TP &Thrift finds

Yesterday morning I was awakened when the phone rang at 6:15 in the morning, well before my usual wake-up time. It was my father-in-law, who had been at our house the evening before. He drives trucks and had a load to drop off here in town Tuesday morning. He called to tell me that when his truck was being unloaded, three of the cases had been damaged and the receiver rejected them. The cases were filled with toilet paper and were going to just be trashed, so my FIL called to see if I wanted them. We can always use more TP, so I said yes and later that morning I packed the baby up and set out.

The truck yard was quite a ways away--it took me about 45 minutes to drive there. I loaded up the back of the Pathfinder with 3 huge boxes of toilet paper--80 rolls each--and realized that we were near a Salvation Army store that I've seen several times from the Interstate but never had the opportunity to stop at. From the outside it looked like it would be huge, but I found out that is because it's a big sorting center where they also do the training for the people who work there. The thrift store itself wasn't actually very large and was pretty disorganized. I did manage to find a few goodies however. The two candlesticks are by a pottery in Colorado Springs (about an hour from here) called Van Briggle. I vaguely remembered reading that name in a Kovel's Pottery book I checked out from the library a couple weeks ago and they were only .50 apiece. They are not very fancy, but they should sell. I'm sure I'll at least make back my dollar! The other stuff is to keep. The 4 yellow Pyrex hostess bowls, the books and the teacup were all .50 each as well. The teacup isn't marked but I just love the shape of the little handle! Plus it's the aqua color I love so much right now. The Mary Poppins is a hardcover of the movie and is just for decoration in the guest room upstairs. The other little book is a newer book made to look vintage. It's cute and clever and made me giggle. Maren hijacked that one as soon as I put it in the cart. I had a similar book (same size, same cover material, prob. same publisher) that she took some inexplicable liking to and carried it around for weeks. She loved this little book as well and insisted on holding it the whole drive home. She managed to gnaw a place out of the top already, so I'm going to have to keep this one put up lest it meet the same fate as the other book (ripped into shreds all over the living room floor.)

The necklace is kooky and kitschy and made of clear plastic or Lucite beads in yellow, orange and green. It was 1.75 and it just makes me smile! I don't have a single thing to wear with it so it may have to wait until next spring or summer when I bring out my yellow shirt and kelly green knit skirt again.

In other news, Monday morning I went in for a LASIK consultation to see if I'm a candidate for the surgery. I am, but I did hear some news I wasn't prepared for. I wear hard gas permeable contact lenses and have for about 14 years now. All contact lenses (but especially gas perms) can actually cause your cornea to warp slightly from wearing them. Because it's important for your cornea to be it's true shape when you have LASIK surgery, you have to go without contact lenses for a minimum of 2 weeks before the surgery to let your corneas relax. For me, I would have to probably be in soft lenses for a while and then glasses for that last 2 weeks. That would be fine--annoying, but fine--except for the fact that I have no glasses. The last time I had glasses that I could see through was 9 years ago, when I broke one of my contact lenses right in the middle of finals and right before Christmas break. I think I wore them for as long as it took for my new lens to come in and then shoved them in the back of a drawer. So now I find out I'm going to have to spend $200 on glasses so I can wear them for 2 weeks, and then never again? You have got to be kidding me. I don't think there's any way around it, though. Heck, what' s another $200 when it's already going to cost me something like $3000 to get the LASIK done? Drop in the bucket, I guess. I did find my old frames this morning and so maybe I can just use those and get new lenses, so it won't be quite as expensive.

I have another appointment with another LASIK place next week, and I may try to set up at least one or two more. When we got the front room painted I got 3 estimates, and that was just for walls. These are my EYES we're talking about, people! I want to be sure I'm going with somebody I feel comfortable with. I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the year but if I have to wear soft contacts for 6 weeks and glasses for another 2, I need to get that started ASAP. Time is a' wasting, and I'm ready to just get it over with, already!

Making a case for pillowcases

While it's true that I was on a pillowcase-dress-making kick for a few weeks this summer, the weather has cooled and it won't be suitable for Maren to wear a sundress for about another 9 months. So why, WHY, can't I stop buying pillowcases? I have one daughter to sew for, not six, and I live in Colorado, not Florida! What is wrong with me? I just can't resist them, especially when they're hand-embroidered like those on the top row or brightly colored like that on the far left, or made of linen like the green one, or just printed with pretty sprays of roses in a rainbow of colors, like the yellows and purple? I've been buying them and stashing them in the dresser in the spare room, and when I went to put these away I discovered one more that I recently bought but didn't photograph. Really, it's getting a bit ridiculous. I've long since run out of pillows in this house that need covering. I may have to use the winter months perfecting my pillowcase-dress sewing technique, then list them on eBay next spring, because I just don't think I can go cold turkey and quit buying them!

The weather here this weekend was just beautiful--warm and sunny and decidedly un-autumn-like. I think it hit 85 on Saturday, actually. Quin's office had a family party so we went to a park and had a cookout. Maren loved being outside at the park! She LOVES going on slides--the higher, the better! She's just so fearless, a quality I hope she keeps as she grows. She climbs straight to the top of the slides all by her self--no help from mommy or daddy needed--and stands at the top of the slide with absolutely no apprehension. She launches herself down the slide, secure in the knowledge that someone will be there to catch her. It's so fun to watch her play and laugh and explore the world. Makes up for the times she ruins my carpet, that's for sure.

I love this picture of Maren and Quin. Look how far in front of him she is! He had to hustle to keep up. That's just her personality--she has an agenda; an idea in her head of what she's going to do next, and the rest of us are welcome to keep up if we want. Hard to believe she's only 18 months old and already so very independent.

Red & Aqua Swap goodies!

I recently participated in the Red & Aqua swap and had the good fortune to have Lauren M. send to me (Lauren doesn't have a blog right now, unfortunately!). Oh my goodness, did she take good care of me! I truly love everything she sent and can tell that she spent a lot of time choosing things that she thought that I, specifically, would like. Who wouldn't want a box full of goodies chosen just for YOU? Everything was even wrapped to coordinate with the theme. I stopped and made myself take a picture, even though I was dying to rip into all those little paper packets! Don't your fingers get itchy just looking at the photo?


As adorable as all the little packages were, the insides were even better! Lauren had me so pegged! LOL I absolutely adore the H that she painted and embellished for me. I have been trying to collect initials for the members of our family (H, Q, and M) to display but so far I only have two Qs and an M. I'm just thrilled to finally have an H to add! She also sent me some very cool rub-ons for scrapbooking that are very much in the flourish-y style that's so IN right now. There is the most beautiful set of cloth napkins, wrapped with a cute red polka-dot ribbon and the most darling little toadstools and velvet leaves! I positively squealed when I saw those! Lauren also included a little red book, perfect for all of the LISTS I am constantly making, yummy vintage aqua-colored rickrack, cute little tissues, pretty red and white woven ribbon, vintage cake decorations, cool polka-dot brads, sweets, and last but not least the most adorable little pale blue pitcher. I am completely in love with it! It will look sweet on my kitchen windowsill next to the aqua Lu-Ray creamer. I think it would make the cutest vase and may have to pick up a few flowers at the store today to confirm my suspicions. :)

Lauren's package was an absolute delight to receive and to open. Thank you, Lauren, for making my first swap experience so WONDERFUL!!

What I'm loving right now, Thursday

Decorating for Halloween. I haven't actually started yet--I've managed to hold off this long, which is impressive for me especially since I've been feeling the itch since about August 31st. Halloween is my favorite holiday to decorate the house for, and I'm so excited to bring up the orange and black plastic tubs from the basement and reacquaint myself with all of my lovelies. I've still got my patriotic stuff up from July (although my house is mostly done in red/white/blue so it matches) and I'm SO ready for a change. I have a few new things to add this Halloween. You've already seen the ribbon topiary, but I also treated myself to these cuties (although I got mine from a different source). I can't wait to plunk a punkin on the big one! I think maybe one of those white Boo varieties would look so very cool. I've also gotten a feathered buzzard that I need to find a place for, and I have the makings for a cool wreath that I bought last year on clearance but still need to put together. I've never made a wreath before but I can't imagine it's too difficult. We'll see.

If you're looking for a cute and easy Halloween craft, check out these adorable jack o' lanterns made out of a paperback book. This was featured in the October issue of Country Home magazine, which I just received last week. I immediately noticed the book pumpkins and was tickled to see on Teresa's blog that she actually made one! They are too darn cute, sound super easy and cost just pennies to make. Paperback books can be had at thrift stores and garage sales for less than a buck. You can even use hardback books as Teresa did and cut off the covers. Wouldn't a whole row of these little guys in varying heights be cute? Yet another reason to lament the lack of a mantel in my house.

Another cute autumn craft idea is this pumpkin topiary. Several people over at Two Peas have made them, including this cute variation using an apple basket. I don't really have a large enough porch to warrant making one of these, but I think they're just darling! I don't usually do 'fall' decorations until November, after I take down the Halloween stuff. Even though I'm rabidly excited to put it all up, by the end of October I'm sick of seeing it!

We're talking about having a Halloween party again this year--that would make it the 2nd annual Halloween bash. We did it last year and it was great fun, even though it was a TON of work. Last year we invited parents and kids, thinking that we'd get a better turnout if parents didn't have to get babysitters. I still think that was true, but it was a zoo. This year, it's adults only and if people are too lazy to get a sitter then they're lame and I don't want them at my party anyway! I need to start thinking of invitations because I need to get them out in the next 2 weeks, so people can hopefully mark their calendars and have plenty of time to find someone to watch their kids. I love party planning. I've always said I'd rather plan a party than go to one!

Clipboard in action

Here's another clipboard I made to use as a photo frame. I chose papers and ribbons to match the outfit Maren is wearing in her One-year-old portraits. Check out how messy her hair is--I didn't have a comb on me (bad mommy) and it was impossible to finger-comb. Learning experience, for sure.

Altered clipboards

For lack of anything more interesting to post, these are some altered clipboards I did for a class I was supposed to teach last night. I say supposed to teach because only one person signed up and then she called to cancel on me yesterday afternoon. Honestly, I could feel hurt that no one signed up and maybe they thought my stuff was ugly and they don't like me and I smell funny, but truly I was just RELIEVED! I needed the break.

Here are the clipboards, anyway. They're super easy to make--you use Mod Podge to stick the papers down to the clipboard. When that's dry, you paint on another coat of Mod Podge to seal the papers. After that coat is dry you add embellishments like ribbons, flowers, etc. They can be used like a photo frame or you can use them as an actual clipboard. I did one with Christmas paper with the idea that you could keep your master holiday To-Do list on the clipboard along with gift lists, receipts, recipes for goodies, etc. You can also attach a pen on a ribbon to make it even handier.

These make good teacher or coach gifts if you intend them to be used as a clipboard. You can paint the backside if you want to make it a little fancier. The designs I did here were purposely simple as I anticipated teaching it to a group, so simple is key. For my own use I'd probably use more papers, more embellishments and ribbon--the 'more is more' philosophy for sure. Thanks for looking!

The good news

The carpet cleaner guy just left. He was able to get the toilet cleaner stain out, although he was initially skeptical because there was so much and it was so blue. I don't care what kind of voodoo he had to perform up there, all I know is that I could have kissed him when I saw that it came clean! (Don't worry dear, I refrained.) So the good news is that Maren doesn't get sold to the gypsies.

Not this week, anyway.

Having kids is great because....why, again?

This afternoon while I was reading the mail, Maren went upstairs, got hold of a bottle of toilet cleaner, and squeezed about half of it onto the carpet in my bedroom. The carpet that I just had cleaned last week, to the tune of $130. I tried and I can't get it out, so I just had to call the carpet cleaner AGAIN and schedule him to come out tomorrow to (hopefully) fix it.

I think I'm going to go cry now.

Ribbon topiary

I found the instructions for this in the Making Memories book called Ribbonrie and couldn't resist making one, since I love ribbon! It was really easy--you just cut the ribbon/trims to 4" lengths and make loops, sticking them to a styrofoam ball with a straight pin. When the ball is covered, you stick a painted dowel rod into the bottom the ball and into a piece of floral foam that is wedged into your container. Then you hot glue moss to the top of the floral foam to hide it. I tied a ribbon around my pot and later added a little metal charm that said "Happy Halloween."

I made mine for Halloween (since it's my favorite holiday) but you could do any colors/container you want. I found these cute black flowerpots at JoAnn's on clearance and I already had a lot orange/black/white ribbon. I found that wider ribbon/trim is the best because it fills up more space and you need less, but using some skinny ones for a varation in texture is good too. They do take a lot of ribbon, but you can watch and get it on sale or Michael's usually has a big bin of $1 ribbon spools. Cute and easy!

This should have been added to yesterday's thrift report but I couldn't get Blogger to upload my photo. Blogger may be free, but it may be one of those "you get what you pay for" cases. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and switch to TypePad.

Anyway, this bracelet was the absolute SCORE of that thrifting trip! It's vintage Coro and it is in perfect condition. The stones are all there and they are red with an aurora borealis coating. This bracelet is just gorgeous! I wore it yesterday and had to keep looking at my wrist to admire it, LOL! The best part? It was only $4.95!! That, my friends, is an absolute steal!

In just about 40 minutes I'm going to pack up Maren and head to the airport to pick up my Mom, who's coming to visit for the weekend. We're headed down to southern Colorado tomorrow to visit my grandparents for a few days. I'm hoping to squeeze in a little trip to the junk shop in their small town. The junk is deep and the prices are cheap--just the way I like it!

Tuesday Thrift finds

Ran to my fave thrift yesterday. I was actually looking for a few things for the guest room, but found these goodies instead!

Big Bowl o' Buttons, $3.95. These are new, not vintage--oh, there may be few, but for the most part they are modern and they are all in pastels: pale shell pink, seafoam green, butter yellow, pearly white. There were several other similar bags of buttons, all divided up by color but I thought this bag was definitely the prettiest. Wonder who donated all those buttons? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them.

Vintage printed tablecloth, $2.95. The colors on this one are still very vivid and the grey hasn't disappeared, so this must not have seen much use. This cloth is rectangular which I think is a little more unusual; most of the printed tablecloths I come across are 40" squares. This will fit on my table, and the red will look great in my kitchen. There are some stains so I'll do the Oxyclean trick, but if they don't come out at least I won't feel bad if I spill something on it! One of these days I'm going to get a book on vintage tablecloths so maybe I can identify the makers. Some of them have labels but the majority do not, it seems.


Vintage Vera linen tablecloth, $2.95. This is so cute! From the picture it's hard to get an idea of scale, but each strawberry is about the size of a salad plate. There are some pretty bad yellow stains on this cloth so I'll soak it and then I think I'll hang it in the sun tomorrow and hope for the best. I bought it with the idea of resale but I may just keep it for myself.

Hot Pants!

As you may surmise from my previous post, we had quite the eventful trip to the grocery store this afternoon. In Sunday's paper there were several coupons for the things that are on sale at Albertson's right now and I still had a $2.00 off coupon for cereal, so I decided to go back. With my extra coupons, I got 7 boxes of cereal (yes...more Cinnamon Toast Crunch & Cheerios), a box of brownie mix, a cake mix and a tube of crescent rolls for $7.25. Take that, suckas! I always feel like I'm Sticking It To The Man when I get a really great deal like that.

Speaking of REALLY GREAT DEALS, prior to our trip to Albertson's, Maren and I went to a clothing store with the initials O.N. to pick up some jeans for her to wear this fall. It's been quite chilly here lately and she has nothing but sundresses and one pair of denim capris, so it's time to go shopping. As I was paying for my purchases, I noticed the woman being rung up next to me had an enormous pile of black yoga pants. Then I saw the price tags--$.17! I must have done a double take because she laughed and said, "Yes, they really are just 17 cents each! I'm going to buy them to donate." Wha??? Pants for seventeen cents? Out of my way!

For some strange reason my particular store has piles and piles of these pants that they've been storing since last year and they finally can clearance them out. They originally retailed for $16.50. Why they'd even go to the trouble for $.17 is beyond me--they'd probably be better off donating them and writing them off--but whatever! The manager was enforcing a limit of 10 pair per transaction, but he was allowing multiple transactions so I ended up buying 3 transactions' worth, or 30 pair. I'll keep some for me, gift them, sell them, or if nothing else I can just donate them. Heck, for 17 cents, I can just wear a pair once and throw them away--to heck with doing laundry!

So that was the excitement for the day. Maren took a pathetic 1 hour nap so she was more than ready to go to bed, and I'm headed upstairs to work on the guest room so my Mom has a place to sleep when she visits later this week. Good night!

Do you know what it sounds like when an entire box of Honey Nut Cheerios is poured on the floor in the middle of a grocery store aisle?


I do.

Bargains and Badgers

This weekend was the designated yard sale days for our subdivision (they put out a big sign, advertise in the paper, etc.). This was actually the second one of the year and it traditionally gets fewer sales but I put Maren in the car and went out hunting on the way to Albertson's. I stopped at one place and bought 2 clipboards to make into altered clipboards and a Roald Dahl book for my collection for a quarter each. At this sale I noticed they had 18 of these separated into lots of 6 and priced at $10 for each half dozen. I wasn't sure how well they sold and I only had $15 cash on me so I passed them up, but I kept thinking about them. It's times like these that I wish I knew how to use the internet from my cell phone.

I was close enough that I ran home and looked up Completed Listings on eBay for similar mugs and when I saw the totals in the $100 range, I grabbed a twenty and jumped back in the car. I'm sure I drove well above the speed limit in our neighborhood trying to get back there, because I was so anxious that someone else would snatch them up before I got back! Lucky for me, they were still there and I handed over my $30 without even bothering to haggle.

After I had my mugs stowed safely in my trunk I headed to Albertson's because they're doing their big 10/$15 sale on cereal and many other items. If you buy 10 of the sale items at once, you get an extra $5 off so that makes each item only a dollar apiece! I harbor a not-so-secret obsession with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and it happens to be one of the cereals on sale, so I stock up whenever they have this sale. I was down to 2 boxes but thanks to my shopping spree today, my stock is now at a healthy 17 boxes (eek!). If the Apocalypse comes, at least I'll have good breakfast.

I bought a few other things as well, enough to make 20 items so I'd get the extra $10 off. I also had a coupon for $1.00 off 3 boxes of cereal to use. Once I had paid, the checker handed me one of those coupons that prints at the register that was good for $2 off 5 boxes of the same cereal I'd just bought. So I walked over and grabbed 5 more boxes, because 5 x $1.50=$7.50 and $7.50-$2.00=$5.50 so that made each box $1.10 each, almost as good as the previous deal! And then when I bought those, the checker handed me another $2 off coupon! At that point Maren was behaving like the offspring of an unholy mating between an octopus and a rabid badger so I had to go, but I may just go back and use my new coupon on 5 more boxes of cereal.

If I had known I was going to get that printout coupon, I'd have separated my first order into two groups of 10. I would have gotten the coupon after paying for the first 10, and then I could have applied it towards the second 10, making them $.80 apiece. (Yes, I thought about this the whole way home.) Ah well. My neighbor said that she and a friend have a little competition whenever Albertson's runs this sale to see who can save the most money. She said her order total was something like $100 but with the savings, the store owed her $4! The friend had an order in the $50 range and with the sales she ended up getting $3 back. That's hardcore, man. Makes me get a little tear in my eye.

Maren's had quite a morning, too. Aside from acting like a rabid octo-badger in the grocery store, she also managed to climb from her high chair to one of the kitchen chairs, and let herself down. I left her in there eating grapes and came into the office to check my email. Seeing her toddle in, knowing that I'd just left her in the high chair and realizing what she'd done definitely qualified for an "oh sh!t" moment. Sometimes I fear that Quin and I are losing the battle of wits with this one. Oy.

Not much later I was standing at the sink washing dishes and Maren was fiddling in the trash with Bronco nearby. I looked over to see her holding out a Dr. Pepper can to him and giggling, and in a sickening flash realized that she was holding the can that I had poured the used oil into after cooking last night's dinner of homemade coconut shrimp. I'd placed it in the trash upright so the oil wouldn't spill into the rest of the bag, but apparently I'd left it just within Octo-baby's reach and she expertly honed in on the one thing in the trash that would make the biggest mess in the least amount of time. It should be mentioned that prior to washing the dishes, I had just bathed Maren and dressed her in the very cute little t-shirt that I bought at Target last night. That same shirt was now nearly transparent in the front because of the amount of vegetable oil spilled on it, and the front of her hair was matted and glossy from the same. Clothes went in the wash with lots of soap and Maren went directly to her crib for a nap.

Now there is blissful quiet and I can work on my list of Things To Do. I've got to whip up an altered clipboard to show the ladies at church tomorrow, make 3 posters to advertise an upcoming church activity, and did I mention that Quin leaves tomorrow for the next 2 weeks? No more blogging! I've got stuff to do!

Thrift leftovers

Blogger's behaving again, so I can post my last two pictures. At top left is a square throw pillow. The fan fabric on the back caught my eye, because I know I've seen it before on somebody's blog! Can't remember who, however. The front is patchwork and isn't particularly darling, but the fabrics are old. Next is the corner of a cute vintage apron. The fabric is aqua with yellow and red birds on it, and it's finished with orange (?) rickrack. It has a cute shape and I loved the fabric! At the bottom is the corner of a vintage printed tablecloth. It's a small one and I thought it would be perfect for the little table in Maren's room when she gets older and wants to have a tea party.


Last is another reason I should always listen to my Mom! I told her I've been looking at this sequined fruit on eBay for a while and I was actually going to bid on a lot that ended the same day I found these. My mom told me to just keep looking and I'd probably find some at a thrift or garage sale, and she was right! These were $4, which is less than it would have cost to even mail them if I'd bought them off eBay. I'm still on the lookout for a pineapple and some cherries or strawberries, but I think I'll wait on eBay and hope that the thrift gods smile down on me again!

Thrift catch up

I have a wonderful husband. Last Friday he was off of work and he took over Maren duties for most of the day while I went out shopping & running errands. It was so nice to be able to do them alone! I managed to squeeze in a few quick thrifts while I was out so here are a few pictures of my finds, as well as a few things from the past few weeks that I hadn't photographed yet.
At left we have 2 sets of Japanese stacking mugs. I have no idea why I keep buying these; maybe it's because all the cool girls have them, and I want to be like the cool girls. I don't drink coffee or hot chocolate and they don't sell well on eBay, so I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. The bowl is vintage Color Craft aluminum and was 30 cents.
Next up we have 2 vintage Fire-King mugs. Both were 60 cents each and both will go on eBay in a lot of FK mugs I've been collecting. The Jingle Bells were in a bag of other sewing supplies I bought a little while back. The 2 vintage pillowcases will be made into dresses, eventually. The pink one in the front is actually the same as one I bought earlier this summer and made into a dress for a friend's daughter. Funny that I'd find another!

I bought these three flower pins a couple of weeks ago. The pink one isn't vintage (it's Joan Rivers) but I thought it was cute and I am a sucker for polka dots. The gold one has little wires in the middle that are topped with little rhinestones in 2 different shades of green. I thought the greens would be pretty for fall. The one at bottom right is special. It's sterling silver and turquoise and mother of pearl and is marked TAXCO. I haven't been able to figure out who the artist was (it is marked with initials) or an approximate date yet, which I'd like to do before I list it on eBay. It's a pin but also has a loop for hanging from a chain. It's pretty, but not my style so I hope it sells well!

There's more, but Blogger won't cooperate so those will have to wait until another post.

Citius! Altius! Fortius!

This morning Maren and Daddy competed in the first annual Daddy-Daughter Olympics put on by our church at a local park. Despite temperatures hovering around 60 degrees and wet grass leftover from last night's rain, we showed up so that Maren could have her first taste of dominating the competition. Okay, so we knew that Maren would probably be too little to truly compete in most of the events, but we went anyway. Quin wanted to have team uniforms so last night I got out the stamps and acrylic paint and whacked out a couple of shirts to his specifications.
Both of the shirts say "TEAM GERMAN" on the front, Maren's in pink and Quin's in black. We wanted to put "The Destroyer" on the back of Maren's shirt but it was just too long to fit, so we went with this instead:
We thought it appropriate. Maren mostly just wandered around looking adorable and being loved on by the older girls who were there with their dads. We did have to put her sweater back on her after a while because it was just too darn cold, but I think the other teams got the message that the Germans were there and they were ready to win. Here's the back of Quin's shirt:
100% inappropriate for a church activity, right? We thought it was pretty funny. I'm not sure if we amuse anyone else as much as we amuse ourselves? Yeah, probably not.
Unfortunately, we had to leave the Olympics after just 3 of the 5 events and before the lunch. Maren has a drippy nose and a cough as it is, and she was wet from playing in the grass and spilling juice down her front, all of which resulted in a slightly sticky, cold, crabby little girl. It was also getting to be naptime, so we packed up the hound and the baby and came home. We'll probably spend the rest of the day in various states of nappage (Quin, Maren and Bronco) and puttering about the house (Me) until tonight, when we're going over to some friends' house to watch the BYU football team lose. Have a great Saturday!

Feelin' Fruity

These were in a big bag full of cookie cutters that probably cost me 2 or 3 dollars, I can't remember exactly. These of course were my favorites; the others were a bunch more of the type at the bottom in Christmas shapes (boring) and a complete set of 1977 Wilton alphabet cutters. I have a partial set of these from another find; they were part of a larger Sesame Street set. I have the Sesame guys and now I have the complete alphabet! They're the type of plastic cutters that are really useless for cookies, but really great for using with Play-Doh, so they'll get stored in the closet until Maren is old enough to play with it and not eat it.

This last item will probably get me made fun of by my Mom and most definitely my husband. It's a necklace of plastic beads with little plastic fruit charms. I loved the little fruits and bought it with the intention of taking them off and using them for other things, but I'm almost tempted to leave the necklace as is and wear it when I'm feeling particularly brave and Carmen Miranda-ish!

I think I'm in a kitschy fruit state of mind since I've been obsessed with things like this on eBay lately. I caved and bought myself a set of the beaded fruit and promptly got a snarky comment about my fruit and velvet Jesus paintings from Quin. I don't care; I love it! I didn't realize until I got my beaded fruit that not all of it is sequined also, so right now I'm on the lookout for some of that type. If you're going to do kitsch, do it all the way!

A few more thrift treasures from the weekend spree. All of these were in big bags o' stuff that I bought at the thrift for a couple of dollars apiece. Most of the time there's one great thing in the bag and the rest is a bunch of junk, and I have a hard time spending 2-4 dollars for that one item when I know I'll just be donating the rest back. I got lucky this time and the bags had lots of good stuff in them! One bag had these vintage Jello molds and the vintage sifter with the painted handle, along with a set of Tupperwear S&P shakers that I'll try to sell, a set of interlocking travel toiletry bottles and this Rubbermaid thing that fits in the corner of the dishwasher. The little Jello molds look so cute when you put a lit tealight candle in them because the metal reflects the light and you get a really pretty, soft glow. I have them all lined up on my kitchen windowsill with little red candles in them and they make me so happy to see!
This next grouping came from 2 bags: the silver baby cup and the medicine spoon in one bag and the old packages in another. The silver cup was completely black with tarnish and I worried that the silverplate finish might be ruined, but a little silver polish and a lot of scrubbing took all that nasty tarnish off and there is a darling little cup underneath! Don't know that it's very old and it wasn't engraved, but I love it. The old packages were in one bag (at $6 my most expensive buy) and they are neat! There is a tin of Mirro coffee pot cleaner that is still full, a box of birthday candles, a Piper Heidsieck tobacco tin and an old prescription pillbox. There was also an old Army bandage I forgot to photograph.

The little birthday candle box is adorable! It even had a few old pink birthday candles inside, although they've melted into a clump. The box opens like a matchbox and has the most adorable graphic on the back. From the style of illustration it looks like maybe it's from the 1930s or 40s. LOVE IT. This would make the neatest little holder for a teeny tiny birthday card or accordion album.

This is the inside of the pillbox. It's from a pharmacy in downtown Denver, no idea if it still exists. I didn't realize that prescriptions didn't always come in bottles! Never thought about pills coming in little boxes like this one. It has a date of 11-17-54. This would also make a cute little holder for an album or a card, but I'm not sure I could bear to part with either this or the birthday candle box. I don't know what I'll do with them, but I feel the need to squirrel them away for a while until I decide.

In a little while I have to load up the baby and the dog and head to Petco, where Bronco has an appointment to be washed and brushed. He's shedding like crazy and he hasn't had a bath in the longest time so I'm glad to have it done. I vacuumed very thoroughly yesterday morning and there are already clumps of dog hair all over the wood floor and it's making me CRAZY. I love our dog, but sometimes I'd like to just shave him bald. Poor Quin, he probably thinks the same thing about me sometimes!