Book Tree

You may have seen on Instagram my post about all of our Reader's Digest books.  I found more after I posted that! Sooo....there are somewhere around 145 books here.  Give or take. :) 

A few years ago we made a book tree on our fireplace mantle. 

I had no intention of a book tree when I gathered all of these Reader's Digest books together!

  The book tree we made a few years back took FOREVER. Mostly my son built it while I ran around looking for the right books.  

This was easier, but still a bit putzy.  Turns out it's not easy to make a circle with rectangles.  It's a geometry thing which apparently, I'm not as good at as I once thought. Ha!

Then I thought about ornaments.  And these book page people came to be! I developed them from the ornaments I designed for our 4h tree in 2012.  You can see that tree here.

I could have played with these readers for a long time! 

It was like playing with paper dolls, but better.

I have more ideas how I would like to make more of them.

But, it's hard to say if I'll get back to those ideas or not. 

Reading to my kids---favorite memories of mine.

Aren't the covers of these books wonderful?

The top of the tree is made from parts of two books with folded pages and then glued together.

Can you see yourself here at all?  Cozied up with a book?

I see my kids.♥

So now, my conundrum.  I was trying to free up space and get rid of these books.  Now.  I love this tree.  Do I box them back up so I can put this out again next year??  Do I just leave it up for a long time after Christmas and then move the books along??

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I hope your Advent is going well and that in the midst of book trials (tongue in cheek) you are finding space in your heart for the Christ child to be born into.

This you.

From my cereal box to you.

♥

A Scrappy Bowl:: Upcycling

Last week I made bento bags out of fabric I've had for awhile and then experimented with Japanese knot bags out of old aprons. You can see some of them in this Instagram photo.  Then I got to thinking more about these old aprons.  And I wanted to find another use for some of them.

Well, I had found this crocheted hanging bowl pattern quite awhile ago and just thought it was so neat. 

I thought it might work for my scrappy plan.  And, it did!!  Quite perfectly in fact.

I left all the lovely strings, because, well, they're perfect.

So, it can sit or hang!  The first time I made a bowl with strips of scraps was in a little braided bowl. I much prefer the crocheting method.  So much stronger.  But that link will show you how I attach the strips to each other to make your "yarn" to crochet with.  

I like the texture and the heft of the bowl.  Or should I call it a basket?

Her bowl was only 12cm by 12cm, but when I used such big strips, mine ended up 7" high and 9" across the bottom which is what I was hoping for.

I plan to hang it in my sewing room to collect scraps!  I filled it now with the apron scraps it was made from.  The scrap's scraps. :)

None of these were aprons made from feed sacks and some were probably just from the 1970s. But, I was so happy to find a great project for them.  

Now of course I will be keeping all that is left over and at some point will find another use for them. 

We had a snow day here which was kind of fun after the unseasonably warm weather we'd been having.  We have a fire going and it's pretty cozy. :)

106 Vintage Part 2

Well, so much for posting "next week" as I said in my last post!  I think May happened.  I know it's a full time of year for everyone.

Anyway, here you go!  Pictures from Cammie Methany's wonderful shop 106 Vintage.  Her summer market is this weekend: June 4th & 5th.  Maybe you can go?!

mid century

 industrial 

They've started making more items out of reclaimed wood and this bar is one of them. 

Create your own message!

~ little treasures ~

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I could hang out here. 

the old made new 

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not quite half of the shop from the back

Oh, "Hello Bonnie!"

You can see pictures from my visit last year here. 

If you're local, you could plan a road trip!

Happy June!!

One for the Records

After I halted my sorting the other day to make this wreath, I didn't get back to too much sorting. I ended up digging into my stash of old records.

I just leaned them on the mantle for now since it is still empty....

I used more of the piano forte music I used in the wreath, but added a layer of matte medium first so it had some strength. Then I could fold and bend the petals I cut from it.  The fabric part of the flower is the lining from a vintage tie and has the brand name, "witty brothers" on it. :)

On this one, I left the petals flat using matte medium and mod podge.

On this one and the other pink backed one, I started with a coat of gesso and then used the same soft pastels I used on the clay projects to color them in.  I fixed the pastels with a spray coat of finish afterwards.  See the little textured piece of red paper in the center? That is a piece of hand made paper my 4h club made for Christmas ornaments about 14 years ago! I still have the bag of paper ornaments.  I need to get that project going again with my current club.

I wasn't sure if this one would work out or not, but it did!  I'm really happy with it too!  I used mod podge to adhere strips of vintage fabric that I cut randomly into wedges and fitted them as I went along cutting the excess from either end as I glued them down.

I still have to decide how to put a hanger on them or find a proper easel to old them.  But, for now I think I'll continue to experiment with more. Lots of ideas for them rolling around in my head.

Two of the records are the old 78 for phonographs so are thicker than the vinyl we played as kids. And two (pictured above) are Edison records, really old ones!!  And, really thick!  They have a nice heft and feel to them.  The box full of them is so heavy! 

I certainly won't be upcycling all of the records, I have to keep some for our phonograph!