Portabellopixie

It Was ONE dollar.

First up, the winners of the giveaway!  If your comment is one of the two below, please email dustin@sandihendersondesign.com to claim your goodies.  There were quite a few people who emailed me to enter this time around and I apologize, but I just didn't have any way of assigning a number to those emails to enter them in the drawing.  If you have difficulties posting in the future, let me know and I can contact typepad about the issue.

What can you get for a dollar these days?  Cheapo plastic toys at the dollar store?  sure.  OR how about a solid wood table?

A week or so ago, the kiddos were spending the night at Grandma's house and so I told Dustin we could do whatever he wanted Saturday morning, as long as it included carting me around to various garage sales.  Like any good husband he said "Of course that's what I want to do!  What else would be on my agenda?"

So off we went and scored this coffee table for ONE dollar.  It is solid wood and someone had mostly stripped it all the way, so all I had to do was clean it up a bit and finish it.

I found a new love in this process of refinishing.  It's oddly meditative, sort of in the same way that I love to fold laundry.  You can think about other things, but you're still being productive.  Dustin enjoyed helping too, and it spawned the great wood refinishing project of 2010.  Nothing has been safe, wait till you see.  Actually, you already saw this.

The After:

It has these fabulous inperfections that I love.  I wanted to go with a rubbed wood look and found that this in combination with this works wonders.  And it smells fabulous too, no need to move the project outside.

This whole project has me so into restoring beautiful wood - do you guys have photos or links to such projects to share?

xo

Sandi

Frankenstein the Crap out of It - Checker Board

When Dustin & I were dating, he had just returned from a mission in the Phillipines for two years.  One night, he sat me down with a sly look on his face and said he had a game to teach me.

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Him:  "It's called Dama"

Me:  "Dah-mah?  How do you play it?"

Him:  "Well, it's like checkers, but the king has the ability to jump the entire length of the board to jump one of the opposite players pieces.  It's really tricky, and don't worry if you don't win for a long time.  It took me forever to win a game."  (He then snickered.)

Me:  Well, okay, let's play.

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Two minutes later, the game was over and HE was the one with zero pieces to his name.  I can honestly say that I have never seen him more flabbergasted than he was in that moment.  (And then I snickered.)

We have continued to play Dama and he still gets flabbergasted as I continued to win.  ;)  Well, this summer we taught our kids and would you believe, they can beat him too?  So of course, I decided we needed a better checker board.  I nabbed one in need of love off of ebay (see before pic's above) and proceeded to, as my sister likes to call it, "Frankenstein the crap out of it."

The after:

I think if Frankenstein had gone with Turquoise instead of green, he might have been a bit more popular, don't you?

I ripped out the icky faux felt-velvet and all the walls on the inside, cleaned out the years of goo, and Dustin built a new structure for the inside.  (He's really an enabler, that one.)  I lined it with some real velvet in an oh-so-frankenstein worthy green.

I lurve it!

So this weekend I have a checklist of entertainment for you:

1)  Make sure to enter the giveaway of Mindy Gledhill goodness.

2)  Make sure to enter the Michael Miller Fabrics giveaway over here.  (You get to pick 5 yards of your favorite Michael Miller fabric!)  All you have to do is tell them your favorite MM print to date.  This seriously kept me awake in bed last night.  I still haven't decided but I think MM's Christmas prints are the best out there.

3)  Play Dama with a loved one.  The simple twist in the game really is fun.  :)  To refresh your memory:

The rules are exactly the same as checkers, but when you have a king (or SUPER as my kids call it) you can jump the entire length of the board to kill an opponent.  If you can't jump an opponent, the king piece moves as a regular king, one box at a time.

xo

Sandi

Anchors Away, Mindy Gledhill {a giveaway}

I wrote a little bit about Mindy Gledhill in my Spark post. (ON that subject, there are only a few spots left at Spark, so if you are thinking of coming, act fast!)  Today, I get to expand on the subject of Mindy Gledhill a bit.

I first heard of Mindy a few years ago when Stephanie & Christian were in their crash.  If you remember, I auctioned off a pincushion for their benefit and I (like the rest of the world) paid attention to thier progress and the amazing things that others were doing to help them in their time of need.  Mindy gave a concert for thier benefit and I remember reading about it and giving a bit of a smile and a nod of my head, sending out my happy vibes to this other person that was giving of thier talents to help this family.

And I kept hearing about her on Miss CJane's blog (who I luuuvvv) but for some reason, I never listened to Mindy's music until a few weeks ago.  I couldn't believe how beautiful her music was.

This is the kind of music the world needs.

So, like every normal person that finds something new they like, I started stalking her.  Okay, well not really, but I couldn't stop talking about her.  Every conversation I had was peppered with Mindy.  Example:

Dustin:  What are you doing this afternoon?

Sandi:  Mindy & I are making jam.

Dustin:  What are you doing tonight?

Sandi:  Mindy & I are working on the new fabric collection.

And on and on.  To the point that my family was starting to make fun of me and my sister was threatening to write Mindy a "stalker alert" email.  But I couldn't help it - I LOVE her music.  It's happy, it's bright, and the words mean things to me.  So I emailed her and asked if I could have an albums to give away on my blog.

Then I found myself on the phone with her, chatting about things completely unrelated to the giveaway on my blog and found her to be completely down to earth and lovely.  As if I didn't like her enough already?

So there you have it - the story of my Mindy addiction and how it has come full circle and now - we're like - friends.  Or at least I'm going to say so and she doesn't get to contradict me.  I'm good with that.

Mindy kindly sent me not one but THREE autographed copies of Anchor.  I think she sent three because she knew if she only sent one, I'd just be tempted to keep it and not give it away.  So one for me, two for you!

And because Mindy's music is seriously good to sew to, we are including some of our goodies with hers.

So, two lucky people will win the following:

An autographed copy of Anchor, by Mindy Gledhill

An organic tee with and adorable heart on it. (One is a ladies Medium, one is a babies 12 month)

One copy of my cupcake pincushion sewing pattern

One cupcake pincushion kit.

Just leave a comment and I'll announce the winners on Monday!  And again, listen to Mindy's gorgeous voice and music in the music player on my sidebar.  Check out Mindy's website here and her blog here.

Good luck!

Jam for Sticky Fingers

I have been fighting the gloomies this week - not to the point of inability to accomplish anything (I have been there before, it's not fun) but just a general gloominess.

In attempts to pull myself out of it, I've been throwing myself into a slew of projects.  Jam making has taken center stage and I can succesfully say that if anything happens to me in the next 10 years, my family will still have jam for their toast & crepes.  :)  A happy thought.  If your children are going to have sticky fingers, they need jam to sticky them up with!

SO-I am going to try and relish this jam, enjoy the fall that is creeping in, and help my kiddos prepare for going back to school.  Eliza is begging for pink hair..  is 6 too young for color streaks?  hmmm.. ;)

xo

Sandi

Come Sparkle with me will you?

I'm so excited to be attending Spark in September.  I have been watching these girls for the last couple years and I'm moved by the event that they have going on.  We will be providing fabrics for some of the projects there and I will be flitting around the classes, soaking up the energy.

There are some amazing teachers and classes lined up.  Check out the titles:

Spark is put on by three crafty genious babes, who I can't wait to meet after (with some of them) years of emailing and phone chatting.

I have to say that the thing I am looking forward to THE most is Mindy.  Oh, goodness, let me tell you about Mindy.  Okay, actually I'll do that more in depth soon, as we have a Mindy-themed giveaway coming up, but let me just tell you that this girl rocks.  If you follow me on twitter, you know my crazy girl crush surrounding Mindy Gledhill since I purchased her album a few weeks ago.

LISTEN TO THIS:  It is the best album I have EVER purchased. (Listen to it on my sidebar!)

No joke.  She is amazing and will be performing a concert in the gardens at the Spark event.  Honestly, that part is enough for me to go.  We got to chat on the phone yesterday and I can't wait to meet her in person.  (ooh, gush, swoon)

So please, come to Spark with me.  It's going to be amazing, I know it already.  And I need a roomie..

Sandi

Colorplay: Meadowsweet 2

A few shots of a color board I played around with yesterday.  Actually, it's more of a board of all the projects I have going on at the moment that just so happen to fit on the same color board.  So I went with it and had a wee bit too much fun!

I can be THE nosiest person in the world.  I love looking at other peoples homes, bathrooms, purses, desks..  I just like seeing other peoples passion, pursuits and lifestyles, ya know?  I think that's actually a big key factor into why people love blogging so much.  So here you go, a glimpse into everything I've got going on right now.  All color coordinated and not even on purpose.

See the Soak down there?  So pretty!  You can get it on our website now.  We've also started filling in some of the blank pages, so take a peek around.

Really, convince yourself to try it out.  I love Soak.

Hey look-another color coordinated pictured!

Yes, it's true, I am often amused way too easily.  But you won't convince me that that is a bad thing.

Peace out yo.

Sandi

(If you missed Ghetto Sandi day on twitter, you missed out.  Or that could be me amusing myself too easily again.  Either way, it was fun.)

And now I sit on a golden THRONE...

Look at it, isn't it lovely?

And this lovely throne came at the mere cost of $3 dollars for the frame, $8 of velvet and an hour of stapelling. (Is that spelled right?  I'm not getting those oh-so-helpful red lines, but "stapelling" just doesn't look right?)

Anyway, my piano needed a bench throne, and now I have one.

I am currently bound and determinedly finishing the learning (three times fast please) 2 songs I started learning when I was 16.  Maple Leaf Rag and Moonlight Sonata.  They are both amazingly gorgeous songs in their own way.  I figured it's time I tucked them under my belt, as my piano teacher used to call it.

What are you guys trying to "tuck under your belt" lately?

xo

Sandi

Sprinkles

I love scrapbooking.  Wowzers, do I ever love it.  Paper crafting was my first craft obsession actually.  I talk about it a little bit here.  But I haven't done it in a really long time.  I decided it's time to take it up again.  So this last week I set about going through my paper crafting supplies and realized that they were seriously outdated.  Well, perfect excuse to go shopping right?

I am much more into the "let the photo speak for itself" with a sprinkling of embellishments and cute on the page.  I have always wanted to scrapbook an 8 x 10 photo, so that's just what I did.  If you recall, those were Eliza's birthday cupcakes.  Hope you guys enjoy paper crafting too?  It's probably about to get pretty paper-y around here.  :)

Blue Paper - Bazill

Flower stickers - Martha Stewart & Dear Lizzy

Journaling Tag - My Minds Eye

 

xo-

Sandi

Flathead Cherries

About an hour and a half from our little hamlet, there is the littler hamlet of Polson, Montana.  Polson is special for a few reasons.  My dad lived there for a long time and I have spent many a day enjoying Polson's small town charms.  Everyone is nice in Polson, it's sort of a rule.  But the thing that makes Polson really fab-u-lous is that it is the mouth (at least from our direction) of Flathead Lake.  Flathead is a huge lake, about 15 miles long, and it is beautiful.  It's beautiful in the summer, it's even beautiful in the winter when it is as gray as glass and frigid cold.  (Remind me to tell you about the time we had a dog decide to take a midnight swim in a December freezing Flathead Lake and I had to physically restrain Dustin from diving in after him.  Dustin loves dogs.)

(above image stolen from a Polson realty website, forgive me)

Anyhow, there is something about that Flathead Lake goodness that makes the surrounding land explode with cherries.  Like, really good cherries.  The kind that put the town on the map for its cherries.

So on Saturday, we travelled on over to Polson and spent the morning picking those bright, plump, juicy nuggets.

Did you know that a parent can be substituted for a ladder.  Yep, it's true.

So, now we came home with an entire cooler full of cherries and have spent the last few days sharing, jamming, pie-ing and the like.  I'm going to try a clafouti, any good recommendations?  Any other recommendations for cherries?  We've still got a lot.  At a $1.25 for organic cherries, we had a hard time stopping.