Never enough vintage pyrex!

Since my last share about my pyrex collection I have been doing more research and have found that pyrex collecting is a HUGE phenomena! A lot of people are crazy for it. I can understand why. There are so many lovely colours and patterns and it can also be useful. If you are a serious collector and still use your collection for cooking and serving you must treat it with great care for it to remain in good condition. NEVER put it in the dishwasher and be very mindful of scratching the surface inside and out. I recommend not using metal utensils.

I finally found a cabinet to house my collection that keeps it all enclosed and dust free but still showcases it nicely. I don't think I can stop now. I can't resist looking at thrift & antique shops.

Vintage Pyrex Collection

Happy Hunting!

Thrifting Thursday, makeover

Redone thread and scissor holder with pincushion wings.

When looking through thrift shops and antique stores I am always on the lookout 

for vintage sewing supplies. I especially like seeing antique thread holders.

 I was lucky enough to find one that I love a few years back:

Vintage thread holder

Then just recently I found this at my local Value Village for $3:

Newer handmade thread holder

While it was fine as it was, it in no way coordinated with my craft room decor.

 Good excuse to redo it! I took it apart.... the duck was just screwed into the base. A little

 left over spray paint from my desk makeover , a tiny bit of new fabric, a couple of new

buttons and voila! I am happy with how it fits into my craft room decor. 

I am also always on the lookout for vintage wooden spools of thread. 

I managed to find some in the colors I wanted.

Sewing room fun accessory

Happy Thrifting!

Thrifting Thursday

I only went to one thrift store this week and it is my favorite.

 Even though it is a very small store there is a lot of stock

 turnover and I almost always find something good. 

 The prices are great! Just a few dollars can buy so much.

 Also it doesn't hurt that it is only 5 minutes from my home.

This week it was books:

The timing of "Serger Gifts and Crafts" was perfect as I have

 a new serger I haven't  tried yet....... must get to that. 

In the Serger book there are so many ideas with illustrations

 and clear instructions.  I love to learn from books!

a beautiful blanket 

One size fits all apron

The small quilting book has lots of great tips and there are illustrations for  all of them:

I thought this little snowman family was kind of cute in the 

1985 "Women's Circle Crochet" Christmas Annual:

Crochet Snowman Family

If I do this I will probably update the accessory colors a bit.

The "Easy Bazaar Crafts Book" had patterns for some cute little dolls and furniture:

Some of the furniture was made with felt which I love to work with.

To finish it off I was happy to find a classic by Anne Bronte that I haven't read. I did see the movie

 and liked it so I am sure I will like the book even more. I usually do with the classics.

HAPPY THRIFTING!

Thrifting Thursday Christmas

It's Christmas!

Outdoor Nativity

This past summer while garage sale-ing I found something I have been wanting for a long time. It is not exactly what I might have had in mind when I pictured an outdoor Nativity but it is cute and now that it is up for Christmas I really like it. At only $5 the price can't be beat! I found the lighted star at my local United Church Store for $3 so all in all  quite a bargain in my opinion.

Vintage candolier

I really love vintage Christmas decorations as it brings back memories of the way we used to celebrate. At this time of year I like to scour the thrift and antique stores just to see what is there. A few years back I bought these electric candles at a thrift store and this year I found a second one. The plastic flowers are original and I know they are a little cheesy but I like them anyway.

Vintage Christmas

Vintage wreath

The vintage wreath is also a thrift store find from years back.

Vintage Nativity

I have used this Nativity set for 40 years and we had one when I was a child. Mine was a little damaged and I found an original on ebay this year. They are making reproductions of this so even if you can't find it in vintage it is still possible to get one.

Vintage lighted wreath
Another vintage find for only $1!

Merry Christmas and Happy Thrifting!

How do I get focus?

I don't seem to be able to keep focused on just one thing for very long( I also blame my lack of focus for my infrequent blogging). I have been busy in my craft room... making things for my expected grand baby. The problem is that so much time is taken up just looking at ideas and when I do start things, I get bored when a pattern gets monotonous.

At the moment I have several things on the go:

bobble crochet blanket

Ever since I saw one of these patterns, I wanted to try it. I decided to use the recycled yarn I purchased from my local thrift shop. Someone washes and rolls previously used yarn and bags it for sale.

Each bag is priced at about $1 or $1.50. I cannot be sure of the content but I can tell if I like the feel of it. I started my blanket but got bogged down when I couldn't decide if I liked the way the colors blended.







So.........on to the next thing.

Grey and Pink seemed like a good idea especially after finding this grey and pink flannel( I will use it for a double sided blanket).  I am planning to make  squares of several different stitches with the flower motif on the single crochet ones.  I don't have a specific pattern so we will see. I  like the mystery and possibilities of not knowing for sure how it will look when finished. There are a lot of good patterns for squares here.  After sampling the flower idea I think the pink is not quite right so will probably look for a better shade of yarn.

Then....

I saw a cute fleece blanket and a whole new collection started in my head.

Owl baby collection

The flannel squares blanket was made by cutting up the too small receiving blankets, sewing the squares together and backing them with solid green flannel.
I crocheted the owl without a pattern just by starting with a circle and working in the round (as in "amigurumi") and trying to match it to the one on the fleece blanket.
My plans are for a taggie blanket and an owl pillow out of fabric to match.

Double treble burst crochet square

 The  pattern is here for the starting square of the blanket  (although I did find it hard to follow and if you don't have any crochet experience I think it would be difficult) and after row ten I am improvising and keeping it interesting for myself. If anyone is interested in a pattern I will post a picture when I am finished and try and write one.

In the end all these projects will get finished, it is just a question of how long it will take. Hopefully nothing else will distract me. Every distraction leads to a whole new collection of things (in my mind).

At the moment I don't know if the baby is a boy or girl so am hoping the owl collection will do for either. I will have to think on it.

I really enjoy looking at what others are crafting and am finding I like sharing my projects as well. What are you making?

Organize and Label!

Organized and labelled!

I finally got to fixing up my tv cabinet.  I know that I am in the dark ages with my cd player and photos not on disc but I still like the paper copies and I like my cd player that holds 5 cd's at once. I also still have a vcr and dvd player because of all the old movies I have for my grandkids.

Here is my old cabinet. The little sony TV finally gave out and even though I didn't care about a large screen the sellers seemed to encourage us to buy one by charging less for it than the smaller one so you think "might as well".

The problem was what to do about losing all that storage so I went on the hunt for a replacement cabinet. I wanted white and found there were not many out there. We settled on one from Ikea as it was the right size and price. The putting together took a lot of time but was worth it.

I didn't take a before picture so here is one I cropped from a Christmas photo, anyway, here it is loaded up with stuff and looking kind of messy!

Below is the "finished product" (for now anyway)

I made the labels with the "pages" application. It is so easy to do just using shapes the color and font choices are endless!  Then  just print on a large avery sticker sheet and cut out. (too bad I couldn't seem to take a picture without glare on the glass)

Loving labels!

We replaced the hardware on the cabinet with some glass knobs found at a local antique store. The turquoise boxes and albums are from the Martha Stewart office collection at Staples. The black boxes were from super Store.

I found this dish at Value Village. It was only $4 and I almost didn't buy it. So glad I did! It is perfect for setting the controls in.

I also was happy to find this little vintage lamp with the perfect color of shade.

Happy with how it turned out. If you have a printer and the pages app you will find it easy to label and organize anything. Try it!

What a deal!

crochet cotton on cardboard tubes

 A local antique store has a twice a year garage sale and at the last one I picked up  a bag full of  crochet cotton for only one dollar. I almost didn't buy it because it was a large bag and  would be a problem to store. The cardboard tubes holding the cotton took up a lot of space so I decided to roll it into balls. It took quite a bit of time but the difference in the amount of space it took up was huge!

rolled cotton

Hard to tell by the photos but the difference in bulk is amazing!

cardboard tubes

finished!

All the thread fit into an 81/2" basket with room to spare and I decided to keep the cardboard. Because of the different sizes I could nest the tubes and they fit into  a small paper bag. Glad I bought it.

Now I just need to make something with it!  Possibly these :





I would use several strands at once. Hopefully it won't take forever to get to it.

It's a puppy party!

When I learned last Wednesday that my granddaughter Amelia had decided that what she wanted to do for her 6th birthday was to have a family party at Grandma's house I decided that I would try to make it special for her. I asked  what theme Amelia would like and found she had asked for a puppy theme. Amelia loves stuffies and especially puppies! My daughter in-law had visited a party store and I went to several stores that sell party stuff but we couldn't find anything with that theme. On-line I found lots of ideas, in fact many more than I would have time to do as I only had 3 days.

puppy party table

After checking out a puppy party on Martha Stewart, I went to my local thrift store to see if they had any stuffies. It was my lucky day! Someone must have just brought in a whole collection because there were so many there and really nice ones too! I bought all they had and took them home and machine washed them.

stuffies

and more stuffies......

 We had stuffies all over!

I then made a banner on my computer:

The cutting mat and grid ruler that my daughter gave me for 

Christmas sure came in handy! (thanks Janie)

Puppy Birthday Banner

The puppies on the banner were found at clipartfort.com and 

sweetclipart.com and  clker.com/clipart.

For the table place settings I found the dog bone mats at dollarama. 

They are meant for dog dishes but worked well for place mats.

As it was not possible for me to print on napkins I made napkin rings.

personalized party blowers

For both the blowers and the table centerpiece  I just took off the cardboard pictures 

and replaced them with my own. The puppy clip art for these came from clipartfort

 and dog clipart. I also made stickers to put on the paper cups.

personalized centerpiece

The balloon idea came from: marthastewartpuppy-themed-party-ideas 

although it was suggested to make the faces with felt pen I just copied 

the pattern and taped it on with double sided tape.

puppy balloons

Also with the treat bag pattern (on the same post) you were supposed 

to cut out the pieces and glue them on.  As I was crunched for time 

I just printed out the pictures on sticker paper and stuck them on brown bags.

puppy treat bags

I wanted to have a mini candy buffet and wanted the candies to

 be browns so it is mostly chocolate candies, nuts , caramel corn and 

some coke gummies.  The empty space is where a puppy was removed 

before we could get the picture.

I bought a bone cookie cutter and made cookies with my usual brown sugar cookie recipe

BROWN SUGAR COOKIES

preheat oven to 350 degrees

1cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 beaten eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

31/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar together

Blend eggs and vanilla and beat

into sugar mixture

Mix dry ingredients gradually

 and fold in until totally 

incorporated.

chill dough until cold. Roll out to

1/8 “ thickness between two sheets of 

plastic wrap. Cut out shapes. 

Bake on lightly greased cookie sheets

for 10-12 minutes

Makes about 5 dozen cookies

Recipe can be cut in half

Finally I made some puppy cupcakes :

puppy cupcakes

Amelia was a happy girl!



All in all it turned out great!
 (A special note of thanks to my hubby for taking all the pictures.)