A Peek Into My Holiday Home

I love to tour blogland during the holidays and view all the gorgeous homes. Since I missed the deadline for most of the home tour parties, I thought I'd share quick glimpse inside our home anyways.

My favorite part of our upstairs decor this year... no more ICKY carpet!

Oh, but I do love my collection of vintage tree toppers along the mantel too...

Gift Ideas

Looking for last minute gift ideas?
Have you checked out Pinterest? It's full of inspiration! I spotted these, and knew they would make perfect teacher gifts.
The girls went through my stash of vintage jewelry odds and ends and picked out what they wanted for their teachers bookmark.
Next, they chose some ribbon, I added clamps to each end and attached a few glass beads and the vintage jewelry pieces.
We love how they turned out!

I also whipped up a couple key rings too.
For each, I used two pieces of felted wool, a vintage rhinestone button, and attached the clip with matching ribbon leftover from the book marks.

Such simple ideas, that can be personalized for anyone.

DIY Felt Wreath Ornament

I needed a craft idea for 9 Girl Scouts who were coming over for a Christmas tea party on Monday afternoon...
...and I didn't have time to shop for supplies.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this idea at 1:45am Monday morning.
The best part, I had all the supplies on hand - yay!
So, by 2am I was busily cutting lots and lots of 1" squares of felted wool!

The girls and I had fun making ours, so I thought I'd show you how we made 'em.
To begin, I cut a 9" piece of craft wire. Sorry, but I'm not sure what gauge of wire I used. It was firm, but easily bendable too - if that helps.
Make a "U" shape on one end of the wire - this is to prevent the squares from sliding off.

Now, from your stash of 1" squares

begin threading pieces of wool onto your wire.
Since the wire was somewhat firm, it poked through the felt easy enough.

I used approximately 32-35 squares of felt.
When you have the desired amount of felt on the wire, twist the ends together a few times.
Trim the excess ends with wire cutters, and bend the twisted part down flat.

For the loop, I ran a 9" piece of ribbon around the wire and tied the two ends into a knot.
Next, I slid the knot (so it wouldn't show) back towards the wire, and tied another knot close to the wool. If your wreath gets a little wonky, just bend it around to form a nice circle.

I made a bow and attached it with tacky glue to finish.

Cute, huh?

I used scraps from felted wool sweaters for ours, but craft felt might work too.

DIY Vintage Style Reflectors For Your Christmas Tree

Something I've wanted for my Christmas tree, but never seem to find or win on eBay are vintage reflectors.
Have you ever watched an auction for them?
Wow! It's crazy how expensive they can get!

I spied a bag of sandbakkel tins in my junk drawer the other day that I picked up while thrifting who knows when... and I had an "ah-ha" moment.
Forget sandbakkels, I'm gonna make reflectors!

All I had to do to make them work, was to drill a hole in the bottom of the tin for the light to fit through. I used a 5/16 drill bit which made a perfect sized hole. Easy peasy.

For $1.99, I ended up with 25 reflector replicas. At approximately .08 cents each, I'd say that was pretty reasonable!
The added sparkle? Priceless!

A Little Project Before Christmas Goes Up

FINALLY! We're getting rid of the carpet in our living and dining room.

I was thrilled my hubby agreed to take this on, between his other projects.

The hardwood looks great so far. Just need to add another trim piece to the base shoe, and we're good.

Hmm, I'm not quite sure that he understands that I want this project completed by Sunday though...

Since we're not hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas is going up early. Hopefully...

Cashmere Ruffle Rose Scarf Giveaway!!

It's time for a giveaway!
In appreciation of all my fabulous customers, I'll be giving away two of my cashmere scarves.
One in shades of green, and the other in cream.

All you have to do is become a fan and like cherished*vintage on Facebook.

I'll draw and post the two winners on my Facebook page, Halloween night October 31st.

Vintage Spoons Repurposed

What a weekend! The Ruffles & Rust show was a blast!
I so appreciate YOU - my friends, customers, and fellow vendors who stopped by.
Thank you, thank you!
Now, it's time to unload the trailer... but not much to unload for which I'm thankful.

I had fresh flowers in my space, and took these pictures to show an example of the hand stamped spoons I sold.
Have you seen hand stamped spoons? They've been popular for awhile now.
I love 'em. I think they are so cute tied to a mason jar, stuck in a plant, or attached to a gift.
My intentions were to make a few myself to sell, but I struck out terribly on my own.
My hubby ended up completing the my project.
Ahem he loves that - ha!
I was not good at flattening out the spoons. I tried doing that with a hammer, but it just wasn't working for me. Thankfully, hubby came along and saved the day. He has has a hydraulic metal press and that did the job perfectly.
Next came the hand stamping. Sheesh! That was harder for me to do than I thought, too - ha! I ruined a few spoons because I didn't hit the stamp hard enough.... Oh well, hubby saved the day again. Have I mentioned that he. is. the. best!

I'm already gathering up more silverplated spoons to stamp.
I think they're too great not to have on hand.

Vintage Button Hair Pins

...packaged and ready for Ruffles & Rust.
Seven more sleeps - whoo hoo!

Dolies! Not A Grandma Thing Anymore

It's crunch time!
Less than 10 days until Ruffles & Rust - whoa!

I made a few pillows while I was burning the midnight oil last night.
I'm loving the doily pillow. Oh how I'd love to learn how to crochet one day....

....in my spare time - ha!

Felt Flower Pillow

I spotted a cute pillow on the cover of this magazine, at the grocery store the other day.
Great inspiration. I knew I had to make one of my own!I created my own flowers out of cashmere remnants I had laying around.

I added rhinestone buttons to the centers of the lilies.
You can never have too much sparkle!

Overall, I love how it turned out, but it took awhile to make all the flowers!

Getting Some Halloween Out

Yay! It's time for Halloween decorations to come out of storage.

I think I enjoy unpacking my Halloween stuff as much as I enjoy having it out, and displayed all month long.

Boats -Vintage Family Cruisers

Thought I'd share a small collection of boat pictures I took over the summer while up at the beach. Aren't they cute?
Cruiser style boats from the 20's to 40's, have always been a favorite of mine. What a dream it would be to own one. I love their lines. I love that they are made out of wood and not fiberglass!
How fun would it be to cruise around the Sound or the San Juan Islands in one of these classics?
And by all means, dressed in your best classic nautical fashions, of course!
It makes me happy to watch these beauties go by.
This original sales brochure of my Dad's, is from the 20's. It is fun to look through, and is a real neat piece of vintage ephemera.

I'll keep dreamin'...

Cashmere Flower Bloom Belt

Flower bloom belts are quite popular right now, so I decided to make some using my cashmere scraps.
What a cute accessory for a simple dress, or to wear over a cardigan paired with jeans - don't you think?
Ahh...so many options!

Each flower is sewn onto a felt loop that slides over the ribbon. It can easily be removed from the ribbon and added to any other belt too.

Hoping to have more bloom belts completed and available for Ruffles and Rust in October.

Clam Chowder

One of the perks of summer beach living on Whidbey - digging as many clams as you want.
Two weeks ago, hubby and I dug enough clams to fill a 5 gallon bucket!
A couple days before that, my mom and I did the same.
It's all because I like to have a supply of chopped clams and bottles of nectar in our freezer, so I can make chowder during the winter months.

After we dug the clams, we let them sit for a couple hours in sea water that I added a couple handfuls of cornmeal to. This process causes the clams to spit out most of their sand.
It's very important that you don't let the clams die. If the water gets to warm, you could loose them. The clams need to be alive when you cook 'em.
Here they are all cooked.

It took me about an hour to chop this batch. I ended up with 8 cups of chopped clams and 2 gallons of nectar.
Today, I made enough chowder to serve 50 people. It's my contribution for the meal exchange I do with a group a mom's from our church.
This recipe has been our family's favorite for many years.
My mom purchased it from the Old Fisherman's Grotto restaurant in Monterey, California back in the early 80's.

1 carrot, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 potato, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 pound bacon, minced
1/4 pound butter
3 fresh garlic cloves, minced
16 ounces clam juice
1 1/2 C flour
2 C milk
2 C Heavy whipping cream
2 C half and half
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 pound clam, chopped (fresh, frozen, or canned)

Cook bacon, set aside. Saute vegetables over medium heat until tender. When vegetables are tender, add flour to make a roux. Cook for a couple minutes, allowing flour to cook. Add clam juice and dairy products. Stir by using a wire whip. Add fresh garlic, black pepper, bacon and chopped clams. Cook over low-medium heat stirring occasionally to prevent chowder from scorching. Cook for a couple hours until chowder is brought to desired thickness. A crockpot is recommended. Clam juice can be added to thin chowder down if it gets too thick. Chowder needs to be stirred often, probably about every 10-15 minutes or so, or it will stick to the bottom of the pot.

**I basically use the recipe only as a list for ingredients. I never use the exact measurements. We like more potatoes, bacon, and clam juice in ours.

Bon appetit!

What I've been creating...

...the last few days.