Life Begins When....the Season Starts

Think we're ready for some football?
You tell me. . .

You can kinda tell who our favorite college team is, the Liberty Flames from Lynchburg, VA.  We lived in L'Burg for 21 years and I worked at Liberty for 19 of those years, 12 years in the football department.  Hence the reason why we have so much Liberty stuff.  We now live 900 miles from L'Burg but we will continue to support and root for LU among many other teams in addition the NFL.

I know there are some women reading this who don't care about football but you would be surprised how many do enjoy football these days.  There's a perfect book out there if you care to learn titled, "Gaga for Gridiron, the Ultimate Guide to Football for Women" written by The Football Dude (Amazon sells the e-book version).  If you live near a college or university with a football program, call the football department and ask them if they hold a Football 101 Class for Women.  Many schools are starting to hold them and it will be worth your time and money.

So, have a great football season, who ever you root for and always remember....

Until next time,

'Tis the Season, Football Season that Is

The good thing about removing summer decorations and getting ready for the next season excites me to no end.  Not only because Fall is around the corner but Football comes first!  I'm a BIG fan of College Football but especially all things vintage football.

I decided to make some pillow covers for my sofa pillows with some painters cloth I had leftover from another project.  Here's how I made them:  I took the pillow and centered it on the fabric (see above image).

I then took four small pieces of scotch tape and wrote an L shape mark I used as a guide on all four corners.  These guides helped me to keep the image I was drawing within the boundaries without going over.

My plan was to make a pillow with our favorite team logos (NY Giants logo, the Dallas Cowboy star and a generic image).  I used a pencil and a ruler to help make my images.

After I drew the images, I painted them with acrylic paint. Once done painting, I let them dry for at least a day to 24 hours.  Erase any leftover pencil marks if necessary.

Here they all are!  Aren't they adorable??

PUTTING THE PILLOWS TOGETHER

I placed the fabric with the image facing down (triple checking the paint is completely dry for this step!).

I centered the pillow.  Tested it to make sure it's centered by gathering up all the fabric over the pillow and carefully turned it around.  I adjusted it if needed.

Once I was certain the pillow was centered I folded the bottom edge over the pillow, making sure to use enough fabric to tuck under each side of the pillow, see image above.

 I then repeated the last step with the top section.

I folded over the left and right sections and also folded the tips.  Remove any loose threads.

 With thread and needle, stitch and "x" on each corner of the tips.  Make sure each stitch picks up every layer of fabric otherwise your pillow will be fall apart during any pillow fights :)

You can also use safety pins, buttons or perhaps even velcro for this last step.  Either way, make sure to secure the tips. I then repeated these folding steps with each pillow.

These pillow covers will be easy to remove and get them ready for whatever comes next...

Happy Football Season folks and may the best team win!  Until next time,

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Simple Kitchen Curtains

My kitchen windows needed curtains badly, even though they have blinds.  As much as I love those blinds, they're white which is fine but my windows needed some pizzazz.  Some more umph!

So, I made these simple curtains with red & white checkerboard fabric, and some sashes with black & white gingham fabric for contrast.

I even attached some matching bows at the bottom of each sash.  I can be a girly-girl sometimes too you know?!

This window was great to work with.  One of my favorite spots in the morning as I sip my coffee and have my devotions.

Curtains also match my Fowl Art paintings!  Really simple to make,...really, just a little time consuming.

I'm done with my kitchen for now.  I've neglected most of the other rooms in our bungalow.  I so want to show you the rest of it but I need to go pour some pizzazz on some other projects on my to-do list.
Until next time,

Vintage Decorative Switchplates

When we moved into our Bungalow in June, we noticed there were a few things left on the shelves of the garage.  I casually skimmed through what was there, I found old door knobs, screws, nails and what nots.  Standing up against the walls are several doors and some windows.  I haven't had a chance to go through that stack but what's fascinating is there is an old bungalow style screen door I can't wait to get my hands on.  I didn't get a chance to go through each door as they are leaning up against each other and the screen door is near the back.  We then started to store large items in the garage so at the moment I'm unable to get to them but first chance I get, I will pull them out and post.

On the shelves in the garage, I also found these lovely vintage switchplates.  Here are two of the six I found.  I took pictures of all of them but somehow I accidentally deleted them :( 

Anyway, all of them were painted with a cream color but I went ahead and painted all of them black to fit the decor in my kitchen.

Here's a picture of the back of one of the switchplates.  They are all stamped with this name, "William Spencer, Rancocas Woods, N.J."   I decided to google it to see if I could find any information on this company and wouldn't you know it, they are still going strong!  Click on this link to learn more:  William Spencer.  They have been in business for over 60 years which leads me to believe these switchplates were probably made in the mid-50's, probably bought by the Wittigs who were originally from New York City before they moved to Manistee, MI.  Read more about the Wittigs on the right side panel of this blog under, "North Shore Bungalow's Claim to Fame".

I'm so thrilled the previous owners were considerate enough to keep them items and leave them behind instead of throwing them away or taking them.  I just LOVE the way they look!  Unfortunately, all my other switchplates in the kitchen are a different layout so I can't use the ones I found.  Guess I'll just have to look for a spot for them in another part of the house.

Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time,

FOWL ART

These two decoupage fruit paintings were left in our dining room by the previous owners. The second I set my eyes on these I knew I would either have to trash them OR transform them.  I chose the latter.

My first thought was to paint over them with some white chalk paint.  I used Americana Decor's White.

After I painted two layers and let it dry, I lightly sanded the edges

I wanted the profile of chickens, so I printed out two different ones but similar in shape and size.  I took my black watercolor pencil and traced over the line edge on the right side.

I then placed the marked side down and rubbed along along the marked lines to transfer the image onto the wood canvas.

With the same pencil I made the drawing darker so it would be easier to see as I painted.  You can also see that I drew two rows of squares around the edges.

 Once I was done painting the chicken and the background, I painted the squares in a red checker board pattern.  I then took my ZIG writer black pen and drew a line around each red and white square.

 Finally I took some Annie Sloan Dark Wax and slightly tinted the edges in order to give it a vintage look.

I repeated the process with the second painting.

I reversed the black and white colors on the second painting.  I also made sure the chickens faced each other instead of the same way.

 I hung them in our kitchen nook

My favorite spot every morning.

By the way, we haven't had to use AC so far this summer although we could've used it a total of two days.  A wonderful lake breeze flows directly through these windows.

Have a great weekend folks!

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