Exchangin' that Mechandise, Part II

We went out "treasure hunting" again today. Not quite the haul of the last two sessions, but good nonetheless. Also, commode sightings were off the charts. We beat our previous record by three -- that's nine commodes! I think the two pairs we found helped quite a bit. So what else did we find?

--books. It was a massacre. There were bags and bags of books, all of which were covered in dew. I saved the ones I could. I left feeling very depressed.
--comic books (no covers -- for crafting, though Norman insisted on reading them first)
--packing peanuts!!! This had been the great irony of the month -- no one ever wants packing peanuts, they are a nuisance, and yet I, who did want them, could not find anyone getting rid of any until this morning. But I have a big ol' bag now, so I'm good. I'm going to put a layer of them in the bottom of my planters to keep the root rot away.
--a tiny glass vase
--And now, the completely useless, most awesome find of the day.......
A miniature store display canvas tent! Ya know, like these, only mine is more like a canopy for having a party in your backyard. I've wanted one of these since I was quite young, for my dolls, of course, so now I have no idea what I will do with it. Sell it on eBay, maybe. In fact, I think I'll go outside right now and see if I can actually take it off its plastic base.

Green Thumb McGee

I'm starting a garden soon. A garden made entirely of potted plants (see previous post and above picture -- I have plenty of pots).

I plan to plant the following:
*green bell peppers
*mixed bell peppers
*lettuce
*cucumber
*green onion
*green beans
*strawberries
*pumpkins
*tomatoes
*lavender
*mint
*sunflowers
*sage
*chives
*cilantro
*basil

Last Saturday I went to WalMart and bought seeds, a garden hose, and 2 bags of 2 cubic feet each of potting soil. I have a lot of soil. Last Saturday I also went to a garage sale and bought a big straw hat. Tonight I bought a pair of gardening gloves at the Dollar Store. Tonight I also made a scoop out of an empty gallon milk jug (thanks, Amy Dacyczyn!) I am so ready.


Booyah.

Exchangin' that Merchandise

The city of Norman holds bi-annual "Clean Up" months -- the city's sanitation trucks and workers are out en masse every Saturday for a month picking up whatever you put out on your curb. While some use this time to get rid of stuff, others of us use the time to amass more possessions. My amassed possessions from April 7 and April 20, respectively:

-2 tomato cages
-about 20 plant pots of various sizes
-2 sets of plastic letter tiles in a wooden cigar box
-1 year of Martha Stewart Living magazines
-letter stencils
-floral bulletin board letters
-a small cooler
-about 20 plastic cookie cutters (animals, holiday, etc)
-Chinese workbooks and dictionary
-huge box of slides


-Stratego board game (complete with DIY drinking game rules)
-box of textbooks
-50 or so LOTR: Two Towers posters
-10 LPs (including Chubby Checker, which I quite like) and a plastic 45 insert
-fabric
-Harry Potter 3, 4, and 5 (hardback)
-videos: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Short Circuit, The Big Green, Angels in the Outfield
-2 strings of working multi-colored Tiki lights
-2 1000-piece puzzles (which appear to have all their pieces)


More to come after this Saturday.

Jumpin' on in...

So I did it. I jumped in with both feet. I signed up for a craft fair. I paid a stranger for the right to try to sell my creations to a bunch of middle-aged Normanite women. Oh dear.

Here's a list of what I intend to have available (the fair is 31 March):
~Jewelry Scrolls
~lavender sachets
~assorted note cards
~zippered pouches
~vinyl record bowls
~possibly some other minor things

I'm hoping that my relatively "fresh" take on things will set me apart, and that the fact that I'm a little more toned down than most of my "indie" comrads will keep me from alienating said middle-aged women.

So the question is... What am I doing writing a blog post??? I've got to get to work!

Christmas!

This is what I gave Dotty for Christmas:


I had a blast putting it all together. It's pretty much everything anyone would ever need for making their own note cards, mail art, collages -- whatever. I was so excited to get to share!




I also made my mom some potholders, which I forgot to take pictures of before I mailed them.

I made Norman a pair of flannel boxers, and I'd take a picture of them, but he's wearing them at the moment (too much information?).

I made a bunch of other people some croutons and dream bars, but pictures of those would be boring.

But what I can give you are pictures of what I gave Meghan (Earl) Barnes for her wedding shower:


A throw pillow and sham.


And two ribbon candle votives. These are approximately her house colors (in a non-Hogwarts kind of way.) Yay!

R.I.P.

Not crafty, but I just had to acknowledge the passing of the following men:


Peter Boyle
1935-2006



1939-2006

Best Thrift Find EVER

Now, I've found some great things at thrift stores and garage sales. Probably at the top of the list would be the $12 12"x 16" paper cutter. That is, until yesterday. Yesterday was the day I found the following at the First Presbyterian Thrift Shop in Norman, OK.



Yep. It's a Madeleine L'engle book. I saw it and thought, "Oh, that's the one about the dolphins. I didn't really like that one," and made to put it back. Then I thought, "Well, it looks older -- maybe it's a first edition, and I can sell it." So I looked inside, and I saw:



...and also...



...and I gasped. Out loud. A freaking Madeleine L'engle signed first edition. And then I looked at the sign with the book prices.

HARDBACKS -- 50 cents

Hmm... Maybe they priced it for more somewhere on the book. ::looking...looking:: Nope. It was fifty cents. So I gathered the rest of my purchases (two very nice wool dress skirts for a dollar each that were, until that moment, the highlights of my trip, some Christmas cards, and other miscellany), and checked out. I spent $5.15.

I got outside and felt like I had just robbed them. It was great.

So, if you know anyone who collects signed first editions, let me know. I'm looking to liquidate.

Light Box!

So I finally broke down and made a light box (after searching the cardboard recyclables dumpster by the ValuFoods). It looks like this:



...but it makes pictures look like this!:





(Although I still need to work on the light diffusion a little more...)

Woot! Now hopefully my products will look a little more professional.

I found the instructions here.

As promised...

Pimp My Stocking, part II



Here is my brand new, super-fabulous, retro, kitchy-chic Christmas stocking. I know my mother will probably think to herself something like, "She'd rather have this than her old one??" Yes. Yes I would. First of all, it's corduroy, and you just can't go wrong with corduroy. Second, it says my name on it. My old one said "Jessica". People only call me that when they have no idea who I am and are reading my name off a list of some kind.

The corduroy is all scraps (hence the crazy-quilt nature of the stocking) that I got from a giant box of mostly corduroy scraps for $3 in Minnesota two summers ago. It's just the most wonderful stuff ever. See that print in the middle of the stocking? The tan with flowers? (I know, you can't see it very well.) Yeah, I have that piece, and another piece slightly larger. I wish I had yards upon yards of it. I love it. So I decided to immortalize it in the stocking.

Here's the back, the loop, the inside, and my hand. It doesn't have a pocket like Norman's. It's so awesome, I don't think it could have handled a pocket.



So, there you have it. Now I can start working on Christmas presents. Sadly, those probably won't be up on the blog until after Christmas. Never fear, faithful reader (and I do mean that in the singular), I have self-diagnosed CADD (Craft Attention Deficit Disorder), so I'll probably be making other things too.

Pimp My Stocking

I've just completed Norman's new Christmas stocking. It's made out of neckties. We're starting afresh -- new family, new stockings. Mostly, this is because I hate mine from childhood. I actually kinda wish I had one like my mom's. It's pretty sweet. But I don't have a picture of that. Or my old one. Or my new one, because I haven't made it yet. But what I do have is a picture of Norman's new one. Here ya go:



I satin stitched his name on with my sewing machine. It's not quite as elegant as I would have liked, but the other alternative would be to pay $10 to have it done professionally on a monogram machine. And I'm cheap. Here's the inside:



Yep, that's a pocket. Norman requested it. He figured as long as I was making a stocking from scratch, it might as well be pimped out (my words, not his).

Also, the little loop to hang it from is made out of a necktie tag. Yeah. Totally pimped.

Mine's going to be corduroy. I'll post pics when it's done.