Playing with Vintage Hair

Okay, so I love vintage things. I have always had a fancy for old things. I love looking at photos from the 60's and earlier, and I've bought a few dresses just because they evoked something oh-so-50's (or another era). I'm not obsessed, I don't buy strictly vintage, I'm no expert, but I love it.

I love old houses, with their sweet little charms like keyholes, strange closets and wood floors. I love mid-century homes, with their kitchen islands, breakfast nooks, floral wallpaper, counter-height ovens, counter-top stoves and housewife-charm.

I especially love the fashion of bygone days. I love full skirts with fitted waists, petticoats and crinolines and adorable peep-toe pumps. I love the dramatic hair styles, be it a big bouffant look of the 60's or a sleek curled do from the 40's.

So I guess the point is that I've always loved vintage, but lately I've discovered a few blogs from girls who dress vintage every day. I envy them, but I could never. I like to be comfortable on occasion, I am also far too hard on my clothes to buy 60-year-old clothes and actually wear them, and I am far too cheap to pay the prices for reproduction vintage constantly.

Along with the blogs come amazing hair tutorials. I've tried to emulate 50's and 60's hair a few times before, but it always falls short. With a few helpful tutorials in mind, and knowing what tools I need, I figured a few out.

Adventures in Crafting: Canvas Posters

I'm not very good at crafting.

And by that, I mean, what I craft usually turns out, and I enjoy creating things, but I never get around to it. I have all sorts of plans in the making, and several things laying around, just waiting to be crafted into perfection, but I very rarely work on them. Most of them require something more and I just forget to buy it, but there are things that I could finish if I just did it.

A very long time ago, M and I bought some posters. We got two sets, one set had eight vintage movie posters, and the other set had eight world war two era posters. We bought them just after we moved into the house, which was two years ago. So they have been sitting in the sewing room, and then the office and then the guest room since then. Every now and then, we'd talk about how we wanted them mounted. We looked at frames, at paying to get them mounted on canvas, on just buying some canvas, but we'd decide whatever option was too expensive and to do it later. Right, later...

Well I was at a craft store and I saw the exact right sized canvas on sale (6 for $18) so I called him and bought them. I bought a bottle of Mod Podge and some paint brushes, too, even though I could have found them cheaper, I just didn't care anymore. I wanted this project done.

Spring Cleaning - Sewing Room, Part One

Personally, I wanted to finish off the kitchen next. I didn't have time to clean out the fridge and freezer or under the sink when I did the rest of the kitchen. On top of that, two of the later projects are both in my kitchen (pantry and laundry room). So I wanted to get those things finished so that my whole kitchen would just be done, but hubby had other plans. He has been itching to clean out his office for awhile, so I  agreed to help him, on one condition: I wanted my "office" cleaned too. I should have just finished off my kitchen.

However, he got called in to work a couple extra shifts over the weekend (a week ago), so I just started on my office alone.

It's really more of a sewing room, but because of it's prime location right off the dining room, it collects all of the clutter. I have a couple of clear organizing drawers, that I try to sort things in to, but that only works for so long. There's also a giant dresser in there, but it's only about half full. I keep my clothes drying rack there because the laundry is in the kitchen. So this is my catch-all room and I hate it. This is what it looked like when I started, Sunday morning (after making muffins):

Daiya Cream Cheese Style Spread

Every time I pick up a new pack of my dairy-free cheese, I notice all the other dairy-free products. It's crazy, isn't it? Butter, sour cream, cream cheese, you name it, you can get it dairy-free. I usually eye up all the options, and then buy only what I actually needed.

Cream cheese is my biggest weakness. I used to be a bagel-addict. I probably ate a dozen bagels every month, sometimes more. If I was out of cream cheese, I'd eat peanut butter or Nutella on them, but cream cheese was my very favourite thing.

I honestly have not bought a single pack of cream cheese since my diagnosis.

Not one.

How depressing is that? I consider it, every now and then, but what would I eat it on? Whenever I buy bread products, I usually have a plan for them. I'll buy a pack of gluten-free sliced ham and a loaf of bread and eat sandwiches for lunch a few days. Or I'll buy a package of gluten-free crackers and a little package of goat cheese. Bread products are such a luxury for me, that I haven't wanted to "waste" one on cream cheese.

But I caved. I bought a package of gluten-free sandwich bread and a little container of Daiya cream cheese style spread in strawberry flavour.

Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

I did work on spring cleaning this weekend, but I got stalled and distracted a lot. My sister came into town (she lives on a farm 1.5 hours from here) and I spent a ton of time with her. I also decided to make chocolate muffins.

A friend of mine posted a photo of her adorable 9-month-old baby covered in gluten-free chocolate muffins crumbs, and I asked for the recipe. I've been in kind of a baking funk for a really long time, but having a clean kitchen now makes me want to bake again. After reading through the recipe and realizing I had everything I needed, I made it. Simple as that.

The recipe comes from Gluten Free on a Shoestring. My friend has the cookbook, but she tracked down and shared the blog recipe.

Clothespin Crafting

Guys, I made the coolest thing. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. It's so cool. And look at how cute it is!!

My brother is getting married in seven weeks, and I'm planning the bridal shower (six weeks from now). I happened upon this super cute idea on Pinterest, at the blog A Law Student's Journey, and at first I thought "No way. That's way too much work for one little clothespin."

And then I went home and I noticed a giant pack of cheap clothespins leftover from one of hubby's projects. Then I looked, and I found we had cheep black, white and red paint. As well as cheap thin paint brushes and a little paint dish.

Okay. At this point, what's stopping me??

Spring Cleaning - Kitchen

After my first ever spring cleaning burst, I have been seriously enjoying how clean my bathroom is. It made me happy every single time I walked in there, and I wanted the rest of the house to feel the same. But I knew that on my own, I would fizzle out and stop cleaning pretty quickly, so I went looking for some help.

I found the amazing blog A Bowl Full of Lemons and they are here to save the day! The whole blog is all about cleaning, organizing, planning and prepping. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. At first, I was a little overwhelmed, but at the top of the page is a lovely little button titled Where to Begin. She says before you start organizing, you need a clean house, and she gives you a one week plan to a cleaner home. Each task is small, simple and quick, but if you do them all every day, your house will stay cleaner.

M was a little concerned that I was going to try to clean the whole house in a week, but these are all surface tasks, like cleaning off the kitchen counters, doing a load of laundry, and wiping down the bathroom sink. If you keep up with them, you don't have to do a major overhaul of cleaning, and you have a clean house. So my goal is to keep up with these for as long as possible.

The next step is 14 weeks to a completely organized house. It's a little intense, I know, but I'm really excited to start. Each week is a different room, and the blog walks you through steps to completely clean and organize each room. At the end of 14 week (3 months!) your entire house will be organized! How rewarding is that?

Week 1 is the kitchen, which is daunting, but necessary. Also, I find that when my kitchen is clean, I feel better and want other rooms to be clean. So I'm glad to start here, in the hub of the home.