Vintage Trinkets

Hello, dear friends!

Just a quick little post today…much to do!

We’re on day three of our new homeschooling experience—what an adventure!  I really love having my girls home with me—so much to learn…

Part of our home-learning is working on homemaking skills.  I’ll be sharing some of our experiences with you as we go along…

Yesterday, my youngest daughter Annie (who wants to be an expert cake decorator), made homemade fondant all by herself (NOT an easy task!)—and it turned out perfectly!  I think she’s well on her way to achieving her dreams…!

   

It’s such a funny time of year…still very much summer, but school is in full-swing wherever you go…whatever happened to the good-old days when school started after Labor Day?!

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Feeling the need to get a little gluey and glittery last night, I made four little trinkets that I’m quite happy with…

First, a sweet little fairy—just a touch of iridescent glitter on her wings—is the star of this crystal pendant…she can be found in Crafty Secrets’ new “Mini-Vintage” Creative Scraps…{as are all the images I used in my projects today…}

…the crystal pieces and ball chain are from the Tim Holtz collection {{{LOVE!}}}, and Platinum Stickles surrounds the crystal for a simple but shimmery finishing  touch…

A beautifully ornate pewter-colored pendant (from the Melody Ross collection) is the base for this lovely Victorian cherub image…I just cut out the image, glittered it up a little, and covered it with an epoxy circle…can’t get any easier than that!

Another sweet cherub takes a ride on a beautiful butterfly…I love this “bottle-cap” frame (a bit bigger than the pendant bottle-cap frames)…

…looks just like a miniature pie tin, doesn’t it?!  Think I’ll back this one with a magnet…

And, possibly my favorite one of all, this royal little birdie…why do crowns just make everything better???

Well, that’ about it…not bad for a night’s work, huh?!

Hope you’re having a beautiful summer/school-time day, and I’ll see you soon with something new…

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Crafty Secrets,homeschooling,pendants,charms,Tim Holtz

Sweet Little Lessons

Little girls…standing alongside mothers and grandmothers as they learn the skills every girl should know…

…in the kitchen…learning measurements, scraping, pouring…flour on little cheeks and noses…baking secrets passed down through generations of mothers in the family…

…young hands beside more experienced hands…learning the things they need to know…

{beautiful hands…two of my daughters learning how to make my mother’s cinnamon rolls right along side her…}

In the garden…learning what herbs are helpful, which plants help each other in the kitchen garden…watering, weeding…growing…

…learning to have faith that a tiny seed will turn into something beautiful…

Cleaning and caring for the home…

…grandmother teaches the young ones how to fold the table linens “just so”…how to wash the china and crystal till they sparkle and shine…

…helping mother with daily chores…

…sweeping…

…vacuuming (making pretty patterns in the carpet)…

…dusting, mopping…

…laundry…so many things to learn from those more experienced while we are young…

Learning to make the home a lovelier place…

Learning the age-old crafts from skillful hands…

…mothers and grandmothers patiently sitting while chubby little hands fumble with their first knitting needles…

…crochet hooks, needle and thread…

{my mother with my daughter Sarah}

…learning to make clothes all on their own…self-sufficiency being taught with love…

{Mom with daughter Annie}

…embroidery, needlework…

…hand-stitching…beautiful, useful things to be made to add beauty to the home and knowledge to the maker…

 

In 1912, a wonderful woman by the name of Jane Eayre Fryer, published the first in a series of juvenile books designed to teach young girls fundamental domestic skills…

…the result was a delightful series of books—magically illustrated and beautifully written--that are still collected and cherished today…

…and that were given to me, as a young mother, by my own wonderfully creative mother, for my daughters—and for me—to learn from…

In homage to this sweet little series…and to the mother and grandmothers that taught me…a little piece I made this weekend…

The beautiful blue background paper was printed from Crafty Secrets’ wonderful new “Creating with Vintage Patterns” CD…

The “stitching” around the paper is actually stamped—using a running stitch border stamp found in Crafty Secrets’ “Sew Special” stamp set…easy peasy!

 

I enjoyed selecting vintage elements to add to this from old, worn sewing kits—some handed down to me, some found at yard sales…

…beautiful pearl-topped pins from my grandmother’s sewing box…lovely golden-eyed needles from a  VERY old English set of sharps…

…vintage sheets of needles…pretty, old needle-threader…embroidery floss…and my favorite mother-of-pearl buttons…

…a stamped pair of vintage scissors, carefully cut out & topped with glassy glaze for a more metallic look…from Crafty Secrets’ “Sew Special” stamp set…

…and the sweetest of images, from Crafty Secrets’ “Sew Nice” Creative Scraps…the image is from the Mary Frances books, of course…don’t you wish we all had a fairy helper?

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Generations of little girls…standing beside loving mothers and grandmothers…learning to become young ladies…

{My 4th great-grandmother, Louisa, with my 2nd great-grandmother, Ida…}

…that’s the way it’s always been…that’s the way it always will be…

I guess we all have fairy helpers, after all…

See you soon with something new…

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Crafty Secrets,Mary Frances books,homemaking,mothers,grandmothers,sewing