Dumb Daisies and Rusty Gold

As the growing season comes to an end, I want to share a little garden project and thrift victory from the spring/summer. 

A couple of years ago, I found this funky mid century plant stand at my favorite thrift store, Bethesda, near my sister's place in Horicon.  It was half off day, so it was only $2.50 - my kind of deal!  You can find a few of these for sale on Etsy most of the time for anywhere from $60-$120.  I'm no Mike Wolfe, but the rusty iron doesn't scare me.  I like stuff like that in the garden.

 Here's some rusty iron that's been in my garden for many years.  Is that a treble clef?

Anyway, back to the round plant stand that sat buried in the back corner of our shed for several years.  I'm sure my husband wanted to get rid of it.  In fact, I think I remember him saying, "Let me get rid of this thing."  Oh, but I could be confused with so many other times I've heard him say that.  Ha ha.  Cleaning it with brush and suds in the basement stationary tub was the hardest part.

Some spray paint and the job was done.

Of  course it looked better when the flowers filled in... except for the darn daisies which were custom chosen for that spot because of their height.  Anyone know why they never bloomed again all summer?  There were even buds that never opened!

Good luck with all your thrift store treasures, your daisies, and

fending off the discarding desires of your significant other!

A Band of Bandages

Summer is here and along with warm weather comes more bare skin leading to skinned knees, stubbed toes and mosquito bites scratched 'til they bleed... for some people.  Anyway, a while back I saw fabric covered band-aids online that caught my fancy.  In those band-aids, the fabric was attached to the bandage by way of sticker dots.

I thought I might be able to improve on a cute idea and

have more fun with my abundant vintage fabric scraps which continue to grow.

These little cuties turned out to be fast and so adorable.

My secret weapon?  Heat 'n Bond and FLEXIBLE FABRIC bandages.  You can buy Heat 'n Bond at WalMart or any fabric or craft store - it's paper that comes on a roll approximately 18' wide with a meltable web on one side.  Iron a strip of the Heat 'n Bond onto the back side of your scrap fabric - just a few seconds with a hot iron will do it.  Then trace a line around your bandage onto the Heat 'n Bond.

Make sure you use fabric since plastic band-aids will melt instantly under an iron.  I would also recommend Curad brand "Exteme Hold" band-aids.  Even though regular fabric bandages work, the cloth does add a little weight and the extra hold helps. Set your iron for 'polyester' since I'm sure those fabric bandages are synthetic.

Cut out your bandage shapes along your traced lines and remove the paper backing.  Fold the end of the strip toward the paper and the fabric will keep it's memory and separate from the paper.  Now you have a strip of fabric ready to fuse onto the bandage.

Lay the fabric with the wrong/rubbery side down onto the bandage top.  Iron it on for about 6 seconds - no need to move the iron around.  You can do several at a time.  Oh, and keep a tailor clapper or something else smooth and heat absorbant around - even a plain scrap of wood would work.  I place this on my newly fused bandage for a few seconds as they cool to keep them nice and flat.

If any fabric extends beyond the bandage, just trim off.

And that's it!

I gave a few to the young women at church and they wanted me to make more for an upcoming fundraiser auction for camp, so I guess I got a little carried away and made a number of sets packaging them in cellophane sleeves with folded paper tops. 

I kept the bandages separated by using a hot stencil cutter and poking holes through the bag almost like perforations.  The holes fused the two layers of cellophane together and kept the bandages in line. 

This was the most popular collection selling at the auction for $12 or $13... 

...it was for a good cause.

This was one of my favorite collections.

There was a bidding war on the Teen Pop set.

I still have mom's at church asking me to make more of these for their kids who were begging for them at the auction.  Remember you can cover bigger bandages or speciality bandages as long as they are made of that "flexible fabric."

Anyway, this was a quick and easy project

that turned out to be quite cute and functional.

Try making some bandages of your own!