Old School Acres

In the garden

I'm pretty sure it's obvious how much I love vintage anything.  It's one reason old school is part of my name.  So I was thrilled when Deanna at The Baby Gardner asked about my vintage-inspired baby shoes, which you will now find here.   

Misc.

Imagine farm life with a lovely picturesque view out the living room window of horses peacefully grazing on the lawn.   THE LAWN?!?!?!?  Marge, Molly, Marshall, Mariah, and Casserole had themselves a lovely little snack of fresh green lawn this morning.  They were good and went back in the barn lot easy enough, but not exactly how I wanted to start my day.  Deeeeeeep breath.

You should have seen the disaster I created for myself yesterday.  I have an order for a large Marshall softie and oh, the horror of that.  A disgrace really...to Marshall and my crafting ability.

So then my friendly mail carrier (a substitute...the regular guy isn't so friendly) arrived with a box of goodies, including this:

Where have I been?  Why didn't you tell me about this?  It's been around since 2005, but I didn't know until last week.  I found an excellent deal on it here but I was buying other books as well.  This is the place to buy if you are ordering several books, because they are all shipped from the same place.  I ordered 6 books and shipping was $6.

Really, though, who cares about that?  Here are some of my favorite projects from "Embroidered Treasures for Children" by Claire Garland (ISBN-10: 1584794305 and ISBN-13: 9781584794301)

The 2 sides of Lucy

From sweet and innocent...

to attack Lucy.  She looks like a vampire!

If the shoe fits

The majority of hits to my blog are from searches for baby shoe patterns.  I've written about this topic before but have been adding to my collection since then. 

Free baby shoe/shoes patterns:
1st step shoes (Japanese) for pattern click here (pdf)
Bootie Pattern to Sew (pdf)
3-seam baby footies
Fleece Chinese slippers
Fleece booties
Tacky baby shoes
Soft-sole leather baby shoes
10-minute bootie pattern and instructions (very similar to the pattern I used for these)
30-minute bootie pattern
Heather Bailey's Bitty Booties

Kunin slippers

Pattern Bee vintage felt shoes

Books and patterns to buy:
Heart N Sole
Soft leather shoes
Make Them Yourself
For Sweet Baby *link to yesasia.com (see more pictures here)

Vintage baby shoe patterns from ebay (I use this one.  Seller is Emailed Vintage Patterns )

A 3rd option for baby shoe patterns is to find a shoe you like (thrift stores are a great source), take them apart, and use the pieces to make a pattern. 

Obviously wool is my favorite choice for making baby shoes, but I also like linen.  I hit the jackpot thrifting this past weekend when green-tagged clothing was 25 cents.  I came home with a selection of jackets and clothing made of cashmere, angora, leather, and wool.   

This coat is made of some of the thickest wool I've seen.  Perfect for baby shoes.  I'm thinking of adding a bit of fur lining to some winter booties.

Busy town

Thank you for all your happy notes about Lucy, thoughtfulness for Tucker, and condolensces regarding Daisy. 

Random thoughts from the last 2 weeks:

- Katie started 4th grade yesterday and Ellie preschool.  Both came home happy but tired girls.  Lucy was thrilled to see them.

-The farmer who rents our farm ground had it crop dusted last week.  Pretty cool to watch.  Very stinky though!  The girls were in the house while I ran out to get a picture.

-Ellie started horseback-riding lessons 2 weeks ago.  So cute to see the little munchkin up there.  She's riding Holiday, a 27-year-old lesson pony.  She cries when it's time to quit (Ellie, not the horse *wink*)

-I've lost my horse to another girl.   

--I've not been much in the mood for crafting, but am ready to go when everything settles down.  I'm thinking roller skates embroidered on baby girl shoes will be pretty cute.

Not fair

Daisy was struck by lightning Sunday and died.  This sucks.

ETA:  Daisy was not Marshall's mom.  Daisy was 3 years old.  She and her little brother Rudy came to live with us last summer.  Brett and I are just sick about this.  I feel like throwing up.  We are going to try to get a replacement for her and not even tell the girls what happened.  It's too much for them.  It's nearly too much for us.

Say hello to Lucy

She's a 6-week old Beagle.  Tucker loves her; hence the wet head in the first picture.  The girls are smitten.  The cats are hiding.

A girl's best friend

It was confirmed Monday that our wonderful dog, Tucker, has cancer.  He's 10 years old and not in pain, so we are not going to treat it.  The vet says he's lived a good life and to let him continue to live as he has.  He's such a good dog.

It may seem strange, but we are possibly getting a puppy today.  Tucker has been with us since he was 5 weeks old and I was pregnant with Katie.  They have always been such good buddies.  She's devastated.  What makes it worse is that we had him shaved (he rolled in something dead and we could NOT get the smell out of his fur) and now we can see the lump on his belly.  The vet says that getting a puppy now would be good for Katie because he/she will already be a part of the family when it's Tucker's time.  I know vets aren't psychologists, but it makes sense to us.  *big sigh...tears...big sigh* 

We will work hard so that Tucker doesn't feel too jealous.  It's a little like getting an older sibling used to a new baby.  Right?  Lots of playing with Tucker and lots of petting, which Ellie calls "pets." 

"Tucker likes pets doesn't he, Mom?" 

"Yes, Tucker likes pets."

Just me and my needle...

and thread and felt and cute Michael Miller fabric.  This little guy is supposed to be an appliqué, but he's cute this way, too.

I've had some questions about sources for vintage embroidery patterns.  My answer is "Google is your friend."  Google vintage embroidery, free vintage embroidery patterns, vintage baby embroidery, or any other combination of words you are looking for.  Sometimes I click on Images.  This works especially well if I'm looking for something specific.

One of my favorite sources for embroidery patterns is coloring book pages.  Google horse coloring, summer coloring, octopus coloring, etc., and click on Images.  Then get ready for brain overload!

Another idea is to use dingbats as embroidery patterns.  My favorite font site for this is dafont.   

Sources for free vintage embroidery patterns:
Pattern Bee
Vintage Transfer Finds
Needlecrafter (click on Library and then Designs)

This thread at Crafster is chock-full of patterns, too.

They tell me I "rock" and you rock, too!

Deborah and I go way back.  She and I worked at a magazine together.  She makes the most amazing cards ever.  Really.  She's published all over the place.  Carol and I "met" through my blog, or hers, or someone's.  I don't really remember.  Maybe it was through Flickr!  Regardless, Deborah and Carol each nominated me as a

Here are 5 bloggers that I think rock.  Also see my blog roll in the right margin.  They are rockin' bloggers, too!

In no particular order:
Mindy - She is crazy...in a good way.  Don't believe me?  Go see for yourself.  Be sure to read her entry from August 3, 2007.  Hilarious stuff!

Lara Gallagher - I don't know Lara, but I know her blog rocks!!  She's the self-proclaimed Lazy Organizer and an amazing quilter. 

Natalie at the "Chicken Blog*" likes chickens.  That is reason enough for me to consider her rockin'!  *Her blog, it's New and Improved!

Jo is from the UK.  She makes beautiful things.  'Nuff said.

Chara Michele is the sweetest girl.  Go see for yourself.

Now, on to beating the dead horse with yet another pair of baby shoes.  All these baby shoes and I have no baby!!  These are another special order. 

Who can tell me what this is?  I know it's a glass vase.  My mom tells me it's Venetian glass.  Gram liked this; Brett and me not so much.  There are a couple more in the store room.  Are they worth anything?  I've looked on ebay and Googled but haven't found anything like it.  It's 11" x 11".  Thanks for any help you can give!