Queenly Antique Iron Beds

Antique iron beds add tons of character to a shabby/farmhouse/vintage bedroom,

but...

sometimes they can just be a pain.

Usually, people come into the shop and want Queen size, but the problem is, they didn't make Queen size beds when most of the cool, ornate iron beds were produced.

Luckily, I know a handsome welder who was willing to design an adaptive bed-rail to turn my antique full size iron bed into a queen.

I talked him into making them available to my customers :)
The introductory price for custom made queen size bed-rails is $75
So if you have a full size antique bed (even if it has no rails at all), these rails will adapt it to a queen size (it also has a middle support bar).
Full size rails are $50
*please note, all rails are made by a professional welder and guaranteed
*headboard and footboard are not re-sized, just the rails, which looks great most of the time

Vintage Valentines

Who doesn't LOVE vintage valentines?

Here are some royalty-free Valentine images to play with:

Other great Valentine images like this one can be found at:

The Graphics Fairy

(mostly Victorian style images...)

Lots of 30's, 40's, and 50's Valentines like this one:

can be found at Hearts Atwirl

To download images, click on the image for a larger size.

Right click on image, then choose "Save as", pick a name, then save!

Giveaway Winner!

Hi everyone!
I had sick and cranky kids this weekend, so sorry about the delay in my giveaway.

Thanks for everyone who shared this on Facebook and your own blog.

I assigned each entry a number and went to random.org to randomly choose a number.

Our winner is Coop de Villa!

You can email me at melissadc76@hotmail.com to arrange to get your apron. And let me know which color you like, too.

I hope everyone has a great day.
Thanks for playing :)

Perfectly Thrifty Apron Giveaway

These are some of the presents I made for my favorite girls on my Christmas list this year.

I have an entire cupboard of fabric. Most of it is from yard sales or thrift shops. Sometimes, I find charming vintage yardage, uncut and forgotten. Embroidered or printed vintage tablecloths are also folded in stacks, next to charming vintage sheets and pillowcases. You can't buy prints like those anymore and you can't beat the garage sale prices for someone's forgotten project.

This apron is my favorite.

The bodice is a blue and white polka-dot vintage sheet.

The bottom ruffle is the edge of an old pink tablecloth.

The two prints are adorable vintage prints that I picked up at yard sales this summer for a song.

This apron is made of scraps and thrifted fabrics. It matches my mom's kitchen colors : )

The turquoise is from a dress I made for my little Ella (it came out so wrong, so I re-used that fabric). 

The blue polka-dot fabric is a vintage sheet, the ruffles are all thrifted modern fabric.

So, here's the giveaway part:

One lucky reader will win one perfectly thrifty apron made by me and my handy little sewing machine.

I have more of the fabric pictured in the first two pics (used all of the last one up).

Here's how to enter:

1. Share about this giveaway on Facebook,

2. Leave a comment about what your favorite crafty Christmas gift you've given or recieved,

or 3. Mention our giveaway on your own blog.

 So, you can enter up to three times.

Oh yeah, and tell me which apron you want if you win.

Good luck!

(Oh, I will pick a winner on January 15th!)

Loving these for 2011...

This super-delicious pleated bag crochet pattern from Mamachee.

Edible sugar butterflies from SugarRobot.

Oh my, don't these make you want to have a cupcake party?

Sigh. It says “The love that moves the sun and the other stars” from onelifejewelry.

That's all. I hope you all have the best year of your lives in 2011 :)

(stolen from my sweet and inspiring friend Artgirl's facebook).

Thrifty Adventures...

The news said it's going to be below zero tonight. When it's this cold, I usually like to stay home and bake or read or sew (oh yeah, or blog surf): anything except going out in the cold, for sure.

But I had errands to get done today. And luckily, my business took me near my favorite thrift shops  : )

I found this fabulous vintage 40s barkcloth curtain. Aren't the colors perfect?

And while I usually consider it bad form to share prices, I have to brag about this one:

I'm seeing visions of vintage handbags dance in my head. Oh, I moved my sewing machine to my shop, but need another at home!

This is another little vintage curtain valance. The aqua and brown flowers are flocked! I can just imagine this ruffle deconstructed and added as an embellishment to one of my vintage slip dresses.

Don't even look at the next picture if you're the jealous type....

I know. I told you not to look.

Then I found these three vintage beauties. The pink stork is going in my Etsy shop later today. The two aqua vases are for a photo shoot and *might* be seen in my next column, then listed on Etsy or put on the shelf at Abigail's.

I also found this church birdhouse with a rusty metal roof. It's newer, but was in the 75% off Christmas section and ended up costing $.63. Maybe I'll paint it.

And last, but not least, I found a 100% wool cableknit vest on the sale rack. I buy wool sweaters to felt and sew little fun projects with.

Southeast Idaho Home Magazine Column November/December

My column for the November/December issue of SE Idaho Home Magazine.