Thrifty is as thrifty does . . .

I haven't been to a thrift store in two weeks. Exactly two weeks in fact. Tonight Katie and I are meeting after work to drive to Savers. As it's the Friday before Fourth of July week I expect it to take over an hour to get there because of additional Hampton's traffic. Are we dedicated or what? It will be nice to have that time to catch up since we haven't seen each other in awhile.

So what does a thrifter do when there is no thrifting to be found? Why go to the dollar store of course.



I am lovin' those cute melamine covered dishes. And yes, they had other things like serving bowls and smaller bowls. I didn't notice any plates but they could have been there, too. All yours for a measly dollar a piece. I looked at them and thought "I would buy these for a dollar a piece if I found them at the thrift." Wouldn't you? Why aren't we doing a cherry swap? Or a red and white swap? I could totally fill a bowl with goodies for another blogger. Is that ringing anyone's bell? Does anyone HAVE to have one of these totally cute dishes??? As my 10 year old niece says, "Holler at me!"

And now about the shoes. I love these mesh slippers. I have been wearing them for the 5 years I've lived in New York City. I started out buying them at Pearl River Mart in China Town for around $3 a pair. Once I moved out of Alphabet City I didn't get down there often and started buying them from various street vendors and souvenir shops in Midtown for $4 - $5 a pair. So imagine my delight when I popped in the dollar store yesterday and saw a HUGE box of my favorite summer shoes! So what did I do? What any self respecting thrifty bargain hunter should do, I bought 5 pairs. :)



I now am stocked up! I have 3 pairs of black and two pairs of white to go with the pairs I already had from from stocking up at the end of last year last year (2 brown, one cream, one pink and one red). They have foam soles and the white pair in the second picture are a bit different and I'll have to see if they pass the test. But if not, hey, they were only a dollar right?

Have a fabulous weekend my friends. Thank you all for the wonderful book suggestions from yesterdays post! I've already ordered a few new ones from Amazon and will report on those next week.

Cheers!
Rebecca

Bookworm

I've read a few posts on book love lately and thought I'd throw in my two cents. I've always loved to read. I won numerous reading contests as a child and have reread all of my favorites more times than I can count. My Grandmother used to say that if you had a book, you had a friend. I think that is why I often reread favorites, to visit old friends.

Recently purchased crafting books:



As you all know, I'm new to sewing. I've always admired Amy Butler's fabrics and hand bag patterns but they seemed way to complex for me. But this book should be a good starter I think! Plus I love that ruffle pillow on the front. I want some for my bed and my sofa.



This was recommended by so many of you and I can see why! There are so many projects in here I can't wait to dig into. My sojourn into sewing won't really begin until the weather cools a bit but expect great things from me in the fall!





I picked this up used for about $4. It's about adding crocheted trims to household items. I wanted it mainly for the pillowcases. They are very pretty with the crocheted trim being sewn to a ribbon that is then stitched to the case edge. I wouldn't buy this book new, but the used price was well worth it for the trim patterns.



What I'm reading now/next:



Heaven & Hell by John Jakes



This is the third in the North and South Trilogy that I am sure many of you have seen the miniseries of. It was quite popular when I was younger. The books are wonderful and I have to admit I have a bit of a "thing" for one of the main characters. :) Plus I have a bit more interest in the Civil War and American history in general now.



What's up next? Why the new Harry Potter of course. I should finish H&H just in time to get started on the day it comes out.



All time favorite reads:



Top 5



5. Memoirs of a Geisha : Arthur Golden - If you haven't read this you must! It's wonderful. And don't let the movie deter you. While it was a beautiful film (I loved the costumes) it just did not have the passion that the novel does.



4. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood : Rebecca Wells - this book made me miss my really close girlfriends and want to make crazy hats and pray to the Virgin Mary in the moonlight.



3. Harry Potter Series : J.K. Rowling - I do truly love these books. I can't pick just one. I started reading them back when the first one had just come out in paperback and have been a fan ever since. I could probably do a whole separate list of favorite children's books but don't even know if I'd put these on there. I think they are wonderful for all ages. I will be sad to see the series end but I'm excited for Year 7!



2: His Dark Materials : Philip Pullman - these is another series of "children's" books but these are much deeper are more philosophical than Harry Potter. The first book, The Golden Compass (called The Northern Lights in the UK), will be out as a movie in December starring Nicole Kidman as the evil Mrs. Coulter. I'm looking forward to seeing it!



1. Brave New World : Aldous Huxley - I read this as a freshman in college and it has always stuck with me. I've been saying for years now that it's my favorite book and will again list it as number one. The fact that Huxley predicted many of our "modern wonders" and showed how they could corrupt society fascinated me. A truly eye opening read.



What books tickle your fancy? Can you make a list like I did or do you change your favorites day to day? Do you like a specific genre the way I like children's fantasy and historical fiction?



cheers

Rebecca

It's a ParTea!

Yippee! I got the best mail love from Tami for the Tea ParTea swap.



Look at the goodness! And do you know that she found all the ceramics at the thrift store on the same day!! Meant to be for sure.



Tami knit the totally cute tea cozy. It's cabled, my favorite. And look at that book! Ahhh the sweet life . . .



Cream pitcher, tiny sugar bowl and tea bag holder are all different but go together so nicely.



I love cute tea pots for one and this one is now my favorite! How cute is the sweet daisy design? And it seems like I have a collection in the works. Look how nicely this goes in my china cabinet:



My Mom gave me the Lenox tea pot on the top left for my birthday and you know the story behind the coffee pot. I've been loving finding special pieces to display here and my new tea pot from Tami is perfect! Though I know it will get a lot of use and may not be in the cabinet much.

Thanks again for such a fabulous swap! Yet another post on the wonderful friends to meet through swapping out there in blogland.

xoxo

Hazy Lazy Days

I wish I could share some photos with you from my visit to The Bronx Zoo but my camera battery died. :( It was fun though, pictures or not. The Butterfly Garden is lovely and the gorillas in the Congo Gorilla Forest are amazingly human. I watched a mother and her baby for about 15 minutes. They were so sweet together.

So what do I have pictures of? First, here is an AMAZING bag I got from Suzie Sews!


photo courtesy of Suzie Sews . . .

I left her a comment once saying if she ever wanted to do a swap for some US magazines (she had recently mentioned them) that I'd love to if she would please include some Cadbury Roses. So she kindly agreed and not only did get the candy, I got the bag AND a lovely crocheted belt. :) Suzie's picture came out better then mine so there you go. She said it's a bit of a Cath Kidston type and I couldn't love it more.

If you go here and scroll down you can see the goodies I sent to Suzie. Funny how she thinks we have the best magazines and I totally love British mags!

I did not get to thrift this weekend. I'm sort of jonesing for it now. :) These are a few things I picked up at Savers a few weeks back:



Oh the ever lovin' dark picture. NICE. Anyway, the sweet Father mug is probably a shaving mug. I love his curly mustache. I couldn't find anything about it on Ebay. The red floral in the front is a very cool apron that wraps all the way round and covers your top as well. Great for messy baking I think. You'll probably see a lot of this come fall. Also a nice Pyrex bowl in Butterprint, new salt and pepper shakers and a few of those gold frames I love. Maybe I'll take a mid-week thrifting trip which I don't usually do because of the terrible traffic heading out to Long Island.

I did start making something for the Summer Fun swap this weekend but as you know, I cannot share it. Don't want to spoil the surprise! I've been making lists of other items to create for the swap and hope to make at least one of them. I like lists, it's fun to check things off.

Take care and have a wonderful day!

R

Summer

Yesterday in catching up with my blog reading I read Vallen's ode to summer. I am sure that many if not all of you out there agree with her. It's not that I don't agree with her, I too love flip flops in every color but I am just not a summer girl. Oh I'm a beach girl. I can hit the sand for hours and love to swim in the ocean. But after that I like to go back to my nicely air conditioned house and take a cool shower. I can't stand the heat. I am lethargic and can talk myself out of doing almost anything. I have good intentions but then it's hot and I head for the iciest movie theater I can find. I like things right around 68 degrees. Always.

At the moment I am a bit obsessed with one summer outing, the picnic. I haven't actually been on a picnic this year but I certainly think about them. A lot. I think it's the cuteness factor or having an excuse to buy a whole new set of dishes. Like these cutie pie melamine ones I saw in Country Living:



Um cute right? I also am about dying over these cute state placemats and napkins! Picnic perfect I would say but too pricey for me. If anyone ever find an iron on transfer of these state images or some like them, please let me know! I'll embroider them up myself.

So onto mini swap goodness. These pictures are poor. I know the background is too dark and shiny but there was a bit of mayhem going on and I needed to be quick about stuff. :) Sweet Natasha made the neatest things!



You can't see the cuteness over the crappy photo but there are too cute wall hangings, a basket of scraps for the doll house craft room, a tiny dish of soaps and a journal!



A tiny jar of candies, a "jadite" bowl of fruit, milk jug and two plates of cinnamon rolls! My dollies will be eating right!



And these are my two favorites, a needle punched rug and a memo board! Wow, small things are cute! So thanks again Natasha for the goodies AND for the extra stuff you threw in there. I know they'll be put to good use in my collages!

Be good,
Rebecca

PS - How many times did I say CUTE in this post? SEVEN. That might be a record.

Tea Time

I recently participated in Risa's Tea ParTea swap. My partner was Tami. I'm greedily rubbing my hands together waiting for the goodies she sent me, they should arrive soon! By some miracle of the post office mine has already made it to her. I'm so glad she liked them! I was very happy with this swap and wanted to share.



This is the lot of it! I'm sort of into blue and pink right now and accented this package with some of the vintage ribbon I recently scored. The ribbon actually inspired the palette. I love how shiny it is! (Okay, so can I go on and on about stupid ribbon or what, geesh.)



I love the way this potholder came out. I'm trying to take the cheesy out of crocheted potholders ha ha . . . I made this up as I went along. I know that somewhere online there is a pattern for a tea cup potholder but I couldn't find it when I wanted to and decided to wing it. I used a layer of quilt batting in between so it's much more substantial than my previous potholders and I put a chenille stem (read: pipe cleaner ;) ) in the handle. I loved the flower trim so much that I made a few extras to adorn a linen napkin I sent.



I am also impressed with how a little of that ribbon really brightened up this cow creamer (already nicknamed Millie by Tami!).



And don't you just love a tea cup on a doily? I didn't make that, it's thrifted. I've not yet reached the granny stage of sitting around crocheting doilies. Potholders and monkey clothes, yes, but doilies, no. Okay, I've TRIED to make doilies but I'm not very good at it. So that's my secret. I CAN'T MAKE DOILIES. Ahem . . . moving on . . .

You can visit the Flickr group for this swap here. Also, go here and check out not only my sister Mandi's cute tea swap goodies but also her wonderful fairy tale picnic invitations!

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By now everyone should have received partner information for the Summer Fun Swap. If you did not, please leave us a message at Sweet Goodness Swaps. Bring on all things yellow and orange!

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And a note on comments . . . I read every one of the comments you leave! I wish I could answer you all and at least say thanks for stopping by but as you know, I don't always have an email address for you especially the newbies! So I'm doing my best to visit your blogs and leave comments but please know that I appreciate all of your wonderful comments and just adore our little blogger community. Goodness Rules.

Tomorrow, teeny tiny swap goodies.

xoxoxo

Madness

Things have been crazy at work this week. Back to back meetings and nothing working when you need it to. I hadn't posted in a while and just wanted to say hi and tell you that all of the emails should be out to the Summer Fun swappers. Lucy worked her little fingers to the bone! She's amazing, isn't she? We'll have a post up soon with all the blog links over at Sweet Goodness Swaps. You can visit my wonderful partner, Dana, here. It's her first swap and I know she'll do great!

So look at what Leigh Ann and I found on Saturday:



Aren't they the cutest? They are from a set of vintage Old Maid cards. Here's a shot of my share:



How much am I lovin' Pretty Kitty and Brown Mouse?? Seriously, just too much cuteness. I think I'll scan each one in so I can share with those interested.

I'll be back tomorrow to share the rest of the goodness from the weekend.

xoxoxo
Rebecca

Sunshine & Random Bit of News

Finally! The sun is out. It's been a dark and stormy week here in Manhattan. I actually heard loud booming thunder! I'll tell you, that is rare here in the big city. But today is gorgeous and breezy and I wish it were like this always.

So what's on tap for the weekend? I'm heading over to Leigh Ann's tomorrow to thrift and just have some good old fashioned girl talk. LA, you'd better brew a big old pot of that delicious strong coffee you make!

I've been very blessed to receive not one but TWO sweet aprons from Leigh Ann.



The orange one is from a thrifted Martha Stewart dish towel (look at that cute rick rack!) and the other is from a thrifted pillow case. I was with LA when she found both of these items and it was neat to see them transformed.



Look at how pretty this case is! The border made it perfect for the apron. Thanks, LA!

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I also received a lovely gift from the Jungle Dream Pagoda! If you haven't been there you really must visit. The scenery is divine and natives are restless. ;)



Lisa-Gabrielle had a little contest for her blog-o-versary (and I still don't know how to find out where you get that date from, anyone?? I'd like to celebrate mine!) and had a haiku writing contest and I was one of the lovely winners!!

How cute is that lovely apron! She also included a vintage tin that I commented on when she first showed it on her blog. I have one that matches it exactly. Plus there is some vintage wrapping paper, a cute kit to make elf ornaments, some adorable little baubles and wonderful children's books which I'll probably use in my collages. Thanks again, LG!

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I did a miniature swap with Natasha at Rickrack & Ribbons. You can go here and see what I made for her. It's a doll house birthday party. :) It was so fun to come up with ways to make things in miniature. I know once my dollhouse is set up I'll become obsessed with all things small. I included a little chocolate cake from The Doll House Bakery a la Turkey Feathers. So cute! I can't wait to see what Natasha made for me. :)

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Remember my bird swap with Jen? How can you forget that awesome apron?? If you go here you can see some WAY better photos of the lovely goodies she sent to me. :)

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Today is the last day to sign up for the Summer Fun Swap at Sweet Goodness Swaps! Get your names in ASAP and join the fun! I can't wait to see all the imaginative containers everyone comes up with.

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Have a wonderful weekend friends! Wish me luck on some "hope to finds" at the thrift store with LA tomorrow.

Cheers!
Rebecca

Is there still vintage in the thrift store?

Have you found any vintage items lately at the thrift? Now I don't mean yard sales or rummage sales I'm talking Value Village here. While visiting my Mom a few weeks ago I came across a fabulous basket purse I thrifted way back in the day. It had to be at least 12 years ago. It was filled with vintage ladies gloves with the tag still on them. I just don't see these types things anymore. Is anyone still finding vintage at the thrift?

I did find a few things on my last trip:



Hat box with 2 hats and lace scarf: $3

Vanity set: $3

These are unusual finds and the prices were suprising low. That particular thrift in Baltimore has gotten a bit over priced. It's still some what less than the New York stores but still high.

In comparison, here are some recent Saver's finds:



I've been lucky with the Vera goods lately. I really like that purple scarf, it's so pretty and I like that shape. Some stains but oh well, I liked it enough as it was. There's some orange and yellow up there I see hmmmm . . . and a nice quality linen napkin is a great background for embroidery. This one sill has a sticker on it saying 100% linen. Another Golden Book for a project my sister and I are working on and a sweet old children's book called Many Moons by James Thurber. I'm growing quite a fondness for old kid's books. Look at this on Sarah found!



Cute tea towel with a recipe for "Peasant Soup"

Sweet ceramic Santa box - on the bottom some one engraved "July 13th." I wonder if there are still ceramics classes? My Mom and Aunt took them weekly when I was a kid. You would pick out your piece, paint it and fire it. We had all sorts of holiday ceramics! I'd love to do that and I'm not talking about those paint your own pottery places.

Virgin Mary miniature box - I'm not very religious but something about this little piece really called to me. It's so sweet and pretty and, well, peaceful. :)

So have any of you found any true vintage items at thrift lately?

xoxoxo
Rebecca

A Bird in The Hand

Jen was gracious enough to do a little birdie swap with me and let me tell you, I am the lucky one of the two! Jen was overly generous with her crafty time and I am still just squealing with joy over the wonderful goodies she sent me. Allow me to now preface this with a disclaimer . . . I am a LOUSY photographer. The pictures you are about to see in no way show the amazingness of the items. Seriously.

First allow me to show you everything packaged. Not only was this shot hard to get because I was at work and the only choice for backdrop I had was a crappy table, I was hard pressed not to rip everything open greedily before snapping a shot.



People should pay Jen to wrap their gifts. She could wrap up a roll of toilet paper and make the receiver feel like they had the best gift in the world!



Here you can see the cutest take out box that contained this adorable wind chime! She attached a stamped paper to the end to make it fit our bird theme. I plan to hang this on my sun porch.



More goodness! A fan, the cutest birdie chop sticks, a little "pop out feeder," one of those adorable water bird whistles and a sweet wish necklace! It's a tiny bird on a little cord and you're supposed to make a wish and wear your necklace and when it falls off your wish will come true! I may have cheated. I wore my necklace yesterday but then took it off and tried to arrange it back on the card so you could see a picture. I am pretty sure my wish still stands though.



An adorable vintage hanky with a tiny dove embroidery! This is so sweet and delicate. I had to show you the box it came in, I think it's my favorite of all the wrappings.



Wonderful hand stamped envelopes! These will be reserved for special letters for sure.



A hand decorated recipe box! Now I seem to have lost the picture I took of the outside of the box, I promise to take another and share this week. It's so cute! (I also know I took pictures of the cute box of Martha seeds she sent as well but I can't find that one either hmmm . . .) Anyway, back to MY recipe box. I am always so touched when people hand write recipes as gifts. As I told Jen, I never do that for myself because I'm lazy. I think they are just so personal and sweet. And get a load of those cute recipe card dividers! Love it.

And my very favorite thing of all . . . . (I know you are thinking, "There's MORE??" oh yes my friends, I was totally spoiled)



Couldn't you just DIE? Yes, that is a home made apron. Yes, it is aqua and orange and YES those are the sweetest polka dot pockets and ruffle one ever did see. Sigh . . . I about fainted when I saw this. :)

So thank you, Jen, my dear friend, for making such wonderful things just for me. I am touched beyond belief.

You can go here and see what I sent her. :)

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And remember my flower swap with Vallen? You can go here and see what I sent her. You'll notice that we both made the crocheted flowers from a recent issue of Interweave Crochet! How is that for coincidence? It just proves my point of how close our little family of bloggers has become. In my swap with Jen we noticed that we both sent stamped stationary, a piece of jewelry and an embroided piece. :)

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Only a few more days to sign up for the Summer Fun Swap! We should have your partners out to you by the middle of next week if not sooner. Last count we were up to over 50 participants! It's takes a bit of time to get everyone sorted out so be patient with us. :) Also, we will do our best not to pair you up with someone you have previously swapped with but now that we have a lot of repeat swappers that could happen so you'll have to let us know!

ciao
R

Miss Match

First, I will tell you that I REALLY glad it's Friday. What a week! Whew! Second, thank you all for your thoughts on yesterdays question of a thrift barter site. I'm going to see what I can come up with. I've considered creating a "council of elders," if you will, to sort of hash out the details. If you are interested drop me a line. Basically it's just a group to throw around ideas on how to make a site of this nature work. :)

And thanks also for your list of thrifty wants! Make sure you visit the comments section from yesterdays post to see what is being hunted for across our blogosphere. Now on to our regularly scheduled programming . . .

MISMATCHED CHINA

When I got married I didn't register for china. I am fortunate to have inherited my Grandmother's wedding china. It's a complete set for 12 of the Mikasa Adrienne pattern. It's a lovely pattern and I have never seen it at the thrift store. I have some of the extras, too, like a big platter, gravy dish, sugar bowl and creamer. I do not have a coffee pot and thus decided to register for a pot, sugar bowl and creamer in the Mikasa Parchment pattern. I was lucky enough to receive the sugar and creamer from Luis' family:



I did not get the coffee pot and at $120 I am hard pressed to purchase it for myself. Recently I found this for a mere $4:



Not Mikasa but look how similar! Close enough that I am happy. I have always had a thing for mismatched china. I know I'm not alone. I think I'll use these two Mikasa tea cups (pattern name escapes me at the moment) with my coffee service:



I adore these cups. Found at thrift for $2 a piece they have found a special place in my china cabinet and in my heart. And how nicely they "match" the rest of my china . . .

That's my little show and tell for the day. Highlights for next week . . . my bird swap with Jen (she takes such good pictures that my swap goodies look TWICE as nice), fabulous aprons from Leigh Ann and some vintage goodies found in Baltimore. At a thrift store no less . . . ;)

Enjoy your weekend!

xoxoxo
R

In Search Of

So, have you thought about your thrifting goals? I mean aside from the a fore mentioned Triple Crown - apron, table cloth and vintage Pyrex. I mean the things you look for that others may not? Here is my most recent list:

Vintage Gold Picture Frames

Currently, I only have two . . . .



The 8 x 10 photo is of Luis' mother. The frame belonged to my Grandma. The smaller 4 x 6 frame was found on a trip to the Salvation Army with Leigh Ann for only 99 cents. I love the mother of pearl inlay and fancy corners:



I know I can get these on EBay. The prices are often good but I just want to find them. Know what I mean? Of course you do.

CULVER LTD. BAR WARE

I recently found this ice bucket . . .



I'm a sucker for the gold, I'll admit it. All Culver pieces are signed:



I also have a glass that is gold with green. I would love to find more pieces. I happen to have these 4 Christmas glasses (found at the only rummage sale I've ever been to) which may be Culver but I'll have to check when I unpack them for the holidays. This is also readily available on EBay and I may consider purchasing some but it would still be nice to come across mismatched pieces in my travels.

So what are you looking for? Any specific items? Name brands? Why am I asking? I have an idea, you see, for a public forum to exchange thrifted goods. I need to work out the details and whether it would be better to make it a blog where anyone can join and post about the "missing pieces" they are looking for or perhaps a Yahoo Group the way Freecycle is run. This will not be about making money or selling things. This will be about thrifters helping other thrifters fulfill their collections and I would like it to work on the barter system. As in "Hey Rebecca, I have a Culver glass. Would you like to trade me for that Limoges ashtray you posted on about on your blog?" You know, stuff like that.

I really need to think about the details and your opinions mean a lot to me.Please drop me a line if you have any thoughts on something like this. I'm not sure if it will work but I guess it's worth a try. Holler at me!

xoxoxo
Rebecca

Fit For A Queen

I will confess that I asked Queen Vallen to do a swap with me because I wanted a crown. I know it. She knows it and now you know it, too. As you can imagine she did not disappoint!



I LOVE IT. I wore it around the house for a good while last night but decided to stow it safely in the craft room as the dogs were eying me funny with a bit of a drooly look about them. Must have been the birds on there. VQ took WAY better pictures of it that I did so head here and get a closer look. I am truly the queen of all things bright and flowery now. This was a part of our Six Flower Swap. I SWAPPED WITH THE QUEEN. I know you are jealous. You should be. ;)

Want to see what else I got??



That, my friends, is a bag of flowery goodness! How sweet is the crocheted choker? I agree with Vallen, it's so wonderfully Victorian! I'll wear it with my crown to my sister's Fairy Tale Picnic next month. You can also see a lovely crocheted pin and a button flower magnet!



Oh yes, that is indeed a Queenly Things tea cozy! Look at the sweet hanky accent! LOVE LOVE LOVE



My very own diary. WITH A LOCK. All girls need one of these and it can't get much more perfect! Sequins! Glass Glitter! Feathers! The inside is decorated as well but as it's my diary, it's my secret. ;) She wrapped all the lovelies in pieces of fabric used in the tea cozy, too.



She also made me a wonderfully splendid R monogram. I'm all about the monograms. This is just perfect and so well designed. That woman has me pegged! Velvet leaves? Um yes please.

So THANK YOU Vallen for such a wonderful swap. I cannot wait until yours arrives and hope you love it as much as I love everything you made so very specially just for me.

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Have I mentioned that the Summer Fun: Bucket Full of Sunshine Swap is in full swing? Head on over to Sweet Goodness Swaps and sign up! You have until next Friday to throw your name in the mix.

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Now that I am almost back up to normal speed I'll have some good posts of things to share. Tomorrow I'll be asking the question, "What are YOU looking for at the thrift store these days?" I've got a unique bunch of items on my must have list. I'm dying to know what's on yours.

Until then . . .

Rebecca

Back in the Saddle . . . for the most part

Hello and thank you for all the get well wishes. I realized over the last week how much I take for granted the gift of pain free movement. It's quite humbling when your husband has to help you put your pants on. :(

So what would you do if you literally had to lay around all weekend? I found it quite hard honestly. Funny how I often say I'd love a weekend of nothing to do and when I got one all I wanted was to do laundry, dishes and grocery shop. Since there was nothing wrong with my hands I decided to get to work on some knitting and crocheting projects. Meet Priscilla:



As you can see Miss Priscilla is a prima ballerina who just loves the color purple. She is knit from Lion Brand Microspun (double stranded) and based on a pattern from Knitted Toys though I changed a few things, mostly the shape of her hands and feet.



She is quite light on her feet! Her clothes are crocheted and are my own original patterns. I just made them up as I went along. I am very happy with the way they turned out though I did forget to leave a hole for her tail. Luckily, Priscilla's dance recital leotards are two pieces and her tail can slip out and not be smooshed while she's pirouetting.



Don't you love her tutu and her ruffly sleeves? And how about her sweet rose wrist corsage? I used Paton's Brilliant (double stranded) in Lilac Luster. This was truly a "use what you have" project as I had 6 skeins of that deliciously sparkly purple yarn laying around for 3 years. I got them in a bargain bin for a dollar a skein. The Microspun was in my collection as well.

So now the quandary . . . do I keep Miss Priscilla who happens to be my very first knit stuffy or do I gift her as I originally intended? I really am torn as she has certainly grown on me and makes for a wonderful companion when one is catching up on one's Tivo watching.

One thing is for sure. Now I know that when someone asks me what I would do with three days of nothing but laying around on the sofa, the answer is obviously "Crochet tiny clothes for my knit monkey friend, of course!"

Cheers
Rebecca

Coming tomorrow . . . the best darn mail a girl could ever hope for.