Not So Pretty + Ugly = Beautiful

I bought this cabinet during our humble start at a thrift store. I wanted an entertainment center for our 13" TV (we were using a moving box as the entertainment center). It was only five dollars. In fact, it was an ugly peppermint green with some spider webs inside. Wow, that was about 13 years ago...

I took it home, and painted it white. A few years later I painted it black. For a while, I have been tired of looking at this cabinet. The kids bump into it so many times with their toys, the paint was scratched off in some areas and it didn't look pretty. I want to keep this cabinet forever to remember where we started after we got married. This cabinet holds special value to me.

The other day, I was at a thrift store and found this;


I forgot to take a picture before I took off the back, but this book shelf had a back and drawer. It doesn't look pretty, but it is very well made and stable. I decided to take a chance and paid 15 dollars for it and went home.

Lots of... I mean LOTS and LOTS of elbow greese, I came up with this;



I have to say... I LOVE IT!! It took me such a long time to scrape the paint off the cabinet. There were actually four layers of paint, the black, white, peppermint green and a pinkish orange! Who knew, there was one more layer beneath the peppermint green. I probably lost some brain cells from the strong paint remover... but all the work paid off. I have to give credit for my supportive husband for helping me big time with this project. He cut out new back for the shelf, carried heavy stuff for me... Why is it, when ever his wife has a GREAT IDEA somehow he get busy too...

I couldn't wait to get up in the morning today, so I could start decorating the shelves. I went all over the house gathering "white stuff" to decorate my new found furniture. I alway wanted something like this to showcase my white collections (which more than half of them are from garage sales or thrift stores).

I can't stop smiling everytime I walk by. Now, what else can I transform?

Way to Make Money--Six Year Old Style--

This happened a few weeks ago, I wanted to share this with you all before I forget.

One day, I picked the boys up from school as usual. I could hear Christpher and Michael in the back of the mini-van whispering to each other. Usually they are loud kids, they can't keep whispering for too long. Eventually, it got to a point that I could hear what they were talking about. I pretended that I couldn't hear anything.
Here is a part of thier conversation:

Michael: I want a Ferret and sword for Christmas.

I was thinking to myself (What? No living thing for Christmas, and no parent in their right mind would give a weapon as a present to a six year old!)

Christopher: But, remember? Mom said, you don't get living things for Christmas.

M: But I want them.

C: Maybe you can save up your allowance and buy a ferret.

Then, they started talking about how they could increase their income. They were thinking about doing a lemonade stand at a park or the parking lot at Walmart. They asked me if I could help them. I said that I would think about it.

After their homework, Michael was quietly drawing something. I got close and looked at a couple pictures, and said, "Wow, Michael, they are nice!"

Picture One:


M:Thanks, I am going to sell them.

Me: Well, who're you gonna sell them too?

He shrugged and said "I don't know. but I need the money to buy a ferret, so I am going to sell them."

The second one was a picture of a bird with no color. I asked him if he is going to color it. He said, "No, this is a swan, so I don't need to color it." He told me he was going to sell it for six dollars. Wow! What a rip off!

After a while, he showed me the new and improved bird picture:


He said it is a duck now.

Then the starving artist needed a snack and was off to play.

---

I have been working on a furniture makeover since last week, it is almost done!! I am so excited how it is turning out and I am going to post about it in my next post. Make sure to come back! See you soon everyone!

Tutorial--Sweet Scarf for Little Girl--

Well, its tutorial time! Have you noticed in the morning and at night, the air is getting cooler? I created this for my little girl using the Honey Bun from Moda. Don't worry, just in case you want to make this with your fabric stash, I included the measurements.

You will need:

1 Honey Bun (you only need five strips from this)
3 1/2" x 50 1/2" minky strips
Lace (optional)

How to make:

1. First pick out your favorite fabric strips from the Honey Bun.


2. Lay them on the cutting mat and cut into 5 1/2" strips. The Honey Bun is 1 1/2" wide, so the each strip will be, 1 1/2" x 5 1/2".

3. The top and bottom strips will be assembled from 11 pieces. The middle strip will be assemble from 10 pieces. Lay them out and keep arranging until you like what you see. Remember to slide each row, like a brick wall, so that the seams do not line up. Look at picture to see what I mean. Sew each row first, then sew the long strips together.


5. I used a small bowl to draw a half circle then gave the scarf ends a round edge.


6. Right sides together, lay the pieced top and the minky. Minky is very tricky fabric it moves and slides easily, so use lots of pins to secure it.


7. Leaving 4-5 inches opening sew all around it.

8. Turn the fabric inside out then press with an Iron. Fold the fabric at the opening inside and pin it, sew all around the edges to secure the fabrics. If you would like to add lace like I did, you can do it at this stage.


9. All done! Enjoy the fall.



I came up with this after I did a Five Fat Quater Scarf for myself. Since I only used a little bit of the Honey Bun, I am now making a small quilt with the rest of it. You can make several of these scarves out of one Honey Bun... Perhaps, that would be a perfect Christmas gift if you have several daughters, grand daughters, and nieces.

I hope you enjoy this. Have a great weekend everyone!

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, and more Tomatoes

This year, our garden was semi-sucsessful. We had leaf lettuce, cucumbers, parsely, lemon balm, and tomatoes. Tomatoes are so strong, it is still producing. It does not produce enough to can, but it does produce too many to eat. On my kitchen counter, there are many tomatoes...


Have you ever seen the TV show called "Iron Chef"? It is a very popular Japanese TV show that aired in the US and it was a big hit. Basically, the show will bring two chefs on the show to compete, then they will tell them the secret theme ingredient to be used during the show. Those chefs then have to come up with several dishes featuring the ingredient. Then there dishes will be judged at the end of the show and the winner picked... Anyway, I felt like I needed to use many tomatoes as if they were the themed ingredient.

I made one of my favorite salads. Diced tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, a little bit of red onion, and parsely. Mix them in the bowl with Mayo (I use Japanese mayonase called kyupi.) and salt & pepper. That's it. It is very easy to make. Just remember to mix them before serving, otherwise, it will get too watery.



Since I had so many tomatoes, I decide to make a tomato bowl and stuff it with the salad as a special touch. I cooked the chicken with seasonings then a few minutes before turning the heat off, I added diced tomatoes. The juice from the tomatoes made the chicken so moist and good.


For dessert...


Did I get you? No, that is not tomatoes, They are strawberries. I have been craving for some sweets since yesterday, so, I decided to make this.

I was in a cooking mode today. I love to cook and I enjoy it, but not everyday.
Somedays I am just too tired to even be in the kitchen. You know the first word my hubby said after he saw all the dishes I made?

"Wow, were you bored today?" He loved the dinner.

More Great Finds and New Items in My Etsy Store

Ahhhh... I had a great time during the Labor day weedend. Lots of family time, family get together, BBQ, bowling, movies. My sweet husband kindly gave me "Me time" too (while he took care of all three children!). I was able to go out by myself and also, squeeze in some sewing time.

I found some GREAT items at DI again. Whoever decided to donated them, thank you so much! You made me very happy!


The first finds are Cath kidston look-a-like mugs! Aren't they so cute? I always wanted to order some mugs from her catalog, but it is so expensive that I only admire them on catalog...

Those mugs I found were 50 cents each!! They will be perfect for the fall and winter when I take a break from sewing at night and drink some herb tea.


The next great finds are, Fire King casserole dishes! I have been a fan and collector of Fire King dishes for a while (I will share my collection someday). These dishes are brand new and have never been used! The original stickers were still attached. The color is orangeish with copper tint. It is so pretty and I am so thrilled to cook up some fall dishes in these.


The oil cloth fabrics I shared last week... I turn them into bibs! I whipped up eight of them and am going to post them on my etsy store soon. I am very happy with the results.




I have a new tutorial coming up. I am planning to post it sometime this week, hope to see you there!

Sashiko Bag and ...

Around Rachel's birthday, we received a package from my mom who lives in Japan. She sent the kids lots of Japanese candies, some books for me, and a birthday gift for Rachel. My mom has been taking Sashiko lessons every week from a lady for almost a year now. She made a beautiful Sashiko bag (my mom did Sashiko, then her tutor made it into a draw string bag).

Basically, Sashiko is a traditional Japanese quilt design. Here is what I found out from a Sashiko book. In winter, a single layer of cloth wasn't warm enough, so people layerd two fabrics together and did Sashiko to stableize them. Then, when some parts of the cloth wore out, they added more layers of fabric and did sashiko to make it stronger. In olden day, Sashiko was used for practicality, but now people enjoy Sashiko design as a hobby. Like my mom.

Look at the stitches...


I called and thanked her and we talked for a while. Time like this I get little bit sad about living so far away from my mom. Usually, I am so busy and don't even have time to feel that. Looking at something she made, one stitch at time made me miss her.

Rachel loved her new bag and immediately started putting things in to carry around the house. Hmmm... where did she get the bag lover quality from... my husband?...

By the way, guess what I found at a quilt store the other day...


YES! New oil cloth!! They are so pretty, I had to buy some for my etsy store.

I have been sewing a lot lately. My friend who lives in Japan is going to exhibit her and her students' stained glass. The place she rented is so big, she wanted me to send some stuff from my etsy store to showcase and sell them. Also, my sister makes amazingly beautiful jewelery, so she will have a booth there too. My friend is making post cards to send out and posters to get the word out. I wish I could be there to decorate my own space and everything but I trust my friend's style. We have been friends since 10th grade and the distance and lack of seeing each other for years hasn't changed our relationship much. I guess only for better, because we are both busy moms who enjoy our current stage of life.

I am so excited about the exhibit!!

I am going to make more oil cloth bib from the new fabric. I already picked out the fabrics that I am going to use for the bias tape. I think they are going to be cute! I am going to sew some more before I hit the pillow. Well, every one, enjoy your labor day weekend!

Great Finds and Their Transformations

Last Saturday, I just had this urge to go to a thrift store. I felt like there was something waiting for me. I only had one and a half hours until I had a get together with our friends. I hopped in the van and I was gone like the wind.

Yep, I was right, I found some great items! I will not post everything in this post, but I will show you some of the things I found and transformed. All I needed was a can of spray paint.

I found these wooden frames for a dollar each. I love the moulding on these frames.

Before...


After...


I love them! I found mats at dollar store while ago, and they fits perfectly.

There is another find that I am REALLY EXCITED about... take a look at this before picture...


I spotted this with a bunch of junk I mean stuff and loved the detail. I didn't care for the color but I decided to buy it anyways. It was actually made out of plastic but it looked brand new inside and out. I was wondering what this box was originally used for... it looked a little bit churchy to me, so I wanted to make sure that people didn't store ashes or something. If that was the case, I would be a little bit uncomfortable buying this. On the back of the box it said "Mark Clein INC, Baraboo, Wisconsin".
So, I googled the name and after a few tries, I found out that the box was indeed a sewing box! According to the picture I found, my box was missing a tray on the inside, but I didn't mind. I transformed the sewing box my way, with help from a few coats of spray paint, it looks like this...




I have been looking for a sewing box for a while. I have a sewing room on the second floor, but most of the time I work downstairs in the kitchen area. I thought it would be nice to have something beautiful, and functional to store my basic sewing items. And, the box was only two dollars! I love it so much that I can't stop looking at it.

I had some paint left over, so I painted other things I bought a long time ago, and needed some TLC. (White is my most favorite color... I don't mind if everything is white.)

Little piggy bank


The "A"


I just have to say spray paint is the greatest invention of mankind! I wish I could thank and hug who ever came up with this!