Little of This and a Little of That: Flea Market, Painting, Ect.

I just wanted to share a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.....you know, a little of this and a little of that.......

A couple weeks ago my girlfriends and I spent the day at our favorite flea market, called the Kane County Flea market. If you live in the Chicagoland area, it's a definite place to go if you love antiques, treasure hunting and one-of-a-kind pieces. They always have the BEST stuff and at amazing prices. You know those 'found objects' that you see in the Pottery Barn catalog? Well, this is where you can actually find those objects on your own and not pay an arm and a leg.

The flea market takes place the first weekend of each month, although I don't think they hold it during the super-chilly and snowy months of the year. My friends and I try to go in the spring since the weather tends to be pretty nice. We lucked out a couple weeks ago because it was absolutely gorgeous!

So I didn't get a ton of things this time, but I was really happy with my finds........

I got the Cracker Jack lunchbox to store the kids crayons and I was also excited to find this old little school chalkboard, so expect to see that make an appearance on the blog soon.

I love this mason jar filled with old spools. I am using it as a decorative item sitting on top of a stack of books in our built in bookcases.

 

I can never have too many old hankies. I found some really great juvenile ones with adorable little prints.

Here is some woven vintage trim that I can't wait to use on a pretty little dress. I got over 9 yards!

 This was a table runner that I got for $3.00, but I am definitely seeing this being used as an apron on a dress or as part of a bodice. Plus I think it goes great with the trim picture above (even though I didn't buy them from the same vendor).

See that metal frame in the two pictures above? That's the frame I used for the Repurposed Picture Frame Tray. Another great flea market find!

I was really excited to find this chair! I wasn't really on the hunt for a new studio chair, but I have been wanting one for several years. I have just never come across the right one. When I saw this, I knew it was it! I have to have a chair with wheels in my sewing studio so I can go from my table over to my sewing machine and over to my serger. And I also wanted something that was a little antique looking. I might make a cute little seat cushion eventually, but for right now it's just right!

Also, we had some painting done recently. Before we had children we did most of the renovation work on our house ourselves, but with having the three little ones now, it was just much easier to hire someone to paint part of our sun room.

It's not the best before picture since I probably should have taken it with all our furniture in there and looking nice. Oh well......you get the idea. There was a wall of knotty pine and the ceiling was off white and dark brown. This sun room is opens up with french doors off our main family room. I call it a sun room, but it's part of the house......I think we call it that because it gets lots of light and it sounds nice, don't you think?

We used 'Simply White' by Benjamin Moore. I love this white! If you are looking for a good one, I will give this a big thumbs up. The painters started with a water-based primer, but it just wasn't covering the wood paneling so they ended up needing to use oil-based primer (Kilz). That really did the trick and we didn't have any of the stain bleeding through.

I am really into white right now. Many of our belongings have a lot of color, so I just love the way they pop off the white. Plus it brings a sense of freshness to our cottage. I'm not painting everything white, but it was a great choice for our sun room. I'll have to share a picture of the room with everything put back in it's place.

We also had our loft painted which is a much bigger space and where all The Cottage Mama pattern inventory, clothing samples and fabric bolts are stored, but I'll save that for another post.

Also, I just wanted to share a little sneak peek of an upcoming quilt tutorial. These quilts were made by my mom (Grandma Jane) for the girls and she will be sharing how to make one of your very own plus how to create a custom quilt label on your sewing / embroidery machine.

So that's it.....just a little of this and a little of that, that I wanted to share with you. I am trying to get my next set of sewing patterns drafted and sent off over the next few weeks, so it might be a little quiet around here........just so you know.

Have a great week!

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Christmas Decorating at The Cottage Home

Today is the start of our Christmas celebrations here at The Cottage Home. My mom and her husband Allen (aka Pepo) are flying in from Texas to celebrate an early Christmas with us. Ever since Savannah was born they have come to our house early which has been really nice. That way we are able to celebrate the holidays with my in-laws and this year, my dad and brother on Christmas.

So I have been busy around here getting the house ready for their arrival. I've made a huge batch of homemade Chex Mix (we've already gone through one batch so this is round two), muddy buddies, white chocolate rice crispy bars and popcorn balls (recipe, coming soon!). We plan to make sugar cookies and gingerbread houses with my mom this weekend. Christmas is definitely in the air!

I thought I would take this opportunity and show you some pictures of our house now that it is decorated for Christmas.

So here is our Christmas tree. We cut down our tree each year at a tree farm about 45 minutes away from our home. It's a fun, family tradition that I hope our children will remember forever. We have never cut down this variety before, but the owner of the farm said it was a white fir.

This year we put the bottom of the tree and tree stand into a 17 gallon galvanized wash bucket. I saw this idea last year in Country Living Magazine and I thought it was too perfect for our cottage style home. Plus, it keeps our cat, Lily, from drinking the water and it keeps Caspian's curious hands away from the tree stand. I ordered this wash bucket from Amazon.com.

We don't have any fancy themed tree, but all of the ornaments on the tree were either given to our children or were Brett and I's childhood ornaments. I love pulling those ornaments out each year. My favorite is the ornament I got when I first saw a professional performance of the nutcracker with my mom when we were living in San Francisco. I was six years old and I still remember walking up to the counter in the lobby of the theatre and picking out that very special ornament. Every year it gets a prominent place on our tree. So our tree decorations aren't fancy, but they are special and to me, that's what Christmas is all about.

Here is our fireplace mantal. The 'Oh Joy' banner was sent to me from the folks at minted.com and I just loved it. Christmas is such a joyous time and I thought it was perfect to hang in front of our big mirror. The garland was just a very inexpensive one (like the most inexpensive) from a local craft store (Michael's, I think) that I embellished with gold and red balls from the dollar store. The large pinecones were collected by my children in our yard. Each year we add more to the garland, so it's starting to look pretty nice.

The garland on the stairs is the same as the one along the mantal. Again, each year I have added embellishments to it using green florist wire. I found this burlap ribbon at Hobby Lobby and I really liked the natural texture, so I wound it up the stairs and put little bits of it in the mantal garland.

Here is our little nativity on top of our piano. Santa was not really part of the nativity, I know.......but he looked nice standing there and I figured he's holding the north star.

Here is our dining room table. It's not fully set yet, but you will just have to imagine the plates, stemware and pretty napkins. The red and gold balls were purchased at the dollar store. They came in all different sizes and were anywhere from 8 - 15 ornaments in a tube. They are attached to the greenery with green florist wire and again, the pinecones are from our yard. That is the Holiday Tablecloth that I made most recently (tutorial found here). I just love it......it really goes well with our deep green and white dining room.

We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition this year, so here is our elf, Rosie. The girls thought he/she looked like a girl so that's why they named her Rosie. It has been so much fun seeing them look for her each morning and I love seeing the magic in their eyes when they find her. Here is Rosie laying down on top of our large family canvas in the dining room.

I added some candy to our table just for fun. The girls can't believe I have candy just sitting out on the table. They like to just sit and stare at it, in total amazement. It's surprising that they haven't just tried to eat it.

So that's a little tour of some of our decorations. I get so caught up in the excitement of the season that I forget to take pictures of our home. I hope you like a little look inside. I can't wait for my mom and Pepo to get here.

We are going to have so much fun!

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Mason Jar Soap Dispenser ~ Tutorial

I have a thing for mason jars. Big, small, new, old........but the ones that really grab my heart are the blue jars. I have quite the collection these days. Some of them I got from my Grandma Peggy and some of them I have picked up here and there from garage sales, flea markets and thrift stores. The blue glass is just so pretty and soothing......I absolutely love them!

I have been wanting to turn several of the old blue jars into soap dispensers for about the last two years. I've seen some mason jar soap dispensers for sale and always thought they would go so perfectly with our cottage-style home. A couple months ago I finally mentioned my interest in this project to my husband thinking I could have him help me by drilling the hole in the top of the lids. But sometimes, I just get so impatient that I decided to take things into my own hands. A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, you know?

So, with that being said, there is probably a more correct way to do this project if you really know how to use a drill and a metal drill bit, but if you would prefer to just use basic tools, this tutorial is for you! Plus it will only take you 10 - 20 minutes.

Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

by Lindsay Wilkes from The Cottage Mama

Supplies:

1 blue mason jar and metal lid

1 soap dispenser top

Phillips head screw driver

Needle nose pliers

Safety glasses (optional)

Scissors

Sharpie or other marker

Instructions:

Mark a hole with a sharpie in the center of the metal lid where you would like to put your soap dispenser.

The inside of the old metal lids have a ceramic lining inside. You need to remove this in order to make the hole for the soap dispenser. To remove the ceramic insert, just pound on it really hard with your screwdriver until it cracks. Once it cracks, the pieces come out really easily.

During this step I would recommend wearing safety glasses because the little ceramic pieces can fly up in the air and get into your eyes. But again, that is totally optional. Rinse out the inside of the lid once you have removed the ceramic pieces.

Now this next step is a little wild. You are going to take your screw driver and pound down on the little black mark that you made in the first step. I pounded about 4-6 times and then pushed down with all my might. You could also be a little less crazy and just take a hammer and hammer down on top of the screw driver to drive it through the center of the lid.

In the picture above, you can see how nicely the screwdriver will go through the top of the lid.

As you can see, the hole that was made from the screwdriver is not big enough to accomodate my soap dispenser, so I needed to make it larger. This soap dispenser top was from another store-bought hand soap bottle that we already had in the house. You could buy a fancier one or buy a plastic one at your local craft store.

If you are using a top from a bottle you already have, just make sure to pump out the soap and wash it out really well with warm water.

To make the hole in the metal lid larger, take your pliers and peel back the metal. This step is surprisingly easy. Just pull back the metal and check and see if your soap dispenser will fit. You want the fit to be very tight so that the top does not move around, so make sure you don't pull back too much metal before testing the fit.

This step could also be done with a drill and a metal drill bit, but again, you want the fit to be very tight so make sure you don't use a bit that is larger than the soap dispenser.

Fit your soap dispenser into the metal lid. Again, I can't say it enough, but you really want to have to work the soap dispenser into the lid so it's really tight. Since we pounded so much on the lid, you may just need to pop the top of the lid back out a little bit.

Now you need to cut the plastic tube from the soap dispenser to fit your jar. Use the scissors and cut it to size. It should be close to the bottom of the jar, but not touching.

Fill the jar with your favorite hand soap, put the lid on top and enjoy!

These mason jar soap dispensers would make lovely gifts for the holidays or as a housewarming gift. I made these two in about 20 minutes, so it is a very quick and easy project. Plus it's kind of fun to get out the tools!

Cottage Mama's Note: You could probably do this project with a regular store-bought mason jar, but you would need to make sure you attached the center lid insert to the outer ring really well. Also, I'm not sure how easy that metal is to poke through with your screw driver (the old metal was pretty easy), but if that's what you have, then give it a try!

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