Thrifting and Stash Enhancement

One day a few weeks ago, I met up with my sister in a neighboring town.  We planned to go for a walk and then have lunch and catch up.  We agreed to meet up in the parking lot of the True Value hardware store, but since I got there first, I went into the store to look around.  It'd been quite a while, maybe 10 years, since I'd been in there and I remembered there used to be a fabric section tucked back in the corner of the store when it shared space with Ben Franklin.  

Ben Franklin was a "dime store" kind of place, back before the big box stores were popular (and everywhere).  Little towns might have a Ben Franklin, where they sold all sorts of household items and other stuff.

I don't know what happened to Ben Franklin stores, but this True Value store still had the fabric section back along two short walls, and, oh my gosh, you guys, it was great!

By that I mean, not a huge selection, but what WAS there was some pretty nice stuff!  And they were having a sale where everything was 30% off—which might not sound like such a big deal, but when most of the original bolt prices are $5.99 to $7.99 a yard for popular brand fabric, that is fabulous!

Not pictured are some blender type fabrics, and I also found a 108" wide backing at $8.99 a yard, minus 30% off—plus I signed up for the True Value rewards card at the checkout counter, and they gave me another 10% off my total purchase.

(This was a thrift store find - I thought it looked like brains, at first, but it's raspberries!)

I've also been doing a little thrift store shopping here and there.  Trying not to get carried away, just looking for more useful things like fabric, thread, zippers, drinking glasses, etc.  I've driven loads TO the thrift store since the first of the year, in sorting out Dad's effects, and in general, my desire is to keep more stuff going out than coming in.

However...when your husband helpfully points out two matching pieces of mid-century vintage Royal Haeger pottery you just so happen to collect, what are you going to do?

(Vintage Royal Haeger)

That's right.  You are going to take them home.

On a different thrift store stop, I found some pretty iced tea glasses to replace the ones we've lost over the past year (let's just say "Don't break my dishes" has become a popular refrain when Somebody is loading and unloading the dishwasher). 

So I went up to the cash register to pay for the glasses, which were going to set me back a whopping two dollars, and the lady said, "Did you draw a paddle?"  

Huh? I blinked.  "Uh...no?" I finally replied.

She reached for a pail of paint stirrers ("paddles") and told me to pick one.  The one I chose had the number 75 written in black marker on the far end of it.

"Oh, 75 percent off!" she clucked.  "That's a good one!  Do you want to shop some more?"

She did not have to ask me twice.  I dashed back to the "art department" of the store and pulled a large, professionally framed and matted original watercolor off the wall.  It had a price tag of $39.99, which seemed completely reasonable for that kind of work, but it wasn't something I really needed.  Until that moment.

"You found something!" the lady said as I strode back to the register a few minutes later.

I did, indeed.  

It's signed by "Dick Greene."  I don't know anything about the artist, but I think he did a brilliant job.  (Pardon the reflection of my door window on the glass.)

It's now hanging on the wall in my entryway.  He's watching you!

Sunday Sundry 4-22-12

Let's pop the lid on another edition of Sunday Sundry, shall we?  It's been awhile.

Friends, I have spent a good deal of my spare time this past week trying to piece together something other than a quilt.

I've been doing some genealogy work, and it's led down some interesting trails, one that leads all the way back to the middle ages and a place called Shropshire in England.  Does anyone who reads this happen to live near there or have visited?  It looks like an entirely lovely place, there on the border of Wales.  Of course, things must have been somewhat less than lovely when the ancestor decided to shove off across the pond around the mid seventeenth century.

Whittington Castle, Shropshire (photo credit)

I have had some crazy dreams in the midst of this research.  One night, after clicking back and back and back and back on an ancestral line on the internet, I dreamed I was part of a relay team, but the hitch was that we had to run a 13-mile course backwards—as in literally running backwards.  If you turned around and ran any of it the normal way, you would be disqualified.  Speed was not as important in this race as was just doing it properly.  

Now, I am not a runner in waking life, never have been, but this navigating the course backwards thing?  I thought, I can do this!  In my dream, the other members of my team disappeared one by one, dropped out, or maybe got disqualified, I don't know.  As for me, I was into this running backwards thing and really putting the miles behind (in front of?) me.  It felt kind of...awesome.

But back in the here-and-now, in my non-REM hours, I am eager to move forward. On Monday, I am due to have a couple of relatives drop by who are also researching our family history.  The plan is to share what each of us has, and I am hoping to pass the baton, as it were, to the more willing and able.  This work is fascinating, but I'd rather be sewing and working on things for which the finish line is in sight.  First, though, I'm going to have to clean up the paperwork strewn across my sewing table, ironing board, and numerous other surfaces in the sewing room.  I can't even see my cutting mat at the moment, and that's a bit disturbing.

A pair of mallards dropped in for a visit.

It's been sort of cool and dreary this week, but the sun shone today and Norm and I needed to get out of the house.  We went for a drive to a Goodwill about a half hour away, where I spotted this. 

In all honesty, my first thought was that it was rather fugly, albeit in an interesting kind of way, which prompted me to turn it over and look for a mark.

Haeger!  I should have known.  It had a layer of schmutz and spider poo on it, but it cleaned up nicely, and now I think its true beauty shines through.  I mean, just look at that gorgeous glaze.  No, seriously, the glaze.  It'll take your mind off the stuff that looks like brain matter.

I thought it was perhaps a cookie jar, but on finding this grouping on flickr, it appears that it was part of a canister set.  I intend to look it up in one of my Haeger reference books, but that's another thing buried somewhere around here that I need to excavate.

I've also been in the mood to find some good, new (to me) music.  What are you listening to these days?

Sunday Sundry - Vol. 43

We hit the thrifts on Saturday.  I hadn't been thrift shopping much lately, but it was a beautiful day for a drive and I had a pocketful of cash.  That healthcare flexible spending account comes in handy.

I found a large Pyrex casserole.  The 1970s wasn't my favorite period for Pyrex, but that warm butterscotch color just seemed right to me.

A few hanks of vintage fabric found their way home with me too.  I'm crushing on that green one in particular.

There was a Royal Haeger tall vase that caught my eye.  

It's just waiting for a colorful bouquet or some fall foliage.

And I came upon a couple of dove gray Woodfield snack sets by Steubenville Pottery.  These were popular in the 1940s-50s.  

Steubenville closed in 1959, I believe.

I also snagged a large serving bowl in the salmon color.  This will have some McIntosh apples in it soon.

A Hall au gratin baking dish.  Hard to tell from the photo, but it's a pretty, dark amber color.  I already have a couple like this, one gray, one green.  They're nice for individual baked casseroles.  I think they're still making this kind of restaurant ware.

But that green and white crocheted piece it's sitting on?  That brings us to our what the heck? moment of the day. 

See what I mean? 

It's...um...a boy?

Grandma was apparently busy hooking something while Gramps was out fishing with the boys.  A gadget cozy?  A rocket warmer?  A dingaling doily? 

I dunno, you tell me.  Whatever it is, it's worth the buck I paid in entertainment value alone!

Sunday Sundry - Vol. 14

I wish you could smell these scented pine cones.  Heavenly.  These were some of what we unpacked from Dad's moving boxes recently.  My mom had hand-dipped each one (some 15 or more times) in scented wax.  She mixed the scents herself, so what you might imagine might smell like straight up cinnamon actually smells like soft sandalwood with a cinnamon undertone, or evergreen with a hint of berry and cedar.  It's hard to describe in words just how amazing they smell.

These went into fabric baskets that she made and sold at craft fairs.  I spent time this week deconstructing those baskets that were abandoned in various stages of production when she had her stroke.  It was a bittersweet task, but I felt she would have wanted me to do that, salvage the fabric to use or donate, and move on.

The Lighter Side
I clicked on an ad in my Gmail account today, something I rarely do, but this T-shirt had caught my eye.

"Will sleep with every quilt I meet," just cracked me up.  The site is Block Party Studios, and it looks like they've got a number of cute and fun gift items for the quilter, as well as for the quilter's significant other.  If any of my family is reading this (psst, M.?), this shirt is near the top of my Christmas list.  Hey, I'm easy—to buy for, that is!

Thrift-O-Rama!
I have no idea what that means, but we did buzz through three thrift stores on Friday afternoon and snagged a few treasures, viz:

I love that bright undersea print!  The middle fabric is a vintage print that has a feedsack type texture to it.

Also found some red rick-rack.  Say that three times fast, and you will sound like the child of Barbara Walters and Elmer Fudd too, I bet!

My husband gets credit for spying two very cool finds of the day—a double-scoop sundae dish and a Royal Haeger (#128) ashtray in the gold tweed glaze.

Neither of us eats ice cream anymore (sadly) or smokes (thankfully), but his idea is to put a couple of vintage Christmas ornaments in the sundae dish.   Fabulous, right?  

I know there has to be a novel way to display something in the ashtray too.  Jane, help!  I'm thinking it'd be interesting to maybe have it hold vintage cards or photos where the cigs used to sit, maybe on some kind of tubular placecard holder type thing, but I don't know how to make that happen.  Any other ideas?

My heart went pitter-patter when I saw this little tin recipe box.  I'm not sure how old it is exactly, but I'm guessing the Flower Power era.  Back before they abbreviated states with two letters, anyway, as it says it was made in "Penna." on the bottom.

Getting in the Groove

I might have palpitations of another sort if I think about all the things I want to sew or quilt before Christmas.  It's going to take the old nose to the grindstone and some solid concentration over the next few weeks.  Please pass the Focus Factor.  I will have to resist being derailed by all the other brilliant projects happening in blogland, but it's going to be hard.

Speaking of brilliant (and distracting, but in a wonderful way), have you seen the free Quilting Tutorials page over at Cluck Cluck Sew?


You can peruse the various tutorials linked from there and post your own.  Did I mention brilliant?

Parting Gift

Ray LaMontagne is getting regular rotation on my favorite radio station lately, and I do not mind at all.  My husband tends to want to change the station when this song comes on, but I shoo him away if he tries.  We both agree there is a Joni Mitchell quality to it, with maybe a nod to early Neil Young as well.  I hope you enjoy it!

"It's My Potty..."

"and I'll cry if I want to..."  Oh, but those would only be tears of JOY!  

Thanks to our friend Dan the Man (as in handy), who put up the new light fixture, fan, towel bar, TP holder, and refurbished cupboard during the past week, the half bath redo is done!

I've got a little fine-tuning to do, and I'd like to do a bit more in the way of decorating (this is all I could cobble together today).  

Maybe some framed photos, and something else in the blue Red Wing dish, perhaps something soapy or seasonal.  (Check out these cute little fabric acorns.  Wouldn't that be cute?)

I love seeing my Royal Haeger swan (R-182) up there, and the clear Pyrex fridgie on the shelf!

So that's where all my marbles went...I thought I'd lost them.

Let's review the before picture:

And after:

Thanks, Elizabeth, for encouraging me to repaint the cupboard, and to everyone else who suggested it.  I was really on the fence, but you know, it was absolutely the right thing to do.  We had a little snafu with the doors, but Dan came through with a fix.  Whew!

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with my sewing machine!

Sunday Sundry - Vol. 7

My brother Darrell makes his own homemade salsa every year.  It's a labor-intensive, Labor Day weekend tradition that he undertakes solo.  I think he said he canned something like 50 quarts this year.  It's quite the production, often involving an all-nighter until the last jar is filled.  And his salsa?  ROCKS!

Here are a few of the peppers he grows in his garden for this endeavor—jalapenos, habaneros, both hot and mild banana peppers.  He shared these with me this week (thanks!), and so far I've made chili and spicy pulled pork with some of them.  I'll probably throw a few in some pad thai tomorrow.

We like it hot up in here, culinarily speaking.

See the XX label on that jar?  That means it's a midrange salsa on my brother's heat scale, which goes from one X to three Xs.  One might think, then, that a double X means medium heat, right?  Not exactly.  Compared to a medium heat store brand, this tastes something more on the order of "Fire in the Hole!"  

And his XXX?  Well, to paraphrase Nigel from Spinal Tap, "This one goes to 11."

[beep]

Does anyone remember the old filmstrips from grade school?  The image would be projected on a screen, but the audio came from a 33 rpm record or cassette tape, which would sound a tone that meant it was time for the projectionist (i.e., the teacher or the class brown-noser) to advance the film one frame.  

Does that sound like ancient technology, or what?  And we did math on an abacus and chiseled our homework on stone tablets by firelight.

Anyway, sometimes I think I need a divider on these sundry posts as the segue to the next subject.  That's what the [beep] was above.  Feel free to leave better ideas for a divider in the comments.

[beep]

I dropped in at a small, local flooring store this week to check out options for our kitchen/hall/half bath.  It would appear, from my less-than-scientific observations, that most flooring falls into one of four categories:  Wood, stone/tile, fake wood, or fake tile.  Good thing I didn't have my heart set on that hideously colored/patterned crap from the '70s.

Speaking of both hideous crap (not really; I love this pottery) and my trip to the flooring store, this was an actual exchange that occurred in said store.  Just for fun, let's use these vintage Haeger vases I dragged out today, for fall decor, to illustrate.

Setup:  I had been talking to a helpful female sales clerk and had given her my info so she could set up time for someone to come out and measure.  Then she invited me to continue looking at the samples and let her know if I wanted to take anything home.  I disappeared behind a display toward the front of the store.  The store manager guy had come in through the back while I'd been talking to the sales clerk, and assumed I'd walked out the front door.

Okay, here we go.

Store Manager (in a normal voice):  She's a tall drink of water.

Sales Clerk:  Yes...and she's still here.

Me (from behind display):  I heard that.

Do you think I should ask for a discount—the Manager's Embarrassment Special?

[beep]

I did get a couple more gathered clutches sewn this week.  I especially heart the gold one, made from what I have left of a couple Frolic FQs.

I've been just putting in the card pockets, not the other divider on the inside.

Every zipper gets a little easier and smoother.

I'm making these from stash and thrifted zippers, and I've been pretty lucky coming up with fabric combinations that will work with the color zippers I have.  But yesterday I had an idea for a combination I didn't have a zipper for, so a run to the thrift store for stock replenishment was in order.

I did get a few more zips, none in the color I really wanted, but I took what I could find for a quarter or so apiece.

I may or may not have also found some Pyrex..which I may or may not have room for...but which I may or may not have purchased anyway.  I think I'll save that post for another day, though.  It'll give me time to get my story straight!

Thanks for visiting!  Please enjoy some Peppers.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh) - (Link to youtube video, because it didn't allow me to embed it.)