bleak at times, starting completely from scratch, knowing you had to focus on the essentials first before beautifying (we went through this with our fixer-upper of a first house. It got discouraging having to deal with the roof and electricity and hot water heaters before ever getting to painting, wallpapering, and decorating. I can imagine this feeling was multiplied in pioneer days). There would have been the hope and excitement of what was to come, but there had to have been long, tiring, bleak days along the way, especially during the winter. So quilts and other needle arts were also a way to beautify the home and exercise creativity.

I am afraid I don’t come from a family of crafters, much less quilters. I took one adult ed. class in quilting but never really went on with it from there. I love and admire quilting, though: I remember going to one quilt show and just being in awe of the detail, creativity, and work involved.

Besides looking “homey,” quilts are also a great way to incorporate a color scheme into a room. That is what I had in mind with this store-bought quilt from Wal-Mart several years ago. Our bedroom in our previous home had pink, blue, and green wallpaper which the previous owner had installed. Those colors are my favorites, and all the wall decorations and such we collected during that time were in those colors. When we moved and I needed to replace our bedspread anyway, I could find bedding in several different combinations of two of those colors, but not all three in any one set, until I found this quilt.

I just realized that one of the pillow shams is missing in this picture. 😳 For some reason my husband’s came apart and we’ve just been using regular pillow cases.

And even though this isn’t quilted, this is a bedspread crocheted my my great Aunt Dot: it is the only thing like it I have passed down from family:

And even though this isn’t part of the theme this week, another of the needle arts Laura and her sister Mary had to work on were samplers. In our early married years my decorating preferences leaned toward the early American style (possibly even as a result of reading Laura’s books, I cant remember), and it was in that time frame that I started this sampler.

Back to quilting: the only other items I own that relate to quilting are a pillow I did in that one class I mentioned, which I don’t think I have any more, and these Paula Vaughn prints my husband bought for me years ago.

It’s hard to tell from this photo, but each print focuses on one aspect of needle arts. The third one features a quilt.

I have always wanted to make a quilt like this one, but I honestly don’t know if I have the skills. 🙂 Quilting tends to be more exact than a lot of other crafts I do.

Quilts are prominent in many of Paula’s designs, and this combines quilts and cross stitch in this gift my sister made for me several years ago.

Show and Tell Friday

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.

I’ve made some progress on my cross stitch project. The last time I showed it it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

I still have to do a mop and bucket to the left along with the caption underneath, but the end is in sight!

I found this lamp in a catalog a few years ago and I really liked its uniqueness. I don’t remember how much it was, but I do remember it was very reasonable.

It really aggravates my family, though, that if you touch it in just the right way, the little pieces fall out. We’ve been talking about securing them with plasti-tak but haven’t yet.

I know, I know, there is red there, and I have said I don’t like red — but it looks like kind of a dark pinkish red to me. 😀

The lamp is in the family room, which also has a mantle. Here are a few of the things there:

These are the only Willow Tree figurines I have, which is fine, because I don’t have the space for another collection. But I love these because of the father, mother and boys, since I have boys. There was another one of just a boy holding a heart which I also thought of getting since we have three boys. My guys think these look really weird. 🙄 I love the graceful beauty of these pieces. The little plaque in the middle was given to me by a secret sister from our ladies group at church a few years ago.

For more Show and Tells or to join in click n the button above.

Show and Tell Friday

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I’ve been eying several things in the Cottage Accents line at Michael’s. When I found out they were discontinuing the line and had marked it all half-price, I snagged these:

Our family room is basic tans and beiges, and I wanted to bring in those colors as well as some blues in accessories, so these fit the bill.

My middle son’s girlfriend often came over on Saturday and Sunday afternoon and evenings from college, and since school was out, she traveled back to her home state for the next several weeks til they meet up again at the camp they will be working at this summer. We have enjoyed getting to know her this year. I am so glad they have done most of their dating at home. Before she left she gave us these and a sweet note thanking us for letting her come over and do laundry and spend time away from school here.

And this was an early Mother’s Day present from her to me:

Awwww!

Show and Tell Friday: Recent Finds

Posted on April 17, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I wanted to share a few things I had found while shopping over the last few weeks.

I love these little pillows, but my menfolk got irritated with them on the couch as they tended to slide around or fall off. So I began to look for a basket to put them in and found all the baskets on sale at Michael’s the week before Easter. I really like this set in itself, but I’m not sure I like the pillows in them — I can’t really see the designs like I’d like. But I’ll leave it that way for a while. I like the baskets anyway and will use them even if I change what I put in them. 🙂

This cabinet was included in Hobby Lobby’s 50% off sale of all their wall decor a couple of weeks ago. It was missing its inner shelves, though — a cabinet next to it was exactly the same except it was brown, and it had glass shelves, so I knew it was supposed to have them. When I checked out I pointed that out to the sales clerk, and he gave me another 10% off. I have to tell you, there was a time when I could not have done that. I used to avoid even making returns at stores because I felt intimidated — asking for a “deal” was beyond me. But my husband does that all the time. It used to embarrass me and I’d just walk away when he was “negotiating,” but it’s amazing how often you can get a better deal just by asking politely. I’ll have to ask my husband where to get shelves cut for it. It’s on the floor right now — I haven’t quite decided yet where to put it.

I went shopping at a couple of thrift stores a few weeks ago, and this blue vase was the only thing of interest I found. It was all of 99 cents. 🙂 The Idaho clock was made for us by my husband’s former pastor. My husband’s family moved to Idaho when he was in his early teens, I think, and the pastor of his church there did woodworking as a side hobby. He has given us several lovely gifts over the years.

Show and Tell Friday

Posted on April 11, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I originally drew a blank for Show and Tell Friday this week, until an afternoon trip to Wal-Mart.

As a little background first, though: this is a corner of our dining area.

I had gotten the little cabinet years ago at a craft show. The books are my “overflow” cookbooks — the main ones I use are on another shelf. Behind the door tablecloths and napkins are stored. On the top to the left is this little plate.

At the bottom it says, “Love is the good cook’s secret ingredient.” I love that saying and used to like Holly Hobbie a lot, but the picture just seemed too little-girlish to me now, and I don’t have those colors in my kitchen any more (my first kitchen was primarily yellow). So I had been thinking about replacing it for a long time. I originally got it when the neighbors of friends were moving and getting rid of a ton of their things. I actually felt a little bad about it: the wife and kids had gone on ahead out of town and the husband was staying behind to pack and close up the house. This was one of the things he wanted to leave behind, and I hoped it wasn’t a dear treasure to the wife.

I didn’t have anything handy in mind to put in that little corner, though. Then today at Wal-Mart some pretty, inexpensive flower arrangements caught my eye. As I wondered if I had a place for one anywhere, I thought of this corner.

I think it brightens it up a lot, though it does look a little more crowded. The bright pink roses look a little orangy here, but they complement the wallpaper better “in real life.”

The vase is one of my favorite things, bought for me by my husband some years ago. The little bear figurine was a dollar store find.

I’ll keep the Holly Hobbie plate and pack it away — I am not quite ready to get rid of it completely yet.

Interesting stuff

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Isn’t that just the most creative post title you’ve ever seen? 🙄

Just wanted to share a few interesting — er – erudite — um — cool links.

Karla Dornacher is giving away a Morning Glory Garden Clip Art Collection for use in scrapbooking, crafts, women’s ministry events, etc. I love Karla’s art work and have referred to it before, and this is just lovely. All you have to do is comment on any post on her blog during the month of April to be entered in the contest.

I discovered Nesting Place when Mrs. Wilt at The Sparrow’s Nest linked to her Window Mistreatments 101 and another explanation of window mistreatments. Her window mistreatments most often don’t require sewing — or hardware! I love her creativity and humor. Her motto: “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.” If you click on “window mistreatments” in her sidebar under “Labels,” you’ll see several variations.

I love seeing other people’s handcrafted cards, and these at This and That are just gorgeous. CPS also regularly shows handmade cards by several different designers and just recently had a tutorial on Hybrid Cardmaking — using the computer as well as scrapbooking and stamping supplies. I am nowhere near this level of cardmaking, but it’s inspiring to see these!

Mrs. Wilt at The Sparrow’s Nest has deemed April “A Month of Modesty” and has been posting almost every day this month on that topic. One post I appreciated the most was “How Shall We Then Dress.”

I never thought much about childhood food allergies until a good friend’s daughter developed quite serious allergies to several foods and sometimes had trouble getting other people her daughter interacted with to take them seriously. One of my blog friends, Janeen, deals with the same issues. She linked recently to one of the scariest stories I have read in a long time about a child having a severe reaction to a piece of candy from a teacher who was supposed to know about her allergies and who had access to safe alternatives. Food allergies are serious. Even deadly. And usually complicated — as Janeen wrote recently, it’s not just a matter of being peanut-free or milk-free or whatever. People who work with children need to be very careful. Even as just a neighborhood mom, I would check with a child’s parents before giving them anything to eat.

Finally, thanks to those who have been praying about my leg. The red area is almost gone. In fact, some times everything looks clear, but then a little redness will flare up during the day. The thing that scares me is that it had almost cleared up before — but then it recurred covering about twice as much area as it did the first time. I’m trying not to be fearful of that every time it looks to be a little redder than it was — I am still keeping my foot up off and on throughout the day and praying a lot that the Lord will heal it completely — and trying to just leave whatever happens with Him.

Show and Tell Friday:Laundry room

Posted on March 14, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Our laundry room thoroughly needs to be redone. I was reminded of just how much when I tried to take pictures of the few things I have on the walls in there! I ended up taking a couple off the wall and photographing them on top of the washer. Someday we want to fix it up — it’s just low on the list of many things to do right now.

But I do have a few things in there to brighten it up a little.

I especially like the little clothespin holder there on the line.

This picture is maybe only 4×5″. We got it as a souvenir when we visited the Wren’s Nest, home of Joel Chandler Harris (author of the Uncle Remus stories), when we lived in the Atlanta area.

While I was thinking about these pictures, I remembered a cross stitch piece my sister had done that for some reason needed to be reframed. I had forgotten all about it. But I dug it out and hope to take care of that in the next few days!

I don’t usually feel that way about laundry, so that’s a good reminder, besides being just cute in itself.

Show and Tell Friday: Spring Windowsill

Posted on March 7, 2008 by Barbara Harper

When I took down my “everyday” decorations last fall to decorate for autumn, I finally took apart an old arrangement on my windowsill that had dried flowers and a bird and nest and had just gotten dusty and unkempt. After putting autumn and Christmas decorations away and getting back to everyday, I pondered what to put in that empty spot. I hadn’t seen or come up with anything until the spring issue of Kelli’s beautiful Seasonal Delights magazine came out and I saw the Hidden Nest Centerpiece. A smaller version of that would be just perfect!

So I assembled the materials this week, with a 5″ pot instead of the 8″. I originally wanted to paint the flower pot a cream color and the eggs blue, but the windowsill this would be on is white, so I thought a bit of color would be better with a blue flower pot. These kinds of decisions can stall a project for me for days, but I decided since all of these materials were reusable I could disassemble it and change it if I wanted, so I went ahead with painting the flower pot blue and using cream and brown eggs I found at Michael’s.

I had a bit of a problem, though, with the garland: mine was so bushy that it lost its “arch” shape almost completely (probably because the pot was smaller, so the arch was smaller — I am sure it would have done fine with the bigger pot size Kelli’s centerpiece had called for), and then I had trouble getting the wire to stick to the flower pot with hot glue. I remembered some variegated green picks I had and got a few of them and stuck them directly in the moss, then tucked the nest under the leaves. This is finally what I came up with:

I love it. When I am working at the sink I can see the little nest and eggs peeking out through the leaves. We often have little birds build nests in our hanging plants outside that I can see from my kitchen window, so this reminds me of that and fits right in with the scene.

I do still want to try Kelli’s idea with the garland shaped as an arch some time!

On the other side of my windowsill is this:

It’s just a couple of spring floral picks I got years ago at a Home Interiors party, stuffed into a small creamer pitcher, but it has been a long-time favorite window sill brightener. It’s getting old, too, but I keep dusting it off.

This is the whole windowsill, cheery even on a gloomy day outside:

I also wanted to share a couple of things I was delighted to find while out shopping this week.

It’s very hard to find kitchen towels and such with pink — apparently that’s not “in” as a decorator color just now. But I was delighted to find these at Kohl’s — I was shopping in the men’s department for my husband’s birthday and investigated the housewares and decorating section while I was there. I was glad I did!

They’re almost too pretty to use — almost. But I will use them!

I was also thrilled to find these chair pads on clearance. I had been needing new ones and wanted to find the kind with the non-skid surface on the bottom rather than ties (which always seem to pull out after much use at my house). I had seen some blue ones at another store that I thought were too expensive. But these were not only less, they had little pink and cream flecks in them that matched mt kitchen/dining area:

And I love the non-skid underside!! It works much better than the ties at the back.

Isn’t it funny how little things can brighten an area?

Show and Tell Friday: Scripture plaques

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Barbara Harper

In Deuteronomy 6:4-7a, God tells His people, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children…” In the following verses He tells of many ways we are to follow that command, talking of His Word while sitting in our houses, walking, etc., and verse 9 says, “And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

I enjoy taking that literally, to have God’s Word in several places on the walls of my house. Sure, there are times we breeze right by it without thinking about its impact, but there are those times of focusing on it and being reminded of and meditating on its truth.

I wanted to share a few of those plaques containing Scripture with you today. There are too many to show all of them…but it is hard to decide which ones to share now and which to save for another time!

This is one of my favorites. I made it for Shannon’s first bloggy giveaway carnival and liked it so much I made another for myself. The verse was done on the computer — I am not skilled in calligraphy or even legible handwriting! The rest is scrapbooking paper, paper lace, and a little plastic heart that was in with some buttons.

I’ve had this for some years and love the line from the hymn in the midst of the Scripture that inspired it. Love the colors, too. I don’t remember where I got it, but I am thinking maybe it was from a Home Interiors or Home and Garden party.

This was a favor from our church’s ladies’ luncheon a couple of years ago.

The following two are on either side of our dining room window.

Philippians 4:6-7.

Proverbs 17:1.

The calligraphy came from Doorposts. I bought just inexpensive mats and frames from either K-Mart or Wal-Mart.

I got this from a craft show:

The photo doesn’t quite do it justice, I just love the colors and arrangement. Calligraphy has come a long way!

Psalm 23:1, from Home Interiors.

I think I’ll save the rest for another time.

Come over to Kelli’s to peruse the rest of todays Show and Tells and even join us! It’s a fun way to et to know each other.

Show and Tell Friday: Valentine’s Day decorations and dinner

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Barbara Harper

With all the hearts and pink roses around my house, you could say it looks like Valentine’s Day all the time. 🙂 But there are a few special things I put out for the day this year.

This is a wreath that I usually have on my door around Valentine’s Day, though I have it up at other times, too.

I didn’t make it. I found it at a good price at Target a few years ago. Seems like it was around $15 or so. I think it has faded a little bit — there used to be more pink in it. But I still like it.

When I mentioned this table in a previous Show and Tell, I mentioned that I wanted to put little seasonal vignettes there.

These two Boyd’s Bear figurines go along with the holiday.

This little tray I found just yesterday at Target. I decided to put some of my heart-shaped buttons, charms, etc. on it.

Most of the things there are leftover from various craft projects. I think I got most of the buttons from Michael’s. The little crocheted hearts and pink dotted hearts and several of the charms I got at Speckled Egg’s shop.

I saw a better example of a doily garland yesterday, and I thought I had bookmarked it, but I can’t find it now. I had a few heart shaped paper doilies on hand and gave it a try.

Some may remember seeing something similar to this last year at our church’s ladies’ luncheon. I saved some of the leftover favors and made a bouquet out of them.

We place each person’s Valentine above their plate and open them before we eat.

This was our main dish for dinner. Those little shapes are supposed to look like hearts.

It’s called Crescent Heart-Topped Lasagna Casserole. I was delighted to find a Valentiney main dish — it’s easy to find desserts, but a little harder to find a Valentine entree. I couldn’t find the mini lasagna noodles called for at the store I was in and didn’t have time this week to check other places, so I just broke up lasagna noodles into small pieces.

And this was our dessert.