Not-So-Great Garage Sales Today

I drove and drove the major streets today, looking for garage sale signs. The few I saw ended up being for Saturday sales; I hate it when sellers put their signs out the day before! 

Why no signs on such a beautiful, spring day?

Finally I saw a sign for a real sale, and it turned out to be a neighborhood sale. This was more like it. But I was sad to see that most sellers were way overpriced. That is, until I found one lady, up a very steep driveway, with wonderful things spread across her tables: vintage sewing and needlework supplies priced deep in the basement. My kind of sale!

The 1949 Singer Sewing Book ($4) has lovely, vintage drawings in it. The 1974 Nostalgia Crafts Book ($1) also has great drawings – reproduced from early 20th century publications. The booklet is something I read about years ago and have been looking for ever since: instructions for 100 embroidery stitches. The original price was 29c; I paid $1 for it today. 

The hankies (50c) have sweet little girls on them. 

The spoons ($1 each) are silverplate. I bought them for two little boys who fight over the one iced tea spoon at home; they call this type of spoon a “long spoon”, and they think it’s for eating ordinary food.

Pinterest Craft Day 4

Fun on the patio today as we hammered away at metal items. We wrote messages on spoons and forks, washers and medallions, using a metal stamping kit.

 Our practice run: some were more successful than others! We found that if we used the sledge hammer on a hard surface and hit about five times for each letter, we got the best impression. Our best hard surface was the concrete patio.

 Eventually we made plant stakes from old silverware: sage, radish, oregano, and thyme on the forks, and basil, lavender, and strawberries on the spoons.

We flattened the spoons and forks by pounding hard on one side and then the other until they flattened out nicely.

Group Garage Saling

On Friday, a group of us met early to go to a large neighborhood yard sale. This is an annual event held on the same weekend each April. We have come to look forward to it – there are wonderful bargains for everyone. I drove my van so we could all ride together, and still have room to stow our finds in the back.

Joyce found lots of decor items. Amber found end tables and lamps and lots of small items for her kids. Heather also found kid items and a few decor pieces.

I found some things for David’s new apartment, a few kitchen items for myself, and some grandchild things:

For David, I found a muffin tin ($2), a cutlery tray (25c), a new glass loaf pan ($1), and a new measuring tape ($3).

For the grandchildren (present and future) I found a set of child-size pans ($2), an abacus ($4), a booster seat ($4), and a like-new porta-crib ($18), shown in the fist photo. The toys will be welcomed in the new playroom when we get that finished.

For myself, I found a Complete Flower Fairies book ($2), a paint roller, (50c), a package of paper doilies (25c), a heavy-duty bundt pan ($1), a little glass pitcher (10c), and two pieces of brushed nickel bathroom hardware ($2 and $4) for the redecorated master bath. The Professor even has the hardware mostly all hung now!

It was a fun day!

I’m linking up to Rhoda’s Thrifty Treasures party.

Pinterest Craft Day 3

Today we made decoupaged hangers at our craft day. We all thought they turned out cute:

a light sanding, a quick coat of paint, and Mod Podge to adhere cut-outs of scrapbook paper. The hardest part is waiting for them to dry.

The wood hangers are from Ikea, $4 for an eight pack. It’s a deal.

Wouldn’t a coordinating set make a nice shower gift?

Little Easter Flags

Browsing on Pinterest today, I found some cute little muslin flags. I don’t know how they made them, but it gave me inspiration to make my own little muslin flags for an Easter centerpiece.

First I had to hunt up my yards of muslin fabric….somewhere in this house. Found. In a box in the garage. Then I pulled out bamboo skewers, the drawer of rubber stamps, Martha Stewart craft paint, and fabric glue.

I guessed at the size to cut the flags, and later, when I measured them, it turned out that they are 3″x5″, just the size of an index card. I cut 30 of them.

I spread one short edge of the muslin pieces with fabric glue, about 1/2″ in, then I put a skewer near the edge and rolled the fabric over it. Pressed down to make it stick well, and repeated with all the flags.

Those took only a moment to dry so I was off to the fun part: decorating the faces.

I used a brayer to “ink” my stamps with paint, and stamp the center of each flag with a design. When they dried, I mimicked the design on the other side of most of the flags. Turns out, not all my stamps were mirror image, so the two designs front to back didn’t always line up well. With sunlight hitting them, the mis-match shows clearly. So I stopped doing the reverse when they didn’t match up.

I found that it was much easier to match up the front and back when I used clear stamps, and not so easy when I used foam stamps. I love those clear stamps!

I put them in a few of my vintage milk bottles for display.