Frugal Friday and Thirfty Thursday

Let's be honest - I love a good deal...whether it's clothes, furniture, fabric....whatever! I'm a deal hunter. I also frequent antique stores and love the shabby chic look of refinished furniture, but hate having to pay top dollar for it, especially because my craftiness self is up for the challenge to do it myself. One day I stumbled upon a distributor of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint at an antique store in Lucketts. Right next to it were examples of refinished furniture using the fabulous paint, waxes and brushes....it was just too good to pass up. So I bought some (4 colors in all!) With paint at the ready....now I just needed something to paint. After a few trips to the ReStore in Purcellville and a few Hospice thrift stores I had my pieces. Ugly and worn down to start.....but completely transformed!



Before:


After:




I know - an Orange chair isn't everyones cup of tea - but to know me, is to know I LOVE ORANGE! And an orange chair is perfect for me!

A more neutral piece - in French Linen:
Before:


After:





I'm kind of addicted now. I have already have done 3 more side tables and 2 chairs! Good thing I have a new big house to fill and with the pieces less than $20 each it won't break the bank.

5 Pints of Raspberries = TONS of Fun!

Up and early Saturday morning and looking for something new to do.....so my family and I went to a local farm in Hamilton, Virginia that has u-pick raspberry fields. Check them out if you are local - Wegmeyer Farms. Raspberries are my daughters favorite fruit. She will 'pop' them on all 10 fingers and eat them one by one, and then do it all over again. It was a gorgeous day for picking, and we ended up coming home with 5 pints of yummy berries.

Instead of gorging our bellies and eating all 5 pints - Lily and I decided to try our hands are jam making. A little bit of time researching on google and we were off to the store for our materials. I won't reinvent the wheel - there are a TON of great references for jam making if you google you way through it.

We used 4 pints of our raspberries...Lily was the smoosher....doesn't it look fun!



Added the sugar, pectin and cooked over the stove-top (following the directions of course)....laddled the jam into the sterilized Ball jars, and then back to the canning bath to seal the lids.

At the end of the day we had 18 jars of raspberry jam. And my raspberry expert declares it is "The BEST jam ever!"

What fruit are we going to pick and jam next weekend?

TGIF - How did you spend your Thursday night?

Remember those college days when the 'weekend' would actually start on Thursday night. Oh to be 21 again.....

Although I wasn't at the bar with a martini (or a purple hooter at Tiger Town Tavern) - I still had a great Thursday night. In my sewing room, some GG (Gilmore Girls for those who don't know), M&M's and yummy fabric! What more could a girl want?

I whipped up a SUPER simple quilt block - nothing fancy, but the story will bring a tear to your eye.

It all started last month at the NOVA (Northern Virginia) Modern Quilt Guild meeting. The guild has been creating and donating premmie quilts to the local NICU for years, but we wanted to do more charity quilts. Journey 4 a Cure was chosen - This organization was started by a family just miles from where I live, and their son Declan died of pediatric cancer. Check it out - http://journey4acure.org/

Each month our guild members will stitch up quilt blocks, and the 'quilter' will assemble the blocks, batting and quilt back. Then the finished quilt will be delivered to one of the many kids that are part of the Journey 4 a Cure family. Hopefully this quilt will make their hospital stays a little more homey.



Here's my wonky cross block - measures 16.5 inches square. Click here for the pattern instructions from Oh Franson. At the end of the month, I will have blocks to assemble and create a something gift for Aiden, our first Journey receipient, read his story.

Please consider clicking on the below banner to vote for Journey 4 a Cure to win a piece of the $1.25 Million that Vivint is donating to charities. Please vote Daily!

My First Official Blog Post

Nervous....check!
Wondering if anybody will really read this silly thing.....double check!

Alas - here I go anyway.

So I Facebook...(I mean, you must live under a rock if you don't). I'm active with Flickr. I read a ton of blogs - always looking for the new thing to add to my to do list. My to do list....(which BTW has got to be 3 miles long) can never have enough stuff on it. I see something that I love... I like... looks fun... looks yummy - I want to try it. The words "I can make that." come across my mind ALL the time.

There are tons of things in my life - I'm never sitting still - but the items I seem to share the most with my friends and family revolve around fabric, food and family, so that's what I'm going to share here.

10 years ago I moved into my first house. My windows needed curtains....and the custom draperies were going to cost an absolute fortune. And of course, being house poor, like every first time home-buyer, I didn't have a small fortune to spare. So I decided - "I can make that!" I did some research, bought my first sewing machine and 3 months later - I had 8 full length and lined silk drapery panels sewn and hanging in my new family room........

That's how the fabric love began. Now, I've upgraded my sewing machine, tricked out my sewing room, and upgraded to ALL things fabrics! Quilts. Pillows. Girls Clothing. Gift Items....and of course curtains. :)