A couple years ago, Pam Garrison posted photos of a Christmas stocking she had made for her son. Ever since then, I've had it in my mind to make similar stockings for our family. I've been collecting vintage holiday felt bits and bobs, and decided to tackle the project this year! Here are the results!
Each one is comprised of some vintage bits from old stockings or old appliques and some new cutouts that I did. I have to admit that I took the easy way out and glued most things down instead of sewing, so I'm crossing my fingers they'll hold up! If not, I can always go back and stitch them down at a later point.
I hope it's not too big-headed to say that I absolutely LOVE the way these turned out!!! The colors and the vintage handmade look were exactly what I was going for! If you're interested to see a few more shots, as well as some closer looks at the individual stockings, they're on my Flickr page....
We also have some cross-stitched stockings that my mother-in-law made, so I'm going to have to go shopping for more stuff to fill TWO stockings for each kid now- ha ha!
Hello, welcome to our new playroom! For Riley's fifth birthday he got bunk beds, which meant that both boys now share a room, leaving Riley's old room free. Many elements you may remember, as I was able to keep the same paint, curtains, some furniture, etc.
Let me take you on a tour (there are also more photos on my Flickr site, due to my uploading problems on the blog, so check them out as well)!
This is a little shelf that houses two vintage pieces of needlework. I found them both while in the process of putting together the room, and they're really perfect for the playroom!
I'll start from the left wall, as you enter, then travel around clockwise... That red bookshelf is one of only two pieces I had to buy to do the room (from Ikea). Everything else I already had, in various other rooms. Above the bookshelf is a wonderful vintage coloring book entitled "Playroom" that I purchased from Elizabeth Holcombe- perfect!! Close-up photos of it are on the Flickr site...
Artwork (pages from vintage cloth books) and curtains were all part of Riley's old decor...
The majority of the storage is all along one wall. The bottom units are also from Ikea (called Trofast), and I already had two, so just had to purchase one extra. There's just enough room between them to hold a little Lego table we had. And the top white units I already had as well (purchased at A.C. Moore). We put up two shelves between them (again, we already had them) for extra storage.
And by the way, yes, we should purchase stock in Fisher Price Imaginext toys!!!
A couple days after I took the original photos, I made this little banner to hang over the storage wall, which is why you don't see it in the other shots. I simply took a couple of vintage cloth books apart, and sewed the pages into a strip of red seam binding.
And that's it! I think this is the easiest room re-do I've done, and everything just worked out beautifully! Everything fit and matched and turned out great, which was a great relief. And the kids are adjusting really well to the change. We used to have toys scattered throughout the house, and it's so nice to have a place for them all in here. And there's room to grow, so once Avery starts accumulating lots of toys, she'll have space for them in here as well.
I hope you've enjoyed the tour. Again, take a look at Flickr for some more detailed shots and a few other views as well!
Well, so I've definitely figured out my photo problem on Blogger. If I shoot my photos horizontally, then things work fine, but if I shoot them vertically, they're close to impossible to edit in here. The problem is that I usually take most photos vertically! But, in instances where I know I'll be blogging, I'll make a point to shoot horizontally, such as in this case.
So, one thing I'm always on the lookout for while thrifting is a vintage play kitchen. For a while we had a modern plastic kitchen with the boys, but it just didn't hold their interest. I decided that when Avery was old enough, she should have a nice wooden kitchen, preferably vintage. Well, I never seemed to run across a vintage one, and I've seen such an assortment of cute homemade kitchens out in blogland, that I was willing to give it a go.
Allow me to introduce you to The OLD Play Kitchen, purchased for $5 (at 75% off) from a thrift store:
Cute enough, but in need of some repairs, and a little too pastelly/cutesy for my tastes. But I couldn't pass up the price for a wooden kitchen. Plus, I like that it is fairly small, and has both oven space as well as refrigerator space. And I could see that it definitely had Potential with a capital P!
So, now allow me to introduce you to The NEW Play Kitchen:
Ta-Dah!
I even thrifted some storage containers to organize things on the inside!
As you can see, the changes were pretty easy for such a dramatic makeover. New paint, new hardware, a pretty little curtain, a pretty little decal, and a new oven door (courtesy of my husband).
The "oven knobs" were in the clearance bin at Anthropologie for $3 each, and were pretty much exactly what I had in mind! Red and vintage-looking!
I am absolutely thrilled with the results! If you head over to my Flickr page, there are a few photos of the kids playing with the kitchen (they were shot vertically, so won't work here!). I had intended to save it as a gift for Avery for Christmas, but there really wasn't any place to store it for a month, so what the heck!
And so, you thought my story was done there, didn't you? So did I, frankly. We have an adorable little kitchen that both my husband and I put lots of love and work into, and the kids seem to love it. That's just what I wanted, right? But, oh, wait, what's that behind my little blue kitchen in the above photo???
Ummmm, yeah.... another play kitchen....
As luck would have it, not two weeks after finishing the little blue kitchen, what should I come across at Goodwill but this wood kitchen for $7?!? If I had dreamed up a vintage wooden play kitchen, it couldn't have looked more perfect than this! Absolutely exactly what I would have wanted! There's no way I couldn't buy it, is there? You guys are with me on this one, aren't you? (If you are, let me know, because at this point, my husband really thinks I'm crazy!)
What a dilemma!
Very luckily for me, my parents just bought a house in town, and my mother offered to keep one of the kitchens at her house. Whew! Because, honestly, I really don't think I could have parted with one! Now, I just need to decide which one goes where, which is no easy task either, but at least I can change my mind if I decide I miss one!
Well, I hope you enjoyed my long-winded adventure there! I still need to post photos of some of my other projects- our new playroom and shared bedroom for the boys. Both turned out great, and I'm excited to show them off!
