Thriftin' Goodies

Hiya Blogland!!  I made my rounds at the local charity thrifts this morning and managed to find some bargain goodies!  Cheap fun!!!

Small vintage bunny figurine for 25 cents.

Small purple heart wreath--I may just take the flowers  off for something else and redo the wreath- for 25 cents I can't lose!

Adorable bunny doll for 75 cents!

Cute standing bunny--needs a bit of tlc but a steal at 50 cents!

Gorgeous hand-painted owl plate. look at the little mushrooms at the bottom. My "big" purchase for $1!!!!

Red and white crocheted doily for 50 cents! I love these!

A new outfit for Ms. Kae the diva chihuahua.

Beautiful Hall plate-I love the pattern!

Pretty gravy boat--I just like the retro shape and the teal flowers. My orphan creamer collection seems to be morphing into a creamer and gravy boat collection!

Cute pottery from Gatlinburg pottery-$1!

One of those Scandinavian candle windmill things. It was falling apart and missing pieces--but all of the figures were still intact. At 75 cents-- I got it for the figures. I'm going to make a shadow box out of them-inspired by the one Lindsay at Two Crazy /Crafter's made from a wooden cutlery tray.

The figures are the Nativity.

Look at the adorable lambs!!!

I also picked up this super cute Debbie Mumm fabric (with my 50% off coupon of course) at JoAnn's. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but I just fell in love!!  I NEEDED it!!

Been busy finishing up some Valentine swap stuff-pix to come!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tamera



Finished stuff & thrift store goodies

Hiya Blogland!!!  I'm coming out from under my rock again--THIS time it was a stomach bug. UGH!!

Anyhow--I FINALLY finished my rug punch project!!  It's my own design adapted from a crewel piece I saw in a magazine.  It's a primitive peacock- the hubster STILL thinks it's a chicken...lol

I love primitive hooking with wool strips. I find the punch needle to be much more difficult for me. Next up is FINISHING the locker hooked homespun rabbit I started last winter!

I have been wanting a bucket bench for in front of the dining room slider. I drew up some plans to get the hubster to make one but hadn't gotten around to getting the wood for it. And am I glad I hadn't!!! I was able to score one the perfect size at the goodwill for $2!!! It needed painting (it was stained an awful 60's era orange maple color-forgot to take a picture) but was really solid and had good bones. I painted it the same red I painted the breakfast bar and dry brushed it black.  WAH-LAH!!

The open "cubby" area is where our calico cat like to sit and watch birds!

I stopped by the local rescue mission and found a few things--most of the thrifts have been a desert lately as far as goodies. Happily i found something that was a PMP moment!!  (Pee My Pants for new readers)

A 70's era Elsa William's crewel kit-- never used.  It's to make a little bench and was $2!!!

Close-up of the scene to be embroidered.  So colonial!!!

I also found a pretty plate, some birds and some stuffed strawberries for a spring project.

I've finished up my Valentine for Elizabeth at Bluebird Papercraft and will be sending it out next week. Next up is the Fabric collage for that swap and finish the valentine Corsage for another swap. I do love the challenges a swap can bring (good challenges) I'm also thinking of working up something for a Spring Swap I could Host. Will probably have details out February 1st!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Tamera



The Big Reveal!!

Hiya Blogland!!! Remember when I posted this picture and teased about what it would be???

A thrifted cheese platter & dome, some thrifted little houses, bottlebrush trees and white caulk.

TAH-DAH!!! A winter scene under glass!! And it was SUPER EASY to make!!

Here's another view without the glass glare.

First thing I did was glue some round wooden balls on the bottom to add height. I then painted it all out in white and antiqued it by wiping it down with stain.

I then laid out where I wanted everything to go. I could only use 2 of the houses. I decided I wanted a pond and used a scrap of mirror paper for that-altho a real mirror would work.

I glued the mirror paper down and let dry. I forgot to take a picture of me spreading the caulk on. Basically I squirted all over the bottom leaving an opening on the silver paper for my pond. I smoothed it out with a wet finger. I made it about 1/4" thick and tapered it to the edge where the dome would go. I then placed all of my trees and houses. I squirted a little more caulk here and there to fill in gaps. I used white glossy fabric paint to add snow to the cottage roofs.

I sprinkled it with fine crystal glitter after everything was in place and I finished caulking. I put it aside to let it dry.

I think it came out really cute! The little deer was from an old broken xmas ornament. I checked out tiny skaters at the hobby shop but they wanted $12 for THREE.  I'm on the hunt for another cheese platter since I've still got two cottage left. OR COURSE, now that I want one I'll NEVER see another at the thrift store!

Hope you enjoyed my trash to treasure!! Thanks for stopping by!

Tamera



January Tag-A-Long!!!

Hiya Blogland!!! I'm participating in Elizabeth at Bluebird Papercrafts year long Tag-A-Long. We were tasked to select 10 12x12 pieces of scrapbook paper and to use them to make two tags each month-one to keep and one to swap at the end of the year. I had a hard time settling on a theme and paper!!

Here is my tag. My theme is "Vintage Fairies".

On the back each month I am going to

 put a recipe for tea.

I found this great paper pack called "Tea at Elsie's" It's very vintage looking but in a color scheme I NEVER use. I felt I needed the challenge!! The problem was I could only find it in 6x6 packets. Since I loved it so much I decided to get 2 packets and work it out!!

Actually there are 16 sheets but since it's smaller I decided to go with it. It also had some diecuts that matched in the packet. I have a huge collection of vintage children's photo's and love working with them--I'm kinda new to using vintage greeting card graphics!  I decided to incorporate them as my images.

I cut and glued the papers I decided to use on the tag blank--since it's winter I went with ones more in the blue range. I TRIED stamping and embossing a lace pattern on each side. I made the  mistake of using the clear glitter powder instead of the white. It didn't look so bad on the blue side but looked AWFUL on the striped side. I use old music in lots of my work so I placed a scalloped edge piece down each side to hide the ugly! The blue edging on the music is chalk-- more on that later!

I like to use chalk to give the look of hand-tinting to my images.The chalk comes in these nifty cases with applicators at craft store. You can also use artist pastels and q -tips.  I always print an extra copy or two to do a "practice" run on. Once I've gotten them tinted, I spray them with hairspray to "seal" them. Hairspray makes a GREAT cheap fixative!!  I also chalked the edge of the music strip and the edges of the tea recipe.

I embellished my tags with buttons (I love buttons!!) The gold snowflakes are from an old xmas garland. I used some vintage rick-rack to trim the bottom and then edged it with some vintage mini-pompom trim. a little bit of glitter to jazz it up and WAH-LAH!!

Stop my Elizabeth's blog and see links for others who are tagging along!!  http://creativebreathing.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!!

Tamera

In Memory of Lance Corporal Maung P. "Samuel" Htaik

July 12, 1990-January 1, 2011

This young man was a member of our church. He was killed in action in Afghanistan last week. His parents immigrated to the USA from Burma in 2002. He came from a country that had no freedom. He loved his new country so much he wanted to serve as a Marine to preserve the freedom he came to know. He was a devout Christian. His parents raised a young man who was willing to lay down his life to preserve our freedoms. The funeral service today was both uplifting and sad. His parents are so confident in knowing they will see him again in heaven that they were comforting other.

For everyone in blogland who is serving, or has served, or has a loved one who is serving or has served.....

Thank you. 

New Year, New Things!

Hiya Blogland!
I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and New Years!! All of the decorations are now put away and I put out all of my snowmen decorations. What? You don't decorate every month?? LOLOLOL  Seriously, I am a bit crazy with decorating for each season/holiday   ..the hubster just looks on bemused and befuddled! I'll be sharing some of my 60+ snowmen and decor later.

Now for a little teaser.........

What could a thrifted cheese ball holder, some thrifted tiny houses, a bunch of bottle brush trees, an itty-bitty deer and a tube of white caulk make???? Stay tuned!!!!

I'm not much of a specific "resolution" maker because -let's face it- they fall by the wayside pretty quickly it seems.  I feel like I've slept away 2010. The fibro has been a beast and my exhaustion and pain levels were through the roof. I just feel like I didn't accomplish half of what I intended. Heaven knows I missed alot of activities and such. 

I decided in 2011 to focus on two words. Two words whose concepts/meanings will hopefully have an impact on the quality of my life.

My words are "Balance" and "Discipline". I believe they go hand in hand. To achieve balance I must have discipline. To be disciplined I must have balance.

I can admit to being unbalanced and undisciplined in several areas of my life. Which is rather ironic for  someone with definite OCD tendencies.  I'll be posting here and there my journey and any awesome insights or rather 2x4 to the head moments I'm sure I'll be having.

BALANCE AND DISCIPLINE

Thanks for stopping by!

Tamera