rummage sale finds and bricks

I love thrifting, and I've found the BEST place to find a lot of bargains in a little bit of time (cuz driving around to what often amounts to piddly garage sales and often leaving empty handed is not something I do much anymore) are church rummage sales.  There are five annual ones within a few miles that I try to hit every year, and one of them ended today so it was fill-a-bag-for-$3 day.

Here are some glasses we got (perfect for our party!) and some stick things.  I don't think they're chopsticks, but they're wood and Calvin had a good time sticking them in the glasses.  I got a metal bowl and the milk glass vase (can't.resist!) and the two toned pink vase, all shown above.

2 prs. of jeans for me, a homemade felt lion headdress, a green 'dress up' shirt, a towel...

a woven bag, a visor, tops, pants and dance outfit for Lily, 2 shirts, socks, and pants for Eric, and books...

...shorts, 2 shirts and jammie top for Grace...

A wood red barn and farm animals for Calvin

And I got these vintage books--all from the 50's.  LOVE.  Noticeably absent of the word 'Disney', too...

and all of this for the grand total of....are you ready??

9 bucks.  Heck yeah.

And then, Eric and I wondered how many bricks are in our sidewalks?  We did some counting.  Well, lots of counting.

And some multiplying, and determined that there are approximately 4, 418 bricks in our sidewalks, plus the approx. 500 bricks in our backyard for a grand total of 4, 918!

i love this shirt.

I got this ruffly shirt at goodwill recently.  totally seredipitous--I was walking by the dressing room reject rack and there it was...along with the black and white wool sweater I recently shrunk.  So I grabbed it and love it.  At my recent 'I'm not a dirty hippy' party, several of my friends asked if I had made it.  I have totally considered it (copying it I mean), since I love it so much.  It's this nice crinkly cotton.  I fear wearing it too much, what if something happens to it?  When I put it on today, I noticed the tag and looked it up--Cino.  Holy cow.  Spendy!  See a similar shirt here. 

Speaking of thrifting, all my jeans are wearing out at once.  I just got 2 pairs for ten bucks.  Woot!

a few of my favorite things

I got this 'favorite things' idea after bringing this freakin' adorable coffee tin home Sunday from the Noblesville Antique Mall.  $7!  Then yesterday I got this YUMMY hot cocoa from TJ's.  They asked for my zip at the register.  I begged them to open a store in Noblesville.

Love this rick rack sewn onto this apron.

This phone from Rob's house growing up.  It still works, we just have to wire it in.

Love this carving detail on this old clock that belonged to my maternal great-grandparents.

My incense and behind it, a beautiful box belonging to my Great Aunt Esther.  She kept gloves in it.

Lils at a few days old.  love.

Vintage chalkboard picked up at a rummage sale.

My bookshelf (thrifted, of course.)  Ten bucks.

The picture Rob took at Pemaquid Point, Maine.  I had it blown up and printed onto canvas.

In other news, I've got a sweet four year old girl that needs to have a molar extracted next week.  :(  I'm really feeling sad and horrible about it.  She's had a rough dental life so far and wow, I just can't believe she will be going for years without this tooth.  On the other hand, I am very grateful for medicine and dental care!  I can't imagine not having access to either, yet that is the reality for so many people and it breaks my heart.

thrifting finds!

I spent a lovely morning with the children going to a library book sale and to Goodwill (half price day). They each took some of their money and purchased these nearly new books at the library book sale to donate to a toy drive. I got lots of books that I had been wanting to read, or that I have read before but don't own, or that look intriguing.

At Goodwill I got these cute vintage (or vintage looking anyway) plastic mugs, 4 corelle bowls and 6 saucers, 2 small milk glass dishes, a floral sheet, and a sweater for me to wear and one to felt up and make something out of.  And an expressiva nursing top (black w/ floral) Also, more books! 

I spent a total of $36 on the dot for all of this.  I'm striving to live in accordance with my values, some of which I wrote about here, and this feels good.  It's recycling, it's being over the entitlement of 'it must be new to be good enough for me', it's being a good steward of my money, it's treading lightly on Mother Earth, it's being mindful and having a purpose in what we're bringing into our lives.  It's all of that, plus it's pretty fun!

new (to me) shoes & other thrifted finds!

Today was a crisp, fall day.  I went to my neighbor's house and set up shop there with them and some other friends hoping for a good yard sale turnout.  It didn't happen, but oh well.  I spent more than I made shopping there, but looky what I got!!  2 'new' pairs of shoes that fit me perfectly!

these animal figurines.  I can picture the children playing blissfully with them.  Hopefully.

these awesome fish earrings

handmade necklaces

the red beads in this one are from a London bead shop.

a ring.  I LOVE this ring!

and I got a bunch of other stuff too.  Oh, I forgot to take a picture of my new patent leather purse.  Very chic.  And I got 3 books and a glass crab for Grace for christmas (as well as some funny 'goodbye kitty' coasters for her).  Yes, I'm getting a head start on Christmas.  It won't sneak up on me this year!  Since we have a deep freeze now, I'm thinking I will make ahead and freeze a bunch of cookie dough.  And I like to have frozen entrees at all times, so I want to get a bunch of those done too.  I'm making a list of potential presents for the kids, too, and as always my goal is to keep it simple.  Just a few presents each and a nice stocking.  Speaking of Christmas...

I got this package from whisker graphics and I love it.  I love, love, love glassine.  I'm going to get some from here.  Such a pretty presentation.

Stickers!

And this is what I got.  I have always wanted bakers twine, usually you only see it in red & white.  I'm not really a red & white kinda person, but this!  This was for me.  I think I will use it to wrap pretty packages of Christmas cookies.

I was cruising craigslist/ebay/etsy for wood montessori/waldorf toys and found this.  Oh!  I love it so much, and love that it's from a local (to me) seller.  I can't imagine a cooler toy in the mall or in Target.    There's something so tactile and pleasing about wood toys too.  My children really gravitate to them.  I've pared down the kitchen playset toys, we had tons of plastic food, etc, and have purchased 2 sets of these.  They will love them.  We already have some wood food and have a bunch of felt food, plus we have a nesting metal bowl set, little whisks and spoons, etc. 

Anyway!  I'm writing some more articles, I have SO many thoughts and ideas!  I hope the paper will publish some more of my articles.  I got great feedback from my homebirth article.  Thanks for taking the time to write!

Paper Journals & Books & thrifted furniture part 2

blank books ready for little storytellers and artists

I've been interested in sewing paper for awhile and finally sewed some journals last month. After some difficulty with needle breakage, I went with some heavy duty denim needles and that's worked well. I also tried doing pockets in my first journals, and I like that, but it's more difficult to get my machine to handle it, plus more time consuming. These are just one seam down the middle, each journal/book only takes about a minute total. woo hoo!

Supplies ready for book making.
I made a stack of paper journals to give away to my friends. So awesome!

I made a picnic blanket/lap quilt. Oh my goodness, it was so easy! I have a stash of fat quarters and chose 6 of them, then because I wanted a rectangle, I cut 2 of them in half to sew on the ends of the square (which I made with 4 fat quarters). Then I used other larger fabric scraps for the backing, cut about an inch smaller than the quilt front, and folded the edges of the quilt front over and sewed, so the pattern of the front dresses up the plain backing. I really love this blanket.


Time for a part 2 to my part 1 here.

This bookshelf is perfect for this corner here! Found it at Goodwill for $10 and painted it the same color as the walls.

This table was about $5 I think.

This is our craft cabinet, which I found at a yard sale for $30. It needed new shelves inside, which Rob did for me, and then I repainted it white.

And this interesting chair was $1. It was brown and had no seat. Rob cut a new seat from plywood and I just stapled fabric on and attached it and painted it white (well, I painted it first).