My garden gnome fabric from Repro Depot has finally arrived! I am slightly worried that i did not get enough, but if i am VERY frugal with it, i MIGHT be able to get curtains for the window over the sink, and one for the the back door, maybe. Dammit, i was so sure two yards could do it! Cross your fingers!

Speaking of gardens, mine is growing away quite splendidly!

Here is a little piece of it…i am very excited about the MANY flowers on my zucchini plant, and my herbs just get bigger and bigger! I can’t wait til that little lavender becomes a big bush! The back yard already smells heavenly…blooming jasmine and honeysuckle, the orange mint, thymes an pinapple sage, the big rosemary bushes….so many wonderful smells going on! And my gardenia is getting lots of buds, so very soon, there will be even more “faerie perfume” in the air! Ahhhh…breathing it all in is good for my soul and making me feel so creative and happy and ready to bear wonderful fruit, just like my mama’s tree woman painting that she made for me last summer….

I just helped my older son dye his hair black, and helped him figure out how to lace up his “heirloom” Dr. Marten’s boots…

I somehow do not think that this momentus day is a normal milestone for most moms! Obviously freakness is hereditary in this family. What a surprise.

Right now, my kitchen is pretty much in shambles…the hub is tearing down the old drywall, re-insulating, adn putting up NEW drywall. I am really thrilled that he’s FINALLY getting this project going…we got this house from his parents. They had VERY different tastes than we have. The kitchen had this ugly green wallpaper and was not “US” at all! Big Daddy attempted to take the wallpaper down about three years ago, but it was adhered so well to the dry wall, that it ripped huge strips and chunks from the plaster. So for a few YEARS, we had these HIDEOUS ripped up walls. It was definitely the most depressing room in the entire house, which was tragic, because big daddy loves to cook, and i love to bake, so we ENJOY spending time in there. So now we are working on doing something about it, and have been taking lots of pictures so that when it’s all done, i can show the DRAMATIC change! So stayed tuned!

Somehow, during all this mess and demoition, i managed to cook a pretty tasty dinner for my mama tonight! I decided to go the easy route and make a baked Italian rotini casserole, and a loaf of fresh herb, garlic and cheese bread. The herbs in my garden are really thriving, so i picked a bunch of fresh basil, lemon balm, oregano, lemon thyme, and rosemary, chopped it up fine with two cloves of garlic, and mixed it into a softened stick of salted butter. I bought a loaf of fresh french bread, split it lengthwise and spread the herb butter all over it, then sprinkled sundried tomato basil shredded mozzarella on it, tossed it in the oven under the broiler…and VIOLA!

It was FABULOUS!!! If you grow herbs, i HIGHLY reccomend trying it! Making herb butter is so simple, but it makes a HUGE difference in recipes like baked chicken and fish and breads! You can even FREEZE it! So when fall herb harvent time comes, i intend to make a bunch of loaves of the bread like that to wrap in foil and toss into the freezer for winter!
The casserole is quite simple and yummy too…just cook a box of rotinti, or ziti pasta, saute some sausage, and mix in a jar of spaghetti sauce. Then make layers in the casserole dish of pasta, sauce+sausage mixure and mozzarella, put it under the broiler til it’s bubbly and hot. Tasty!

Have not gotten any sewing done, since Raven is home for the long weekend, and i am antsy! I want to get started on my next skirt and do more work on the apron i am making for the What’s Cookin’ swap. I am DYING to divulge some details, but i worry is i say even ONE word, it will give away my recipient!! I am CRAZY excited about it…i think it one of my best reconstruction ideas, EVER. This one is is gonna be the hardest YET to part with! i really really hope she likes it!!! Hopefully tonight i can get started on my next doll for Bambi’s paper doll swap, if i EVER get some “kid free” time (HAHAHA! I feel like a mama duck with a bunch of little (and a NOT so little too) duckings marching along behind her! Not very likely to get that kind of freedom tonight. So for now, it’s vodka and tonic and laziness for the rest of the night!

I have had one of those weeks where one is just ONE with the universe of thrifting. I don’t usually do as well as i have, but the Goddess of Secondhand Treasures was smiling gently down on me, and i was grabbing up great stuff like mad! Here are some of the highlights…

I had never heared of Antje Vogel til now, and now i want to collect every single thing she’s done! This wall plaque with pegs is so cute! Even the little tag on the back of it is cute! It looks PERFECT in my orange bathroom, and i am so in love with it that i just can’t quit looking at the insane cuteness! I am going to scan the tag and use that little bird image for something like bookplates maybe.

Also, i found some weird and wonderful china, with an “old south” kind of theme…i love the “Tom Saywer floating on the river raft” saucer!

And a few little vintage aprons…here’s the prettiest one:

Some fun fabrics, including some pillowcases for aprons, some nice shams with great eyelet trim that i have alredy cut off and have plans for, and a sheet that is destined to become my next skirt attempt. I love the one piece on top…it reminds me of Pepperland in th Yellow Submarine movie!

And get a load of this funky curtain panel! I must make something REALLY great with it, but i have not decided what just yet…

There were other great finds too, like a really lovely lavender Jessica MacClintock Gunne Sax prom dress for a DOLLAR that i want to deconstruct, and an immaculate pair of knee-high lace-up black stompy stacked boots! I don’t know what i did to deserve this great thrift karma, but i hope it holds, because i need lots more sheet and pillowcases to keep working on my “second-chance” summer wardrobe! Hahaha!!

The lovely hostesses of the “What’s Cookin’” arpron and recipe swap have asked all the participants to do this getting to know you meme…so here goes!

1. first apron (that you can remember)

Both of my grandmothers and all my great aunties wore aprons!

2. last (most recent) apron

The pillowcase apron i made a few weeks ago: http://www.amandabutton.com/?p=76#comments

3. dream/favorite apron

Ohhhh, that’s hard….i would love something funky and alittle odd, yet still pretty. I just HAVE to have pockets on it. I love aprons that are nice and full and skirt-like…ruffles, rick-rack, appliques, and all manner of fripperies make me smile!

4. dream sewing machine

http://www.flickr.com/photos/giantdwarf/31342672/

i swoon and get the vapors every time i look at it…sigh, i am in love!

5. what do you put in your pockets? or what strange thing have you ever found in them?

Tiny sewing scissors, needlecase, pens, lighters, paper scraps, petals, stray embroidery threads, gardening gloves, clippers, seeds, dirt, little toys…..

6. condiment(s) you can’t live without

Thai red chilli sauce, worcestershire sauce, soy, balsamic dressing

7. do you wear more showy aprons or dutiful ones?

it depends on what i am doing…i like heavy dut for gardening, but for indoor, i like to “match” to whatever i am earing. I have no hesitation about wearing the few vintage aprons i have…i just try to be alittle more “careful”. right. Careful. Hahahaha!

8. favorite cooking gadget

I love my wooden spoon. Not really a gadget per se, but i do love it. Also the veg peeler! And the cusinart!!!

9. cooking gagdet that promised the world but didn’t deliver

Hmmmm….maybe the weird little choppping thing where you pushed the little plunger and blades were supposed to come down and fine chopping. That thing sucked!

10. a recipe that you know by heart and any stories behind it

Strawberry trifle! It’s not much of a recipe, but it is an annual amanda tradition to go pick strawberries and make a huge bowl of the stuff. It is soooooooo good. yummy! There is just something so satisfying about using berries that you JUST picked to make something delicious mere hours after the berries were plucked. Hmmm…maybe i should go pick blackberries today!

I recently joined a doll swap hosted by one of my favorite artist lady friends, Bambi Doe Blake. http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/bambidolls.html
It’s for stand-up paper dolls, and doll-making is something that i LOVE, and have not done in a while. I have been so busy playing with fabric and learning that i LOVE sewing things, my love of paper arts kind of got pushed into the background. But i can never say no to a doll swap with Bambi, so last night i decided to get started on the project. The muse TOTALLY took over, and when i finished the doll and looked up, it was 3 a.m.! Tired today, but ever so pleased with the result of my long night of doll making!

Please meet the Green Lady, the Little Mama of Growing Things, but Be Careful, tho’ she be but little, she is fierce! I loved the slightly put-out and annoyed look on the face i decided to use…she is just allittle irritated, so don’t mess with Mother Nature!

Here’s her back view…she likes to show off her pretty wings!

She has jointed moveable arms that i made by stringing ribbon and pearls through them to attach. Her wings are made from gold and green ribbons, and she has a vintage lace skirt and a pretty gold fan to keep her cooled off when the hard work of making plants grow gets too hot.

i still have to make three more dolls to complete the swap, but i think i am off to a good start!

Once upon a time, i was “goth”. You know…way “back in the day”. The goth culture sure was different back then than it’s present incarnation, and i tend to think the “new” gothic music is nowhere near as bleakly fabulous as it was in the ’80s….Siouxsie, the Cure, Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus were my favorites, and i am sure i was a vision of horror to my VERY rural southern high school mates, being one of the only two “weird” kids in the ENTIRE school. Lots of pale make-up, black eyeliner, skulls and black lace, i had no “HOT TOPIC” to turn to get my clothes…it was all about improvisation, band tee-shirts, safetypins and pretty tatters, making do with what i had to work with.
Needless to say, i am not much of a goth anymore. I still love my old music, and i will never grow entirely away from my “dark aesthetic”…but i have grown to love color and light and pure SILLINESS alot since the dark days of my jaded youth. In fact, i never dreamed that pale pink could EVER be a favorite, and i am sure i would have rather died than to be forced to wear some of what my current favorite outfits! Funny what “maturing” (HAHAHA) does to a girl. Not to say i would not love to get all corseted up, don a lovely lacy black skirt and grab my parasol and platforms just to play dress up every so often! Alas, i never go out anymore and have little reason to tart up in my black finery.
Last night, i was thinking about dark little highschool Amanda from long ago, and i made a fabric cuff that i would have LOVED to wear back in those days, just to honor of my own growth. For me, i have never truly lost all of those old quirks, oddities and incarnations of my self…i just find that they have all condensed into the woman i am now, nearly 35 years old, and still very much an odd creature. I look a that that cuff on my wrist, and i really love it, even tho’ i realize i will never REALLY wear it, because it is so out of context to who i am now. I listed it on Etsy, butt i sure did enjoy making it, thinking about and honoring Amanda-past, and looking forward to what Amanda-future might become!

So i realize i have a very long way to go before my sewing is up to scratch, but i am feeling very pleased with myself over the creation of my very first skirt sewing effort.

It’s made of a sheet i found thrifting, and loved the pretty print of ferns, branches and butterflies in lovely subtle green shades so much, i knew it would make a cute skirt. I spread the sheet out on the floor, traced around my favorite skirt, and went from there. There are MANY problems with it, but i think for a first attempt, it is quite keen! And another piece done for my “handmade summer” wardrobe!

Until big daddy gets home and i can get him to help me photograph the skirt that i made last night, i just had to share my two favorite cute things for today.

I don’t know if a fake bird in my hand is worth two in the bush, but it is so tiny and adorable that is would certainly seem that it is! LOL! i want to make something special with this tiny bit of cuteness, but i have not decided what yet.

And, little did i know, my house is really a PIRATE SHIP! Who knew??? Infested by a little mini-pirate, no less!

It really has been nice today…we painted pictures, played outside, did some weeding, and made a big mess with playdoh. One thing about feeling really really ill, is that once you begin feeling better, you APPRECIATE feeling good so much more!!! It will be quite some time before i take good health for granted, that’s for certain!

First of all, i want to say THANK YOU for all your well-wishes! Today, i am feeling ALOT better! FINALLY! i know everyone was sick of my cry-baby whine-fest blog entries.

Anyway…..

I have been seeing so many really cool tee-shirt reconstructions lately, so i i finally decided to jump in and take a crack at my own version. I had found this GIGANTIC tee-shirt with Lucy printed all over it ages ago in the thrift store I could not pass it up, planning to “do something with it”, and finally i have!

Here I am, unashamedly pasty and plump, sporting my “I love Lucy” couture! LOL!
It was pretty simple, a quick n’ dirty whip up. The straps are this pretty red velvet ribbon that i have had forever, and i added my ubiqitous button embellishment as well. i really love it and i now have the burning urge to get more big teeshirts to make over. I have decided to create as much of a “summer wardrobe” for myself out of bits this and that as i can. My very first shot at a skirt, sewn from a big old thrift store sheet soon to follow!