Depression, anyone?

I'm re-posting this at Southern Hospitality's thrifty party, partly because this post is so funny, and partly cause I haven't had anything else thrifty to share. Go checkout everyone else's thrifty treasures!

Hi ya'll. Yes, I've been away too long. Busy life, and bloggers block have kept me away for awhile.

On a funner note, it was an awesome garage sale weekend. I knew of at least 5 large community sales within 15 minutes of my house that were going on, so Macie and I were up very early, to make the most of our morning. I couldn't stand knowing I couldn't hit them all!

She is an afternoon Kindie, so we had to be home by 11 to get her fed, and off to school at noon. Then I had to go to work for awhile.

Seriously, every minute counts when you know there are dozens of sales, and bargains to be had. When you have a 6 year old in tow, time is constantly being wasted, haggling over getting her in the car, out of the car, and ripping her away from sale after sale.

You know what I mean, Moms:

You drive up to a sale, get out of the car, and stand outside the car for who knows how long, telling your child to unstrap and get out; they are busy taking apart something they got at the last sale you stopped at, so they are suddenly deaf.

Again and again, you ask them to get out, as you watch 5 more cars pull up, knowing your bargains are going to be snatched momentarily.

Finally, you snap, and yell at them to listen to you, and get out of the car!

As you finally get their attention, you see out of the corner of your eyes someone carrying off a large, beautiful mirror, the EXACT kind you've been looking for for months! Argg!

This happens at each and every sale you stop at, all morning.

The other scenario is that once you DO get them out of the car, you absolutely cannot get them back IN the car, because they will always go over to the 25 cent box, to mull over for the next 15 minutes which stupid McDonald toy they MUST have.

I can tell within 5 seconds if the sale is a dud, or a good one. I want to get back into the car, and head to the next one, pronto. With a child in tow, there's gonna be a fight, to be sure, if you don't let them browse around for something. Anything.

My daughter insists she wants to GET something. She has the "I wants". She can't stand to leave the sale without buying something. I'm trying to break her of it. Step AWAY from the yucky stuffed animals and crappy McDonalds toys, honey. Just do it.

Really, it's only fair to let them browse, too, especially since they have to go with you, and endure you looking, when there's alot of sales with no kid's items. Macie actually enjoys going with me, and carrying her cute little wallet, with all of her piggy bank coins in it. She is learning the value of each coin in Kindergarten this year, and is so proud to count out her quarters when it's time to buy something.

Let's get on to what I got! This darling ceramic snowman platter, and these four brand new felt snowman placemats, tags still on: 25 cents, and yes, 25 cents for all. Unbelievable! ( I KNOW that my continuing to buy more Christmas stuff is a sickness!)

A bingo game from the '90s. I love the style, so I can age them for my paper projects.
50 cents.

A Puzzle from Springbock. Did I mention I love jigsaw puzzles? But only Springbock. They always have interesting pictures, almost like an eye spy picture. I can't do the 1000 piece farmland scene, where EVERY piece is green. My dear mom loved to work puzzles, and now I honor her by doing them, and always think of her when I do them. I've even gotten my husband interested in them, and we sit side by side, for hours, bantering and stealing each other's pieces.
50 cents.
Sorry for the flash! This one is an open fridge, with all kinds of cool thing in it. I like at the top, the "Cop Stopper" package of donuts.

I also scored several antique plates and depression glass at one sale. The guy said he cleans out foreclosed homes and storage units, and comes across all kinds of cool stuff that people leave behind. Below is a picture of one of the two hand painted Haviland plates I picked up from him. Perfect condition, not a chip on either one.


Beautiful hand-painted detail
Also, a little creamer, he said he thought it was Delft. I think it's flow blue. No markings on the bottom. If anyone knows, drop me a line, please!

I also picked up 6 of these green depression glass dessert cups. I always try to picture who used these way back when, and what kind of yummies they may have eaten from these. Remember, back in the '30's, everything is made from scratch, and that homemade goodness. For now, I'll keep them, and try to make some homemade goodness for my own family to honor these beautiful pieces.

The guy threw these two plates in the box, at the end, to be nice.
They are marked J & G Meakin, Hanley England. I just love them. If anyone knows anything about these, drop me a line.

Hand-painted gold edges, and embossed roses, such pretty details.


Are you ready for the total? 6 depression glass dessert cups, 2 hand painted Haviland china plates, 2 heavy china rose plates, and a Delft? creamer, all for .... $7.00! Yes, I LOVE it!
I also got a cute Express T-shirt for $1.00, and a few cute clothes for my daughter for .50 cents a piece, a great bargain. Oh, and a great fall doormat, for 1.00.
Don'tcha just love finding all kinds of cute stuff that someone else wants to get rid of?
I think now more than ever, people are doing yard sales to make extra cash. In this economy, every dollar counts! I love finding cute clothes at extra cheap prices, cause then I'm saving money on things that I would've had to buy at full retail.
I told my daughter when we were yard saling last weekend, "Honey, I love you, but mommy will be so glad when you start first grade (and start at 8 a.m.) and I can yard sale by myself!"
It's not far away, that end of July date. She is on a year round school schedule, so I'll have some time to myself, before the season ends. Yay!

Adding a signature to your blog

I found this cool website that lets you create a custom signature to add to your blog. I know some of you have done it, but there are alot of clueless people such as myself, who don't own Photoshop by Adobe, to do such cool things.
This website will help you create one, or you can draw one to make it really custom. I would not recommend downloading your exact signature to the site (which you can do), because of identity theft and all.
The name is my live signature , and it was quick and easy to follow the steps to create my signature. You can pick from limited fonts and colors, but it was cool for me to do it, as I've been wanting one for awhile now.

At the end, I chose to see the html code, which you want to right click and copy, then come back to your blog on your dashboard, go to settings, then formatting. Scroll all the way down to the bottom, then paste it into the template box. It should now appear on all new posts.
Fun, fun, fun!
Hope ya'll had a super weekend; it's looking up here, with finally some sunny days ahead. I should be able to do some digging in my flower beds, and I look forward to my annual Mother's day trip to the local garden center to pick out lots of flowers. What a fun tradition!

Step AWAY from the Christmas stuff, Susan

O.K., so Spring will just not warm up here! It's overcast, cold, and still downright gloomy here in Colorado! I had been looking forward to going to The Paris Street Market for seriously months, and today was the opening day.

My husband came home and informed me that HE had to work the one and same Saturday, to my disamy. That means I get to stay home with my daughter.

What, you say? Just take her with you?

Let me just step out of the room and laugh.

I'll be back.





O.K. I'm back.

Not on your life.

Here would be the the dialogue:

Honey, don't touch that.. No, I said no, don't touch that. Yipes, that's breakable, I told you not to touch anything that looks breakable... Actually, don't touch ANYTHING! (Dealers giving me and her dirty looks.) HANDS OFF! (Now I'm giving her dirty looks.) Macie! How many times do I have to tell you not to pick up or touch anything? Hey, do you want to go sit in the car? I'll put you there if you touch ONE MORE THING! (and on and on and on.)


And that's if I don't lose her in the crowd of hundreds.

So. Now you get it.

Besides the fact that I hate being cold more than I hate, well, just about anything. And today is cold.


So we resigned ourselves to searching for the almost non-existant yard sales around the neigborhood. (It being cold and all.)

The first one we came to was just junk, but somehow my daughter talked me into buying her a Furbie.

The second was a picked over Estate sale that looked like it wasn't that great to begin with. I did score a cool aluminum ware tray, really large and pretty with detail.


I'll be using it at work, at the salon, to put over the top of my rolling tray that I put color bowls, cutting tools, etc on. Yes, my salon is that nice! Look how pretty!


Beautiful handles. Nice and big, for all of my "accoutrements". Cool word, that one. Snagged it for $4!

Then we met my dad for lunch, and on the way home, we spotted a sale sign, so we pulled in. This is where I found some cool old holiday decorations. First I spotted this large Tom and his wife ceramic turkey salt and pepper shaker. These are seriously really large, although it's hard to tell from a picture. I'm going to use them for display, not S&P. They are very old, which I love the look of.

Next, of course, I saw the Christmas stuff, and not just any ol' Christmas stuff. Cool ol' vintage Christmas stuff. Like, the Bonanza of Christmas stuff!
LOVE the little paperboard Christmas housed with the glitter, and bottle brush trees. Don't you love the Santa and the reindeer pulling the sleigh?

The little elves are all marked Japan on the bottom, nice and old.

Their faces and detail are so darling, don't you think?

Along with several Old bottle brush trees, faded to vintage perfection (not pictured), this rubber faced santa, the bottlebrush wreath, the spray with bells and the switch plate cover (so cute), were also in the box, as well as some hard plastic reindeer.

Also in there was an unusual assortment of these little mirrored ornaments, which were kinda cool.
I'm also a sucker for chalkware figures, so I snagged this angel, which also is a spinning music box, as part of the deal. She's my 4th chalkware angel, and plays Silent night.

All this for $7.00. I feel your jealousy oozing through into my family room right this second!

At this point, I'm not feelin' so bad about missing the Paris Market; after all, it will be here again in 4 weeks. Just think of the money I saved, not going today!

Let's yard sale and Hand Jive!

How was your weekend, my friends? Mine was busy and fun. Macie and I decided on a snap to check out a couple of yard sales Friday morning before school.

Yard sale season is just beginning out here, with the weather slowly warming up. I love seeing those bright pink signs as I drive through the neighborhood, calling to me: Susan Susan Susan, come look through our junk, come spend money on something you think you need, but don't.

Hence, my finds this week that I really thought I needed, but really probably didn't.

A fun collage project book, with just the inspiration I need to use more of my paper ephemera. Also another french book, I can use the pages for in my projects. 50 cents and 10 cents.

A jar full of fairy glitter, and a cute small mason jar. 20 cents for both.



A baggie full of weird stuff. I bought it for the keys, there were a couple of old ones in there. The tokens were cute, too. They say parking tokens. 25 cents.



A set of four placecard holderd from World Market, I'll probably use these for something else. 50 cents.


A neat heavy wood plaque with a tin frame attached, I'll probably pry it off to use for something else. 50 cents


Old "pillow" book, Night before Christmas. This will be cool for Christmas projects. 10 cents

These were in a baggie with the next picture below. I love the little tree!
I love these little treat cups. These will be a tutorial for my "Christmas in July projects. Behind them is a paper cone covered in sheet music and tinsel trim. So cute. All with above picture: 50 cents.
A Gorham pewter Christmas ornament kitty cat, I bought this after I dropped Macie off at school. I'll slip it in her stocking for Christmas. Yes people, I DO shop early for the holidays. It's never too early to pick up little things here and there, is it?


A leather wallet, in perfect condition. 50 cents. Seriously.

The girls I work with are always changing the purses they carry. I sware they must have a whole wardrobe of purses for every outfit. Me? I'll carry the same purse forever, and not really think about it too much. At least that used to be me. Now I think I actually have three, count them, three purses I actually use on a regular basis. I'm learning, people. Why not do that with wallets, too?

Here are my daughter's treasures.

A Hello Kitty insulated lunch sack, a Benji book, (she loves the movies) and an American Girl book. No she's not a kindergarten reading genius, but she wanted to get the books for "someday". Ahh, a girl after my own heart!

She also got this adorable pink cowgirl hat. She'll probably never wear it, it seems a bit small for her head, but I'll snag it and use it in a display somewhere.

Ya, I know, I buy too much Christmas stuff, but I just can't resist! I'd like to find more Fall
/Halloween things, and more Spring and Easter things, too.


We also went to Macie's school '50's dance. She was so cute in her kitty "poodle" skirt, and I dressed up as a tacky beautician.

I caught this totally candid moment of her applying her eyesahdow and lipgloss before we left for the dance. Yikes, she looks so grown up!

My beautiful doll.

My friend and I hangin' at the dance.

There were hula hoop contests, and lots of dancing to the Hokie Pokie, the Chicken dance, and the Bunny hop, of course. I've never excercised so much in my life!

I even hung in there during the whole "hand jive" dance from the movie Grease. I picked it up pretty quick (she said proudly), but woke up the next morning with bruises on my hands from the continual fist banging during the song! Can you believe!

Then I worked on Saturday, making people beautiful, and solving vexing hair color problems. (Did I mention I'm a hairstylist by profession?)

All in a days work for a mommy, professional hairstylist, bona-fide crafter, and wife/handjive dancer!

Alphabet blocks bookmark

Hey everyone out there in bloggy land! I've had a very creative week, so I thought I'd share another project with you.
You know I love 'em easy peasy, so here goes! We're making bookmarks out of old wooden alphabet blocks.
You'll need some old wood alphabet children's blocks, copped from a thrift store or yard sale. (or maybe your baby!)
Look for old books that have small illustrations you can cut out, to fit on the sides of the blocks. I used an old Little Golden book I found at the thrift store.

I layed the block on the pictures I thought would fit, then cut them out. You'll need 4 pictures.

I then used an antique colored decoupage glue, and glued them onto the 4 smooth sides of the block. The antique colored matches the color of the wood, making it look more original and old.

Make sure you coat them on the outside as well, once they're glued on to the block

.I trimmed as needed, and overlapped edges as I went, so there was no bare wood showing. The glue will help you seal it all up nice. My blocks were from the 80's, but looked brand new and too shiny, so I took my Mouse hand sander, and just made it look a little worn on the painted parts, and a little on the glued edges, to wear it.

Then I took a small eye and hook attachment, but first drilled into the bottom of the block with a very small drill bit, to get it started. Screw it up into the block, until tight. I got these at Home Depot, in the hardware dept.

See how the edges overlap?

I used fat ribbon, trimmed as long as I needed, and strung through the eye hook, then knotted and finished. I did one hook on the bottom, and one on the top.
How cute is that?

Hope this sparks your imagination to create one of these little beauties. I'd love to see them, let me know if you do!

Antique silverware project

Finally! Here is my silverware project I promised so long ago!

This is very simple, but first I must give credit for the idea to Rechelle at Walnuthaven Cottage for this fabulous idea. Go check out her version of framed silverware, and then hop on over to cherrysjubilee. She did domething similar, but with old child's school scissors. Love them both!

I rounded up my old antique silverware pieces, then went on the hunt at Goodwill for 2 matching frames. Here's what they looked like before:

Yikes! I know!
Pick a favorite scrapbook paper, preferrably with a smaller print, so it won't compete with the patterns in the silverware. Attach to the back of the frame, and reinsert into frame, securing with staples.
Play with the positioning of the silverware, until it looks right, then hot glue your pieces to your scrapbook backing. Hot glue will not ruin your pieces, and will come off when you want to repurpose them.
That's it! Here's my version, below.






Sorry for the yellow cast, I think that's my flash

A very simple redo, and the frames were 1.99 a piece, and I already had the silverware. If you don't have any, search at thrift stores and yard sales, or see if an antique store has odd mismatched pieces they'll sell for cheap.

Happy hunting!

Paper banner tutorial

Good morning, all!

Today I thought I'd show you a simple little craft you can do, with a computer, some ribbon, and some printed scrapbook paper.

I saw this on someone else's blog, and was going to give her credit and link back, but her blog disappeared, so what's a girl to do but take full credit for the idea?

I'm sure alot of you have done different versions of this, but here's mine.
This is a paper banner, in which I made my daughter's name to hang in her room.

First, I downloaded some fonts from dafont, and 1001 free fonts. You'll need a chunkier font for this to work.. I chose Callistroke. Edit: I forgot to add that you need to format the font to be outline only, so it prints correctly.
Then print out the letters you want, doing a test on plain computer paper first, to make sure they're all matching in size.




Note: I didn't know how to make my font really large, to fit a 8 1/2 x 11 size, so I found out and here's how: highlight your letter, then in your toolbar, choose format> fonts> then adjust the font size in the box, playing with it until you reach the desired size you want.

When everything looks good, print your letters out on your printed cardstock.

Mount on heavier cardstock, to make your letters sturdier, then cut out.


Punch holes in the top of each letter in a spot where the letters will hang balanced.


String through with ribbon, jute, string, or whatever makes yours unique!

As you can see in the close ups, the font I chose has lines inside the font. I think it gives it a little more of a 3d look, not so flat.

This would be a cute project to do with any word, like HOME, or FAITH, or your family name. Be creative, and have fun!

I also wanted to share small project with vinyl lettering I did for Macie's room.

I ordered the vinyl lettering through Uppercase Living, but almost everyone knows someone who has their own vinyl cutter nowadays. (Is that a word?)

I ordered the lettering mirrored, which means they cut the vinyl with the sticky side on the front.

I removed the back from the frame, then stuck the lettering on the glass from the back, then added the flower last.

You'll need to hot glue the glass back to the inside edge of the frame to secure it. Embellish with ribbon to hang. Super simple!

This week will bring my long awaited silverware project, and maybe a couple of other surprises and home decor ideas from Jo Packhams book I talked about last week. It's supposed to be a really warm week here, so I'll be able to do more of my projects.

Have a beautiful day, my bloggy friends.