Haven't really been thrifting for a while, and some places have run dry. But a few little finds over the last couple weeks - doilies (of course, because can you ever have too many? No you cannot), vintage bedsheets (ditto), some old books and nick nacks like that.
And no sofa.
Carry on.
Glance at any corner in our house and what you will see is a random collection of thrifted treasures. Random corners, then, and some things that are hiding there.
Do you photograph the Corners of Your Home too?
I cannot resist a typewriter in a thrift shop. I just can not. I know I'm not the only one. And just like others it's often the babes who have all the fun with Mama's thrift finds.
Right now? I think we're working on writing our name - this is important y'see - the first thing on the cover of any masterpiece is the author's name. Over and over again. Right down the page. Without spaces.
We're working on it....
Despite the begging, we have no pets. Unless you count my husband. And the pet mould behind the wardrobe. But apart from that no animal passeth here. And as far as I am aware my children have no knowledge of vets, nor had they shown any interest in vets. Vets just weren't in our vocab.
And yet, here we are in a 'vet phase'. It's unfathomable.
It's amazing to watch your children bloom. Had we a TV or sent them to school I would have assumed that this obsession had been inculcated by an outside entity, yet here they are blooming in their own peculiar way. As vets.
I smiled as I remembered Amanda's post on her little animal doctor, as I had already thrifted a doctor's bag with a similar plan in mind.
Stuffed to the brim with "real doctors things, Mummy!", stethoscope, otoscope, penlight, thermometer, face masks, empty medicine boxes, some sticking plasters and bandages, I then set about making a lab coat - in this case a (thrifted) woman's blouse with 1/2 length sleeves - by adding huge pockets and applique medical sign with wool felt.
The play it has instigated has been a joy and a privilege to watch. The animals that have been saved! Oh my! The hearts that have been checked, the temperatures that have been recorded, the plasters that have been, erm, plastered. A lot has been learned by the questions this play has raised. White blood cells, vaccination, germs, health, blood, the questions never stop.
And I hope they never will.
These two boys of mine are the reason I do so much, and the reason I learn so much.
They learn through play, and I learn from them.
I never really know whether to blog about things I've found whilst out thrifting. Some things just seem so banal. But I happen to like to see what other people find whilst out treasure seeking, so I share in the same spirit.
To be honest, pickings have been a bit thin recently, and I still haven't found The Sofa.
But a few beautiful things is just what the doctor ordered.
And a tweed jacket? Well it was going for a song...
What can I say? Sometimes a little trip out to some of my very favourite thrift haunts does me the world of good (and coming home to lovely parcels from friends, that does the heart good too!).
I don't know about your town, but here each thrift place seems to 'specialise' in certain types of little treasures - one is good for children's educational books; one is good for ceramics and occasionally crafting paraphenalia; one little, hidden gem is perfect for linen and doilies and lovely old sheets. I don't get to visit my favourite haunts very often - having children in tow isn't conducive for rummaging, but yesterday I managed to untangle their suckered tentacles (er, bless) and have a good old nosey around. Bliss.
Books, doilies, linen, tableclothes, a blue old thingy with a handle thingy. Vintage, old and pretty. You get the idea - bliss.
I think I deserve, yes really really deserve, perhaps a couple more thriftstore highs this week, and if you could all cross your fingers, toes, arms and what-have-you, I need to find my sofa! And some more rimless mirrors. And a suitcase full of money (imagine that...!)
Bliss, I tell you.
And for some reason I didn't take photos of the ceramics. Oh some pretty things out there needing a good home. Come to Mama...
Come on then! What are you waiting for?
*Sigh* STILL no sofa...
I HAD hoped that this post would be about my new-to-me sofa, but it isn't. Because I haven't got one.
I HAD hoped to do a before-and-after shot of the old and then the new sofa. But I can't, because there is no 'after' shot.
So whilst INTENDING to buy a new-to-us sofa, but finding nothing that made my heart race, I found instead this little beauty hiding behind some side cabinets. A lovely little sewing box on some very sexy legs.
But I have a question: paint it or leave it? It's a bit battered - do you think a bit of gloss would make her feel better??
Some recent thrifty scores - meant for use in some things I'm making, but in reality I'm having a hard time cutting into them. Perhaps I'll leave them like this on my worktop and call it an art installation?
It could work...
Yes, that's really how this blog post begins - 'I have this chair'.
Bear with me as I try to find an angle for a post which attempts to be upbeat and perky when really what I want to do is hibernate under my quilts and blankets and wait for spring. Or Judgement Day. Either or. Not bothered.
So I have this chair which I thrifted sometime ago. It was one of those times I had to go back to the store the next day to get it, because I couldn't get it out of my head even though I couldn't put my finger on why. I just had to have it. The deal was clinched when my eldest announced:: Mum - this chair says 'get a cup of tea and snuggle up with your boys and talk about trains' - its snuggly. Yes he really said that. And how could I refuse. I knew what he meant - he meant 'cosy'. And I'm all for snuggly and cosy. It's what I'm about.
What I didn't like was the colour all too much - I mean, the colour was OK it just didn't fit nicely with the blue of our sitting room. I've been trying to disguise it and adorn it many different ways but nothing seems to look right.
I don't have the skill to upholster it myself and I'd have to auction a kidney to be able to afford someone else do it for me. So it stays like this - thrifted, colour unco-ordinated and jazzed up with quilts and blankets.
I'd say it fits right it with everything else in this place.
Already it's my favourite place in the house - comfortable, warm, the right height to reach for my teacup and best of all? Great for knitting in as the babes play.
Oh yes, it's seen a LOT of knitting in it's short Mu'Mu life. And now if you could all send me 'thrifting well wishes' for the sofa of my dreams (instead of the reality of my worst nightmares which is our current offering), perhaps this sitting room can be THE place for sitting with a cup of tea as we all talk about the important stuff in life - you know - trains, cars, David Attenborough programmes, things like that - cosily.
Unbelievably, it really is time for winter woollens - no where more so than on our beds!
It just seems like yesterday I was washing them and shoving placing them gently in the wardrobe ready for winter... already they are on our beds and inducing such heavenly, cozy, snuggly sleeeeeep; I could quite happily bed in for the next two seasons...
I'm forever keeping my eye open for vintage woollen blankets - I am lucky enough, alhamdulillah, to have scored two more on a hit-n-run thrift adventure this week masha'allah! And I think I have a project for one of them that involves surgery - some serious cutting and stitching - but it happens to be a Witney blanket and even though it isn't a points blanket (can you find them in England??) I have still fallen rather in love with it. What to do? Cut or not to cut?
x
Remember seeing these pillowcases yesterday? They were a couple of pillowcases I scored whilst out thrifting last week - I saw them bundled away at the top of a shelf as I was paying for some other things, and my heart leapt a little when I saw them there - I knew they were going to be a bit special.
Oh my. They were a lot special - beautifully huge Oxford Style pillowcases in blues and bluey-greys with that little bit of chintzy floral thing going on. And they were quilted patchwork.
They were too good to cut, so I decided simply to use them as they were - with a simple blanket stitch I closed the opening for the pillow in the back, then again with blanket stitch, I sewed the two pillowcases together to make an instant lap quilt.
An easy, yet I think effective craft easily completed in one afternoon.
Well done. Some of you spotted in the last post I was wearing unusual pants. Yes they are rather, um, jazzy aren't they?
Well, that's because they are a new twist on the Lounge Pants phenomenon that blew around craftblog world a year or so ago, based on a pattern by Amy Butler.
Last week I scored some vintage sheets whilst thrifting, and I also picked up some pillowcases that were, for the want of a better expression, waaaay past their use by date. Really, man, they were wasted.
Not sure of what to make with them, it just hit me: lounge pants out of pillowcases!, and after a little soiree with my sewing machine these were born.
Lounge pants.
For lounging in.
Because, really, with jazz like that you couldn't do anything else in them, could you?
Vintage blankets, sheets and pillowcases.
Chintzy ceramic.
Vintage vanity case.
Plus various bits of fabric for under a pound already ear-marked for crafty things for the babes.
I love treasure-hunting!
Can there be a more beautiful and delicious sight than that of good quality yarn in a well made hank? No, there cannot, I am sorry but you are wrong. Yarn in a hank is MUCH more beautiful than watching your babes sleep, or looking at free chocolate.
There can be no greater relaxation than knitting. It just zones me out.
But one thing I HATE WITH A PASSION??! It would be winding that beautiful damn hank of yarn into a ball before I can knit it. Hate hate hate that. Why? Because it involves outstretched legs that get stamped on by my children, bound feet which are prime tickling targets, and tired hands; and such an inner rage blows out of proportion as I waste a good 20 minutes getting the yarn into a workable form. Irritable? Yeah.
So imagine my delight last year when I find a vintage wool winder for sale!!
I was stupidly excited - something old, pretty and really really useful? Score! But although my tired hands were now free from pain, I still had the outstretched leg torture and it was starting to grate on my nerves a little. It was starting to impact on yarn buying as I just couldn't face the winding debacle. I know!! Terrible!
I knew I needed one of these and just look how happy hers made her. And so patiently I kept waiting to find one in one of my thrifty treasure hunts.
It never happened.
So like all good crafters I bought one from China. Problem solved.
Can there be anything more beautiful than a hank of yarn? Yes. There can. And that's a cake of yarn make in less than a minute.
And the good thing is that I can now resume yarn buying ....(and that might the moral of this tale)
Whether or not you score, the thrill of the thrift chase can be so invigorating - better than a day at the spa...
Note to self :: stop buying stuff. Stop going to Etsy. Just. STOP. Currently drooling over this little lot ...
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