What a Wonderful Mess!

Just a quick note for you all so you don't feel that bad when your studio looks a mess.  This is me at my climax (if you will) in crafting.  I just let it all hang out!  This is me when I'm sewing and crafting at the same time.  But I tell you that it can't stay this way for too long or I'll go crazy.  I’m sure most crafters can relate. In spite of it all, it is so wonderful at the time of creating, to sit right in the middle of it.  This is my therapy. 

My Cozy Cabin In the City

This is a look around my cozy place.  I like to display some of my shop items around my house.

Folks like to come around and enjoy my den because of all the wood around.  They say that they feel like they're up in the mountains camping.  

I like all the windows.  Its a great place to display pictures, figurines, or anything I like.  Most of the pillows, I made.  I like color.  The couch was a cute little find I found at a yard sale for $20.  Nothing was wrong with it.  It was clean and had no tares. This room has a built in bench, so I made cushions to go on it and covered them with a crocheted blanket I found at an estate sale.

I need to get rid of this carpet.  It's not the right kind of flooring for a house of 4 kids if you know what I mean.  I wouldn't mind wooden floors though. Well here it is, my little cozy place (well part of it).  I'll have to post more of my place later. 

Flea Market Time!

My husband and I went to the Cherry Auction.  It is a flea market that happens twice a week.  Most of the folks that sell here are the mexican people from mexico.  They have great prices and great food.  If you like that kind of food.  My husband had five tacos today and wanted more but knew he needed to slow down. 

There are interesting kinds of snacks to choose from.  Some of it is kind of tasty and well, some is not so good.  I like the corn on the cob they sell here.  It is a hot corn on the cob sprinkled with this feta type cheese, lemon juice, and chili pepper. It reminds me of a creamed corn salad. 

There are so many things to see out there.  Some sell nothing but new goods from mexico and some sell used stuff.  I mostly go for the used items.  A lot of vintage treasures out there.  I love to go through the toy stashes and see what I can find.  My kids love to come but they don't always get to of coarse.  Sometimes I need a little concentration if you know what I mean. I see a lot of cool toys of which some are vintage but if you're missing people to a doll house or cars to a road set, this is one place your bound to complete your sets.

 Just too much fun with so many things and it seems with so little time to look.  Before I know it, its getting late and its time to go home. I love to go through boxes and bins of old watches and jewelry.  Great arts and crafting paraphernalia out there! Not just the jewelry, but the sewing items.  I went through this box of buttons.  There were all kinds of them, old and new. The guy wanted 20 for a $1.  Not bad when you can find some that look like jewels.

Some of its old and some new.  Just too much stuff!  But I love it.

My husband found him some knives that were $2 a piece.  He bought one.  Thats one of his passions. 

It was a fun day with just my husband and me.  I'll be dreaming about it for a night or two.

Well that was my flea market trip I wanted to share.  And the following are a few of the things I brought home with me today.

A complete set of alphabet punches. $3

Can't touch this.  I just couldn't leave him.  She wanted $2 but I paid $1. This is a memory of my teenage years.  This doll will be considered vintage on Etsy next month!  He's copyrighted 1991.  OMG I'm getting old.

Art food

23 k encrusted gold 

Yummy vintage watches. 

Trims Trims and More Trims

I found these racks of vintage trimmings at a local rummage sale.  I just couldn't pass them up.  I mean, who can when they were only $1 a pop!

I don't even remember how many I got.  There were so many of them.  I wish I could have taken them all home but I didn't come prepared for this find.  I gave the lady at the register all the moola I had. I just planed on stopping to see what they had.  There were so many retro, mid century items there.  It looked more like an estate sale then a rummage sale.

Here is one of the pillows I made with some of this heavenly trim.  Some of the trim is tassels and some are the pom pom ball kind.  I'M LOVING IT!!

What next?

I'm just not feeling it right now.  I want to create something.  But what.  I have this room at home full of stuff to craft with.   Buttons, broken jewelry, broken watches, all I can eat fabrics and lace, lots and lots of vintage trim, etc.  Maybe its because I have too much stuff?

Na!

My babies

I just love to watch and hear my children play.  They are so beautiful.  I could watch for hours and enjoy every minute of it.  How happy they are.  The cares of life have not hit hard yet. I remember some of my carefree days.  It was wonderful!

All I could think about was what or who I was going to pretend to be next.  Which friend or sibling would join me.

I see my 8 year old talking to herself when know one else is playing with her.  She is soooo funny!  She loves to imagine she is someone else.  She makes me laugh seeing her run all over the yard in a long dress with a bonnet I purchased for her at the thrift store.  She loves to read Little House On the Prairie. So I know who she is pretending to be.  I have my very own Laura Ingalls!

My 3 year old they say, talks like I did when I was little.  She sounds so cute.  She can't quite pronounce her R's yet.  I think that is somewhat common in children.  I still remember when I couldn't say kitchen.  I would try so hard to say it but I would end up saying chicken.  She does the same thing. 

A Happy Find

Saturdays seem to be my busiest days of the week.  So most Saturdays, you will find me going crazy because I don’t have time to go treasure hunting.  One Saturday I was so busy, I didn’t have time to buy but just look.  I saw these beauties just sitting on her lawn begging me to take them home.  I DIDN’T HAVE TIME.  I thought about them all week long.  How much did she sell them for?  Did they work? …. and so on and so forth.  Well, that following Saturday, she had another yard sale, and there they were!!!   OMG, they were there waiting for me.  I asked her the important question (How Much?).  She Said $5 each.  Did I hear her right?  Yep, so here they are.  My oldest daughter wont let me sell both, because she wants one for her room.  We will have to see.  There are a lot of things I don’t end up selling because of her.  She’s too spoiled.  LOL

At the Last Minute

One busy Saturday when it was getting late, I was driving around to see if I could find any yard sales left.  Around here, the yard sales end around 12-1pm.  I spotted one and hoped to find a little something.  When I drove up, I could see that they were about sold out.  Just a few odds and ends were hanging around.  The good thing about hunting at the very last minute is, that most of these people want to get rid of it so they practically give it to you by the prices they go down to.  I picked up a spool of vintage lace for $1, a tape recorder that possibly didn’t work for 25cents, a skirt for my daughter for $1, and then I spotted this chain full of these little wooden block samples.  Oh the crafting ideas that went through my mind in about 3 seconds!  I got them all for 25 cents.  These are tags I made to go on some of the items I sell on Etsy.  

This was a hanging piece I wanted for my room and picture props.  It came out just the way I wanted.

As for the tape recorder, the man said that he couldn’t get it to work.  He just put in 4 new AA batteries and I could take it home for a quarter.  He said, “Maybe you can get it to work.  If not, you get 4 new AA batteries for 25 cents!”  I couldn’t beat that.  Well bless his little heart for putting the batteries in wrong.  It works fine! I recorded my oldest daughter (now 15) when she was younger, and I had been wanting to play them again.   How cute she sounded!  That made my day.

Dolls

I love dolls.  Almost any kind of doll.  I mostly love old vintage ones.  A friend of mine recently gave me a bunch of old doll stuff.  Her mother's boyfriend's late wife left a boat load of doll stuff behind.  She was a doll maker.  She had a lot of doll shoes and clothes in the loot.  I opened many doll parts.  It made my day. My daughters love their dolls and are always playing with them.  So I dressed them up with some of the clothes.  This doll is on my Etsy shop.  She is a 1971 CBS doll inc porcelain.  She is soooo cute.  I sometimes have to hold her.  Am I crazy or what?  Her clothes are not the original ones.  They are hand picked by me from the lot of doll clothes I received.