A few blasts from the past

A long time ago when i was in Junior collage I took some oil painting classes.  One of the assignments was to decorate a small piece of furniture ie stools and the like.  This was a stool i had since I was a little girl so it was beat up scratched and dented. I decided to decorate it and make it nice with some tole painting.  Very heavy on the paint layers so that I could varnish it and make it look older.  When I moved to Utah I gave it to my great Aunt Deannie.  Years later I noticed it was missing from her home ( my other aunt still lives in that home).

 

I figured it had gotten broken and tossed i was sad but glad it had been well used.  Over the thanksgiving break I was at my Uncle Roly's house ( pronounced Rawlee). I had not been in this house in years like before I had painted the stool that long ago.  So what a great surprise to see it there.  The funny thing was my cousin who now lives there had a story for it which was funny to me.   He said see this old stool I am sure it is the stool that gave Vova ( our grandmother) the idea to paint stools  he loved it being in his home .  Made me smile and sort of sad that I would break this dream of what the stole was.  I said no it is one I painted when I was nineteen years old and thought it was gone.  I am truly glad this cousin has it as I have always stayed with him when I go visit family he is such a good guy.  Little bits of the past are nice to see.

There was another item there a quilt I made when my husband and I were engaged it was a Christmas present for my uncle Roly something else I thought had gone by the wayside when Roly died but it is preserved and saved in a trunk along with photos of four presidents  ( Ford, Nixon, Reagan, and the first George Bush)  make me feel proud that is was a treasured item and saved with these types of gifts letter  from the presidents.  Thanksgiving was a hard week for me mentally this year long story but this made it so much the nicer.  Next time I go out I will have to take a picture of the quilt.  nothing fancy at all just a small lap quilt that is tied not even quilted as I was a collage student with not much time to make such things but it was an item I wanted to make as a thank you to my uncle for all he had done for me in my life.  He helped pay my way through collage and because of that I was able to go to BYU where I met my husband and the rest is history.

Mummified fairy houses

Over  Thanksgiving break my daughter made a Fairy house for her mummified fairies that she makes.  I think it came out pretty well for a first attempt at it. Plus she had to take all the supplies with her as we traveled good job on guessing what she would need to have to make this item.  It took her several days to make as she had to wait for the glue to dry several times for the different stages of construction.  She plans on making more of these.

This is also a new fairy she made.  The last one was a girl this one she tells me is a boy thus the reason the close look different.

flip top chain-maille

My oldest daughter has started a project with flip top tabs making a type of chain-maille.  I have made chain-maille in the past and I am familiar with this type of  thing so I posted on face book that she was wanting tabs.  She has 108 tabs so far but it will probably take her a few thousand to make what she wants to make.
She has three styles of tabs at the moment but hopes to get more and more colors too.  Her goal is to make  a corset and skirt a female version of costume chain-maille.  There is this cool website all about this type of stuff check it out it is fun to see what can be made out of through away stuff.

For fun I may make some as I really like this pattern for a corset that the blog above has for sale.

There are several ways of doing this type of maille.  My daughter is doing a cut in the tabs.  But there is also like the blog above where you weave them together and I have also seen where you use chain-maille links to hold the tabs together and i have seen them crocheted together too.  Not sure which way I like the most but I lean towards  links and weaving.  I believe they are stronger but my daughter wants instant gratification so she is doing it the quicker easier way but I believe it is the weaker way as well.  Here is a video for the way my daughter is doing hers but she did not learn from this video.  Warning this girl annoys me by saying so all the time you are warned.  But the general idea is there for basic maille but you could make a 1 by 4 maille as well with pop tabs

50's sock hop poodle skirts

My daughters had a 50's sock hop at school.  I made two poodle skirts for the event but only one daughter ended up going to the dance.  I also forgot to take photos of the two girls on Sunday after the dance when they both wore these items to church so you could see both dressed up.  This photo is of my daughter (left most person) and two of her friends while at the dance.  My daughter is not wearing a beehive in the above photo but she does have two liberty rolls in her hair and those lead into a high ponytail with a scarf tied in it and around her neck.

The photo at left was taken a week before the dance when we were trying it on her.  The pin she is wearing is a vintage pin of The Beatles that I own but I would not let her wear it to the dance as it was getting way to fragile for that.  The sweater clip is also vintage.  It was given to me by my Vavo from her friend who we all like to call Aunt Alice even though she is not really our Aunt.  It has a lovely catholic Mary on it.  Yes I am Mormon (LDS) but was Catholic as a child and still respect the Catholic religion very much as it is my heritage too.  The scarfs are mine from when I was in high-school.  The belt is vintage thrift shop find.  The shirt is one my daughter wears as part of her school uniform as are the socks and shoes.

Some fun at the dance.  Hard to see in these photo camera images that the poodle skirt has a rhinestone leash but it is very visible below.  She also wore two pink crinoline petticoats with it to make it fluff up.  To top it off (or to finish under) we had some ruffle pettie pants for her to wear under the skirt so when she spun she was still modest yes true 1950's ruffle bloomers.  As a poodle skirt when spun really spins high.

 I did take a few photos while hand sewing on the rhinestone band on the red skirt.

Here are some photos of my daughter wearing the skirt the Sunday before the dance the red one was not done yet at this point.  The  white skirt I hemmed with double fold binding tape as I wanted it to have a closed in hem and I also wanted that added touch of color at the hem of the skirt.  After all when most people think of the 50's they think pinks and baby blues and other such colors so I was trying to add a little more of that color to it.

My  mid- daughter in these photos loves vintage and retro stuff.  She considers herself a rockabilly type person.  So she was excited for me to make poodle skirts for her to wear.  The few weeks prior I made her a 1950's square dancing type of skirt to wear to a barn dance.  I have a second of those half made.  When they are all completed I will post a picture of them too.  As of late all I seem to be doing is making costumes for school plays and dances and school celebrations.  I hope to be back to my old self again soon.  Cross fingers make a wish!

I was a chaperon at the dance.  My daughter wanted me to go in costume.  But did not tell me till about 30 mins to the dance.  So I  went as a greaser with jeans rolled and hair in a high pompadour and a high ponytail.  Had a sweater set and a black leather jacket and neck scarf did not get a picture of myself meant to but never happened.