A Very successful Christmas!

Here are the results of all the madness and mayhem going on around the REPURPOSED blog last month.
Surprise of all surprises and wonders of all wonders, the kids actually LIKED their items! You never know with teenagers…cool or not so cool…hmmm…who really knows?

Here is lovely Miss Jenna with the two bags I made, plus the one from Nan that I won in her contest.

And, Mr Ryan with his hip, hot and happening repurposed raincoat messenger bag.

And…for the little ones…even they were thrilled with Auntie Viv’s creations. These are not repurposed, but for somebody who doesn’t sew, I think they worked out OK.

       

Keep tuned for the next round – I’ve already got some wicked cool creations on the machine…a box full of items to repurpose…and a ZIPPER foot!

So far, this one is my favorite..!!!

Here is a project I have been working on for a few weeks now.  It’s going to be for my nephew who plays guitar, and of course, likes old school metal.  Considering that I don’t know how to sew,  and am lousy at following patterns, I had to muddle through this one.

It started with a bag and a raincoat from the thrift shop. 

I saw the bag for a buck and I KNEW I could repurpose the findings on this thing for a greater good. 

(not sure if those Peanuts embroideries will ever find a home,

but I couldn’t bear to throw them out!)

It was important that the raincoat was a fall season coat…it had a lining with a layer of polyfill in it.  I needed the extra stability to keep the bag’s shape.

From there, I carefully planned out my cuts and went to work.

I added some scraps of camoflague from the robe project I featured earlier; I added a bit of my dog’s broken reflective collar; and I scrounged an 80’s rock album from Iron Maiden.

 huh? 

How does that end up to be something useful and cool???

 

Oh baby, this is cool…!!!!

We had the album cover laminated and hubby helped with putting 6 rivets on each side.  I used the outer and inner pockets which you can’t see in the photo.

I cannot believe the coolness factor of this thing.  If my 17-year-old-nephew doesn’t like it I may just be carrying it around myself!  not sure if I, at 37 1/2,  am cool enough for that album cover, but…you never know!

 

BooMama’s Tour

Welcome to Winterpeg Manitoba!

(you can enlarge any photo by clicking on it. )

 Here’s a bit of fun for you. Leave in my comments how many time “Tommy” appears in my photographs….he’s my dog.  All winning entries will be entered to win my two funky stockings that are featured further down. I’m leaving it open until Saturday Dec 22)

If you were to drive down my country driveway this is what you’d see…

You might see this…

It’s the first year I decorated outside the house.

I’m pretty tight with a dollar so those triangle things are actually tomatoe cages with garland wrapped around them. I think I got the wreath at a garage sale for about a dollar.  Those two square things that the ‘trees’ are on are RECLAIMED chimney bricks with some stainless steel bins we got from a building demolition.  I use them to hold our recycling.

Oh…this is what SNOW looks like.

After painting the door red this year, I thought I needed to doll things up a little, so a trip to my nearest Dollarama and I came up with a couple of goodies to flank the door.

     

As soon as you walk in, you’ll find this not-so-traditional wreath.

It was actually some beady thing that I bought at a garage sale for 25 cents. I bent a drycleaning hanger into a circle and wrapped those beady things and voila! (that’s french for, “I don’t like to spend money on something I can perfectly well create by myself”)

         

That same blue feature wall is bedecked with some other Christmas finery. Amazing what a fish bowl (garage sale for 10 cents) and some vintage ornaments (garage sale 25 cents) will do! That cute little snowman was a find at my local “Bibles for Missions” thrift shop for 3 dollars.

I’d like to brag about that great Christmas centerpiece and how cheap it was, but it is actually a window display from a lingerie store that I managed (oh, man there are stories to tell there…) and I did have to pay some pretty good money for it. It still haunts me to this day.

After I cleaned all our crap out of the way so I could take this photograph, You will see that across the dining room we have my Mom’s antique sideboard with just a little bit of Christmas.

Barb inspired my Santa stars (just don’t look to closely at mine…they are about 1/8th as nice as Barb’s), a coupla a tea light holders in red and green and we are good to go! The light from the candles sparkles very nicely off the back mirror.

My bloggy friend Amanda inspired me last year to always think about putting “Christmas” into every corner of your home.

So, right from the local Value Village ( $1.99 I think), I stuffed some fake poinsetta’s into a vintage pot and voila! (that’s french for, yes, the toilet paper roll is usually empty).

Having had so much fun sewing this year, I couldn’t resist buying some scraps of fabric from the local Mennonite Central Committee thrift shop and sewing up a coupla funky little stockings for the end of the hall.

          

And here it is…the end of our tour…the living room…..and my tree.

We don’t have a chimney so we have had to convince HBI that Santa comes through the front door…(either that or he comes out of the TV…but then he “might get electrocuted”, so we had to stay with the front door idea). Oh, and if you like that solid maple wall unit,  don’t start thinking that I actually spent money on something….I paid $12.50 for it.

My tree was a $10 garage sale find and we’ve had it for probably 12 years. Every year, I pine (teehee, oh that’s a groaner) over the beautiful trees in the shops. I think, it’s WORTH it for me to spend $200 on a nice tree isn’t it? Then I remember that one day I too, will be dead and it won’t have mattered to anyone what kind of tree I had, or how messy the corners of my house sometimes get.

What matters is time with my son baking memories and filling the tree with his handmade creations.

That, and my candy-cane striped socks. Must have the socks.

Thanks for coming! Be blessed this Christmas with the hope that this life is not our final destination (thank goodness!), you won’t be taking your stuff with you, so spend your money on things that matter!           

p.s.Did you remember to look for Tommy?

If you still have time in your day, be sure to check out the rest of the homes on boomama’s tour

HBI bakes!

 

He’s seven and he’s pretty good in the kitchen!

We got the idea off of Beth Moore’s blog (you didn’t know she had a blog?)
 

Sugar…

I am addicted to sugar.
I told my naturopath today that I totally get how addicted people just can’t stop. I mean if an alcohol addiction is anything like my sugar addiction…I get it. I can stop for awhile, but then, as soon as I have a taste, I’m back at it.
Of course, this time of year doesn’t help, does it? I’m pretty un-Martha-like but I thought I’d detail my baking.
First, we tried a sugar cookie recipe. We liked it and I am going to make a huge batch now and do painted cookies. We tried a few with some success, so next Saturday, we will make a HUGE BATCH!  (click on any photo to enlarge)  We are going to be painting them!

Then, J’s request is always for a soft ginger cookie. Also a new recipe which got a little too flat, but the flavor is good!

mmmmm….brownies….the rest kind of crumbled when I took it out of the pan, so you know what that means..! I had to eat it.

I haven’t cut into these but I was proud of the end result. Some kind of citrus loaf with a sugar lemon sauce poured on top. Oh my..I can imagine what these taste like but they were so pretty I didn’t cut into them! (THIS is a photo worth enlarging!)

and of course, Grandma’s buns. Yum.

oh yeah…after all that, this is all I was left with..! I did a pretty good job of keeping up with the cleaning as I went.  You can see by the soft light cascading in the south window that all of this really didn’t take me all day!  Ignore the burnt pancakes from breakfast!

 

 

A littlebitta bling

I’m not positive that my niece will be thrilled about the size of the last bag I made (scroll down below) so I made another one just a bit smaller.

It also started it’s life as a skirt, and now it’s about 10″ wide and 12″ or so tall.

(click to enlarge any picture)

I used the waistband as the strap and left it all a little messy…with frayed edges however and wherever they occurred.  I sewed the second pocket into the inside leopard print lining which was just a scrap I had laying around.

I tied on a little heart emblem onto one of the straps, et voila! 

I saw the skirt and knew it could live it’s life as something else.  I’m not absolutely in love with this one, but it was good fun anyways.

 

I’d like to thank….

I can hardly believe it…I was having so much fun with my repurposed purse project, that, just for fun, I entered it into a contest that http://nannybird.blogspot.com/ was having and thanks to the votes of a whole lot of nice people, I’m tied for the first place spot!  tee hee.  who knew??

I have two more projects on the go, just needing some last bits of inspiration for the final touches.   Once those come to me I’ll post them too.  Keep checking back…they should be up by the weekend!