Birthday Loafing

 

Just celebrated my birthday recently, I am still hanging around in the 40s, but not sure where.  I honestly don't know my age.  I like it that way.  I just hope I am never put in a situation that I have to prove I'm not insane and they ask me that fairly simple question...just send my birthday cards addressed to the local nut house from then on out.

Until that happens let's check out the party decor.

  For my theme this year I used these super cute vintage party napkins I found on ebay:  

I love those little kids!

I printed the image and glued to cheap paper cups.

I printed out enlarged versions of the cutie kids and tried to style them as they were holding up my cake (which is also styled after the one on the napkins).  The cake flavor is Hummingbird Cake and the little roses are vintage plastic picks.

Here is a scan of the napkin for your own birthday crafting pleasure:

I spent the day loafing, eating, and with my plumber.

We live in a highly nincompoop populated area so we keep close to home for the most part.  I treated myself to pick-up from a favorite local bagel coffee shop and then again dinner was pick-up, my favorite Chicken and Waffles!  During the day I hung out with the plumber outside as he fixed our clogged drain, which was a gift that it's now working properly.  Later we had cake and I opened some cute gifts from Mr. Husband.  I'll have to photo later but in list form he got me a vintage dress I had asked for, some vintage food and cleaning packaging items, vintage post cards, a NOS vintage squeaker lamb toy, a vintage frito cookbooklet, and a 1976 Elvis concert photo booklet...all from ebay.

It was a really low key day and that's absolutely fine by me...I'm over 'eventful'.

New Kitchen "Curtains"

This has been an idea in the making since 2017 when I came across a cute vintage wood cabinet 

at an antique mall featuring stenciled "curtains" on the glass doors:

I mean! 

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What a clever idea!  I snapped a full straight-on shot with my dinky camera phone and stashed the idea away.

I knew it would be a cute decorative feature to do to my kitchen window but making it happen was perplexing me.  And I'll be honest, I am sure other brighter folks could have figured this out far quicker and simpler than how I finally pulled this off.

Any time I do a craft project it has got to be cheap, dirt cheap.  I am fine with spending tons of time but not tons of money.  And this project was just that; took me a few years to figure out but in the end only cost a dollar.

So here is my fandangle process. The first thing I did was to print out the photo scaled to fit my windows on the wide format printer at the library.  As you can see the original stencil is missing paint so I then used a ruler to draw the lines and stencil sections back on the large print.  Next I used a xacto blade and cut out the stencil.  Now is where I got stumped.  Do I want to paint it on the window, or maybe even etch it, or try something else like vinyl?  Since I have to wipe down this window on a very regular basis I decided against the paint, thinking it would flake off as the original had done.  Etching is too permanent and really not opaque enough for the look I was going for.  So then I am left with the vinyl option.  I happened to have a big roll of white contact shelf liner I picked up from an estate sale for 1 buck!  I laid the cut out paper stencil (right side down to the back side of the vinyl backing) and traced out the pieces.  I did this to the back so I wouldn't have to later erase pencil marks from all of the fronts of the tiny strips.  I then traced out the pieces in pencil and cut out with the blade, scotch-taping the tiny pieces in place where cut.  After all cuts are made for both panels discard the paper templates. Clean the window with alcohol and allow to fully dry.  Next I taped the vinyl stencil to the window and painstakingly removed each tiny taped down piece, removed the backing and replaced on the glass in it's correct position. After all pieces were placed I removed the large stencil piece from the window.  I then used a bone folder tool (used in book making/binding to make sharp creases in paper) to firmly press each piece of vinyl to the window.  Then two days later Ta-da!

I super love it!  

I have already had to clean the window a couple of days after placing the vinyl and it held up well with gentle wiping.

My next kitchen project is possibly painting my countertops.  I eventually want new formica but that's way down the road.  For now I just want to make the blahness of these go away...however I have another year or so of overthinking the project before anything will happen! 

Vintage Potholders

Here's the last bit of linen closet fodder...Pot holders!

Let's think about what uses they could have other than just keeping our mitts or countertops from getting burned.

The first and obvious is to just hang them on the kitchen wall as decor.  Another idea would be to stitch several together into a mat to place washed dishes to dry upon.  Stitch one in half closed by a zipper and make a pouch.  Or sew a few together to make a purse.    Place several down the middle of the table to make a funky faux table runner.  Use them the same as you would doilies.  

My most favorite idea is to use them as drip coasters for sweaty icy drinks. 

That about clears out my linen closet ideas.

"Linen closets" can also include handkerchiefs, tablecloths, blankets, and placemats.  And while those items can have lots of reuse and upcycle options, I just use them as is.

What are some of your favorite repurpose linens ideas?

 

Vintage Towels

This week I am rummaging around the linens closet, and seeing what kind of ideas come to mind.

 Don't you love vintage towel prints and colors?!  I don't come across them too often as you can see my collection is small.  They are an item that tends to be used till threadbare. They don't wind up at thrifts for this reason so estate sales are the best places to look.  

Because towels can take a beating I would never use vintage towels for everyday sponging.  And since the fabric is so thick and rough they aren't good candidates for clothing.

So what to do with them?

One idea to still display them in the bathroom without getting grimy hands involved is to turn them into curtains for your bathroom.  Attach some café curtain clip rings on them and you're done!

Another idea is to sew a few together and make a big beach blanket.  Along those same lines you can sew a couple of towels together at the shoulders and waist and make a swim suit cover-up.

Vintage towels would make great fabric for tote bags or purses.  They could also be good for large sized hot pads for dishes.  Turn them into seat cushions by stitching them in half and stuffing.  Cut them into small decorative table runners for a bedroom.  Oh!  Here's a good idea!  Use them to make a tank and toilet seat cover set!

Let's see what else is in here....

Vintage Sheets

This week I am going to talk ideas for a variety of vintage linens.  It was something that just popped into my head and the next ting I know I am pulling sheets and stuff from all my hidey holes in my house.

Here are most of my vintage sheets and pillow cases that I have picked up over the years from thrift stores and estate sales.  

 

I had originally bought most of these years ago as they were going to be my decorating theme for Mr. Husband Sir and my wedding reception.  I wanted a varied menagerie of different colors and florals which I was going to use as table coverings, sitting areas, back drops, and buntings.  We wound up going a different direction (see: hunka hunka burnin' love) so now they are available for a plethora of other options.  I tend to like floral sheets but there are lots of other prints, children's prints in themes like E.T. or Strawberry Short Cake are fun also if you can find them.
So, sheets and pillowcases can be obviously used for their original intention.  However, I usually stray from that because it tends to wear them out even more by being washed so frequently.  Although I could see them being turned into a duvet cover or sewn into a quilt which doesn't need quite as much washing.

The easiest way to look at it is they are just large pieces of fabric.  They make great tablecloths (as long as you don't spill anything stainy on them), shower curtains, and window curtains.  As window curtains I would line them with some plain white sheets facing the sun so they don't become sun bleached or brittle.  My most favorite idea is to use the fabric for making clothes/costumes from sewing patterns.  It's astronomically cheaper than craft fabric.  A sheet from a thrift store will run you 2 bucks in comparison to 30 bucks for the same amount of fabric from a fabric shop.  I even save my worn out sheets (non-vintage) to use as practice fabric for sewing clothes to check the fit.  Another maybe odd thing I use pretty vintage sheets for is to cover up junk I don't like looking at.  I have a number of towers of plastic storage bins in my laundry room  (all that holiday decor has to go somewhere!) and I will drape the sheets over them to kinda hide and curtain them off from my eyes.

There's not much fabric to the pillow cases but they can be really handy used as bags since they are already in bag form.  Sew a drawstring in them and they can be cinch sacks or back packs.   I see them as feed sacks and there are plenty of vintage ideas out there for using those:  Cafe curtains, aprons, clothes for kids, stuffed animals.

Whatever you can make with fabric, sheets are there to make it cheaper and cute!

Here are a few things from the MHICTy archives I have used sheets or pillowcases for:

 2006

Pillow case smock apron

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2010

From PB's epic Star Wars party that I still haven't written about.  I used the fabric from a plain white sheet to make me a Princess Leia caftan.

I also bought a bunch of plain white pillowcases from thrift stores, dyed them tan and cut them into tunics for the padawan party guests.

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2014

I embroidered "just married"  banners for us to wear on our backs while walking around Las Vegas.  The fabric was from a vintage floral print pillow case. 

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2019

I used a thrifted yellow sheet to make the dress base of my Halloween witch outfit.

Hmmm...what else do we have in ye olde linen closet?