Labor Day

Safe travels and a great holiday weekend to you!

Alphabet block magnets

I know I promised more food posts this week, and I do have some ready, but I got so distracted with this tutorial and then felt I just had to finish it and post it before doing anything else. Anything else. Like washing dishes or preparing for our blueberry-picking trip or doing laundry or eating lunch. Sometimes projects do that to you, you know?
So here is a tutorial for alphabet block fridge magnets or photo holders.

Materials:
alphabet blocks
small hand saw
small piece of sandpaper
3/4" round flat magnets
drill fitted with 3/4" spade bit
craft glue like E6000
table vise, clamp or some way to stabilize your block while drilling (I stood on the side of a 3" C-clamp)

1. I chose 5 blocks with the initials of our family.
2. I used a coping saw to create a slit in the top of the block. I made it almost halfway between the front and back of the block, but a little closer to the front. I sawed down a little more than halfway to the bottom. Make sure your letter is right side up before sawing!
3. I sanded the inside of the slit and curved the paper to sand the side edges at the cut.

4. I tightened a 3" C-clamp around my block with the front of the block facing the floor and the back of it facing up.
4. I fitted our electric drill with a 3/4" spade bit and centered it on the back of the block (while standing with my feet holding the clamp to the floor).
5. I drilled down about 1/8" and dropped a magnet in to make sure the hole was flat on the bottom and as deep as I wanted. (I wanted to mostly hide the magnet).
6. I used a toothpick to spread some glue in the hole and pressed the magnet in.

Once the glue dries, you can stick your block to the fridge and insert a photo or your appointment reminder card or library due date receipt. If your photo is not secure enough in the slit, then wedge a little piece of paper or cardstock behind it.

Now, to use the blocks as tiny standing photo displays, business card or place card holders, simply cut the slit through the top and skip the rest. Unless you want the block weighted, in which case you could drill through the bottom instead of the back and insert a magnet or something to weigh it down.
Try stacking and gluing the blocks for a little photo tower or build pyramids or what have you. These blocks make it easy to change up your display often!

Blast from the past

Today I pulled out some of our old (early 1980s) Strawberry Shortcake dolls for the kids to play with. The smell of the accessories alone took me back years. My kids don't seem as impressed as I was at one point in time, but then, they're still oblivious to much of popular culture, thank goodness. They still think Spongebob Squarepants is a dressed up piece of cheese.

See and Spell

A little vintage today.
This is a See and Spell toy. If you get the handle to spin the cylinder correctly (it does function as if it's a few decades old), pictures will appear in the lower windows and the corresponding words appear in the windows above. Originally, a little rod of flip-up tabs covered the words so you could try your hand at spelling then lift the tabs for the answers.
I'm always amused by items pictured on vintage children's toys that are so far removed from our present lifestyle: pipe, top hat, ax, and wooden barrel style wash tub, to name a few.
I love the colors and cute images, and my kids enjoy using it as a cash register. Payment forms accepted: bears, ducks, kites, irons, boots, boys....

Nice wheels

Since we're still knee deep in our crafting lull around here, I thought I'd share a vintage goody. I didn't count these as part of my truck collection (I've since run across others in our home, too, that I neglected to include), but these seem to be in a class of their own. These 1950s-ish tin cars are about the size of a Hot Wheels car. I have a cement mixer (minus its barrel), a taxi, a logging truck, and a family car. Sadly, my family never had a hot pink car sporting the image of a bird and rabbit riding an ostrich.

Vintage nesting blocks

You may recall my affinity for wooden blocks and bright colors. These are no exception. A friend gave me these nesting blocks before I had my first baby because she had a feeling I'd like them. Good call! Knowing, though, that we wouldn't need them for at least a few months, I arranged them on a cute little shelf in her bedroom and there they've sat collecting dust since. I decided it was time to dust them off, show them off, and actually play with them.
The decal images are fun and have retained their bright color. I would love to showcase each individual image but that would require too many pictures, even for me. I detailed of couple of the quirkiest ones above: the gnome (he appears in at least 4 of the decals) medicating a sick bird and a smoking hedgehog.

Baby baby grand

One of my mom's great finds. Isn't it cute? Still works, too. (And, yes, it's red.)

I'm enjoying snapping pictures of some of my mom's cool stuff and will definitely share more of it while I'm here. Especially since we're spending less time crafting and more time at the playground.

Building blocks

I love bright colors, wooden toys, and good deals at antique stores. So when I found these for $1.30, I couldn't pass them up. After a thorough Clorox wipe-down, we've been enjoying them.

Repurposing

One decorating practice I tend to use frequently in my home (honestly, before I ever read it as an actual piece of decorating advice!), is to "repurpose" vintage objects....Take old objects and use them for a new purpose. These are just a few simple examples. Casserole dish for book display, magazine rack for aprons/linens storage, truck for book display, vase for flatware, and refrigerator crispers for sewing supplies. We also use a breadbox for office supplies, metal vegetable bin for entryway shelving, egg basket for produce, and I was once working on turning a red metal baby crib into couch seating. That one hasn't panned out yet, but someday.

Vintage Games

Well, Valentine's Day is over and I figure it's going to be all about Easter, now. I have a few Valentine pics I'd like to post, but am working out some technical issues first. So, I thought I'd move on to another little collection. I don't have a lot of vintage games, and even fewer with great colors like this, but how do you define collection? At least three? In that case, my games still qualify. These happen to look pretty Eastery, too. Especially with the bunny.

Keep on truckin'

Nothing to do with Valentine's Day, of course, but we've been in a little slump with colds here. This is a glimpse into one of my many little collections. With a grandfather in the "junk" business (sometimes that's VERY literal), I end up with a variety of treasures, trinkets, and well...trucks.
Most of these stay stored away in a box for now, but I keep a few out for holding books or looking cute on a shelf or something. I love seeing people's collections, especially vintage-y ones, and thought I'd share some of mine.