sew and sew

WARNING ! WARNING! IF YOU SEW EVEN A LITTLE THIS COULD BE UGLY! I can not sew much, a straight line is about it. And the sewing machine is at least 30 years old and the seamstress is even older. I bought 4 panels of curtains at a thrift store ($4.oo) well they were to short so I did this. Made tabs to make the length longer. Now before you cry out in pain they will be hidden. I cut the tops of the other two panels and made a valance. Now when you stand back they look good. (really far back) But I love the fabric. I do not believe it is vintage but I do think it is a reprint of a vintage floral. It screams summer and gives my dining room a little summer spark. I have some fabric left over so I am going to make a couple of pillows to go on this bench.

I made this bench can you guess out of what?

The most expensive part was the high density foam I had to buy. I would chose a different fabric if I had it to do over again. It is a deep red and does go with the curtains and the curtains in the living room. Do you have any idea what it is made from? think dump?

Ok I will tell you, it was an oak coffee table. I think it was owned by a college kid, there were things carved right in the wood. The dump guy couldn't believe I wanted it. Because if you were going to use it for a table it was ruined. But it is sturdy and heavy enough to sit on.
I now have several friends who are looking for an old coffee table to do the same thing.

My day off was great I went to a rummage sale and thrift stores I will share the rest later as most need some tweaking.

The business of being thrifty

It is April 28Th and I woke up to this?? It is going to be 78 by the weekend,crazy crazy weather. I got to the thrift shop this morning and found just a couple of things. The rug is a hand braided rug in beautiful condition. And it is large as you can see by the magazines I have on it. I did pay 20.00 for it but so well worth it. Being a rug hooker I know just how much work and material went into this rug. I never care about colors when I buy these kind of rugs as I don't think it matters, it is the craftsmanship that I care about. But this rug will go well with my reds and deep greens.

The magazines are my favorites in the cooking world no ads and it is from a test kitchen. so plain and simple . About a week ago I got some old books at the dump. I usually like the old ones for their covers but This book is the coolest book I have ever seen. Safe Methods of Business 1886.

This is a page of swindling schemes to be on the look out for. Beware of the Swindler, He is everywhere and in all kinds of business. (tell that to wall street)

This is a page on how to practice your hand writing. Above all things acquire a good, correct epistolary style, for you are judged by the business world according to the character,expression, and style of your letters.
The book is full of really great pages like this one. But of course some little darling wrote on some of the pages.

I have tomorrow off yahooo! So I have all kinds of plans to thrift and rummage sale. I am off to dinner with a friend tonight. Life is good.

a "cute" post

I promised an up date on my rug hooking. So this is all there is. I got one tulip done and all the little flowers all the way around. The colors are not right in this picture. it is a green stem, deep reds on the tulips, and blue small flowers. Of course this is a big rug so this tulip is large. This lamp shade is from a small yard sale. When the lamp is on the shade looks like this. all the colors of the berries are so cute.
And when you turn the lamp off it is like this, plain white. Cute for a kitchen and only 1.00

I am finding I am using the word "cute" way to much. So I need a thesaurus, maybe the next yard sale I will find a cute one.
This is another pile of goodies from the rummage sale and yard sale this past week.

The bag is full of buttons, the night light is now in our up stairs hall, the silver creamer and sugar and the little table cloth I plan to sell. The tin not sure what it is meant for as it is very shallow. Muffin tops? Did everyone see Seinfeld when Elaine and Kramer where trying to give away muffin stumps, as they wanted to sell only the tops? Well my plans for the tin is to fill it with scented rose hips and tea lights for the kitchen counter. I have a few new things for my antique booth just some washing and ironing to do. Thank you for all of your comments I love to see them.
I hope all of you are safe and sound from all the storms. I called my brother in Mississippi and he is fine. He lives on the coast and no storms there. But they are worried about the oil coming a shore. What a mess and not cute.

rummage sales, yard sales & thrift stores oh my!

On Thursday my friend Cathy and I waited in line for a very popular rummage sale. I found some really nice things even though it was so crowded that you couldn't get around very well. I do not do well in crowds. But I made it. I have lots of pictures I will share through out the week 4 aprons, a cute daisy scarf, and place mats. I also found crochet books for my elderly aunt and a book on collecting (like I needed help). I also got 3 great skirts that will be cut up for the 100%wool for one of my rugs. I got a scrabble game for .50 and other things I will show later. I think I spent 15.00 on every thing and there is a lot more to share. Friday night when I got home from work I felt awful so I was not sure I would get to yard sale this weekend. Sat morning I felt good enough to go, so off I went. (The husband said it was near a miracle how I got well enough to go.) I went to the first yard sale and found not much. I ran into Lisa that runs one of my favorite thrift stores. I go over to say bye to her as she is checking out and I spied this!

Now I am not much for Victorian, but it has a squirrel and acorns!(hint ,hint Acorn Hollow)She is paying 2.00 for it and I would pay 20.00 for it. "Oh you lucky I love that"So as I walk off she yells to me "if you want it you can have it for the 2.00 I paid!" Yikes are you sure as I am grabbing it out of her hands. I hand her a 5.00 and say keep the change as I run flat out for the car before anyone can change their minds. It had a oval bowl at one time so now I want to find something that will fit it.

Look at that cute squirrel as he eats an acorn! How can you not love it. It is not silver, on the bottom it says white metal but it looks like silver. I continue on to two other yard sales which I will share this week. The last of the two were people splitting up and selling out their house. There was a brand new roll -away screen door in the box 20.00(it rolls up like a shade sideways) I called the hubby and he said grab it! They are 150.-200. for that size and it will fit one of our doors. and a Nordic track tread mill. This guy is a chief of police so when he said that it worked great and he gave me a quick run down on how to use it, I believed him and wrote the check. So if you see a really fit beautiful 50ish woman in about a month that would be me.

I had to work Sunday. I hate working Sunday. that is my day to stay in the PJ's drink coffee and read the Sunday paper. After work I went to the grocery store and look what I found. lilacs! I love them so much, and they smell yummy. So my prize for working Sunday are the lilacs.

On Saturday I got to finish up a little project I was working on.

The box I found at the dump awhile ago. I painted it white, decoupaged some old garden pictures on all sides, antiqued it then I stamped it with a large stamp I have had for some time. It is a list of things that remind you of summer. I think the stamping was messy and didn't do much for it. It's for the porch and I am leaving well enough alone.

This is one end of the box and you can see the stamping didn't do much for it. But it will serve the purpose of holding the S&P, with napkins on the porch. For working Sunday I got Thursday off.(only because I begged) Guess what? that is the day of the first rummage sale of the season for a little church in my town.Guess who is going to get in line for that? Ah summer.

cookies and ironing boards

I think this garfield sums up how I felt when I started this blog. Not sure if you can read what garfield says "Is it sunny in jonland today?" I wasn't sure if anyone would read my blog but I now have 2 new followers now its 12 I can't even tell you how excited I am about that. (I get really excited when I see comments also)

Well it was sunny at acorn hollow today. This is the morning sun coming in. This is in my kitchen where my table use to be. we have coffee here every morning. When ever we have someone over this is where they gravitate to every time. It's a great place to curl up and read when the weather is bad.

I got home early and I haven't really tried out my new vintage sunbeam mixmaster, so a batch of cookies were in order. I hate to brag (not really) but my choc chip cookies are the best! It has a box of pudding in them, so moist with crunchier edges.
I watched hoarders for the first time this week and I was so disturbed by it. Am I leaning in that direction? My daughter is always calling me a hoarder. My husband said "get a grip your not even close" . I never intend to collect I just find really good stuff.

This is an old wooden ironing board that I painted. I saw one like it and didn't want to pay the price. So I painted my own. It's not nearly as nice as the one I saw but for outside it passes.(Hollyhocks in case you didn't recognize the lovely painting)

This wooden ironing board I paid 20.00 to have this Santa put on it. Nice huh!

And this children's ironing board is my side table to my rug hooking chair. So three is a collection I guess, what is five then?
Not much on the thrifting front. But huge plans for tomorrow so wish me lots of luck.

mother nature and crafting

Saturday morning I got up to this??? Did I tell you it was 80 for Easter? That is New England for you. The 80 degree weather makes you want to buy plants and get your gardens all decked out and then mother nature does this. I for once was not fooled. On Fridays my husband brings home 2 donuts from the most amazing bakery. So I had my coffee and Donut and waited for the weather to get a bit better.

I went to the last day of an estate sale on Sat. Not much left but I got a few things. Lots of vintage garden books, The Shells and Christmas are for me, I plan on selling the books.

While I was out and about I ran into my friend Cathy she is a big thrifter and does not live in the same town as I do but it is amazing at how much we run into each other. I did buy her a book on shells and a Maine bouy that had a hand painting on it at the estate sale so when I ran into her I gave it to her so no picture. She has lovely beach houses in Maine and Florida. We give each other gifts that come from thrift stores or church sales which is so much fun.

While I was at the trift store the lady who runs it(she is the nicest person I know) gave me a container of home made pea soup.

Now you either love it or hate it. I love it and would never make it as I am the only one I know who likes it. Took it home for lunch yummm!

So since the weather wasn't very good I decided to create. The pears are from the fabric at a thrift store same with the music in the back. The scrabble tiles are from the dump. I got a chance to go to Micheals craft store today. I am so glad I do not have one near by. I spent 36.00 and could have spend so much more. I have lots of ideas rolling inside my head lets hope they come out.

And I got a chance to rug hook a bit. this is a large rug 54" square. Sometimes I am over whelmed when I look at it. but got the large leaves done and now working on the small flowers.
This is a better picture of the colors. The brown plaid in the back is my background it has blue,green, and red through it so thats my color plan.

drawer redo

We were given these drawers a few years ago. Nice big deep drawers. So the husband put the casters on the bottom.

I filled it up. Sorry it's a bit messy.

And it slide under the bed in my craft room. Lots of extra storage. I can fit the two drawers under the day bed. we just scraped paint off until we got this which I really like.(the handles were already on the drawers)

Filled up my antique booth today. They are planning a open house on Sat. I had sold a few more things. So either I am to cheap or I have great stuff. I am going with the great stuff.