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fabric and geekery

The Value Village had its half price sale this week, and my very kind Mom dropped by my house during the middle of her very busy day and fed my kids lunch so I could whip out to the store and check out the sales. I knew I had 15 minutes to get there, and 15 minutes to get back, so that left me with a scant half hour to ransack the place, minus standing-in-line time. So this could be no leisurely wander through the store, leaving no stone unturned, and no shelf unexamined. Oh no, I was a woman on a mission. And that mission was (hopefully) to get Star Wars sheets. I am getting dangerously low, and I need to make more bibs and stuff, so with the possibility of half-priced vintage sci-fi bed linnens hanging tangibly in the air, I headed into the store with great hope. 

Now, it was noon. On half-price day, so I tried not to get my expectations too high as many, many had trod those aisles before me. An early bird I was not. I'd planned my path like this: Household Linnens, Men's Shirts, Toys (not that we need any, but just in case) Baby clothes (ditto) and then a quick look over the housewares for pyrex/mugs/awesomeness and a micro scan of the Jewelry. Oh, and formal dresses, because you never know. 

Toys, Jewelry, and Formal Wear were all a bust, which is fine. Got a few useful but non-photo-worthy items in housewares, (baskets, jars, little glasses for little hands) but as usual, Household Linens and Men's Wear was where I did most of my damage.  Three nice shirts. Love a good plaid, and that peachy coloured one is just the nicest heavy/soft brushed cotton ever. Gonna be so good in a quilt. And there in the middle is a Liberty for Target shirt.  I love Liberty, and its so funny because I actually bought this shirt new from Target when their Liberty line came out. But I got an XS and have plans to alter/wear it, and one day cut it up for quilting. But now I have two, and let me tell you, this one was way cheaper than the other. 

Then I found these nice sheets. I love how well they look together. Could be nice as a summer dress with one for trim. 

Couple of nice heavy weight cotton pillowcases, both stripey and orange. 

And another one of those lovely Irish Linnen tea towels. With a very groovy Saint Fiacre on it. 

I can see why this one never got used. It is really awesome. 

I might just hang it on the wall in my kitchen. It'd work with the nice orange-y wood '70's vibe that's already going on there. 

But all this was nothing compared to what you'll see next. Wait for it....

Oh My Gosh TRANSFORMERS! (it's not quite Star Wars, but really, almost the next best thing. Aside from Doctor Who. I'd kill to get my hands on some Doctor Who sheets). I have such fond Transformer memories from my childhood, most of them via my brother of course, who the actual Transformers in our house belonged to, but I can remember playing with them with him, and his excitement at saving up his money to buy Optimus Prime. 

Though my fond memories did fail me when it came to most of their names. The Little Dude was very 'insestred' in this, naturally. And quized me mercilessly about "what dat guy called? Dat Racecar guy? What his NAME!" etc. At which point I had to tell him I didn't know, and he told me that it was ok, "but we'll hafta look it on the computer." Yes, yes we will. (if you are reading this Uncle Lemur Boy, leave the names in the comments wouldya? It'll save me some time, and I know you can recite them all like it was yesterday)

Aw Yeah, 1987. Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. I'm going to show L.D. this picture tomorrow and it is going to blow. his. mind. 
Sadly, there is a fair amount of paint splatter on this old sheet. Honestly. These people must have been Barbarians to use their Transformer sheets as a drop cloth. Sheesh. I shake my head at their ignorance. But still, there is a lot that is useable, and bibs and blankies will be made, I promise you.

And speaking of adorable little geeks, here's what I found L.D. and his Daddy bonding over at bedtime the other day. Apparently three and eleven/twelfths is just the right age to bust out the Star Wars (Where Science Meets Imagination) and start indoctrinating them. 

I cannot tell you how much L.D. enjoyed paging through this book with his Daddy. They just went through pointing at pictures and Hubs telling him about what was there to be seen (space ships, explosions, robots, the harsh climates of inhospitable planets and their theoretical indigenous creatures...) you know, the basics.

It was a lovely moment. But of course, the real fun started the moment the book was closed and the lights turned off. And then, little mister chatterbox started going a mile a minute about all the wonders he'd just seen, and had a hundred questions and suggestions for potential story lines. "And then, and then there could be a HUNDRED Darth Vaders and they could all go for a ride in a big, big truck together and then when they all got out they could get in a space ship and go somewhere and then....."

Twenty minutes of non-stop chatter later, this was looking less and less like a good idea. But finally, he agreed to keep enjoying his thoughts, but not out loud, just in his head, and off he went to have pleasant dreams about a galaxy far, far away....

thrifting: the fabric post

Ok, there has been a LOT of good thrifting going on around here lately. I keep meaning to take it all home and take pictures of it and post it right away, but you know how it goes, there always something else to do. Lunch has to be made and consumed and promptly excreted. And somehow I just don't get around to it. Anyhow, after two good garage sale days and an impromptu visit to the V.V. I have more stuff to blog about then will comfortably fit in one post. So I'm going to do a fabric post, a book post and a other stuff post. Anyhow, yesterday I did a HUGE pile of laundry. The kind of laundry that I like: lots of lovely new/old bedsheets. We finally had a bit of sun, so I hastened to get them all out on the line. Isn't that the happiest little laundry hanger you've ever seen? Just look past the ridiculous long grass and dandelions every where and the gardens that look like their sole purpose is to grow weeds. Just ignore that. Focus on the lovely, bright, happy, clean sheets airing on the line. 

I had a feeling that day when I pulled into the parking lot of the V.V. that I might find something good. I was hoping it was Star Wars sheets, because you know, those are kind of my bread and butter. But I could not be happier when it turned out to be these Richard Scarry sheets instead. 

If you don't know who Richard Scarry is you should go and look him up right now. Because he's awesome. He is a children's book illustrator of course, whose forte is anthropomorphic animals who live in a delightful little place called Busytown. We love his books and read them over and over again. I just love the detail of his work. Seriously, a gas station that looks like a gas can? I mean, come on.

And there is actually Latin on the library. I know it makes me some sort of Ivory Tower snob for liking that, but so be it. Its just that usually kids stuff is so dumbed down. Its refreshing to see the opposite.

And its funny, someone just requested a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bib the other day and I had to say "sorry, I don't have any of that fabric." But now I do. I love it when that happens. 

And I could not pass up this bit of 70's text based awesomeness. You should see it. The repeat is HUGE so there is a lot of variety of density and waves. I kind of love it. 

At first glance this seemed not so special, so I just bought one pillowcase instead of two. But now that I see it in a photograph, I feel like I should have bought more. It's going to be awesome in quilts.

Standard pretty, soft blue floral. The best thing about it is the fabric texture though. Like freakin' butter.

And look! A pink one just like that blue set I got awhile back. Same nice heavy weight cotton. I love getting patterns in multiple colourways. 

Stripes. Because I can never pass up a good stripe. They just come in so handy. This is actually a duvet cover from Ikea and its HUGE. I'll probably use it for a quilt back.

And this nice little thing (though excuse the wrinkles) is some sort of tablecloth or lightweight throw. But I'm going to cut it in half and make a scarf out of it for myself. I love these colours and I totally want to wear them.

Also, I've been finding a lot of these lately. They're these souvenir type towels from Ireland. Always proudly marked 100% Irish Linen and almost never, ever used.
Seriously. Almost every time I find one its in pristine condition with the original out-of-the-package crease marks. I think every little old lady in the world has one of these in a drawer that she recieved as a gift and is 'just too nice to use'. Well screw that. Their day has come. I'm using 'em. 

Because really, they work SO WELL. I love a good linen dish towel. You wouldn't think they'd be that absorbent, but they totally are. And very cute to boot.

And look at this interesting thing. It was in the 'tablecloth' section, but I'm not sure it is a tablecloth. I know that its African, as I searched the text and it is in Swahili in fact. It says "Mother and her son does not envy". At least that's what Google Translator tells me. Since it is in Swahili it could be from Kenya, Tanzania or Mozambique, or possible Uganda, Malawi or Rwanda. I vaguely remember a presentation on these sort of textiles from my art school days, but I really need to go out and do some more research. Either way, its quite lovely. I'm so glad that I handwashed it though, and didn't just chuck it in with the brights, as it bled a ton of pink/red ink. Probably purchased as a souvenir and was never washed before. 

Anyhow, just as we were finishing lunch the day I washed these, it started to get very ominously dark. My Dad phoned to tell me to get my laundry off the line (as my Mom was also doing laundry too, and had run out to get hers in) So I quickly popped the Baby out of his high chair and went about getting him a little sweater and finding some shoes. And just as I walked out the door it started to rain. So I dashed out and started tearing things off the line. The Baby, having a bit of good sense apparently, stayed under the deck, watching me run about like a madwoman. I finally got it all in, turned around and ran back under the deck to see.... The Baby very much enjoying himself a little snack. I ran over to him, jammed my finger into his mouth...

..AND PULLED OUT A WORM!

Not much about parenting grosses me out, but that sure did. He thought it was quite funny. When I told hubs later he asked if it was a live worm or a dried up dead worm. I wasn't quite sure, but really, I'm don't think one was preferable to the other. 

Anyhow, they say you eat 8 spiders in your sleep over the course of a lifetime, and a pound of dirt over the course of your childhood, but they never said anything about worms. 

sesame street quilt

Finished the Sesame Street quilt I've been working on for the last week or so today. It's made from a vintage bedsheet, natch, and one that I'd cut to smithereens already for bibs and such. It finally had no more good places to cut the aforementioned bibs out of, since they require a big-ish weird shape, with a good image in the middle, that often cuts into adjacent imagery. Its hard to explain. But there were lots of good little bits and pieces left that though not big enough for bibs, would make a lovely quilt if I cut it cleverly enough. 

It was very much a fussy-cutting project, which is, as you know, how I like them. Appeals to all my obsessive and crazy-hoarder tendencies in just the right way. Anyhow, here it is: I cut all these cute 'windows' out and then repieced them to look like windows within a wall. I found this awesome background fabric at my local sewing shop, and then just used some grey Kona for the sills.  As you can see in this photo, a good third of the cut outs were in need of some creative patching in order to fit in the 'window' area that I was sewing. Look along the left hand side there, and you can see where I've Frankensteined the image together along the black balcony railing. Its not perfect, but I had very limited fabric, so I just made the best of it. It was kind of fun too. Lots of puzzle piecing and hand sewing. 

Here's a shot of the backing fabric. Another old bedsheet. Though it looks like it was made to match practically. 

Here it is all folded in a pile. 

And here's a shot to show you the way I finished the edges. Its my quick and dirty sew, turn and topstitch. I'm growing quite fond of this method. 

Oh, and here's a lovely baby, showing us what little quilts are for. I'm sorry, but the rest of this post is just going to be a zillion pictures of my baby on the quilt. He was such a good and patient little model. He has this great trick, where he likes to lay his head down to cuddle soft things (pillows, teddy bears, blankets, etc.) So all I had to do was say "awww, saaaawft..." in a sing songy voice and he'd gamely lay his little head down and cuddle against the quilt. 

Seriously. I can't get enough of those big eyes of his. 

And that toothy little grin.

I was mostly taking these shots so that I could post this quilt on etsy. I always love a good 'product in use' shot, especially with baby stuff. 

These ones would work better for etsy, because they are less about a specific baby, and more about 'whatever baby you would like to imagine, using this quilt'.

Baby toes are always good too.

But I put it to a vote on facebook and this was the photo that most agreed would best sell the quilt. Along with four other straight up product shots on white backgrounds. And then after all that, one of my facebook friends went and spoke for it before it even went up on etsy. So it turns out that its good that my little product shoot turned into a 'document the Baby at this age' shoot. Totally worth it. 

oh, and my big-boy-baby got in on the act a bit too. Such a big kid by comparison, but you know what they say, you always still see your baby. 

star wars blanket

Finished another little project this week. I was commissioned to do a Star Wars themed blanket as a baby gift. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Its the same idea and pattern as this other one that I posted about awhile back. Its basically a simplified quilt, more of a patchwork blanket than a quilt. 

My favourite part is always the fussy cutting. I know that a lot of people don't like the fussy cutting, but for me, as the quilting is often very materially inspired, getting the nicest bits out of the fabric is often my focus.

Of course, my photography assistant is always present. 

And full of questions. Such as "Why is that guy half nay-kid?" Good question. Maybe becuase he was hot? Tatooine seemed like it had a rather warm climate.

Here you can see the backing fabric. 

I have a lot of sewing to do these days. Quite a little to-do list posted up by my desk. I feel like I'm getting behind in the etsy shop to. Its just these little people in my life, they really want to spend most of their time outside, and to be fair, I like being out there too. And my machine really needs to be serviced, but in order for that to happen it has to be in the shop for two weeks. Two weeks! How am I supposed to go without my machine for two weeks! Seriously. And its not like taking the car into the shop where they give you a loaner... 

sewing break

Hey everyone, sorry I won't have time for my usual too wordy, too many photographs of the same thing post today. I've got a lot of sewing/making to do these days. I've had a lot of contacts lately, where people have randomly been e-mailing me, or phoning me, or convo-ing me to ask me to make things. Which is awesome, really, as making things is, you know, kind of my thing.
Anyhow, I'm working towards a big shop update on etsy, and have been sewing my butt off in between bouts of dealing with my not-very-happy but only slightly sick baby, and his not-very-forgiving-of-baby-interference older brother. Suffice it to say that my normally emotionally resiliant baby is disolving into tears every time his big brother shouts, "no! NO! DON'T let him TOUCH my TRAINS!". Normally it doesn't phase him in the least, but he's probably got a bit of a headache and is not so into being shouted at. Suffice it to say, its all taking longer than usual. But it'll get done. Tomorrow the Baby will probably be feeling better than today, and possibly the Little Dude will be feeling full of the milk of human kindness, or at the very least, willing to share his less favourite train.

Oh, and in random news, there was a coyote in the valley awhile ago.     I took this not very good photo of him, and wanted to share it with you even though I forgot about it on the day that it happened. But I was reminded of it today because we've been seeing a lot of red-tailed hawks in the valley too. Its predator season I guess. We saw the hawk swoop down and catch something, and then he sat in a tree on the other side of the valley and ate it for, like, the whole morning. 

erm, on that note, Happy Valentines Day! 

fabric love

I bought some fabric the other day. Wait, that's not all that groundbreaking. I buy quite a bit of fabric. But the difference here is that I actually bought new fabric. Fabric that came off a bolt, ie: not a set of vintage sheets. You see, I belong to the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild, and we meet once a month at The Workroom in Toronto (if you live in TO, and have not yet checked out this sewing mecca, you must). Anyhow, it is one of the few places where I am exposed to really, really awesome new (non second-hand) fabric. And invariably, I am tempted into buying some. I usually try to be sensible, and just get a few fat quarters, but I still had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, so I got a bit more than I usually would. Take a look: This one had me from 'hello' as they say. Isn't that awesome? It makes me want to dig up all my lovely vintage mugs and teapots and sugar bowls just to have one mind blowing photo shoot with all of them. I just might have to try that. (fabric by Michael Miller, pattern name: put a lid on it)

This one was also to cute to resist. I love the colours. Though I think I photographed this upside down. (got a fat quarter with no selvedge edge, so sorry, can't tell you who made it) 

And I love this kind of sweet, simple, vaguely Japanmation-y kind of little floral. So sweet. (also fat quarter, so no info)

Then there's the simple, graphic, optical illusion type of fabric that I just have to have. Like this. Ah, zig-zags. I never get tired of zig-zags. (Free Spirit for Westminster, Boho House, pattern chevron)

And there's something so great and 60's Op Art about this one. (Hyperreal Garden by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics) It just makes your eyes swim, doesn't it? I have no idea what I'll use it for. I so seldom use my 'new'/store bought fabric. One of these days I'm just going to have to bust out a quilt made entirely from these delicious little treats. It just seems so decadent though, I don't know when I'll ever get around to it. I'll probably just wash it all, fold it up and put it in the box labeled "new fabric". Silly me. 

Oh, and speaking of washing, I'm totally going to have to now, because this afternoon, as I was in the office uploading these photos I heard a clunk and a sploosh from the living room, and the Baby had managed to get his hands on my mug of cold tea, pulling it off the edge of the credenza and onto the chair next to it where - you guessed it - the pile of new fabric was sitting. Thank goodness the tea was cold (for obvious reasons). Thank goodness it was herbal (didn't stain the fabric). But now I've got some more laundry to do. 

Oh, and I also got some scrap. The work room has a scrap box, where people can discard the little bits they don't want to take home after finishing a project. I had a dig through it to look for tiny pieces for that ticker tape quilt I plan to make some day. You know, with all that extra free time I have. Even though I was told it was really 'picked over' I still found some awesome bits. Though there was this one tiny, tiny wisp of a floral in grey and orange and yellow that I'm going to have to go back there and see if they have a whole bolt of it, because it was awesome. 

Right, I'm off to do a little late night sewing. 

birthday thrifting

I got some birthday money from far-away loved ones around the middle of the month. I love birthday money. It fills me with a childish glee at the thought of what I might spend it on. I'm probably not supposed to say that, right? It sounds a bit mercenary perhaps, but my relatives live far away, and we've all decided that buying a gift and then paying almost as much as what you spent to ship it across the country just didn't make sense. Instead we send money or magazine subscriptions. 

Anyways, I decided to spend it on thrifting. I know, that may sound odd when there is a whole mall full of brand spankin' new fashiony goodness just one town away from me. But really, if I need to explain my love of thrift shopping to you, then you just might be reading the wrong blog. I really just wanted to buy a whole lot of fabric and do a whole lot of sewing. And for me thrifting is both shopping and entertainment rolled into one. 

So here's what I got.  First of all, and adorable girl's vintage dress. 

I mean, come on. Could that be any cuter? I'm amassing quite a collection of vintage little girl's wear. And with no one to put it on I'm either going to have to start displaying it as wall art or selling it in my etsy shop. 

ok, and then it was just an amazing day for sheets. This is a very small windowpane check, perfect for backing another Star Wars quilt.

And as you see, I had an assistant/photo stylist helping out with a few essential props in the shots. 

And I was so excited about this one, because I've actually been looking for this sheet for awhile now, and trust me, it is really rare to actually find exactly what you are looking for. I used to have a sheet like this, and I love the colours and it makes such a great quilt back. I'd used up every single scrap of the one I had previously so this was on my wish list, and so fitting that I found it for my birthday!

Lovely floral. Very soft and wash-y. Will be a great back ground for some other stuff. 

This is only a pillowcase (I wish it were a full sheet) but I love it. Its so fun. Sorry about all the wrinkles, I took pictures after I washed everything, and ya'll I generally cannot be bothered to iron. Life is too short to pre-iron my fabric stash. I'm not that crazy. (Says the woman waxing poetic about old besheets. ahem)

A very 80's little pillowcase. Not sure what I'll use it for, but whatever, its cute. 

Not a very good picture, but this is a really nice pillowcase. Great quality fabric. Probably why its so wrinkly. Its going to be so nice to embroider on. 

I have a little ripped smidgen of this in my stash already, but was very happy to find a whole twin sheet of it. I love the weird star shaped flowers. 

I have this one already in pink and greens. I love getting the same pattern in a second colourway. I'm not sure why, but I just love it. 

Ditto for this one. I already have it in aquas and bluey greens. I'm loving this peachy pink version. 

And how fun is this? I love this sort of pattern that goes from dense and fades up to sparse. Very rare now, but quite popular in the 50's. And its that good, old cotton, you can totally feel it in the hand. 

And then, for bib making purposes, I got some lovely smurfs. I already have some smurf sheets, but there's been quite a run on the smurfy bibs in the etsy shop lately, so I feel like its always good to have more on hand. This one is in great shape, very vibrant and unfaded except some idiot has used it as a painting drop cloth. Tsk. But large portions of it are still useable, and I just plan on cutting it up anyhow. 

And look! Strawberry Shortcake! This is quite a coup, as I've been looking for her for awhile now. There were a number of requests at the Christmas craft shows for little Miss Shortcake bibs. So now I can get on that. 

And last but not least, I picked up this weird little throw pillow. Its so crazy and 70's and... hairy. Anyhow, for 99 cents I could not leave it behind. 

So thanks to all my BC relatives who remotely 'bought' me these birthday presents (and more that I didn't have time to photograph). How did you know? They're just what I wanted! 

Merry Christmas to me!

I did a little last minute, pre-Christmas thrift shopping that I have to show you, because I got a couple of really nice things. The V.V. was having a 50% off day for card members (yes, I have a Value Village Super Saver club card. Don't judge) but I told myself that I was only going to buy things that were awesome, not just fun, or cool. Things that I'd actually use, or were really special. Also, I was not even allowing myself to go into the book section. And I did three major edits of my cart, including leaving a few items behind at the cash, so I managed to reign myself in. I have to keep telling myself, we're going to have to move again someday, and put all this stuff into boxes and carry it downstairs and up stairs and put it all into a truck and then unpack it all, and it had better be worth it, right?

So, here are a few things that are worth it.

Adorable little girls vintage dress. Tags still on. Awesome. 

Probably from the 70's, so not that old, but still, it will look nice on my wall with all the other vintage little girls dresses. You know, when I get around to putting them up on the wall of my studio some day. 

A couple of men's shirts for cutting up and sewing with. The Baby needs a couple more droolers. Also, you should have seen how many shirts I had in my cart, but I narrowed it down to just these two because they are really iconic plaids, the epitome of men's plaid shirt-y-ness. In fact, I tried to talk Hubs into wearing them, but the black one was the wrong size and he was having none of the red one. "maybe as a costume" he says to me. Meh.

This is another little vintage kids item, though not as old as the dress probably. I just love the simple stripes, and the slimness of the cut. I have a similar little t-shirt that a friend got for me at a thrift shop when I was expecting the Little Dude. He wore it all the time, and the Baby wears it now, (he's wearing it in this post) and its one of my favourite clothing items for him. I just really like the fit on these slightly older things. They have to be from the 70's though, because kids clothes from the 80's (especially toddler and baby clothes) are really horrid and boxy in their fit, which I don't like the look of at all. I haven't tried this on L.D. yet, but when I do I'll be sure to take a picture and post it. 

But the best score of the day is what I'm calling my Christmas present to myself. Feast your eyes on this.  LOOK at that; a good sized quilt for our bed, at last! I've got such big plans for a quilt that, one day, I will make myself for our bed. But you know how it is, I've got several sketches, lots of swatches, and no foreseeable chunk of time in the near future when I will actually get around to making it. It'll probably be something I finally get around to for our twentieth anniversary or some such thing. But in the mean time, we really, really needed a proper quilt for our bed (we used to have a sweet little twin quilt laid sideways across the bed that did not fit it at all, but we were making do with just the same) and so, the universe sent me a quilt for Christmas.

I have to tell you, I almost left it behind on the rack because at first glance, all folded up, I wasn't that impressed. The colours were not unusual or inspiring and it did not look particularly vintage. But upon reflection, I decided to unfold it and look at the full item, and the simplicity of the traditional pattern, done up in simple solids it makes such a great visual impact that I decided it was coming home with me. 

What really got me of course is that it is hand stitched. A hand-quilted quilt (do you have any idea how time consuming that is?) and its on the rack at the V.V. for $12.99! Which made me sad for the person who made it, but then again, happy for me, because it was half price day, so I got a hand made quilt for $6.49. Ridiculous!

Although, I have to say that its not the most well made quilt I've ever seen. The binding is really weird and wonky, with no batting in it and seems to have been added as an afterthought, just kind of haphazardly whip-stitched in place. Very strange. But on the other hand, this means that since its not someone's masterpiece, I can just use it, and not be too precious about it; not worrying if the baby spits up all over it or if it gets worn a bit. Also, it withstood washing and drying very well (my Mom kindly took it home and washed it in her large capacity washer and dryer, so it did not get a wrung about as it would in my tiny little apartment sized washing machine. Thanks Mom!) Though I really should not be too critical of this quilt. The patchwork is an eight pointed star pattern made of diamonds, which is something I have yet to attempt. Working with diamonds is much harder than squares or triangles, as the sides of the diamonds, since cut on the bias, tend to stretch making piecing very difficult. Also, it was set on the diagonal in a Union Square set pattern, with an unpieced block alternating which is what gives it such a great negative/positive flow.

And look what else the unknown maker of this quilt did. There is no signature or date, but there is this one tiny little bit of embroidery. Which is find is very interesting in an otherwise very plain quilt. I imagine that this was her signature, which is really a very lovely idea. Perhaps there are other butterfly embellished quilts floating around out there, being rescued from thrift stores by other handwork loving sentimentalists.

And no matter what I put on top of the bed, look who takes every opportunity he can to crawl under it. Its so funny, whenever I put him down on the ground in the bedroom, he heads straight under the bed. And it is filthy under there; herds of dust rhinos gathering between the boxes of summer clothes and winter blankets. He always comes out looking like a baby swiffer. But he is always so pleased to be under there playing peek-a-boo that I don't have the heart to haul him out too soon. Plus, he pretty much does the dusting for me, so I can't complain. 

garage sale

Though I love thrifting and all things second hand, I didn't go to many garage sales this past summer. There's something about the demographic in the mid-sized bedroom town that I live in that just makes for not very exciting garage sales. The houses aren't old enough I think. Too many new-ish subdivisions, not enough I've-lived-here-my-whole-life-as-did-my-parents-before-me homes. Its usually just a lot of VHS tapes, CD racks, uninspiring dishware and recently used baby items. Nothing stellar. But I was on my way home from an appointment on the other side of the highway the other day, and I have to drive through a bit of farm country to get here from there. And I noticed a garage sale sign. It was a grey Saturday, quite cold, not snowing yet, but on the cusp. "Who has a garage sale at the beginning of December?" I thought to myself. People who are moving out of a small country home that they've lived in since the early 60's. Jackpot. 

Now, I'll freely admit that these are not great pictures. And also, you probably won't be that excited about this stuff unless you are a sewer. Did I mention that they lady who was having this garage sale was a sewer? And she was de-stashing big time. 

Ok, so those roles are all 100% wool. Melton wool, like the kind you use to make winter coats. One of them is kind of moth eaten, but I don't care. The potential is amazing. I washed up some swatches (because it was quite dusty) and there was hardly any shrinkage in the cold cycle. The potential is very exciting. Maybe I'll make some really nice blankets. Maybe patchwork, maybe not, who knows. And that yellow bolt - 100% linnen! So great. And then another little bolt of grey men's suiting wool (yum) and a bolt of beige cotton. I know, most people may find it hard to get excited about beige cotton (I roll my eyes at myself a little from time to time) but its such a quilting staple for me, and good quality quilters cotton is usually, 7-9 dollars a meter. So this is such a great find. And then down on the floor in the top picture you can see another bolt of linnen, green this time, and some old school dish towel fabric, and a really nice chunk of some sort of loose open weave fabric that will be great for teaching the boys to embroider on. Its kind of like burlap, only nicer. 

And there was also some actual burlap. Also good for little kid embroidery, craft projects, etc. 

The garage sale lady was not only a sewer, but also did a ton of crafting. There was every kind of craft supply under the sun. Bins of styrofoam shapes, santa doll heads, fake flowers and dyed feathers. You name it, she had it. But it tended to be of the cheap and tatty variety (I'm not a big styrofoam or Christmas craft fan) so I passed on most of it. But I did get that giant pile of embroidery hoops (I'm always misplacing embroidery hoops) And that nice teak-ish tray. And the ravioli maker (don't know when I'll use that, but whatever). But one of the best purchases I made was a big plastic bag full of birds. You know, the little fake bird that people use in flower arrangements and wreaths occasionally. Anyhow, the Little Dude LOVES them. HOURS of fun. Literally. I just gave him the bag and let him pull them all out and we talk about them, and play with them and they ride around in tractors and diggers. Oh the fun is endless. He piles them all up on the table and says "look at all my lovely birds!"

We also used them to decorate a bit. Here's our Christmas-y mantelpiece.

I got hubs to cut me some nice pieces of the birch that got felled last year, and we collected some pinecones and then used all the red birds out of the bird bag to give it a bit of colour. 

All in all it was a very successful garage sale trip. Oh, and I also got a lot of old books, a bunch of old Martha Stewart mags, a fun casserole dish that I forgot to take a picture of and some random ribbon and such. And all that for twenty bucks! Best garage sale ever. 

And speaking of Christmas, L.D. has discovered the Grinch. Or has he originally mistakenly called him, "The Gronch" He saw a guy dressed up as him in a Christmas parade the other day, and could not stop asking about 'dat green guy' so I went to the library and got out the Grinch who Stole Christmas for him, and we've read it every day so far. 

cupcakes and mystery fabric

Dudes I am so tired these days. There's something up with my neck, super sore and constantly giving me a headache, and the Little Dude has been getting up at night lately  (and I have no idea why, he's usually a good sleeper) so I'm just too tired to be very creative tonight, aka, downloading and editing photos. So here's just a few bits and pieces. 

First of all, if you want to laugh, check out this personalized apology video at the ob tampon site. Type in your name and they sing you a very funny, sappy song. Found via Denvan. 

Also, I made cupcakes today. Not muffins, honest to goodness cupcakes. With, like a pound of butter. They were so freakin' good. I got the recipe from Two Bite Cupcakes, by Viola Goren, which I got out of the library the other day. I just intended to browse through it like food porn (ie: fun to look at, but no one really does that stuff) but then got all inspired by the recipes and yesterday, put a pound of butter out to thaw so that today I'd HAVE to make cupcakes. I used her Vanilla Cupcake recipe, but got all fancy and added cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, so they had this lovely subtle spiciness to them. Also her motto is "enjoy the deliciousness but avoid the guilt" because they are supposed to be mini cupcakes. But I didn't have mini pans, so I made full sized cupcakes. (And I don't feel guilty at all) The Little Dude referred to them as "upcakes". He quickly corrected himself, but really, it was so darn cute. Also, I learned a new way to make icing, and I'm kind of blown away by it. I've always just mixed together butter and sugar, with maybe some cream cheese in there, but this book had a recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream that did not freak me out with details about thermometers or anything like that. So I just went for it, and MAN is it ever good. And oddly light. There's way less butter in it, and a bunch of egg whites so its quite nice and fluffy. All in all, I'm quite pleased. I got nearly two dozen cupcakes out of the batch and ten bucks says they don't last out the week. The Little Dude LOVED them, though he was only allowed two today (much to his chagrin. He was sure he'd get another one when Daddy came home from work) but I feel better about it than giving him Oreos or something like that. At leas there's no preservatives in these, or weird MSG related chemical. Just good ole' butter n' sugar. 

Oh, and are there any fabric hounds/Harry Potter fans who can tell me what this fabric is? Sorry about the bad photograph of my TV screen, I'm old school that way.

I really want to know what fabric her dress is made out of, and where I can get some. Its from the scene where Child Lily and Child Snape hang out by the pond in the last Harry Potter movie. I have a feeling its a Liberty print, but haven't been able to confirm that. Sorry about the crummy images, but I looked all over the internet for better and couldn't find any stills from that scene. Just a bunch of really intense Snape fan videos. The creative use of other film footage that involves redheaded girls and awkward long haired boys in possible period costume is quite amazing. I can't pick just one, so go to youtube and search Snape and Lily and you'll find tons. Ah internet, what can't you be used for?