antiques/junking – Page 14

Bottom’s UP!

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.

Sparks and White Cloud

antiques/junking, flowers

By Karla Nathan / September 2, 2012

For the Faery Book Swappers-

Since
the 1st is a holiday weekend, its ok to wait till Tuesday to mail your
packages. And please note that it will take me a couple of weeks to make
that many books and get them mailed back to you!

During all the puppy and other chaoses around here, I've managed to still squeeze in some junkin time. Beth, the other Karla and I set out for Sparks and White Cloud on Thursday. Its my favorite place to shop!

It was blasted hot, like its been most of this season, but that didn't stop us. Well, kinda, just not all the way. It did cut our day short. There was a period when we were all feeling a bit woozy and sick from the heat and decided we needed to sit in the air conditioned car with a cold drink and think about whether we'd lost the will to go on or not.

We'd spent maybe 3 hours in Sparks, and figured we could handle a quick trip to White Cloud too. They aren't completely set up on Thursday, so there wouldn't be much there.

We were pretty tired, hot, and sick of crowds. There were tons of people there, lines to walk through some booths. I'd never seen it so densely packed with shoppers. It made me kind of sad to see our flea market hidey hole found out by hordes of others!

I'm glad we pulled up our big girl panties and braved the second stop, I found this 1800s ledger book, with over 200 pages of receipts in it! I paid much more than I usually do for supplies, but I was travelling with two accountants who pointed out how it was only pennies per page, and that didn't sound so bad after all. It was cheaper than most scrapbook paper.

It was my lucky hat day too. I must have bought 8 or 9, all creams, whites and pinks. All for $5 and under too.

And lace! Lovely, lovely lace!! A friend was selling old, old lace for $1 a package and I bought $40 worth. that is a LOT of lace, but wow, what a deal. I'll be using a lot of it to finish off the Faery Book Swap and will save some for Kim's Snow White gala in April. I'll be needing a lot for those kits.

This is for An Enchanted Affaire too. I found this 1940s lace dress for only $3, and it holds volumes of delicate lace for my kits!!

It came with a red satin lining, which is a separate dress. That will be going to the little girls for their dress up closet, after I cut it off short enough for them to wear without tripping over.

Sparks never disappoints in the sparkly department either. I was there the second day and still found all these gems on dollar tables. There were also old books for 50 cents, photo albums with great mats, and a few other goodies. We weren't there long, but we were there long enough to score big.

During my Indiana trip, I hit a few jackpots too. More hats! More jewels also.

And a gorgeous 1950s wedding gown to cut up for the Snow White kits. It cost a bit more than the $3 red dress, but the $30 I spent for it was well worth it. There is a lot of great, old lace to use. And don't both of them look perfect with the red flocked wallpaper I've got for the project too?

Usually I shop all along I70 when I take an Indy trip, but I needed to get back to the little ones. And how nice it was to be home and be with them! Cute, huh? I"m so glad I left the tails this time and didn't have them docked. Look at the blur where this teensy girl is giving her nice long tail a wag.

The Early Bird scores the junk

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / August 6, 2012

Thanks for your input on the charges for the Faerie Book Swap. I'm glad you feel the price is reasonable.

I was making covers at 5 am today. I'm not typically a morning person, but it was kind of nice to be awake and gluing before I am normally up to face the world. I worked for 3 hours on them and then started the rest of the day at my usual time, and it was like a little bonus of hours for me.

Not that I'll become an early bird. But I enjoyed the gift of extra time. But not enough to ever set an alarm clock, of course. If I made a habit of being up at the crack of dawn, it would feel more like slaving away too many hours instead of like a special little bubble of time I was given to get caught up.

Yes, silly thinking, but maybe my mind is still fuzzy from being up so early.

A lot got done today, by starting so early. I shopped for a new car (no luck yet), did yard work, edited photos, shopped for some back to school clothes for Sugarwings (eeek- kindergarten starts next week!!), piddled around with a few other things, then sat down and did something creative.

I've been doing so much assembly line work in making 100 front and back book covers, that I was feeling like a robot instead of an artist. This evening, i took the time to actully make an inside book page so I can be part of the swap too. I want a book of my own to keep, so I need to have pages to trade!! I have ten or so, only really need 8, but like to have extras. Plus, I wanted to do something fun.

I drew a dress form and cut it out of sheet music, then glued it onto this old text. The wings are cut from a 1950s bug book then glitzed with a clear gold Gelly Roll pen, and the dress is made of flower petals plucked from my garden of vintage hats.

I outlined the wings in Black Stickles glitter, then inked the background with pink and black. Over that I lightly brushed some white Tim Holtz crackle paint.

My car has been on loan to my son, so I've been driving my husband's car, while he has been driving the farm truck. We tend to buy cars and drive them till they won't go any more, or till we are so sick of them that we give them to one of our sons. We get about ten years from most vehicles.

This car is 12 now, and has been a wonderful car, but when it died on me in the middle of NOWHERE, I decided it was time to replace it! On Sunday, I had taken a spur of the moment trip to one of my favorite shops, 4 Corners. Someone there told me there was a flea market nearby, so there I went on another little jaunt.

Trouble is, the flea was closed, was on a back road2 miles outside a small town I'd never heard of, and the car decided to take a break from travelling and not start after I came back from looking in the windows of the market (didn't see much).

Luckily, I had a book with me, I sat and read a while, then tried to start the car again, and it took off after about a half hour.

I'll go back and check out the flea later, when I have reliable transportation. The place is called Hooterville Flea and Bait Shop.

How can I not go back with a name like that???

There were hats calling to me from 4 Corners, so I was glad I'd taken the trip, no matter how worried I was about being stranded.

I bought 4 hats, a huge pile of Victorian scrap, die cuts, and old books, a roll of old silk ribbon in chocolate brown, a gorgeous down pillow covered in lace, plus this picture all for $59!!

The picture is not in the best of shape, but that is something I like about it. The bottom 4" or so was missing, but I rubbed sepia ink on the cardboard backing where part of the print was missing and I don't think it shows much. I also sanded some of the gold paint off the frame so the white underneath peeks out.

She is sooooo pretty. Not sure where she will hang yet. Somewhere special! Maybe in the guest room I am fixing up for my sister's visit.

Well, better get back to the fairy book covers. 15 more to go and I'm finished with the front covers, yay!

A teacup-raven-thingy

antiques/junking, Books, holiday decor, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / July 29, 2012

Its been very nice to see the interest in our Romantic Gothic Ghosts day in the studio on October the 6th! We have a lucky 13 signed up so far, before we have shown our projects for the day. I hope that showing them now doesn't spook our guests away…

My class is inspired by this stack of old Edgar Allen Poe books from a garage sale ($1 each), They are tatteringly wonderful.

You'd think that maybe, these would make me think of teaching a book of some kind???

Well, it would make sense to use the pages in art journals. But instead, I was intrigued by using just one section, the poem about the Raven.

I cut the poem into 1-3 line quotes to use as banners on a teacup-raven-thingy.

(no name for the creation yet, I hope I can come up with something better than that eventually)

The two quotes I used for my examples are some of the less interesting lines, I wanted to save the best ones for the students.

Our projects will be Halloween Holiday Decor pieces, that have a romantic feel.

NO purple!

NO orange!

Garish Halloweens, Nevermore!

I've bought some white and gray teacups, we will fill them with vintage paper nests and add a raven made from felted sweaters.

I wish we could do the felting itself that day, but it has to be ready ahead of time. So, I bought a couple of men's 100% wool sweaters at the Goodwill (geez, when did GW prices go so sky high??? $5 each for a crappy, worn out sweater???)

I boiled them in a big pot with liquid Rit dye to turn them a deep, rich black.

Then, drew a raven pattern, cut it out and stitched it up.

I AM NOT A SEWER. If you aren't either, don't be scared!

But- this was fast and easy. Black thread on a black bird doesn't have to be perfect, it hardly shows.

She is trimmed out with pretty black feathers, lace and glitter, then topped with a crown that we will make from antique brass window screening, and decorate with rhinestones. We'll make a strand of pearls for her neck, create the nest, and the arch with the banner and cover it in old millinery blooms.

And of course, the stack of books that the teacup rests on is included. We'll bundle up stacked pages (pre-coffee stained) and tie them with lace and ribbons to use as a stage for our teacup-raven-thingy.

Beth is busy whipping up her class idea too, and from what I saw Friday, its going to be really nice. Hers is a Gypsy fortune teller's guide book of some sort. To be used an art journal. And I gave her one of my Poe books to take apart so she could share the pages with everyone. So, the garage sale books do get to be in an art journal after all.

For details about coming to the class with us in my studio, please scroll down to the previous post, or click on the button on my side bar.

Now, that I have told you that I don't do orange and purple, I'm going to try to sell you a bundle of traditional Halloween colored millinery.

Well, just because I don't use the colors much, doesn't mean they aren't just right for someone's project. And these are nice, old flowers that deserve a good project to be included in.

And this might be way off season, but here is something new in the Boutique too.

Lots of old Valentines!

I'll leave you with some pictures of whats new in the shop.

I found Hat Heaven (and the giveaway winner)

antiques/junking, flowers, give away, junk, Travel, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 21, 2012

Our trip to NC was just perfect.

A highlight was a shopping day with my sis-in-law.

Actually, we had TWO fun afternoons of junking. Our first was at the Vintage Village, and I was captivated the minute we got out of the car.

And the best part of it all was Susanna's Antiques, where I went to meet my blog friend, Jenny.

She and her mom have a cute as a bug shop together- filled with too much to fit in my suitcase…

(yep, my eyes are closed in this photo, of course)

Another friend, Becca, took a break from work, and came by to visit too.

The mall was just wonderful. If I needed a light fixture, I'd be looking there for it. They had the best selection of old chandies at good prices that I have seen in a long, long time.

And the atmosphere of the whole area was just plain fun. I loved all the little cottages and piles of junk out doors amid the plants and flowers. The best part was a fresh fruit stand where we bought ripe Carolina peaches and washed them in a garden hose to eat while we walked around.

I had some great food while on our trip, but those peaches were hard to beat.

Then, I saw the hats. Hats, hats, hats everywhere!!!!!!!!!

Hat Heaven.

If you need floral hats, head to see Jenny. But wait a bit, I cleaned her out for now.

Don't worry, she has plenty of other pretty things to buy.

I don't know why I didn't buy this print.

But I did snag this story book for my grand fairies.

Jenny had some of her work there for sale too, she makes these vintage brooch bouquets for brides.

And how sweet is this? This bracelet was a gift from her.

The next day, my sis-in-law, Sandy, and I went to the flea. There is one every weekend at the fair grounds, and it was a good one. I bought a ton more flowers and hats, as well as bags full of broken rhinestoney jewelry.

I bought so many hats, that I had to pull all the flowers off to make them fit into my suitcase. Sandy was horrified, she collects old hats and thought I was too ruthless. But she ended up helping, and we sat on the balcony of her son's home drinking wine, plucking hats and playing with her little Yorkies.

Now that we are home, Sandy, Dixie, and Daisy have come to stay with us for a while. They'll be good for Twinkle, she misses her Agnes Rosebud.

That is, if she doesn't try to rip their cute, fuzzy heads off. She doesn't like many dogs.

After a few days with family in Raleigh, we drove to the Outer Banks. This was a work trip for my husband, I was just tagging along, which is a nice way to travel. For me at least, my poor husband had to work all day while I goofed off on the beach.

He was able to be done working in time for romantic walks on the beach, and watching the sunset on the sound. Then, stuffing ourselves with locally caught seafood.

We stayed in Duck, NC and it was a very peaceful, quiet beach. I wonder why there weren't more people there? It was beautiful.

Oh, I forgot to announce the winner of my giveaway!! This collage goes to:

Linda Owen Postma

What once was lost and a giveaway

antiques/junking, Books, give away, I do tend to run on, don't I?, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / June 3, 2012

While cleaning up the studio for a mini redo, I came across some art journals I'd made a LONG time ago and forgotten about.

It started by cleaning the garage and coming across this buffet I'd forgotten about. After our kitchen remodel, I'd stashed it out there and it was buried under a pile of stuff my son was storing. I don't know why I didn't move it into the studio in the first place instead of leaving it to the spiders and dust in the garage for 9 months, its perfect in my work space.

The hutch had been sitting on a table previously. I switched the two out, then returned the hutch and all the stuff in it. The table is now in the garage with the spiders and I have an empty cabinet waiting to be filled up with more crap from garage sales treasures.(so I can lose them in the chaos too, like the art journals and the buffet. Who loses a buffet anyway? Does that mean I have waaaayyy too much junk?)

Back to the journals… I found a couple of them, and they are now listed in the Boutique.

One is filled with ephemera pages, and the other is a heavy canvas art paper, that I bought at an estate sale, kinda vintagey, not real old. But just perfect for a journal.

Um, I hate to admit it, but I found some other stuff packed away and forgotten too. Stacks of extra covers from the Birdsong tag book swap last year.

Plus a few extra tags I'd made while I was on a roll with the theme.

So I made up a couple of tag books and listed those too. And listed those in the Boutique under the Altered Books category, which had been empty for quite a while.

This art journal is in there now too, its a recent creation and was made from Beth's stash of goods, not mine.

I was at her house for craft day and was at a loss for a project.

She handed me a chipboard book and a box of paper and I did the basic pages for this, then embellished it when I got home.

(I have another project to show you from her stash too. I'll post it later this week. It was done with just what I could reach from my chair and not have to get up. I have to say, I could have gone on for years with this and not made a dent in the supply!)

She has great old papers piling up in her studio. This was in her box of odds and ends. I love the cracks from age.

When I listed this last book, I included a bagful of OLD goodies from my stash to finish it with, and am selling it as a kit.

Slowly but surely, I'll be filling the Boutique back up, and maybe, just maybe, I'll tend to the poor little neglected Etsy shop too.

But maybe not, I'm going out of town again this week.

Hopefully, I'll get more in the shop before I go. All purchases after Tuesday will be mailed when I get back.

I'll have fresh blog posts up for all week while I'm gone. And a chance to win this college I made when Beth and I practiced her class for Birdsong.

Leave a comment on any (or all posts) and I'll draw a name after I get back, probably on Sat. the 16th.

The Summer of Salads, and Garage Sale Goodies!

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / May 31, 2012

Its the most beautiful time of the year. Garage sale season has begun! I went to a couple estate sales with Beth and the other Karla.

One was a gold mine of crafty, vintagey goodness! My favorite find was this box full of old starched lace Easter eggs for $2.75. The eggs are smashy, but the flowers are wonderful and so are the velvety trims on some of them. I've already harvested the best parts and have them set aside for future creations.

At another sale, I picked up this satin gown for my grand fairy for $2.

Her favorite thing about it, is the big skirt that poofs out like a cloud when she sits on the register in the floor.

On the way to Beth's, I stopped at a garage sale, and found an under the bed, Rubbermaid container full of dress up clothes for the kids for only 50 cents. Which I thought was a pretty swell deal for the carton alone, not to mention the piles of fun clothes inside.

After going through the costumes (M&Ms, clowns, fairies, hula dancers, flappers- it was full!) I found this fairy garland and thought it was kind of nice. On closer inspection, I realized that they were very old pansies pulled off a vintage hat! Yippee!

Those are going to MY dress up pile, not to the kid's. Twinkle was kind enough to model them for me.

This retro chic stove was at one of the estate sales we went to. I'm still in a Tiffany blue mood after my trip to CA, so I was really attracted to it.

There were lots of old bottles, some floral hats, for $3 a piece (yippee again!), not a bad haul.

I especially like this old rat poison bottle, it will be used in my Halloween decor this fall. Doesn't it look like the poison was so compelling that the rats tried to chew their way into the bottle?

Uhm, if you are wondering why my curtains are in a bowl of water, its because I accidentally squirted blueberry juice onto the delicate lace. I hurriedly grabbed a bowl of hot water with vinegar and dish soap in it, and tucked the stained bit into the bowl to soak. It seemed quicker than trying to take them down and wash them.

And I think its done a good job of getting the stain out. I've replaced the soapy water with clean water a couple times to rinse them, I was trying to treat the old lace as gently as I could.

And why was I squirting blueberry juice? Because last week I officially declared this the "Summer of Salads" and started off with a juicy fruit salad.

My goal is to have at least 2 to 3 fresh made salads in the fridge at all times. I chopped fruit, spritzed it with lime juice, and added a sprinkling of Trader Joe's cinnamon sugar, the kind that comes in a grinder.

I also made a carrot salad, using a bag of shredded carrots, a half cup of broken pecans, 3/4 cup big golden raisins, a cup of chopped celery, a pinch of sea salt, and enough dressing to moisten it all. The dressing I chose was a strawberry vinaigrette from Kroger's.

Simple to throw together with the prechopped carrots and bottled dressing, and great to snack on when I have a sweet tooth.

The third salad was a standard one we always have on hand. Equal parts of chopped cucumbers ( I like those baby sized ones), celery, and tomatoes with sea salt,cracked pepper and some balsamic vinegar with olive oil. This will be even better to make when our garden takes off and we have our own veggies to chop!

No, I'm not making a big bowl of yarn salad. This was something pretty that I saw at Beth's home.

This too.

Even prettier, this is some of the stuff I bought from her! She had piles of things ready to go to her booth at the mall. I of course, dove right in. She has the BEST stuff.

I'll leave you with some photos of what's new in the Boutique.

(yep, I actually got some work done! Its only a handful of stuff, but its a start.)