Repurposing- The Fourth "R"

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose. The last one's the most fun, isn't it? I didn't exactly repurpose old cork like I should have for this project, though I am repurposing old hoops. I know if I was patient I surely would have run across a corkboard someone was selling for next to nothing, however at Smith & Hawkins, they were having a sidewalk sale yesterday and, on clearance, they had these circular cork mats to put your plants on for $1.39 each. They were perfect (or so I thought), so I grabbed three; one for each of the hand-me-down embroidery hoops I had in mind for the project.

After I got home, I traced around the hoop onto the cork just like this tutorial says, http://www.sweetjessie.com/2008/03/put-cork-in-it.html , but ran into some problems because the back is lined with plastic. I thought I would be able to gently peel off the plastic backing however the cork breaks when I try to separate the cork from the plastic. So there it sits, awaiting for me to come up with a solution, and also awaiting for me to decide which fabric I want to use. Too many fabrics, so little time.

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In this photo, look at what the vintage fan is sitting on, and there you will find another artfully repurposed craft that is fun and simple to make. I found some shutters at a garage sale (I found some in three different sizes, and so I made three, though the other two can't be seen in this photo). With these shutters, I screwed them together to form a rectangular box, topped it with a piece of scrap wood, and paint as you see fit. Voila, a nice little place to set your beverage, book, clock, or whatever else doesn't take up too much surface area!

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Here you kind of see more of the shutters that I repurposed. On top is an antique shoe-form, into which I popped an old dowel rod (which had been a paint stirrer in its recent past), and there you have a paper towel holder.

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Next is a birdhouse-trio wall-hanging necklace-holder I made. At the flea market in Shipshewanna, Indiana, I found someone who was selling those adorable little birdhouses for something like fifty cents to a dollar, depending on the size. Surely he was using reclaimed wood, which makes this all the more eco-friendly. I glued and nailed the trio together, placed eye hooks in the side and attached with a ribbon I got at a garage sale years ago. Then I screwed three cup hooks onto the front, and there you have it. I originally made it for keys, but after I amassed all those necklaces at a garage sale for ten cents apiece, I needed a place to put them.

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Next up is one of my personal favs. Here we have a few feedsacks that I've sewn to fit a body pillow. Did you know that back in the olden days, people would use their feed sacks just like regular fabric, and many of their garments would get lined with this feedsack material. Companies actually started making the lettering wash out so that it was all the more easier to repurpose the material. Anyway, I love the way they look, and they're comfy too!

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Along the same lines as the Feed sack body pillows, here we have three pillows. One is made from ladies' handkerchiefs, one from fabric napkins, and the third from a vintage bag of flour.

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Last up for now is a wine crate ottoman, complete with free casters that my friend gave me after she took them off something of hers. The wine crate was given to me a long time ago by an ex's mother. I simply placed some foam on top, covered it with fabric, and stapled the fabric to the underside of the lid. Inside I store linens. In this house, almost everything needs to double as storage because I have so much STUFF!

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Here is a mug tree I got awhile ago at a garage sale. I liked it because it was metal and shabby chic, not like the 70s wooden one we all grew up with. I did have mugs on it until I came into a ton of jewelry at a garage sale, all ten cents per piece, and now I am having to find creative ways to store it all. I told myself I wouldn't buy anything to put the jewelry on and would instead just use found objects around the house. This seems to do the trick, however, I think it works best with bracelets because it doesn't have much height.

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This is a cat house I made in college for Lily, our then-cat. She was a stray who just walked into the house one day, literally, and then never left. A roommate of mine kept her after college. To make this house, I used leftover wood that I had. No new wood was purchased. I painted it to look cute, and there you have it. It no longer houses any animals, but it sits out in front of our house just for show.


Wow, am I tan in this photo.

My Sewing Room

Here's a pic of my sewing machine. It's a Singer, millenium series. My first summer out of college I worked at Joann Fabrics until the school year started (I'm a teacher), and one of the ladies I worked with bought an embroidery machine, and so she sold me this machine for fifty bucks. Not bad, not bad. If anyone has an extra manual to this machine, please let me know! I never did get the manual from her when I bought it.


I love vintage tins and glass jars!

Every sewer must have a stash of vintage buttons.


Every time I see a wire basket while out and about, I get it if the price is right. I especially love these deep ones. I have two of them this size; the other one is in the living room and holds scarves, hats, gloves, and umbrellas.

More thrify finds - Some Photographs

An awesome tin breadbox which now stores some fabric

An adorable little footstool beautifully embroidered


A little bunny rabbit photo holder and a small candy dish
which doubled as a paperweight to keep the napkins from
blowing away at our wedding shower picnic


Several thrifty second-hand things here- the pillows, wool
blanket, and even the chair itself


These great metal boxes to store stuff, plus the little green tennis
ball holder thingamabob which I think would be great to hold flowers in moss


The lard tin was a buck and now holds the rabbit food.
The suitcases were handed down to me from Grandma.


A vintage red picnic basket topped with a wire basket full
with some of my vintage red-handled kitchen utensils


This calendar was only a dollar, even though it's over a hundred years old!


This Ice-o-Matic thing must have been once used to crush ice.
Unfortunately, the day I bought it, I dropped it and broke the little drawer in front.
It still makes for a good little storage area
for something like spare keys or perhaps change.

Let's eat up the Potato Chips

As any crafter knows, this hobby can quickly grow to be a monster with unfinished jobs here and there. I should make myself a New Years Resolution next January to finish up some of the unfinished projects laying around before starting anymore. I have a quilt from YEARS ago that still needs finished. I also have several handbags awaiting completion. Five to be exact. So why, you ask, am I about to blog about yet another project that I want to start? Because I'm an addict, that's why.


Here is one of the bags I started to make last night even though there were already three other bags waiting to be finished.

And here's the other one I started last night. It will say "coffee" when it's all appliqued. I just learned how to applique and so it takes me forever. I was worn out after appliquing the coffee cup, the O, and the F so I stopped and started the boot bag. Sounds logical, doesn't it?

And here's one more that I haven't started cutting yet, but I like the combination of fabrics, so it will most likely be next:

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Potato Chip bags (or newspapers, magazines, candy wrappers, bird seed bags, etc) can make quite a lovely, eco-friendly handbag. I need to get my husband to hurry up and eat these chips so I can have yet another project to work on.



Here are some links and tutorials for making bags out of wrappers you would normally just throw away:

• http://www.instructables.com/id/Potato-chip-bag-pencil-case/


• http://www.candywrapperpurse.blogspot.com/


• http://www.dollheads.com/crafts/?p=17


• http://www.curbly.com/stephee/posts/2064-Make-a-bird-seed-bag-grocery-tote-


• http://madewithlovebyhannah.com/WordPress/?p=33

So now all we have to do is eat up the potato chips so I can empty these bags out! We really don't eat a lot of chips; these were from a get-together we had a few weeks ago. I bought two more bags of chips to take with us on our mini-vacation (we leave in two days, yippee!). Well I mainly bought them so I could have more empty chip bags upon our return. Perhaps I'll make a casserole with crushed chips on top to use up these two almost-empty bags of chips before we leave for Indiana.

This started out as being a woven magazine handbag, however afterwards I realized I made the base about twice as wide as it should have been to make a good-sized bag. Instead, it looks more like a trash can or something.

Century-old Recipes

I have an ancestry.com membership, which is absolutely the greatest things since sliced bread, and here's why. Not only do they have census records, they have scanned-in images of old newspapers! That is so exciting because I love reading old newspapers. There is so many neat things in there like poems, comics, recipes, fashion tips, household hints, obituaries, little tidbits about what the townsfolk were up to that week, etc. I found once that my great-great-great grandmother, Almira had a chicken bone stuck in her throat for a few days back in the 1800s. Ouch. On a side note, who likes the name Almira? I have actually two ancestors named Almira with various spellings. I'm not sure which spellings they actually used, but I've seen their names spelled like Almira, Elmira, and Almyra. I like the latter the best. It's old and different. If Jason and I have two girls, Almyra might be the second girls name. But alas, I am getting off topic. I'll save the whole baby-names issue for another blog...



Back to old newspapers. Did you happen to notice the totally-healthy recipe located above? Mmmm, asbestos! Anyway, here are a few items of interest that I have compiled over the years:

Fried Calf’s Brains, 1883: "First wash them in three or four waters, remove the skin, and boil for ten or fifteen minutes in salt and water, to which a little vinegar has been added; after taking them out, let them lie in cold water until ready to use them. Make a batter of the yolks of eggs and cracker crumbs, cut the brains in slices and dip them in batter, and fry in hot lard or butter. Serve garnished with parsley or beets." [Yum, my personal fav]

Fried Bread Cakes, 1879: "Take bits of bread you may have left after meals, soak them in milk, or milk and water, until perfectly soft; mash fine; add two eggs, pinch of soda, salt to taste, and enough flour to make them fry nicely; drop the spoonfuls into hot butter or lard. These are inexpensive and good, and a better way to use dry bread than in puddings." [sounds like French toast if you ask me!]

Spanish Fritter, for using Stale Bread, 1877: "Cut the slices as thick as your finger, divide, and cut off the crust. Prepare the following mixture: Beat well three eggs, and add one pint of milk, a little salt and nutmeg or cinnamon. Dip the bread in this, take out the slices, when a little soft, and fry on a buttered griddle. When nicely browned, lay as fast as they are done in a covered dish. Pour over a rich pudding sauce and serve as a dessert for tea." [Hmmm, more French toast anyone?]


Cherry Charlotte, 1902: "This may be made with either bread, dry sponge, or any other stale cake. Stew a pound of cherries till tender with half a pound of sugar. Melt four ounces of butter, and in this dip a sufficient number of slices of the bread or cake to line a charlotte mould. Fill the inside with alternate layers of stewed cherries and bread or cake. Pour any remaining juice and butter over the whole, and bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. Turn out and serve with cherry sauce flavored with Kirsch liqueur" [This one is freaking good]

Turkey Timbales, 1902: Cook together in a double boiler for fifteen minutes one cupful of breadcrumbs, one cupful of cooked chopped turkey, one teaspoonful of finely cut onion, the same of finely chopped celery leaves, one and a half cupfuls of milk. Add the mixture to the beaten white of an egg to which has been added half a teaspoonful of salt, a quarter of a teaspoonful of celery salt, an eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Cool. Grease molds or cups, line with dried sifted breadcrumbs, then with the mixture and fill with the following; Heat one cupful of milk melt a tablespoonful of butter, add two tablespoonfuls of flour, then the hot milk, a little at a time, stirring until smooth, add to the sauce three-quarters of a cupful of chopped turkey, one hard boiled egg, six mushrooms; season with salt, pepper and celery salt. Place the cups in a panful of hot water and bake 20 minutes. Turn on a hot platter and serve with cream sauce." [Good post-Thanksgiving use of leftovers, wouldn't you say?]

Potato Paste for Dumplings, 1876: "Boil five large potatoes until soft; peel and mash them. When quite smooth, mix with one quart of sifted flour and a scant pint of lard; salt to taste. Roll out and use for dumplings; or it makes a good paste for meat pies."

Apple Slump, 1876: "Despite its uninviting title, this is a good recipe. One quart of sifted flour, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, one teaspoonful of soda. Then sift again all three together. Do not fail to sift as directed above; it is important, and should be done twice. Mix into a dough with milk or water; milk is preferred. If water is used, add one teaspoonful of lard. Make into a quite soft dough, with a spoon instead of the hands. Take two quarts of apples cut into quarters (apples to measure two quarts after being cut). Now prepare one cupful of sugar and a half a cupful of molasses with two cupfuls of water, and a seasoning of nutmeg or cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Place the apples and the ingredients in an iron kettle, and as soon as the mixture boils put the dumplings on top and boil briskly twenty minutes. At the end of fifteen minutes put in more water, if necessary, to prevent burning. When sent to table, a little cream should be poured into each plate, or milk be served in small glasses."

Poor-Man’s Pudding, 1876: "Take a coffeecupful of rice already boiled, stir into it a piece of butter the size of a walnut, a teaspoonful extract lemon, one-third teaspoonful ground cinnamon, salt to taste; three or four tablespoonfuls sugar, and last of all one quart of milk; bake in a moderate oven, when well stirred, till it is like a rich cream. This does not require sauce." [Don't you just love how they took measurements way back when?]

An Economic Breakfast Dish, 1877: "Small pieces of meat, one teacupful milk put in the frying pan with a little salt and pepper, small tablespoonful butter, six eggs beaten up and stewed in the meat." [Yum, sounds good to me!]

Cabbage Pudding, 1883: "One-fourth of a head of cabbage, one-half loaf of bread, one quart of milk, four eggs, butter, salt and pepper; boil the cabbage until thoroughly done, then chop it very fine; break the bread into fine crumbs; place alternate layers of the cabbage and bread crumbs in a dish, seasoning every other layer generously with butter, salt, and pepper; finish off with a layer of bread crumbs; scald the milk; beat the eggs well, add them to the milk, then pour it carefully over the pudding. Bake until a light brown; half an hour should suffice. This method of preparing cabbage renders it as delicate as cauliflower." [Now why make butterscotch pudding when you can have cabbage pudding?!]

Squash Pie, 1883: "Take three-fourths cupful of squash after it is boiled and sifted, one egg, a good tablespoonful of sweet cream, and four tablespoonfuls of sugar, beat well together, pour in a cupful and a half of rich milk, add a little cinnamon and a few drops of extract of lemon with a half teaspoonful of salt, stir together and set over a kettle of boiling water in a tin pan to heat near scalding hot; pour into a deep plate lined with paste and bake till it rises up in the middle and seems cooked. Some may prefer it less sweet, and three tablespoonfuls of sugar will answer." [Less sweet? Are you kidding me?! It's squash for pete's sake, and it only calls for four tablespoons of sugar. If I were to make this recipe, I'd put in a cup of sugar]

Peach Leather, 1908: "Stew as many peaches as desired, allowing a quarter of a pound of sugar to one of fruit; mash it up smooth as it cooks, and when it dry enough to spread in a thin sheet on a board greased with butter, set it in the sun to dry. When dry, it can be rolled up like leather, wrapped in a cloth, and will keep perfectly from season to season. School children regard it as a delightful addition to their lunch of biscuit or cold bread." [Neat-o. I've been meaning to try this one]

Egg Plant Boats, 1908: "Cut an egg plant in half, scoop out all of the inside until within an inch of the skin. Put this in a vegetable grinder, granding fine. [sic] Then add two eggs, seasoning to taste, one cupful of any cold meat. If no cold meat is handy get a little veal. Add a half cupful of melted butter, work it all smooth. Place this in the shells, smoothing it nicely. Sprinkle buttered bread crumbs on tp, then bake in oven for one hour."

There are more where these came from! Stay tuned!

Pre-Loved Goodies

I absolutely love flea markets, antique malls (when I can find something not too expensive), yard sales, thrift stores, etc. I haven't done too many auctions but of course, you can get good deals there as well. Too tell you the truth, I'm a little intimidated at auctions. I can only remember ever going to two auctions, and one of them was my grandma's when she was downsizing. She went together with a few other ladies and they had one ginormous auction. One of the other ladies was selling a Hoosier cabinet, which I just had to have. I got it for about a hundred dollars. Apparently, when I was bidding on it, others backed off and let me have it because they knew I was Marilyn's granddaughter, and they mistakenly thought it was a family heirloom. I got it for a very good deal! At that auction I also got a crazy quilt that my grandma's grandma had sewn (for one dollar I might add). I am so glad the quilt got to stay in the family.

Second-hand hunting is such a great past-time. "Hunting?" you ask. Yes, it is the thrill of the hunt that is so rewarding. Walking home with that little gem that you were able to nab before anyone else found it.... that it is a little slice of heaven! Finding vintage linens that may or may not be in pristine condition is absolutely the best. Here is a small sampling of what I have collected over the past decade:

I got this quilt at a thrift store awhile back for a few dollars. I love it!

Some Tablecloths

Christmas Tablecloths

My birthyear on a towel

Dish towels

More dish towels-notice the delicate redwork. I love it!

Handbag Mania

Lately I've found my niche in life. I've always known I've liked sewing, quilting, crafting, etc., however I usually made home-dec types of things such as pillows, window treatments, quilts, etc. The other day it was brought to my attention that I should branch out and make other things... like bags!

I started by making a few bags that I would take with me while grocery shopping, and then it just became a craze. To the left are pictures of handbags I made with kissing clasps a friend and I found at a thrift store. There was eight frames in total, I believe, and they cost a whopping $2.99 if memory serves me right. They were free for me, because she gave half to me for driving and using gasoline. The fabrics are all just ones I had laying around my sewing room. Some were given to me, some I purchased, and the pink & gold one was originally for our wedding but it ended up not working out (I think that one's my favorite!). Hopefully I'll get an Etsy shop up and running sometime soon!