Dressing up Willow Baskets full of Coleus Plants for Indoors

A couple weeks ago I brought in some coleus plants that I had displayed outside on my porch. These plants were part of my son's biology project 3 years ago ... hard to believe they have not only survived at my house that long but they have also reproduced. When a piece breaks off I put it in water until the root system develops and then plant it. This spring they were attacked, several times, when I first put them out on the porch by racoons (I'm guessing) until a friend of mine suggested sprinkling red pepper around them. That did the trick and I was able to nurse some of them back to health.

So, I've brought them inside and decided that the willow baskets needed a little vintage vavoom (I am loving this book) . I was at a tag sale not too long ago and bought a bag of scrap pieces of lace and some trinkets and I really like the effect.





They even look good on the porch...

Vintage Kitchen Towel Ticking Stripe Fabric

Something draws me to the old ticking striped fabrics ... it could be the softness of the fabric, or the various stripe layouts and colors, or the simpleness of them ... I just love them!

Most of these pieces of fabric that I have acquired are linen, a textile woven from fibers of a flax plant, and measure between 15″ to 17″ selvage to selvage. These narrow fabrics were woven to be used to make kitchen towels or I've seen them used as curtains in pie safes that had wire mesh window openings.

Linen tends to make a good kitchen towel because it is a very strong fabric, highly absorbent, lint free, it resists dirt, and lasts for generations. Linen will also soften on repeated washings.

Linen wrinkles very easily adding to the vintage charm but if you don't like the wrinkles, after delicately washing them in cold water with regular detergent, line/tumble dry them until just damp and then iron.

You can certainly use them in projects to get that soft romantic Vintage Vavoom look as I have done with this basket that sits on the island in my kitchen. I was experimenting with chalkboard paint and created this cute plaque from a silver serving plate that was damaged and spoon angel. I thought it was kind of "bistro romantic" but had no place to hang it in my kitchen. So I found this basket in the basement and decided I could hang the plaque from it. I then used one of the red ticking striped pieced of fabric which layered nicely in the bottom and now my basket becomes a welcome to the kitchen and a fruit basket (or at Halloween time - a treat basket). Works great on the island in the kitchen.

White Heart Project .... Done!

So over the weekend, I finished up the two smaller hearts (see previous blog entry) which left me with the three bigger hearts to do.

I knew that I wanted to add pictures in these bigger hearts. I used the kids senior pictures but finding a picture of me and my husband was challenging ... every picture of us tended to include a kid in the middle :) After adding the pictures I created the yo yos with cross-stitched button centers spelling out L-O-V-E and using the same material as the background for the smaller hearts. Still needed a little something ... so I added a music note charm to my daughter's picture since she is studying to be a music teacher, a hockey skate charm to my son's picture since that is and has been one of his passions, and a cross from an old ring that I used to wear to me and my husband's picture since our family loves the Lord and give thanks and praise to him everyday.

So here's the finished project ...

The picture doesn't do it justice ... I just love the way it turned out! I've just started reading the book Vintage Vavoom: Romantic Decorating with One-of-a-Kind Finds. I'm really enjoying the book and I think this project personalizes my living space with a soft romantic look as well as brings in some momentos of my past ... Vintage Vavoom!