Start of a Collection? - Thrift Share Monday

No, not this chippy red parrot hanger

Nor these Villeroy and Boch Le Ballon cups and saucers

Not the Disney carousel mug

Not the vintage-y Christmas ornaments

Ah - yes - the red handled kitchen utensil - now there's my new collection!

Goes right with my knife sharpener found last week.

I enjoyed a day shopping solo in thrifts and an antique mall with my upcycled fabric totebag

Perhaps I should make some more!!!

Linking in today with

Apron Thrift Girl

Flea Market Finds

One - Thrift Share Monday

Yep - that's it - just ONE purchase at thrift last week. (I'm so proud of me!!)

It's a mystery kitchen gadget. I think a knife sharpener.

And what drew me to it was the red painted handle with yellow stripe.

This is the partially cleaned version - as found it was very grimy.

In place of thrifting I had efforts in organizing and planning.

Planning's a good thing. Holidays are coming, we'll have guests three times thoughout the season and the guest room is the ebay/etsy storage/packing room.

So - enough of the buying - time to list and sell sell sell!

(Or donate donate donate!!)

Linking in today with

apron thrift girl

flea market finds



Swamped - Thrift Share Monday

Franco smoked glasses wheat pattern, Norway casserole

I step into the Goodwill murmuring my familiar mantra "I don't need anything"

Faux? Haviland oyster dish with silverplate servers

The sales board announces 50% off cups, plates, mugs, glasses

....sinking feeling in belly....

Sango Green Acres plates

Ummm-ing and urrrr-ing over micro-details I turn away more than half of my first "grab-it" impulses

Corning ware Liberty plate

Five dollars later I shuffle to the car with my latest booty.

New listings for my Etsy and Ebay shops are coming along slowly, folks! A buddy will help me with photos this week to kick start more efforts there.

 Have I posted things to pique your interest lately? As some of you have already done - you can contact me directly through comments or my email on the profile page regarding any items.

Sharing today with

Apron Thrift Girl

Flea Market Finds

We Martha-ed Halloween ghosts

Gauze Ghost - Martha Stewart style

Adding to our little Halloween display, daughter and I created a cheesecloth ghost a la Martha Stewart. We made some substitutions to her original instructions to keep with the "only what we have in the house" requirement. Chenille sticks instead of fancy wire in the form, 50/50 mix of white glue and water instead of starch. Worked just fine, dried over 2 days.

Wonder how big you can make these?? Life sized??

Bargain Bin - Thrift Share Monday

I've already blogged my $1 quilt save from the bargain tables outside one of our thrift shops. And there were more treasures to find on that rainy, blustery Saturday!!

Splatter mushroom planter

Instand food thermometer collection

Pawing through the 25 cent bin of kitchen utensils

(I grab a spatula, usually, as my rake to search - saves my fingers from little cuts!)

Those thermometers above are fun in their varied designs. Testing them in a cup of boiling water proves some w-i-d-e accuracy margins! (or is that precision - always got those two mixed up in science class)

Silverplated servers

Naturally these servers were in their rough form when found - dark black!

Oneida tudor plate Bridal Wreath pie servers with a lonely Sheffield salad server.

Eva Zeisel Frost Flowers for Hall-craft

Lovely finds inside too - the peacock blue flower color of the Eva Zeisel cup/saucers is just gorgeous.

Took awhile to find the matching saucers once the cups were spied, the plates to go with were in very poor condition - so behind they stayed.

Ben Seibel Raymor Steubenville

And Contempora cups, saucers and plates found too.

These were very dirty and cleaned up beautifully!

Sharing today with:

Apron Thrift Girl

Flea Market Finds

Rescued

Piled up in a ragged clump on an outside table...

Stained, faded...

Aged

 Softened

 I was enamoured

with this handmade little gem

I study the stitches

and differing fabrics

some coarse, some fine

An edge worn away - pinked to limit the fray

It's delightful

Thanks Mom!!

Lookee!!! I'm the lucky recipient of this quilt from my Mom. (It's a combo birthday and Xmas present) She has done a fantastic job on its construction and quilting.

A while ago I had become enamoured with a pieced quilt pattern and had a go at starting it.

But I discovered that I hated DOING the exacting piecing that it would take to make a great quilt top. So I hung the block on my wall in the living room as is, vowing to do SOMETHING with it one day because, imperfections and all, I still loved the look.

Along came a serendiptious find of Eleanor Burns Star Log Cabin book and passed it along to Mom (She likes Eleanor's method of quilt assembly). Lo and behold Mom was the one who put together the idea of expanding the colors of my block into a quilt of this books' style. Pulling off not only the star and checkerboard of the original block but adding in a favorite color combo in my home.

 And it's a great result.

Now guess, how many minutes does it take for a quilt to attract a cat (and dog)?!

Dewey and Lily - about 5 minutes after quilt was installed

Keep still, Dewey, I'm trying to snap your photo!!!

Could be?

We do live just down the road from Yesteryear Village - well maybe a bit further than that, but not much.  Fabled home The Riddle House located at the Village has been explored by the Ghost Adventures reality show (eh - they're a bit too over-dramatic for my taste).

Doesn't stop us from venturing out in the dark with our "Ghost Meter" to pick up EMF activity in the cul-de-sac. (Envision daughter and her friend tip toe-ing around in the dark - pointing device in every direction)

ooooo - blinking lights - calls to Mom  - what could it be?

Well - anything with electricity - this time it was the underground cable lines!!

What I'm Watching Wednesday...Bill Cunnningham New York

Another Netflix recommendation from last night - and this one is a delight!

Bill Cunningham New York

A documentary of the fashion chronicler/photographer from the New York Times.

He's in his 80's, rides his Schwinn bike throughout the city snapping the fashions on folks he sees - both celebrity and non. It's the fashion he cares about - the clothes and how they're worn.

He's a fascinating personality. Keeps a very simple lifestyle, minimal, his whole joyful life effort seems put into capturing images of the clothes as they're worn on the street as well as on the runway, then assembling the snapped images for his newspaper columns.

His day swings from street photography in the light to covering parties in the evenings. Seasonally he heads to Paris to cover the runway shows. He calls it "retraining the eye" twice a year.

This film captivated me - I'm not familiar with The New York Times or his columns - and I was taken with his focus on his image making and his seeming pleasantness. Then captivated again with his extremely minimal lifestyle - it seems he has a cot, a chair and massive stacks of file cabinets! So fascinating.

 BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credits: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

XYZ blocks

A couple of weeks ago our weekend outing included Bear and Bird gallery inside Tate's Comics.

Lookie what came home with us...these XYZ blocks...with their make-me-laugh graphics. T is for Trailer, O is for outhouse, B is for bald...beats A for apple, B for ball anyday!!

Oh - we're long past the innocent kiddie toy days, time for a bit o'fun!!

Vintage Kitchen - Thrift Share Monday

Food chopper - stacking canisters

Kitchen goodies turned up this week while shopping the thrifts.

I hadn't seen a food chopper quite like this one - its lid is quite space saucer in shape, and the wooden bead top has aged to a beautiful soft red. What do you reckon  - circa 1960's? 50's? 70's? The glass vessel beneath is marked Dispensers Inc, Los Angeles, New York.

Those stacking bowls/canisters set on the right has a great assembled shape too. I keep thinking "I Love Lucy" with Ricky Ricardo and  his bongo drums. Funnily, I didn't realize they stacked when I bought them nested inside the top bowl. I figured 2 of the lids were missing!! Researching made me wiser, however. There is a label on them, but I'm not sure it's original to the set. It says "National Silver Company Nagoya Japan". These certainly aren't silver - they're plastic. So - more research!!

Meanwhile, I am enjoying their bright cheerfulness sitting on my countertop.

Joining in today with:

Apron Thrift Girl

Her Library Adventures (flea market finds)

The Penny Worthy Project

Little bits of (faux) Autumn

A touch of cool in the weather this morning - barely 70 degrees - it feels wonderful.

Mentally, it's autumn - the daylight hours are shorter, shadows are longer. Tropical heat is still here - the air conditioner runs around the clock.

Shop displays woo us to pretend we live "up north" with displays of pumpkins and fallen leaves, sweaters and long sleeved shirts. Teasing the senses - mulled apple cider is presented with its spicy aroma - samples given freely.

So, likewise, I'm faking autumn at home, tucking faux fallen leaves about. Bringing in the autumn colors as we head into our daughters favorite holiday - Halloween!