Toy flashback

I have a weakness for toys from the early seventies. The boys and I were out sledding in town the other day and decided to pop into one of our favourite thrift stores. They immediately spotted this - Ringa-majigs.

It is quite similar to the Ji-Gan-Tiks that I bought years ago at a church rummage sale for W.

Do we need more toys in our home? Certainly not. But I love that someone has held onto these toys since the early seventies. I love that they remind me of my own childhood. I love the simple container that they come in - cardboard cylinder with a tin lid. I love that my boys enjoy building all sorts of things with them. And...I love that they were $1. (plus I wanted these old toys to go to a good home - somewhere they would be appreciated. Weird, I know.) ;-)

One thing I notice about all the old toys and games that I have from the sixties and seventies is that the packaging always has pictures of children playing the game or toy. The container for the Ringa-Majigs also says *Teaches Coordination * Stimulates Imagination and Creativity. I always get a kick out of things like that...cuz just having fun isn't good enough? ;-)

This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. This is what it looks like right now and it is still coming down like crazy. You can see how high the snow is piled on our birdbath. I had to post a picture for Katherine so she could see that, as much as I like to tease her about our good weather, we are actually under a pile of snow right now too.

Now...off to go play in that snow. ;-)

Vintage floral sheets

Well, I promised Katherine (and extracted a promise from her) that we would keep each other informed of our thrifting finds even after she moved. Now that she is living in a city a ways away it isn't as easy to ooh and aah over each other's finds. I mentioned in an email to her that I had "scored" at our favourite thrift store and was prodded to show my find.

I couldn't resist these. I often do pass up vintage sheets but after seeing all the cool things that Katherine makes with them, and thoroughly enjoying a pair of the pj pants that she makes with them, I just couldn't leave this set in the store. They might end up as pj pants, shopping bags or even a quilt. My friend, J, mentioned that I could just sew the two sheets together with batting in between, machine quilt it and...voila! A bright, pretty, easy quilt. Sounds good to me. (the problem is that I have such a hard time cutting into them so I hem and haw about how to use them).

Gold Rush Trail

We spent last week camping. This year we decided to head up the Gold Rush Trail to Barkerville. I hadn't been there since I was a child (all I remember of it is the candy store - salt water taffy and rock candy!!) and the rest of my family had never been there. We took our time getting there and enjoyed some stops along the way - camping, hiking, kayaking and, of course, thrifting.

Where else but the Cariboo could you expect to find a "log cabin" thrift store?

Barkerville was lots of fun and we spent the better part of two days there. We panned for gold, we got yelled at by "the judge" (which is better than at Fort Steele where my husband managed to get himself thrown in jail by "the sheriff"), we walked up to Richfield court house, we bought candy at the general store (and at the candy store), we ate yummy Chinese food, and...Eureka! we struck it rich.

We found the "mother lode"...of blueberries and huckleberries, that is. All the way on the walk to Richfield we stuffed ourselves with berries. I grew up on the coast where we had red huckleberries growing in our yard. I love them but I think I like black ones even more, even the smell is delicious.

Here is the requisite Barkerville picture. I wonder how many times this church has been photographed.
I love visiting any place that makes you feel as though you have stepped back in time. I so enjoy seeing all the old bits and pieces of daily life in another time, it sometimes makes me wish that I lived in those days. And when we got home and I started to deal with over a week's worth of dirty camping laundry I thought to myself - maybe some things of this time are not so bad.

Thrifting

I found these goodies a little while ago.The table clothes pictured above and below are from a garage sale up at the lake. I love the autumn colours on this one and can just picture it on our harvest table with a bowl of acorns and some fall leaves.These are from a little thrift store (Amanda's secret thrift store - ssshhh). I'm not actually sure if they are meant to be napkins or handkerchiefs. I keep looking at their pristine whiteness and trying to decide which is worse - using them to wipe noses or having them wipe sauce-covered mouths and fingers. Hmmmm.I just can't resist this sort of thing. OK, I don't even try to resist because they are just so pretty, and for $1.50 for all of them why would I resist??

Now...if only I could find a vintage white linen shirt for my hubby. :-)

Rag Rug for free to good home.

Well, I've posted about my love of rag rugs before here, and how I make them here. But, this is even better than making them, today as we were leaving the thrift store the boys spotted a rag rug by the door. We opened it up and I oohed and aahed over the colours. Then W said, "Look, there's a sign that says free." Well, not much to think about there, is there. We rolled it back up and brought it home to live with us.*One day I really will write an ode to thrift stores.
**Nicola - did you drop that off there?

What happened to these?

I'm happy to say that some of my thrifted sheets have already been re-purposed into shopping bags. Click here to see more details.

Another good reason to go to Hawaii

Thrift stores!!! How could I have forgotten to mention that on this post?

When we are there we make sure to check out our favourite thrift stores. This year we found a few new ones too. In Kula, W found these Heelys for $1. They looked like they have never been used. They also found some great Lego for 50 cents, including 2 baseplates.

I found several skirts($2 each usually), here are some pics of most of them.

I love the fabric used for this wrap skirt - it has a very South American feel. I also got some shoes that I just couldn't pass up. These ones, for wearing with all those skirts.And these ones because they are Vegan Earth shoes ($3 - also look like they have never been worn) and because two years ago I finally had to get rid of my poor, sad, shabby, abused Birkenstocks because, after relegating them to "garden shoe" status years prior, they were in such bad shape that even the earthworms in my garden were embarrassed when I wore them.
S stocked up on Hawaiian shirts - pretty much a staple clothing item for him the last few years. And...how could I pass this shirt up? Well, obviously I couldn't. Fun!!

Vintage Linens

Vintage linens have such appeal to me. I love all the handwork that goes into making each unique and I like to imagine the story behind their creation. Oh, the history! Recently, a girlfriend bestowed a treasure trove of such goodness on me. Being vintage means that they've been used, admired and enjoyed. Stains and tears may happen along the way, but to me, those mean a chance to give the item a new life. A re-purposed life. Here is a sample of the items waiting for me to snip and stitch them into something new... This is a needlecase made from the salvaged embroidered part of a linen table runner that had some permanent stains.

I could not pass on the opportunity to use up cottons from my thrifted stash to make the inside a scrap happy place to put your needles.

No doubt this item is just the beginning of my fun with using my recent gifted treasures. Thanks, J!

Yes! I've Thrifted More Fabric...

In case there are others who like fabric (skip this post if you don't!), even half as much as I do, I am sharing some photos of my latest thrifted finds...

I love florals and the print above is a decorator weight cotton which will likely figure into my plans to rejuvenate our sectional sofa.
The above photo shows the latest finds added to my growing collection of vintage sheets/pillowcases.
Put together this photo with the one above it and you see my complete collection of vintage sheets at this time. I'm trying to add more to this stash in order to make a lovely scrappy quilt. Obviously, there will be fabric left from said quilt and you may already know how much I enjoy sewing up scrappy totes - so it's doubtful that any scraps will be left languishing for long.

Good for the Environment, Good for Crafting

Since we here at four friends are all interested in doing what we can for the environment, we have added our blog to the list at http://blogactionday.org/ and we are participating by posting about this topic along with other bloggers around the globe to help increase awareness.

With that in mind, I thought I would show you a design idea for a cloth bag that not only replaces using the less environmentally friendly plastic bag, but is also made from repurposed fabric.

My plans and supplies. Thrifted drapery panel for the main fabric of the bag and a thrifted corduroy shirt used for the lining.
Thrifted quilting cotton used for the bias binding which covers all the seam allowances and a thrifted buckle for the mock strap closure on the front flap.

A peek of the thrifted zipper used to make an interior pocket. Speaking of pockets...
I managed to incorporate the pocket from the shirt front into a useful pocket on the side panel of the bag's interior.
This design affords different use options - use it as a shopping bag or as a errand bag. The front pockets are sized to hold personal water bottles, while the main compartment has lots of storage capacity and the strap is long enough to put over your shoulder. I intend to use my earth friendly cloth bag for toting around in-progress crafting/needlework projects.

Here's to finding ways of reusing, repurposing and rethinking so that our lives leave a smaller footprint on the environment.

Some Good Finds.

Here are some of the goodies that I found on the most recent thrifting expedition.I love finding bags full of goodies for 25 cents Especially old goodies.

I love these scissors, the detailing on them is lovely. And I quite like the clever packages for the old needles, all paper, very simple.

I also got this yarn from the thrift store. It is actually about four different thin yarns that they have wound together to make one gorgeous multi colored yarn.

I plan on using it, in place of the solid pink, for this afghan ( the free pattern is available on the Lion Brand website)
and have already knitted up a little sample in garter stitch to see how it looks. (well actually just to admire it as they already had a swatch knitted up in the thrift store so I do know how it looks). Good thing I don't have a yarn winder thingie otherwise I would have made my way home with several of those huge cones of thin yarns to mix myself. Now I just have to find a soft green at the thrift store and I will be set. I already found a chocolate wool/silk thrifted yarn in my stash that I think will work nicely.

I also got this vegetable table cloth which is on my kitchen table right now but may end up being cut into tea towels. We aren't really a tablecloth kind of family, if you know what I mean.

I love thrift stores.

Ready to Go

This is my design for organizing hand sewing needles that incorporates some hand embroidery on linen and some scrappy quilted goodness on the inside. I may make some changes on the next one I make. We'll see after I get feedback on this one from its new owner and giveaway winner, Jacqueline.

I laid out all the goodies that will be heading to Jacqueline this week. The apron made from a thrifted vintage tablecloth, the thrifted vintage notions, some autumn coloured fat quarters, a handsewn velvet apple pincushion (because the valley where I live is known for its orchards), the needlebook and some dark chocolate. Congratulations, Jacqueline! Hope you enjoy these sewing bits and pieces as much as I enjoyed gathering and making them to give away.