Thompson Family-Life

reuse those leftover plastic Easter eggs & an update

photo source

Ok, so you might not have large "L'eggs" eggs, but you definitely have small plastic Easter eggs hanging around the house, right? I know we do. Our boys are still working their way through their candy. I came up with this tutorial last year and thought I'd share it with you again in case you were looking for a creative way to reuse those eggs instead of tossing them (it's a shame that most of these eggs can't be recycled! I always look for that little triangle with a number inside).

These vintage-style Bullet Planters are perfect for your child's dollhouse (or YOUR dollhouse, ahem. That is how I've used mine!) They are easy to make and just super fun.

So, wow! I'm sorry I've been MIA this week. I'd like to just write this week off and start new on Monday, 'kay? It has been one of those weeks. All of us have been sick (minus Campbell, knock on wood) with horrible sinus problems and I think a virus because Ethan and I were having the same non-allergy symptoms like cold-sweats, etc. (fun, I know). Luckily Ethan is between jobs (he starts his new one April 30th) so we could take turns being utterly pathetic and taking naps while the other could watch the boys. This week has been a sinus-induced-foggy-blur.

We've also been deep in the house-hunt. We looked at 6 houses yesterday and will be looking at more on Monday. Again, it's great that Ethan has this time off so we can look together. The fact that he got this other job is a big reason we're moving (we want to be closer to his new job) and we just need more space desperately. 

It's been 14 years since we bought this house (our first and only!) so things have changed quite a lot. I have to admit it's super-exciting, the idea of having a new space. Now we just need to survive this whole house-looking-buying process. It can be grueling and hopefully there won't be any heartsickness if we lose out on something we love (you home-owners know what I mean.)

photo source

Ethan's new job is really exciting and could open up some other opportunities for us in the future, in the next few years. There's a lot of overseas work to be done, and it's always been on our wish list to live in Europe one day (for a few years at least) and this job could open some doors. Needless to say, we're focused on the here and now, but the idea that this opportunity could possibly be made a reality one day is an incredibly exciting one.

The group that Ethan is working with is based out of Vancouver so he will be traveling there a lot. Our hope is to possibly spend 4-6 consecutive weeks up there (all 4 of us) during the Summers, so that is super exciting as well! I've heard nothing but amazing things about Vancouver so I'm beyond thrilled to get to spend some time up there. (we won't make it up there this Summer since we're planning on moving!)

I'm also working very hard on a big project behind the scenes that I hope will go live, end of May sometime. It's a lot of work but very exciting as well. I hope to give you guys some sneak peeks in May sometime and get the buzz going. ; )

This year is already proving to be a year full of changes. Good changes. We're following through with a lot of things that have sat on the "to-do shelf" for a long time. 2011 was a year of - not much in regards to accomplishing goals. It was kind of a dissapointing year, honestly, so it's nice to feel like we're making a lot of really good, healthy changes for our family. When you've been in the same space for 14 years (that is a long time!), it's just time for a change of scenery, physically and emotionally.

So that's an update on the homefront. If you read through it, I appreciate it and you are to be commended. ; )

Are you doing any house-hunting of your own?

Have a lovely weekend!

Craft Ideas of Valentine's Days Past

I've been seeing lots of Valentine's Day Inspiration all over the interwebs.. I can't believe it's almost that time again! I wanted to share with you some DIY's and freebies I've featured here on the blog over the past few years in case you missed them.

Above is a Valentine's Card Printable Freebie you can download here. There are two envelope options - one for mailing and one for not. Read more about this printable here.

I came up with this idea when I was heavily into taking Instax photos. If you have one of these cameras, you know it's inevitable that you will have photos that don't come out well. Here's a way to upcycle them as cute little Valentines! Super fun. For the full how-to, click here.

Here's a little craft DIY I put together last year. You can find it on Apartment Therapy here. You can find the pattern for those little crochet hearts / garland here.

And the always awesome Heidi from MyPaperCrane guest posted on my blog last year and offered this SWEET cupid paper doll printable freebie! How doggone cute is he? eek. Be sure to check out her Kitschy Valentines Wreath DIY that she posted this year.

Have you seen any cute Valentines ideas this year? Please link me up! :D

*55 Days of Vintage Christmas* - Holiday Advertising

You know what I realized today? Next week is Thanksgiving. I was supposed to put up our decorations this week... the week before Thanksgiving, I told myself. I failed to realize this week was that week. I guess the last week of November will have to do. ; )

Today's Vintage Christmas post is all about Holiday Advertising. With the holidays coming up, you know that all of the stores will have their holiday TV ads running. You know, the usually really annoying ones... like, from Kay Jewelers and such.

Heck, they're probably already running those ads, I just rarely watch live TV, so I wouldn't know. (ha) Magazines, too, right?

source

So I was thinking to myself, "I wonder what products stores back in the 50's and 60's were pushing around this time of year?"

Funnily enough (funnily is a word right?) people were coveting the exact same things many of us vintage lovers will covet THIS Christmas 2011: Pyrex, Kodak cameras, Shoes, Mod dresses, Typewriters in pretty colors. Oh, and a Revolving Christmas Tree. (heck yeh, that's on my list!)

And some things we might not be coveting so much? Bourbon (ok, I take that one back), Old Spice, Karo syrup to make popcorn sculptures with (whaaa??!), Hoover vaccuum (no thanks honey) and........ cigarettes. Lots and lots of cigarettes. (sadly I didn't include any cigarette ads here.. I know, you're bummed.)

Take a gander...

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

That second to last is from the Swiss Watch Manufacturers Association.

And LOOK at those amazing decorations that came with your carton of Coke! lovelovelove.

See more *55 Days of Vintage Christmas* posts here.

Ok, off to watch some more episodes of the first season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Maybe there will be a Christmas episode in there somewhere (this is my first time watching the series. Where have I been, I know.)

P.S. Thank-you to Holly at Decor8 and Rachel from the CRAFT blog for featuring my Velvet Holiday Wreath! And welcome if you are new to the blog! Thanks for stopping by.

Also! Due to slow server issues yesterday, the One Buck Wednesday Sale at Jessica Sprague is extended through Friday! Yeh! So that means my Homespun Stitches kit will be on sale as well, for one.whole.dollar. : )

*55 Days of Vintage Christmas* - Velvet Holiday Wreath Step-by -Step

So, I'm filing this wreath tutorial under my 55 Days of Vintage Christmas series because it is very inspired by vintage crafts! I love the tangible qualities of vintage crafts whether it be the use of velvet (usually velvet "flocking" that you can find often on vintage ornaments or figurines) or the textures of vintage trims. I wanted to create something that had a mod-60's feel and I knew I wanted to use large velvet buttons! I didn't want to just buy a wreath form and start attaching buttons, I wanted it to be more of a geometric design.

The only way to create that with the buttons was to have a flat surface to work with, so I created my wreath base from scratch using foam core board. It worked perfectly! The finished wreath is just what I was going for: 60's inspired shapes, with lots of rich textures (velvet and suede fabric, vintage trim) and an eclectic mix of patterns (big floppy bow made out of vintage floral velvet, vintage floral sheet & ascot tie).

If you'd like to make your own, here's how I created it: (note that you can make your wreath and buttons any size, but these supplies will reflect the size that I used)

Materials/Tools Needed:

- Foam Core Board

- Craft Knife

- Fabric Scissors

- 1.5" Buttons (I used 32 buttons)

- 1.5" Button Covering Kit

- Your Preferred Fabric (I used vintage velvet & vintage suede for the buttons, vintage velvet for the wreath base, for the bow: vintage velvet, vintage bed sheet & vintage ascot tie. You can find vintage fabric scraps on Etsy & Ebay.)

- Vintage or New Trim (you can find loads of vintage trims on Etsy & Ebay)

- Staples (I used a regular stapler, not a staple gun)

-Tacky Craft Glue

- Embroidery Thread

- Hand Sewing Needle

- Sewing Machine (there's a little sewing done with the bow, but you could always hand sew it, or just use a ribbon bow)

Step-by-Step

1. Cut your foam board. The size of the outside of my wreath is 14"x14". The inside opening is 8" x 8". I used a plate (8") and bottom of a lampshade (14") to trace my circles. Cut out the shapes with a craft knife.

2. Cover your wreath form with fabric. First, freehand a circle inside and outside your wreath form on the wrong side of your fabric. Allow about a 1"- 1.5" area of fabric on either side (see photo below). Cut out both circles.

Now cut triangle notches with your fabric scissors all the way around on the inside and outside. This will help your fabric to fold over to the back more easily.

Add a bit of glue on each tab. Fold over and then staple to reinforce. I opened my regular stapler up and stapled flat.

3. Make and attach your fabric buttons to the wreath form. Here's how you cover buttons with fabric. You will need the starter kit which is the round plastic thingy you see down there. (There's also another navy blue plastic thingy that fits inside, but i don't use it - I used my fingers. That is why you won't see the blue plastic thingy make an appearance here. ; ) You only have to buy that once and use it over and over. 

Cut out a square of fabric. Be sure to leave around 3/4" of an inch or so all the way around. Better to have too much fabric than not enough.

Cut off the excess fabric at the corners.

Make sure your button is centered on top of the wrong side of your fabric, and then push both into the plastic mold. If it feels like there's still too much fabric and is too bulky, trim off around the edges again just a little. Push down the fabric as flat as you can with your fingers. 
 

Place the back part of the button on top of the smooshed fabric and push really hard (that blue plastic thingy might come in handy here as your fingers might hurt after a while like mine did.) You should feel it pop into place. The metal will bend inward. The smaller the button, the harder this is to do depending on how bulky your fabric is. Velvet is pretty bulky, but luckily you're using 1.5" buttons. The larger the button, the easier it is.

You're done! Pull the whole thing out of the plastic mold and flip it over. Here's your new button.

 

Now it's time to attach your buttons. You can do this two ways. I sewed mine on with a needle and thread. This can hurt your fingers after a while since you're sewing through foam core. Might help to use one of these (thanks Dana for that tip!) But I prefer sewing to gluing since you can't always trust glue. And honestly, I think this method goes faster! But you could always hot glue them on.

 

You would first need to remove the shank on the back (the loop). You could use a shank remover or plyers. Since the back of the button won't sit flush or flat (it has a concave curve), you will need to glue a thick button inside so that it sits flush. THEN hot glue them on. (a good visual of this can be found here)

 

The back of your wreath will look like a hot mess when you're done sewing on your buttons. That's ok. Leave a space at the bottom of your wreath open (with no buttons) to attach your bow later.



4. Now add trim to the inside and outside of your wreath. I used craft glue to glue it on. I actually added my trim before I added the buttons, but I recommend adding the trim at the end since you will be handling your wreath a lot when you're adding the buttons. This way you won't mess up your trim.

5. Now make and attach your bow! The bow is up to you. You could make a simple bow out of ribbon (maybe vintage velvet ribbon?) or get fancy like I did. There are lots of tutorials out there on how to make fabric bows. Here's one. I made a double bow, the front from the brown floral velvet (cut from this thrifted dress) and the back from a yellow floral bed sheet. I sewed a strip of the brown floral fabric and wrapped it around BOTH in the center. The yellow floral bow ended up being too wide so I accordian folded both ends and machine sewed to shorten it up a bit. I like how it turned out.

I cut off the bottom ends of a vintage ascot tie that I thrifted and stapled them to the bottom of my wreath. Then I sewed on the double-bow on top of that with a needled and thread. I pinned, with straight pins, the top end corners of the yellow part of the bow to the wreath so it didn't flop down so much. (see pic above)

All done!
 

I think depending on what colors and materials you use, this wreath could work for any holiday. Easter, Birthdays, whatever. Or use it as a year-round decorative accent. If you make one, I'd love to see it! Please share photos in my Flickr group! You can find links to all of my tutorials and freebies here.

The Fine Print: This tutorial is for PERSONAL USE ONLY. Commerical use is not allowed. Also, it is okay to share a photo or two and a link to this tutorial (it is appreciated!), but please DO NOT share the entire step-by-step with instructions and photos. Thank-you.

*55 Days of Vintage Christmas* - Thrifted & Vintage Decor Finds

I found these pretty vintage lights at one of my favorite vintage shops in Atlanta, Highland Row Antiques. I technically paid too much for these, but the colors were too pretty to pass up. I probably won't plug them in, but rather just use the bulbs in a pretty arrangement somehow. Maybe in a clear bowl? Not sure yet...

These came with a set of white bulbs as well.

I found these lights at a thrift store...

I found this needlepoint house at a flea market for 3 bucks.. too cute.

And this stocking in kitschy red and green was a steal too. I love finding handmade items like these! I always wonder who made them...

In the background you might have noticed some pretty velvet fabrics. I'm planning on using those in a holiday craft soon... tutorial to come. They are so pretty. Here are a few of the solid colors along with that pretty floral...

Have you stumbled onto any fun holiday vintage finds lately? Link me up in the comments!

See more *55 Days of Vintage Christmas* here.