SO Puts His Foot Down

SO is very supportive of my "creativity". But, come to find out he has his limits.

Last Saturday we were in the middle of a triple whammy pickin' day -- yard/garage sales first, antique stores second and finishing up with an auction. Mid-morning we ended up on a total wild goose chase when we got hooked into following for signs for a moving sale way out in the country. We followed those signs for miles and found the road, but never found the sale. I will say the person put a lot into the signs though.

I had a feeling that the next sale we found would yield pure gold!

The next thing we found was a big sale in some type of mechanics parking lot. I saw a big, white, metal birdcage that I liked but could not decide where I would put it in my "storage shed". We went back and forth talking about how much to offer, what I would do with it, etc. As we strolled along and looked at the other things for sale, I spied something pretty unique in the world of crocheted/knitted objects.

I started to shake for I have never encountered anything like this before; yet, SO finally said, "NO...I'm not going to negotiate the price..." Here is the now-fabled item:




I'm sure you are wondering: it includes plastic nipples that seem to be from baby bottles.






And, while SO wouldn't haggle over this lovely item, I couldn't leave without trying. It was marked $5 and can you believe they wouldn't come off that price???

The Rebirth of the Frogtowne Fairie Patch

So, it's like this...one of today's projects was to work on the Frogtowne Fairie Patch. I had a basket of goodies sitting by SO's back door for a few weeks and planned to build up the wall around the patch and maybe make another fairie house...so, we went out to the "FP", but when we got there, we quickly realized something was seriously wrong.

I'm sorry to report that some person(s) had been in the fairie patch and vandalized it. Things were ripped out of the ground including a whole plant that SO had planted a few weeks ago and one of the ferns was somewhat ripped up. It was very distressing. Maybe it was a couple of kids playing back there, but we couldn't understand what the deal was with the damage to the plant.

After some discussion, we decided to build a new FP closer to the house to discourage this activity. I gathered up the small items and we scouted a new location. In a little bit, we had it cleared out and began executing a new vision.

Behold:





The entrance













A little further down the path












The focal point of the FP is a sun mosaic made out of shells and stones
These are the shells that came from a yard sale - $2 for a whole basketful.












The entrance to the fairies' treasure vault












Another shot of the entrance.












Close up on the vault doors -- can you see the treasure???












Another treasure shot!











What is the moral of the story? I think the whole experience emphasizes that when something you dreamt of doesn't work out the way you thought, you have to construct a new dream. Nothing else makes sense.

Getting Back into The Broken Dishes Groove

Not much creativity going on here this week as I'm up to my ears in digging out from being away. First, there was the insane amount of wash that had piled up: 10 days out of town, half a week's worth at home and then even some at SO's. Turns out I really do have more than two week's worth of underwear, apparently.

Then, the fridge -- scary situation there too. I had farm share stuff in there from way before I left and it was kind of on its last legs then...so imagine what an extra couple of weeks did to some cucumbers. And, since I use those green bags to store them in, I then had to wash those and find place to dry them all over the kitchen.

The house got cleaned yesterday and the woman who helps me with that called me at work to let me know that the five gothic dolls I bought for $1 at a garage sale were creeping her out and she was having trouble cleaning the spare bedroom they are in.

SO came over last night and helped out too -- six more lovely paint by numbers pictures that I bought weeks ago are now part of the gallery.

I got through all my credit card receipts, etc. and paid the bills last night which always makes me feel free and clean -- a feeling that lasts too briefly.

Then, we have the matter of the cat. She hasn't helped out with one single thing. What a bum! Such a mooch -- all she wants is stinky, wet cat food. And, to top things off, she's decided that she wants to hang out in the recycling pile:













And, of course, I'm still behind at work but today I should make some good progress on that front.

By the weekend, I will have things back in order and be back to my usual high jinx. Actually, I sent SO a few yard sale links for sales starting today so let's see what he's able to scare up!

Giraffe Socks

Have to apologize for these pics...I was on the road and just putting together blog posts on the fly. The first picture was actually taken in the car on the way to the airport:



Since I'm traveling, I using Flat Feet Socks yarn which comes in a panel -- this prevents a ball of yarn from roaming around on an airplane. Also, I am using two circular needles instead of four double points -- the double pointed needles have such a habit of wandering off, especially on an airplane that once I learned how to make socks with the circs about 8 months ago, there was just no turning back. The whole set up looks odd, but it's really practical.

I had one sock done for quite awhile and before going on the road last Friday, I had only a couple of inches done on the dreaded second sock. There's really nothing like a trip to help me bust through the boring-ness of the second sock.

So, now these are finished. I'm an eentsy-weentsy bit farther to getting my sock yarn stash under control.











Of course, I set up the next sock on the needles right away and I think they are going to be the most beautiful socks I've ever knitted...until the next pair comes along....

Shh....Fairies...

Look closely to see the wee folk in my sweet friend, Debbie's front yard:



This photo came out looking like an old-time sepia toned tin type -- a total accident! The sun was just incredibly bright and since I'm not much of a photographer, it turned out like this. If you look closely, you can see a little goblin-like guy behind the little barred door.










Here's a better shot of the whole house.

Debbie is super lucky to have such a great fairie house like this!

SO's Quilt!!!

Almost a year ago, SO said he wanted an old quilt...I knew I had one that needed a little work and thought I'd fix it up for him. When I went to find it, in the same garbage bag was an old quilt top crunched up into a ball. I had no idea where it came from, but I showed it to SO and he would like to have it.

The quilt top was in excellent shape -- as you will see below, it is a Dresden Plate pattern made with feedsack probably from the thirties -- but it did have some brown stains that needed to be removed. One weekend back last fall, we took our first plunge into cleaning vintage textiles and got the stains out.

I found a quilter...but because of her work backlog, she couldn't work on it till last month.

At long last, I picked it up last week and when I first saw it, it took my breath away. I put the binding on and here's the finished product:










































As it turns out, I had gotten the quilt top from a dear friend who had bought it at an auction for a dollar about 40 years ago!

This Ain't No Disco, This Ain't No Country Club

Long day yesterday -- up early to the gym, then work, then met a friend for dinner, then dance class, then stopped by another friend's house to see a renovation project on my way home of 35 miles...Had it my mind to go right to bed when I got home.

BUT...

I forgot that the granola bars I was attempting to make were sitting in the dehydrator waiting to be packaged up for our trip tomorrow...

I thought, "Oh, come on, you can do it. This won't take long. Don't let it sit till the morning." So, I took the granola out of the dehydrator and they looked like this:













And, then, they didn't. As I went to flip them onto a cutting board, half of the "bars" went sailing onto the floor and suddenly there were many piles of sticky oats, dried fruit and nuts all over the kitchen floor when what I wanted most was to go to bed. To make matters worse, the cat wanted to eat the stuff on the floor so I had to get her disinterested fast. Something tells me that while she might like the taste, her system would not be so about crazy it. Realizing that I might have further spillage, I got up the big stuff and put off the vacuuming till I was done with the packaging.

Next, came out the vacuum sealer which had to be unearthed from the depths of the cabinet in my butcher block island. Then, it wouldn't work -- it's old and has gotten quite fussy and based upon last night's experience, I believe it's high time for a new one. But, in the meantime, over and over I messed around with that thing to get the granola "bars" sealed up.

I keep writing "bars" because they aren't really bars -- this stuff is more like big chunks of granola -- it didn't hold together enough to be deemed a "bar".

I'd gotten the idea to vacuum seal them from some internet post I'd read (of course) and thought it might be good since I wanted to take these with us on the trip. The internet post failed to mention that the vacuum sealing process sort of affects them like a ham-fisted man crushing a beer can.

Oh, well, I know they will still taste good.

Glad I didn't try to tackle the beef jerky project too!!!

Pre-Construction Photos

I hinted last week that I'm preparing a project to honor all the ugly crocheted items I started buying at yard sales for yarn bombing. Below are pictures of the major pieces that we had accumulated as of last weekend.














After laying all this out, I realized I didn't need any more baby themed items and still needed a bunch of large, colorful pieces. I also measured and inventoried what I have.

Not telling yet what we're making...

The Broken Dishes Art Gallery

My poor attempts at art curation have led to a broken heart! I was trying to clean a precious paint by numbers painting and ruined it by using alcohol to try and remove some of the dirt...It was a stupid idea for starters and not sure why I didn't see that coming:







OK, the good news is that the painting with the frame only cost $3, but it's not the money, it's the finding of another small piece at a cheap price that's getting me. I saw a lot of paint by numbers (PBN's) last weekend and they were much more.





So, this tragedy got me to thinking that I've been accumulating these but not necessarily sharing them with my blog readers. Now, without further ado, I present The Broken Dishes Art Gallery!!!





I have shown these before but I couldn't bear to exclude them in case you missed that post and your art gallery tour wouldn't be complete without them!




Now, we are moving to a small bedroom upstairs -- this room has sort of become the space to put larger pictures of animals.

First up: Lassie















And, here we have "Big Buck" who came complete with his gold colored frame!













Now, onto one of the bathrooms...I've got pairs of pics in here. First we have the kitties:



















And, here we have the other pair of pics in this room: The Black Swaying Palms Series:


















And, finally, to conclude our tour, at last I have obtained a religious-themed pic!















This concludes your tour of the current items on display at The Broken Dishes Art Gallery. Enjoy your day!

The Current Quest and a Few Side Quests

I'm in the middle of planning a large project which is in honor of all the ugly crocheted things I find at yard sales. I have about two months till it's time to put it out to the world, so I'm on a mad quest to find items to incorporate. So, Saturday, out we went into the yard/garage sale world to find things to add, but you have to be flexible about buying other things because yard sale-ing is a completely opportunistic thing.

So, first up was this dandy box of shells for $2:


What you can't see is that there were two large clam shells with decoupage of the three wise men first going to the nativity scene and then at the nativity scene -- sorry no pic of that. I went through and sorted them out so I know what I have and a couple of the large shells already made it out to the Frogtowne Faerie Patch. More shells will be used for faerie dwellings later.






Now, isn't she a beauty? But, why did I buy this?!?! Frankly, there were two other things I wanted at this garage sale: (1) a sofa in the shape of a set of lips covered in red velvet. I knew that was asking for big trouble so I didn't even start discussing a price; and (2) an end table that would have been great in my bedroom which I thought the price was $5 and didn't see the "0" after the "5". Good thing SO caught me on that one before I started trying to get the thing for $5! So, to appease myself, I bought this weird thing instead for $7. It came with the dress which is handsewn and quite old (from the 30's?). I will put it in the corner in my sewing room -- where I'm rapidly running out of room due to my love of old suitcases.





Now, here is the main event. These piles were culled from countless stops along the way on Saturday. This represents a lot of tracking down. There were more to be had but the sellers wanted too much. I say that now, but after some more thought I believe I might have passed up a few things that I should have taken. Oh, well, there will be more.

We did go out yesterday as well. Originally in search of a mythical yard sale that promised some unusual items, but we got side tracked. The diversion yielded some fruit but no crocheted items. There's always next weekend.