Thrifty Luck

So many thrifty finds this week. 

Curtains, dotty vase, a paint by number, a bit of crochet and a pup... whew! 

I love the curtains, and they are in mint condition. Well, OK, they have a bit of old house smell, even though they've been washed and hung outside. I think it has to do with the rubbery backing. Any pointers? I don't want to wash them too much because of the backing.

Today I bought myself a lilly, but needed a container,
so off to the op shop and I found a sweet, faux wicker basket. 

I'm not sure what's made me happiest though, it might be this poodle. 

I love him, and I want to draw him.

Oh, this crochet baby blanket too! 

I think it's about the right size to turn into a big cushion cover.
 I seem to be attracted to garish colours lately. Yikes. 

Another a view of my little pup? Well, sure! 

The thrifting luck has been pretty good this week.

I hope yours has been the same.

Happy Spring everyone.

Thanks for popping by!

  

Marguerite the Marionette

I rediscovered a box with my (daughters) doll house furniture, and pulled out a few items. I've already painted this furniture since taking the photo. I'm so noncommittal about picking colours for my real furniture, I thought I could practice on this instead. 

Can you see the mattress I made, propped up there? 

More about the dollhouse another day.

 I wanted you to see the wire basket I painted, then realized I should tell you about Marguerite the marionette. Half the fun I have in my workroom, is organizing my stuff, pulling out things I haven't seen in eons. One of the things I came across was Marguerite, with her poor tangled, decayed strings.  I played with her on occasion, when my children were small. Then, she really and truly came to life! She walked across the carpet, shook hands, had conversations and did little dances. My children spoke directly to her and no longer paid attention to the mother pulling the strings on the other end. 

Not long ago I listened to an interview with a fiction writer, who spoke about the deep power of imagination. She jokingly said she wondered about her sanity at times because some of the characters that revealed themselves to her where so alien, so foreign to what she was. Being a writer, she was obviously much more eloquent, but you get the idea. That reminds me of some of the  dreams I've had, one in particular about looking at these amazing paintings. When I woke up, I realized that I indeed was the creator of the paintings. Somewhere, they came from my imagination.  It also reminds me of what it was like to be a child and be lost in the act of pretending. 

I will re-string you Marguerite, and maybe add a little embroidery to your neckerchief. 

I would like to see you dance again, with those clip clop-pity, green shoes.   

Home Made Photo Light Box... What a Pro!

A few days ago I happened upon a homemade light box tutorial, 

which also happened to be a good thing, 

since the skies were grey and drippy.

 I don't have the links, but there were all sorts of easy to find tutorials. Some used cardboard boxes (with sides cut out), others used PVC pipe cages. The easiest, and the one I used, was a clear plastic bin, which is what you see below. In all cases you need to diffuse the light with tissue paper or a white sheet, covering your structure. I definitely needed more/better lights, (shining in the top) and I think a deeper box would have helped. 

 I put the lights pretty close to the fabric. Don't start a fire doing that! 

Oh, I also like the trick of using a piece of paper taped up behind your subject, to give that seamless background.

Here's a little fawn I found at Sally Anne a few days ago. In the light box......

.... and on my desk, in front of natural daylight.

(which I almost like better)

Kissing Salt and Pepper in the box.......

..... and on my little shelf where they've been living lately.

I tried also tried them with some great sparkly fabric, though the colour isn't right.

To hold the fabric up I used  one of those flexible cutting mats, and just taped the lower edge onto the floor of the plastic box, then draped the fabric over it. 

All of these photos were taken using the automatic setting....

... because I'm nincompoop and haven't read my manual yet! Ha-ha!

 The whole thing was easy and pretty fun.

If you're a photography newbie like me and give this a try, let me me know how it goes !

A Ripple is Born!

Hmm, looks like I have a few umbilical cords to weave in....

Please meet the new bundle of joy!

     All stretched out, and ready to get cuddly with friends...

 I used colours that were available to me at shops in town, and that was limited. My fantasy is that of being able to walk into the magical yarn store that has thousands of colours at my fingertips!  

Oh, I guess that would be called shopping on line!  

I think most of this is wool, some from my stash and lots from a crazy sale at a discount fabric store. $2 per ball for wool! I think they bought the stock from a company that went under. Well, I looked up what people had to say about the brand on Ravelry, and a few said it grows quiet a bit and pills. So no, I won't be using it for a sweater. For you Vancouverites, the store is Dressew and they have cotton too!

These guys are just propped on top of pillow forms, the fabric too. Hmm, I do love the combination of this last one though, now that I'm looking at it in a photo.

Please let me know what you think! I've been lonely with no comments!

Pussman and Co.... Sweet Bears!

Pretty sweet huh? No, I'm not having a giveaway, but Pussman and Co is! 

So head over and check out her blog!

I Have the Blues in a Good Way

Blue Period

I've been on this blue kick lately. This blue. I bought this gigantic strip of fabric at my thrift store a few weeks ago. I only bought it for the colour and almost hesitated because it's pretty cheesy looking, polyester, nylon type fabric. If you can call it fabric. Trust me, it's weird, buying something like this after years of training myself to spot beautiful natural fibres.  Anyway, I made some curtains for my craft room, and boy they looked good. Of course, being on this blue kick, I started to carry a swatch around with me. 

I just ran out of yarn the same colour yarn recently and really, really wanted more of that too! So having the swatch should help with that I hope. I'm hoping it will work like a divining rod. Oh, I should say I'm over my yarn snobbery as well. So much for pure wool, when I'm strictly hunting for colour. Acrylic will do just fine for kitsch crochet. So, while I was hunting around I thought I would add orange to the mix and found this pillow! Of course once I got home I had to pull anything orange from my stash. The fabric on the lamp shade was pinned on in a temporary manner, just to see if it could work.

I'm reminded I have a quilt to finish. (on the bottom of the stack there)

If you want to see this quilt, it's here.

Then of course I started painting things, like this picture frame. Hmm, need a picture there!

Speaking of kitsch... I only have those kissing salt and pepper shakers, because they were in a bag with another pair, the ones I really wanted. They're growing on me though, because of the colour! I have to say, I've recently become heavily influenced by the colour combinations over at the amazing Dottie Angel. She has, to me a very sophisticated colour sense, using unique combinations of vintage inspired turquoise blue, olive green, pink and gold. If you like colour and vintage, she's a must!  

If you're a colour fanatic, or know of those with blogs you could suggest, please introduce yourself and/or share the link!

Oh, I have to add that the curtains didn't work. I couldn't figure out why at first, but then I realized that it gave the room a cold feel. I think they will become curtains for the closet instead or possibly I will save them for the next summer heat wave.

Thanks for visiting!

Vintage Aprons

I tried out the extra large picture option on blogger. The image was enlarged, but not all of it fit in, so was cut in half and the actual picture was the same size. Did that make sense?  I think I have to go to the help page.... 

Anyway, here are a few of my aprons. I don't have that many and I actually use them on occasion. It's so nice knowing you can wipe your hands right on your clothes when you're working. 

I believe this one is supposed to be embroidered.

I love aprons with pockets.

This last one is one of my favorites. Shoosh, if I found a big piece of this fabric!

My First Ripple

I've finally stuck with a Ripple afghan, after many false starts. To top that off, I've posted a picture of myself. Wow! I have to admit I took a zillion photos, trying to get something that felt authentically me. I can't tell you what I went through today, let's just say it was a learning experience.

 Anyway... the afghan is hung over a door and that's about it's width at this point. The colours are a little brighter than in this shot, but we'll leave it at that.

I'm refusing to rip out any more, unless it's a row or two. After all, the idea of the Ripple is supposed to be happenstance isn't it?

 Someone was laughing the other day, about the fact that I buy yarn,  just for the colour and with no idea in mind about what I'll use it for.  Don't you wish you had every colour of the rainbow to play with?

About my necklace. It's an old typewriter key that says shift. That's my motto for 2010, shift perspective, shift gears, mix it up and be brave.