Filed under: thrifting
Holy cannoli! Three post in three days. What is going on? Freaky.
So, normally when I go thrifting I can hit 3 stores in about an hour. They are on the same street and I walk fast. Now that Keely is walking, it takes close to two hours. Oy. I don't like being "out" that long. I'm a homebody. However, yesterday we found some goodies. Someone with way more loot than I donated their unused girl's dresses. They are mostly sizes still too big for Keely but I do not pass up Oilily, Hanna Anderson, and Mini-Boden dresses that cost $2. No, I do not. I sure hope she likes them when they fit her. I also found quite a few summer maternity shirts for me that are not hideous. I refuse to buy new expensive clothes that I'm only going to wear a few times. Now I just have to figure out how to sew myself some easy maternity skirts. That should be interesting. I am NOT ever wearing shorts again-pregnant or not- and I also am not a skinny, "pretty" pregnant woman. I get huge, everywhere. I gained 65 lbs. last time and it wasn't because I ate a lot. It's just what my body does. It's skirts for me from here on out. Hopefully, I can get a decent little wardrobe together for myself so I won't have to wear giant moo-moos and get depressed about looking so enormous. A skirt can't be too hard right?
We also "had" to get this little $3. rug. Keely thought it was the greatest thing and hopefully there will be quite a bit of playing with it. It's a wishing well with a frog, in case you can't tell.
The cat likes it too.
Alright, this is my attempt to revive the blog a bit. If I let her stay quiet much longer we'll have to administer CPR. I'd like to write at least once or twice a week, but some weeks I feel I have nothing worth writing or sharing. I know I'm not the most captivating person out here, but I've seen lots of blogs do little Q & A's and they turned out to be quite amusing & informative. Also, there are currently 600 emails in my inbox and I don't know what else to do about it. I fully intended to answer all those question that have been sent my way, but there hasn't been the time and I can't spend hours wading through all those to find them. I do apologize. The Q&A post will let me not feel quite so guilty about dumping the old emails. So. If you had/have a question for me, now's your chance. If you go to leave a comment and see no one has asked anything yet, please take pity on me and make one up so I don't feel like a complete dork for suggesting this. Thanks. Happy June and happy weekending.
Oh, check out my retro groovy fan I got too.
June 1, 2007
So we had a few lovely days of beautiful spring weather, family visits, and naps (me).
And then some grey and rain.
There has been some productivity around here too. My hubby has taken up drawing a little more seriously these days and wanted something to keep his pencils and things in, so I made him a little art roll.
Let's not talk about how long this simple thing took. This simple thing that I've made before and know how to do! My brain is just not working lately. A bit cloudy and grey in there too I think.
And then do y'all remember when I was all like, "Hey, I'm gonna make Mr. bunny a little wool coat?" HA! I KNOW I can't sew clothes…but I did try and failed. Failed. Failed.
I do not know how to sew sleeves on a little arm hole. Nope. It was going to be so cute- with these bitty pearly buttons down the front and a floral print pocket to match his carrot bag. Not now. Not going to be cute and not finishing it. I'm just leaving it lay around so I can laugh at it. You are an embarrassment- you silly coat. You and your pathethic one arm sewn backwards sadly hemmed self.
Boy is this post all over the place…better than nothing though.
I haven't been out thrifting much, maybe twice in the last month! I'm just not as interested (we've got enough junk), I'm too tired, and they've raised some of their prices. Boo. However, on last week's brief trip, I found this nifty little school cart.
I think it's for books, but Keely is calling it her "couch WITH WHEELS!" and scooting through the house with it. fun. I do that on my couch all the time, don't you? It was $3. Awesome. I'm half tempted to make couch-like cushions for the bottom and the back. Ah, that would amuse me. A bitty rollie couch with cushions.
Alright, now we are going back to sewing talk… while I was on a sewing kick, I started trying to make Keely a doll sling and again, the brain is not computing. I completely fade out while I'm measuring, then while I'm cutting–well, during every step actually…makes for some lovely mistakes. Maybe I'll figure it out by my next post. Until then.
*I'm having some email problems and haven't been able to personally reply to anyone for a few days. Hopefully, I get that fixed today. I'm still reading your comments, I just can't answer. sigh.
April 16, 2007
I've never considered myself a collector of anything until reaching full-fledged adulthood. Little and big chairs have become one of my obsessions I guess, but you all already knew that. You should see the chair garden in our attic. It's pretty funny. A big pile of nice, funky chairs with no home. I will not show you a photo of that. I seem to be collecting more these days. My thrift outting yesterday solidified the things I'm drawn to lately.
Another baby sized quilt. I have so many of these. This one is all polyester and was $2. All those little 1 x 3 inch rectangles sewn together by someone. I couldn't leave that at a thrift store, now could I?
Buttons. My mom gave me hers and my grandmother's. My aunt gave me hers. I bought some. I received some. Yesterday I got a sweet little bag of some more.
Little pitchers. I just can't be helped. I told myself I would only buy small white ones from now on.
So much for that….and lastly, random small plates/bowls. I adore this swirly blue pattern. Big sloppy kisses all over your blueness. The color, the pattern…good. Actually looking at that photo what I'm seeing is a snail head popping up over waves. That's kind of gross. O.k. Well, I still really like the color. I don't feel bad at all for buying these (set of 4). They are just too pretty and were so cheap. I think I'm going to try to thrift less. I don't have anywhere to keep all these goodies as much as I like them.
and just for kicks I'll reveal what was going on beyond the above photo…
Laundry in progress. Dog bowl waiting for food. Keely singing extremely loudly while sticking a dripping wet aligator into the drawer handle. He started screaming, "HELP! I'm stuck…somebody help. This kid put me in here!" We've walked into our kitchen many times recently to find odd toys/stuffed animals wedged into ALL the drawer handles, hanging. Interesting times.
February 16, 2007
A few of my recent finds. First is this set of old ceramic drawer pulls. 
Aren't they awesome? They are really brightly colored and heavy. I haven't found anywhere to put them yet though.I wish there were more of the blue ones. I won't complain though because I got the bag of them for a great price. Then, I got this old set of wooden blocks.
I love the illustrations on them. They have little sentences that you read by turning the blocks."Nancy and Ned make good numbers." for N. Good stuff. Let's see what else… oh, here are two other cards I made.
The birds are from an old book and I typed and sewed the rest. It's alright. And this one…
Ink, watercolors, fabric. I like the little birdie.
Hmmmm….On to sewing talk now.
I realized since yesterday was my blog's birthday that it has also been one year since I decided to teach myself how to sew. One year since I sat staring at the machine in the box for a few weeks, scared to take it out. I think I've learned a lot in the last year. I'm so glad I gave it a go. And speaking of sewing…
For Valentines, I am planning on making Keely a softie. A cat. She wants a blue cat. So, I'm trying to pick out some fabrics…
and then trying to draw some kind of pattern. This should be interesting. I was telling Keely that I don't really know what it should look like and she said, "Here mommy, I'll show you what a cat looks like." She drew this.
Freakin' CUTE! Now, I gotta make one like that too. I think I'll try to make the big blue cat I have in my head and make this little guy in her drawing as the cats toy/friend/sidekick. That's the plan. So, that's what I'm off to work on. Thank you for all "one year" congrats. You made it quite a fun day.
January 23, 2007
Groovy or freaky? The jury is still out. Keely HAD to get this rope reindeer while we were thrifting. It was a whopping .75, so no big deal. Alright, how about these guys?
I love these two. I'm calling them elves, although I don't know how accurate that is. They've been named Gunther and Gunhilde.
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Well my friends, Happy first day of Winter and Happy Solstice.
I'm off the blog until after Christmas. I hope you all have a safe, warm, and joyous holiday.
December 21, 2006
So, I'm feeling a bit stressed and I thought,"Hey let's drop everything and go for a quick thrifting trip!" Great thinking, no? Yesterday, Keely did this too. I was vacuuming, doing laundry and baking when she said, "We
need to go to the park." We dropped everything and went for almost 2 hours. Anywho, thrifting was good. We got a big bag of strung chenille pom-poms for $2. Very cool. Then, I caved and bought an old quilt. It was time.
Click it for a better view. I love all these fabrics. It is all hand sewn-each little, tiny piece. There are only a few tears and I think I can fix them. I think I can. I think I can. I can not imagine how long that took. Merry Christmas to me! I got a quilt. Yippee-skippy.
Here is a shot of our tree. I'm digging the .75 star on the top.
And speaking of trees…everytime I go to water the tree, I knock off all the ornaments that Keely has so lovingly placed in clusters on the bottom branches. Poing, boing, schwack, go all the balls and needles as they attack me! Then, when we put some gifts under it, there's no way to get to the tree base without scooting military style on my belly, moving the gifts as I go. The hubby and I said, "Hmmmm. We should get some tube and run it along the trunk, down to the tree stand, and put a funnel at the top. Then, we could stand up and do the watering." What would the holidays be without a great invention, huh? So, here is the proto-type.
Alright, so we didn't have a funnel. We used a little pvc bit and some clear vinyl tubing and the ever so festive Taco Bell plastic cup. This was mostly successful, but still needs a little tweaking. We all tend to find random, unnecessary, little tasks to occupy ourselves with when there are millions of other high-priority deeds that are lined-up and waiting to be tended to. Side-tracked by stressed or just procrastinating, who can say? At least, Keely got to play at the park, I got a well-loved quilt and the tree gets water.
December 19, 2006
What was I supposed to do? TWO short, little, chunky chairs for $3. I could not stop myself. So what? We have a few (cough, cough) too many chairs in our house. You hushie upppie husband. Also, look at this.
It's a little vintage doll changing table! ACK! Killing me with cuteness. Keely rarely even plays with dolls, but perhaps this will inspire her too. Just look at it! It has little storage baskets underneath, a little mat…It also folds up to half the size.
I really intended to stop posting my thrifting finds, but I couldn't resist sharing those.
Also, I got the most super-fabu pin cushion in the mail from Capello. This thing is awesome and it's stuffed with cotton, not cheap polyfill like I sadly use. I must go get some of the good stuff now. I'm a convert. Thank you Capello for all the goodies.
Happy Weekending.
November 17, 2006
First of all, I must thank sweet
Laurie for the cutest little bundle she sent me in the mail. A couple lovely pieces of fabric, some lace and a awesome little bag of buttons and goodies. I do love me some buttons! It's so fun getting stuff in the mail. I should have shown a better photo of the orange fabric. It's really cute, with mushrooms and things on it. Thank you so much Laurie!
Remember how I was saying I have so much to do? Yeah, well I did accomplish some of it, but then the kiddo was being incredibly uncooperative so what's a lady supposed to do with a day that going nowhere good? Go thrifting for an hour.
Go on and click the photo.
Keely found that silky stuff in the background with red polka dotted patterns on it for me and I adore it. It reminds me of Christmas. Then I got some linen & canvas scraps, a green pitcher that is being stolen away by the little turkey here and those awesome 1950-60's puzzles made in Holland. They are so flippin' cool. When we got home the child continued to frazzle my brain and test my patience. After she woke up from her nap she cried and whined almost non-stop for 2 hours. Whaaaa? She finally snapped out of it when daddy decided to make homemade pizza and she got to help. She gets in these miserable moods so often in the afternoons, I really want to lock myself in a closet sometimes. I start to think something is seriously wrong with her, but then when she gets over it-she acts perfectly normal and happy. I think the nap messes up her head. She takes a long time to come out of the fog of sleepiness and every little thing that doesn't go right and even things that do, just send her off and nothing can make her feel better. I'm also suspecting some low blood sugar something going on. Whatever it is, I can do without it. Oy.
Anyway, I decided I needed to go make something instead of feeling frazzled about the little mons angel. So I started the skirt making party. First, I made a practice one out of hideous material and it turned out quite good. She wouldn't let me take a picture. Shocking. Then, I used that thrifty silky stuff to try a different style.
It's shape isn't so good, but she likes it and has worn it all day. And then I made another one with this navy and white mini-herringbone fabric. Very fallish. She's got an odd pose here so it partially explains the wonky shape.
I really know nothing about clothes making. I just make stuff up and I'm so amazed when anything turns out right. Waistbands? I dunno. Elastic? beats me. Hemming curved edges? Darned if I know. I'm sure none of these aspects are done the correct way, but they still work. I tried one last one with the silky stuff and it is by far the best, but again…the model wasn't cooperating. I want to make a lined skirt for her, but I can't wrap my head around how to do that yet. Anyway, today we had a good day together and I made some skirts. Hopefully, there will not be crying after today's nap. please. no more crying.
October 26, 2006
A few thrifty finds~ I find some good stuff I know, but I never find antique goods- not for reasonable prices anyway and I NEVER find beautiful old quilts. This one store that I go to has special little room of antiques. They are way too expensive for me, but for the past few weeks they've had 2 ancient quilts in there. They are barely hanging together. They are so tattered…but oh, how I want them. Their tiny, tiny, patches of handsewn old fabrics, their perfect weight, their unknown history…but they are $35. and I don't spend that kind of loot while thrifting. sigh. Anyway, my heart did go pitter-patter when I saw these babies on a christmas shelf.
I scooped them up so fast. They are so charming and old. They have Germany stamped on their legs and and their little wooden bodies have wool hand sewn around them. I heart these little, tiny guys. Really. I'm sure they were part of a nativity set, but I want to look at them all year round. (* I saw some similar ones on ebay-search "wooly putz lambs" or "German nativity" if you are so inclined.) I heart you little lambs. Let's just admire them for a bit shall we?
o.k we can move on now.
I started perusing the halloween section to find some cheap costumes for Keely's dress-up box. We've found some good ones. Here are a few fresh the laundry. All were under $2.
Then I've found her some cute clothes for about $1 each. I love the baby Gap blue p.j.'s. That wood book in the left corner, it's by Melissa & Doug. It has a whole bunch of removeable magnets and each page is for learning a different color. Keely has long known her colors, but I can't resist wooden toys or magnets.
and a few glassware and fabric finds. My mom used to have some of that pyrex blue pattern (butterprint/Amish) and I used to think it was so ugly and now, here I am buying them up.
Have I mentioned that I love good thrifting days? How 'bout my flock of lambs? Didn't I mention my love for them? Ah, the goodness.
October 23, 2006
A few weeks ago I sent
Molly some fabric and in exchange she sent me this lovely pendant. It's a beautiful shade of blue and it has a little leaf print in it. I love it.
She also included these buttons she made! How neat are these? This stuff is so very cool. I really do love them. Thank you Molly! She has some for sale in her
shop too, so you know what to do if you want some too.
A few other things I found thrifting this week:
Good stuff.
______________________
Keely was talking about not wanting to go to sleep the other day at nap time and I was telling her that everyone needs to sleep and even animals need to sleep, blah, blah, blah. She started naming off individual creatures and asking if they slept too. Yes. Yes, bears and birds and horses, they all sleep. Then she said, "What about bugs? Do bugs sleep too?" Silence from mommy on
that one. Aww, crud. I really didn't know the answer. Is this common knowledge. Did I miss that day of 6th grade science class? I've never thought about it I guess. It is not good when your just 3 year old stumps you. I had to look it up. Thank you internet. The answer is yes-ish and not quite. Read
here or
here, if you must know.
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Tomorrow is the first day of Fall my friends. I hope the weather is pleasant where you are and that the new season brings goods things your way.
September 22, 2006
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