A Royal Project

Inspired by Lori of Vintage Flair and the fabulous Crowns and Tiara's book, Joy and I decided we needed make our own chicken wire crowns. Sheila was suppose to join us, but unfortunately she wasn't able to make it. We really missed you Sheila. But don't worry we had so much fun we will definitely want to do this again.

We met bright and early (9:30am) at Joy's house and armed with lots of supplies, got busy.

Here's Joy just getting started. I had a little trouble deciding how I wanted my crown to look and spent quite a bit of time arranging and re-arranging. All I can say is thank goodness for hot glue because it sure made it easy for me to change stuff as I went along.













For my crown I used some burlap (got last week at goodwill), four different kinds of vintage lace, old clip on earrings, millinery flowers, old pearls and some tulle. It took a long time to get it just the way I wanted, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Not too bad for my first attempt. I think the next one I do will be all in pinks. It will be interesting to see how different I can make my next one from this one.

Joy's crown is completely different than mine and I joked with her that you could definitely tell which one of us was an art major. Hers is just fabulous. She has such a nack for knowing what to put where. I'm sure she will be posting this fun project on her blog too so be sure to stop by her blog and tell her what you think of her crown.












Here I am modeling my masterpiece. I sure do have a goofy look on my face. I think I was just thrilled that I was able to finish before it was time to head home.















Here's a cute picture of Joy modeling her crown. Isn't she so adorable?


This was such a fun project, even though I got a little frustrated with the creative part. Putting things together so they look good doesn't come easy for me. Usually I don't lament over what to put where, I just do it, but today for some reason, I just couldn't get my creative mojo going.

I got both of my valentine's swaps in the mail yesterday and also received one. Barb from Lavender Lollipop Lane was my partner and she sent me the most wonderful box of delightful goodies you can imagine. All perfectly me. I forgot to take pictures today, but will do so tomorrow and show you on my next post.

Hope you enjoyed our royal craft project.

Pillows and I've been tagged again

Happy Monday everyone! We have a light dusting of snow on the ground which in my town means a 2 hour delay for schools. That's okay. I didn't have anything major planned this morning. I do need to get my swaps in the mail and do a little house cleaning, but you all know I how I feel about that.

Yesterday I spent a little time in my sewing room making a pillow out of those vintage fabric scraps I bought recently at the antique show I went to with Joy.

Here is it is.
















I think it turned out pretty cute. I used some other vintage fabric from my stash for the back. I tried to keep it simple. My sewing skills are not what I would call "professional," but I am not going for perfection. My things definitely have a home made quality to them and that's okay by me. When I first started quilting years ago, I would make sure to follow the pattern, pin all my pieces together, etc. Now I just kind of wing it which I think is much more fun and less stressful.




I got everything I bought at the goodwill bins washed and ironed and look at how cute this little pillow cover turned out. Fortunately I had a pillow form that fit perfectly. I will be taking this and the pillow I made over to Monticello sometime this week.

Sweet Sarah from Passementeries Diary has tagged me to share "tips for fabulous blogging."

First off, let me say how flattered I am that she would tag me and my blog for this. I still feel like such a newbie to the blogging world as I have only been doing this since last July and feel that I still have so much to learn about posting, taking pictures, etc.





I guess I just try to make my blog something I would want to read. I post pictures of things I like and am always surprised to find others people like the same stuff. The blogs I enjoy reading always have pretty pictures that are usually taken by the blog owner, interesting and funny stories, tips and tutorials on how to make stuff, and fun and creative crafts made by the blogger. So, I try to include those elements in my posts. Mostly, I think my blog is a reflection of me and my life. I try to write like I would be having a conversation with a good friend.

So, I guess my tips would be:

*Try to include personal pictures in your posts*

*Share some information about yourself so people can get to know you, your personality, likes, dislikes*

*Don't be shy about sharing your ideas, crafts, yummy recipes, places to go and things to see*

*Leave comments on blogs you find interesting. This one is important and helpful if you want to develop a bigger audience for your blog*

I'll end this post with another picture of a recent find. The after picture. I mentioned before that I bought this cute crinoline from Randy of Madison Park. After washing it, doing a tiny repair and giving the ribbon a little iron, I think it looks as good as new. So much prettier than my picture shows.

Just found out that school has been cancelled for today. That's okay, I was feeling like I could use another pajama day anyway.

Cheers!


Added note: I just found out that the mall where Isabel and I have a booth, Monticello Antiques, has a blog! Why didn't I know this? Anyway, you can check it out located on my sidebar under fun blogs to visit.

Lunch with Hubby and More Thriftin

On Wednesday I made plans to meet my hubby at his work and take him out to lunch. He works about 40 minutes from where we live and fortunately for me, there are several thrift stores between here and there. So after dropping the kids at school, I headed out to Goodwill. All I found there was a pair of jeans for myself. That's it.

I then meandered over to another Goodwill, not too far away. This is one of those fun "bin" stores where everything is just heaped into bins and you have to dig to find the good stuff. Definitely not for the squeamish. I touched way too many pairs of underwear, thank you very much. The plus side of this whole experience is that you can actually get some pretty good stuff and for cheap! I didn't have all day, but could have easily spent a whole day there just digging and throwing, digging and throwing. They even roll carts away and bring out new carts while you are there if you are lucky. The first time I saw this happen, I was wondering why everyone was just standing around waiting.

My strategy was this, I was looking for anything pink, lacy, pastelly, anything that had roses on it, creamy colored, white, denim, etc. It really was quite a work out and I'm glad I went alone as I was able to focus on my mission. Even all the crying babies didn't detour me.

My approximately 1 1/2 hours there yielded some great junk as you can see here.

Ready for this? I got all of this, plus a vintage wedding gown and vintage wood doll cradle (not pictured) for $32.00. The check out lady said if I wanted to go find something that was 2 lbs it would only be $25.00 as everything is by the pound and the more you buy the lower the per pound price is. Unfortunately I was running late and had to meet my guy, so I just happily paid my $32.00 and rolled my purchases out to my car.

Here's a better picture of what I scored. A couple ticking feather pillows, vintage baby dress, pink baby sweater, two partial bolts of tulle, old book of sheet music, vintage leather belt, several vintage hankies, Victorian style fan, green satin vanity box, satin roses pillow sham, floral pillow case, pc. of burlap, some tan woolish fabric, strawberry table cloth (not vintage), several misc. clothing items. Oh, and the vintage shopping cart I rolled everything out in.

Of course I threw everything that needed it into the wash for a good soaking. Here is one of my mannequins modeling some of the clothing items I got. I think she looks pretty cute. Maybe some cowboy boots, a hat and a denim jacket and she'll be all ready for Farm Chicks. Wait, maybe I should wear this to farm chicks. What do you think?

Speaking of Farm Chicks, I know it's not until June, but I am getting really excited and rather than wait until the last couple weeks before, I am actually starting to get things ready now. The other night I spent a couple hours getting some crinolines together to take.

Here is one that I gussied up a bit. It was pretty boring so I added the pink rick rack, some satin ribbon and a little flower for some extra cuteness. Much better, I think. I wish my picture was better. I'm just not getting good lighting.

My buddy Joy did a post showing her great idea for displaying old pearl necklaces so I thought I would show you a picture of mine. I agree with her about the clasps being the coolest part.

Back to my lunch date with my husband. We ended up going out to the Helvetia Tavern for burgers. It's this great place way out in the boonies that we used to go to all the time. In fact, just a little farther up the road from the Tavern is the little church we were married in, so after lunch we took a little stroll down memory lane and visited the church.

On our way up to the church we passed the sign for this place. I made my sweet one stop so I could get a picture with my camera phone as I had accidentally left my camera at home. Well, I guess I'm not used to taking pics with my phone because when I got home to show the kids the picture, all that showed up was a picture of the road. Anyway, we knew they lived up in that area, just weren't sure exactly where. Now we know, we may just have to go get our pumpkins there next fall so we can say hi to the Roloff family.

I was finally able to finish up my two swaps today. It felt so good to get that done. They will go out in the mail on Monday and I will post pictures after I know they have been received. I don't know if my swap partners ever read my blog, but if they do, I don't want to ruin the surprise. Have a fab weekend everyone!

Where some of the stuff landed

I promised to show you where some of the items I bought at the antique show last week ended up. So, here goes. I hope you have your coffee, this may be a long one.

I added the floral hat to the vintage hats I have hanging on the wall in my bedroom. All the other hats belonged to my Grandma Pressley. I found them in an old hat box at my Dad's a few years ago and told him I wanted them. He said he would mail them. Over a year later I still hadn't received them (ironically he worked at the Post Office at the time). Finally, on a visit to us, he brought them along. I love that she actually wore these hats. She was an amazing woman. I will write more about her on another post sometime.


The two silver watches were added to their siblings here on my pink swivel mirror. Do you think I have enough? I guess my motto is if you have one of something, 8 more are better.















Here is Manni sporting the new mother of pearl necklace I bought for her, I mean me. I love how all the necklaces look on her. Personally I wouldn't wear more than say, two necklaces at a time, but on her, it works.















I made the rhinestone earrings you see here with some broken vintage earring pieces I got for $1.00. I love these kind of simple, takes five minutes to do kind of projects.













I have lots and lots of vintage postcards, primarily ones that feature pink roses, surprised? I keep them in 2 photo albums so I added the pink roses postcard I got (lower left corner) to
this one.








More rhinestone button bling was added to my collection. This little box is too pretty to be sitting in my sewing room all the time, so I have it out in my living room so I can enjoy the sparkle when I walk by. More and more I want to see my finds on a regular basis, so I have been trying to find ways to display things so I can see them. More things in jars, see through containers, etc.

Speaking of bling, I had to add the three little rhinestone pins to the others I have in my bedroom. I love this little glass and metal tray I found at an antique shop in Troutdale a couple years ago.

The fabric scraps I bought are all washed and ironed and are now ready to be cut and sewn into a couple pillow tops. I'm thinking a little vintage lace and some pom pom trim might be a nice addition. Maybe some cute vintage rick rack, not sure yet, will have to play with it a little.



I did end up going to Monticello like I said I would and had fun adding some new things to the booth.


I was happy to see that a few of my items had sold, which left more room to put some new items.

As usual, I had to do just a little thrift shopping on my way there and of course, while I was there.

Here is a picture of my finds from Tuesday. Go ahead and click for a better view.

Cute tole waste basket, scrolly metal rack thingy, pink plastic hanging thingy, neat beach painting in pinks and browns, ruffly umbrella, wood salvage piece, pink basket, metal frame, paper trim, pair of rose pictures, little metal scrolly rack, vintage pearls, vintage watch pendent, wire heart wreath form, two vintage aprons, and a roll of rose wallpaper.






Love this little vintage crinoline I got from Randy's booth. It was tucked in a cabinet. After washing and doing a little repair, it is as good as new. This is the before picture.
















Yesterday, I met my hubby for lunch and did a little more thrift shopping on my way to meet him. I will tell you more about that experience on my next post as this one is getting a little long. Okay, a lot long.

Today, I am doing lunch lady duty and tomorrow, I just plan on staying home and getting some cleaning/projects done. My swaps are about 90% completed and I really want to get them in the mail.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of my junk. More pictures of more junk and some projects coming soon. Have a great day!

Baby it's Cold Outside

My dad calls me the other day and leaves this message on my cell. "Hi, it's Dad, I'm sitting on the back patio in my shorts and a t-shirt. It's in the 70's today, how's the weather up there blah, blah, blah..." Today the sun actually came out, but I think it is in the 30's. I decided that since the kids had no school, and I didn't have to go anywhere this morning that I would go for a power walk. It has been forever since I have done any serious walking so it was time. Let me tell you, it was cold with a capital B as in "Brrrrr." It did feel good to get some fresh air and exercise. I really do need to do it more often.

Joy and I had a great time at the Clark County Antique Show yesterday. We were on a mission to find some good junk. We saw lots of pretty things at pretty high prices, but we wanted to find the cheap cute junky stuff. We are nothing if not thrifty. We both found smaller items, but I was hoping to find more stuff. It was the last day of a three day show so I guess I can't complain too much.

Here we are, the happy shoppers. Our buddy Susan took this picture in her booth. She has the cutest stuff and such a good eye for finding interesting and cool things. I got a cute mother of pearl necklace and little metal and glass box from her. Joy dropped some cash here too on some cute things including a pretty pearl necklace that I told her I would have to tackle her to get it. (I didn't). I wish I had gotten more pictures of Susan's booth to share. She'll be at Expo in March so I will take some then.

Here's a picture of my haul. A little dark, sorry, but you get the gist. One vendor had some really pretty vintage fabric, but I thought her prices were a little high. I went through her fabric scraps and found these lovelies pictured here. I got all of them for $3.50. I'm going to make some cute patchwork pillows out of them. Of course, they all feature my favorite pink roses. We also stumbled on a booth that said, "everything under $100 is 50% off." We found lots of small cute items for just a couple dollars. I got some rhinestone barrettes, a pin and a rose thimble there. I was on a rhinestone kick for some reason. I was also on the look out for cheap but cool looking vintage earrings to use in some of my craft projects. I was hoping to find a big bag of them, which unfortunately I didn't.

I got this cool vintage floral hat and two rhinestone buttons from another dealer who we have bought from before. She always has great funky, you never know what you will find here, kind of items.

Close up of the vintage fabric scraps.

Here is a close up of the little box I got from Susan and some more rhinestone pieces. We stopped at a big Salvation Army store on the way home and I found the watch on the left. It isn't really very old and just had a new battery put in. The watch on the right I found at an antique shop we stopped at in Vancouver. Price on this one, just $1.00! Woo hoo! Love it! I really do need to stop buying vintage silver watches, but I think it's now officially an addiction. They are just so hard to pass up when I see one this cheap. I also bought a sealed up stack of postcards at that same shop for $7.50. I have a ton of postcards, but what sold me was the one on the top was this lovely pink rose birthday postcard. After going through the stack only about half were decent enough to keep or resell.

Tomorrow I must head to Monticello. My car is packed with stuff to take so all I have to do is drive over, unload and get busy trying to find a place to put my stuff. Did I mention our booth is a little on the crowded side? It has been over a month since I took in anything new (old, I mean), so it is time for a little fluffing.

In my next post, I will show some pictures of where my finds from this weekend ended up. TTFN!

I'm such a stalker and other things

On Tuesday I went to Joy's as planned to pick up some of my stuff. We didn't have much time to play, but did manage to squeeze in a little shopping.

We stopped at Goodwill where all I found was a cute cake stand. Joy found some cute baby clothes that I'm sure she will do something fun with. We then headed over to check out a couple antique shops in her town.












Lots of cute things but all I bought was a bag of rusty keys for crafty stuff. I think I'm good on keys for awhile, like maybe until I'm 80 or so. I have a lot, but you just never know when you will need some good, old, crusty keys.











I finally managed to get the dresser I bought last week out of my car. Here is a picture of it. Pretty cute I think. It will be even better painted a creamy pink.












Now for why I said I'm such a stalker. A while back I somehow stumbled upon the blog of the fabulously talented Tammy Gilley. After reading her profile I noticed that she lives right here in my little town. So I dropped her an email to say hi. She was sweet and responded hi back. Fast forward to a couple months later and I decide that we should meet for coffee. I love reading her blog and feel we have lots in common. So, we email back and forth and finally schedule a time to meet for coffee. Unfortunately she had to cancel at the last minute, but a couple weeks later she emails me to say let's try again. So, that is just what we did yesterday. I knew her right away from her picture on her blog. She was as sweet and wonderful as I had thought she would be. We talked non stop for two hours about everything under the sun. She is truly a kindred spirit and we are looking forward to getting together for some thrifting once her website is up and running. If you haven't read her blog, please do so. She is incredibly artistic and her projects are just lovely. But what impressed me most about Tammy is that she is a woman who loves life and loves to laugh.
After meeting with Tammy I was so inspired to do some crafting that I came home and worked on my Valentines for the swaps I'm doing. Here are a couple that I am working on.

I would really like to get them done and in the mail early so I'm not stressing over missing the deadline. I think they are coming together very nicely if I do say so myself. I'm loving being creative, but my recently clean and shiny sewing room is once again a mess of paper and glitter.






Priscilla over at Flea Market Queen tagged me to do the Weird facts about myself. I have done this before which you can see here. But I'm sure I can come up with 7 more weird things about myself. In fact after reading this post, you may not want to come back when you see what a weirdo I really am. Here goes:

1. I love to go to movies during the day, by myself. If I have the time and there are movies that I want to see, I will go. I love that the theaters aren't crowded, no one is talking to me and I can sit in the exact spot I want. I must sit in the second from the top row, right in the middle. If I can't sit in that spot, I get grumpy and won't enjoy the movie as much.

2. When I sweep the floor, I always leave a pile of dirt and stuff without picking it up. This drives my husband crazy. I think I do it more now because I know it makes him nuts.

3. Speaking of nuts, my husband and I have an ongoing contest to see who is the weirdest. Before we started dating I said that he probably wouldn't like me because I am really weird. He replied that he was much weirder than me. Now, over 20 years later he thinks I'm the weirdest and I think he is. For example, we like to say weird things like, "it's nice to be nice to the nice" or "it's fun to have fun with the fun." I know you are probably thinking we are both the biggest dorks on the planet and you would be right.

4. This is one that I kind of stole from someone elses weird list, but it is true for me too. I like weird smells like gasoline and skunk.

5. When I was in high school, I would eat peanut better and mustard sandwiches. I know it sounds disgusting, but really it wasn't too bad.

6. I get my best ideas and am the most creative/motivated to create when I have only a little time to create. For example, I will get a great idea to make something, 20 minutes before I have to take the kids to school. But, when I have huge blocks of time in which to be creative, I can't get motivated. I don't know why that is.

7. I love sun dried tomatoes. Love them. Love spaghetti sauce too. And ketchup. Absolutely hate raw tomatoes. Can't stand the sight or smell of them either.

*Bonus weird thing about me: When my kids call me weird, which is quite often, I always say, "thank you, for the compliment."

Okay, now that you know what a crazy person I am, I hope you won't hold it against me.

I'm suppose to pass this on to other people to write their "weird" list, so I will tag:

Victoria at Vintage Tea

Polly at Counting your Blessings

Michelle at Back Through Time

Karoline at Cherished*Vintage

and

Heather at Pretty Petals Boutique

If you have already done this, I apologize.

Kitchen duty for me today and tomorrow. Saturday is basketball and some much needed house cleaning, but on Sunday, woo hoo! I am going to an antique show to do a little treasure hunting. I can't wait!

I also finished with the Maui trip planning so that is behind me. I can't wait to go. We have been having cold and frosty weather here lately. I could really use some warm weather about now. I guess I'll have to wait awhile.

Bye for now!

Some Miscellaneous Stuff

I wish I had some interesting crafty projects to show you. Or maybe some cool vintage finds. But I don't. I have had zero motivation this week to get out and thrift or be crafty. I spent yesterday running errands, blogging and planning our June trip to Maui. Trip planning sure takes a long time. At least it does me. If I'm going some place I have never been, it takes me forever to figure out where I want to stay, what kinds of accommodations I want (cheaper garden view, more expensive ocean view)? But the good news is I spent about an hour on the phone yesterday with a friend who goes to Maui every year. She gave me some good information about an ocean front condo so now I am just waiting to find out if it is available and then I can book my airline tickets. Yippee! Wish me luck!

When I got back from my California trip, I had a message from an old college friend I hadn't seen or spoken to in several years. We played phone tag for awhile and on Sunday night, we finally made contact. It was so great talking with her and hearing about the changes in her life. She has a 2 1/2 year old daughter I didn't know about! Some of my best college memories have my friend all wrapped up in them. We are making plans to get together soon. Maybe even this weekend. I can't wait to see her. I always feel bad when I let friendships drift away. I'm sure it happens a lot. Life is busy, other plans are made and suddenly you realize it has been over three years since you talked to someone who was once your good friend.

Today I am heading over to see Joy again. I need to pick up the rest of my stuff that she took to the sale she did over the weekend. I am so happy she sold a jacket and an angel for me. Thanks Joy! I might just have to do a little thrifting on my way over. We'll see. Tomorrow I am finally meeting a fellow crafty blogger that lives in my town. More about that later. Thursday and Friday I'll be wearing my lunch lady hat. Okay, we don't actually wear hats, just aprons. Oh, and clothes too. ha ha

Since I have been a little negligent with taking pictures lately I will show you a couple Christmas presents I bought for myself.

This cute little metal mesh purse I found at a little shop in Mt. Angel (near Silverton where Joy lives). It was a whopping $12.00. I was happy to fork over my hard earned cash for it as I have seen these in antique stores for up to $200. Crazy, I say. I just love it. At Christmas I had a little holly sticking out of it. This is definitely a keeper.

I got this petite chandelier on ebay. It's going to go over my kitchen sink. I just love the shape and size of it. It's similar to one I have in my bathroom only smaller. Don't you think doing dishes will be much more fun now?

I am happy to report that my husband found a new (used) car and is picking it up today.

Working on getting my Valentine swaps together as the time to send them out will be here before I know it.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, if you haven't already, head on over to Corey's blog and read all about the match making weekend she just had. It is a wonderful story, but you should to read it from the beginning if you can. Corey is a real life cupid. Her blog is listed on my sidebar under "Tougue in Cheek."

Have a fun Tuesday!

A Quick Post and a Thank You!

I want to thank Gail over at Shabby Cottage Studio for making my new banner. She was so incredibly patient with me and I really appreciate her working with me to get it looking just like I wanted. She even used some personal things like the picture of my sweet Grandma and some of my brooch collection. Even the little pearl frame with the cottage picture is something I would totally love to find in my real life thrifting forays. So, Gail, thank you so much!

No fun pictures to share today. I am getting ready to take my darling daughter to the much dreaded mall so she can spend a Christmas gift card she got. I will also stop at Barnes and Noble to see if I can find the new Sommerset Life magazine I keep hearing about on lots of neat blogs. Wish me luck! I'll be back soon, I promise.

I'm a bad Mom

I'll get to why in a minute. First off, I want to thank everyone for their kind words and concern for my sweet husband. I really appreciate all of your well wishes. Thanks also for the sweet comments regarding my lovely grandma.

Yesterday I headed over to Joy's house to pick up some stuff, drop off my shopping cart and help her unload and set up for the show she is doing today and tomorrow at the Oregon Gardens in Silverton. I always have fun with Joy no matter what we are doing and yesterday was no exception. Her sweet son, Dusty was such a trooper and was helping us as well.

On my way to Joy's, I realized that I didn't have my cell phone. When I got home there were 8 messages waiting from me, two from the kid's school and two from my husband telling me why the school was calling me. Apparently my sweet 6th grade son burned his fingers in science class and was trying to get ahold of me to pick him up. Oops! By the time I got home he was already on the bus so I just had to wait for him to arrive home. He was not too happy with me. Of course I got the, "where were you? why didn't you answer your phone?" questions. I felt horrible. His poor fingers were blistered so we put ice packs on them and sat on the couch together to watch cartoons. That seemed to help. I looked around for my phone and couldn't find it anywhere. I even called the restaurant where we had had dinner the night before to see if someone turned it in there. No luck.

Isabel called me and told me that the check I wrote to her bounced. Oops! I forgot to deposit the Monticello check. With my hubbys accident on Monday and not having a car on Tuesday and Wednesday, I completely forgot to deposit the check. My bad! Again, I felt horrible. Now I needed to go to my bank and get cash to give to Isabel, cause if I wrote her another check they would put a hold on it because of the bouncy one and she needed the money to pay bills. What started out to be a fun day, was turning pretty crummy.

My husband came home from work and look at what he brought me. He said he thought I could use some cheering up. Guess what else? He looked through my purse and found my phone. I swear, I looked in that thing at least three times and didn't find it. Of course the battery had died which is why the school couldn't get ahold of me. I think I'm losing my marbles. At least my phone wasn't lost for good.

This morning after dropping off the kids at school I headed out to the thrift stores for some more shopping therapy and this is what I found at Goodwill, Value Village and the Salvation Army.

Not a ton of stuff, but I really like what I got. A footstool base, old metal cup holder, vintage baby ben clock, light green wood frame, scallopy doll cradle, two new vintage pillow tickings and box of 12 small salad/dessert forks.

I sell a lot of vintage doll beds and cradles. I usually give them a make over with paint and a ticking mattress that I make to fit the bed.

Here is a close up of the forks. I just thought they were so pretty. I am going to keep these.

I also bought a dresser at SA which I talked them down $15.00 on the price. Yippee! I didn't get a picture of it yet as it is still in the back of my car. Its a cute older one with three drawers, a wavy front and old wood wheels. It will be adorable after a painting makeover. I also stopped at JoAnn's and got some thread and the February Romantic Homes which I can't wait to sit down and read with some hot tea.

Kind of a low key weekend. Basketball and dentist appointment for my daughter, car hunting for my hubby and maybe a trip to Monticello for me. I need to get busy and freshen up my booth. I may also try to list some things on ebay. Lately I have been toying with the idea of opening an Etsy shop. I would love to hear from those of you who have one, whether you think it's a good idea, if it has been good for you, etc.

Have a wonderfully fun and fabulous weekend!

What I've been up to this week

Monday morning about 20 minutes after my hubby leaves for work, I get a call from him saying he slid on some ice and rolled his truck. What! Of course the first thing out of my mouth was, "are you alright?" He miraculously was uninjurred, but his truck was really messed up. Fortunately a police officer was on his way to work and arrived right after the accident happened. He helped my husband get out of the truck, which had landed on the drivers side, call a tow truck, etc. Wow, do we ever feel lucky. It could have been so much worse. The weird thing was that up until that point my husband didn't see any signs of ice on the road. Five minutes after the accident a radio station came by to do an interview with him. Later in the day a couple people called me asking if that was my husband. Yup!

Here is just one of the pics the police officer took with his camera phone. My husband still doesn't know how it ended up like this.

So, this week I have been without a vehicle while my main squeeze borrowed mine to go to work. Not a big deal, but I really need to have my car. So, yesterday we got a rental for him. His truck has been declared "totalled" so now the search for a new vehicle begins. Hubby says the sad thing is that he was just thinking the day before the accident how much he liked his truck. It was really nice, I will miss it.

I know lots of you out in crafty blogland like to use vintage photographs in your artwork. I too recently started buying old black and whites for future projects, mostly babies and little kids, but some pretty ladies too.

What do you think of this pretty lady?

This is my grandma. The one I mentioned in this post. Yesterday I spent a short time with her while my mom went to the dentist. It has been really hard to see how much she has changed since her stroke. Mom says she has good days and bad days. Yesterday she said she knew who I was, but I'm not so sure. I just give her lots of hugs and kisses and tell her how glad I am to see her.

Hey, what do you think of my banner up there? My partner,Barbara from Lavender Lollipop Lane in the valentine swap I'm doing made it for me yesterday. Thanks so much Barb! What a sweetheart, right? I just met her yesterday and she already made this for me. How lucky am I? I did end up buying a banner from Gail over at Shabby Cottage Studio, so I will just keep this one up until I get the one from her. I can't help but smile everytime I see it. Little ol me with roses on my head. Too funny!

So, yesterday I talked to Joy who is selling this weekend at a quilt show in her town. She told me that she is going to take some of the stuff I left at her place during her Christmas sale, like my barkcloth/denim jackets. What great friends I have. She also said that I could bring over some more stuff and she will try to sell it for me. She thought I should bring a lined shopping cart, but since I didn't have one already made up, I thought I would try to make one for her to take to the sale.

Here is what I came up with.

It sure felt good to be sewing again. I need to do more of that while it's too cold and wet to paint. I hope to get about six of these done for the Farm Chicks show. Everyone I make is different and I have a bunch of fabric bundles and shopping carts just waiting to be matched up.

Well, I better wrap up this post as I need to head on over to Joys! Have a great weekend!

Banners, Decorating, Shopping, The "Job" Jar, and more Shopping

Okay, I spent a good two hours yesterday monkeying around with my banner. All I can say is, I need some skills. Computer skills that is. Not thrilled with how it turned out, but fortunately, help is on it's way. I hope. I have contacted Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio who did an adorable banner for my friend Cindy. Gail does banners and sells all kinds of crafty goodies on her website. Awesome prices too.

Friday I spent a couple hours over at Isabel's house doing a little decorating with her and Joy. She wanted to redo her mantel which is huge and can hold a ton of stuff. I really loved how it turned out. Very sweet and so Isabel. Here are some pictures of what we came up with.

Isabel getting stuff off the mantel. (Before pic.)

Left side of mantel (After)

Right side of mantel. (After)

Close up of my favorite part.

This was such a fun project to work on with Isabel and Joy as Isabel has so much great stuff to work with.

For more pictures of Isabel's lovely collections, you can go here and here.

Okay, so early Saturday morning I headed out to the above mentioned Cindy's sale. If you haven't checked out her blog before, please do so. She is an incredible artist and has such a wonderful gift of display. She posted pictures of the "shop" and everything was just lovely. I bought a cute birdie, nest and some valentines goodies for the swap I'm doing. (see my sidebar) After that Joy and I headed over to Monticello where I needed to pick up our December check and do a little shopping. I was very good. I only bought one thing and it was marked down from $49 to $25. Here's a picture of all the goodies I got on Saturday including some cute stuff I got from Isabel for Christmas.

The cabinet was my Monticello purchase. The cute "sewing room" sign, Isabel had custom made for me from someone on ebay. She also gave me some sweet vintage wallpaper and the adorable hand painted rose box. The little scrolly basket the bird and nest are in was a last minute purchase from Cindy at her sale.

Saturday afternoon I finally tackled the job of putting away the Christmas stuff. I never like this job, but it felt good to get the living room back to the way it should look. Now I can concentrate on cleaning the rest of the house. Did I ever mention, I hate to clean? I'm really bad at it, so I neglect things until I just can't stand it any more. A while back I had this brilliant idea that I would go around the house and make a list of all the jobs that needed doing ie. clean out pantry, clean kitchen baseboards, clean out my car, clean kitchen blinds, etc. Each job would be written on a piece of paper and be placed in a jar where the idea was I would pull a "job" once a week and complete that job. After completed, that piece of paper would go into another jar. Once all the jobs were done I would start again by pulling jobs out of the second jar. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, I thought about this at least three years ago and so far nothing has been done about it.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you can probably guess why this hasn't happened. If I have the time, what do you think I would rather do? Clean or Shop? Right, shop. That usually wins out. Even over crafting which I also love to do. I usually do just about anything else, watch tv, read, blog, etc. before I will spend time cleaning. I don't know how my husband puts up with me, but he does. I know my messy habits drive him crazy and he has even suggested we get a cleaning person, but I won't have a stranger in my house who may or may not steal my stuff. And, as you all know, I have a lot of stuff. What's a girl to do? I know, lets go shopping.

Isabel and I did go shopping at the flea market I mentioned in my last couple posts. I guess I thought, well, if I can't sell there, I might as well shop. I thought I could talk to the organizer to find out why she didn't call me back. As it turned out, there were a lot of empty tables which made me kind of upset. What I found out after asking was that they were booked up, but the bad weather? caused some people to not be able to come. I couldn't find the organizer, but was told that she gets a lot of calls and does not have the time to call everyone back. So I said, "if I don't get a call back I can assume that there aren't any spaces available?" They said yes. Weird.

I did manage to find quite a few small items and a couple bigger items as well. We made a quick goodwill stop were I found some things too.

Right now is where I usually list everything I bought, but you can see it here in the pic. Go ahead and click on it to get a better detailed view. Nothing in this picture was over $5.00 with most items being around $1.00- $3.00 each.

I found this chair at the flea market. It was a little more than $5.00, but I just love it. Of course it will receive one of my favorite make-overs, a new barkcloth seat.

I found this framed shelf thingy at Goodwill. It is painted a neat aqua color with a bit of gold. I couldn't get the picture to show the true color, but it was cute and interesting looking. Not sure if I will keep or try to sell just yet.

I'm not scheduled yet to work this week. I think I might go to the auction tomorrow with Joy though. I'm kinda broke now as my check from Monticello was a little puny, but it will be fun to watch Joy spend her money.

Two last things, went to see "Juno" which I loved. Such a well done movie, I think. And I have added some more pictures to my flickr thingy, so if you haven't taken a look in awhile or ever, please feel free to do so.


Sorry for the long and rambly post today. I guess I'm in a chatty mood. Hope everyone had a great weekend and here's to an awesome Monday!