Mainstream Bargains

I don't often talk too much about bargains beyond the thrift store. (Unless you count the clearance section at Michaels but for today's lesson we're not, okay?) I used to be much better in my bargain hunting particularly on groceries. I was a coupon cutter and perused the grocery circulars with red pen in hand. I don't get a paper anymore and they are tough to find in my neighborhood on Sundays (seems I can only locate the ones that don't have coupons) and I've gotten lazy and started ordering my groceries from time to time. That is a New York City luxury.

I do, of course, still look for bargains and decided on this post as a big old pat on the back for me and my purchases from Macy's yesterday. I went on a mission. I wanted these. Fiesta ware in scarlet. Oh boy did I want those. If you clicked on that link you'll see that the 16 piece setting is on sale for $143.99 from $192.00. Well, if any of you have a Macy's credit card you probably get a pound of mail from them each week like I do. I flip through the catalogs, stuff the coupons in my bag and usually forget about them when it comes time to shop. Well I happened to spy my red Fiesta ON SALE this weekend. The 4 piece set was regular price of $48 but if you bought one you got a second place setting free! Okay, let's do the math . . . . x plus y with a common denominator of z equals . . . yes, $96 for 4 four piece settings which is the same as the 16 pieces I wanted. Zing! So off I went . . .



Voila! Four sets* of Fiesta! Then, while waiting in line I spied this on sale for $69.99:


It's a Martha Stewart 7 quart enamal on cast iron baker whose regular price is $119.99 so this was a good deal and I have been eying it up. And won't it go so well with my other cast iron cookware?? So I drag all 50 pounds of it (lol) to the register and dig out my Macy's card. What is in my wallet? A $25 off coupon! So after it's all rung up, 4 sets of Fiesta Ware and one great big pot, my total is around $145 with tax. Oh, and I have $100 in gifts cards to boot.

So that, my friends, was my big bargain yesterday and you know how I get excited over pots and plates. It was a very good day.



And look how lovely! (That's a red lotus dish I picked up at the thrift and it matches perfectly!)

So pat, pat, pat. Good job to me! And thanks to Joolz for helping me lug it all to the car!!

xoxoxoxo

* - yes I know there are only 3 sets in my pictures, one plate had a small flaw so it's going back to the store. The only flaw to an otherwise perfect shopping day.

Something thrifted . . .

Well you knew the week couldn't go by without my "sharing of the treasures." Last Friday I took the day off and took myself shopping. Even on a day I promise not to get mad at myself for buying some nice things I still end up at the Thrift Store and digging through the clearance racks at Michaels.

One very lucky find were these:



Uh huh. They go perfectly with my hob nail cake plate. :) They were $5 a piece, and like I said when I bought the cake plate, that is high in my book for the thrift and I almost put them back. But then I remembered that it was my pre-birthday shopping extravaganza! and I put them in the cart. So glad I did.

Also found this super sweet pillow:



Cute, right? I thought perhaps someone made it but alas it's from Laura Ashley. At $2 it, too, made it's way into my cart.

I'm a sucker for those random bags of crap found at most thrifts. You know the ones I mean. They might contain one thing you know you want, one thing you think is ugly as sin and one thing that you're really not sure what the hell it is. How thrilling! In a recent bag I bought for 99 cents the mystery item turned out to be pink rubber cleaning gloves. The packaging was Korean and cute as all get out and I just HAD. TO. KNOW what was in there. Well, 99 cents for some pink cleaning gloves ain't too bad. And they're the long kind, too.

This is a bag I bought last weekend:



Some "water repellent ribbon" (it's floral ribbon and a lovely shade of salmon) and a few other trims including that giant fuzzy rick rack. All for $2. Love those bags.

And last but not a least . . . .



Only 99 cents for this fond child hood memory . . . . a Fisher Price Happy Apple. :) He still makes a lovely tinkling noise when he rolls around.

I'm hoping for another trip to thrift this weekend.

fondly . . .

Technorati

Now I know everyone probably knows about Technorati but you know me, I totally don't pay attention. Anyway, I looked my self up and I'm ranked 150,747 of all the blogs LOL. That cracked me up for some reason. (Just put your blog address in teh search to find out where you rank!)

I also noticed at the bottom of the page it has where your blog is linked to on other sites. Boy, there are some fine people out there who count me as a favorite read and I didn't even know!! Here are a few:

Way Out West

The Hem Line

Thrift Shop Romantic

3 Wild Trout

There are loads of others, too. It's so nice to be appreciated. I'm off to visit these blogs and others.

Later this week, some fun thrifty finds from the weekend.

ciao!

hop . . . hop . . . hop . . .

That would be the Easter bunny hopping away and I cannot BELIEVE how fast this year is going. Sigh. On New Years Eve I speculate what will be different/the same/new/whatever each month in the year to come and it's almost April and I don't feel like I've accomplished much. Sigh again.

Anyway, how was your Easter? Ours was nice albeit hectic as of course I couldn't seem to time my cooking to fit the guest arrival time. But it was better this year than most so that's a start. I made the traditional ham and tried a Martha recipe for scalloped potatoes with leeks and Gruyere. YUM. I'll definately be making them again. We ate Easter tiramisu and strawberry shortcake from Veniero's and my quiche and broccoli casserole (Mom's recipe) went over better with the kids than I had expected. Calling the quiche "scrambled egg pie" really helped. ;)

I was so crazy that I forgot to take pictures PRIOR to dinner. Nice. But I did snap a few.



My lovely feather tree, a generous gift from Sarah, got a few Martha butterflies added this year plus some eggs my Mom sent last year that were a pleasant surprise when I opened the Easter bin.



Some lovely tulips from the grocery store. I wrapped the pots in fabric. Hopefully it will warm up soon so I can plant them in the yard though I'm considering a window box. However, that would mean pairing Luis up with power tools and letting him loose on the siding. Not sure that is such a grand idea.

And my favorite decoration . . .



This was my centerpiece. That's the lovely basket I bought from One Hundred Wishes filled with paper shreds (that were in a gift bag from my boss, how's that for reuse/recycle!) and some glittery eggs from the thrift store and Joann's. I really love how this looked! Want to see a close up?



Ahhh . . . glittery goodness, no?

So now I'm off into blogland to see how all of your holidays were spent. I expect to find some goodness there, too.

cheers
Rebecca

Got Ribbon?

Just a quickie to tell you to head over to my sister's blog for a big ribbon giveaway! Leave a comment and maybe get lucky. (I hope she stuck some of that Favorite Things twill ribbon in there, you'll love it!)

xoxo
R

When is Easter?

It hit me this morning that I wanted to share some shots of my Easter decor before my 3 day work-less weekend that I HAVE NO Easter decor up yet. I. KNOW. I have it planned out grandly in my head but it's still in the big pink bin marked Easter/V Day in the basement. I never promised to be timely.

I did receive a rather nice box of Easter Goodness from my Mom, though, so some things are scattered willy nilly about the house.



a sweet bunny guarding the booze on the wine cabinet



A vintagey sign hanging on the hutch



and my favorite of the Mom sent goodies, a bunny box. :) I'm very tempted to leave him out all year long.

Oh and of course I had to pick up another fabulous piece from Jenny at Polka Dot Pixie:



oh how I love my sweet chickie.

And today the mailman brought me one of these:



If you run over to Andrea's shop, One Hundred Wishes, she may have some left for you to stash away for next year. Or hell, leave it out as your May Day basket. I can't tell you how much I love the things Andrea stocks and she is FAST. I ordered this basket on Tuesday and I have it today in time for the holiday. I am thrilled to say the least. :) She also tucked in a few of the Easter flashcards as a freebie! Thanks! I still have two days to whip them into some decor, right? Oh and she just added vintage pink streamers to the shop! Darn, I would scooped some of them up quick!

So I'm set. I'll be decorating tomorrow, or Saturday. We'll see. Saturday is my birthday and I'm hoping for a day of leisure if I can manage it. Though I suppose I should get to that cleaning I've been fretting over . . .

Have a WONDERFUL holiday weekend my friends. I'll attempt to post from my home but don't hold your breath. I'm planning a lot of "nothing" for my three day weekend.

Buona Pasqua!

hugs,
Rebeca

How much is that doggie . . .

So I was LAY-Z this weekend. I managed to do some laundry but most of my cleaning is still waiting to happen. Bah. Cleaning. I did, however, move the sewing machine back up to the craft room of doom so I could actually use the dining room table. But before I did I snuck in two quick projects.



Another Tone Finnanger stuffy from Sew Pretty Home Style. He was much harder to put together than the bunnies and I am doubtful to make another. For one thing, he won't sit up on his own. I am tempted to rip him open and stuff his butt with beans but we all know I'm much too lazy for that. His collar and leash look much cuter than the picture lets on and I need to work on his nose a bit and fix the threads. He also needs some button eyes and perhaps a little wool felt heart patch. Something to snazz him up a bit.

I also managed this bag:



Made from another pillowcase scrap from Vallen and a tiny bunny I had intended to stuff but looked much better as an applique. The Favorite Things twill tape ribbon was a Valentine gift from my sister Mandi and I heard her whispering over at her blog that she may do a giveaway and if memory serves she was thinking of parting with more of the fabulous scrabooking ribbon she scored at a store closing sale. Let's encourage her to do that, shall we? :)

So anyway, what's in the bag?



One Crafty Carnival bunny and my Le Lux eye pillow are hippity hopping their way to spread some Easter joy. It felt good to FINALLY finish a project and get it out the door. I have been feeling so behind forever now. I'm hoping to remedy that soon. :)

cheers
Rebecca

The Dust Bunnies are Staging a Coup

Sigh . . . where is SPRING? I know we are all wondering that. I really need to open my windows and get some fresh air in the house but it's still much too cold. Just one nice day in the mid 50s please!

And on another tangent . . . I need to clean. Like really clean. SPRING clean, if you will. Everything is so dusty and drab. Blah. I do clean, in case it sounds like I don't, but you know what I mean. Take everything off the shelves, out of the cabinets, etc. and really dust and mop and do all those things that I really don't want to do yet somehow cannot bring myself to spend the money to pay someone else to do.

In other bunny news:



So simple and oh-so-cute. I used a pattern from Crafty Carnival. (It's the bunny pillow pattern on the sidebar, I'm having some issues opening anything on Typepad today!) I actually enlarged Missy's pattern by 200% to get these 6 inch bunnies. She has some really nice patterns if you haven't been there before. Lots of talent over there! The purple flower fabric is from a pillow case scrap Vallen used to wrap something in a swap we did last year. How is that for recycling!

The bunnies are standing on the Le Lux Eye Pillow from Handknit Holidays. I've said before, I love this book. I actually knit the outer part back around Christmas and then forgot about it. I made the fabric "sack" this weekend and filled it with lavendar and lentils and did a single crochet around the edges to close it up. I believe the pattern calls for a mattress stitch but I liked this better. It has a nice weight to it and a great smell, not too over powering. I already started knitting another one, it's a very simple gift idea.



Now the bunnies are sleeping. Hope to whip up a few more of these little buggers over the weekend and attempt to spread some Easter joy in time for the holiday. It's really coming up soon!

Have a fab weekend my friends.

xoxoxo
Rebecca

treasures . . .

So I'm sure you know that I didn't just get the fabric and the fabulous milk glass on my last thrift-o-spree right? Of course. One thing I went looking for were a few Easter decorations.



I can't help it but I love that bunny basket. I think he was $3 and totally worth it. Not sure what I'll do with him yet, perhaps make him the grand centerpiece? What should go in him? The possibilities are endless. :) The other basket is that thin papery wood, balsa perhaps, of all cheap Easter baskets but that's soft chenille wound in with it. Not sure if this is old or not but it's pretty cute. I was intending it as my niece's basket but might be greedy and keep it for myself. The bag inside are the nice ribbon scraps I mentioned the other day. In the front there are some handmade Easter things that were all in a bag together for $2. The pink bunny and little chick are my favorite and are made from pom poms and walnut shells.



Does anyone else remember walnut crafts? LOL These two will find a place on my Easter Tree that I hope to get out this weekend.



Now I know I've seen that house wife cheese grater somewhere else before. I had to snatch her up even though I can't for the life of me remember the last time I even used a cheese grater. The salt and pepper shakers say Japan on the bottom and still have their rubber stoppers. In fact they still had salt and pepper in them. Yuck. The basket is one for silverware and napkins and should get some use at Easter brunch and the pot is Dansk enamelware. It goes perfectly with my Le Creuset:



I paid $8 for the Dansk pot and $7 for that yellow Le Creuset in the middle there. I won't tell you how much that bouillabaisse pot on the bottom was but it weighs about 25 pounds and still gets tons of use. I guess I'm a bit of an enamelware lover.

How funny that inanimate objects can bring use such joy. :) And just looking at my treasures again has given me the taste for the hunt. Bring on the weekend!

cheers
R

Karma :)

Back in December I received a lovely package from Heidi. Along with that gorgeous pin was a gift certificate to Savers, a national thrift store chain. Normally, a gift certificate is burning a hole in my pocket and I run out and spend it right away. But this one stuck around awhile. First, I didn't make it to Savers until early February and when I got there I realized that I had left the gift certificate home! But I wasn't making that mistake twice and made sure it was in my bag when I headed out treasure hunting last Saturday.

Well, I say KARMA because look what I used it for:



Karma because I know Heidi would have snagged that hobnail cake plate for herself and because at $10 I probably wouldn't have bought it without having a gift certificate.* Oh and if I hadn't forgotten the GC when I went the last time I might not even have stopped there last weekend! And those milk glass mugs? They're pink. Oh yes, pink.



The most lovely palest pink and I had to have them. I certainly don't need anymore glassware (as DH is quick to point out) but COME. ON. Pink milk glass? Who are we kidding, I wasn't leaving them behind. I'm thinking they will make lovely tea cup pin cushions. Thoughts?

So THANK YOU, Heidi. It's almost like you knew. ;)

*******************************

Spring swap coming soon over at Sweet Goodness. We've cooked up a good one, let me tell you! It will be announced on Monday March 24th and there is a short sign up period so stay tuned!

*******************************

Thank you all so much for the kind words on my curtains. :) I do really like them. And they are really encouraging me to just go for it with other sewing projects I was afraid to botch! Hope to have something new to share soon. :)

cheers
Rebecca

* - for some reason I think of money differently at the thrift. The cake plate, which is a nice, heavy milk glass hobnail with a ruffle edge (for the love of Pete!) was $9.99. At the thrift that is INSANELY high. But at say TJ Max or on EBay it would be a score! I mean what is wrong with me? Yeesh. Glad I came to my senses on this one.

Windfall

I wish I had taken my camera to the thrift stores on Saturday. I could have shown you the dangers of not thrifting for a few weeks and how you, well maybe just I, feel the need to fill the basket to the top to make up for it!

So I'm guessing someone cleaned out their sewing room and sent it all the the thrift and I made out like a bandit! I bought a huge stack of fabric and a bag of nice ribbon and trims.



Most of the pieces you see here were 99 cents and nothing I bought was under 2 yards. I'm trying to come up with a project for those two big pieces of corduroy (black and red.) They are very soft and I have about 4 yards of each.



Sorry the pictures are dark, we had tons of rain over the weekend. Three nice cotton prints, two cowboy motifs and one rocket ship. Not sure what I'll do with them but I couldn't leave them behind. :)



There are about 4 yards of this heavy upholstery fabric. It blends in with my decor very well. I'm planning to cover a small foot stool I have and perhaps make some seat cushions for my dining room chairs. I'm nervous to sew it on the machine as it's so thick but we'll see.



These are my two favorites. The cherry pattern is cotton and the blue is linen, I think, and there is a lot of it. Too bad I can't make clothes, it would be cute as a skirt. Once everything was washed inspiration hit and I turned the cherries into these:



Such terrible lighting, I know. But the curtains came out nice and I had enough for this window on the kitchen door and one panel for the small window over the sink.

So my sewing is progressing! I also cut some squares for that quilt and worked on another project I'll share soon.

Oh and I emailed Jenn earlier to say I thought of her this weekend while sewing. It was mostly because while I was working I had Star Wars on the TV and I knew only she would appreciate the combo of crafting and Han Solo. ;) LOL

cheers
R

My So Called Life

The wonderful Leigh Ann tagged me to do the interesting "describe yourself" in 6 words thing. You can read hers here, the enigmatic VQ's here and my favorite new buddy, Thimbleanna's here.

So I thought about it and if you would have asked me to blurt out the first thing to come to mind it would have been "STRESSED OUT, NEED A MARGARITA, STAT." But then I give it a bit more thought and came up with these, all basically the same meaning:

Always a Jack of All Trades or A Little Miss Know it All or Love Learning Something New Every Day. (you decide)

I've worked in sales, the music industry, restaurants, health care and telecom.

I went to college for, in no particular order, Oceanographic studies, Literature, Ancient History, Operatic Voice and Massage. I would like to go again for Anthropology.

I'm a certified Sports Massage Therapist who specialized in rotation disorder.

I knit, I crochet and I sort of sew. I can make you ANYTHING out of paper.

I'm a wife and somewhat of a cook.

I know CPR and First Aid and how to fix a toilet.

I can name all the Egyptian Pharaoh's of the 18th and 19th dynasties IN ORDER.

I can sing, from memory, songs in English, Latin, Italian and German.

I could tell you where to go and 6 different ways to get there in the great city of New York.

I could go on and on . . . .

So how do you capture in a photograph the spirit of a girl who still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up??


*photo by Mandi Loranger. Not one of her favorite photographs, but certainly one of mine*


And now to tag a few of you to share your six word memoirs, how about Wendy, Linda and Jane.

fondly . . .

Going to Pieces

I stayed home sick yesterday. While I spent a great deal of time on the sofa I also got a few things done. First off, the bunnies now have faces and clothes:



I think the one on the right is my favorite. Her little outfit came out so cute. Both bunnies are made entirely from scraps I had in the fabric bin.

I then added some pink cheeks to the left bunny:



Not sure if I love the rosy cheeks and I'm definitely not sure of her Napoleon hat! These bunnies need names. Suggestions?

Also yesterday I came up with the bright idea to start a quilt. Yes, me. The NON-sewer*. Must have been the fever! So I pulled out all the vintage pillow cases I've been hoarding:



Well they sort of match. I'm thinking a nice beach blanket, huh?



Once I started cutting the pieces I realized that I had to ditch one of the blue cases as it wasn't actually a case, it was a strip from a sheet and wouldn't yield many squares. I worried that would throw off my "pattern." *eyes rolling here*




So here is how the top is laying out so far. I have 6 different patterns cut into 5 inch squares. Each row/strip will have 12 squares. So far so good? I have no idea. I will either love it for it's cuteness or love it for it's sheer ugliness. Either way I win.

Now my quilty friends out there will have to come to my rescue once I actually get the top put together. I already have some cotton batting and I think the right sheet to use as the backing but as far as the actual quilting goes, I'm a bit scared. I thought about getting a light terry cloth for the back but A) I wonder, will it be too thick to sew through?? and B) that will defeat my purpose of using stuff I already have. Thoughts??

hugs - R

* - I CAN sew. I know that. But I have practically no patience which does not help and thus frustrates me. Plus I hate ruining things and this has kept me from even trying to sew the simplest things. The rabbits were a success and that makes me venture into more trying patterns. I appreciate all your fine comments and encouragement!

. . . Like Rabbits

Bunnies
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/goodnessshop/

Finally did some sewing this weekend. It was much easier than I thought! I relocated the sewing machine to the dining room table where I can cut and iron all right next to the machine. What a difference! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having a craft room but it really needs to be set up differently I think.

So here are my bunnies. The pattern is from the Tone Finnanger Springtime crafts book. They were pretty easy to make and came out looking cute! The still need faces (the one on the left is now hand stitched together but still naked) and I need some practice on making tiny clothes. I totally did all my decorative stitching on the striped outfit with the upper thread not on properly and it came out all crazy looking. I figured out why (thank goodness because I was having a breakdown LOL) and the rest of the stitching went fine. I'm too lazy to make new clothes for the bunny on the right.

Both bunnies were made from fabric remnants I picked up in Joann sometime in the past. The red striped fabric was a vintage pillow case. The bunny on the right came out nicer because the fabric is heavier and has a bit of a sheen to it. The bunny on the left was easier to assemble because the fabric wasn't so stiff and I still think she looks okay. She'll be getting a brown linen dress decorated with the plaid fabric I used for her ears. Maybe they will get faces soon, too. :)

cheers!