antiques/junking – Page 13

Rusty Chandelier Parking Lot Flea

By Karla Nathan / October 7, 2013

Rusty Chandelier has had a few parking lot sales this year, and I finally made it up to one. Next door is Jesse James Antique Mall, where I found this mirror tray. The silvering is off the back in an ex shape. Probably from tape? I want to sand off more of the silver, so the shape isn't as linear, and cover the back with wallpaper.

Beth found a good looking $12 chair. It's always nice to see her find something to keep, she is mostly a resale buyer. It's a rare occasion that she treats herself to a piece.

I found a few little goodies in the parking lot, but mostly was there just to enjoy a spur of the moment day out. I'd decided to head that way, and stopped to call Beth to see if I could convince her to ride along. She was just finishing an episode of Breaking Bad, so the timing was good. NO ONE could ever leave in the middle of an episode!

I found some pink millinery roses, some project ideas, and we had a tasty lunch, so over all, a good day.

Plus, found some interesting titles for candle scents. ????

This teapot was one of my best purchases of the day.

And I have already added some rose wallpaper to the back of the mirror, it turned out nice. Of course, you can't see it very well in this picture, it's blocked by my dressform fairies.

I'll leave you with some pictures of Rusty, it's always a pretty place to visit.

I really can’t sew very well

antiques/junking, cottage, Hand Painted Furniture, sewing?

By Karla Nathan / August 23, 2013

Anything I sew is wonky. Maybe, just maybe, I should break down and measure?

A long, long time ago, I found this throne at a garage sale, and finally got around to painting it about 18 months ago, thinking I'd recover it then too.

It did not get recovered til recently, because Sugarwings uses it and she, well, shall we say, is a pig? is not the tidiest kid at the dinner table? I left the fabric dark so her sliminess wouldn't show as much. But lately, she has been growing up and being less of a mess.

Still, I worried that a light fabric on the seat was just asking for trouble. So, I decided a washable slip cover would be the best way to go, but man- those arms were hard to fit the cover around!!

I ended up cutting them out way too big. So, I fixed the gap with a ruffle made of the fabric on the back of the chair. I'd cut the fabric off my old dining room chairs that were broken, and saved it. There wasn't enough to cover the seat too, so I did a mixy matchy thing, and I think this ruffle was just what I needed to make the mix match up nicely.

The whole dining room is now mixy matchy. After searching here, there and everywhere, I finally found some new chairs to replace the ones that had broken. (by the way, I have a magic driveway, anything at all that I sit at the end of the drive gets picked up by someone. It's fun to wonder who got it and what they did with it, and nice to know that it isn't in the land fill!)

There were 4 chairs at TJMax for $99 each (plus 10% off for opening a card and a cash back bonus for spending that much)

I'd hoped to find old chairs to fix up, but these were a decent price, solidly made, and didn't need a thing done to them besides Scotchgaurding). Forget about the throne seat, I feel like a princess sitting in BRAND NEW CHAIRS! What a treat!!!

Rosy room redos

antiques/junking, cottage, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs

By Karla Nathan / August 8, 2013

While I was taking time off, hanging with the grand fairies and on my home improvement kick, I spiffed up the guest rooms a little.

Not much, just some switching of linens for this room, and bringing in a bedside table. (I really, really hate the carpet, but the room is used a couple times a year, it's not worth ripping it out and putting in wood or laminate, like I'd prefer)

The second attic guest room got more of an overhaul. I hung a cool, old, mosquito net that Lisa had given me, and added a gorgeous net and lace bedspread from her too.

Here is a before. We don't use the room much, and around here, the guest rooms seem to just get leftover bits and pieces put in them. It was okay, but a little blah.

The dark green shutters on each side of the window needed balance and I happened to have a $7, dark green table from a garage sale wasting away, and thought that helped a little when I brought it in. (both are things I thought I'd paint white and never did, but I'm liking the contrast with the rest of the room)

But it made the bed look washed out, so I added some pillow cases I made out of some green and rose curtains from the 40s.

I had a heck of a time getting the netting to hang right, so it wasn't drooping down too much. I decided to use a beautiful hand made bit of wrapping paper from Lori Oles as an anchor to hold it on the wall. It worked, but was too light colored, so I pinned a round piece of floral wallpaper in the center of it.

Then, I broke a ruler in half, wrapped it in torn strips of ivory cloth. I gathered the netting, and nailed the fabric wrapped ruler over it in two places to hold the pleats in place.

The room is hard to photograph since it is so small and has those angled roof lines. The canopy thingamajig looks better in person than it does in the pictures. The bed is kind of cozy looking this way.

I stapled a millinery flower on each side of the ephemera piece, and trimmed Lori's ribbons to dangle a little bit, but not too far.

This room is full of hand painted rose pieces too. I used to have an antique biz and I'd paint furniture. All this is leftovers from that.

Sometimes I think my house only has things that no one else wanted it in. Either stuff I never sold, or things I bought dirt cheap second hand because another person wanted it gone. (except for the lovely gifts from Lori and Lisa, this room is all cast offs)

These shutters are actually a custom order that was never picked up, which is why they were dark green in the first place. And that inspired the rest of the redo. And it wasn't even something I'd chosen to do for myself or the room.

Antique bookshelf makeover to a flat screen TV cabinet with no sanding and no painting just primer and glaze

antiques/junking, bird song art event, cottage, Hand Painted Furniture, how-to projects, redos

By Karla Nathan / June 28, 2013

When we were updating to a new flat screen TV, I knew I'd have to lose the cabinet we'd used for the older set that we had.

Our living room is pretty small, and the armoire we kept the TV in wasn't all that big, but it was kinda bulky and seemed to take up a lot of space. But it wouldn't be wide enough for a newer set.

It is one of the few brand new pieces of furniture that live in my home, it was bought to fit the TV, and looked way too new, so I repainted, and aged it, then added glass knobs the day it was delivered.

I searched everywhere for a cabinet that would fit a new 50" flat screen and still have doors. Our TV is on a LOT, but when it isn't, I don't like to see the big, black hole that it makes in my white on white decor. But when I looked at new cabinets, I was told that the door span would have to be so wide to accommodate a large set that it made the cabinets top heavy and dangerous. So, most TVs go onto a wall, a mantle, or a flat surface.

I turned to antique shopping (which I prefer anyway!) and found the same situation. No doors that were wide enough, unless they had a bar down the middle, which wouldn't work. I found this old bookshelf and my son pulled the nails out of two of the shelves to make space for the television.

It needed a deep cleaning too. It could have been in a barn for a while from the looks of it.

This is 11" deep and 46-1/2" wide inside. I measured 50" TVs and found the one I wanted before shopping with a tape measure in my purse to find a cabinet to fit the TV I'd picked out.

And yes, this doesn't have a door, but I thought some lace curtains would be nice.

I used 5 cans of Zinser Bullseye spray primer meant for glossy surfaces, with no sanding. I figured with so many cubbies, a spray would be the way to go.

After priming, I did some distressing with sandpaper.

And added some fancy work details and some tinted glaze.

For one pint of clear glaze, I mixed in one 2 oz bottle of coffee and cream colored acrylic craft paint. I brushed it on heavy and then wiped it off with a damp, well wrung out towel. A torn up old tee shirt works great.

If you do this, rinse often.

If you are wondering why there is a John Deere in the picture, it was doubling as a step ladder to paint the top and something for the piece to lean against as I wiped the glaze on. I was afraid it was going to fall over backwards.

And if you are wondering when I painted it, I didn't! I went straight from primer to glaze.

Primer CANNOT be left as is!!

It isn't paint and is meant to be covered.

But who says you have to use conventional paint? I skipped straight to the tinted glaze. It covers every bit of the primer and is basically about the same as clear paint with tint in it, so dries with a paint like finish.

I didn't top coat it, because it won't be a heavy use item. If I do this technique on a table top, or dresser, I always use a water based, non yellowing top coat, like Polycrylic from Minwax.

We drilled holes in the top compartment for wires to the DirectTV box and DVD player, and also in the big opening for the television.

I didn't try to match up the existing hardware in the places where some pulls were missing. Instead, I went with odds and ends that I had around. One drawer had just a screw as a knob, and I left that, but tied a chandelier crystal with an image added on the back to the screw.

Old calling cards were a good fit for the slots in the pulls. Especially favorites that I'd been saving for some special use, like one that says "Bella" and a couple Marys (my grandma's name)

And Martha, my mom's name.

I used some vintage floral paper and a couple of notes in my sister's pretty handwriting in others. I guess, if I was organized, I'd have gone with actual labels of what was in the drawers, huh?

Once it was set up, I wasn't thrilled with where the curtains would have to hang, past the sides so as not to cover any of the screen. So, a blind was suggested by my sis, Terry.

I'd seen some great lace blinds at the Victorian Trading Co. and since Birdsong was coming up and I had guests to show around KC, we'd planned to go there the next day any way. Kansas City is the headquarters for the online store and catalog and they have an outlet store here. Lucky us! And lucky me, the blinds are only $20 at the outlet store compared to $69 online.

Since I knew most of the ladies coming to Birdsong were from out of town, I made sure to tell them about this store. When we pulled up, we saw an Iowa plate in the parking lot, and I rightly guessed that some of our friends were inside shopping. When we went in, the manager gave me a huge hug because I'd sent so many people her way.

There just happened to be a set of blinds exactly the size I needed in the clearance room! But they were very, very white. I placed them in the tub and poured coffee over them, then laid them out to dry in the sun and got just the color I wanted.

I'm looking for more old, wallpaper covered boxes to set on the bottom shelf to hold the kids' DVDs, I think it looks too busy right now with all the doodads on the shelf. A few boxes would be better.

Later on, I might print an image on linen and add to the blind…. that would be pretty wouldn't it? .

PS- Don't forget that Google Reader is closing soon! If you are
reading this from that site, you need to make a change real quick or
your list of blogs will be gone.

I've tried Feedly myself and basically all you do is sign up and it
will import all your Google Reader sites in the click of a mouse. Very,
very, very simple.Bloglovin is another good one.

You can also follow my blog through Networked Blogs and read it on
FaceBook that way. There is a list of different reader site buttons on
my sidebar that you can click on to follow me in.

Hope I'll still be seeing you around!

Hiding instead of repairing damaged dry wall and a rosey outlook for springtime

antiques/junking, cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, puppies!, redos, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / May 21, 2013

A bit ago, we redid a wall in the living room with ceiling tin. These were 8' strips, and were ideal for where I needed them, they seem to look nicer on a wall than the squares would have.

And after purchasing them, I happened to find the border at another shop and it is exactly what I needed! I'd planned on using wood trim and this is so much better. How lucky to find just the right amount of border.

The wall panels are from Nook and Cranny. When I drove around to the back of the shop to load the pieces, I happened to see the tin crown molding on the sidewalk in front of another store in the West Bottoms. I bought all the border, but there is a truckload of the wall panels left. ($40 each, but ask for a volume discount if you buy more than a couple)

The room didn't look bad before, I liked the faux finish. Until you got up close.

My old house settles, and the shape of a doorway kept popping through the drywall. Years ago, during a remodel, we'd covered up a hallway and this door shape would NOT go away no matter how many times I'd patched it.

I don't mind cracks, old houses have lots of them. But not door shaped!

(and yes, you are seeing nasty cobwebs in this photo, not just faux paint treatments and cracks in the wall)

SInce I have tins on the kitchen ceiling, I thought it would look good to also have the wall at the far end of the living room covered in them too. (this is before)

Luckily, I have a very handy son, who installed them for me. He ripped off the baseboard, and I squirted a ton of caulking back under the wall to help with drafts before he put up the tin.

We decided not to put up more baseboard over it, I like the look as it ended up without it.

The panels plus the crown were just the right size for the wall! My son wanted to cut the tins and line them up perfectly, but I told him not to. It went against his nature as a carpenter to not have the lines on the tin exact, but I like it as it is.

(the purple marks show the door outline we were covering up)

I promised him I would tell everyone that, because the lines bother him. Not me, I'm soooo happy with the whole project!! He had them up in a couple hours.

The lines that might bother me are the ones between each panel. They need to be caulked and sealed so they aren't as prominent.

But I haven't made up my mind about painting yet. I did paint over the rust on the crown, but only because it was too regular and stripey looking. Random rust makes me happy, but this was not that kind.

For now, I figure I'll leave the chippiness as is, I can always paint later. But I do think I need to caulk the seams….

The dogs always think each photo is about them.

So, I indulged the little hams and let them pose.

They love to be in pictures.

For springtime, I hung some rose pattern bark cloth drapes and wrapped the sofa cushion in another bark cloth piece. It has come untucked on the edges a bit. I guess that is the sort of thing you should straighten before a photo, huh?

My living room stays cream and white most of the year, and I love that combo, it makes seasonal changes so simple. A few pillows, a couple curtain panels and a switcheroo of some knick knacks and I've got a new look for a new season.

And the dogs love the BARK cloth.

Addiction is still addiction no matter what your vice is

antiques/junking, free images

By Karla Nathan / April 13, 2013

Beth and I had a day out to the antique mall and gave her booth a new look for spring. (here is her post about the day)

Years ago, we shared this spot, and my hand painted roses are still there on the wall behind the space. I no longer do this for a living and am glad. But when I get invited to help Beth, it brings back lots of memories and I have a great day playing with old things and arranging them.

When I had a booth, I just adored working on it. Decorating was so much fun, I almost got ticked off when someone bought something and messed it up. Almost, not really. I was smart enough to know that when you sell something, that means you get to go buy more and redecorate the booth again!!

My husband HATED me doing the booth when I had it. I spent way too much time hunting, hauling, and redoing furniture. And driving it to Kansas City to get set up at the mall. I guess what I'm saying, is that I was obsessed. It was an over whelming addiction to me, all I wanted to do was work on fixing up furniture and redo the booth. I got to the point where I was resentful when the sun started to go down and shadows made it too hard to paint on things outside. Which meant that I was working pretty late on summer evenings.

It was hard on my body, too. Some of those pieces could get pretty heavy, and I was too independent (or impatient?) to want to wait for help unloading the van and dragging it all out to the driveway to work on in all sorts of weather. I ached. My joints hurt. I was exhausted all the time.

All I ever wore were terrible old clothes covered in paint, and there were painty messes everywhere I went. I had a big spray gun for priming and base coats, and would over haul 5-6 large pieces in a day, then do hand work and finishing after. I was always covered in over spray, plus I used the clothes I was wearing as paint rags to clean my brush.

I was crusty.

My garage still has the outlines of furniture on the wall, from over spray. And the floor is covered in spilled paint colors.

It was a very hard job, and I worked hard at it.

But I thought I loved doing it. That is, til I gave it up. There was an adjustment period, where I couldn't help being sad because I wasn't shopping for broken or ugly things to make beautiful.

But once I got away from it all, I realized just how tired I had been. And how it had taken over my life. White paint and roses were my drugs of choice, and I had been hooked deep.

Giving up the antique business was kind of like giving up Diet Coke. Horribly hard at first. But as time went by, I adjusted and lost the yearnings. Now, I can pop a top of pop and have a cold one sometimes and enjoy the taste, but don't need to drink the whole 12 pack. I feel better because of it.

I can also set up a room full of stuff to sell at arty events here and there and get a taste for antique dealing again, without having to furnish a booth or spend 80 hours a week sanding and brushing and hand painting. I've learned it's much nicer to shop for or make smaller things that fit in an envelope to sell online.

No more 300 lb cabinets for me. No more endless hours of grueling work.

(Beth gave me these pretties from her stash- she wasn't supposed to, she helped with my taxes and I helped with her booth, it was a trade)

My life is better now that I'm not a Diet Coke junky or hooked on dirty, ugly furniture in need of redoing.

But man, it was fun to be back at the mall, foofing and verving with Beth. It's nice to know that I can recover from my addiction and stay on the straight and narrow.

Well kind of. I have been known to buy a 12 pack of Vanilla Diet Coke when I'm stressed. Or buy the occasional dirty, broken piece of furniture that is just too good to pass up. I don't think I'll test my will power by trying meth and seeing if I can kick it.

Beth also gave me this photo. It must have reminded her of me. Although, I'm more of a hoodie type than a bandana wearer. And I need a few more chickens to measure up to this lady's glorious flock.

Anyway, click on it to open to a larger window and save it to your computer from there if you'd like to use it in your own work.

Bottom’s UP!

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / March 5, 2013

The last time I was in Angie's store I cleaned her out of little birdy books, in preparation for Birdsong 3. I have no idea what I will need them for yet, but I always snag a vintage bird book when I see it, just in case.

Then, she gave me a beautiful, old, old, book in German, with a great font. (it's the one underneath the smaller books)

As well as a billion tiny birds. They came in a crystal glass, tied up with lace and silk ribbons. They were much cuter in the glass than they were spilled all over my floor when I got home. And if you want to know if "billion" is an accurate count, it sure felt like it when I was picking them up, as excited puppies pounced on me each time I reached for a tiny bird on the floor. They seemed to think it was a game invented just to entertain them.

Every single one of the billion birds has been rescued and tucked away safely in a baggie waiting for Birdsong now. It will be fun to come up with something to do with them for the event. Thanks, Angie!

The two of us went to Bottom's Up for their big anniversary extravaganza. Gwen always throws a nice party, and it was good to have a night out.

It was nice to see what magic Carol has done with her display too.

And to meet some new friends. Sadly, these guys couldn't come home with me. I think they would have loved my gardens, though.

And these silk curtains would sure class up the joint if I'd brought them home with me.

But I did splurge and buy French documents from the 1800s. That seems to be my main purchase every time I go to see Gwen. I can't resist them.

She just unloaded her latest container, straight from France. She'll be bringing more Frenchie goods next month too. I love to ooh and ah over her acquisitions. She used to live in France and knows the ins and outs of all the flea markets there. And finds the BEST stuff.

Of course, Bottoms Up is stuffed with the best stuff. Great dealers and fun goods. And now, the whole district is jammed with shops and dealers open only one weekend a month. On Saturdays, it feels like a street fair, there is so much going on, food trucks, live music, crowds of people shopping. If you are planning a trip to KC, I'd say plan it for the first weekend of the month and drop in to see what is going on there.

Snowdogs, Snowfairies, Fleas, Spinning Art, and an oddball button. Another typical posting this and that and not much really

antiques/junking, Dew Drop

By Karla Nathan / March 1, 2013

We have had our share of snow lately! It seems like a lot, with two blizzards back to back, especially since we've had some pretty mild winter weather up till now. Last year was even warmer. These storms were a reminder that we live in the midwest. And you never know what will hit.

The Puppeesh are confused about where they should potty, but seem to enjoy running around in the snow while I freeze waiting for them to make up their minds about whether they will actually do anything or save it till they come inside.

Why did I decide to have winter pups??? Oh, that's right, they are so durn cute I couldn't resist them last fall, even knowing that winter housebreaking might break me.

Sugarwings had a sleepover with us during the first snow, and we decided that the best way to have a snowball fight was to sit in the cozy hot tub while we lobbed the icy missiles at each other.

It would have been much more enjoyable if we'd been smart enough to shovel a walk way to the hot tub. Look at how deep it was on the steps! I wore my boots out there, and balanced on the edge trying to get them off, getting my robe nice and soggy as I wobbled and almost slipped in the water with one boot on.

We had the best time laughing and splashing as the flakes fell on us.

The way back in to the house was better, since we were all toasty and rosy from the hot water, the snow barely bothered me, so I carried my boots and barefooted it quickly inside.

My son built a snow slide in front of their apartment building that kept even the tiniest (and the biggest) of kids slipping and sliding away the snow days.

They had a good hill to use. He made some good curves along the way, and built up the banks to keep them on the track.

He certainly had plenty of snow to work with. Two blizzards in a week?

Between blizzards, we made a run to Topeka to go to a flea market. I was glad I took the time off to go, I loaded up on sweet paper dolls.

A ton of jewels too. This is one baggie's worth. I got 8 bags for $3 each.

Dewdrop loved her first flea market, and was extra happy to see that there was a kid's corner where she could make spin art.

In my goodie bags of loot, there were some odd pieces, like this old button. Ever seen one like it?

Tami gave me the following info, and I looked it up on Ebay with this and saw one listed for $35. Tami is a Button Expert. Thanks for the help, Tami!!

(I don't do ebay myself, so I will put it in my Etsy shop for much less. )

Your button is a chinaman, possibly Dr. Fu Manchu. He was a fictional villain
character in the novels series by Sax Rohmer in the early 20th ca. The button
design and materials can easily date this button around the time of his novels.
The button material appears to be Celluloid; however, the base of the button
might be Celluloid acetate. The face itself is Celluloid.

Unorthadox places to find good supplies-” harvesting” from ugly things

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / November 15, 2012

When I am making things, I am dedicated to using only The Good Stuff. I figure that if I'm spending my time on a project, I don't to waste it using so-so supplies.

Shiny bits from Hobby Lobby will not cut it for me. I like the look and feel of aged beauty from the past.

Of course, fleas and garage sales are good places to look for blingy bits, but I've found that to keep myself (and my online Boutique) pleasantly plumped up with glitz, I have to keep my eyes peeled for the best of bargains.

The other day, I came across this light up Christmas tree covered in jewels (the photo was taken after I'd already started pulling off the sparklies).

It was a bit of a gamble, not knowing if the jewelry would fall apart when I tried to pry it loose, or if the glue would even come off of the pieces.

Luckily 90% came off perfectly fine. (by the way, DO NOT use an exacto blade to ever pry anything, no matter what, ouch)

Getting the glue off was a little harder.

These jewels were heavily coated in dust, so I soaked them in cleaner, thinking that would help the glue come off too.

It didn't.

I discovered that hot water melted the glue away. It was easy to clean up with hot running water, dish soap and a toothbrush.

But like I said, it was a gamble. You never know what kind of glue was used and how hard it will be to remove. If this had been epoxied, I'd have been in trouble.

I've already put some of the jewels I harvested to use as tree topper stars.

Here are a few places I've found good supplies CHEAP by harvesting them off of ugly things no one wants:

A hideously ugly table top Christmas tree at an estate sale, had some lovely little birdies on it, and was only $12. I got 27 birds from that ugly tree, as well as a few decent ribbons.
A $35 vintage wedding gown, not exactly ugly, but not in the best shape. Perfect for me to harvest tons of lace from.
A $3 red dress, great to cut up, but not good to wear or display.
Sometimes even the most savvy estate sale planners don't closely inspect things and let ugly cloud their vision. I bought a beautiful, large, matt white McCoy pot for $1 because it was holding one of the most excruciatingly ugly plastic flower arrangements ever. If the pot had been empty it would have sold for a LOT more.
A string of mercury glass beads was used to hold a couple of beat up, (badly) hand made aluminum foil covered styrofoam bells. The beads were ignored by shoppers because the bells were just too awful. I got $10 worth of beads for 50 cents because no one stopped to look beyond the ugly parts to the nice beads.
Vintage rosebud wallpaper was used as a shelf liner for a cabinet in a basement at an estate sale. I asked if I could buy the paper, without the rusty cabinet and got it for $1.
Sometimes a grab bag of cheapo, 1980s, gaudy jewelry has a couple of hidden beauties in it. I usually buy the inexpensive bag, pick out what I want, and give the rest back to the flea mkt vendor to resale to someone else who might want it instead of taking them all home to throw away.
Last spring, I found a boxful of plastic Easter eggs that were not kind to the eyes. But- they had sweet bundles of millinery flowers glued to some of them.

My advice in finding good supplies for bargains, is to look at things more carefully. Many of the things I like to harvest are from craft projects of long ago, that were not well done. But the items used in them were right up my alley!

Although, it does make me wonder…. will someone be ripping up my projects in the future, saying, "ugh, what a waste of beautiful things in this hideous display!!"?????

I will be away for a few days, but have fresh posts for you while I am gone. If you'd like to order anything from my online shops, I'll pack up your goodies on Tuesday the 20th. Here is some stuff in Etsy that I added before I left.

I replaced some of the sold out wreaths, too.

Little Ghosts, a little puppy, and a little fairy princess

antiques/junking, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, puppies!, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 10, 2012

There was a fairy surprise inside the box of swap pages coming from Deb Ganas, a whole pile of fairy garments, wings and slippers.

Dewdrop has a bit of a shoe obsession, so she will glom onto the slippers right away. Look at how funny the barefoot fairy feet shoes are! My husband has recently started wearing barefoot shoes for running, he thinks they are amazing. (his are not this cute) I'll have to clock the girls and see if these make them run even faster. I already can't keep up with Sugarwings, but I doubt if anyone could!

And isn't the package with the pages wrapped so sweetly? I should make sure and get a photo of her artwork too, it's really nice.

So far, a couple of tubs of packages have been mailed out. It will take a while to get through the whole set of swappers, but I've got a great start on it.

And the dilemma of how to wrap them is solved. Each book is swathed in fabric or tulle. Some of them are getting these elfish playing card tags. I only have 52 of those, so its a random selection for the tags.

I've got a few different airy fairy fabrics and tulles to use too, that really makes packing them up more fun. It gets monotonous if every single one is the same.

Of course, no two books are the same either. I'll be sad when I am done assembling them, I love sorting and sifting through to find pages that coordinate well together.

Last week was a short one for the kids. Not only were they out of school for Labor Day, Tuesday was some sort of day off too. So, I was able to spend some time with the big group of grands, and went to a garden center close out, lunch and a movie.

Mexican food, and Para Norman- which was a bit scary but had a wonderful message about accepting the differences in others and not being judgemental. Too bad it had to be taught by a scary, 300 year old Pilgrim Zombie Judge. But I love zombies, so really enjoyed the movie.

Poor Fin, looked at me about halfway through the movie and said, "why did you have to bring us to a scary movie?" And Sugarwings crawled up on my lap to clench me. I hugged Fin, held Sugarwings, asked if they wanted to leave, but both wanted to stay. I'm glad they did, it had an uplifting ending and Norman was a town hero.

We have a family tradition at movies. As the show ends, we go down to the front of the theater and dance to the songs that play during the credits. This time, I was too exhausted from lack of sleep due to puppies, but it was a really good song that I was sorry to miss out on dancing to. Little Ghost from the White Stripes, was so fun that we sat in the parking lot and played it over and over on my Iphone, then sang it all night.

The best part of being a grandmother are those kind of moments. At this stage of life, I know how fast it all zooms by and I like to stop and let the little ones take the time to explore and listen, and absorb the world. If we want to sit on a sidewalk and listen to a song a few times, why not? What is the big hurry to get in the car? Home will be waiting when we get there, we might as well grab onto something fun when we see it.

The garden center sale was a doozy. These weren't half dead, end of season clearance items, these were lush, thriving, pretty plants. I was thrilled to load up a cart at a dollar a pot, my yard had taken a beating from the heat and the chickens. I discovered that hens have a sweet tooth for begonias and petunias, and all the planters filled with those flowers have been pecked naked.

So, I have some pots to replant for fall and this sale was just what I needed. I want things to look pretty for Romantic Gothic Ghosts in October! If I get this new batch of plants settled in the dirt now, they should be ideal for company that week.

This photo was taken on 9/5, the little ones are opening their eyes and are getting strong enough to try to walk instead of scooch on their tummies.