Still here!

I've been missing this little blog of mine, and it's no wonder. I've been away for two whole months! The truth is I haven't had much to share lately, what with our big move and not having a work space while we've been in this tiny apartment. So while I haven't been doing much crafting or sewing or refinishing, I have been able to do some thrifting. Wanna see?

Did you know that Target gives their unsold clearance items to Goodwill? I'm always looking for brand new Target stuff when I go there, and last time I found this lovely silver lamp. Still needs a shade, though.

This scale is cool, but it looks too new. I'm looking forward to giving it some kind of treatment to make it look more aged and used. It was only $1 at the Salvation Army store. The old wooden shoe form was found at my new favorite place to browse. There's a store downtown that's stuffed to the roof with antiques and vintage items, but unfortunately the prices there aren't what I'd consider fantastic, so I picked out this one little thing that I really loved, and just enjoyed looking at everything else.

The chippy yellow paint and the warm, worn wood is what makes me really love it.

Isn't that little hole punch adorable? The mug is from Anthropologie but only cost me 99¢ at the thrift store. And you know I have a thing for birds, so this tiny gray handblown glass one just had to come home with me.


At the checkout of one of the thrift stores here I noticed bags of random stuff on a rack behind me. I spotted one that was full of vintage children's books and grabbed it. I was thrilled with the selection when I got home and inspected them.

I have two other vintage Pooh books, so this was a real treat to find in there. I just had to rip off the old plastic library dust jacket.







This one is a translation of a Grimm brothers folk tale. It definitely has their signature "darkness" to the story, but the illustrations are all lovely.



I also scored this wool blanket for a few bucks. It had a tattered satin binding around the edges so I just tore that off.

My daughter thought it was pretty cool that it was made in Australia.

The fiber is really soft and warm, but it does have these two quarter-sized holes in it. But I have a fun idea for repairing them and adding some fun details to the blanket at the same time. I just have to wait until my craft stuff is out of storage!

This chair was the first thing I bought when we got here. The dining set in our apartment only has 4 chairs, and being a family of 5 it was a fun and practical purchase.

Cute, right? Just not the seat. But again, since all my stuff is in storage, I looked for a temporary solution.

This skirted seat cushion was about $10 at Ikea and was just the thing to hide that ugly torn fabric.



But here's the project I'm most excited about working on. I bought this cool old writing desk off Craigslist for $15 and I still feel like a thief.

See that "AC" on the side in that top photo? It's burned into the wood. I wonder what it means? The top is my favorite part, but unfortunately it's warped so it has to go.
It has 4 drawers with keyholes and has such an interesting shape. It used to be covered in veneer, but now there are only a few patches that are left. Just wait 'til you see what I do to it. I have BIG plans! Hopefully I'll be back soon to show you the transformation.

More items to be refinished

My yard saleing luck this weekend was kind of sporadic. I drove around for 3 1/2 hours and covered lots of ground on Saturday and came home with 4 items. Seems like that ratio isn't quite right. But what I did get, I'm excited about. I'm already envisioning what these pieces will look like completed.

This oak octagonal table is kind of funky. It's really short (see the spray can in the picture for scale?), but I love the unique shape of the top and the turned base. I've been itching to paint something a buttery yellow, and I think this might just be it.

The brand underneath is a mystery. Is Monterey where it was made, or the name of the company or the guy who built it? Or maybe it's the name of this style of table?

I'm loving how chunky this table is. Look at those legs and those over sized screw covers. I'm also looking forward to finding just the right pull for the faux drawer. (Bummer that the drawer isn't real. That would've been so useful!)

A table like this always attracts my attention. It's obviously old and has a lot of detail to it.

It came with a mirror to place on the top, but I can't decide if it should stay or not. What do you think? Do you like the look of the mirrored top, or would it be best to leave it off?

This may be just the piece I've been waiting for to try some glazing. How nice would this look painted some light, airy color then glazed with a dark brown that will settle into all those lovely carvings and grooves?

On my way home I stumbled upon one more yard sale sign that I couldn't just drive past. The lady was selling her old wooden sewing caddy which is in really good condition considering it's been around since the 80's! (I didn't remember to take a picture of this until after I'd taken off the hinged lids, so it's laying on its side so the lid won't slide off- it's not attached.)

I particularly love this original knob. I'm sure the crackling happened naturally, so it's definitely staying. A friend of mine has already claimed this piece to be refinished, so I'm excited to get to work on it for her.

Finally, I want to share a little secret with my local friends. (Or maybe it's no secret and I'm just slow to find these things out.) Anyway, down in Nampa there is an Idaho Youth Ranch Bargain Center located near the intersection of Karcher and Middleton Road (2619 Sundance Blvd.). It's an interesting place. It seems to be where all the Youth Ranch thrift stores either send what doesn't sell, or where they keep things that get donated that aren't nice enough to sell in the stores. Everything is kind of thrown together in these big bins, but if you don't mind digging you can find some pretty good stuff. Here's what came home with me today.

This pair of Tommy Hilfiger tennies just needs a spin in the washing machine to be nice and white again.

I love this cute glass jar with a chunky wooden lid. The lid will get painted and I might even try some etching on the glass. It's hard to tell from the photo, but this is actually a pretty good sized jar. It would be great for storing cookies!

I also got this worn old children's book. I'm always a sucker for vintage children's literature...

... especially when it has cute illustrations like this.

I had to chuckle at some of the language in this one. It uses phrases like "by and by" and refers to cotton candy as "colored candy". Funny.
Some things have specific prices, like clothes, shoes, records and books. But everything else is- get this- sold by the pound! Crazy! So if you're down in Nampa and get a chance to stop in, you should check it out. The items above cost me a whole $3. You probably wouldn't want to make a special trip, but if you're in the area and feel like rummaging you might just find a few treasures!

Latest projects

Over the past couple of weeks I've been in major project mode. Just one right after another, and sometimes a few at once. Here's what I've finished recently:

Finally, some art on the walls of my son's room.

An alphabet sampler made using this tutorial from Orange Flower Sketchbook.

A little applique and embroidery interpretation of this sweet Japanese fabric.

Using fabric to reverse-matte prints and photos is a great (and inexpensive) way to add color and texture to your art. Just cut a piece large enough to cover the frame's back plus about an inch on all sides, then fold the fabric behind the back and tape it down. Add some double-sided tape to each corner of your art and center on the fabric.
This is a pen and ink reproduction I did a couple years ago of a page from a beautifully illustrated book of my favorite poem, "Winken, Blinken and Nod", also reverse-matted on fabric.

I bought this piece of American Jane Wee Play fabric back when I was working on Hakan's quilt and never did anything with it. I finally decided to turn it into a wall hanging for his room.

I added some padding and a backing, then stitched between the printed panels to make it look a little more quilty and bound it. Can you spot the cute little buttons I added?





Just finished this baby girl quilt about an hour ago for whoever might have a girl next at church. Everyone's been having boys lately, so I have no idea who'll end up with it!

Red, white, yellow and green- reminds me of strawberries and summer! (Don't tell, but I wish I could keep it.) The backing was cut from a nice white cotton tablecloth that I found during my last thrift store visit. It was pretty big, so the rest of it may turn into a picnic quilt.

I just had to use some more of that sweet Amy Butler fabric from my wall art, so I covered a panel of cork and put it in a thrifted frame to make a little message board.

The pocket in the corner was originally intended to just cover a hole in the floral fabric, but it turned out to be a handy place to stash note paper.

I'm also working on bringing this antique dresser back to life. I am sooo excited to get it finished!

Here's a peek at my progress. Isn't that wood gorgeous?! Who could paint that?

I've still got lots of work to do on it, but I'll definitely be posting lots of "after" pictures here when I'm done!

Pretty picture books

Since starting this blog I've been noticing things in my home that I'm so glad to have around me- things that I got because they inspired me, made me want to make something, made me smile. Well, today's discovery was one of my kids' books, The Aesop For Children illustrated by Milo Winter. I've been collecting children's books for years, especially ones with beautiful illustrations. I call them "pretty picture books". Some of my most treasured books are ones like The Velveteen Rabbit and Iron Hans because they have such beautiful, glowing artwork.

Tonight my daughter was flipping through this book of fables and kept asking me questions like, "Mommy, why is that pig crying?", or "Mommy, why does that man look so mean?" She was enthralled with the illustrations in the book, so finally I had to borrow (read "snatch") it from her and have a look at it myself. I'd never really looked through it before and discovered that it's just gorgeous! I snapped some photos of a few of my favorite drawings to share with you. Honestly, I could have included every page here because each fable has a wonderful drawing to go along with it, but my batteries started to die before I even got halfway through the book. But here--look, admire, sigh. :)

The Frogs Who Wished For a King

The Lion and the Gnat

The Owl and the Grasshopper

The Owl and the Grasshopper

The Peacock

The Rose and the Butterfly

The Town Mouse and the City Mouse

The Vain Jackdaw and His Borrowed Feathers

Someday I'll figure out how to get these images enlarged and framed for my kids' bedroom walls. You can see the entire book here and view all the pretty pictures as well, but I'd really recommend getting your very own copy to moon over.