Category Archives: Vintage

Easter Egg Surprise Ball

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

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I have been wanting to make a surprise ball since I spotted one at Kiosk a few years ago.  And then this week our friends brought us an amazing swan version from Tail of the Yak in Berkeley.  (More on that beautiful surprise ball in a later post).   Ada had so much fun unwrapping the swan that I decided to make her an Easter version for her basket.  This is an easy project that can be customized for any recipient.  You will need:

*Crepe Paper Streamers (at least 3 colors)

*Tiny Goodies (We wrapped: a vintage bracelet, stickers, vintage buttons, temporary tattoos, a dollar coin, a tiny rubber stamp, a bag of glitter, tin bird pins)

*Felt (or stickers or rubber stamps to decorate)

*Glue stick

*Scotch Tape

*Pinking Shears or Scissors

1. Wrap crepe paper around the first treasure and form a rough egg shape.  Remember this will be the last to be unwrapped so make it a good one!

2. Continue wrapping until first object is completely covered.

3. Cut crepe paper with pinking shears and use masking tape to attach a new color.

4. Insert the next goody and continue to wrap.  Be sure to gently pull the crepe paper taught as you go.

5. Repeat, changing the streamer color with every new object.  Position objects to create a rounded egg shape.

6. Once all objects are inside, use the glue stick to stick down streamer end and apply felt circles or stickers for decoration.

7. Let the fun begin!

Renegade

30 Friday Mar 2012

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I’ve been excited about making these headband crowns for kids lately.  Yesterday we found out that my friend Marissa at Soor Ploom and I got into Etsy’s Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair.  Hooray!  We will be selling our children’s clothes and crowns on June 23 and 24 in Willamsburg.  I’ll put up more details as the weekend gets closer.  For now I need to get crafting!

(The crowns and Soor Ploom’s sweet clothes are also both available at Acorn Toys if you can’t wait until June).

Cherry Blossom T

26 Monday Mar 2012

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The cherry trees are just starting to bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  The festival is not until April, but it is exciting to visit each week and watch the progress.  We made this T-shirt in their honor.  You will need:

*Blank T-shirt (we used a child’s American Apparel T.  They have great organic options too).

*Fabric

*Tulle

*Buttons

*Pinking Shears

*Needle and Thread

1. Cut fabric and tulle into circles with pinking shears.  We made 1 inch circles from vintage fabric scraps.

2. Layer fabric and tulle slightly off-center.

3. Place circle layers onto shirt with button on top and stitch down through button holes.

Hand wash, or turn shirt inside out to launder.  Hooray for Spring!

Enamel Bowl

23 Friday Mar 2012

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Washing fabric for a new project.  I love this enamel bowl.  I got two of them for $9 at an antique shop in Maine.  There are some similar ones here.  I use it is for hand washing delicate clothes and it was Ada’s favorite place to sit when she was a baby.  Simple, functional, beautiful.  Kind of perfect.

Stitch

19 Monday Mar 2012

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Gram’s Blanket.  Baking potatoes for our Saint Patrick’s Day party on Saturday reminded me of sitting in my Irish Great-Grandmother’s kitchen.  She was a child of immigrants and a mother of three during the Depression.  She saved every scrap that could be of potential use.  I remember her balls of twine – meticulously pulled, knotted and wound from the strings on teabags.  She had two pale pinkish slipcovers that she pieced together from silk WW2 parachutes.  She showed up at family gatherings with paper bags full of costume jewelry and vintage toys for us kids, (which made her by far our favorite visitor).  I loved her house and her strange and beautiful collections.

Gram darned little holes in this wool blanket thousands and thousands of times using different color threads.  She was fixing moth holes, but the effect is the look of stars, or the ocean, or handwriting.  I love the humble repetition yielding such beauty.  She would like that the blanket has been saved and used by my children as she used it for her own.

Sister Dresses

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

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Ada requested matching sister dresses recently.  I’d already begun one for her before Josie was born and the request was a good excuse to finish.  (Not to mention the  small window of time when they still think it is cool to dress like a sibling).  These are from a 1972 McCall’s pattern- #3470.  I love vintage patterns!  Etsy and Ebay always have several.  I tweaked the pattern a bit to fit Josie and used some vintage violet print fabric that I’d been saving.  The beautiful Liberty print I cut Ada’s from was no longer available.  Ada likes to point out that they are not technically matching, but they like to wear them together anyway.

Party!

12 Monday Mar 2012

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Decorations on the fan.  The vintage lanterns are from flea markets and the large pink one is from Pearl River Mart store in Manhattan, (much better than the site).  We make the pom poms from Nashville Wraps tissue.The spread.  I scored the beautiful Jadeite pieces on Craigslist the day before the party.  They remind me of my Great Gram and they are the most perfect color to mix with hot pink and reds.  The chocolate cake is my favorite recipe.  It is a staple at our parties and inspired me to be brave about homemade cakes.  They are so worth it!  Polka dot fruit cups and stripey straws are from Shop Sweet Lulu.  She has lovely, edited, special party supplies.  Special drink.  We like to do a signature drink for our parties.  Josie’s was a sparkling berry soda.  We added a kick to the adult version.  You will need:

*2 oz.Sparkling berry drink. We used Lorina French Berry.

*1.5 oz. St. Germaine

*1.5 oz. Champagne

*Raspberry for garnish

1.Measure, mix and stir gently.  Pour into fancy glass over ice.  (Drinking champagne through a good straw makes it even more fun!)  I found the perfect vintage ‘B’ glasses for Chris at a church sale years before we had kids.  I would have gotten them even without the correct last initial and $5 price tag.  Josie-bean Ice Cream.  I love our vintage ice cream maker and any excuse to whip up a batch makes me happy.  The We are going to do custom flavors for the girls’ birthdays from now on.  For Josie-bean (Ada’s nickname for Josephine) you will need:

*3 Cups Heavy Cream.  Good quality cream is essential.  We use Ronnybrook Farm’s from our farmer’s market.

*2/3 Cups Unrefined Sugar.  I think this tastes better than white sugar.

*2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

*Seeds from 2 Vanilla Beans

*2 Cups Fresh Raspberries

1.Scrape seeds from vanilla beans and add to cream, sugar and vanilla in small saucepan.  Drop empty pods into cream and heat on low heat until all sugar dissolves.

2.Remove vanilla bean pods and pour cream mixture into bowl.  Chill in fridge for an hour.

3.Pour cooled mixture into ice cream maker, add fresh raspberries and follow directions for your maker.

4.Serve immediately or store in freezer.  Allow to soften slightly before serving.

Happy Birthday Josie!

Tail of the Yak

08 Thursday Mar 2012

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I first read about Tail of the Yak on the Oh Happy Day! blog.  Jordan described it as her favorite store, (which is saying a lot because her blog is so lovely).  I was so excited to visit on a trip out West last week. The tiny store has been in the same spot for 40 years, and it was even better than I had imagined.  It is magical and beautiful and ethereal. ..Here are some treasures:Tiny Glass Flowers and Birds, $8 per bunch.  I have been making child-sized crowns and these will be perfect for them. Little Metal Bird Pins, $.75 each.  Cheap and adorable!Leaf and Star Straight Pins, $4 each.  This packaging is almost too amazing to use them, but I can’t wait to start a sewing project!  I also think they would be perfect on a bulletin board.

I am missing the West Coast already!

Prism

05 Monday Mar 2012

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In college I audited the most magical class about women and domestic space.  The professor asked if any of us had ever sat in our house for the day and watched the light change.  I didn’t understand what, or why she was asking at the time.  Now that we are settled in our house, I get it.  The right light was that illusive something I searched for when we were house hunting.  I nearly drove Chris insane when after a year and a half of looking I couldn’t explain why a building just wasn’t quite right.  Now I realize it was the light all along.  It was the question that Professor Tarbox asked us to consider.  How will the light look in the space where you spend your days?  How does that light make you feel?  How does it change with the seasons?  Will your mornings be bright in your space and how will the shadows change with afternoon?

The light is why I fell in love with our house, despite its list of 1000 projects.  The light is beautiful here.  It thrills me every day to watch it change.  I chase it from floor to floor, searching for the perfect spot to photograph.  I wanted Ada to see it too, so we found this big prism from an old chandelier at the Brooklyn Flea.  (The Hot Wheels guy has a bunch if you happen to go).  Now Ada can watch the light bend and move around her room.

Food

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

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One of our favorite additions to Ada’s play kitchen are these colorful wool felt balls.  They have been served as everything from blueberries to soup to tea.  It is also easy to make your own felt balls if you would like a simple project.  You can find beautiful felting wool here.

The dishes are a lovely ceramic children’s set from Ikea.  (I much prefer living with a few broken pretty dishes than ugly sturdy ones). The fabric “pancankes” are pieces of vintage prints that Ada requested from the sewing box.  We found them long ago at a flea market and they were meant to become a quilt.  A few stitches and stuffing made them into food.  I love watching kids invent from beautiful, ambiguous materials.