The Last Day of January....

As the title says, today is the last day of January. Always a good time to see how the goals are going and if I am getting off track.

My vision for Pink Lilli Vintage is getting much clearer and the future looks so exciting. The plan is to search out vintage items.... linens, quilts and some dishes. For linens and quilts,  they may need to be repaired or revamped. Although with any luck I will scope out deals that just need to be cleaned up.

 There are trade shows coming up that I am going to be preparing for, which means that I am stretching out of my comfort zone. So I am busy looking at ideas for exciting booth ideas. Pinterest is such a great source of ideas.

This is amazing from vintageshowoff.blogspot.com.... I will certainly need to find a few more cool pieces and need a big booth space....all in due time.

Something smaller...more like this, may be in order for my first few go rounds.

 

 

As for the rest of my goal list....things are going well, although maybe a bit slower than I would like to see. BUT that is on me and no one else. So I am recommitting to try harder for the month of February. Work harder, do better. As long as I keep going and don't give up, then that is considered moving forward.

 

I hope you are all reaching your goals as well... if you lost motivation, tomorrow is a new day.

 

Until next time......

 

Michele

It Is Time To Change Things Up!

You may have noticed that the title of this little place on the internet is no longer called the Renegade Seamstress. Yup, that's right I am changing things up a bit. I am still sewing! But I no longer want to be defined as "just" a seamstress.

I have had a long term love affair with anything old, anything vintage and anything that is still usable. I love vintage linens, and vintage dishes. I have boxes of things that I have collected over the years. I also love estate sales, yard sales and thrift stores.

So I am combining all my passions into one place! And by calling it a business, it gives me the perfect excuse to shop, hoard, fix, and sell. I call this a big win!

I find lots of vintage linens, that are just to pretty to not buy, they may not be really usable in their current condition but they are perfectly fine to take apart and make them into something else that will be loved in a new home.

Some items are still in decent condition, but may just need to be repaired, such as a vintage quilt or a table cloth.

Lastly some things just need to be cleaned up and find a new home where they can be loved for what they are.

This isn't just about linens! I also love to source out vintage dishes, pyrex bowls, tea cups and other interesting things. There is just no way that I can keep everything I find. BUT I can purchase it, use it, love it for a while and then turn it over to a new owner. 

 Of course I will also still be sewing items that fit with what I love to do....Vintage inspired little girl's  clothing and décor. With less actual sewing as a business I am able to really have the time to love my personal sewing as well.

My own decorating style doesn't always allow me to use a lot of the items I love.... I do have cats, so pretty linens and table cloths are out of the question. And my personal clothing style isn't a vintage look, even though I love it. So this allows me to have the best of both worlds.

I am super excited about this and I hope if you are a lover of vintage you will follow along on this adventure.

A Week Into New Years Already!

Here it is, already January 8,  2016!

I always love New Years. I love how it feels like a fresh start, much the way I used to feel about September, with a whole stack of clean notebooks. A whole blank year is ahead of me and I can make it whatever I want it to be.  I love looking back over the goals I made at the beginning of last year and seeing how did. As usual, I had some hits, really big hits, and a few misses.

I like to look back and evaluate myself...am I a better person than I was this time last year? The biggest thing is 'did I try'? As long as I am trying then I am happy with my progress.

I have spent the first week of 2016 not so much making resolutions, but making a list of goals. I am not sure why this is always so hard. When asked to write down 10 crazy wild goals, I usually like to put a lot of thought in...in fact I probably overthink them! I rarely come up with anything to wild or to crazy. (Sometimes I make more of a 'Dream" list. Things I dream about one day.)  My goal list gets written and rewritten as I try and determine where the goal is coming from. Is it something I think I should do....or is it something I really, really want to do.

I won't list all of goals for the year...because I am pretty sure some of them will still get changed. But a few of my 2016 goals in no particular order are as follows:

1. Spend time reading something other than Facebook.... I am reading 2 books a month, one for knowledge and one for pleasure.

2. Up my photography game....I am taking online classes and spending more time taking proper photos of my projects and for my blog. I also intend on organizing, printing and sharing more of photography.

3. Be in the best physical shape I have ever been in. ..... I have my Hashimoto's Thyroiditis under complete control through an exceptional diet. I exercise daily to be a strong, sexy gramma with killer tank top arms. I intend to be at least 2 sizes smaller.

4. Spend more time on my sewing business with some rebranding! I want to turn it into the place to come for vintage inspired children's dresses and reused and upcycled items from clothing to home décor. Keep watching this blog for the updated changes that are going to happen around here!!

5. Landscaping! Last year we moved in the summer, and had to take care of a lot of the yucky boring stuff. Now that most of that is complete, I plan to spend a lot of time this spring and summer making compost, building and planting gardens and raised beds and giving this house some yard appeal.

6. Spend time learning....... take online and live classes to increase my skill and knowledge whether it is sewing, nutrition, gardening or whatever else sparks my interests.

7 Work through 1 wedding gown a month for Alberta Angel Dresses.

I have a few more things on my list, more personal things, but the above list is pretty much the main things that I will accomplish this year. It is going to be great, I am excited and I know I can do this.

Sewing With My Granddaughter

Last week my grandkids came to spend the night with us. I love these 2 so much, they have been coming to spend the night with grandma and grandpa since they were both just tiny, tiny babies.  I have to say that now at 4.5 and 7 years old, they are just so much easier.

My granddaughter Lilli just turned 7 and loves to craft. According to her ' crafts are my favorite thing'. So now that we are all settled in our new house, we decided it was a perfect time to get the supplies out and get started.

I figured starting with something simple, creative and free style would be the best.  We decided on a monster faced pillow. On a piece of paper she drew out a shape that she wanted. Then we traced it into some fleece and she did all the cutting. She cut a front and a back piece.

 

She took this very seriously, took her time and was pretty accurate.

 

 

 

Of course... no one does anything without help from Jack the cat!

 

Nothing gets done, until Jack is done being annoying.

 

 

Next it is time to start sewing on a face and giving this guy some personality. She decided to give him 3 eyes. She had to sew on 2 layers of felt circles and then a red button in the center. She hand stitched his mouth on. 

 

 

 

I didn't think to snap a picture of the rest of the process, but she cut some coloured rick rack and we folded it in half and made strands of hair for the top of his head. Once all of the personality was on him, she sewed him together, wrong sides together. She needed a bit of help going around the corners of his legs.

 

 

After a bit of stuffing he was complete! She was very proud of what she made as she should be. She has already asked for a craft box of her own stuff here, so she can sew whenever she comes to visit.

 

 

 

 It totally makes me happy that I think this girl will really enjoy sewing as a hobby, just like her grandma. It's such a fun way to spend time with her.

 

 

I did make one right along beside her....because I knew her brother would want one. He didn't have much interest in making one himself, he preferred to just tell me how he wanted it, while he went and played with his cars. ( then he thought I should set aside sewing altogether while I went and made him something to eat.)





 

I love this guy's little smile!

 

 

I definitely had a great day in the sewing room with these two. I think with being a grandma comes much more patience and a sense of knowing these kids won't always want to hang out with me. When my own kids were small it seemed that I was always just to busy to have very many days like this.... just making a mess and having fun. Oh if I could turn back time! 

Not much done!

Well there is not a lot going on lately, either in the sewing room, or on the renovation. I have injured my hand. I wasn't sure if I sprained it, or pulled a muscle or what. But since it seems to cause great pain with activity I have chalked it up to a form of carpal tunnel syndrome from overuse, with lots of weed pulling, branch cutting and painting.

When I was doing some yard work and hauling of branches to the dump it totally gave out and shot pain up my arm....so that's it for me. I have it in a brace and will be taking a few days off. We leave on holidays at the end of the week,( we are heading to the North Dakota State Fair, then checking out early Sturgis, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and whatever else we come across)  and hopefully by the time I am home in a couple of weeks, it will be all healed up and I can get back at it. This girl has shit to do!

I am looking forward to getting back to some routine and getting back into my sewing room! I have curtains to make, and angel dresses to sew. Be sure to message me early if you have projects in mind that you want to discuss.

 In the meantime....here is some early morning smoke/fog that I quickly snapped with my phone when I woke up a couple days ago. Even though this house is a big project, I never get tired of looking out every morning and seeing my view.

Our Latest Project!

Life got super busy since my last post. We sold our house just before the May long weekend. We got moved and I am currently writing from our new home. I am very excited and overwhelmed at the same time.

It has been our goal to be mortgage free well before we retire. We were lucky that we were able to make that happen, with about 20 years to spare. But the only way we could do this is to buy a fixer upper. Fixing is nothing new to us, and we have fixed and flipped several houses in the past. We do not plan to flip this one, and we hope to stay here for many years. We did search for just the right one. We searched MLS and looked at numerous ones but when we saw this one at the end of May, we knew when we saw the views.  The Pembina River is just across the street and down the hill nestled in those trees.

 

 

But along with these great views, comes a house that needs a lot of work. The whole house is on a hill, and that comes with it's own set of challenges. The kitchen and bathroom need to be completely replaced. The foundation needs some new footings, the garage needs to be torn down, and the yard properly graded and retaining walls built. But there is some cool features too. I love the old staircase and the 9 foot ceilings....and have I mentioned the view?? I will keep updating as we begin to make changes. For now all the interior will get is a coat of paint. We will spend the summer focused on fixing some foundation issues, and getting the garage torn down, and the front yard sloped rock garden cleaned out a new front door and hopefully a front wrap around deck that ties into the existing deck.  

Dining Room - before

Front yard- before

Kitchen-before

Living room-before

Staircase

Back of house- before

Deck of dining room-before

                                                                    front rock garden - before, but after all the weeds were chopped down.

garage-before

 

  Stay tuned and check back often to see our progress!

Time flies....

Oh where has the time gone? It's the end of April and I have not written a post since January. Oh well, its fine, I have been busy with other projects, which I will talk about shortly, and now I do have time to dedicate here.

I have restructured my sewing business and I now focus on specialty items. I will write all about them in future posts, but what I focus on is taking a wedding gown or special garment and totally recreate them into memory quilts, christening gowns, communion dresses or whatever else you want. I absolutely love doing this. It makes me happy....so I will leave alterations for someone else.

The other big project that I have been working on is here. Nourished Wellness!   I am very passionate about health, wellness and healing. So I have been studying holistic nutrition and offer services to help people change their eating habits. There is still so much to learn, and I am loving every minute of it.

So that's where I have been! But I am back, and I have lots of projects and pictures to post about. Stay tuned.