The Pink Princess Parfait Collection ~ Vintage Chenille Pumpkins

A Weekend With A Princess And Making Pumpkins!

 

 Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing well!

 

It's been a busy two weeks here at the Willhoite

Manor as my hubby calls it. I have been up to my

neck making all the pumpkins I have wanted to make

for the last two  years or better! I've made a huge

dent in that list finally! Well, not really. I love

pumpkins and as I am making them I get more ideas

that I want to make them with and how I want to make

them so as my list is getting knocked off, more ideas

are being added! Brother! 

 

I have NO idea what I am going to do with all of

these pumpkins, but I did have fun making them all!

I thought this last weekend would be a break from it,

but my little granddaughter Miss Emma came to

visit us this weekend....And guess what she wanted

to make after she saw all my pumpkins!?

 

Yep.....PUMPKINS!

 

Like a good grandma I was all in!

 

Ms. Emma will be seven next month and we hadn't

had a just us girls time without her brothers and boy

cousins in quite some time. So this weekend she wanted

to do some crafting and of course some shopping. And

let me tell you, this little six year old who is major girly,

and quite the princess to boot, knows how to SHOP!

I have to keep reminding myself that she is only six

not twenty something! I have to remind her of that too!

 

She has three older brothers and she can be tough

as nails when situations arise with those boys,

and she can knock the tar out of anyone who messes

with her. But she does it all with class! She generally

always has her nails polished....toes too, her high

heels or moms on. (When she is here, every pair of

shoes I own are dragged out.) She always has her

jewelry on and is quite the fashion statement in the

clothing department. And her hair....well it always

has to be done in some fashion or other too. And lets

not forget the make up! She is quite the Ms. Priss!

But don't be fooled by this tiny thing of a little girl!

She can hold her own! I can only imagine what she

is going to be like when she is a teenager! I tell my

daughter all the time that she is in for a real treat

with this child! She is much like her mother was

when she was little. God help us!

 

One of her favorite colors is guess what? Yes, it

would be pink! I brought out several fabrics and

lots of chenille when I started on my pumpkin

binge so lucky for her, grandma had several

different pretty pink vintage chenille bedspreads

out. Of course that was the pile Emma went to first.

She wanted to make princess pumpkins! Being just

like her grandma, she wanted to deck her pumpkins

out with bling too. Us girls love our sparkly!

 

We went to get all my bling for crafts box, when she

spied a white feather boa. She loves feathery fluffy

stuff so she insisted on using the feathers on our

pumpkins too.  Feathers, bling, and pink! I think

 I see  her vision and now we are on a roll!

 

As we got started we also got hungry so we made

some fruit and granola parfaits and sat down to the

task of creating our pumpkins. I showed her how to

make them with no sewing involved, and no needles

or thread. Her little hands had a hard time gathering

all the fabric up so I had to help in that area, and with

the glue gun. We cut out several circles from different

designed chenille's, laid handfuls of pillow stuffing

in the middle of the circles, and then gathered them

up and tied them off with rubber bands.

 

Then we took some soft white yarn and wrapped it

around and around the top part to create our stems

and used the glue gun to glue the ends in place. Then

we added just a bit of bling and some feathers to finish.

They came out simple but sweet, and very princess

looking. She is a pretty creative little girl and she loved

our creations when we were all done! I did too!

I've got a partner in crime!

 

After we were finished, we had to give them a name.

Because these were fit for a princess, and because we

love parfaits, and they were pink, we called them...

"Pink Princess Parfait Chenille Pumpkins!" But of

course, what else could they be called! So here are

our sweet pumpkins! I think we did a good job.

Emma thinks we did, and that is all that is important!

 

 

 

 

We used a rhinestone necklace for the large pumpkin.

This chenille is such a pretty light soft pink. All three

chenille's that Emma chose were different shades of

what I would call, baby soft sweet pinks in color.

 

 

 

And the matching earrings for the two small pumpkins.

 

 

I love love this pink squiggly chenille! The pink is such

a sweet color! I have this in so many colors as I use

to make little chenille pantaloons to go with the vintage

pillow case dresses I use to sell. I have tons of chenille's

and hundreds of vintage pillowcases that I have collected

over the last fourteen years. I really should get back to

making the pantaloons and dresses again. They sold like

hotcakes! They even worked great for pumpkins too!

 

 

This is the popcorn chenille! Another sweet pink color

and the pops are so soft! This made us some sweet

little pumpkins too!

 

 

 

We had so much fun! Aren't they just sweet!? I wish the

pictures had turned out better. It was a stinkin cloudy

day and me and my camera were just not getting along!

 

 

She found these in my china cabinet as we were

taking pictures of our pumpkins. I had forgot I

even had them. A couple of faux pumpkins painted

pink and sprinkled with German glass glitter and

decked out with pretty pink roses and pretty light

 green seam binding. Emma loved them, so we got

them out and set them with our new creations too.

 

 

This is my sweet princess Ms. Emma, and she is an

adorable little girl too! I just love her to pieces and

she makes me laugh all the time! She is like a big girl

in a little girls body. She just cracks me up!

 

Saturday we went shopping and she found several

pieces of jewerly she just had to have of course, and

a writing pad as she loves to write and draw. On

Sunday after church she had one more project she

wanted to do that she had seen that I had done with

her cousin....my littlest grandson Blaze. So before she

had to leave for home we got that done too.

 

 

This is her handprint owl. I saw this on a website here

and thought it so cute. We used canvas board for ours

and I lined the sides with some heavy twine and made

a hanger out of twine also, stapling it on the back. We

finished it off by brushing Mod Podge over all of it for

a good seal and a bit of a shine. This is a fun project for

the kids. Emma and Blaze both love theirs!

 

After we had painted Emma's hands for the handprints

I had sent her into the guest bath to wash her hands. I

wished you could have seen my sink and my WHITE

wash cloth and towel! What a MESS! I got the sink all

clean but I think the wash cloth and towel are shot lol!

Just full of little brown handprints and smears!

How did I not see that coming!

 

I had a great time with my Emmie and I hated to

see it end. But, we have lots of weekends to play

and shop again. She wore this grandma out so

I really need some time to recover anyway!

 

TaTa for now!

 

Thank you for visiting with us!

We always enjoy the company!

 

 

Sharing here:

 

The Charm Of Home ~ Home Sweet Home 189

Domestically Speaking ~ Inspire Me Monday 28

Kent Heartstrings ~ Motivational Monday

A Stroll Thru Life ~ 237th Inspire Me Tuesday

Setting For Four ~ Monday Funday 90

Between Naps On The Porch ~ Metamorphosis Monday

One More Time Events ~ Share It One More Time 9

Oh My Heartsie Girl ~ Friday Features

Two Stones And A Stick! Sailboat Paper Weight

Well they say summer is over and Fall is here...but here in my world, it's still summer! I do have to admit it feels like Fall, smells like Fall, the leaves are falling, the sun is shifting, and it's getting darker an hour earlier too boot! I'm not a happy girl. One good thing for me is with living in Florida, it's like summer year round, although we do get some very cold days in December, January, and February ... even this last March we had several cold cold days. The worst for me with Fall and Winter is how the daylight gets shorter and the nights get longer. I really really don't like that at all!

 

Well I won't let this change of season's take our dream away, the dream I have had all summer..... a house by the beach or a lake! I have been making several things to decorate this little dream place of ours in a beachy theme.

 

Two weeks ago it was my Mr.’s Birthday. I have been designing a home office for him and I had this idea to make him a gift this year. Well it was one of his gifts. I decided he needed something beachy but it needed to be masculine too. I wanted it to go well with leather furniture, his dark wood desk, bookcases, a few antiques, and not clash with his golf stuff, or his collection of memorabilia of nerdy things. He's a software architect, designer, and developer, for the medical profession. He is quite the smarty pants he is!

 

So I made him this! It's a sailboat paper weight!

 The "SS Jack!"

 

I think it looks pretty masculine and looks great on his desk! It has a bit of a rustic old nautical look. I like it a lot with his antique clock and vintage books. And...he loved it!!

 

I use to sail a lot back in the day when I was pregnant with my first child. I miss doing that so much, and have as part of our dream place on the beach or lake, a sailboat on my list! Oh my Mr. loves sailing too! We both are water freaks and love the calm and peace we get being around the water. I hope by the time we get our dream, he will be able to sail with me. The biggest problem will be being able to get him in and out of the sail boat. I'm going to have to put my thinking

cap on and come up with a solution for that. He has been trying to recover from a bad stroke six years ago now. Still so far to go...but we are still hopeful!

 

I was sitting out by our pond in the back yard watching the goldfish and I spotted these stones. I thought of different rock art I have seen and thought about trying to paint something on them. I love to recycle and I hadn't tried anything with stones yet, but today I would! How it got to be a sail boat I can't tell you.....but two stones and a stick later I had the "SS Jack!" Well actually a couple of weeks later!

 

I stacked my two stones on top of each other and walked back to the house. I set them on the patio table and all of a sudden I got this vision in my head! Maybe it was because of sitting by the pond staring into the water and thinking about growing up on the lake, and missing what I used to love, the lake and sailing. Sailing! My vision was sailboat! Maybe I could pull this off! So I went and got some white spray paint and painted both the stones completely. While they dried I went into the woods next to my house to find the perfect stick.

 

OH!!! BTW! Today as I am writing this post on my back patio, I hear this big noise at the side of my yard! I get up to go look and there is this big black bear walking along side my house! Freaked Me OUT! Not going in those woods again, and probably won't be sitting out here at night anymore either! Now I know what all those noises that sounds like someone is walking around at night must be! Durn bears! Didn't know they were right around where we live! And we live twenty blocks away from downtown Mt. Dora! I called my friend from animal control to report this and she tells me, "Oh yea, there are several bears in our area! I'm now thinking, it's time to move!

 

 

Anyway....I found my stick, and once the paint had dried on my stones, I took some Gorilla Super Glue spread it over the stone that was going to be the bottom of this sailboat, then took my glue gun and spread a good amount of that on because that sets quicker than the Gorilla Super Glue does. I then set my smaller stone on top. I used both glues because I didn't want the top stone to slide off before the super glued dried. Those stones are heavy buggers believe it or not! When picking this up if it fell apart and hit your toes, that stone would bring tears to your eyes! Anyway, the two glues worked great and they are good and stuck together. Next I glued the stick on the top of the two stones again with both glues. I tried using just the glue gun but it kept falling off. I think it was because of the paint, it just wouldn't adhere well. 

 

I set the stones now the boat, on my counter to let it set overnight to make sure all the glue had dried so it wouldn't come apart on me. Now I go looking for some fabric for my sails. I found this blue plaid shirt of my Mr. that I hate him wearing, so I thought this would make great sails...I loved the blues and yellow with the white in the shirt .... and this way hubby won't wear this darn thing again! It looked like an old man shirt on him!

Well that was as far as I got. I just couldn't get inspired any further. I looked at it every day for two weeks as I walked by it a bazillion times a day. Just couldn't see it. Maybe it was the fabric I was planning on using, I don't know.

I moved on to making a Fall centerpiece of candle holders for my table, a mummy pillow that I saw on Pottery Barns website, and some toilet paper rustic pumpkins. I had crap all over the place. As I was cleaning up, I came across some natural looking rope I had planned on taking back to the store and forgot to do it. I picked it up, looked at my stones and saw the glue that oozed out from when I glued on the stick. The rope would be perfect around the bottom of the stick to hide the glue. And.....it had a nautical look to it! Perfect!

So I added it and liked it! But then I thought I should put some rope around in between the two stones. Did it and, I liked it a lot too. Now my brain is getting inspired and I see my boat vision, but better than the first vision! With my other projects I had been working with my drop cloth fabric, love that stuff! The color I have is in a natural off white, which played along with my rope. Now I'm on a roll and thoughts and pictures are flying in my mind!

 

Side note: That photo in the frame behind the sailboat is a picture of the old house I grew up in on Fine Lake in Michigan. It went through a couple of remodels and that screen porch became more living area, and then it was a kitchen. A year and a half ago it was torn down to the ground and a one story took its place for my mom. It was on that lake, I learned to sail. If things work out, my hubby and I hope to be living there in the summers. My mom passed away this last May and left it to my five sisters and I. We've rented it for the time being, but hopefully next summer we will have it back and be staying there and, I will be sailing that lake again all summer long! Two of my sisters sent me that picture in the frame for my birthday this last July. At the bottom of the frame it says,

"Where memories are made." Our whole life of memories are at the place...with the new house being built by the hands of my moms family to boot!.......That place is staying in this family! We aren't done making memories yet!

 

Now back to my sailboat paper weight gift again! 

 

I laid my boat over on it's side on my drop cloth to draw a line for the shape of the stick. Then from there I drew the rest of the sails from that and cut them out. Then I decided I wanted stripes on the sails so I found some nautical colored fabric paint I liked and taped off my stripes using some painters tape and painted in my stripes. I let that dry, but thought the sails needed something to frame them, plus keep them from raveling. In jumps the twine! When the paint dried I got my glue gun and little by little I edged the fabric with my glue gun and laid the twine in place. After that was done, I decided to put a strip of the twine around the rope pieces too. That just seemed to be the perfect thing to enhance the rope. Now it just seems to all play together.

 

Yea! I was happier with it now! 

 

 

Then I remembered sails have numbers on them! Why I don't know, but I needed to add some. As I was pondering what I wanted as numbers, I came up with two important dates. That would be just perfect and as my hubby is big on every date that pertains to everything in our life together, I went with the date when we met fourteen years ago... August, 11 back in 2000. That was the day we were to be married on too, but his stroke messed that up. Now because this was for his birthday, the other set of numbers became his birthday. September 6. I got so excited because I knew knowing my hubby like I do, he was going to love this! I drew those on by hand with a black gel ink pen.

 

Next I needed to name this boat.....this boat was for him so "SS Jack" it was! I got out my stamps and ink pad for the name and stamped it on.

 

I added one more piece of twine to represent that thing you hoist the sail up with....can you tell I don't know sailboat lingo lol. One more thing...a flag for the top of the mast is it? I don't know but I cut out a flag shape, painted it and attached to the top.

 

As I was sitting looking at it being so pleased with my little gift and myself, I was playing with the twine and thinking knots. That lead to making a knotted loop for a throw line to hook the boat up to a imaginary dock.....oh and one more thing, port holes.....had to have port holes using the twine for them too....and DONE!

 

Not bad for two stones and a stick aye!?

 

 

Hubby loved it....I loved it! My vision went from here to there, to this. I am amazed with myself in how it turned out! It's amazing how bits of nature can be used to create fun projects that can become a nice little accessory to decorate with and with a purpose. And this one with a dream attached with it too!

 

Now when that house by the water where ever it is comes along, and hopefully my moms so I can go home at least part of the year....(no winters for this girl), this is going to be even more perfect in hubs office! And while he is working I'll be out sailing! Or maybe I'll figure a way to get him out sailing with me too! I hope!

 

When dreams come true!

 

Oh remember that ugly shirt I was going to use for the sails and didn't, well I hid it at the bottom of my fabric stash! Shhh....don't tell!

 

If you want to try this all you need is:

 

Two thin oblong stones..(not sure what they call these.)

One stick

Fabric for your sails (or masts?) & flag

Scissors

Twine

Rope

Glue gun and glue sticks

Gorilla Super Glue

White spray paint for your stones

Fabric paint for the stripes on your sail

Small craft paint brush

Painters tape

Small letter stamps and ink pad

Black Gel Ink Pen

 

Follow what I did up above! Or do it whatever way you see your sailboat to be. It's amazing what can be created using natures gifts, and a bit of imagination and a vision! This would be a fun gift for kids to make for a dad's special day! It's definately unique! You can't buy this in the stores! I'm beginning to believe you can recycle just about anything! It's one cool sailboat!

 

I really love mine...or I mean Mr. Jack loves his....and it made the perfect paper weight and birthday gift too!

Hope you love yours too!

 

 

Always a pleasure to have you visit!

Would love your thoughts, but play nice!

 

 

With Sincere Appreciation I Would Like To Thank

 

The Charm of Home ~ Home Sweet Home 188

 

for featuring my Two Sticks and a Stone Sailboat

Paper Weight! Thank You!

 

Sharing At:

 

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Stone Gable ~ The Scoop 137

Too Much Time ~ The Handmade Hangout 15

Snap Creativity ~ Show + Tell 134

 

Vintage Hanky Love

I just love and adore vintage hankies!

I have collected vintage hankies for about eleven years now,

and occasssionally I break into them to create with. I struggle

putting scissors to them, but once I finish whatever I am making

I'm always happy with the end result. Best of all, these gorgeous

things can be used and appreciated again...instead of just sitting

in a drawer. My favorites are the florals, and children's hankies.

 

I have made many things with them like hanky purses, lavender

sachets, pinafore's and skirts for baby onesies, window valences,

shower curtain toppers, hanky dolls, a dolly quilt, ruffles on the

the leg bottoms of children's jeans, and the bottom of little girl

t-shirts, and baby bonnets, all of which I sold through my

Cameo Kids website.

 

In 2010 I made neck scarves with them. Once I finished them

I realized they worked for head scarfs and belts for pants too.

My neighbor girls really loved them, so they modeled how one

could wear them for me. What made me think of them again was,

I was looking for something for my hair the other day to keep my

hair out of my face while doing a photo shoot. I found a couple

I had saved for myself that I had forgotten all about. I really

love these things, so I thought I would share them here again.

If you're looking for a craft idea, maybe this will inspire you to

create some of these sweet hanky scarfs for yourself!

 

 

 

 

The girls are just adorable to aren't they!?

 

Below are the hanky color pallets I used for each of the scarves.

I decided on the length and width I wanted them to be, added a

white hankerchief fabric for backing on the first four I made. I

cut several pieces for each scarf and starting from the bottom of

both ends and working towards the middle, I sewed them all

together. Then I sewed the backing on the hanky strip to finish.

 

The last scarf in the photo above was made using several full

size hankies by sewing them all together. No backing was used

on that one. I just couldn't cut those hankies in pieces. That one

became my favorite of all of them. It was gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

These are really a fun project and something very unique

that you won't find in the stores anywhere. Now that I have

found mine, I will definately be using mine more often for sure!

And....they look so nice with your summer outfits!!

 

Thank you for the visit today!

 

Wishing you a very happy Memorial Day!

And remember.....this day is a day we should be remembering

and honoring all those who have given so much, so that we may

enjoy a life of freedom. God Bless them and their families...

and God Bless the U.S.A.!!!!

 

TaTa Till Later!!

 

Love, Hugs, and Blessings to you!

 

 

 

Linking With:

French Country Cottage

Common Ground

Sincerely Paula

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