First Christmas Stocking of the Season

It's that time of year again.  Time to start gearing up on projects for Christmas.  I have an esty shop and decided this year I would make stockings to sell.  I have been buying old linens at garage sales and added with my stash of quilting fabric, I came up with this one first.  

This was a hand embroidered pillowcase.  Lovely crocheted edging. Cute little bluebirds. I wanted to be sure to use as much of the handiwork as possible.

I even used a little leftover bit of the crocheted edging for the hanger loop.

A little flower for the stocking toe (it's a completely reversible stocking.)Same design on both sides of the toe.

I'm linking with Jami at Freckled Laundry for Air your Laundry Friday. See what other people are doing with their textiles here.

Thanks for looking,

Jeannine

Our British Colonial Style Living Room

Last week I posted here about British Colonial Style in the home.  Today, I'm sharing my living room.  It is decorated in a modified British Colonial style.
We lived for three years in the ME.  Both Jordan and Syria are former British colonies and Lebanon is a former French colony. British influences are all over Jordan including roundabouts and the types of stores available for shopping.

This is an overview of the entire room.  You'll notice that we have a Persian style rug over the Berber carpet with which the entire rental house is carpeted. The carpet was made in Turkey and purchased by us in Jordan.

The curtains are silk from Damascus, Syria.  We had them made for some massive windows we had in our flat in Beirut.  Now they swag on the floor of our American tract house. The shelf unit was made in Germany for a friend of ours, but she couldn't ship it to her next home country so she sold it and a twin to us in Jordan. The sofas are two years old, from JC Penney.

The piano was purchased by my maternal Great Grandmother in 1902.  It has Ivory and Ebony keys. That's pretty colonial! The paintings are of Jerash in Jordan and were purchased there.

A clock from Jordan (unfortunately it doesn't keep accurate time anymore.)

The lanterns were recently brought back from Jordan by Husband. The vase is also from Jordan.

A gallery style arrangement of paintings, also of Jerash.

Spartacus, our 22 pound cat.

The top painting is of the Treasury in Petra, Jordan. The various plates are from countries throughout the ME. Collectible books make great displays with the treasures.

A box from Jordan.

A globe.

Pillows with native animal pictures.

Tassels are very popular in Arab decorating.

The elephant bookends are from Tanzania.  (The tusks are plastic, no animals were harmed.)

I hope you enjoyed this tour.  Friends have come in and said our house looks like a museum, but I hope it still makes them feel comfortable and welcome.

Jeannine

End of Summer Beach Table

End of summer and I'm still dreaming about another day at the beach.  Here is my beachy tablescape.

The tablecloth is the quilt off my daughter's bed. (Kohl's) The napkins, little shell plates, conch shell and white shell bowl are from estate sales.  The vase is from Ross, the other two shell bowls are from Kohl's as well.  The pillows are from TJ Maxx.  And the lovely books are from Perfectly Imperfect blog (I won them from Shaunna's giveaway a year or so ago.) The plates and flatware are my everyday stuff.

Jeannine
I'm joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday. Look in on all the other great tables for some inspiration.

Pencil Skirt Part Deux

A few weeks ago I posted about wanting to make a pencil skirt here.

I failed to mention how Captain America and the pencil skirt came together in my mind. (It works in Mysterious ways, obviously!)

Two women in the movie actually were wearing pencil skirts and it reminded me that I had been wanting to make a pencil skirt to update my wardrobe.

Here is the pattern I made.

And then I chickened out and bought a pattern! You will happy to know however, that I stuck with the original plan and used the pattern I made.

Here are the pieces cut out and ready to mark and sew.  I added a 1/2 inch seam allowance. After I sewed up the skirt it was too large, exactly the size of the seam allowances I had added.  Weird.  So I went in and took out the extra.

Here is  the back view.  I need to work on my waistband.  For one this wide (2") I should have shaped it.  I had to take little darts on each side (but don't tell anyone, they'll never know.)

Side-ish view

Front. I bought the cute white shirt at JC Penney. It is by Worthington and has French cuffs. 

Believe it or not, those black pumps are from the early 80's.  And yes they are my original shoes.  Love them.  I had new pieces put on the heels about 10 years ago.

Jeannine

Super Fun Painted Dresser

Cassie at Primitive & Proper painted a fabulous dresser back in July. It was fabulous with its four colored drawers.  Check the link here for the full story.

About a week after that Husband and I were out at Estate sales and ran across the big sister of Cassie's dresser.  It has five drawers.  I immediately thought of her paint treatment.  We paid $20 for the dresser.  That baby is heavy, but we managed to get it in the Jeep.

Husband did the paint job using shades of green. (We got so excited to start we forgot before pics.  It was actually in great shape, just not modern.)

What do you think?  Thanks Cassie for inspiration.

It's listed on Craigslist if anyone in the Central Valley is interested.

Jeannine