Melikes the Teal...

Melikes the teal. A bit of a teal obsession going on over here. It's my new neutral. If a shockingly bright color can be considered a neutral!?

According to Dictionary.com one of the definitions for neutral includes:

Matching well with many or most other colors or shades.

And because I DO match it will most other colors and shades....it's my new neutral. See? I'm not completely out of it. Just half way, right?

Anywho, many of you know I painted an accent wall in my boudoir a lovely teal shade. Except I never provided photographic evidence. Mostly because I am in need of an upgraded camera to replace my current non-correct color depicting camera, but anywho.

Here's what my bedroom looked like pre-painting. In a 'bed pushed to the center of the room and stuff piled on it so I can paint' arrangement:



The new color? Intense Marathon:



I showed the paint sample to my hubby and he raised his eyebrows and gave me the "you are a nut job" look. I kinda like it when he gives me that look.

Anywho, new accent paint on back wall, said adios to the non-matching red-brown sludge and new bedding and we now have:


(Yup, that is a cluster of three teal VintageDutchGirl fabric flowers on my accent pillow. Super easy way to dress up a pillow.)


(Goodness gracious I need more decor. And to lose those lamps - blech. Oh well, they were garage sale under $4.00. No biggie.)

Ahhhh. So much better.

Still not done yet.

Need to convince the hubby that I can paint the bed frame white.

Need to get new lamps.

Need some orange/persimmony ruffly accent pillow goodness.

All things on my list.

I DID have extra paint laying around....and once I get the painting stuff all set up I tend to go a little nutso.

I made this cute little side table for my front porch with scraps left over from our gate building
project. Yep, I used our chop saw and drill all by myself...and I LOVED it. Yep, I'm a woodworker's daughter through and through:


(Drat, those stupid chairs. I keep forgetting to post them. Ok, this picture will be the intro. See those chairs? I'll post Chapter one this week. Sound good? Ok. Oh and look at that dorky photographer in the window. Hasn't she ever heard of a reflection before? Sheesh.)

Anywho, it was boring. So, it got the good ole Teal treatment:


(Powered by diet coke, of course.)

And while the paint was out I hunted in the garage and house for things needing a little spunk of color. Grabbed a few more things and got to painting:



Yes, those are my garden stakes. Pictures to come soon.

Yup yup yup. Melikes the teal...

A

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Sassy new Headbands in the Etsy Shop!

I finally was able to list some new fun headbands in the Vintage Dutch Girl ETSY shop. Just a little sprinkling of new products I've been having fun with.

A cluster blossom headband light teal and white:



A cluster blossom headband in sheer white and black floral print:



And a layered ruffly bright yellow headband:



There will be many more styles and colors to come so keep watching!

A

These Ruffles Used To Be Sleeves...

Everyone has that boring plain white long-sleeve button down shirt just hanging in their closet, right? In my case, that boring white plain button down shirt had an extremely unflattering criss cross tie detail between the two back seams that just screamed MATERNITY. Or OUTDATED. Either one, not good.

So.....I chopped it up.

(And no, I did NOT take a before picture. Mostly because I couldn't find my camera. Also because when inspiration hits I can't think straight until I've attempted to create said inspiration. And lastly because you ALL KNOW what a boring plain white long-sleeve button down shirt looks like, right???)

Step 1: The collar was seam ripped off and then restitched the seam down leaving a simple edge. A much more clean and crisp look. Besides, the collar was all ugly and slubby from use. It was time for it to go.

Step 2: The long sleeves were chopped off and the sleeve edges refinished. (Save those cut off sleeves for Step 4!)

Step 3: Goodbye ugly outdated maternity criss-cross back ties! Seam ripped those babies right out and tossed em in the trash. Just a bit of restitching the seams down without those ties and the back looks 100% better.

Lastly, and most importantly....

Step 4: The sass. The fun. The RUFFLES! Seam ripped those cut off sleeves from Step 2 and cut double matching lengths for each side of front button placket.

(I had NO IDEA that my still-sorta-new-and-scary serger could do rolled hem edges. SAWEET! So stinkin' fun. Maybe I should actually finish reading my serger manual. It probably can do dishes and mop the floors too!)

Ran those matching lengths through the serger creating a rolled hem edge on each side, top and bottom and then created some sassy ruffles using a basting stitch with my regular sewing machine.

Pinned the ruffled goodness on, sewed em down and jumped up and down with glee. Sometimes I get so excited when a project I'm working on finally turns out the way I envisioned it that I just can't stand it and have to jump around a bit.



Hows this for some sass?



Looks much better with a black belt too:



(Pardon the bulkiness, I threw it on over a pink t shirt to snap this photo. Ha! I just noticed you can see the vertical lettering on my t shirt through the white shirt. :) I am SUCH a dork!)

OK, tear through your closet and start turning those long-sleeved shirts into ruffled short sleeved sass!

A

** Didja know you can find me HERE on Facebook? True story. Become a fan (or like) and see the latest Vintage Dutch Girl posts in your news feed. Oh, and it'll make my day! **