Sunday

Ah, the irony. Today it was approximately 82 degrees. In case you missed it, here's what Tuesday looked like. Welcome to springtime in Colorado, folks!

We took advantage of the abundant high altitude sunshine to work on our neglected yard and flowerbeds all day yesterday. We have an itty-bitty yard and I often complain and wish it were larger, but the truth is we can barely manage to take care of the little spot of green we have!

The soil here is naturally very full of clay. Yesterday I dug out a whole section of plants that have taken over; there was so much clay in the dirt it was like digging through Play-Doh. Ugh. I worked some Soil Pep through it to hopefully loosen things up and the next step is going to be a liberal application of fertilizer. I want to plant the hollyhock seeds that Linda sent to me so I need to make sure they will grow! I also have some seeds for the most gorgeous *pink* poppies from my Gram's garden that I'd like to sow. I tried them last year but they never took, which is no wonder considering the condition of that dirt! While digging out those plants yesterday I found tons and tons of worms. I don't know how they managed to dig through all that clay. Super Turbo worms, I guess.

Alas, but I didn't go garage saling yesterday. I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and the weather was gorgeous but I was grounded! The grounding was self-imposed, as I didn't get any of my eBay stuff written up this week and that had been my big goal. I will be out of town this week so I won't get anything done for it until late next week, and with a 7-day auction it will be a while until I can make any money, and that's assuming anything sells. I may give myself a reprieve for next Saturday, however; we'll be out of town and I think on-the-road thrifting is definitely a good enough excuse for un-grounding!

Pink & Green goodies

Thank goodness, the snow has melted! Tuesday's storm dropped about 5 inches of wet, heavy snow but we had lots of sun yesterday so it is all gone. Hopefully all that water will make my grass green!

This week I received my Pink & Green Spring Fling swap package from Risa, The ParTea Planner herself! This was Risa's first blog swap and she completely spoiled me! The first photo is all of the contents of the package, before I opened anything. Everything was wrapped so prettily, with pink and green ribbons and sweet matching labels that Risa created.

Inside all that gorgeous wrapping were the most wonderful goodies! For S she sent pink and green sanding sugars that will be perfect for cupcakes or cookies and a Pyrex Bowl in the Spring Blossom pattern. P was a trio of pampering goodies that Risa made herself! Soap petals (which she's going to share how to make on her blog!) sugar scrub and hand lotion. All nestled in a bed of pink rose petals in the most perfect thrifted pink and green bowl! R was for the vintage recipe book, a cute little recipe holder made from a fork and a handmade paperbag album with some of Risa's favorite recipes inside. Yum!

I is for my first initial, H, tied with bright green polka dot ribbon! N is for Notebook of Goodies. This notebook is amazing and such a clever idea! Risa embellished the front of a pink 3-ring binder (you can see the cover on the left in the picture above) and inside she included several sheets of divided page protectors, the kind you use for holding baseball cards. Each little pocket was filled with a little treat--ribbons, buttons, lip gloss, chandelier crystals, notes, photos, flowers, jewels, etc. What an absolute treat it was to look through all those little pockets and see all the treasures! They will be perfect for art projects. I absolutely love this idea! It is a perfect gift for anyone who loves little bits and bobs and treats!

G was for a pair of fabulous pink rubber gloves that Risa fancied up with lace, trim and a jewel! Perfect for me because I do all my cleaning and dish washing in rubber gloves, and I'm all for adding a little glamour to housekeeping! LOL In addition to all these wonderful things, Risa also included a CD, darling green sparkly slippers, pink and green tea towels, candy, and the most adorable little jar of girly goodies for Maren! Can you see why I was just amazed by this package? Risa absolutely outdid herself! There are a few more close-up pictures on Risa's blog here--check them out! And thanks again, Risa, for being such an amazing partner!

This is getting ridiculous.

Opening Day

At long last, the wait is over--Hurrah! Yard Sale season is officially here, and not a moment too soon. When I picked DH up at the airport on Friday I noticed lots of signs and planned to go out Saturday morning, even though I'd have to tote Maren along as DH had to work. I got up early and we were out the door shortly after 8:00 am. I packed the backseat with lots of toys and books for Maren and she was a surprisingly good sport about staying strapped in her carseat for the better part of 3 hours. About halfway through our trip I stopped at a park and let her run and play for about 25 minutes which made all the difference in having a happy little girl instead of a screaming, crabby banshee in the back seat. I took $20 and just followed the signs around my neighborhood. I think folks have been waiting for a while now to clean out their junk and have just lacked decent weekend weather to do it, so there were tons of sales.

The first place I stopped yielded this Haeger vase for 50¢. I have this weird yardsale hangup and sometimes I have to drive by a few sales before I get up the courage to stop. I hate being the only person at a sale because I feel pressured. At this sale they were still dragging boxes out of the garage but the vase was already on a table. I also found a handful of vintage glass ball Christmas ornaments for 25¢ but I realize now I forgot to photograph those. Nothing fancy, but I'm trying to get enough to make some of those really neat ornament wreaths this year. The large wooden spool was $1 and will go with my two smaller spools, and the red and green fabric in the back is a vintage apron that was 50¢. All are resting on a chenille bedspread that was $5.00. The green vintage ceramic planter was $2.00 and came from the same place as the bedspread. It's not marked but I love the color and the shape.

Three Nancy Drew books were a quarter apiece. The one on the right, The Clue of the Broken Locket, was the first ND book I ever read! If I can find them cheap, I'd like to make a collection for my kids to read someday. The two vintage shaving brushes were 50¢ each and the cute handmade quilted potholder was bought with the apron from the previous picture, also 50¢.


At the same sale where I bought the green planter and the chenille bedspread, I bought these 10 vintage Vera scarves for $1 each. This lady was a Vera collector and she had a huge box of scarves. I bought 5 at first but went back later for 5 more. These are for resale so I tried to pick only the ones in perfect condition that I think are most likely to sell. I'm going to try to get them photographed this week so I can list them soon. I need to get my eBay selling kicked into gear again, and hopefully these scarves will get me off to a good start!

Can't wait for next Saturday!

Thrifty goodies

Warning! Vent ahead: I mentioned last post that I found a bunch of great sewing stuff at the thrift about a week ago. It was obviously all from the same person's collection, but I hate how the sorters/pricers at the thrift put it together. They just throw a few things in a bag, whether they go together or not, and slap a price on it. Most of the baggies had about 5 cards of bias tape or rick rack, but some were a whole card and some partial. I wish they could get their acts together and put all the rick rack in one bag, all the bias tape in one, all the buttons in one, etc. instead of mixing it all up. If I could get a whole bag of rick rack I would buy it in a second, but I'm not going to buy 5 separate baggies at $1.45 each to get 5 partial cards of rick rack, so instead I buy nothing! I'm selective about the baggies I will buy because I don't like getting stuck with a bunch of junk I'll never use (like single fold bias tape), therefore the thrift gets less of my money because of their stupid bagging practices. Oh well, when I went back on Monday morning to see if there was anything left it was all gone, so I guess someone isn't bothered by it!

Anyway, here are some of the treasures I found. Look at all these fabulous buttons! The photo doesn't do them justice, but they're all on OLD cards and they're so pretty! I love the red and blue ones on the top row. That's such a perfect cornflowery blue. The green buttons at the top right are clear and faceted and very pretty as well. My favorite card is this one. Isn't is pretty? Mermaid pearls, how sweet; I love the flourishes around the M. I had to buy several baggies to get all of the buttons but I looked carefully and I think I got the best bags.

I also found these neat old spools of thread. Some of the spools are wooden and some look like some sort of hard cardboard, but they are all old. The colors are so pretty; this is another one where the photo just doesn't show them off as well as I would like. They're so pretty all lined up! I love the old spools. I once came across several bags full of old wooden spools at this thrift. I passed them up! I knew they would be good for something but I thought and thought and just couldn't decide what exactly, so I didn't buy them. Someday I'm going to really regret that, I know! There were a few other assorted sewing notions in the bags of thread and buttons: elastic, buttons to cover, ribbon.

I also found a few other non-sewing related items. This cute little Gymboree poncho/capelet is for Maren next year. It has sweet little crocheted flowers all around the collar in great fall colors. She already tried it on and couldn't figure out where to put her arms, since there is only a neckhole. I think she ended up wearing it more like a skirt.


A whole string of vintage cookie cutters; these were less than $2.00. I love the large scalloped cutters and the red-handled donut cutter! I have lots of the hearts and flowers already; those must have come in every set. I need some more creative ideas on how to display these cutters, as I've amassed quite a few over the last year. I keep thinking I'm going to run across an idea somewhere but so far, no luck. I have given them away in swap packages but I wish I could think of something else to do. Maybe I can save the hearts and put them on a wreath next Valentine's Day or something. In the meantime, if any of you have any clever ideas for them, please let me know!

I am now the proud owner of one of Rebecca's darling teacup pin cushions from The Goodness Shop. I just love it! It was my very favorite from the minute she put it up. There are little pink sequins sewn on the roses and the prettiest blue glass-headed pins on top. When I make Maren's next swap with my blue bias tape and pink and blue thrifted fabric, my pincushion will match, too! Tell me I'm not the only dork out there that gets all jazzed when everything matches, okay?

I went yardsaling yesterday morning. Opening Day of the season! Hooray! Found some fun stuff so I'll get pictures and post those next. Oh, and if you haven't read the Michael Jackson link in the post below, you should do it. I promise it's not anything freaky-deaky, but it will give you a good laugh or at least leave you scratching your head. Sometimes I think the reality I inhabit just does not extend to everyone.

Words fail me.

Bizarre Michael Jackson-related news story.

Last week I went into JoAnn's to get 3/4 yard of fabric to make Maren's smock and some green ribbon for a swap project. I walked out with that and what you see pictured. (Where's that smiley with the sheepish look on its face?) It seems JoAnn's is resetting their ribbon and trim section, specifically the stuff sold by the yard. It was marked way down; most of the ribbon in the photo was 10¢ a yard! I got tiny black and tan rickrack, brown, orange and blue grosgrain, cream and brown velvet ribbon and lots more. The girl at the cutting counter was not too thrilled to see me roll up with my cart full of spools, I can be sure of that!

In my last post about the smocks, I mentioned that I would be watching the thrifts for cheap fabric & bias tape to make more smocks. It would appear that the Thrift Fairy heard me and granted my wish! On Friday while I was waiting for DH's delayed flight to get in and going out of my mind with anxiety, I visited the thrift to calm me down. (Some people drink or smoke to calm their nerves, I buy old junk. We all have our vices.) It was apparent that someone had donated all of their sewing stuff to the thrift. It was all broken up into individual baggies but as with the blankets I bought, I could just tell that it all came from the same source. The baggie with 23(!) yards of the pretty blue bias tape was 50¢ and over in the fabric section I found this cute vintage pink and blue print for just 95¢. As soon as I can get my swap stuff finished, I'll be sewing Miss Maren a new smock! I found a lot of other goodies too, and I'll post those soon.

And last I just wanted to post a picture of something that makes me happy. I found these cute foil-wrapped eggs at Walgreen's before Easter and had to buy them because of their colors! They remind me of little polka-dotted toadstool caps. They look so sweet on my kitchen windowsill and I will be sad when it's time to put away the Easter stuff and throw them away. Maybe I'll hang onto them just a little bit longer. :) They look more springy than Eastery, anyhow.

Smock around the clock

With all the Easter crafting done or given up on, I moved on to the next project piled on my desk: smocks for Miss Maren. I saw this smock on Sarah's blog a while back and thought it would make the perfect bib for Maren. She won't wear a regular bib while eating and I know I've avoided letting her try some healthy foods because of the mess factor involved, which gets my Mommy Guilt going. This smock is perfect because it covers her whole front and ties in the back so she can't get it off! The pattern is Simplicity 8916 and I had to buy it off eBay, as it's older and none of the local fabric stores had it.


Here's the problem: I don't sew. Last time I had any formal instruction in sewing was oh, 7th grade-ish. This little pattern was very simple but it still took me several hours to make the first smock. Most of that was due to the fact that I kept having to rip off the bias tape and redo it; I had a hard time getting the edge of the fabric caught by the thread. If you look close you can see that I used extra-wide bias tape around the neck and regular width everywhere else. The neck was the last piece you put on and for the life of me I couldn't get it to work with the skinny stuff! Luckily I had some of the extra-wide from last year's pillowcase dresses.


Here's my second attempt. I had this cute thrifted strawberry fabric and thrifted red polka dot bias tape in my stash. The bias tape is extra-wide and while I didn't have any more problems with the fabric not staying in the fold, I did have a much more difficult time getting it stretched smoothly around the round seams of the armholes. I'm not sure which width was really better; they both had their difficulties. I do think I like the look of the narrower tape better.

I'd like to make a couple more smocks so I will be looking for more thrifted fabric and bias tape--for each smock you need 2 packages and that stuff gets expensive! I'd also like to experiment with making one out of a vinyl tablecloth so that I could just wipe it off instead of having to toss it in the washer. I bought a tablecloth on clearance at JoAnn's so I can give it a try. Oilcloth would be cute too but I don't think my JoAnn's carries it and I want this project to stay inexpensive.

And from the SUPER EXCITING GOOD NEWS file: My husband comes home tonight! You may recall that he left on President's Day for some training in Missouri, so we haven't seen each other in 8 long weeks. To say that I'm excited to see him would be a slight understatement. :) Thankfully the huge snowstorm that was predicted for today has missed us so we won't have any problems with flight delays. It's actually snowing outside right now but it's nothing major and should be gone by tomorrow. I'll be back Monday, and hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Thrift Thursday

Last weekend when my mom was here I was able to escape for some unaccompanied thrifting. I was looking for something for the Pink & Green swap but didn't have any luck in that department. I did, however, totally score in finding some goodies for me!

This particular thrift almost never has anything worthwhile in their linens department but that day I hit the jackpot. I'll probably never find anything good there again but I don't even care! For as long as I've been thrifting I've been looking for old chenille bedspreads but with no luck...until now!

I found this awesome hot pink chenille fringed bedspread and even better, the white one with all the colored chenille! I grabbed them up without even looking at the price tags. The pink one was marked 'Queen' but I knew that was probably wrong as queen-size beds are a fairly recent innovation. I hoped it might be a double so that I could put it on my queen-size guest bed. When I got it home I realized that it's more likely a twin that would hang to the floor on all sides. I put it on my guest bed anyway and I think it's really cute. I don't care if it's too short. The white one may end up in Miss Maren's room when she gets moved to a big-girl bed.

I also found these pretty wool blankets. I especially love the pink plaid over on right! The solid pink one isn't in great shape; it's a little misshapen and has some moth holes but I thought if nothing else it would be good crafting fodder. These will go in my guest room and again in Miss Maren's big-girl bed room when she moves.

I suspect that these bedspreads and blankets all came in to the thrift together. They're just too similar and like I said, this thrift never has anything good in the linen department. It would just be too coincidental for them all to suddenly show up from different sources. There were a couple of other wool blankets that I suspect were from the same source but they weren't nearly as pretty and each had a piece sewed on to the bottom of the blanket, ostensibly to lengthen it. They looked a little weird so I passed them up. Anyway, everything else is now washed and folded and looking very charming indeed up in my guest room!

Vintage Kitchen Swap

I was so excited to learn that one of my favorite bloggers was hosting a Vintage Kitchen Swap that I signed up as fast as I could! I was paired with Brenda M. who doesn't have a blog herself, but her daughter is the lovely Amanda from every little thing. I mentioned to Brenda that my kitchen is done in 1940s and 50s stuff in mostly red, with a bit of yellow and cornflower blue thrown in for good measure. She sent the most outstanding package!
I mentioned that I collect old printed tablecloths and just look at this beauty! The colors are bright and Brenda said it reminded her of summer--I agree! She also included a darling vintage milk bottle and a red-handled rolling pin, as well as a set of the neatest enamel dishes! I've never seen any like them and I'm not sure if they're new or vintage. Judging by their appearance I'd guess new, but they are the perfect colors for my kitchen and will be such fun to use!

My very favorite thing in the package was this beautiful vintage apron. It is most definitely my new favorite out of all the aprons I own. It's gorgeous! The fabric is printed with the roses and the white design at the bottom, which is unusual and makes it perfect for the apron. It's hard to tell from the photo, but where the 3 lines of seam binding are on the top, the fabric is sewn into tiny, precise pleats. What workmanship! I just put up another hook on my pantry door to hang this apron so that I can admire it all the time. She also sent a vintage hankie with a crocheted yellow edge that I forgot to photograph. Thank you, Brenda! (PS--this was Brenda's first swap--didn't she do a fabulous job?)

Because Brenda doesn't have a blog, I'll post what I sent to her. Brenda said she likes pink and her kitchen is done in moss green with pink and yellow accents. That was a little harder for me to shop for but I tried!

I included a set of old knives with ivorite handles that have yellowed with age, a fun old loaf pan from the Py-o-My baking company, a dish with pink, yellow and green shabby roses and a gold rim, cupcake papers and pastel sprinkles, a vintage Jell-o cookbook and a vintage aluminum gelatin mold (with a box of strawberry Jell-o so she can try a recipe!), an old embroidered tea towel with a little Dutch girl, an old-fashioned pink and green lollipop from Hammond's, some vintage cookie cutters from my stash, and a re-purposed vintage muffin tin that I filled with Easter candy. I had fun putting together Brenda's package and I hope that she liked it!

Happy Easter!

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday! This is a last-minute craft, done yesterday morning. I picked up the papier mache bunny for 1.00 at the thrift on Friday and was inspired by Martha's show from the other day. I simply painted him with a few coats of acrylic paint, brushed on Mod Podge and coated him with iridescent glitter. I added a bow made from vintage satin ribbon and an organdy ribbon rose(which you can't see because they're on his back). Pretty darn cute for a buck and a few minutes' work!

I dyed more pipe cleaners last night in a last-ditch effort to get some chickies and baskets done but for some reason the yellow dye didn't take so they turned out a sickly, pale yellow. Whatever. I think I am officially over this project and ready for something new. Now, what I am going to do with the remaining 250 white pipe cleaners I bought? Hmmm.

Happy Mail

No Easter Egg hunting for us today! ~Brrrr, it's cold!~ Like much of the country, we're having unseasonably cold temperatures. Last night we even got a light skiff of snow. Our high temperature for the day is supposed to be around 30 degrees. What the heck happened to spring?

In the last few days I've gotten quite a lot of Happy Mail from some dear blog friends. Sarah sent me this adorable bunny basket that she made. Maren loves it and has been carrying it around ever since. It will be the perfect Easter basket for her. Thanks, Sarah!

I also got a neat "just because" package from Shara. She sent such fun things! A neat old Colorado plate for my guest room wall, the cutest little elf shoes made using Jenny's pattern, a faux chocolate bunny, a huge roll of vintage rickrack, and a very cool vintage honeycomb bunny that I forgot to photograph! She also remembered Miss Maren, and send the cutest Angelina Ballerina hand puppet that has a little box of dress-up clothes and 2 Angelina books to read. What a treat it was to open all those cute packages, and what a sweetie Shara was to think of me and Maren!

I'm still working on those darn pipe cleaner Easter things. I had intended to get them done earlier this week but some other obligations pushed those to the bottom of the priority list. Maybe today I can get a few done and photographed. It's not too late, right?

If you're east of me, stay warm! If you're west or south of me, stay cool! :)

Washi eggs

This is an Easter craft I made a few years ago. These eggs were featured on the cover of Martha Stewart Living for April 2004. You use origami paper and Mod Podge (always with the Mod Podge) and wooden eggs. As always, mine didn't turn out as perfect at Martha's goons' eggs. It's tricky to get the paper sliced just so so that it will fit smoothly around the curved ends of the egg. The green egg on the bottom was my first attempt and you can see that it's bumpy, but the other two eggs are better--practice makes perfect and all that jazz. I do love them and someday I'll attempt a few more.

I'm excited to be participating in the Spring Fling Pink & Green swap! My partner is the very fabulous Risa and her blog is The ParTea Planner. Risa is lucky enough to have a job where she gets to plan wonderful tea parties; how fun! Do go over and check out her blog, especially the photos of the absolutely gorgeous parties she has done. I guarantee you'll want to be her guest!

Speaking of Martha (aren't I always?), the previews for tomorrow's show have her doing glittery Easter crafts with someone named Laurie Davis. Glitter? I'm so there! Also, Katie linked to this cutie pie pom-pom bunny that was on Martha's show yesterday. I meant to watch but forgot! They don't look too difficult, but you can also buy them already made. Maybe I'll bookmark that for next year. I think I'm about crafted out for this Easter!