{ Mu'Mu }

Random Corners, Thrifted Finds

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?

Easy Crafting :: Mod Podge and Wallpaper and Vintage, oh my!

Let's do some basic math, shall we?

1 vintage atomic magazine rack + 1 piece Orla Kiely wallpaper + Mod Podge = ?

Correct!

Answer = 1 kick ass addition to your sitting room

A Box of Two Halves

This box, this shabby, beaten up old bedding box, used to be my Nana's, and when it was new it was covered in a quilted vinyl of little chintzy lilac roses on a cream background, trimmed with a heavy plaited chord around the edge.

When my Nan died my mother inherited the box, still in full bloom with the chintzy roses. Until I managed to skank it off her and talk her into reupholstering it for me first (she wasn't amused but did it anyway, bless her).

When my mother gave ME this bedding box is was covered in a beautiful jacquard creamy upholstery fabric, trimmed with a beautiful champagne satin trim, emblazoned with brass tacks. It was the business.

This is what it turned into before a year was up.

We use this box to keep the boys' dressing up clothes in. And what can I say. My children are Genghis Khan incarnate. The midget at nine months old, in his walker, unpicked every brass tack with the concentration and determination of a NASA rocket scientist. The trim fell off. Grubby legs embedded the creamy fabric with grot. Jumping babes demolished the chipboard in the lid until it caved leaving nothing but floppy fabric, and if that wasn't enough, they somehow managed to unscrew the hinges without the agent of a screwdriver leaving the box with a take off lid rather than a lift up flap!

And still I cannot get rid of this box as a lost cause, because it isn't a battered bedding box, you see. It's a little piece of my Nana. And I know if she were here now she'd tell me to get rid of it and buy a new one; and maybe if she was still here I would. Be she isn't and I can't.

So in an attempt to keep this box going a little bit longer, a little bit of TLC.

And if I could just screw the lid back on I think I would be very happy indeed.

Lap Blankets

A couple weeks back I rustled up this lap blanket in the lilac colourway, and it reminded me of the other lap blankets I made way back in winter, sitting waiting for spring, which I had forgotten all about!

So a show and tell of sorts. Lap blankets, no batting and a crochet edging instead of bias, which are great as summer weight bedding or picnic blankets!

I love the old, vintage fabrics in these. They feel so soft and each one is unique.

Why not give them a go?

Yes. Us 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....

Ode to Dottie Angel

This is my 'Ode to dottie angel' and her ecclectic boho style. I am not ashamed to say that I have been looking longingly at the little bags she sells in her store and rummaging in my button and baked bean and fluff collection to see if I have enough for a Dottie Angel special. Alas, there are always so many more pressing matters, like food, which lays claim to the pennies -  I know, like the kids ate only yesterday, but they do whine so...

So I thought I'd take matters into my own hands by having a stab at a tote of my own.

It has the pillowcases, the doilies, the linen and the love, and I really do love the bag, but I don't know. I just can't carry off the ecclectic boho thing the way Tif does, and instead of compliments, I get 'oh you made it yourself I see...interesting'.

Does it matter that in my attempt to be boho I come across as bag lady? I suppose not. And I really do love my little Dottie Angel tote.

Even if I look like a mad twelve year old wearing her latest creation...

Latest Thrift Treasures

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...

A Little Loot

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.

Still thrifty...

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...

Score

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??

Linen Loot

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...

I have this chair

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.

Ramadan 3rd :: Lounge Pants Revisited

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?

Adventures in Thrifting

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!

What I Love :: Vintage Pyrex

I think I should stop now...

It's an illness, I tell you!

Etsy faves

Note to self :: stop buying stuff. Stop going to Etsy. Just. STOP. Currently drooling over this little lot ...

Honeycomb Wallclock


Vintage Cathrineholm Large Dark Olive Green Lotus Pot with Metal Handles

Make Do and Mend Print


Hoos O'clock


Hello Yellow Retro Mod GE Electric Wall Flower Clock
 
Finel Mod Enamel Bowl


JazakAllah cards


My Little Blue Typewriter

You see my problem?? Too much good stuff out there!

Too Many Teacups...

My latest thrift finds.

I couldn't walk away from these. I just couldn't.

What can I say?? I love teacups....

And vintage tins... it's an illness isn't it?

I know, I know...