The One About Downtown Abbey and Tea

I started watching Downton on a sick day while browsing Netflix.  I didn't know it would suck the King in too.  Let's just say Violet had him when she was describing Downton "Really. It's like living in a second rate hotel where guests keep arriving and no one seems to leave."  I also didn't know how truly lovely the costumes were going to be, or how much I was going to covet being tall and stick-like to carry those costumes off.  Since I won't be growing or losing my girly figure any time soon, I'll have to improvise.

This Saturday is my mom's tea party/birthday present, so Mom, if you're reading this, stop now, or the surprise you want will be gone.

I'll be wearing a blousy, dolman sleeved, lace number.  Mine is actually a blush color, not black, but one can't fight Polyvore.   For fun, I think I'll even try some Marcel waves in my hair.

The invitations that went out specified wearing fancy hats, I chose a fascinator.  Something I didn't own but ran across and decided it would be fun.  The rest of the outfit is Downton inspired, but without wearing an ill-fitting dress for my body type, I wasn't going to go all the way.

I've planned out a tea buffet with teas from a local tea shop called One Good Woman.  The king has been gracious enough to offer a hand and the minions will probably offer up some service as mini garçons.

Smaller scale but same idea

We'll be dining on tea sandwiches like cucumber with dill spread and hummus with sprouts.  I'll be making scones, because you can't have tea without them.  I'm thinking a sweet scone, probably pumpkin with maple icing because it's my favorite, and a savory one like olive and rosemary.  Some lovely little cupcakes (carrot) done up like hats.  Strawberries in a lemon lavender syrup to put something remotely healthy on the table and either french macaroons or cut sugar cookies.

cute cake I did last year

My mother 'gifted' me with my grandmothers china some time ago.  I lovingly refer to it as the ugly china.  We'll be using it for tea.  Yes, it's ugly as sin, but it's my sin.  My sins include way more pieces than I started with as I filled in broken and missing pieces over the years.  I have everything from berry bowls to teapots covered in pink 40's style flowers.

Homer Laughlin Priscilla Eggshell Nautilus 

I've been stumped on decorations, I'll admit.  I'm a total black thumb and don't do well with any plant that's alive, or even was alive at one time.  I know I like the big puffball flowers, and I adore the look of this table.  Obviously I'll scale it down as it will be on my coffee table and not at a large scale wedding. But I think I can manage some candles and fake puffball things in a vase.

Puffballs are pretty

No party is complete without something for the guests to take home, so mom and I have been collecting old tea cups and saucers from thrift shops all over the mid-state.  Each guest will be going home with a one of a kind candle in a teacup.  I just have to find a couple more, and soon.  Seriously people, donate more cups!

thrifty gifties!

And that's it for this week's post that covers everything from my personal crazy to fashion to food.  In there I think there might be some sort of tutorial for throwing a big girl tea party.  And don't forget, there is a link on a previous post for the printable invitations.

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Upcycle a Bedspread Into Chair Cushions for less than $10 - Part 1

A while back I decided I wanted to get some nice cushions for the chairs we have the kitchen table.  But when I looked at something I was willing to own I decided the cost was a bit out of my budget.  I'm capable of sewing and have made nice cushions before, so I figured I'd upcycle something.  I ran into a nice matelasse bedspread at the Salvation Army and picked it up for $6, figuring it would make a lovely cover for the cushions.

$39.99/cushion @ Overstock.com.  Cute but pricy!

After bringing anything home second hand (or new for that matter), wash it well.  If you're using new fabric, it's imperative that you wash it to get the sizing out.  New fabric does change its size once washed, so never use unwashed fabric for sewing projects, wash and dry it first!  Once your fabric is washed, iron it and lay it out flat.

Washed, mostly ironed and flat on the floor.

You're going to need some sort of pattern for your chair pads.  If you have square seats you have it easy, just measure the sides.  If they're butt shaped, as mine are, making a pattern is a better idea.  I used some old cardboard cut down to something close to size.  I laid it over the seat and using a sharpie, traced the edge of the seat from the bottom as one of my minions sat on the cardboard.  Minions are useful for so many things.

Butt-shaped template

I looked at the pattern on the bedspread and figured out where the best place to make the cushions was.  I settled on the top edge as there was no big pattern to capture or avoid.

Fold over the top edge of the bedspread far enough to put your cardboard pattern and trace it.  Since we need a top and a bottom for the cushions, we do need two pieces.  If you're using a full or queen size you should have enough room across the top for 4 cushions.

Trace with less wiggly lines than I photo-shopped in - badly.

Pin in the middle of your traced areas for each cushion, then cut them out.  Be sure you're using sharp scissors as the material is thick.  The sharper your scissors, the less likely you'll be to injure yourself, unless you cut your fingers.  Not that I've ever done that...

Once you have them cut out, you're going to need to cut a strip of fabric that is about 2" wide and have about 6-7 yards of it depending on the size of your cushions.(Measure around the edge of your pattern and multiply by 4 or however many chairs you're making for)  These strips are going to be the casing for the piping that will be at the seams making them look all pro.  Also you'll need some piping, which unless you have some thin cotton clothesline handy, you'll need to purchase.  It can be found at nearly anyplace that sells sewing supplies.  I got mine at Jo-Ann's for about 60 cents a yard.  While you're cutting, we're going to need some ties to keep these suckers on the chairs.  My kitties would have them knocked off and dragged in front of the french doors to laze about all day if I didn't.  So cut 9"X1.5" lengths.  You'll want four per chair pad.

Next week, we'll work on the sewing, stuffing and finishing these chair pads.  In the mean time, go forth and shop for the materials and get caught up!  If you want to stay with the upcycling theme, round up some old bed pillows you have, or any other pillows to stuff these with.  And decide if you want to add buttons to the chair pads for decoration, pick those out of your stash of goodies we all have.

See you next Thursday for the thrilling conclusion of the cushions.

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Black Maxi-Dress and Messy Bun for a Day of Meetings.

It's Wednesday once again and this week I decided on a dress.  A maxi-dress of all things.  Typically I stay away from anything longer than knee length because it tends to make me look shorter.  And when you're already a foot shorter than your king, it starts to look silly unless you wear heels all the time.  Oh wait...I do wear heels all the time.  The dress is so comfortable though, it's made of the softest t-shirt type material known to man.  I'm going to be sad to give to this dress up when it's time has come and gone.

Without the jacket

Anyway, the maxi is from Charlotte Russe, the jacket is a thrift shore find, belt is a Target special and the shoes are Kensie, from DSW.

With the jacket

The messy bun took me about 2 minutes to do.  Put your hair in a pony tail.  Divide the tail into two sections and twist it.  Make a twisted braid.  Band the end and using another rubber band, loop the small end to the larger band you used towards the crown of your head.  Then, with a few bobby pins, haphazardly pin sections of the twist to your head.  Poof, instant messy bun!

What are you all wearing today?

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July Craft Challenge Linky is Now Live!

The linky for the challenge is now alive and running.  Link up with Becky & myself for a chance to win this little lovely.

Freshwater pearl bracelet

I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

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The One About Diseases and Taxes.

Last week, I spend a few hours with a friend of mine who has been diagnosed with celiac disease.  We chatted about some of the crazy things that happen with auto-immune disorders, food intolerances and allergies, and walked through a grocery store to see some of the things that I use frequently, and talk about what to buy where.

She asked about the tax deduction you can get for specialty foods.  I had nearly forgotten about it, because when I ran the numbers it just didn't work out for us.  The rules for the tax deduction are to have a letter of diagnosis from your doc, and have all your receipts for your gluten free purchases.  Which seems easy enough, but, then the hard part starts.  You also have to know the price for the non-gf equivalent for each food you've purchased.  You can only claim the difference.  Add up your difference for the year, and if that number exceeds 7.5% of your adjusted income you can claim it, IF none of your insurance reimbursements cover it.  Here is a starter worksheet if you want to see how to set up a tracking system. 

I mentioned insurance reimbursements earlier.  What that means, is if you have an insurance spending plan, you may be able to use that money to cover the food expenses because it's medically necessary for you to eat that way.  Double check your plan coverage, or ask HR to find out for you.  Also a thought for any of you that have the option to take a plan like that.  It may work far more to your advantage than the tax deduction, especially if you have your taxes set up properly to start with (not giving the government an interest free loan out of the goodness of your heart all year long).

For any of you who are new Celiacs, or have wheat or gluten intolerances, I'm going to end this article with places wheat hides.  After talking with my friend the other day, she showed me how she was carrying about granola bars with her for snacks, so she didn't contaminate herself.  Unfortunately the bars she had weren't GF.  So here's a quick list!  But remember if it's labeled GF, you're fine, this is only for things not specifically labeled GF.

Oats 

Anything that says it's processed in a facility that also processes wheat.

Anything that's processed

Anything labeled with stabilizer, binders, fillers, natural flavor, vegetable gums, and mono & diglycerides

Meat

Frosting or Icing

Cool Whip

Do not do this either!

Soy Sauce

Malted Anything

Anything that's been deep fried.

Communion wafers

Ice Cream

Alcohol - depending on the distillation process 

Red wine (ask about the barrels, some are sealed with wheat paste)

Imitation meats (beware of sushi)

Medications (talk to your pharmacist, they can check for you)

Soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, cosmetics, lotions, paper products, sunscreen

Stickers, envelopes

Other appliances in the kitchen.

Toys.  Seriously, grubby little fingers drag crumbs everywhere.

Anything that comes from mold, cheeses, etc.
Bakeries, Donut Shops, etc.  (Dunkin Donuts posts a sign on their doors now, don't even get the coffee at the store.  It's not GF.  The bagged beans though are safe.)
Pet Food
Saliva

And of course, you.  Yep, you'll contaminate yourself a few times too.

Stayed tuned next week for the One About Baby Jeebus and the Zombie Apocalypse.

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Dawn and Becky's Big Craft Challenge - Kitchen Edition

During the month of July I'm teaming up with Becky over at Broken Pencils are Pointless for a little crafting challenge. If you're a craft-a-holic, enjoy re-purposing or up-cycling things, then breathing new life into them this challenge is for you!

Here's the challenge. Find something that was never meant to be used in a kitchen. You can get said item at a thrift shop, yard sale, anywhere used goods are sold. We're not picky, so you can even use something you already own, as long as its not currently being used in the kitchen.

Once you've chosen your item, refurbish it into something for your kitchen. We will be showing off our fabulous "new" items at the end of July in a co-sponsored linky party.

If you saw this on Pinterest please repin and get the word out! The more the merrier. If you have questions, just pop them in the comments section and I'll answer them directly.

We're still debating on a prize and how to choose a winner, but I'm thinking about a custom designed bracelet for the craftiest gal or guy who submits to the linky.

For example, this is our kitchen/mudroom bench, coat rack, mail bins and shoe storage.  It's made from narrow shelves turned sideways with another shelf bolted to it via L brackets.  A nice little shelf with coat hooks topped it off.   

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Upcycled Produce Bags - A Tutorial

I've been meaning to do this for some time, but just haven't gotten around to it.  Today, it seems was the lucky day to get it done!  This tutorial will show you how to make three bags.  2 smaller ones for smaller veggies or things like kiwi, lemons and limes.  And one larger wide one for bananas or whatever else fits.
You can play around with your shirts and sizes you cut to suit your needs when you shop.

What you need for this project:

1. A few old t-shirts - the one for this tutorial is kid size large
2. Fabric Scissors
3. Sewing machine
4. Thread
5. Pen

I also used: (optional)

• Self healing mat
• Rotary cutting blade

First thing you want to do is lay your shirt out flat, then make a marking line and cut it in half.

Then, take the bottom section and cut it in half again.  

Taking one section of what you've cut, fold it in half and even out the edges as best you can.  Choose one of the edges to be the top and cut a rounded shape in it to be the bag's handle.  Then open it back up and pin the right edges and bottom together.

Once you have the sides and edges pinned it's time to sew.  I chose to do French seams to make them a little stronger since it's knit and going to be carrying some weight about.  No idea what a French seam is?  No worry, it's easy.  Again, we have wrong sides together here, like it would be when it's finished.  We're going to use a zigzag stitch just at the edges to close them.

Now, turn your bag inside out.  We're going to finish the French seam by sewing a straight line about a 1/4" into the bag from the zigzag seam we just made.  Pin it again if you need to to make everything even and straight.  Then sew.  Turn inside right again, and your seams are done.  No more sewing on this bag!

The next steps are just cutting.  Lay your bag out flat once again, and mark a spot for the handle.  If you have a cutting mat and rotary cutter, it starts to come in handy about now.  I made my cuts starting about 2" down from the handle and staggered them.  Each cut is an inch with a half inch between cuts.  They don't have to be perfect, just do what works for you.  When you're finished you'll end up with bags that look like this:

Make your other two bags the same way.  I cut the sleeves off my t-shirt for the wider bag and evened it up with the rotary cutter.  Then used the same steps for the smaller bags.

You can find this tutorial and a few others here!

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I'm Not Wearing Anything New Today!

Ok, the unmentionables, which will remain unseen and unmentionable were purchased new.  The rest of my outfit, however was not.  Today, I am head to toe thrifted, consigned and upcycled!

I was at my favorite Salvation Army store the other day and found this ensemble.  A cute sundress from Tommy Hilfiger.  The waist is a little higher than I normally wear, but hey, for $5, who's complaining?  Not I.  I could hide a food baby in there, and it sorta looks like I did without the jacket.  This is why I wear structured clothing, my friends.  The jean jacket was another find at the same store.  Finding a structured jacket in Keebler Elf (size 2) was a huge win.  Finding it for $3 - priceless.

My shoes, you may recall from previous posts such as Fantasy vs. Reality in the Land of Polyvore.  They were also $3 (Also NEW!  I want to mention I'm not a fan of thrifted footwear unless it's new or near new).  I was running a bit late this morning or you'd also be seeing my $8 Relic handbag.  It's orange, matches the shoes and has awesome braided leather handles.  If Becky ever finishes her application to the Midvale School for the Gifted, she can tell you all about it!
The necklace wasn't thrifted, nor was it consigned.  I stumbled across a huge bag of glass beads at a flea market a while back.  For $8 I've been making some interesting things.  On display today are a necklace, and hoop earrings and if you squint in the photo of the sundress, you'll see the matching bracelet.

What little treasures have you found at your local thrift shop?

P.S. I'm officially coming out of the designer closet today. I'm Dawn and...


You can find this post here!

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The One Where I Tell Comcast to Suck It!

I think everyone has a love/hate relationship with their cable company.  We all loves us some trashy tv, but no one wants to shell out at least a hundred bucks a month for the overrated privilege of watching Snooki.  When our cable bill was inching towards $150/month.  We said enough is enough.
So, the King put on his crown, picked up the royal telephone and called the neighboring kingdom of Comcast.  He asked about different plans (there really weren't any we wanted to pay for) or just lowering the rates.  Being the powerful kingdom they are, they said no.  "Okay", says my King.  "Then we'd like to cancel our cable service".  The Court Jester of Comcast told us how much it would be to turn it off.  Yes, you have to pay to have your cable turned off.  It's a one time disconnect fee because they have to pay someone to come out and physically throw a switch on the cable box.  Fine, we agree to pay the disconnect fee just to make them go away and be free from the oppressive kingdom of Comcast. (Help!, Help! We're being repressed!)
Funny thing about paying for the disconnect fee.  We were never disconnected.  To be fair, we did disconnect our cable box and return it to the Royal Comcast Cable box Stables.  Our TV's however are still picking up cable, to this day, two years later.

 Pretty much to scale.

In the mean time we've been using XBMC to stream video, etc to the tv, but the fan died in the PC that was running it, and one can only take just so much Anthony Bourdain until you have find an alternative.  And find one we did.
Roku has been on our radar for a while, but wasn't quite robust and polished enough until just recently.  The Roku XS retails for under $100, and if there is a channel out there streaming content you'll have access to it.  It's super simple to set up, super easy to add channels, and if one remote isn't enough for you, there's an app for your smart phone to turn in into additional remotes.

Now, each time I sit down to watch tv, I smile and think to myself, 'Comcast, you can Suck It!'

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