Barkcloth Pillow

Finally on Monday, I stopped by Material Girl in downtown Crystal Lake to get the wonder tape that I needed to complete the pillow I had been wanting to make for some time now.  (The downtown area in Crystal Lake will be having their "Slidewalk" sales this Thursday through Saturday.)  The Material Girl has beautiful fabric to choose from and there will be some fabric on sale.

I had found a small piece of barkcloth fabric this summer at a garage sale.  It was the perfect size to make a pillow. Recently while cleaning out my linen closet, I came across a variety of trim that I had forgotten about.  One of them was a rose colored tassel trim.  It blended perfectly with the flowers on the barkcloth.  I love the big bold print of the flowers.  It is so vivid.

I stopped at Shy Violet, an antique store in Burlington WI today.  It is in the downtown area.  There is also a nice clothing consignment store that was having big sales a few doors away.  Shy Violet has 3 floors and it was fun to look through.  I also like to compare prices with what I sell to make sure I'm on target or sometimes a little lower.  (Shhhh.  My secret).

Shy Violet was on my bucket list of places to visit as is Lucky Junk in Arlington Heights.  Lucky Junk is open this weekend (starting tomorrow) so hopefully I will finally make it there.  I do enjoy the downtime from all of the sales that I go to so that I can visit local businesses that I don't always have time to get to.  I'm trying to get in as many places as I can.

Happy treasure hunting!

Finishing Projects

Since this weekend was extremely cold (again), I decided to finish some small projects that have been on my to do list.  While spring cleaning, I was going to throw out a dried flower bouquet when I remembered that I had a white/black enamel handled cup that would be perfect for a floral arrangement.  I used some floral foam to hold the arrangement, but didn't glue it down.  I didn't want to ruin the cup so that it could be used many more times.

I put the arrangement away for now since the flowers were more for the fall.  I am very pleased how well it turned out.   All because I didn't get rid of that enamel cup!

The second project that got finished today was in Ethan's bedroom.  He has a large turtle collection and it was getting really dusty.  I had a wonderful soda crate from Paterson New Jersey that I couldn't part with, so Caldwell hung it up for me.  I didn't want to put any holes in it since there were already open slats in the crate.  He used large washers with the screws to hold the crate in place. I rearranged the turtle collection and cleaned it up.  It was hard to believe that many turtles fit on his shelf.  Ethan wasn't sure at first that he would like it, but after he saw the finished project, he was pleased.  My spring cleaning in his room is now complete!

Notice the 3 framed aluminum pieces on his shelves? He made those when we visited the Wendell August Forge aluminum foundry in Grove City PA.  We had visited the original foundry many times before a fire burned down the building.  They have since rebuilt in a different location in Grove City. You could pound whatever design you chose from their selections onto a piece of aluminum to get an understanding of the process that goes into making a piece of hammered aluminum.  I love hammered aluminum (where at one time I had over 300 pieces) so it was always fun to visit them.  Sometimes we got to watch an artisan at work.  They had a museum of their older designs where one of the pieces on display was a covered box that I had sold on Ebay. I didn't know it was for them until I visited their museum and saw it there.  I don't know if they have a museum in their new place since I haven't had a chance to visit it.  They are still making pieces today and the new location also has a showroom where you can purchase their items.

I was just about to start a pillow project when I realized that I was out of wonder tape.  Too late and too cold to go out to buy more so I'll have to start that project tomorrow.

Have a wonderful week! Hope you find some treasures.

Extra Touches

I love Christmastime, but look forward to putting away the decorations for a less crowded house. Since Valentines Day is coming up, I put up my vintage Valentine treasures.

The adorable girl planter I found at a garage sale last year.  The red felt hearts I made a few years ago and attached vintage findings to them.  There is a ribbon on them for hanging, but sometimes I just prefer to rest them on a tray.

I am just about finished spring cleaning my house. Ethan loves paint by numbers, especially religious ones.  I have an idea for using a crate as a shelf for his turtle collection.  I'll be working on that soon.

A few years ago, Austin wrote to Weird Al Yankovic (his favorite) and received a signed picture of him.  He was soooo excited and of course wanted to display it.  I had a wire bicycle basket (I love wire baskets) and used that as a container on his wall to hold a few things.  There is even a frog climbing on it.  I love the look on his wall.

I haven't changed these items around in a few years since we are all happy with how they turned out. Decor has been changed around them, but the boys like how their rooms look as is. At least I can get into their rooms to give them a good spring cleaning.

I'm hoping to be finished spring cleaning completely by Friday so that I can visit some sales/thrift stores.  I deserve it!

Happy treasure hunting!

Still More Organizing

I took advantage of the cold weather to continue organizing and cleaning out.  My goal was to go through my linen closet.  I finished it quicker than I thought I would.  Here is how it started out:

I couldn't fit anything into it.  The top shelf held my fabric collection.  Piece by piece I went through it and discarded a lot.  I tried not to put too much thought into it or I knew that I would keep most of it.  To my surprise, once I started putting pieces on the "do not want" pile, it got easier.

I had gone through the tablecloths in the past, so I didn't need to spend too much time on them.  I did pull out a few embroidered tablecloths that I didn't want.   I also went through all of my yarn and put knitting/crochet needles and purse handles into the "do not want" pile.  There is so much more room now for future treasure hunts!

We spent the afternoon in Lake Geneva WI when the snow began to fall.  It is beautiful there anytime of the year, but especially sitting in Starbucks by the fireplace with the snow coming down.  It made for a wonderful afternoon.

Since the temperature forecast this week is expected to be in the teens, I'll start my spring cleaning really early.  Wishful thinking on my part.

Stay safe and warm during these snowy days.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year!  I hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday.  I did even though it went much too quickly.  Much more quickly this year (I thought) then in the past.  I guess that happens as you get older.

I still have my Christmas decorations up.  (Except for the tree which was too dry to keep up any longer).  I celebrate Serbian Orthodox Christmas on January 7th so I usually keep the decorations up until after that.

Then, the cleaning begins.  I am going to tackle an early spring cleaning to get ahead of myself. Especially since the weather forecast is for extreme cold next week.  A perfect time for me to stay inside and do some work.

I spent 4 1/2 hours redesigning my space at Carriage House Antiques yesterday.  I took out all of the Christmas treasures and put in lots of white.  The January issue of Country Living spotlights milk glass.  I recently went through my milk glass collection and took out the duplicate pieces and ones that I didn't want anymore.  I added them to my space yesterday.

There's also some pieces on the side shelves.

I definitely like how the space is much more open now.  It seems brighter and easy to look through. Here's a picture from another angle.

I'm looking forward to doing some thrift store shopping today.  I didn't get to do that much while the holidays were here.  I did get to an estate sale on Saturday and found quite a bit of vintage embroidered Christmas linens.  I was thrilled!

Happy treasure hunting!