There is nothing like thrifting. It gives me such immense joy. The anticipation, the seeking and the ever so glorious discoveries! I went on Friday and had a great time, just me and my I-guy. Here is what I found…

More pillowcases, napkins and dish towels. The bluish fabric on the far left is actually a large fabric sack. It may be a new skirt soon.

A linen tea towel. I think I am going to stretch this over canvas wood stretcher bars and hang it on the wall. I am in love with the colors of those flowers!

More buttons! You know I can’t resist buttons. Two dollars for a large bag! Plastic, fancy and shell. I especially love the fancy buttons. I may have to make another one of these bracelets using some of these buttons!!

Miscellaneous quarter and fifty cent finds. I have been wanting a flower loom and am so lucky to have found one. Now I just need to figure out how to use it!

On a completely different note, the notecard swap sign-up has closed and I am super thrilled with the participation! The following people have joined in.

Alexandra
Amy- Life in the Lyon’s Den
Anestasia- Drawing and Dreaming
Alexis Art & Design
Amy W
Tanya F.
Michelle-Greeting Arts
Lori Z.-goodygoody gumdrops
Raesha-My love
Jane Aproximately
Heather S.
Pasha Plum
Teresa- Affectionknit
Gemma- Queen Bee
Lydia-The Purple Martin
Dallas-Sallad Says..
Heather - Winemakerssister
Narissa- Creative Rants from..
Deb C.
Katie R.
(oops! Just found these next two in my SPAM box!!! I hope there isn’t any others lost in there)
Tangee -A Sparkly Messy Life
Kelly-Kloth & Bolt

If you are not on this list and have left me an e-mail or comment already, please leave a comment or email (again) and I’ll add you on. I will send everyone an email sometime today with all of the details.

You know about this? Handmade Parade’s Vintage Pillowcase Challenge? I saw it a while back and had forgot all about it, until I was reminded by this amazing entry(!!!) and I became totally distracted with this challenge. I knew right away that I was making a sun hat (you have to have a good one if you are going to live in Southern AZ!) only, I didn’t have a pattern. I searched the web, and couldn’t find anything I liked. So, I spent the entire day, messing around with circles, bandwidths, circumferences, diameters and pi!!! Boy did I ever flex that mathematical brain muscle!! Ouch!!

After I got, what I thought was the perfect pattern, I cut out my pieces only to find out that they weren’t sewing up perfectly like my mock pieces had!!! I have no clue how that happened, but I re-worked it a bit (actually a lot) and am pleased. It’ll be good for our morning hikes and for keeping the glaring sun at bay. I also dipped my pillowcase in tea to tone it down a bit. It was a bright white before.

I’m totally going to wear it too! It’s loads better than the ill-fitting one that I’ve been wearing for the last several years.

I used a standard size, thrifted, vintage pillowcase for the outside and lining, a double layer of interfacing for the brim, tea for a tea soak, and a wee bit of thrifted lace.

First you must look at this little beauty. Handmade and painted special for me by my little Super-E. He made it out of salt dough. I put a few layers of varnish to protect it and then strung it with some beads so that I could wear it. It goes with everything, don’t you think? Super-E does.

Then there are these little lovelies given to me by my hubby. A very cool thrifted mushroom decanter (1970s) and a 1st edition set of the Nutshell Library, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. He is one of my favorite illustrators and this set is such a little treasure.

He also bought me all these great books. I have been wanting them for a while. They are all really great. Totally worth looking into.

Veganomicon by Moskowitz and Romero
Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco
Altered Art by Teri Taylor

Lastly, two very beautifully embroidered tea towels from my mother. They go perfectly with my kitchen but they are almost too pretty to use. She said I had to use them. Okay mom.

We really just went thrifting to find jackets for the kids, the kind that you don’t care if they don’t make it home because they only cost a few bucks. Or the kind, when stained with blood you don’t care about the jacket, just the nose, arm, chin (whatever–boys!). Yep, we found a few that are pretty decent actually. Perfect for school. I also found a bunch of other stuff because it’s nearly impossible to stay away from the fabric section…and the dishes…and everything

Aren’t those mugs cool! Another lady was eyeing them and asked if I was REALLY going to get them. Absolutely, I am! I also got more pillow cases, fabric, napkins, a few holiday goodies and a fairy lady that I’m giving to my sister.

When we got back home, I made muffins to warm up the house a bit. It’s been quite rainy lately, unusual for these parts.

(see the pretty thrifted napkin underneath?)

They are pumpkin muffins from VWAV. I like nuts in mine and my guys don’t, so I added a little bit of fresh cranberry sauce to the tops of mine to tell them apart. These muffins were super tasty and incredibly moist, but I think I can officially say that I am done with pumpkin until next year.

Thank you for all of the ornament love. I love thinking about my little birds and houses adorning the trees in other warm and cozy homes. You still have time to get a comment in for a free ornament, so hurry on over to my last post.

WoW! Thanks for all the Firefox love! I know there are still loads of you out there using IE6 (my stats are telling me this), so sign up! Join the foxy crusaders. He he.

Look, look, look what came in the mail over the weekend! A beautiful print by artist Geninne Z. I “met” Geninne through Illustration Friday over a year ago and I have always admired her art. I was so excited when she opened up shop in Etsy and found one of my most favorite paintings as a print. I ordered it right away. Please stop over at Geninne’s blog, she is full of inspiration. She doesn’t just do amazing watercolor art. She sews, knits, embroiders and stamps too. Check out this great article about her too!

I’m feeling much better today after my weekend of coughing, runny nose, fever thing so I thought I’d head out in the hot fresh air and do a little thrifting.

 
First a new magazine splurge at the grocery store, then lots of nifty thrifted goods: fabric, a zipper, buttons, lace, bias tape and a $4 outfit.  I love the skirt so much, but I’m an inch away from zipping it all the way up.  Dang!  I hate when that happens.  S0, that means I should either:

A) Stop eating a big bowl of soy ice cream every night,

B) Get off my lazy butt and get physical (in the areobic sense), or

C) Rip out the entire waist and zipper of this skirt and MAKE IT FIT!!

Frankly, they all sound like a major draaagggg!  At least the shirt fits!

Boy, did I have a great thrifting day!!! I wasn’t going to go, but the the Savers, on the other side of town, seemed to be calling my name. I resisted (just a tad) but temptation led the way. I am so glad it did too! I hit the jackpot on lovely fabric and linens.

Look, look, look! Fabric, sheets, pillowcases….

an apron, thread, napkins (cherry, strawberry and vegetables), a skirt….

and some shoes. The shoes looked unused or else I wouldn’t have bought them. No dirt or scuff marks inside or out. And they aren’t leather~ I love that!

I had two stacks when going to the cash register. The ‘have to have‘ and the ‘maybe- depending on the total $‘ stack. Well, to my complete amazement, today just happened to be blue tag 50% off day. AND most of my stuff just happened to have blue tags!!!! That never happens to me. So, of course, I got everything! Three bags full!  Good, don’t you think?

Now, I have big plans for bags, skirts, curtains and maybe some pillows. The possibilites are endless. This my friends, marks the beginning of my fabric diet, which I was explaining to my dear son, is the restriction of buying more, and more, and more fabric. A big problem of mine. This is news that my dear husband will be very happy to hear about, and something I thought I’d throw in since he is in Dallas reading this post and probably shaking his head. Hi honey!

Today I did a bit of thrifting to reward myself for having successfully finished my Breastfeeding Counselor course. Yea!! Now, hopefully I will have more time for crafting and painting. Here is what I bought:

Some pillow cases, a bed sheet and large fabric remnants.

A very dirty tin of buttons for $3. After sorting and washing, look at the beauties that were hiding!

Two complete Raggedy Ann & Andy doll panels (4 dolls total) and a pretty orange crocheted skirt.

I got all of it for $26!