Up - Decorating Lil Chick's Room...

Be still my heart.

I'm getting all twitchy with visions of repainting furniture in sassy colors and sewing ruffles onto....well...everything.

I found a nursery tour over at Ohdeedoh.com and promptly fell in love with it.

Wanna see it? OK then:


(Posted with permission from Jodi Mockabee)

See the entire room tour on her blog, The Bee Hive, HERE.

Big fat puffy heart love it.

I love the colors, the sass, the touch of vintage (of course!), the craftiness, the RUFFLES and the complete non-cookie cutter style.

Ya know what I mean? I want my kiddos rooms to have individuality, not just look like I bought a 29 piece room decorating set at the local Tar-shay... which is pretty much what I did for Lil Chick's nursery. And as much as I love me some Pottery Barn and Land of Nod, I don't want their bedrooms to look like page 14 out of the PBK catalog.

Now, I know what you are thinking.

"Uh, Amanda!? You are on your soapbox preaching about stylistic individuality yet you are saying you LOVE this nursery that SOMEONE ELSE has and WANT it? UM.....".

Yeah, I know. I don't want a copy cat of this nursery, just the essence of it. Take some stylistic ideas and give it the ole Vintage Dutch Girl stamp of creativity and spunk.

RULES for up-decorating (Kinda like up-cycling, but in the decoration genre. Basically, it means improving on the current look and style.) Lil Chick's room:

1. I may not spend mucho moolah. Translation: I'm dutch and on a budget so let's keep it cheap.
2. I must have rick-rack. I don't know where, but it must exist in her room SOMEWHERE.
3. Also polka-dots. Polka-dots rock my sassy world.
4. I must infuse color. Pink and chocolate brown do NOT consist of a complete color palette for a little girls' room. MUST HAVE ACCENT COLOR.
5. RUFFLES. Do I really need to explain this one?
6. Sweetness. After all, she IS my sweet baby girl.
7. A chick. Lil Chick needs a chick in her room, right? It's only fitting.
8. Vintageyness. Duh.

How am I going to accomplish this gorgeous up-decorating of Lil Chick's room? I have no idea.

But I do believe it will involve up-cycling, recovering, repainting and repurposing multiple items from inside my house and garage.

Stay tuned...

A

*** Make my day and become a fan on the Vintage Dutch Girl Facebook Fan page found HERE. ***

Lace Trimmed T-Shirt and Tutorial...

Step 1: Buy an inexpensive, boring plain v-neck from, well, ANYWHERE. Me? I chose an Old Navy dark gray tee:



See? It's boring. It needs some help.

Step 2: Dig through huge bag of vintage lace and notions lovingly thrifted and given to you by your Grandma K and pick out some sassy, funky or complimentary ribbon or lace. ( Hee hee hee, I'm imagining my ribbon saying, "My my Amanda, you are looking mighty FINE today!" Get it? Complimentary ribbon? OK, It's just me then.)

Step 3: (If needed) Serge or zig-zag stitch raw edge of lace or ribbon. (Yep, I'm slowly getting over my serger fear! However, it must still be having an effect on me because I completely forgot to take a photo.)

Step 4: Pin lace around neckline of t-shirt. Remember to not pin the back of the shirt while pinning. I pinned both the inside and outside edges of the lace all the way around the neckline:



I didn't have enough lace, but would have liked to go all the way around to the back of the neckband. Instead I serged the ends and pinned them down at the shoulder seam:



Step 4.2: Carefully miter (translation: fold it until it looks right) and pin lace or ribbon in place at the bottom of the "V" if you chose a v-neck style t-shirt. Of course, with a scoop neck or regular t-shirt this may not be needed...OR, you may need to every so often add a tiny fold to allow the lace to curve around the neckline correctly. Once again, just fold and pin until it looks right.



Step 5: Stitch the lace to the shirt along the inside/unfinished/serged edge first:



Step 6: Stitch the outside edge of the lace to the shirt, following the decorative pattern. I followed the curves as much as possible so it wouldn't flip up after washing:



Step 7: I stitched the folds down at the bottom of the "V" so it would lay flat. My stitch lines are marked in red:



Step 8: Admire your handiwork then jump giddily around your sewing room because you created something cute, individual, inexpensive AND sassy in a short amount of time:



Step 9: Try sassy new shirt on and attempt to take a self portrait without showing the camera or your face or earrings. Whoops, guess I didn't do Step 9 very well:

Pin It

Step 10: Wear it everywhere. It's a washable t-shirt so who cares if your 3 year old smudges it with jelly coated fingers? Just make sure that 3 year old isn't wielding a sharpie. I mean, I'm pretty good at getting stains out but that's pushing it.

This Lace Trimmed T-shirt can dress up jeans, dress down a suit jacket but can also be worn under a simple zip up hoodie paired with faded black yoga pants while feeding the kiddos lunch and doing laundry. Oh wait? Is that just me?

Enjoy your sassy Lace Trimmed T-shirts!

A


*** Make my day and become a fan on the Vintage Dutch Girl Facebook Fan page found HERE. ***

Slacker Window Washing Woman...

It is a uncharacteristically gorgeous day over here at the Vintage Dutch Girl homestead. Beautiful sun shining through my smudged, speckled and fingerprinted windows.

Speaking of windows, I need some help.

I have ginormous windows. So ginormous, in fact, that I have (choose) to custom make all my curtains because this lady isn't shelling out $200+ PER PANEL for extra long and extra wide curtains. Especially when this lady knows how to make her own for a significantly lower amount.

These ginormous windows of ours get dirty...FAST. Smudges, speckles, fingerprints and the leftover residue from using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to scrub sharpie off the window. I am NOT like my neighbor lady who washes her windows on a weekly basis. Her OUTSIDE GARAGE windows.

Yeah, I know. WEEKLY. I wonder if she's bored? Or maybe she has some serious obsessive compulsive tendencies with cleaning. If so, maybe I should invite her over. We could have some serious cleaning therapy going on over here. And ya know what? I wouldn't even charge for her therapy because I'm nice like that.

I've heard that using vinegar is the best (and cheapest! You know me, I like a good deal. What can I say? I'm a penny-pinching dutch girl. ) window cleaning method. I've also seen some window washing "recipes" that also advise using a drop or two of liquid detergent in your vinegar/water mixture.

So interpeeps, what do you recommend? Do you follow a specific ratio mix for your window washing? Do you use a spray bottle with your mixture? A bucket full of the mix and use one wet rag to clean and one ray to dry?

Seriously, help a girl out...

A