day at the studio & vintage find

Worked this morning and then came by the studio to "work" until it's time to go to a dinner hangout this evening. I baked my own variation of the Smitten Kitchen Strawberry Summer cake last night. I added more butter, a whole stick instead of the called for 6tbs a suggestion by my friend who turned me onto the recipe. It was my second time to make it and this time I added blueberries. The juices from the combination of strawberries and blueberries made the cooking time run about 40min longer, but it ended up totally delectable. I'll be bringing it to the dinner tonight, to share the goodness of baked goods with fruit, my favorite. 

While driving home yesterday I was tempted to take a detour by the goodwill outlet center and sift through the blue tables piled with clothing. I found a turquoise 80's jumper, a sweater made in finland, 3 skirts, a shirt for Jamin, a silk shirt for me, a 90's vest, and this 80's top I got for the seashell buttons that decorated it all for a little over $5. After I had finished sifting through the outlet area I stepped over to the boutique side (normal goodwill) and was giddy excited to find this 50's baby pink cardigan with what I learned to be the Portland Country Club logo, found out with a little I-phone google action. The fact that it says portland makes it extra special to me because I have a slight obsession, longing to live in Oregon. I fell in love with it when I went to summer camp there when I was 13. It was a very memorable experience. Growing up in Texas left me with little to no experience with tall trees which I love and greenery and cool weather. So it holds a special place in my heart. I also really like the 50's native american summer camp emblem.  

The flowers can be seen from my studio window and just a few steps across the parking lot to photograph. 

I'm starting a vintage store

I'm starting a vintage online store through etsy. So far I've just set it up and named it. It took a while to come up with a name that I like that wasn't taken. And so it is named Triangle Vintage. Because triangles are awesome and the three points and sides are in threes but one shape like the trinity, three in one. It's gonna include a lot of floral items 60's & 70's mainly house stuff, kitchen, mugs, sheets, some clothes. I'm really picky, so I'll only be selling things that I myself would buy but if you have any vintage style or item preferences tell me and I'll be on the look out.

You can check it out so far Triangle Vintage at etsy

vintage floral etsy treasury

Made a new treasury today. It is vintage fabric theamed. I love vintage fabric, usually in sheet form. I have a small stash of vintage sheets myself. It is one of the first things I look for in thrift stores and usually cost around $4. and it is one of those things that if you find, you have to buy it because you never know if you will see it again.



if only for a moment, it was hot. :)

vintage fabric coaster

102_2134, originally uploaded by lilah_ward.

yay. I started sewing yesterday after work. I made 2 and started 5 others. Same re purposed vintage sheet fabric on both sides and the kind of felt you buy by the yard on the inside. Two lines of stitching around edge. I just get so excited about progress and productiveness even if it is only a little. One Of my favorite mini coffee cups by Mie Kongo.

fabric boutonnieres

Here is a sampling of boutonnieres and decrative flowers I made for my friends wedding. She got the idea from the Martha Stewart wedding website. They remind me of the 30's, feedsack fabric, cute, vintage, crafty, wedding items you can make for your own wedding. I added yoyos (a quilting technique) behind the buttons for the boutonnieres we used for the groom, father & grandfather. The groomsmen used one with 3 plain buttons & the ushers used the one with 4 buttons. The roses were sewn to a basket that was on the gift table for cards.

Side Slip Cloche

Ok, so on our way back home from visiting the first set of parents for the holidays we stopped at a Borders because my parents had given my husband a gift certificate to buy books because that is pretty much all that he wants buy, ever. He could live in a book store especially a resale one if they'd allow him to set up camp and could convince me to live a life of yellowing pages and dust. And with this gift card was uber kind and told me he wanted me to pick out a book I wanted too. I looked at all the knitting books they had that I'd never heard of before. You don't get many new knitting books at our library. And out of all of these knitting books I decided not to get the book I was excited to check out because of a side bar add on craftster which was "Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines: Patterns, Stories, Pictures, True Confessions, Tricky Bits, Whole New Worlds, and Familiar Ones, Too" by Kay Gardiner and Ann Meador Shayne and published in September 08 and instead get "Boutique Knits: 20+ Must-Have Accessories" by Laura Irwin which was published in Nov. of 08. And I am thrilled about it, wanting to knit everything in the book. My husband was like yeah get this one because he thought a lot of the stuff was sexy and he wanted me to knit it for myself or I guess for him to see on me like the first thing I knitted from the book, the "Side Slip Cloche" hat. A picture of the hat is used as the cover of the book. I am really please with this hat. It didn't take that long at all to knit and it looks fabulous and my girl friends all want me to make them one too which makes me smile. I can't knit enough or fast enough to knit all of the presents I have planned, stuff to sell and stuff to keep. Oh, well such is life; I guess I'll just keep on knitting at my pace, which I don't mind.

old sheets

If you like to sew here's an idea. Lately everything has been going up in prices. Fabric is 7.99 a yard now. Check out your local goodwill, or thrift store. You can use old sheets as fabric. That is pretty much what they are already. Large pieces of vintage fabric that is hemmed at the edges. Just wash it, if it is white or supposed to be, bleach it a little but not to much as to not deteriorate it. Here are some items i've made with sheet fabric.(click on them, they are available in my etsy)

another designer whose made items out of vintage sheets as fabric is jill bliss (bellow)