Money Well Spent June 5, 2008

We’ve had a rainy couple of days here and as you may have discerned yesterday, in the battle of grey day vs my camera, grey and cloudy kicks my butt every time. And my homemade light box had lots of spunk but not much light. But I just can not wait to share these scores.

I got most of these gems from Charlie and Pat’s (their big sale is this Saturday if you are local). A few are from a recent church rummage sale. I toy with the idea of getting a tattoo from time to time, and really, deep down I know it’ll never happen. But the word Rummage tops my current never gonna get it tattoo list. I also keep a mental list of punk band names and you and I both know that will never pan out. Maybe someday (maybe this summer?) I’ll open my own junk shop and there will always be rockin’ tunes playing and classic Bollywood clips showing and craft circles craftin’ in the back room with tattooed types lingering amongst my riches. It’s a nice daydream. Let me see if I can get an etsy shop up first or manage my first eBay sale. Baby steps.

I picked up this vintage weaving loom, primarily for the graphics. I was also impressed it had a boy on the cover. Maybe he was able to weave a toy gun cozy or something. Whatever he made, I’m sure it was lots of fun!

I wrongly imagined our stairway to be light-filled and photogenic and yet still I will show you this darling mug. As you may have read from my previous post, Spelling Lesson, (I’ve always wanted to reference myself) I am not afraid of the traditionally defined “bad words” but I do, however, feel like washing my own mouth out with soap after merely typing the word, “darling”. Please excuse. But she is cute, right?

I got a whole series of these wonderful cookbooks. The illustrations deserve to be set free from the binding and framed but I have a hard time cutting into books. I’ve done it a few times but it feels illegal.

I also got a huge plastic orange tray and the smaller purple one you can see here with the cookbooks. They aren’t even part of a set, these two trays, but they are perfect together. I had visions of cupcakes and birthday parties when I saw them and for $4 it would have been wrong NOT to get them.

Here are some of the illustrations. Believe it or not, I am trying to edit my photographs and not plaster this post with them all but it’s kind of hard.

I bought this because I am not one to pass by anything touting an E-Z pour function.

This vintage beauty is the only thrift store score from today’s collection. I got her for 99 cents. I do not usually dig in the stuffed animal bins of my favorite thrift store. Mostly because it’s terrifying and sneezy but she drew me to her and now she sits atop a massive pile of crap in my craft room. Not totally unlike her previous residence.

I can’t find any marking on her. Any toy experts know anything about her? I reckon she’s German made but I have no idea.

And here is some cheer to brighten this rainy day. A portion of my collection of thrifted and family tins with a little bit of my childhood doll collection thrown in. These are also in my craft room that I hope to have finished to share with you sometime THIS SUMMER.

I hope you enjoy looking at this crap as much as I enjoying finding it!

Summertime & The Livin’ is Easy… June 3, 2008

I can’t believe my first baby is going to be in Kindergarten next year. And I really can not believe how much longer I have to wait for my last baby to be old enough to start! I love you boys! Even when I dream of a weekend alone in a hotel room with snarky celebrity mags, salt and vinegar potato chips and 24 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

I was one of the class parents in Pre-K this year. Not a good use of my skill set. I am not one who needs to know the nuts and bolts or who relishes in disseminating the information to others. Next year I am going to invest my time (and meager energy) to the Library and GLBT committees. Part of wrapping up my duties this year was helping to put together memory books for the teachers. My son did kind of a paper doll illustration for the stories he wrote.

He drew his teacher and then I cut her out and raise mounted her on his background. I cut out a photo of him doing jumping jacks and he plopped it down and it became a story about a surfing teacher, piggy back rides, a slice of cake, and Captain Brainstorm the astronaut & scientist, “but better at being a spaceman”.

We used the same technique for his other teacher. In this little paper world she has beautiful green hair and extra arms. The latter probably pretty handy for a Pre-K teacher.

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I particularly like that he drew them into a song (The Big Rock Candy Mountain), that his shoes are super fancy and that he is a knight wearing knee pads. I’m going to do this again as a project for him to keep because he had a blast taking a “paper doll” of himself and adding details (you can’t see in these photos but he’s sporting a fierce helmet).

Here is one of the teacher books. I made her name from letters cut from the recycle bin. We saw the coolest posters at the Children’s Museum of the Declaration of Independence written out using the same technique. It was pretty profound/scary/silly to have Tony the Tiger giving me a history lesson. In the take out containers is the real present, sorry kids. Cold hard cash. Tacky but true. An interesting ‘tradition’ at my son’s school.

I dressed up the card for a class specialist with a paper flower I made from vintage dress patterns. I know a lot of you crafters actually make dresses from these vintage patterns but the thought of that makes me dizzy. Maybe this summer I’ll give it a whirl. Isn’t it funny how when summer kicks off anything seems possible? Why yes, this summer I WILL ride my bike for miles and miles. Make healthy meals for my family daily, you bet! Join this cool online book group and have clever things to say, why the heck not. It’s SUMMERTIME! Damn, it’s hot.

I covered the pattern with clear vinyl and sewed around the petals then layered them until I liked the way it looked. I added a few beads to the center and called it a flower. I love sewing with paper. I am going to dust my sewing machine off and be a creative force (all together now)

THIS SUMMER!

Kiki’s Plastic Surgery – Before and After June 1, 2008

Kiki is the most loved of our much loved dolls.

Some of that love has been tough love.

Kiki was recently in a car accident. Both boys wanted to give Kiks some sugar at the same time and they wishboned his guts out. It was the rip that finally brought peace to the car. Thanks Kiki, you are truly a giver.

There was much planning on how to restore Kiki to his former perfection. Or at least stuff his stuffing back in.

We got out the sewing kit that originally belong to my husband’s mother. I felt great pride watching him thread his first needle and begin sewing with a needle that had been in the hands of a woman neither of us ever got the chance to meet.

Threaded the needle on the first go. My little man has done some machine sewing but this was really his first hand sewing project. So not only will he be programing all of our electronics, folding the washcloths and finding my misplaced glasses but I’ll add needle threader to his list of family jobs.

Here is my boy, proudly applying the stitches.

My little guy was in charge of post-op and tenderly (Hi Megin) fed Kiki a bottle and washed his face with a wet paintbrush.

Kiki is back and looking as fierce as ever. We love you Kiki. Thanks for the good times and lessons learned.

Next up laser tattoo removal. In addition to his apparent graffiti skills my little one is showing promise in body modification!

Enjoy your Sunday and give an extra gentle squeeze to the Kiki in your life.