Dumpster Diving

I am a shameless dumpster diver. They just call my name to take a peek inside and see what kinds of treasures lurk within. 

Future Dumpster Diver

Because you know, it really chaps my ass when people throw things away they could easily recycle back into their community. Especially when there are so many great resources like Freecycle, Craigslist, and online Facebook community yard sale pages. Or you could just leave the goods on your porch with a free sign. 

So when my community HOA put out the yearly dumpster for bulk pickup I did a couple of hooray fist pumps. This year I pulled out 3 perfect terra cotta pots and a set of plain pine Ikea bed slats.

 

Robert and Lenora got to work building me a new planter for my back porch container garden with the bed slats. Just look at that team work. Arent they lovely. I can't wait to fill that planter with some good eats next summer. 

Retail Therapy

While I was off convalescing I indulged in quite a bit of retail therapy. Thankfully for our family budget my version of retail therapy usually involves the local thrift store and no more than 5 or 10$. I picked up a few treasures I thought I would share. 

I love wooden toys, especially old wooden toys. This little highchair is so sweet and lovely.  

Happy little Noah's Arc. Is it just me or does that giraffe look like a dog with a really long neck? 

I also love dish towels. Paper towels are a sin in our house (except for bacon and barf, we do have one emergency roll). Can you believe this was only a dollar? I just imagine the little lady that sat and made this for her family.

Even though I have a bazillion pyrex bowls I could not pass up this complete mixing set. A gift maybe? 

I hope you find a few gems on your thrifting adventures. 

Swirl Me Around

I found this dress junking in Nebraska with the grandmas. I originally thought it to be a wrap apron and bought it for that purpose but when I got home and did a little research on the tag I found out it was a Swirl wrap dress. I think it is from the late 50's. There were some issues with it. One of the ties was torn clean off and there was a rip in the side. You can see the mess in the photo below. 

I ended up buying some new pink fabric to replace the ties and mending the hole with the super awesome darning stitch on my sewing machine. Excuse my pasty white arms.  

Here she is, all finished and brought back to life. I love the huge front pockets.  

So who wants to take me out on a date so I can wear this lovely frock?

A Sad Day

It's a sad day when you break a piece of vintage Pyrex. Especially one you never got to use. As a general rule I don't spend so much on my Pyrex or, anything for that matter that I would be devastated if it broke. Most pieces are $5 or less and purchased at Goodwill. I buy things we use and are not afraid of using.

But the sting is still there. So long my friend.  

Just Like New

This shirt was a freebie from "Back in the Day" in Omaha. I bought some other vintage duds and when I mentioned the tear in the back the owner just threw this one in for free. I knew I could do something to mend it and make it wearable again. Above is the tear before my alterations. It was slightly off center but close enough. I laid the shirt flat and traced the V from the front neck onto the back. Then I rolled the edges 1/8 inch and top stitched. Easy peasy. The little rosettes and tie were just knotted to the tear when I bought the shirt so I tacked them back on to stop the V from flapping open when I wore it.

I love how it turned out. Not to shabby for a free shirt.

Please excuse the pose. I don't know what I was thinking.

The Holy Grail: Day 7

I saved the best find for my final day of a week of thrifting reveals. Last weekend I had an hour before my brother showed up for dinner, and since he is always late I figured I had close to 2 hours. I was bored so off to the Goodwill Lenora and I went. Its really dangerous around these parts since they just opened one a few miles from my house. In the beginning the pickings were slim but not anymore. On this trip my eyes caught the below beauties. This is one of my favorite Pyrex colors and patterns. Behold...a pristine set of pink gooseberry casserole dishes. No lids but I picked up a stray small Pyrex lid a few weeks ago just in case, so now I only have 2 more to find.

Day 7: Pink Gooseberry Pyrex Casserole Dishes

Price: 10$ (a little steep in my opinion for Goodwill, but there was no way these babies were getting away)

Ladylike Linens: Day 6

Vintage linens hold a soft spot in my heart, for they are beautiful, old, glorified textiles. I love their patterns, colors and quirkiness not found in your everyday Bed Bath and Beyond.

Until now I have not been too lucky in the towel department at my local thrift store. Then the other day it was as if the heavens parted and I hit the mother load. Pink and green fluffy towels galore, plus a sheet and some pillowcases. I am in love.

I always look for these with the idea that I will turn them into these sweet vintage towel cosmetic bags I found on flickr. Great Christmas gift ideas. Maybe for this years 100% handmade Christmas, that is if I ever get around to it.

Or I could turn them into really neat retro baby bibs like the Liberty Bibs on The Purl Bee.
But then I am overcome by their beauty and the thought of cutting them sends shivers down my spine. So for now I will stack them neatly in my closet. I really want the set of pink towels to be Lenora's. There are the perfect little lady like size for her tiny toes.

Ahhhh, lovely sheets. What shall I make with you?

Farm Boy Fetch Me That Pitcher: Day 5

I love a good drink. Not of the booze variety. You know, the whole pregnant, nursing baby, mom thing gets in the way of my boozing these days. But I do love a nice tall glass of iced tea. You know whats better than a nice tall glass of iced tea....a pretty pitcher to serve it in. A pretty Pyrex pitcher at that. I found the pair of these playing nicely together on the shelf at my local Goodwill.

Not a week later I found their little sister at another local Goodwill. Imagine that. Can you believe they all had the original tops. What a find. Go me.

Day 5: 3 Pyrex Lemon Pitchers

Price: $3 each for the 2 large sizes and $5 for the small one

I sometimes wonder where they come up with their pricing methodology at Goodwill.

Pretty Frocks: Day 4

It absolutely kills me to go clothes shopping for Lenora and find that her little outfits and shoes cost just as much as mine. $45 for a baby dress. I think not. I have been on the lookout for some easy summer dresses and hit the jackpot with the 4 below. I am not sure any of them have ever been worn, they are practically brand new. I love the 2 Mexican dresses. The embroidery and stripe details are so sweet. I might have to try my hand at making something similar in a larger size.

Day 4: 4 Little Girl Dresses

Price: $3 each

Bottoms Up: Day 3

In case you have not already noticed I am a sucker for dishes, mainly Pyrex and Fiesta. Now and then something else will just beg me to take it home. Such is the case with these glasses. There were five of them on the shelf and I grabbed every one. They are in perfect condition and really pretty shades of yellow, peach and green. Not quite sure where in the cupboards I will fit them but I am sure we can make room.

Day 3: Vintage drinking glasses.

Price: .50 cents each

Warm and Snuggly: Day 2

My daughter was well past the swaddling stage when I discovered Aden and Anais muslin blankets, but that did not make me covet them any less. They make excellent woobies or light summer blankets. However, at $20 and up for one I just could not take the plunge. Then smiling back at me on the rack at my local goodwill were these. Not one, but 2 of them.

Day 2: Aden and Anais Classic Red Star Muslin Swaddle

Price: 1$ each. Yes you heard that right.

I just might have to swaddle myself.

It is a Sickness: Day 1

The thrifting gods have been very kind to me lately. When my husband is out of town I tend to frequent the thrift stores more often than usual, and since he has been gone for about 6 weeks, lets just say I have been way more often than I should. But when you are on a roll like I have been its just so dang hard to stop.

For the next 7 days I am going to share with you a week of my recent thrifting finds. Hold on to your seats, this is going to be good.

Day 1: 1960 Promotional Pyrex Fruit Cinderella Bowl

Price: $6

I damn near squealed in the store when I saw this baby.
Then when I got home and googled to find the pattern, I found this baby. Do you see it? Makes me love the bowl even more. I thought about gifting it, but not any more. She is all mine.

Something Nice To Rest My Bum On

My MIL gave us a beautiful farm house style kitchen table when she moved but it didn't come with any chairs. I knew I wanted something a little different and decided on picking up random chairs in my thrift store travels to create a kind of eclectic look. Fast forward weeks later and we were still sitting on cheap folding chairs. On a whim I dragged my husband to this antique store and this antique store hoping to find at least one chair for the table, all the while he complained we must make it back home before the Nebraska game started.

At our first stop I came across this little gem and loaded her up in the pickup. The color was perfect but I was not a fan of the Rachel Ashwell shabby chic cushion. I knew I could do better.
So I used this quilt as you go tutorial to stitch up a new cushion. All the fabric and batting was from my scrap bin so I didn't spend a dime more than what the chair cost me. A little tip, if you are marking the center of your batting for your first piece of fabric do not use a pencil. It will bleed through the fabric and you will have to spend hours searching the internet for ways to remove it. Thankfully a soak in rubbing alcohol and a spin in the wash did the trick.
I love how it turned out. The butterfly is from a vintage pillowcase, as well as some of the other pieces. Its nice to know my bum will have a very fashionable place to rest.
I have another chair I found for the table I plan to do the same for. Its a big king style chair for the hubby and he has requested all black, white and grey fabrics. Ill share when I am finished. I just love how you can marry quilting with home decorating.

Pretty in Pink

I have followers. 4 of them to be exact and I am so giddy. I wish I could just squeeze you. To think that 4 people actually read my rambling brings a smile to my face on a day when I just might have shed a tear or two.

Now on to the good stuff.

I love the Goodwill store. I might have mentioned that before and I am sure I will again. There are just so many surprises. You never know what you might find.

Well on this particular day my lovely daughter would not nap and was rather..shall we say...difficult. So we all piled in the car for a drive and a snooze. Once she was asleep I made my husband sit in the car and I went shopping at my local Goodwill. He was thrilled. That is a lie but the babe was asleep and there is only so much damage to the checkbook you can do at a thrift store, so he obliged.

Here is my haul:

A super sweet pink Tupperware for $1.50. I have already filled it with oatmeal. 2 pairs of pink shoes for the babe for $3 each. A strainer for $1.50, which we needed badly, since the day before I strained a whole pot of tiny stelline pasta, one tablespoon at a time in a strainer the size of a thimble. And this hand crocheted baby sheet for $1 with butterflies on the edge. I am not sure what I will do with that one but those pink butterflies we begging me to take them home. So for $10 I think I made a pretty in pink kind of deal.
I had to include this outtake. My little Lilly dog loves a photo opportunity. Actually that is her window bench and my photo shoot was disturbing her sunbathing.

So what have you been thrifting these days?

For the Love of Sewing (the super secret surprise unveiling)

My grandmother taught me how to sew with old pillowcases and barbie dress patterns. Ever since then I have had a love affair with needle and thread. One of the reasons I sew is because I get to make things for the people that I love. I made this quilt for a dear friend of mine, just because she likes butterflies, and just because she is the best friend a gal could ever have. I had this quilt idea in my head for years but could not find the right vintage butterfly quilt blocks. One day the perfect vintage quilt top magically appeared on ebay and I made her butterfly quilt dream a reality.

The butterflies are vintage hand appliqued quilt blocks and the border fabric is also vintage. The striped squares are reproduction prints that replaced plain muslin squares on the original quilt top. The sewing was not so great and the plain muslin squares were stained so I took the whole top apart, washed it and put it back together again with some new fabric.

Here is a shot of the back where I pieced together some Kona cotton and leftover fabric from the front. I think my measurements were off or I was working on this late night because how I originally planned it and how it turned out are totally different. I was sweating there for a minute wondering if I had enough fabric to finish the back but it all worked out in the end.
I love these labels. I ordered then from Fancyweaver. I know it's not a USA based company but the price was right, they were easy to work with and the labels look great. They are end fold labels but just long enough I can unfold them and tuck it into a corner of a quilt.

Here is another one of my hand embroidered quilt labels.

On a side note these pictures were taken in my grandmothers back yard, the backyard of the same house I learned to sew in. She has two perfect trees that I stretched a piece of rope between to take quilt pictures. I say I but you would not catch my butt climbing a ladder up that tree. Its my husband that does all the heavy lifting while I stand safely on the ground directing.

So tell me, why do you sew?

Score

I am not a particularly lucky gal. Well, let me clarify. I am super lucky in that I have a wonderful family, healthy 3 month old, swell sidekick dog, food, shelter, hugs, kisses, fairy dust and all that jazz. I am not so lucky in that I win raffles, contests or find huge wads of money laying on the side of the road, but I did get lucky this past weekend. I found a Maya Sling at the Goodwill. I can hardly believe it myself. I also snagged these super swell Pyrex bowls at a yard sale. I love the green and white flower Pyrex. I have a couple in my kitchen, but I am always on the lookout for the red rooster pattern. How about you, score any good deals recently?

Sew Not a Sewing Project

Sew I have been working on a project of the non sewing kind. In an effort to reclaim some of my living room from the massive piles of baby stuff accumulation I came up with this. I picked this little dresser up on Craigslist for a little more than a song. At first I thought I would just clean her up and use her as is but when I got it home she turned out looking a little more orangy than I would have liked, and the top needed refinishing anyway. She also needed a little TLC, so Robert performed some minor surgery on her undercarriage to get her in good working order.


A few coats of paint and some new knobs later and here is she, in all her glory in my living room. I admit at first I was kinda skeptical about a purple dresser in the living room but it works. She sits in a corner that just collected dust tumbleweeds anyway and is small enough to look like she belongs. Plus I can change the baby right on top without bending over and all the crap is hidden in the drawers.

She also matches this super awesome rug I just picked up on Overstock. Its a psychedelic explosion in my living room and it hides all the dog hair. Is it strange I just called a dresser a she this whole post? Happy home improvements to you all.

Beach Thrifting

I went to a wedding this past weekend in Deleware. My super awesome mother came with and we turned the week into a 3 generation vacation, with lots of eating, playing with my wee little babe, resting and shopping. We hit just about every thrift store in Deleware. I loooooooove thrifting, but my husband does not. What I refer to as my treasures he calls "other peoples old crap". I often have a hard time finding anyone who wants to spend and afternoon treasure hunting, so if you are in MD and would like to go drop me a line, pretty please. I have visions of what I refer to as my forever house, with a huge farm kitchen with open shelves so I can display all my stacks of green and white pyrex bowls, rainbow fiesta dishes and orange tupperware canisters. Throw in the perfect laminate and vinyl kitchen table set, which I have yet to find, and if I did I would probably only get into the house if my husband was in a coma or I bribed him with a shiny new pick up truck, and you would be living in a vintage paradise. Doesn't it makeyou feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I get all smiley and happy just thinking about it.

On our Deleware thrifting extravaganza I made some good finds. Here are a few pictures of what I picked up for a song.

A beautiful yellow vintage tablecloth. A new ham for sewing. I got this for .75 cents. Can you believe that? 2 sets of buttons and a brand new dresden plate quilt pattern.

A close up of the craziest buttons I have ever seen. Not quite sure where I am going to put these but I am sure I will find them a home.