It's been a while, hasn't it? Last night I returned from nearly two weeks spent visiting family in Utah. I don't think I've been away from home so long in six or more years! Maren goes to a year-round school and is now off-track and we had a few other things scheduled, so we decided to pack up and hang out with the grandparents for a while. It was really, really lovely--we did so many fun things and it was nice to escape from my real life here for a bit.

Now I'm home and faced with unpacking bags and boxes and mold in the laundry room and no food in the fridge, so until I'm organized enough to post photos of my own, you can check out one of the things I did while I was in UT by clicking on any of the links below:

Liz

Rhonna1
Rhonna2

Yep, it was as magical as it looked...

Estate sale finds

Don't have much to share today, I'm afraid, other than a few more items I picked up at the bad vibe estate sale.

I love this blue and red floral fabric--it reminds me of aprons and printed tablecloths. The number card is aged to that perfect shade of creamy beige. The squares are all perforated and must have been used for pricing or store signs or something. I like it just the way it is--no intentions to tear it all apart here.

For someone who doesn't sew, I'm turning into quite the little fabric hoarder lately. This was from a shirt box full of old fabric scraps. Once I saw the little bunny prints I knew it was worth the $2 price. Don't know what I'll do with it, but it's darn cute.

We're headed to Utah to visit family for a while as Maren will be off-track (she goes to year-round school, and starting Monday has a three-week break). We have some fun things planned so maybe I can blog a bit while I'm gone. Hope you all have a lovely long weekend!

Stuff I've made: Quick-change corsage necklace

This is a project I did months ago but I never showed it here. When I saw this Quick Change Corsage Necklace project over on The Polka Dot Chair, I knew it was something I wanted to make! In fact, I invited a few friends to make one with me and we happily crafted for a few hours while our kids played.

I used Melissa's tutorials for making the necklace, so I won't reprint that here. I used chains purchased at Michael's (they had a much better selection than JoAnn's); they're fairly inexpensive but they frequently go on sale or you can always use a 40% off coupon to make them an even better price.

I used a different method from Melissa to make my flowers. I used my Big Shot die cutting machine and this Bigz Flower Foldz die from Stampin' Up! to cut flowers from fabric and stacked them up and stitched through them to make the flower. The big white flower in the photo is actually a silk flower from the craft store--I simply removed the plastic stamen thingy and replaced it with a gorgeous pearly vintage button instead.

I gave my necklaces and flowers away, so now I need to make more for myself. Maybe some fall flowers in wool felt, corduroy, tweed or leather? These make great little gifts! They're easy and affordable and it's fun to be able to change out the flowers to match your outfit. Because the flowers have a pin back, they can also be worn without the necklace as well. Thanks to Melissa for a great tutorial!

Vintage shipping tag birth announcement

Thank you all for the sweet comments about my laundry room. Now that it's done, I have a grand total of two fully decorated rooms in the house. And we've lived here for 6 years. See what I mean about nothing getting done around here? The only rooms that are DONE are the laundry room and the guest room, which are not coincidentally small rooms that we are rarely in and that I have total design control over, without having to satisfy anyone else's desires or sensibilities other than my own. The rest of the house is a lot more challenging.

Today I wanted to share a bit of ephemera. I picked it up at the bad vibe estate sale from a few weeks ago. The woman who lived in this house must have literally saved every single letter or card she had ever received--I've never seen anything like it. Her husband was a pastor and therefore must have known a lot of people, many of whom sent cards and announcements and I think they kept them all. An ephemera-lover's dream, that was. It was really overwhelming to go through all that old paper but I did find this little treat, the cutest darn birth announcement I've ever seen. Here's the address side:

And here's the information side.

So cute, right? Be sure to click on it to enlarge the picture so you can read it. It really is on a normal-sized shipping tag!

You could do the same thing and it would be just as cute today, 56 years later. Of course the USPS wouldn't be thrilled to have you send a shipping tag with a string attached through all of their machinery, but you could slip it into a clear cellophane envelope and send it through the mail to delighted recipients. Maybe for my next baby? I didn't send out announcements with the first two, but this idea is so darn cute that I might not be able to pass it up! (and no, I'm not expecting!)

Laundry Room redo

The computer situation got worse before it got better. By Wednesday night, I'd successfully installed my camera software so I could download my photos. I also clicked an "Okay" button before reading the contents of a dialog box completely, resulting in a glitch that made it so that every single .exe program on my profile (that's most of them, friends) tried to open in Adobe Reader. Thankfully The Mister's profile was untouched and I was able to figure it all out after a few days of (again) mourning the loss of all my bookmarks. Seriously, this computer thing has been one ridiculous frustration after another. I still haven't figured out the iTunes problem and right now I just don't have the brain energy to Google all over the place trying to figure it out.

The good news is that after I got things fixed I was able to successfully reinstall the camera software and download the pictures that had been languishing on my memory card, so today I have photos of my laundry room redo to share! (apologies up front for the wonky colors--the laundry room is in my basement so the lighting is always bad. I tried to tweak the photos so they're closer to true colors but I'm not sure how successful that was.)

I was inspired to redecorate my laundry room by this:

This is the fabric on my ironing board cover. Isn't it cute? My mom gave this to me for Christmas two years ago and I was delighted to receive it! You wouldn't think an ironing board cover would inspire such joy, but I find that many of my favorite gifts are things that I never would have thought to buy for myself but that I am tickled to have. A cute ironing board cover falls squarely into that category for me.

Last year sometime I decided I needed more laundry baskets so I took a trip to The Container Store to find something fun. While there, I remembered my cute ironing board cover and decided to look for something to match. I couldn't remember the colors in the fabric other than pink and green, so I chose turquoise blue for the third basket.

Even though the blue wasn't actually in the fabric, it was a great jumping off point for some other decor. I purchased a pair of inexpensive shelves at Target to hang on the big empty wall above the ironing board.

I also purchased a cute vinyl floral design from Stampin' Up! that was in the perfect colors to match the ironing board cover. My intention was to put it on the wall above the lower shelf so it looked a bit like it was sitting on the shelf. Except--in my laundry room the walls are heavily textured, and the vinyl wouldn't stay adhered to the wall. Boo!

(Sidenote: This is a prime example of what seems to happen with every home improvement project that I try--I get all excited, start, and then get sidelined by some stupid problem that is going to be SO much harder to fix than the project would have been in the first place. Happens EVERY time, I swear. Which is why I started this project months ago and am just now getting finished. And why nothing else ever gets done around here.)

My original thought was that I was going to have to cut a piece of wood, paint it, and then put the vinyl on that. Which meant finding a piece of wood, and someone to cut it for me. Which meant that it didn't happen. I was talking about the problem to my mom, who wisely suggested that I try putting the vinyl on an artist's canvas instead. Brilliant! Now why didn't I think of that in the first place? I bought a huge canvas at the craft store and spray painted it turquoise--Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze, to be exact--with a can of paint I had leftover from another project, and happens to match the turquoise laundry basket. The vinyl applied easily to the painted canvas, and then I remembered that I had some large thrifted frames in my stash and most serendipitously, found one that fit the canvas perfectly! It got a coating of Rust-oleum Berry Pink to match the hot pink vinyl flowers and the pink in the fabric.

While I was rummaging through the frames, I found another large one that I thought might be fun on another big empty wall. This one got a coat of the Blue Ocean Breeze and I set about to find something to go inside it. I looked through my old magazines and found a really neat old Tide ad, but the page was an odd size so finding a frame would have been impossible. I remembered a vintage advertising calendar I saved from a few years ago (I save all our family calendars--I figure they're a good reference and kind of like a diary). There I found an ad for Dash detergent and better yet, the bright pink and yellow in the ad were a perfect match to my fabric! I trimmed it out of the calendar and hunted through my house for a frame. I only found one that was the right size and it's not my ideal, but it was free and once I sprayed it with Berry Pink it did the trick.

Now that I had art on the walls, the next thing was the window. My laundry room is in the basement so the only window is below ground and there's a window well right outside. Covering up the window to keep out the light or provide privacy wasn't a requirement but I thought a valance would be fun to soften the hard edges and add more color. I looked through my collections to see if I could find something fun to use: aprons, vintage tablecloths, even hankies, but nothing I had was in the right colors. I didn't want to make anything or spend much money, so I hit the thrift stores and found the perfect bright pink homemade valance--it even has white ball fringe on the bottom! It's lined too, and for $2.99 I couldn't have made anything that cute. I hung it on a black curtain rod that I took down from my bedroom--since I'm redecorating in there, the black rods won't be needed. I did have to buy two sets of black ring clips but found some on clearance at JoAnn's for $2.99 per package.

For the window, I used a vinyl bejeweled chandelier from House of 3. I've had these for a while too--they won't stick on my walls either (blast my stupid orange-peel wall texture!) but they adhere perfectly to glass! Who doesn't wish for a little bit of glam to dress up the mundane task of laundry? As an added bonus, they distract the eye from the dying aspen suckers and dead spiders in the window well.

The last thing on my list was finding something cute to hold my laundry products. I love these big lidded Anchor-Hocking jars from Target so I bought the largest one to hold my Tide and the middle-sized jar to hold my OxiClean. I found another middle-sized jar at the thrift, so that one now holds my Borax, and I'm holding out hope that I can find one more matching jar to hold the Biz I just bought because I've heard it's great for getting stains out of vintage linens.

To dress up the jars and keep from getting them mixed up (all those white powders look the same), I ordered vinyl lettering from my cute friend Amy at Words and Wisdom. It was so easy to put it on the jars and I love how it turned out! A little tip to keep the letters straight:

I used a ruler and a dry-erase marker to make dashes at a uniform height around the jar. Then I stuck the vinyl on, keeping the bottom edge of the letters on the lines. When I pulled off the top sheet, many of the marks stuck to it but any that remained easily wiped off with a tissue. To scoop my powders I use brightly-colored vintage aluminum measuring cups that I thrifted at some point.

I am pleased with how the room came out, especially since I was able to use things that I already had around the house or items that were thrifted or purchased very inexpensively. I'm not going to go so far as to say that it makes me want to do the laundry, but having a cute room to do it in definitely makes the task more pleasant!

WFMW: corraling computer cords

Thank you for your responses on my post yesterday about whether I should keep or toss the DVD and CD cases. I'd still love to hear from more of you, so feel free to leave a comment on this post or the last one!

Last week I was computer-less for three days while our machine was in the shop being completely upgraded. I mentioned this last week when I was afraid I'd lost all my Firefox bookmarks. I finally figured out how to retrieve them (Kiss my brain!) but I still haven't figured out how to bring over all of my iTunes music. I also have to reinstall all of my downloaded fonts and other programs, one of which is the program that downloads and manages photos from my camera. Unfortunately, the cute pictures of my redecorated laundry room are being held hostage on my camera and I'll have to wait to share them with you.

Until then, I want to join up with Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family with a tip involving computers and cameras. Our computer desk is always a mess but there are a few things we use often--the cord to connect our iPods to the computer for charging and the cord to connect the camera to the computer for downloading photos. They were getting tangled and misplaced, so I had the idea to use one of my favorite gadgets to corral them.

I stuck small 3M Command adhesive hooks on the inside of the door that covers the cabinet where the computer tower is kept. Each cord is wound loosely and hung on a hook, so when the door is closed they are kept neat and they are always close at hand, plus there's less clutter on the computer desk surface! It's not fancy, but it does the job and the Command hooks are easily removable at any time.

Be sure to visit We are THAT Family for 200 more WFMW tips!

Jewel cases & DVD cases: keep or toss?

In my seemingly-never-ending quest to reduce the sheer amount of STUFF around here, one of the things I've been thinking about lately is our media, specifically our DVDs and CDs.

 We were storing the DVDs in the bottom cabinet of our TV stand, but Porter learned early on that pulling each and every one out and strewing it on the floor was unparalleled fun. Picking all of those up a few dozen times made it an easy decision to get rid of the DVD boxes and consolidate the kid DVD collection into one of those big CD books that I purchased at Best Buy. I love that all of the kid movies are in one place and easily accessible, and they take up a fraction of the space now.

But here's the thing--I didn't get rid of all of the DVD cases. I  recycled about 2/3 of them, but the rest I threw in a box in the basement. The DVD cases that I kept are those for our Disney movies and those that held collections of DVDs, like our Looney Toons sets. I guess my thinking in keeping those was that I might need them someday if I ever wanted to sell the movies. Now there's one more box in the basement to deal with, so I don't think I totally achieved my goal. Essentially, I only shifted my clutter to a different floor of the house.

So here's where I need your help--talk me out of keeping them! Help me let them go. Convince me that it's okay to get rid of the cases, that by the time my kids have outgrown the movies, it's likely that the discs will be so scratched up that selling them is out of the question anyhow. Or, convince me that I should keep them--have you ever gotten rid of a DVD case and regretted it later?

If I can move past my hangup with the DVD cases, my next mission will be to consolidate the CDs. I've thought about ditching the jewel cases in the past, but have never been able to bring myself to do it because I don't want to lose the album artwork. I would keep the little booklets that come with each CD and place them in the binder with the discs, but I'm still having a hard time convincing myself to make the break. I've read that some organizational gurus suggest getting rid of the CDs themselves, with the assumption that most people have all of their music loaded on their computers anyway, but I think that's a foolish idea--anyone who has ever had a hard drive die, taking with it all of their files & photos knows how devastating that could be.

Have any of you gotten rid of your CD jewel cases and just kept your discs in a binder? Have you ever regretted it?

Delicious and Simply Adorned

Phew, I'm back! I've been without my computer for the past three days and I felt like one of my appendages was missing. :) Yes, I'm addicted--but I use the computer all day long--yes, checking my email and Facebook and blogs are part of that, but I also pay bills, look up phone numbers and operating times, recipes, photos, etc. etc. all day long so to be without that was annoying. I was able to check up on my email & blogs with my iTouch, but typing anything on that tiny thing is an exercise in frustration so I'm SO glad to have the ol' compy back, updated with a super-speedy processor and roomy new hard drive.

The bad news--I fear I've lost all of my bookmarks! It never occurred to me that I might lose them so I never thought to make a backup. Which is SO stupid, because I've been signed up with delicious for a couple of years now. delicious is a great idea--it's a place to keep all of your bookmarks organized online, which is really handy if you're not on your home computer and need to access a bookmarked site, or if you take your computer in to the shop be worked on and lose your bookmarks in the process. Argh! I got lazy and stopped saving all of my new bookmarks to delicious a while back so even though I still have some of my older bookmarks saved, all of the new ones have gone *poof*. So, friends, learn from my mistake--sign up with delicious today and be vigilant about saving your bookmarks to it as well. You can bet I will be better at it from now on!

Even though it's been several weeks since I celebrated my birthday, I wanted to show you one of my favorite birthday gifts--this Simply Adorned necklace that my mom made for me.

The Simply Adorned line from Stampin' Up! is a range of jewelry that you can personalize. The pendants look a bit like the soldered glass pendants that are so popular right now--they have a nickel-plated frame and beveled glass in the front and come in several different sizes (mine is 1" x 1-1/4" and the necklace also has the tiny 5/8" circle charm and the Vanilla Pearl Bauble).

The neatest feature is that they are actually hinged like a locket, so the charm opens up! And that means that they can be personalized and you can switch out the artwork inside whenever you fancy.

My mom made several different little pieces of art that I can put in my charms--can't wait to wear those cute Halloween designs! It's easy to make the art because it's small and you only need a few scraps of paper, so it's not intimidating like a big canvas might be. And just think of all the possibilities for things we vintage-lovers could tuck inside: bits of ledger paper, old photos, sheet music, book illustrations, playing cards, Victorian scrap, a lock of hair, doilies, scraps of lace, pressed flowers, maps, ribbons...you name it! I even have some thin vintage shell buttons that I believe I'll try.

The charms and chain are really lovely and the quality is great. They'd make a great gift--I can attest to that! If you're interested in ordering one, you can contact your local Stampin' Up! demonstrator and place an order through her. If you don't have a local demonstrator, you can go to my mom's Stampin' Up! page and she can help you.

Have a good weekend! I'll be spending mine trying to remember bookmarks. Ugh.

Crafty stuff: Paper Bag wreath

Several months ago, I saved this wreath in my Crafts to Try folder, and I finally got around to doing it this past weekend.

The original wreath was posted on MaryJanes and Galoshes, and I followed the tutorial there exactly, so I won't rehash that here. The only thing I did differently was that I first wrapped my wreath form with long strips of a paper sack that I cut apart. The wreath form I used was green and I didn't like that it showed through, plus it gave a better look to the back and I didn't have to worry about the hot glue melting the foam.

I used a scalloped circle punch from Stampin' Up! that was 2 3/8" in diameter and a foam wreath form from Dollar Tree. I bought a big bag of brown paper lunch sacks at the thrift store for less than $2. I bought them a while ago with this particular project in mind.

The wreath used fewer scalloped circles than I estimated. In fact, I had enough cut out to make two wreaths and I still have some left over. I was able to punch 12 circles from each lunch sack and I probably punched around twenty sacks. I bunched mine closer together on the wreath form, more like the version on Crazy Daisy than the version on MJ and G.

The only thing I haven't done is add the butterflies. I love how the butterflies look on the original wreath--I love the contrast of the bold outlines and color with the ruffly paper sacks. However, I think that the butterflies are not quite right for the season, since we're going into Autumn. I thought I'd ask you all for suggestions as to what I should put on the wreath instead--should I go with the butterflies, or is there something Autumnal or Halloweeny I could use instead like leaves or acorns or pumpkins? What do think?

Now that I look at my photos again, I think I need to try a version using scalloped circles punched out of book pages instead of the brown paper sacks. Maybe black and white text with glittery black bats would be neat for Halloween....hmm....looks like I need another trip to the Dollar Store for wreath forms and hot glue sticks!

Porter at 11 months

I missed posting Porter's 10-month update. The most significant thing that happened is that he learned to walk! Porter actually took his first steps on July 15, two days before he hit the 10-month mark so technically, he learned to walk at 9 months. It didn't take him more than a few days to get the walking thing down, and by two weeks after that he was walking all of the time, rather than half walk/half crawl. Now--he runs! I just bought him his first pair of shoes (little brown leather sandals) so he can run around outside.

Here are a few more things about Porter at 11 months:

In addition to running and walking everywhere, Porter can climb like a little monkey! He can climb atop any chair in the house, which means that nothing is safe anymore. Today he was sitting with my dad at the table and in a flash, he was on top of the kitchen table! And then he was so proud of his new trick that he proceeded to do it again and again when we weren't looking.

Obviously because he can walk so well and pull himself up on anything, Porter is very strong. He's not really chubby, but he is solid. He already has a little baby lat spread. :)

Porter has started making this funny squinty face lately. Cracks me up!

To fuel all of his climbing and tumbling and running, Porter still loves to eat. The only thing we've fed him that he has ever spit out in distaste is feta cheese, and I can't fault him for that.

Porter stuck on the table, mad that I'm taking photos instead of getting him down

Porter still adores Maren. She is so good with him and loves him right back. She plays and wrestles with him and he just loves it!

Porter three days after he started walking

Porter still loves bath time, but he's not as fond of swimming. He tries to climb out of the floaty but isn't quite steady enough for the baby pool, so I have to have a hand on him at all times. I thought he'd enjoy swimming more than he does. Oh well.

Porter at the Southlands fountains

Porter continues to look just like his daddy. I recently found The Mister's certificate of citizenship that has a photo of him at age 18 months. The Mister had blond hair but otherwise Porter is absolutely identical to him!

Porter has six teeth: the two on the bottom and then four on top. Chomp!

Porter today, August 16

We love Porter so much and love the personality he adds to our family. I can't believe he's almost a year old! Because he crawled so early it didn't seem like he was a baby for very long at all. He's already a toddler and now nothing is safe! :) Life with him will be anything but quiet, that's for certain!

I'm busy crafting (still working on the Craft ADD piles from the weekend), so I don't have anything to post today except a picture of buttons.

Mmm....vintage buttons. Thrifted vintage buttons. Cheap thrifted vintage buttons, to be exact. My favorites are the pink ones on the card, but I do love that pile of yummy white shell buttons up in the corner. Which would you rather have: a pile of vintage buttons, or a pile of M&Ms? I think it's pretty obvious what my answer is.

Estate sale finds and cute shoes

Whew. Thanks for your commiserating comments on my last post. Let me say that I've been to plenty of estate sales, but I guess I've had the good fortune that they are usually far more fun than the two I experienced this week. I've found a particular local estate sale company who I really like--their prices are super, their sales well-organized and well-advertised, and the vibe is fun and not super-competitive and grabby. I guess I've been spoiled by them! I think maybe I'll just stick to their sales from now on.

Photographic evidence that you don't always have to be the first person in the door to find goodies at an estate sale:

The Hires crate was from a sale put on by my favorite company. It was $3 and I dragged it out of the garage well into the afternoon of the first day. For my three bucks I also got dozens of spider egg sacs (shiver) and enough dirt that it left a rectangular dirty spot on both the floor of my trunk and the ground (gag). But I love the orange lettering (which you can barely see)--I think it will be perfect for Halloween! The Red Cross Paris map, Swiss postcards, and ornaments were from another sale. The bag of turquoise glass bead garland was from the thrift (seriously! You'd better believe I searched every single rack to see if I could find any more) and I love the old Pyrex labware bottle, which I also found at a thrift. That will be fun for Halloween too.

After I hit "Publish" on my rant yesterday, I cooled down a bit and then lifted my spirits in one of the surest ways I know: cute shoes!

Cheap cute shoes, because I do have a parking ticket to pay, after all. These are from Payless, where there's a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale going right now, plus I had a 20% off coupon as well so they were even a better deal. They're so cute they almost make me wish it was Fall. Almost. Not quite.

What are your plans for the weekend? Mine include cleaning up the messes I've left on every horizontal surface in the house. My Craft & Decorating ADD has reared its ugly head this week and my poor house is littered with half-finished projects. My dad is coming to visit for a few days and it would be nice if we could actually use the kitchen table for eating. Crazy, I know.

PS--I took the plunge and bought myself a domain name! I don't think it should be any different if you're seeing this through a reader, but if you want to visit my blog you can use either the old address http://frauleinh.blogspot.com or my new domain, http://themerrymagpievintage.com. Next up--trying to figure out how to add pages to my blog.

When estate sales go bad: a long vent

Two days of craptastic estate sales, which would not normally be cause to make me so cranky but I think those coupled with the wind and heat today, the mess in my house, the baby who is being too needy and the DOG HAIR EVERYWHERE are just combining into a big black cloud over my head.

Yesterday's craptastic estate sale: I signed up to receive emails from estatesales.net and got this notification for a rare Wednesday sale. Go ahead and read the ad and see if you're not drooling like I was. It's okay, I'll wait.

Back? Drooling? Thought you would be. I got a babysitter for Porter (because I knew I'd need two hands at this sale) and arranged for Maren to go home after school with a friend in case I was late. Drove WAY downtown, parked several blocks away, and got there just minutes before the scheduled 2:00 pm opening to find probably 50 or more people already waiting. There was a sign-up list, but it was cut off at 1:45 and the porch was so packed I couldn't have gotten to it anyway. They started letting people in off the list, 10 or so at a time. I finally got in, and the place was a madhouse. Teeny-tiny house, probably built in the 1930s or 40s, no A/C, and PACKED TO THE GILLS with neat old stuff, just like the ad promised. Except that all that stuff had already been snatched up by the people in front of me so I had the pleasure of watching everybody walk around with goodies, while I tried to find anything that might have been overlooked. I found a few things (emphasis on few) and finally went to stand in line. The line was all through the house. One room had a window A/C unit so it was cool in that room, at least.

I waited in line to pay for at least 30 minutes. Only one woman was taking money and apparently she was having long conversations with everybody or something because it took forever. The prices were no bargain, and I didn't even have anything that great, so I'm not sure why I didn't just drop it all and leave. Maybe I felt like I was already so committed that I might as well stay. The woman behind me in line had three huge boxes of GOOD loot. Amazing stuff, the stuff I would have grabbed if she hadn't gotten to it first. The prices were high to me but she is a dealer and so I'm sure she'll mark it up a whole bunch. Glad that at least she was behind me in line instead of in front of me, because I'm sure she had several hundred dollars' worth of merch in those boxes, and I heard her say as I left that she'd left her money in the car. What?

I finally got out of there, ran to my car and cranked the A/C and drove through horrid traffic home to pick up Maren. And the more I've thought about that sale, the more I have realized how NOT FUN it was. Junking should be fun for me, and that wasn't it. I hated seeing everyone get to all the good stuff before I did. That may sound petty, but it's true. There was just not a good vibe in that sale at all. It felt competitive and greedy and ugly and stressful. There were people switching price tags and people being crabby to each other in line and it was just bad, bad, bad.

I had hopes that today's sale would be better. It was closer, and I could take Porter and save the expense of paying another sitter. The ad sounded promising (a pink fridge? yes please!) and I drove over after dropping Maren at school. Whoever writes their ads has a promising career in fiction-writing, at least. There was no vintage clothing--that to me implies a certain amount of coolness. Yesterday's sale had vintage clothing. Cool vintage clothing that I'd wear today if it fit me. Today's sale had the ugliest stuff your grandma has in her closet that she's never thrown away for the past 30 years. There was a ton of fabric, and a cool pink kitchen, but the basement was horridly stinky. I stayed down there for longer than I should have--it was the kind of sale where you think there should have been something neat, if you just kept looking, but sadly there just wasn't. And now I have that stink in my nose and I think I may have to go wash my hair and change my clothes to get rid of it.

I paid for my meager finds, only to go to my car and find A PARKING TICKET. Way to add insult to injury. Apparently the City and County of Denver is making up their budget shortfall by writing parking tickets to people who have the temerity to park 6" further than the curb than the law allows. This was in a residential neighborhood, mind you--with nice wide streets and hardly anybody around. Do you have parking cops in your neighborhood, whipping out their yardsticks and counting infractions in inches? Because the City and County of Denver certainly does. And woe be unto anyone from the surrounding suburbs, who isn't versed in the parking regulations of every single municipality in this huge metro area in which they might find themselves. Because now, today's junk just cost me an extra $25.

So yeah, it isn't always vintage Christmas goodies and old tablecloths. Sometimes it just sucks.

Etsy spotlight: BiblioBags

I first met Autumn when we both lived in Savannah, GA. I was newly married and I think she was too, and we went to church together. That was such a fun time in my life--there were more than a dozen young married couples in that ward, all of us transplanted from different places, all of us hundreds or thousands of miles away from our extended families. Most of the husbands were either in the military (like mine) or going to SCAD or one of the other colleges in the area, which meant they were often gone or busy with schoolwork. The wives either worked (like me) or went to school or stayed home with their new babies. We became each other's families for a little while.

We moved from Savannah to Colorado six years ago but I was able to reconnect with Autumn through the wonders of The Book. She recently started an etsy shop called BiblioBags and I love what she makes so much that I wanted to share it with all of you.

Autumn makes book bags. Not bags to hold your books--bags made from books! Autumn takes new and vintage books and transforms them into the cutest darn purses you've ever seen!

Little Women purse with handmade cameo button

Since most books aren't thick enough to make a purse that would hold much, Autumn modifies and reinforces the spines to make them wider and stronger. The books are lined with coordinating fabric and she even includes pockets to hold your cell phone and credit card slots.

1960s Secretary purse

For many of the purses, Autumn has even sculpted custom closure buttons made from clay to match the theme of the book, like the nautilus shell she made for her 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea bag:

I adore this Audrey Hepburn bag. Isn't her photo styling cute, with the Audrey-esque skinny black jeans and black ballet flats?

Audrey Hepburn book purse

But I think my favorite is this adorable Nancy Drew clutch. This should be no surprise since I recently posted my love for Ms. Drew.

In addition to the book bags, Autumn also makes cute 3-D paper sculpture greeting cards (she's offering free shipping on her cards right now!) And if have a beloved book or want a unique gift, she even accepts custom orders. Go check her out!

Some Enchanted Evening

On Wednesday night, The Mister and I got fancied up and headed downtown to watch the traveling Broadway production of South Pacific. This was something I'd been looking forward to since we heard the 2010 theater line-up at the end of last year! I've loved the music of South Pacific since I was a kid--my dad had the soundtrack to the 1958 film version and listened to frequently (after he listened to it as a kid), so I learned all the songs.

When the show was revived on Broadway back in 2007, I knew it was something I had to see, and I was thrilled to find out that I could save on an airplane ticket and see it right in my own city.

Most auspiciously, the run was scheduled right during the week of my dad's and my birthdays. Unfortunately, he couldn't come, so I've got my fingers crossed that the tour goes through Salt Lake City next year so he'll have a chance to see it (the show in NYC closes later this month). I was able to score a pair of excellent seats on Craiglist (8th row, smack in the center) the day before the show for a heck of a deal, which made the whole thing even sweeter!

The show was really, really marvelous. If the tour comes through your area, go see it--you won't be sorry! The singing was fabulous (especially the actor who played Emile--he's an opera singer so his deep baritone is rich) and the orchestra was remarkable as well, as they're using Richard Rodgers' original orchestrations and a full pit, rather than the small pit & a synthesizer that most traveling shows these days use. My only regret is that we didn't get to see this guy:

Mr. Schue as Lt. Cable (swoon!) A shirtless Lt. Cable, to be precise. :)

The entertainment continued on the drive home as well: a sold-out Lady Gaga concert was just down the street and the shows got out at roughly the same time. Add that to major construction and lane restriction on the interstate and we had a massive traffic jam as eight lanes of traffic were funneled down to one. It was bumper to bumper for miles--that's not the exciting part, however. We were sitting in traffic and I noticed a police car in front of us. Then I noticed a police car to the side of us. Then all of a sudden, we were literally surrounded by police cars and in a blink, a dozen cops were out of their cars, weapons drawn and pointing at the car that was directly in front of the police car that was in front of us! My gosh, I thought we were going to have to hit the deck to keep from being shot! Thankfully, the suspects in the car complied and everything was peaceful, but it was still startling and that combined with the traffic turned what is normally a 30-minute trip home into nearly two hours.

My actual birthday was Friday. Since we'd had our big date on Wednesday for the show, I opted to keep things quiet and we went out as a family for sushi. The Mister managed to sneak cupcakes from my favorite shop into the sushi restaurant early, and the waitress brought them out after dinner with lit candles. It was a completely delightful surprise--that Mister is a sneaky one! It was a great day and I'm looking forward to year #32!

Enabler Alert: Primitives by Kathy

How do you like my new vintage flower pot? It's about 6" tall and the perfect color of  pale greeney-blue.

Ha! Fooled you. :) It's from Home Goods, though it's made to look vintage. I found it the other day and I adore it! There were two on the shelf and I had the presence of mind to go back for the second, because Rule #1 at Home Goods is the same as Rule #1 at the thrift store: buy it when you see it, because there's a 97% chance if you go back for it, it will be gone.

The marking on the bottom says "Pottery by Kathy Phillips". Apparently this is a division of a line of decor called "Primitives by Kathy".  You can check out their catalog on their website, and  I've seen several of their items before in boutiques and vintage-type stores, even though the brand name was not familiar to me. There is some very, very cute vintage-style Halloween decor that I may just have to order. There's also a line of tableware and there are even a few more cute vintage-style flower pots similar to this one in the clearance section for less than you'd probably pay at Home Goods, if you were even lucky enough to find them.

I Spy

Whenever I get a Pottery Barn catalog in the mail, I like to play a little game. Perhaps you play too?

I pretend I have a zillion dollars to spend. :)

After I've furnished my imaginary country estate, I like to play another game called I Spy. Often, the things that I find most intriguing in the catalog photos are not the items for sale, but rather the props that the photo stylists (who I think are 1. Very Talented and 2. reading the same blogs as the rest of us, given the number of ideas I've seen lifted straight out of blogland) are using to decorate the spaces.

I got a PB Kids catalog a little while ago that was all back-to-school stuff: monogrammed backpacks, ridiculously overpriced lunch sets, etc. I flipped through the catalog quickly because we already had a backpack for Maren, but then I had an I Spy moment when I saw this photo on one of the last pages:

Cute backpacks, right--but I was looking at what they are hanging on. Let's take a closer look:

So darn cute, right? The bright colors of the yardsticks are killing me! And does it remind you of something?

How about the yardstick coat rack that Mandi at Save it For A Rainy Day made a few months ago?

I've been on the lookout for old yardsticks all summer long at the estate sales & antique stores I've visited, but I've only found a few and only one of them is a color. Seeing this cute Pottery Barn coat rack is going to make me redouble my efforts to find the colored sticks for certain!

Apology

I owe you all an apology.

I'm sorry.

You see, if you went out junking last weekend but you weren't able to find anything good, it's totally my fault. I was hogging all the Junk Mojo. Thursday, Friday and Saturday were some kind of non-stop junk bonanza for me, what with estate sales, garage sales and thrift store shopping. It was heady, it was junky, it was heaven. And also, it was a wee bit on the greedy side so this weekend I'm staying home and bequeathing all of my Junk Mojo to the rest of you!

The spoils from last weekend:

You've already seen the two quilts, but they're so pretty let's just have a look at all of that feedsack goodness one more time:

At an estate sale I found another folding ruler, bringing my in-house total to eight. I also picked up a silver cheese server thingy for another project to be shared later, once I actually get around to it. The vintage linens were from a church sale: a printed runner and cloth napkin (which would probably make a darling throw pillow) and a tea tablecloth & matching napkins with pagodas worked in the teeny tiniest of cross stitches.

From the Christmas files, a pile of pink lovelies from a garage sale that looked like nothing special from the curb, reminding me that it's almost always worth a quick look. Also, a pair of quilted satin vanity boxes, headed for etsy.

From the thrift, a set of six darling salad plates in blue with red strips and gold rims, just a few weeks too late but perfect for next year's Fourth of July table. Also, three tiny gold-striped glasses and a handful of colorful vintage plastic clothespins marked Denmark.

A matching Vera tea towel & apron set, a Pyrex bowl and a Fire King bowl that match, and an unused set of NOMA bubble lights.

Not pictured is a vintage glass light fixture and an awesome 5' x 8' space-themed area rug for Porter's room that will be perfect once I get it cleaned.

May the Junk Mojo be with you!