social saturday

all miscellaneous posts related to the social aspect of the blog

Social Saturday | August 13

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sneak peek navy dress

Happy Saturday Dear Reader! It’s been a crazy week for me. I’ve had a lot of projects on the go, and a deadline to finish them for, because I am away at my friend’s wedding today. (I’m writing this post a few days before.)

I finally, with the amazing help of my mom, committed to making a bodice block/sloper. I tried doing this years ago through a Craftsy class, but it didn’t turn out well and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. But, I found an excellent new tutorial on Youtube here, and it was a pretty straightforward process.

bodice block and staining a woodworking project

With a few fitting muslins, which we were able to do with the help of this tutorial, I now have a sloper that fits me pretty well. Once that was complete…I was then able to finally do some sewing for myself! That’s a sneak peek (at the top of the post) of what I’ll be wearing to the wedding this weekend. I’ll share some outfit photos soon.

When I haven’t been sewing, I’ve also been doing some woodworking projects…well my dad built this one, and I stained it. I’ll share it in a future post too. Next week I want to start on a refinishing project that’s been taunting me for a while. I had to get the sewing projects for the wedding out of the way, but once I get back, it will be time to get out the sandpaper and work on something a bit different!

wedding gift wrapped in a striped blue and white tea towel

Speaking of the wedding, here’s how I wrapped the gift. I wanted to try Japanese furoshiki, but the tea towel wasn’t soft enough, so I just folded it and tied with some twine. I included some of these recipe cards by Jenni Haikonen in the gift- they are so pretty!

felted wool baby shoes and a ruffled eyelet baby dress

I also sewed some more baby clothes a while ago and tried out a new style of dress and felted shoes, so of course I have to share them here. The dress turned out OK, but I’m not sure the bodice is the right size, so I decided to buy this pattern that I can customize in different ways. Baby clothes are the absolute cutest!

Well, that’s what has been keeping me busy lately. I can’t believe it’s already the middle of August. It doesn’t feel like summer should be almost over, and I’ve still got so many projects I want to work on while the weather is warm! I’d best get busy!

How has your summer been? Does it feel like the summer has gone by fast or slow for you? I hope you all have a lovely weekend, whatever you’re doing. ❤︎

Social Saturday | July 2 (More Flowers!)

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pink and orange lily blooms

And some more flowers today…the garden is in gorgeous colour right now. This is the first year that the plants are really starting to fill in and my mom has done a lovely job of staggered bloom times, so we’ve got even more flowers coming soon. We’ve also had a lovely summer so far with rain and sun, but not too hot, so the plants (and me!) are very happy.

And… that’s all I have to share for today, I hope you have a lovely weekend!

pink roses

pink roses with yellow flowers in the background

fuchsia rose bloom

white mock orange bloom with pink roses in the background

dark pink painted daisy

multi coloured pansies and white yarrow

purple blue siberian iris

Social Saturday | May 28

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three red tulip blooms

Hello and happy Saturday Dear Readers! How was your week?

Here is a round up of some of things I’ve been enjoying lately, paired with some photos I’ve take over the past month. I love all the tiny leaves and cheerful flowers at this time of the year, don’t you? It’s been lovely watching all the flowers and leaves slowly open, the birdsong floating through the air, rain showers and the quiet and busy hum of the bumblebees as they go from bloom to bloom…

red tulip blooms and blossoms

  • What I’ve been working on: a sewing project that I’ve had in the works for several years… I finished it and will be sharing it next week. It’s nice to finally be able to check that one off the “to do” list!
  • As I’ve been sewing in the evenings, I have been listening to the audiobook of “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. It’s one of my favourite books- I listened to a recording of it a few years ago, and decided it was time for a re-read/listen: I’m about 2/3 of the way through now. I don’t particularly love reading Dickens, but I absolutely love listening to his stories! If you decide to read or listen to it, just make sure you don’t start the final 1/4 of the book in the evening, otherwise you’ll have to stay up until 3 AM to find out the ending! (That’s what I did the first time I listened to it- I was very tired the next day, but it was worth it!)

green sedum plant

  • I’ve also just finished reading “Facepaint: The History of Makeup” by Lisa Eldridge. It was such an interesting and in depth look at the history of makeup from ancient times to the present day. I enjoyed not only the text but also the photography, and the photos of all her vintage makeup collection. Why don’t more makeup brands today make pretty packaging? There’s so much boring plastic out there…

    tiny leaves growing on the trees

    • I have also been borrowing some more decorating books from the library, and “For the Love of White” by Chrissie Rucker was another good one. Most of the homes in the book are too modern for my own taste, but I think it can be inspiring to look at decorating styles that fall outside of our niches. Sometimes we can get in a rut, with home decor, fashion… anything really, if we focus too narrowly on what we already know we like. Curated Instagram feeds and Pinterest boards with suggestions of photos “you might like” can, over time, stifle creativity, whereas seeing new things, styled in ways different than we normally would, can be extremely inspiring. I’ve always grown up in homes full of colour, and it’s taken me a while to realize that I actually really like White as a colour, not just a neutral, so this book (full of homes from England) was particularly calming and lovely!

    peony plants coming up

    • This blog post, from Farmhouse on Boone, taught me something new. Before the days of refrigeration people had so many ingenious methods of food preservation, and water glassing eggs is one of them. My mom has chickens, so maybe we’ll try this in the future? I love discovering new-old ways of preserving food!

    Well, that’s all for this week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, whatever you have planned!

    yellow wood tulips and white and peach daffodils

    miniature purpley blue johnny jump

    tiny green leaves unfurling on a branch

    Social Saturday | May 14

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    purple and blue pansy bloom

    Hello Dear Readers, how was your week? It’s been a while since I did a Social Saturday post, so I thought I should do one today, since I’ve got a few collected pictures.

    The greenhouses are open so I picked up a Coleus, below, and my mom some pansies, above. I love the colours of the leaves on this one! I’m going to plant this in a rustic crackled blush pink pot I have- I think that will go really nicely with the red tones in the leaves.

    red and lime green coleus plant

    A while ago I mentioned that I was redoing my quilt and needed to just finish the edge binding- here’s how it turned out. I love the nice clean edge it gives to the quilt. It took me approximately 3 hours to stitch… or the length of one movie marathon.

    the edge of a bed, showing the quilt and bedskirt

    corner of the quilt binding

    Our local library is very small, and doesn’t have much selection (if we didn’t have inter-library loans, I would never read anything), but the one thing it does have is a lot of vintage books still in circulation.

    vintage library book covers and illustrations

    Aren’t these two volumes beautiful? The gilt one is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. And the other is a biography of Beatrix Potter, which was so enjoyable to read!

    I have been on a winning streak lately with thrift shopping. For the past year or so I haven’t found much worth bringing home, but in the past few weeks I have found quite a few great vintage pieces.

    vintage thrifted items- glasses, baskets and boxes

    A large basket that needs a bit of repair, but was only $2 so I couldn’t pass it up, a couple of hatboxes that I plan to recover, some “Boopie” glassware that matches my other sets, and a velvet t-shirt that I plan to use the fabric for a hat.

    thrifted tea pot, box, silver items and a glass candle votive

    And above, a little blue and white teapot (which is the exact same design as the one my sister has!), a silver napkin holder and pedestal, a carved wooden box and an embossed glass votive I’m going to pour a beeswax candle into. The box just needed a bit of refreshing with some linseed oil and it was good to go.

    And finally, to end this post, these are the first flowers to come up each Spring, and they are so cheerful. They are wild Woodland Tulips and they are are only a few inches tall, but they make such an impact.

    wild yellow woodland tulips

    I hope your week is a wonderful one, whatever you have planned!

    The Peace of Easter

    pysanka easter eggs in a basket full of moss

    “Surely he took up our pain
        and bore our suffering,
    yet we considered him punished by God,
        stricken by him, and afflicted.

    But he was pierced for our transgressions,
        he was crushed for our iniquities;
    the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
        and by his wounds we are healed.”

    Isaiah 53: 4-5

    On this day in between the remembrance of Christ’s death and his resurrection, I am so thankful for the Peace that the cross means to those who seek Him.

    I wish you all a blessed Easter season, dear Readers!

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