Glow-In-The-Dark Galaxy...

I went and got my thrift on this morning. As always, I came home with more things I didn't know I needed.

I was jazzed to find these glow-in-the-dark stars and planets for 99 cents:



Be honest, how many of you had these on your bedroom ceiling as a kid?

Confession: I didn't have them but secretly thought they were cool. My brother had them and sometimes I'd sneak in there when he wasn't home to look at his glowing little ceiling galaxy.

(Jason - I also MAY have played with your legos and transformers. )

I just stuck a bunch on them up on Bubbalu's bedroom ceiling and he is LOVING them. Maybe it will help him stay in bed and take naps again? (Trying to be optimistic here...just go along and pretend with me that children that don't take naps are wonderful creatures, mkay?)

I also came home with a delicious bag full of vintagey lace and trimmings.



I may have to incorporate some of these into my plaid projects for the Plaid Flannel Party starting next week. Plaid + Lace? Yes please.

OK, off to try to convince the 3 yr old that quiet room time literally means QUIET and IN YOUR ROOM...

A

Don't forget about the party starting next week!

<a href="http://www.vintagedutchgirl.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt148/VintageDutchGirl/PFPgrab.png" /></a>

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed.

The Irony Of It All...

If you can't make out the lettering, it says, "ULTRASONIC BIRD REPELLER":



Yup, with a nest right next to it.

I really do find joy and humor in the mundane things of this life...

A

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed.

Upcoming Plaid Flannel Party!

I LOVE me some Plaid Flannel. One could say I've been hoarding a yard or eighteen of this deliciously colorful and cozy fabric. I finally decided to do something about it to bust my stash.

Heads up! I am hosting a Plaid Flannel Party next week, October 24th - 29th! Grab the button and post it on your blog so everyone knows you are participating and get the word out!

<a href="http://www.vintagedutchgirl.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt148/VintageDutchGirl/PFPgrab.png" /></a>

I have HEAPS of Plaid Flannel that are itching to get sewn, ripped, glued and crafted into beautiful things. Seriously, HEAPS.

What can you expect from this Plaid Flannel Shindig?

* Plaid Flannel Project ideas

* Plaid Flannel sewing tutorials

* New Plaid Flannel items in the Vintage Dutch Girl shop

* All ending with a huge Plaid Flannel Project Parade Link-up Party and GIVEAWAY on Friday, October 29th. Get your Plaid Flannel projects ready to post and link up and we can all be ready for some super Plaid Flannel project inspiration!

So, get out there and get shopping for some lovely Plaid Flannel to join our Plaid Flannel Party on October 24- 29th. Hope you can attend!

A

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed!!

Crack Soup... I mean Pasta e Fagioli...

This soup is SO good it deserves a repost. Especially it is Autumn and chilly in our part of the country.

*originally posted February 4, 2009*

This is the best. soup. ever.

Seriously? Want to impress anyone? Not that talented in the kitchen? Short on time?

This IS the soup for you.

I actually made 6 batches while 7 months pregnant to freeze and use when Lil Chick arrived. It is actually thawing nicely in my refrigerator at the moment. My lovely Sister in law requested this recipe for her husband, who dubbed it "crack soup", it is THAT good.

Enjoy! Really, PLEASE enjoy:

Pasta e Fagioli Soup

12 ounces chicken sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced (Sun Dried Tomato Basil or similar flavors work well).
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup bow tie pasta
2 cups (or more) coarsely chopped zucchini (about 2 small zucchini)
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tsp oregano
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Dash of pepper

Heat sausage, stirring constantly, over high heat in large pot for 2 minutes (or until sizzling nicely). Add broth and pasta and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 6 minutes. Add zucchini and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer another 2 minutes. Stir in oregano and kidney beans, give a good dash of pepper, cover and simmer 3 minutes or until pasta and zucchini are tender.

Serve with shredded asiago or Parmesan cheese and eat and eat and eat until you hate me.

I get the chicken sausage at Costco, which is really flavorful. I've doubled the recipe except for the sausage and it still tasted wonderful.

Also very good with my favorite and easy Cheddar Garlic Biscuits to dip into the yummy broth.

You're welcome...

A


Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed!!

Christmas Etsy Shopping...

While at Costco yesterday with my Sister we did a bunch of Christmas shopping.

Yes, I know, the idea of Christmas shopping makes some of you physically ill, but think how lovely it would be to have ALL of your shopping done (and wrapped!) before December hits! Then you would be free to attend every and all holiday shindig and allow yourself to snack on every bit of peppermint bark, holiday fudge and peanut butter bon bons that you can find.

Not sure why I translate having shopping done with the freedom to eat snacks, but whatever. I may be a bit hungry for breakfast and am trying to distract myself from the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen. (Yes, I've had them for breakfast before. No, this hasn't worked to distract me. If anything, now I want them even more.)

OK, back to shopping.

There's some new stuff going on in the Vintage Dutch Girl Etsy shop.

Have you considered a handmade Christmas gift for your girlfriends, Mom, Sister or daughter?

How about a sassy gold flower headband?



Or maybe a chic houndstooth flower pin?



And the ON SALE Pink Plaid Flannel Ruffle Scarf. I have one of these just for me and I love it:



Don't see a particular color you wanted? No problem, I love doing custom orders! Just contact me and we can chat.

That's it for now but stay tuned for more Vintage Dutch Girl ETSY shop updates and think again how nice it will be to have all your shopping done early!

A

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed!!

Tea Dyed Sheet Music Tutorial...

I love music. It feeds my soul.

There needs to be more evidence of our enjoyment of music in our home.

I have a stack of photocopied sheet music from many of my favorite musicals. Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, Fiddler, etc. Not wanting to toss the pages of "Edelweiss", "Tradition" and "O

klahoma!", into the recycle bin, I came up with a new project.

Tea Dyed Sheet Music:

Materials:

- A stack of sheet music. ( Don't have any? There are tons of sites where you can print off music for free. OK, I googled it for you. I'm nice like that. )
- a bunch of teabags
- hot water
- paintbrush
- old towels

Directions:

1. Brew up a good nice strong cup of tea. I used three or four teabags for one large cup.

Confession: I tossed the first two cups of brewed tea. The first turned out looking like urine and the second one was dark red thanks to a cranberry splash teabag. Not wanting this to become a "How to make Urine Dyed Sheet Music" or "How to make Blood Stained Sheet Music" I decided to throw them out and start over.

2. Lay your chosen sheet music out in a single layer on an old towel.

3. Using the brush, "paint" the strongly brewed tea directly onto the sheet music then blot the excess moisture off with a towel:



4. Squeeze the teabags and drip onto the paper edges to achieve varied coloring:



5. Let air dry, turning pages over every 15 minutes or so. Once dried, if the page color isn't dark enough for you, repeat the whole process.

(While the paper is wet you can add creases and folds to age the paper even more)

6. Arrange the dried sheet music on the paper backing of a large picture frame:



7. Put the frame back together and hang it up!




Tea Dyed sheet music has many applications. Think origami Christmas tree ornaments, paper flowers or poms or gifting a friend with their favorite sheet music aged and framed.

Any other ideas of what to do with Tea Dyed Sheet Music?

A

 

Check out my latest Etsy Shop listings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch 

Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed!!


 

Z Gallerie Eye Candy...

The next store we hit on our shopping outing was Z Gallerie. Um, I've NEVER been to this store as they don't have any in our lovely state.

WOW was this place cool. First off, the pillows were so chic and got my fingers twitching to sew:





Guess which one is my fave? Which one is YOUR fave?

Next up, the mirrors caught my eye:



Mostly because they were reflecting a 3 yr old boy with a mischievous grin on his face.

While I was rolling my eyes at Bubbalu I spotted a bunch of cool light fixtures:



LOVE that industrial pendant lamp. Would you put any of these in your home?

I could spot plenty more eye candy from just inside the entrance but honestly was too afraid of Bubbalu's exuberance that we high tailed it outta there.

I need to go back, there was SO much to look at...

A

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed!!

Uber-Neutrals...

While on our recent trip to Arizona I cajoled my husband into going shopping (read: window gawking) at some of my favorite and most inspiring stores...with two kids...one of whom is slightly on the energetic side.

OK, both of them are slightly on the energetic side.

Anywho, first store we hit was Restoration Hardware. The nearest RH to our home is a good 2 hours away so this was definitely a treat. We walked in and I was surprised to find not a stitch of color.

Unless you consider shades of brown colorful stitches:



The rustic french inspiration decorative era has arrived. Lots of aged woods, wide weave linen or canvas and old world charm:



Gray-white washed walls, iron fixtures and accents and large Roman numeral clocks:



Tall mirrors everywhere:





with large antique maps gracing the walls and bundled antique books adorning the shelves:



As someone who loves color, this uber neutral palate is not my first choice. I most definitely will be using elements of this classy style but I'm going to be pairing it with color.

I'm curious what you all think of Restoration Hardware's new look. Think you could go all neutral in your home?

A

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed!!

Rolled Fabric Flower Autumn Wreath...(with a lazy tutorial!)

Why yes, yes I did make a new Autumn wreath last year.

And yes, yes I did discover another Autumn wreath I'd made the year before and had forgotten about.

And yes, rather than find a ladder to retrieve either one of those Autumn wreaths from the tippy top shelf in the garage, I went ahead and made another.

Because I'm lazy like that. And I'll take any excuse to craft instead of wash dishes.

Yep, that makes THREE.

Three Autumn wreaths because one is not enough and two is boring. That makes ZERO sense so just go with me here and let me try to rationalize my crafting mkay?

I had a plain grapevine wreath on my door and it needed some sassy fallification.

Enter glue gun, rolled fabric flowers and a woman on a craftin' (dishes avoiding) mission:



Ahhhhh, MUCH better!

Wanna make your own? OK, I'm not going to go ahead and redo a long rolled fabric flower tutorial because there may be eleventy hundred great ones out in crafty blogland as this very moment.

Sweetened Condensed Rolled Fabric Flower Tutorial:

A long strip of fabric, knot at one end, twist and roll fabric around knot gluing periodically. Thereyougo.

Sweetened Condensed Rolled Flower Autumn Wreath Directions:

Um, take your many coordinating (or not, just wing it like I did) rolled fabric flowers in varying sizes and glue them to a grapevine wreath. Hang it wherever you want it. Take pictures and blog about it and my ultra-fab super explanation tutorial (optional).

Happy Autumn!

A

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed!!

Linking up to these fab crafty parties:


>

Pumpkin Chocolate Chips Cookies...

The mornings are starting to be crisp and we're pulling out our scarves and hoodies from the back of the closet.

Don'tcha just love fall?

I particularly love the scents and tastes of fall.

Sipping on a Pumpkin Spice Latte,

munching a (few) Gingerbread cookies,

smelling my Harvest Yankee Candle,

brewing up a batch of apple cider,

and that crisp morning smell promising frosty mornings arriving soon.

Are you in a fall mood yet?

NO?

OK, for all of you still mourning the loss of Summer, here is my never-fail fall mood inducer:



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla and chocolate chips and lightly stir until combined.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown.
4. Eat liberally with extra large iced glass of milk.

There, that should help you get your AUTUMN on...

A

Click HERE to Follow Vintage Dutch Girl on Facebook and get new post links in your feed!!