Pink and Purple in Bloom (Plus Star Wars)

Our guest room was painted purple when we bought the house, and so it seems like all my pretty "girly" things have gravitated there (not that there aren't some in the master bedroom as well, but I try not to OD my husband on frilliness.) So, c'mon in! Here on the guest room door is the wreath I made as part of the decor for our wedding.

This solid cherry dresser is part of a bedroom set I inherited from my grandmother. There are too many pieces to fit into one bedroom, plus it came with two twin beds rather than a big one, so the pieces are scattered all over the house.

And here we have some knick-knackies on the dresser, on top of a lace runner my great-grandma made.

This pretty little footed dish was my grandmother's.

Here's a teacup on the nightstand, because what guest wouldn't want a cozy cup of tea?

I also wanted to share some pretty pinkness from our yard (ornamental cherry, I think)...

As well as the rose I gave my hubby for opening night of his show up at the high school. He actually really likes getting flowers on opening night, and he even likes pink because we had pink roses at our wedding (he's hopelessly sentimental---which can be sweet, when it's romantic, or frustrating when I can't get him to throw anything away!) His students did a musical parody of Star Wars that the kids and the other theatre teacher wrote.

Speaking of which, here are hubby and the little man having fun with some members of the 501st (Star Wars fan club) before the show.

Posting this to Pink Saturday. Have a fun weekend!

Chelsea Ware and Shepherd's Pie Recipe

The prodigal daughter is back, after two weeks sick as a dog, two grandma visits, and being a "theatre widow" in charge of little man by myself while drama teacher hubby has a musical in rehearsal. My mom is getting nearly ready to retire and is trying to prepare to sell her big house, so she brought a bunch of very cool old stuff to hand down to me when she was here a few weeks ago. Here is great grandma's Chelsea ware:

She also brought me a bunch of old silver---or is it silverplate?---that she says she never uses.

Also this little vintage vase. Is that cute or what?

Possibly a little late for today, but if you're like the McGuire's you celebrate St. Patrick's Day on into the weekend, so for your dining pleasure, here is:

Kathy McGuire's Shepherd's Pie

5 medium red potatoes

1 lb ground chuck

about a tablespoon olive oil to coat the pan

1/2 medium onion

2 tablespoons margarine

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup beef broth

2 teaspoons of Worcestershire

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/4 teaspoon mustard

dash salt

dash pepper

1 16 ounce cans of peas, drained

1 1/2 cups shredded Colby or cheddar cheese

1-2 green onions, sliced

Slice potatoes in a food processor and boil in water for 10-12 minutes until tender but not sticky. Drain and set aside.

While you cook the potatoes, brown the ground chuck in a frying pan on medium heat. When the meat is browned, add the onions and saute until tender. Reduce heat to warm.

In a separate small frying pan, melt the margarine and stir in the flour over medium heat for several minutes. Add the beef broth and the Worcestershire, and heat for a minute or so, whisking together, and then whisk in the sour cream. Add the sauce mixture to the meat mixture along with the parsley, thyme, mustard, salt, and pepper, and mix well. Stir in the peas gently.

Preheat the oven to 440 degrees. Pour the meat mixture into an iron skillet, and cover with a layer of potatoes. Sprinkle with cheese, then put on another layer of potatoes, then a final layer of cheese. Sprinkle some sliced green onions on top. Cook in a 440 degree oven for 20 minutes.

I'm posting this to Vintage Thingie Thursday.

A Very Crafty Family Weekend

I decided it was about time I did something with these little wooden heart blocks I got when I bought a bunch of vintage crafting supplies at an estate sale about five years back. I also realized this week that the pink tinsel Christmas tree we use in the pink and purple guest room could also be a Valentine's tree if I made some ornaments for it...

I dug out some ribbon, some brass picture-hanging hooks and some buttons, ribbons, fabric, and trim. I cut and glued fabric and notions to the hearts, and then screwed the picture hook in the top and ran a ribbon through it.

Voila! Valentine's Tree!

Ian is reminding me to tell you that he helped me make the garland out of construction paper and 1980's era heart stickers.

Some of the members of the Autism Support Group got together Saturday afternoon to make puzzle piece scarves to sell. The puzzle piece pattern symbolizes the puzzle of autism. This is going to be our fundraiser so that we can do some things for Autism Awareness Month in April. This is a super group of ladies, ya'll! :-)

Ian also got to get his craft on at his therapeutic riding session on Sunday.

He and several other kids in the program had a barn lesson, where they learned about horse hoof care and got to make horseshoe art. Ian came home with this little goodie he made. He said, "Mom! I am an artist!"

I am linking to the Weekend Wrapup at tatertots and jello, the Valentine's Day partys at domestic fashionista and Holiday Haven.

Vintage Stuff on the Wall

If it's old and cool-looking and reasonably flat, it just might find its way onto my walls.

I got this print (which I guess is old enough to be considered truly "antique" and not "vintage," technically) at a print shop in London a few blocks from Covent Garden. They had even older prints in the shop (I was especially tempted by a map of Romania that dated from the 1500's), but they were a wee bit expensive for my grad student budget at the time. I liked this one because of its lovely pastoral subject, plus it was from Shropshire County (formerly called County Salop), which I visited on that trip. I also liked that it was printed only a couple of years after the Declaration of Independence was signed (note the 1778 date.)

My grandma's best friend after she retired made her this, and I asked my parents for it when they asked if I wanted anything from her condo after she passed away. It always makes me smile.I have no idea where this mirror came from. My mom had it lying around her house, and I needed a mirror and asked for it. The paper lining the back looks about 1950's or early 60's era. Yes, that's me making a funny face taking the picture.This is my great-grandfather's baptismal certificate. It was on the staircase of my mom's basement, all rolled up and (as you can see) not in the greatest condition because it had been in my grandpa's garage. Mom had no idea what it was, because of course it is in German. I rescued it and got it framed (my husband says we should probably get the glass replaced with UV screening glass, because the ink is getting faded.) It is a very valuable source of info, because we did not know very much about this side of the family and it has names of family members we'd never heard of before.Finally, you know you are getting old when things from your birth year are now "vintage." This is a crosstitch picture that a friend of my mom's made for me when I was born.

I am posting this to Vintage Thingie Thursday.

Thrifty Gifty Valentine's Crafts

I have five people so far who have responded to my "Pay-It-Forward 2011" post on Facebook that I owe a handmade item to (although no one has responded on my blog---c'mon folks, get your freebies!), and I have decided that I want to do some kind of different type of craft project for every person. I'm not really super-talented at any one craft, I just kind of dabble in this and that with varying degrees of success. I did decide I wanted to do some seasonal crafts, and with Valentine's Day coming up, it seemed like a good time to make some homemade paper crafts.

Our autism support group is meeting next weekend to make puzzle-piece scarves to sell as a fundraiser for the Spring, so here is what Amanda, one of my "Facebook five," who signed up for a handmade gift, and is also a support group member, is getting:

I made the card using a foam double-heart stamp I got from Dollar Tree, a music note roller stamp by InkaDinkaDoo, and a large hearts and ribbons stamp by Stampcraft. The fragment of sheet music is vintage (and was already falling apart---I promise I didn't tear it up!) The butterfly sticker is a vintage Dennison one (remember those ones your school teacher had that you used to have to lick the back of?) This was part of a wonderful stash of vintage stickers I got for practically nothing at a yard sale when we lived in Virginia. I also used my vintage sign-making kit for the letters (thanks, Suesan, for the tip about using glycerin to try to restore them---I will try that!)

I made the magnets using my computer printer (all in Word.) The one with the paraphrase of Corinthians on it was just using a fancy fonts. On the other one, I used some medieval graphics from retrokat. On the gift bag I used a wooden love stamp, a foam rose stamp, and pink glitter glue from the Dollar Tree. Both the gift bag and the magnets also came from Dollar Tree.

Another little project I worked on with Ian was painting this little wooden Valentine's tree and ornaments I got 40% off at JoAnn Fabrics. I love little seasonal tabletop trees, and have wanted one for Valentine's, but hadn't found one I could afford. When I saw this one I thought Ian would enjoy doing something like this while the weather is too cold to play outside. He didn't want to paint it, though. He has fine motor issues, plus he's a perfectionist, so sometimes if he can't do something really well he doesn't want to do it. So, I painted the tree (I think I have fine motor issues, too---you can see why I'm not a professional artist!), and Ian just colored the ornaments. Can you tell I lived in Mexico as a little girl? I LOVE bright colors! I have never gotten the whole white on white decorating scheme myself, although I suppose I can admire it in theory as much as the next guy.

I keep hoping I am going to get around to doing some crosstitch or other needlework, but between work, and my being so active with the autism group, it's hard to find the time. Someday! :-(

For more Valentine-y goodness, check out last week's cupcakes here. I'm linking to the weekend wrapup at tatertots and jello and Pink Saturday.

Vintage Opera-related Items

As you may have noticed from my blog music, I am on opera and classical music fan. I am a classically-trained singer as well, and my office---from which I usually blog---is also my voice studio, where I practice, and occasionally teach voice lessons. It is a lovely room, with french doors, right off the main entrance so students can come right on in.

So, I wanted to share a couple of vintage things from my studio. First of all, I have some vintage sheet music that I got from a wonderful music store in Charlotte, North Carolina called Brodt. You go in and it is like a warehouse, and all the vocal music is stored in this one little basement hall, on one side. They have inventory from since forever...it's like they just keep it until it sells, or maybe they buy out old inventories from stores that close. So, I was able to find some pretty-looking old sheets, which I framed for the walls.

The fun part is that I have actually sung all of these pieces. The one below all of my students used to want to sing when I was teaching at Southern Virginia University. It's "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls," from The Bohemian Girl. They all knew it because the Irish singer Enya sings it!

I also have this lovely thing, a vintage art-deco record player. It still worked when I bought it for about $25, but now needs a couple of minor repairs. Why would I want to keep it working, you ask, in the day of CD's and iPods?

Why, because of this set of vintage opera recordings! Can you imagine being more connected to history than listening to singers from the Golden Age of Opera, singing under the baton of conductors like Toscanini, singers who were the contemporaries of composers like Puccini? As a freebie, there was also an old Bob Wills record stuck in one of the books.

And here are some knick knacks and such from on top of the piano. First, a funny little vintage lamp that my mom gave me made from a bottle shaped like a violin. The anatomical picture next to it looks vintage but isn't. My teacher gave me a copy of a picture of the resonance areas of the pitches of the soprano range from a vintage singing book she owns (she is a retired opera singer in her 80's.) I wanted to keep it handy for reference, so I copied it on brown paper and framed it.

So those are some of the vintage thingies in my music studio! Sorry about the glare in some of the photos; I have no direct lighting in this room, so photography is tricky.

I am linking to Vintage Thingie Thursday.