New Listings--Last week for 20% off 1950's!

New patterns up today!  

This week is the last week of 20% off 1950's sewing patterns.  We will begin on October 1st with 20% off all 1960's sewing patterns!

Come by Bessie Miller Vintage to check these babies out:

~Bessie

p.s. if you are a facebooker, you can follow Bessie Miller Vintage here!

New Hay Feeder!

Yesterday I made the first of two awesome new hay feeders using nothing but an old nylon feed sack and baling twine (and a sewing machine)!  I am so excited.  First, let me give credit where credit is due.  I used this awesome tutorial from Utterly Blessed.  What a brill idea.

My feed sacks.  Yes, that is chicken poop on the porch.  I can't figure out how to keep the darn chickens off of my porch to save my life, as even with the gate closed they just squeeze through the bars.  Fellow chicken owners--have any suggestions? 

For the sake of being humble, here is what my front porch looks like right now.  I know.  It's bad.  Lol.

Soooo, anyway!

Aside from not having a well-functioning sewing machine at the moment and having to struggle a bit with that, this feeder went together fast and super easily.  

The boys seem to approve of it...

Oh, and while I'm at it, here are some pictures of those mineral feeders I made. :)  A little recent background: apparently I should have applied PVC primer to the pipes before glueing them together.  The consequence to not taking this step was that the bottom portion fell off of both feeders and my lovely Golden Blend minerals were spilt all over the ground.  Then Rousseau decided to chew one bottom piece up a little bit, just for fun.  (GR.)  So I re-glued them, applying primer first this time, hence the purple you see around the rim of the bottom section.

Ok, on with the pictures!

This is the one that Rousseau chewed up.  It wouldn't fit on very well after that, but it seems to be firmly attached.

And of course the one in the girl's side of the pen is perfectly clean and un-chewed. :)  Love my girls.

You put the minerals in here...

Yummy!

To install, I simply attached the feeder to a piece of 2x4 and then screwed that onto each goat house.

Love it!

Ok, that's all for now folks.  Have a lovely fall day!

Bessie

The Little Chapel

Today Davis and I made a pilgrimage up to the little chapel where we were married.  :)  So many wonderful memories!  We've played music there, driven his dad's old Mustang there, and Davis even proposed to me there.  It was our first time going back up to the chapel since I have been pregnant, which made it extra special. ;)

The chapel.  Such a lovely place, and pretty much out in the middle of nowhere.  Davy stumbled upon it one day when he was out driving in the mountains, and I am very glad he did. 

Cutie. <3 p="p">

I love the construction of the roof.

Being stealth...

Feet.

Hehe...

Evelyn wanted to be in a picture too!

It was a very lovely and heart-warming day.  So very important to take the time to remember the most precious moments of your life!

~Bessie

A hat for Evvie

Made a cute little baby turban for Evvie and had to share! :D  

I used this wonderful and easy crochet pattern from This Mama Makes Stuff (LOVE her blog!).  

Hope you are all enjoying a lovely afternoon!

Bessie

Maternity coat sketch

For those of you who are interested...

This is the plan. :)  I am scrounging up pennies to pay for the fabric now--hopefully I can begin working on it next month! 

Have a lovely day,

Bessie

Fondant and A Maternity Coat

I am throwing a baby shower for a dear friend of mine next weekend, and decided to make these adorable fondant-frosted cupcakes:

(sorry, I cannot find the original source for this picture!)

 I used the Martha Stewart chocolate buttermilk cupcake recipe [here] and an easy marshmallow fondant recipe [here].  Having never made or worked with fondant before, I thought it might be wise to do a test run.  Glad I did!  

Here was my first attempt at fondant-ing a cupcake:

Ugh!  Yeah, no.

Attempt #2 turned out much better.  In fact, the rest of the batch all turned out pretty good.

Then I had some fun with the fondant! :D

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!  It was so fun.  Edible play-doh!  This cupcake is for my lovely sister Sylvie's birthday.  She turned 12 today. :)

 So, on to the maternity coat!  I couldn't find a pattern that I *loved*, so I decide to just design one for myself. :)  Here is my inspiration:

[source]

I forgot to scan in my sketches, so I'll do that later.  For now, here are a few pics of the bodice muslin and the distressed rose-colored twill I am going to use for the coat. 

The coat will have a peter pan collar, straight sleeves, and a bottom section that is slightly gathered under the bust to accommodate baby and is straight in the back.  Inset pockets, and biggish brown buttons down the front.   I am psyched. 

Well, I am off to feed my poor animals, who unfortunately took the back burner to my fondant adventures today and are probably pretty hungry.  ;)  Have a lovely weekend!

~Bessie