Oodles and oodles

Happy people from around the world

Some fabric finds from a sale last week:

A little towel to embroider. I'm thinking I could actually get this one done.

A pair of huck towels to finish, along with the original instructions. A lot of the stitches are new to me. Too darn cute to leave unfinished. Certainly too cute to leave un-purchased.

My favorite piece of vintage cotton ever. Or at least this season. Almost a yard of it, too. This makes me forget how hard it is to acquire Cath Kidston here. Almost.

Sadly, there were only remnants of these beauties. I would trade my dog for a bolt of that bird fabric. Oh, come on! You know I wouldn't. It's just an expression. Sheesh.

The jury's still out on the girl fabric.  Kinda cute.

I like the little aprons and picket fences.

Those Angelina Jolie-style lips are a little weird, though.

At first I thought this fabric was more evidence of that mid-century fascination with all things Dutch.

A closer examination revealed not only happy Dutch people ...

But happy people from other countries, too. Like, um, these countries. Austria? Germany? Anybody want to claim them?

Apparently I am woefully uneducated on the subject of international caricature.

At least I recognize these two. The sunbonnet? The straw hat and kerchief? Everybody knows that's what Americans wear.

On the to-do list

Too hot here to do much but play with buttons today. (And go to work, and pick up the kids, and make dinner, and read a book that's putting me to sleep for a book club meeting tomorrow, but who wants to hear about that?) Remember what else is on my to-do list today?

Draw a name for the giveaway! The winner, picked by a random number generator also known as my husband, is the lovely ...

Robin at Thrifty Miss Priss! Robin, my e-mails to you keep bouncing back, so have your people get in touch! Robin offered not one but two misspellings in her comments, for "rod iron" and "rot iron." As anyone who has ever read Craigslist can testify, many people have "rot iron" patio furniture they want to sell. Who would want to buy it is anybody's guess.

Also on my to-do list today: show you my new pincushion that's barely as big as a button. It came from that sale Friday. On my to-do list later this week: show you some vintage fabric from the same sale, and tell you about my rendezvous with the wallpaper guy I met at an auction a few weeks ago. Oh, the things I'm willing to do for a roll of vintage wallpaper ...

Show and Tell Sunday, the Trash to Treasure edition

A week or so ago I mentioned that I found something at a yard sale that I had always wanted but that needed a lot of work. I thought I'd better use one of my "after" pictures first - that's one of them up there, with the thread - because if you saw what I dragged home in its original condition, you might be too horrified to keep reading. Here it is, "before":

And here it is, "after" - after a lot of sanding, painting, cutting, sewing and hammering:

Here's another view, so you get a better idea of what it actually is:

It's an old upright sewing chest. It's kind of like a skinny suitcase that sits on its narrow end. I see them now and again at auctions, but they go for more than what I want to spend (I usually zone out once stuff goes above $75, and I've stopped bidding way before that!) So when I found this one for $10 at a yard sale, I didn't think twice about buying it. The "before" picture of the inside is kind of out of focus, but here's what it looked like:

Grim, isn't it?  But there are all sorts of fun nooks and crannies.

The thread holders are just long dowels with nails hammered in. I'm thinking this was probably a do-it-yourself workshop project, with instructions that appeared in some long-ago magazine or newspaper.

 

Sewn-in pockets to corral miscellaneous doo-dads. These were left from some Easter projects.

Open wooden compartments for stashing more stuff. I think once I get this organized better, I'll be glad I bought it. At first I filled the pockets and bins with all of my essentials, but it was kind of inconvenient to drag it out and open it up every time I just needed a pair of scissors. This might be better for things that are more seasonal or inspirational or just fun to accumulate.

My absolute favorite trash-to-treasure project is one I wrote about a couple of months ago: a table that someone built out of fruit crates and wooden spools. I bought it at an auction for $1 (that's more my price range) and repainted it, and I absolutely adore it. Some of you have seen it before, but if you haven't, just click here and here. And be sure to visit Analise and Cerri, our Sunday Show and Tell co-hostesses, to see more trash-to-treasure projects!

50-cent Friday finds

Some of the finds from a good sale Friday. Pink vase, 50 cents.

These were also 50 cents. Know what they are?

How did you guess?

People intentionally are sprinkling my path with tiny teacups and saucers so I'll buy them. The cup and saucer cost (your guessing powers are astonishing) 50 cents.|

At that price, it was easy to find ones that I liked.

It's official. I have a tiny teacup collection.

Buttons, bokays and the giveaway

So instead of tending to my actual garden, I got distracted by button flowers.

A bouquet of buttons. Or bokay, as Pasha reports that one florist spelled it. Looking for misspellings is amusing, but it doesn't exactly make me feel encouraged about the current state of literacy in our nation.

It's hard to get much done when a fresh jar of vintage buttons is calling my name. I did, however, manage to start pulling out a few things for the giveaway.

I'm planning to draw a name Monday. Just leave a comment (if you haven't already - otherwise, you're in!) sometime over the next couple of days. (It doesn't matter which post you leave it on.)

Your comment doesn't have to include a misspelling you've found in a sale ad, but I do love seeing them.

House for sail. Collectables. Venders. Knit and croquet classes. Sometimes I just sit here at the computer and laugh.

Don't say I didn't warn you

I need to ease you into today's post. I wanted you to see the vases first and then decide whether you want to go on. The final picture isn't pretty. It's an excellent addition to my dictionary of misspelled sale words, and may indeed turn out to be the cover shot, but I didn't want to just spring it on you. You'd better look at the vase again.

Sweet, isn't it? And just 49 cents at the thrift store today. It's my third flowered vase, so I guess I have a collection now. The next picture is of the sign on the flea market next to the thrift store. It's not too late to turn away.

I told you it was bad.

They're here!

  

Remember the bluebird eggs?

Here's what was inside. Not beautiful, but awfully sweet.

And, apparently, pretty hungry.

p.s. I don't know if there are three babies, or an egg yet to be hatched. Time will tell.

On second thought . . .

I looked at the pictures in my last post and decided to rearrange again. I think I like this better. Except the countertop is bothering me a little bit. But really, I'm just going to stop.

One thing leads to another

I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but I can never just clean the kitchen. Or any other room. I have to turn it into a project. All this started when I bought that pair of Dutch boy and girl planters Friday. I couldn't just put them on a shelf. I had to take everything off the shelves, wash it all and rearrange it. There are worse chores than washing the Jadeite, however. It's kind of like recreational ironing. You know what I'm talking about.



I had to scrub the shelves themselves, which was tedious, not to mention photographically boring.



The Swanky Swigs got their spring bath.



Then it was time for the endless fussing. The kind that takes hours, that makes me ask myself why I bothered to read the classics and study history if all I was going to end up doing was rearranging knick-knacks. (Please note the proper spelling of knick-knacks, not nicknacks, as (k)nuckleheads spell it in their ads.)



So here's what I ended up with.


Which looked OK, except it was clear to me I needed more Jadeite saucers. And maybe a little something else on the countertop.

 

And then on Sunday my friend Linda dropped in and showed me the jar she found that's just like the one I found at a sale we'd been to earlier this spring. I swapped her some Christmas ornaments and garland for it. I think they were meant to be together.


On to the next project. (The thing I got Friday, that I've always wanted and finally got? A bigger project than I anticipated. But almost done.)