Good Junk: Silver Ice Bucket saga

I found the cutest set of faux vintage flashcards at a scrapbook store recently:

They're by a company called October Afternoon and they were from a line called "The Thrift Shop" that has all sorts of other paper crafting stuff that is just perfect for lovers of both papercrafting and old stuff like me. You can't buy directly from OA's website but you could search for an online scrapbook shop that sells the line.

The cards are punched on one side and come with rings and matching chipboard covers so you could actually turn them into an album--wouldn't they be darling with some photos of your very favorite finds? I especially like the one that says "Good Junk" so I thought I'd make that into a feature on my blog, rather than saving my finds for Thrift Thursday--because sometimes, they're too good to wait until then!

Today's Good Junk is fresh--I just bought it yesterday and I could hardly wait until it was light this morning so I could take photos and tell you my story.

On Wednesday afternoon I took the kids to my favorite thrift store to look for components for my Halloween costume. I've been staying away from the thrifts and estate sales lately because I'm trying to save my spending money for my upcoming trip to London, but since I was already in the store I had to take a look around, right? ;)

I didn't find much but just before we walked out the door something caught my eye. It was an ice bucket, black with tarnish but even though it was behind the counter on a shelf I could make out engraving: somethingsomethingsomething...1950. ~gulp!~ I had the cashier get it for me so I could have a look and read the engraving more clearly:

And I knew then that spending freeze be darned, it would be going home with me! Except for one problem: it wasn't priced, and this thrift has a policy that they won't sell an item if it isn't priced (too many nogoodniks trying to cheat and get lower prices, apparently.) It was obvious that I didn't remove the price because the item had been behind the counter, but even the manager wouldn't help me because the pricers were already gone for the day. What? Noooo!

The clerk said that she'd put the bucket in the back room with the other unpriced items so that the pricers would see it first thing in the morning when they came in at 8:00. Then she advised me to be there when the store opened at 10:00, but she couldn't guarantee that they'd be sure to put it back behind the counter again rather than out on one of the normal shelves.

I drove home, defeated, and plotting what I would do in the morning. Thursday at that thrift store is a day that VIP members can get 25% off, so there are always people waiting to go in when the store opens. I couldn't stand the thought of watching someone get there steps ahead of me and get MY ice bucket, so I made sure that we left the house early so that we could be first in the door. I even briefed Maren on the plan so she'd stay with me and not slow us down by going for a shopping cart first. I was ready to go, but when we arrived a few minutes before 10:00, people were already going in the door

We hurried into the store and went around to where the ice bucket had been the day before, but there was a conspicuously empty spot on the shelf where it should have been. My heart just sank, because I thought someone must have gotten in the door right before me and had snapped it up and worse yet, I'd see them walking around the store with MY ice bucket in their arms (I've had this experience at an estate sale more than once. It stinks.) I asked the clerk if she knew anything about the bucket, and she directed me to her supervisor. I repeated my story, and the supervisor pushed me off to another employee to go ask the pricers in the back room if they had seen it. The pricers said they hadn't seen the bucket that morning, and she apologized and said she didn't know where it could be.

I decided that as a last-ditch effort, I'd walk around the store and look for it on the regular shelves, and told Maren what to look out for so she could help. This thrift is in a space once occupied by a supermarket, so it's HUGE. There are probably 12 long aisles that are jam-packed--and that's just the kitchen and home decor-type items. The ice bucket could have been put down anywhere; it wouldn't necessarily be with the kitchen stuff. And I was still in competition with all of the rest of the shoppers in the store--it was a bit like a junking video game, now that I think about it. New for the XBox and Wii: THRIFT STORE SHOPPER! Navigate the aisles full of people looking for treasures. Obstacles are carts from the employees putting out new merchandise, slow shoppers, a 5-year-old who has to look at everything and a baby who refuses to stay buckled in the cart! Hurry to gather up your vintage goodies before other shoppers snatch them up or before the time limit is up, which is signified by your 5-year-old complaining loudly and your baby screaming!

We looked quickly through all the items but came up empty-handed. I was so disappointed and wished that I'd never even seen the darn thing in the first place and then, but lo--what did I see on a bottom shelf in the kitchen section? It was MY BELOVED BUCKET! I grabbed it up and Maren and I did the Snoopy Dance right there in the middle of the aisle. Our antics were summarily cut short when I realized that the bucket still had not been priced, which meant there was a possibility that the manager would invoke the No-Price-No-Sale rule and refuse to sell it to me AGAIN. And I almost cried.

Thankfully, when I went up to the counter to rehash my story a third time, one of the pricers took pity on me and tossed off a number so I could at least buy the darned thing. I paid for it and was out the door before I could lose it again! I came home and set to work polishing the bucket and the items that were inside: a pair of silver tongs, four tiny silver cups and what I assume is the bottom of a silver cocktail shaker, also engraved.

It took two aluminum foil-baking soda-salt baths to loosen the tarnish and plenty of Wright's Silver Cream and elbow grease to do the rest, but now my pieces are nice and shiny and beautiful again! The silver plate on the cocktail shaker is pitting and it's missing its lid, but I think it will make a darling vase, don't you? I'm assuming the ice bucket once had a lid too, but I don't mind one bit that it's gone because I love the engraving so much.

So that's the Silver Ice Bucket saga. Good junk, indeed.

Halloween craftiness: Candy Corn Wreath

I don't often pay full price for magazines on principle--I either find a super-cheap subscription or I use a 40% off coupon at JoAnns, but when I saw the cover of the October Woman's Day magazine at the grocery store I threw it in my cart without a second thought and happily paid full price.

image copyright Woman's Day magazine

The cover image is of this great candy corn wreath and I thought it would make a fun project for Maren and I to do together. The step-by-step instructions are here on the Woman's Day website, so I won't go through those in detail.

I used a 16" green foam wreath from JoAnn's--it was $7.99, less my 40% off coupon. I got the kind of wreath form that has rounded edges on the front, but the back is flat. I love my Dollar Tree $1 green wreath forms but for this project I wanted a wreath that had some flat space so the candy corn didn't slide off when I laid it out. The instructions suggest to cover your wreath form in black duct tape but I didn't want to waste my good Gorilla Tape, so instead I covered the wreath form with strips of black fabric like I did for my paperback book wreath.

 I used approximately two 22-ounce bags of Brach's candy corn. It's hard to tell exactly how much I used because I let Maren eat some before I started the wreath, and then you have to pick out the wonky corns as well. I did end up opening a third bag but I was only short by about 20 corns, so I know if we hadn't eaten any beforehand two bags would have been plenty.

I did place out my candy corns before gluing like the instructions suggested, but I only did one ring at a time. I put my hot glue on the candy itself rather than the wreath so that it wouldn't show. It was really quite easy--Maren helped me lay out the corns, then I glued them down.

I had one big issue that makes my wreath look different from the one on the magazine cover. On the WD version, all of the orange middles of the candy line up, giving it a really symmetrical look, kind of like spokes radiating out from the center. The corns aren't necessarily touching head-to-toe; there are some gaps between them so that the orange middles will line up but the gaps are pretty small, which means that all the candy corns were just about the same size.

When I laid out my first ring (and I started from the center out), I put them head-to-toe. When I laid out the second ring, I put them head-to-toe going the other direction, but because of the bigger ring and the variation in the size of the corns, the oranges didn't necessarily line up. By the third ring I realized that my wreath didn't look as neat as the WD version, and I tried to do a better job of lining up the oranges rather than having the corns touch. That worked at first, but after a while it resulted in some pretty big gaps where the black showed through, and that bugged me. So then I went back to doing the head-to-toe again. In some place the oranges line up, and in some places they don't.

I do like how tidy the rows of candy corn on the WD wreath are, but I'm sure WD has editorial assistants who get paid to make sure all 435 candy corn are exactly the same size, and I'm trying to glue on candy corns in between cooking dinner and shoving snacks at my 13-month-old to keep him from screaming. So my wreath is imperfect, and that's just how it's going to have to be.

I hung my wreath with wide black satin ribbon and I think it's pretty darn cute! I like the bright festive colors but the shape itself is very unfussy; from a distance it makes a really cool pattern and almost looks like it is beaded.

On the Woman's Day website there's an additional page of instructions on how to preserve your candy corn so your wreath will last longer and not end up as insect food. Those weren't in the magazine and involve letting your candy corn dry out for several days, then spraying them on both sides with clear preserving spray. Honestly, that sounds like a giant pain in the bum so I'm glad I skipped it! I might give my wreath a coat or two of clear Krylon spray to make it shinier, but that's only if I can find my spray--I'm not going to go out any buy any specifically for this project. I live in a very dry climate so I don't have to worry about my candy becoming sticky and bugs aren't really an issue for us.

There are some other really cute candy corn craft ideas in that magazine that I'd love to try, like a candy corn garland and cool candy corn balls but I'm not sure if I'll get to those this year--they might have to be on the crafting list for Halloween 2011.

Wardrobe refashion: Cardigans

Last week I showed you the tank tops I did in my recent wardrobe refashioning session, and today I'd like to show you the cardigans I worked on as well.

I purchased three cardis at Target back in August when I found them on clearance. They're perfect for early fall in Colorado because they have sleeves that go to just below the elbow so they're warmer than a t-shirt but not as hot as a full sweater. The first that I worked on was the turquoise cardi:

I purchased the pretty peachy rose trim months ago from this etsy shop and I've been wanting to add it to a shirt, but just never got around to buying matching thread so I could sew it on. I loved how it looked with the turquoise sweater and I couldn't figure out how I would sew it on anyway, so I just took the easy way out and adhered it with fabric glue!

The flowers are sewn together on a strip of peachy tulle, so to add a bit more embellishment I went to my bead stash and found some bright orange seed beads and pretty fire-polished glass beads in the same turquoise as the sweater. I sewed the beads on randomly in little groups and although they're a bit hard to see amid the flowers, I think they add just a little bit of extra sparkle and interest.

Since I used fabric glue, I was a little worried about how well the flower trim would hold up in the wash, and I was careful not to let it dry all the way, but it seems to have come out just fine.

The second cardigan was easy too. For inspiration, I used this cute sweater by Jen at Tatertots and Jello. She in turn used a cardi from Anthropologie for her inspiration and when I was looking at her photos, I remembered that I had some very similar ruffled trim in my stash.

I laid it out on the sweater in a zigzag pattern and pinned it to the sweater, making my zigzags all different widths. Then I took a deep breath and gathered my courage and sewed it straight down the middle of the trim. It was easier than I thought and I love how it turned out and that I was able to utilize more ribbon from my stash.

I still have one more cardi to work on. I saw this cute sweater at White House Black Market back during the summer.

I think it retailed for around $90 and I knew that I could make a similar one for a whole lot less, so I bought a white cardigan with that project in mind. I picked out some vintage black glass buttons from my stash and I need to sew those on the next time I'm watching a movie.

The swirls on top were made from different fabrics and trims and those will be trickier to replicate, but I think I have enough stuff in my stash of fabrics and ribbons that I can come up with something similar. Hopefully I can get around to it soon so I can wear it before real sweater season in Colorado sets in!

The paper bag wreath: Halloween version

Back in August I made a paper bag wreath.

Actually, I made two. Once I got gluing those little flowers it was hard to stop! I loved how it turned out so much that I started thinking about what other kinds of paper I could use to make a wreath besides brown paper sacks, and the first thing that came to my mind was book pages.

One trip to the Dollar Store and $2 later, I came out with another wreath form and a paperback book and plans to make a black and white version of the wreath that would be perfect for Halloween!

I used the same technique as on the brown wreath, but I punched my flowers out of pages torn out of a really bad sci-fi book instead. (I read snippets of the book as I was punching out the flowers and trust me, being made into a wreath was a serious improvement. That thing was dreck.) One small difference from the brown wreath was that I covered the wreath form in strips of black fabric so the green foam wouldn't show through. You could also use black tape, but I had the fabric close at hand so that's what I used.

I liked how the black and white looked on its own, but I wanted to use it for Halloween so I drew some bat shapes with a white pencil on the back of some glittery black cardstock from my stash. I hot-glued them to the wreath and then bent and curled the wings with my fingers to give them a bit of dimension. For the second wreath, I found a package of velvety black diecut Halloween shapes at Michael's. I used the bats again but the package also contained spiders, which would be a fun addition to the wreath with a bit of that cottony fake web stuff stretched across it.

I still love this wreath technique and I wouldn't mind making another one without the shapes because I love the graphic look of the white paper and black text. I'm also thinking of other kinds of paper I could use to make this wreath--white kitchen waxed paper crossed my mind, but I think that might not produce nice clean edges on the punched shapes. What other kinds of paper do you think would make a pretty wreath?

(PS--is anyone still having problems with Blogger's 'new' uploader? Why do I have to reload my photos EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to post one? It didn't start out like this.)

Halloween project: Embellished Soda Carton

Today I have a quick and easy project to share with you. This took about an hour on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

This is simply a six-pack of Orange Crush soda. I covered the cardboard holder in cute My Mind's Eye Halloween paper that I received in a swag bag at Spark in September. I measured the sides of the holder and cut corresponding pieces out of patterned paper, then adhered it right to the cardboard itself. You could probably get away with not measuring and just tracing the shape with a pencil, but I'm picky that way. I used Zip Dry adhesive but I think a glue stick or double-sided tape would have been a bit easier.

The ends of the carton are covered with a coordinating striped paper, since one sheet isn't enough to do all four sides of the box. I also measured roughly and cut a strip to go around each bottle, and used the remaining paper from that to cover the top part where the handle is. I used some of the die cut shapes that came in the package to decorate the sides, tied on a few pieces of ribbon and rickrack from my scrap jar, and now I have a cute little treat to give to a friend, all for the cost of the soda!

Image copyright Stampin' Up! 1990-2010

I love this embellished soda carton from the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog. They have a great package of patterned papers in greens, black and orange with the raven theme, so they've used the Key Lime Stewart's soda to match. To further embellish the soda bottles, they've applied a skull rub-on to the neck of each bottle and topped the lids with a square of black tissue paper and a bit of twine.

I enjoyed making this treat for our friends, and I think I'll do a few more for the families that The Mister and I Visit and Home Teach. The idea could easily work as a neighbor gift, a birthday treat for a co-worker, or even for a teacher. It's inexpensive but visually impressive and it's a treat because few of us probably buy soda in glass bottles on a regular basis.

Wardrobe refashion: tank tops

On Saturday I decided that it was time to repaint our living room/kitchen (the 30% off coupon for Sherwin-Williams in the paper that week might have had something to do with that) so I bought paint and supplies and informed my (long-suffering) husband that on Monday, we'd be painting. In an unusual twist for me, I didn't agonize over paint choices--I took the advice of the nester and many others is blogland, and went with Rice Grain. It was a snap decision and I hadn't even seen the paint chip until I walked in the store, but it seems to look okay and at any rate, it's too late to change our minds now, right?

We painted all day yesterday so the house is just torn apart. Today I hope to get everything put back together because the mess is making me twitch. I still have the Halloween boxes to put away, too so literally the entire first floor of my house is a disaster and there's not a clear vertical surface in the place.

A few weekends ago when there was enough clear space on my table for my sewing machine, I made a few fun things to add to my fall/winter wardrobe. Old Navy had these tanks on sale for $7 so I picked up three to see if I could do something with them.

For the first, I tried making ruffles with ribbon, a technique I've wanted to try for a while. I used wide red-and-cream striped ribbon from Stampin' Up! and sewed a long stitch down the middle with my sewing machine. Then I pulled the strings to create the ruffles, and pinned the ruffles around the neckline of the tank.

It was tricky to figure out what to do with the ends of the ribbon. I ended up cutting them into dove tails, which reminds me that I need to pick up some Fray Check at the craft store. After I pinned the ruffles, I sewed down their middles.

And now all I can think of is bacon. Is it just me? I made kind of a mess of sewing the ends, so to help hide that I clipped on a flower pin I'd just made that fortuitously is in just the right color of red.

I like it, even though it's not perfect. I'd like to try it again but use different ribbon or even buy another tank to cut up and make ruffles out of the knit.

The next tank was much easier. For inspiration, I used this refashioned skirt that I bought earlier this summer:

To make my design, I cut a simple leaf shape out of a cardboard scrap and used it as a template to cut more leaves out of scrap fabric.

I chose pale green vintage skinny rickrack from my stash, and pinned it down the side of the shirt with the leaves spaced out.

I used red thread to sew them all down, because one of the things I loved about the original design on the skirt was the use of bright, contrasting colors. I sewed the rickrack first, slowly and carefully. If I did this again, I'd wait to cut the rickrack until it was all sewn down. I thought I had measured enough but once it was sewn down, the rickrack came up a bit short at the top of the shirt. I think the knit stretched or something and it's annoying and I can't fix it so I'll just have to live with it and remember next time to sew from the top down!

When it came to the leaves, I tried the one on the bottom first (since if I messed up a little, it would be less visible) and completely screwed it up. Sigh. So I cut another leaf using my handy template, and this time I used a bit of fabric glue just in the center of the leaves to tack them down to the shirt so they wouldn't move when was trying to sew around them.

That worked much better! I thought about using an iron-on fusible product underneath but if you do that, you don't get the cute fringing on the outside of the leaves after they've been washed.

I'm happier with this shirt and it was so darn easy! I think both tanks will be fun to wear over long-sleeved tees this fall and winter. I still have one navy tank left to refashion but I'm waiting for inspiration to strike.

Vintage chic Halloween platters

I've had such fun lately making these cool Halloween decor pieces. I used vintage plates and platters, vinyl decals and rub-ons and I LOVE how they turned out! I'm keeping the raven with the chandelier, but all of the others are for sale in my Etsy shop.

I'm still up to my eyeballs in Halloween decorating, but I'm nearing the end. Thank goodness, because trying to keep the baby out of the boxes is nigh unto impossible! I'm having fun putting together new vignettes this year but I'll be relieved when I can put away the boxes and enjoy the decorations without all the mess. What are your plans for the weekend?

London Calling

Exactly one month from today, I'll be hopping on one of these

And going here

And I'm so excited I could pretty much wet my pants!

You see, 12 years ago I spent a semester in London doing Study Abroad when I was in college. I absolutely fell in love with the city (whole country, really) and have been yearning to go back ever since. My mom has to be there for business for a few days in the first week of November so we'd thrown about the idea of me possibly going, and in the past week or so we finally decided to do it and I bought my airplane ticket last night! And you can think me a sap if you wish, but I actually got a little bit teary-eyed when I pressed the "Confirm" button on the BA website (and not just because of the price of the ticket--youch).

Thing is, even thought it's been 12 years, I still have dreams that I'm in London. It's weird because in my dreams it never looks like it actually did in real life, but somehow I always know that's where I am. I'm anxious to see if the London in my memories and my dreams is the real thing.

In 1998 we didn't have digital cameras so all of the pictures I took were on film and they're still sitting mostly un-scrapbooked in a box in my office. I think it might be time to get them out and look at them again--I'm feeling a serious nostalgia trip coming on. I actually pulled out my journal from that time and I can tell you that on October 7, 1998, I was on a ferry going from Wales to Ireland and trying very hard not to toss my cookies from seasickness! I've got a lot to do over the next month to plan our trip and first on my list is finding us a place to stay. It's been a long time since I was there so if any of you have suggestions for me, please let me know! And now, I'm off to the bookstore to buy an updated guidebook!

My new vintage dress: June Cleaver edition

I adore vintage clothing but I've always had a difficult time finding pieces that fit me, so I don't have much of it in my closet. I'm of average weight and only slightly taller than average height (at least for a 2010 woman) but whenever I find vintage clothing or shoes at estate sales it seems to all be for short ladies with teeny-tiny waists and little bitty feet. I suspect the tiny waist issue is girdle-related, but the length and shoe size is frustrating.

I was so excited when I found this great dress with a "tall" label because I thought it might actually have a chance of fitting me, and even more thrilled when it actually did! The sleeves were long enough and I didn't even have to wear a girdle for the waist to fit. And the best part--it was only $12! The one drawback was that it was missing all of the buttons.

Replacing the buttons? Probably not going to be an issue.

I used some pretty red glass vintage buttons down the front and a pair of large decorative red plastic buttons on the sleeve detail. The dress was missing its original belt or sash, so I found a cute skinny red belt to match the buttons. I wore it with bright red lipstick, a pair of red patent leather peep-toe pumps, and a foofy underskirt. Add a string of pearls and one of my vintage apron collection, and I'm all ready to welcome The Beav home from school with a plate of freshly baked cookies.

I do need to find a bigger crinoline; the skirt has yards of fabric and could definitely support an extra layer of poof. I'm not sure if I can buy one locally--do any of my vintage-wearing readers know of a good online source?

In which I finally use my wedding china

And the winner of the Spark goodies is:

True Random Number Generator
  Min: Max:  
Result: 4 

Commenter #4 was April, who said:

April said...
Organizing my craft stashes. I have enough stuff- just going through it gets me excited about working on a project. Collecting too- being at the beach or hiking and finding nature's treasures.
:)

9:11 PM

So hooray, April! Email me your address (there's a link over there to the left) and I'll pop your package in the mail! Thank you all for your comments.

I had a busy but productive weekend! I didn't get the Halloween decorations out yet (still waiting for a few more messes to be cleaned up first) but I did manage to makeover two cardigans, two tank tops, made five flower pins, a headband, a cuff bracelet, remade necklace, painted a chair and recovered the chair cushion. Whew! I was totally on a roll yesterday; I haven't finished that many projects in weeks so this was a big accomplishment for me. I'll share pictures later this week.

When I got married, like many of you I registered for a set of beautiful china. It is displayed in my china hutch and although I've mused about using it more often, I've still only pulled it out for holidays and special occasions. Last week I found a fun new use for my china: I hung some of it on my wall. Plates on a wall--very original, right?


It all started when I got these darling silhouette coasters designed by John Derian for Target:

I've been looking for some silhouettes to complete a wall grouping in my front room and these were inexpensive so I bought them with big plans. When I got them home, I realized they were really too small on their own and they got lost on the big wall.

I was pondering what to do when my eye caught on a stack of plates in my china cabinet. I pulled out four of the saucers (pieces I will never, EVER use since I don't drink tea or coffee) and found that they are the perfect size to act as frames for my silhouette coasters! Even though I'll never use the saucers, I didn't want to mar them so I used poster tack to adhere the melamine coasters to the plates.

I purchased four plate holders from JoAnn's but I accidentally bought white and I didn't want to go all the way back to exchange them, so I used a can of silver spray paint to spray the tips silver so they would disappear into the platinum band around the edge of the dishes.

To hang the plates, I wanted to try a trick I read about somewhere to avoid making numerous nail holes in my wall and to avoid measuring because I'm lazy. :) I made a little roll of masking tape and stuck it to the hanger where the nail would be, then I just pressed the plate to the wall. The tape came off the plate and stuck to the wall and I hammered the nail right through the center. It worked like a charm! And then I realized that I was going to have to measure anyway if I wanted the plates on both sides to be symmetrical. Drat!

I managed to get them up with only one erroneous nail hole in the wall and I like how they look (although now that I see this photo I think I need to move that top oyster plate up a scooch--one more nail hole in my wall, sigh). They fill up the space well, I like the glint of silver on the rims of the plates and I finally got some more use out of my wedding china--a successful project all around!