Vintage Dress Up Kit and Creating a “Mini-Office”

The New Year is all about plans, goals and dreams. And how these dreams change from year to year. As a child I dreamed of being an actress or a dancer. As an adult I dream of garage organization systems!

In honor of dreaming, I’m sharing a gift handmade for two sweet little girls. I loved playing Dress Up as a little girl. Our outfits were formed from my Mom’s vintage clothing: hats, heels, old prom dresses and more.

As you’ve seen in several of our posts, both Erica and I love shopping vintage. Maybe it all started with playing Dress Up as kids?

I wanted to pass on that experience in a special Christmas gift, a little girl’s Vintage Dress Up Kit.

I started with 2 vintage suitcases, picked up at Feather Your Nest. For a modern touch, and to add a little bling, I painted the girls’ initials on their suitcase. This initials were painted freehand with Martha Stewart Acrylic Metallic Paint.

The monogram was great, but I felt it still needed something more. Polka dots are always fun and girly. Plus, they are also simple to paint freehand!

Aren’t they cute?

Of course, the next step was to fill those suitcases up! The items inside are a mix of thrifted, handmade and new clothes and accessories.

I picked up the women’s dress gloves (#3), scarf (#4) and apron (#5) at various thrift stores. The tutu (#6) was a new item from the Target Dollar Spot.

The wands (#1) were handmade, using this tutorial. I thought these colorful, plush wands turned out great. We did add a dowel rod wrapped with batting for the wand stem. This made the wand a little more solid, but still safe for kiddos.

The crowns (#2) were also handmade, using this tutorial. I love how they turned out. They are a fun, and not so traditional, version of a crown. For durability, we did sew them together instead of using the adhesive sheets.

There is more room in the suitcases for them to add Dress Up items that they already own.

This could be done for a little boy too! Some items that would be great inside a little boy’s Vintage Dress Up Kit are:

• Tie
• Bowtie
• Vest
• Glasses
• Hat
• Pocket Watch

I hope these Vintage Dress Up Kits will help these little girls dream big dreams. Maybe you know a little one who would love one of these too!

As for my dreams I haven’t gotten the garage completed yet… but it is only 1 day into 2013! However, inspired by Becky at Organizing Made Fun and her New Year’s Organizing Revolution Challenge, I have already completed a small organizational project in 2013.

This week’s task was an office space. We have a large office space in our basement family room, but we have been needing a small office space upstairs. Particularly for storing greeting cards, stamps, notepads and envelopes.

There is an old Singer sewing machine in our guest room, that we use as a nightstand. Since we only have guests staying in this room some of the time, it seemed to be the perfect spot to setup a “mini-office.”

It was a quick and easy project, and I shouldn’t have put it off for so long.

I used the little dish to hold paper clips, safety pins, and some other small office supplies. The basket is holding all of our greeting cards organized by month or occasion.

The wooden box holds writing supplies, but everything looks neat and pretty for when this space needs to work as a nightstand.

So here’s to all the goals, plans and dreams we’ll be pursuing in 2013! Happy New Year!