Oldness

        I have a thing for almost anything old or vintage. Not just because that's just my style (although that's obviously a huge part of it), but because it's terribly fun to think about the people who used those things when they were new and what their lives were like. It's a happy thought that I get to use those same things now. Today I'm going to share with you some of my antiques and vintage items and do a great deal of speculating and fantasizing as well. :) What can I say, I am a bit whimsical. 

        First up, my 1899 copy of Heidi. I found this at a garage sale last year and just had to get it. It's not really REALLY old, but the oldest item I'm going to talk about today. First off, it's a gorgeous book. You know that type that they used to use in all books long ago? The one that just exudes oldness? I love it. Old books are my favorite.

        Now think about it - a little girl gets this book from her mother for her ninth birthday. She spends hours out in the garden poring over the delightful story and studying the lovely pictures. Her younger brother doesn't think much of it, but it is the sweetest story she ever heard. Or perhaps she lived out in the country and didn't have much access to books at all. She treasured it like a jewel, and would steal away to her secret hideaway in the barn to follow Heidi's adventures with Peter in the Swiss Alps.

        I found this metal ice cream scoop at a thrift store the other day and just had to have it. I'm not sure when it is from, but it looks old to me so that's why it's here.

        I'm saying this was from an ice cream parlor in the 50s when girls wore full-skirted dresses and men were just so polite. Like in this picture, which is one of my favorites.

        These are my hand-me down (from an aunt) Gunne Sax dresses from the 70s. Not very old - I suppose they're considered retro and not vintage - but still older than I am! They haven't fit me for several years, but I'm saving them for when I have kids; for dress-up, if nothing else.

          It goes without saying that you just have to picture a whole room full of girls in these dresses at a party. Curls and braids and ribbons and cake, and the brothers of the birthday girl hiding up in their room.

        Okay, this is what inspired me to do this post in the first place. I found a working treadle sewing machine on Craigslist for a reasonable price, and it all worked out so I could get it! Honestly, now that I have used it, I have no idea why anyone would prefer electric. This treadle is smooth and quiet, the stitches are uniform, and it is so easy to use! Also, I now have a good use for my antique piano stool, which matches the sewing machine nicely.

        I'm guessing this machine is from the 40s, which goes right along with my stack of sewing and knitting magazines from around that same era. Just think about it, people were using this during WWII, when there was a limit to how full you could make your skirts so as to reserve fabric for army uniforms! Maybe I'll have to sew a nice 40s dress soon. :)

        That's all for now, although I have a lot more vintage stuffs. How about you? Do you like old things? What sorts?

Blessings,

Reyna

Sewing, Sewing, and Oh! More Sewing

        I feel like I've done nothing but sew for the past two days. Other than the usual school and farm business, I have spent most of my 'free time' up in my room with my pins, scissors, thread, and needle. We went to a thrift shop a couple of days ago, and I found a couple of nice skirts. The only problem was, one was a size large, and I am not. The waist was just elastic, though, so that wasn't a problem.

Before

After - no more size large!

        I have also been working on sewing a skirt; not just altering it. I started sewing it by hand, because I felt like doing that, and then switched to the machine when I started the hemming. I didn't really feel like making it take a whole week. :) 

Hemming the five yards of ruffle

        At the thrift store, they also had some nice fabric - so I just *had* to get some. There were a bunch of really nice blue prints, but I ended up getting three matching red/brown fabrics which is out of character for me. The red, that is, not the brown. I wear brown all the time. I'm thinking a nice autumn-themed skirt with lots of small ruffles and maybe some tucks. What do you think?

        I have also been working on the little pins I'm making for the yarn store, so that has been quite a bit more time than just the skirts would take. I have to find the balance between sewing and school - the other day I was pinning a hem and realized that I had an assignment due literally in ten hours. Oops. I did get it done, though.

Blessings,

Reyna

What I've Been Up To

        I know, it's kind of a lame post title, but I wasn't about to spend a whole half hour trying to think up a more eloquent one so you'll have to put up with it. We have been soooooo busy lately, but I've taken a few pictures each day so I'd have them when I got around to posting. Well, the time is now! 

        First off, I sewed a bit several days ago. I had really been needing a new skirt, so I pulled out some fabric from my stash and started working on it. I bought this fabric about a year ago, and I really don't know why I did. It is a bit on the bright side for me, and I'm not sure what made me buy it. The skirt did turn out all right, though.

        Gathering the skirt part:

         Pinning it into the waistband:

        I ended up putting a zipper in it because I was feeling too lazy to close it any other way, even though I'm not especially fond of zippers. As soon as I finished, I realized that I really didn't have anything to wear with it. Problem. So I went up to my room, and pulled out a brown shirt that I've only worn once because it's just not my style. If you're thinking that this doesn't make any sense, I'll have to tell you that in my mind I was thinking "But it can be my style!". I didn't take a 'before' picture because by the time I thought of it the shirt was all pinned and I wasn't going to take it out and start over again, but this is how much I took in on each side.:

        This is what the back looks like now. It is fitted instead of very loose, and goes well with the skirt.

        In this picture you can kind of see the skirt. And yes, I am standing up on the coffee table with my boots on.
       

        Our farm has been doing well. Eponine had still been treating Thorin like some sort of inferior species, but then she went into heat and everything changed *evil laugh*. Suddenly, she was wanting to be around him, and he would nuzzle her with his horns and she would just stand there. It was pretty cute, let me tell you. Oh, and I think he knows now what he's here for. Yeah, I don't think she got bred this time around - he is still I think a bit on the small side - but next heat cycle I am hoping he will get the job done. Or the next. I really want her to kid by August, so he had better get his act together. Not that I don't love my little Thorin to pieces, he really is the most darling little man I have ever seen, but I think it will be easier to sell him when he is still young and cute and doesn't stink yet. I think I forgot to mention this in my last several posts; Daisy went to her new home two weeks ago, so that was a big responsibility lifted. We had been planning to separate her from Lily and teach her to take her bottle before we handed her off, but we were having problems with them hearing each other and crying, so our friend took her early and we just helped him figure the whole bottle thing out. I hear she is doing well and happy in her new home, which is good.
        I have never had to photograph a young child, but I have heard that it is very hard because they never stop moving! Well, that is what it is like with Thorin. I take maybe twenty pictures of him and hope to get one good one, so that is why most are pretty blurry and he's not in a great position. There is one that I managed to get done well, so I'll save that one for the end.

        "I know you're ignoring me, Mama, so I'm going to ignore you."

         "Oh, you're not ignoring me?"

         "You pay more attention to that funny black box you're holding than you do to me! Okay, I'll just go fight with the Christmas tree. You can snuggle your camera instead of your baby."

        Millie was finding green yummies:

        Lav was posing:

        "You want to see how I keep my lovely feathers so clean? Here, I'll show you!"

        Pretty soon, Eponine wanted me to take pictures of her as well.

        She was posing.

         My Eponine is so pretty! She has such beautiful eyes, such soft fur... I love to sit on the counter in the chicken yard and she comes and leans against me and I put my head on her back and she falls asleep like that. She is such a sweet goat!

        And now, drum roll please, we have the FIRST good picture of Thorin that I have gotten in the month that I've had him!

        Isn't he a cutie! I am hoping that by the time I do have to get rid of him he'll be so obnoxious that I'll be glad to. If I sell him right after Eponine is bred it will be pretty hard, but I am thinking about keeping him to breed Lily again in early fall. By that time, he would be about eight months and starting to smell pretty bad, so I have to think about it. I don't know, really...
         And now, for the really random pictures.
        My mom found some little asparagus growing in her garden, so she picked it and ate it. It was just so cute that I had to take a picture first, though:

        Some gorgeous flowers that grow in our front yard every year (I have no idea what they are called):

         They smell positively heavenly.

         My mom was feeding Eponine some treats; pea leaves and blossoms.

         I was just snapping pictures of her as she ate...

         ... Normal...

         ... Normal...

         ... And then when I was looking at them after, I found this:

         Let me tell you, I was laughing my head off! There are all of these pictures of her just chewing the food, and then all of the sudden, um, well, look at the picture again. I was so amused! After that, she got Nana snuggles. She loves Nana snuggles!

        I believe this is a nectarine. There are just a few blossoms starting:

         My pigeons:

        A ladybug:

        My brother's kayak clean and drying after all of the outings it got in the past week when the creek was high from the rain:

        The orange that I plan on eating in a few more days :)

        The top bar:

        There were a lot of bees outside for some reason:

        Some catnip that I harvested from my garden:

        Feverfew:

        Parsley:

        Anise Blue Hyssop:

        I have been so busy lately with school and miscellaneous chores, so forgive me if I don't post quite as much as I had been. I most likely will be doing kind of random posts just to update you on my life recently, so don't expect anything too interesting. ;)

Blessings,

Reyna 

Daisy Update and Goatling Sling

        Daisy is not quite forty eight hours old yet, but it is time for an update. So you'll get to see some pictures of the baby all fluffed up and clean now, rather than twenty minutes old and still a bit wet. We are going to take a picture of her every week until we give her away, next to the same picture frame and grass hay bale, so we can see how much she has grown. For baby goats grow very quickly. Here is our "farm news" sign with the latest announcement:

        Welcome Daisy, born on my mom's birthday (she was so exited)! Some goatling in a frame pictures:

        It has been a bit chilly here lately, although nothing like the weather the rest of the country is getting right now, so Daisy stays mostly in her barn with her Mama and her warm light. When I take her out, I put her in the sling that I made to carry my cat a long time ago. People see her and think she is a bunny! It amuses me. I don't think the ears are big enough. Anyway, the sling.

        This is me and Daisy, out in the cold air. I walked her over to the restaurant where her future adopted parents work, and they met for the first time. I got lots of weird looks on the way over, but since I walk my goats on a leash all of the time, I'm pretty much used to it.

 

        I suppose hardly anyone carries their baby goats in slings, but I love slings, so why not. My mom carried me in a sling all of the time when I was a baby, so why not? Slings are great because they allow the child/animal to feel close to their mom, and yet if you are carrying a baby in a sling, you have your hands free! They just go right to sleep because they know they are safe and bundled up, and you can get some work done. Not that I have to carry Daisy around, but it is an excuse. 

        If you want to make a sling, it is really easy. I just cut a rectangle of fabric that was the length from my shoulder to the opposite hip (plus seam allowance), and then cut the bottom into a curve. I sewed the ends together so that the seam is closed on both sides, and the hemmed the edge. There are lots of easy sling tutorials out there also if your mom can't teach you how like mine did. My mom is just cool like that, and your mom might be cool in other ways. :)

         So the moral of the story is: slings are good! For kittens and puppies and goatlings and babies (I mean people babies)! You just might get strange looks.

Blessings,

Reyna