Finishing Things

 Greetings lovely friends & readers

                       My lovely sweet friend Jennifer of elefantz designs has been gently encouraging us to use August as                               a month for finishing things  ... & she very generously shared a free pattern in *this post* for a notebook titled "Finish What I Started"

Feeling rather overwhelmed by the baskets of half finished projects in my sewing room I decided to follow along with Jennifer's August theme.

When I was growing up our kitchen had one of those old fashioned safe cupboards with mesh squares on the inside. Mum always kept her potatoes & onions in this cupboard, in the yellow tin dish above. Over the years it had gone rusty & I didn't especially like it, but when I cleared out No 44 last year, for some reason it came home with me.  I decided to revamp it so the first thing I did was lightly sand & then treat the rust with Fishoilene (found in The Mr's shed)

Then I gave it two coats chalk paint in the colour "Country Clay".  It turned out really nice so I applied some oddments of leftover transfers, just to the front.

Now what will you use it for Julie ...............  ???

In a basket in my sewing room were these mini stitcheries that I'd started to embroider awhile ago.  I'd purchased a large preprinted panel from Millymac Supplies, picked out some I liked & begun to stitch them, but gone no further.  I finished them off, then sewed them into mini pillows which I filled with crushed walnut shells.  

I backed my mini pillows with tiny offcuts of Tilda fabrics in co-ordinating colours.

This vintage cross stitch was sitting in the same basket as the stitcheries - I've no idea where it came from, possibly thrifted .. but I loved the deer & the pretty pastel colours.  I found a frame that fit it perfectly (Yes I do have a frame stash along with all my other stashes), painted this the same Country Clay colour, then framed the sweet deer.

This piece of brown linen already had the decor transfer applied to it - this was one of my "I-wonder-if-it-will-adhere-to-fabric" try-outs 😉 I made it up into a heart & stuffed it tightly.  The keys were in a drawer with other oddments so I tied them together with lace.

The decoupaged tag was sent to me by my friend Joy when Mum passed away & I loved it.   I lined the tin dish with 2 of Mum's doilies - all beautifully ironed & starched to within an inch of their life, just how she used to keep them.  

My eclectic arrangement of handcrafts fit perfectly in Mum's old spud-&-onion-dish & I LoVe it  💛 

That's quite a few smaller items ticked off my finishing list - how wonderful!

I've displayed it on the vintage Singer Sewing table in a corner of my dining room where I can enjoy it.  

And if you were wondering ... Yes I am rapidly running out of space for all these displays (!!)

On the subject of finishing things ... my dear friend Shirley asked me to paint this wooden bowl/dish for her & also if possible, the cookies container which was thick heavy-duty cardboard.

The round bowl painted up nicely in Vintage White Chalk Paint & I gave it a good wax to protect it. Shirley plans to display tiny balls of wool in pretty colours in this & call it her "beautiful bits bowl". 💗

When I removed the stickers from the round container some of the surface came away with it - they were stuck like glue!  I lightly sanded these areas but could still see it after painting so I chose a pretty floral serviette & decoupaged this over the 2 areas - Shirley was delighted with it. 

I cannot tell you how excited I was to see the first voluptuous pink bud on my magnolia tree last week.  How special.  Then when I dropped Sid off yesterday I noticed their stunning tree in full bright bloom.  Spring is coming dear friends  .  .  .  .  .

Wishing you all a wonderful rest of the week.

Thank you, as always dear friends, for your ever-welcome visits here today,

With much love & friendship to you all,