Finds! Finally :)

My husband surprised me yesterday by offering to drive me to the thrift store. Since I broke my right leg I'm still not able to shuttle myself around by car so this was a real treat! Of course he had me make him a sandwich which he ate in the car while I was in the thrift. Hmm . . .

Anyway, on to the finds! I am limited in my thrifty spending and promised myself to keep it under $20. I decided to just hit my favorite sections instead of a full on thrift. So linens first . . . eh . . . nothing. Boo. Onto bags of kitchen stuff. Score!



A whole bag of vintage biscuit cutters. The bag ended up being like 75 cents and had both fluted and round cutters. Some are a little rusty but may clean up. This was an especially good find since Not So Humble Pie just posted on how to make the most adorable ice cream sandwiches using cutters just like these! Stop by and visit, the photos and recipes are to die for!

Now onto the bags of miscellaneous crap. Some of my favorite finds of all times have been scored in these random bags. This trip again proved that this was a place to spend some time digging:



These are little metallic beads on wire. I love the colors and who knows what I'll do with them but they were 50 cents for the whole lot! I'm picturing some sort of crown . . .



A small bag of trims that contained some really cute things! Don't you just love that silver braided one? There is maybe a yard of it but I'm sure to put it to good use. Totally worth the whole dollar I spent on this bag.



Yarn! There were tons of this in many bags, each costing $3. I picked up two and this photo only shows half of what I came home with. I believe it's wool and it will need to be wound into balls before I can use it but I think it's a good deal for $6 and gives me something new to work with. I'm loving the orange and grey combo, too!



A bag of random craft items proved to be better than I thought. The fusible webbing is what drew me in and since the bag was only $2.50 I figured it was worth it. Inside I found several new packages of aida fabric, included a pre-finished bell-pull, and some lovely DMC Pearle cotton. I love it when it's even better than you thought it would be.

My next stop was the CD rack. I only recently started perusing the CDs and wonder what took me so long? I picked up three CDS for only $1.50 each as they were half price that day. That's the cost of ONE SONG on iTunes these days. What did I pick up?

Rain Dogs by Tom Waits

Music by Madonna

I Get A Kick Out Of You: Cole Porter Songbook Vol. 2 which includes Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and others. I LOVE this CD already.

And my last stop? The jewelry counter, of course.



Isn't it dear? And it, too, was half price and only cost me a mere $2.50. So my total? $18 and change. Not bad, eh? Now I'm off to play with my new crafty supplies!

Take a moment and visit my latest Examiner article on the The Little Shop of Crafts located right here in Manhattan!

ciao bellas ~ Rebecca

PS - last chance to read my Examiner articles and/or subscribe for a chance to win some goodness from me! Once you check out the articles hit this POST and leave a comment. I'll be picking a winner on Sunday!

Rattle Those Pots & Pans

As you know I was like the mad crocheter while my leg was healing. I spent most of my time creating softies but I also whipped up a few super cute pot holders as well.



This is basically the pattern shown here from Lion Brand but I made mine a little bigger, added that frilly edging and made up my own flower. While I was making it I thought, "Hey! This looks like a cupcake!" (I was hungry) So I made this:



This is my own pattern and when I make another I'll write it up and post it for free on Ravelry. And since cupcakes make me think of cake, I made this:



Mmmm . . . . cake.



The mushroom is all mine and is already hanging in my kitchen but the cupcake and cake are up for sale in the Goodness Shop here and here. I have a bunch of cute aprons in there as well and will be adding things through out the week including new trims and some really cute vintage cake decorations.

I also posted a new article on the Examiner today. Do you know Jane? If you don't, you should! Read my article HERE about one of my favorite Trash to Treasure projects ever. Then visit Jane. You'll be hooked, I promise.

There is still time to read my articles and then leave a comment on this post for a chance to win some Goodness! Don't forget, you can subscribe to my column and click on my new crafty budget articles right from your in box. I'll be highlighting more Trash to Treasure ideas so if you have something to contribute, drop me a line!

xoxo ~ rr

Yeehaw! New swap over at Sweet Goodness!

We are hosting a very small swap over at Sweet Goodness. The theme is Vintage Cowgirl's in honor of swap mistress Leigh Ann moving to Texas!





This swap is limited to only 20 people so get over there and sign up fast! Click on the picture above for details!

Yeehaw!
Rebecca

The Graphics Fairy

I wanted to take a moment to thank Karen at The Graphics Fairy for letting me highlight her free clipart blog at the Examiner. Please click HERE to read the article and don't forget to leave a comment on this post after you check out my article to be entered to win some Goodness!

 

Thank you to everyone who visited my first article and for your comments! To be entered into the drawing you'll need to leave a comment on yesterday's post as well because I won't know who you are just through the Examiner page as it only asks for a name. If you are reading this through Facebook you can leave a comment there as well. :)

xoxoxo ~ Rebecca

Visit me at the Examiner.com for budget craft tips!
Email me!

Shameless Self Promotion (& a Mini Give Away!)

I've started a new "job" for lack of a better term. I'm writing over at Examiner.com. My topic is crafting on a budget in New York but you'll find that it's not really location specific so much. So now the shameless part. If you come visit me HERE and read my first article I will get paid. Only a a tiny little bit but it's something. You don't REALLY have to to even read it, just click on it. (shameless) I'm also hoping you'll click on the subscribe button to receive an email each time I publish and then click on my article link. Cha-ching! See how it works? And it only costs you a few seconds. AND who knows, you may enjoy my budget conscious ramblings, no? So click HERE okay? Shameless, I told you!

You can also follow me on Twitter where I will also be posting my articles. Click HERE to follow me. LOL okay okay. I'll stop now. But here's the incentive, you sign up to subscribe to my articles come back here and leave me a comment on this post and I'll enter you into a drawing to win something. It will be something handmade or vintage, I'll let the winner choose. Perhaps I have something you've been looking for? Like vintage valentines or a vintage rain bonnet still in the packaging. Uh huh. You KNOW you want it. ;) So click, subscribe, tweet and comment, okay?

And what's a post without a photo??



Remember this fabulous thread I found at the thrift? Finally I am finding a use for it. I'm adding some edging to these pretty napkins and voila! Fiesta Towels. I am actually sewing the edging on instead of creating it right on the towel as the thread is heavy. I'll share when they are finished and I also plan to highlight them on the Examiner as a cheap thrill. ;)

Thank you THANK YOU for listening to my shameless self promotion. Don't forget to subscribe to my articles and leave a comment for a chance to win some Goodness. :)

hugs ~ Rebecca

PS - My sister is blogging again! Inspired by Julie & Julia she is back at it. Go for a visit!

Picture Perfect

Here I am, last July before the myriad of health issues:



A self portrait that I just love. I made the paper crown to celebrate Independence day and if you find me else where on the web (i.e. Facebook, All Recipes, etc.) you will see this face shining out at you. It's been nothing but craziness since that photo was taken and now I'm on the path to get back to being "picture perfect." Picture Perfect isn't about looking magazine fabulous (though that never hurts!) it's about seeing yourself and thinking "Oh yeah, that's me and I look GREAT." It's about others seeing you and wanting to be around you and absorb all your good energy. Too tree huggy?? You know what I mean.

I have been working on some things.



Another self portrait of Luis and I in Las Vegas last August. I haven't scrapbooked in so long and as soon as I got started I remembered why I love it so much. I heart paper. Oh and scissors, too.



I found the little book at Marshalls and it's been sitting in the craft room forever. Why can't I just USE things? They sit there forever being saved for a better day. I'm done with that. I'm using everything I've saved. This little book will become a book of things I love. Starting with that photo taken about 6 years ago. (What is with me and paper crowns??) I'll share my journal pages as they unfold.

Also in the works is this birthday banner for my dear friend Dana's little boy, Charlie, who will be celebrating his 1st birthday in a few days!





This is coming out really cute and I'll do a post soon on how to make your own from supplies you probably have sitting around your house.

So my head is now above water and I'm healing. It seemed it would never happen. Now go out and be picture perfect!

Fondly ~ Rebecca

Sprung

I'm home. Back in New York City. Back to Queens. I feel over whelmed, tired, antsy. I feel like there is so much to do yet not enough time (or energy) to get it done.



My craft room should be condemned. The people from Hoarders will be coming for me soon. I want to create something but I can't do that when there is not one single clear work space in there. It's frustrating.



My pants don't fit. Sitting on your butt for 3 months will do that. I can't navigate the stairs to the basement to do laundry or dig out some spring clothes as the steps are about half as deep as my walking cast is long. Three more weeks of big plastic footwear for me. Have I mentioned that I broke my leg on January 23rd? What month is it?

I'm sprung. Literally. Neither coming, nor going. Just sitting here like a deer in the headlights with no clue what to do first. This is my 400th post. I wanted it to be happy, positive and rife with giveaways. I will have to out that on hold until I can dig myself out.

In one happier note, my sweet Louie turned 30 last Friday.



Happy birthday, love. Decorated picture made with Picnik.

Bear with me, I will be better. Soon. ~RR

Hoppin' Down the Bunny Trail . . .

 . . . late as usual! I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter! It was a nice day with beautiful weather so we were able to sit on the porch and enjoy our meal. I'm still at my parent's house and we were joined by my sister and brother-in-law and my aunt and uncle.

Mom tried something new this year:



Asparagus tart! It was not only fabulous looking but easy and delicious. It's a Martha recipe and can be found here. It's worth splurging on the gruyere, trust me. :)

We had minimal decorations but they were lovely and evoked thoughts of Spring.







I love the little bunnies hidden amongst the flowers and garlands.

And we did dye eggs, the lazy way!



While boiling the eggs just toss in some food coloring! Red and blue makes lovely sometimes striped or spotted eggs and tea bags were used to make the brown eggs. Now we could have just bought brown eggs but this was fun!

So Hoppy (be-lated) Easter!

xx~rr

PS - leg update: I'm walking with a cane now. Yeah! But only for a little at a time to regain muscle in my leg. I'll be going back to New York as soon as I can handle stairs. :)

Egggg-cellent

*SPOILER - if you are a part of Shara's Eggstra Special Swap I am about to reveal mine so if you want to be surprised . . . move along!*

So, as you know, I joined Shara's swap where you had to make an egg themed craft and make 13 of them. Since my Victorian Christmas ornaments turned out so well I decided to have a go at making them a bit more spring themed.



I made 4 different designs, 3 bunnies and an angel.









I really enjoyed making these! Who doesn't love crepe paper ruffles? I would put them on everything if I could.



I hope everyone in the swap likes my eggs! I added little fortunes to each egg so they will also get a little surprise there as well. I purchased the fortune cards from The Speckled Egg.

~RR

PS - do the photos look weird? I tried to "auto correct" them. (All except the first one.) Not sure I'm loving them.

What I'm Loving . . .

Just a post about things that are making me happy!

Annie's Bunny Grahams - I love them all but my new favorites are Bunny Friends which is a mixture of honey, chocolate and chocolate chip.



Made from organic ingredients and with only 20 net grams of carbs in 30 cookies I can have these as a snack with only a small amount of insulin. (130 calories and 4.5 grams of fat per serving!)

Too Faced Walk of Shame Collection - a gift from my sister!



A great collection with the best lipstick and palette. I think any complexion would work with these shades and LOOK at that cute bag!

My new Tarina Tarantino bracelet.



Cute, right?? I got it as a free gift with purchase at Sephora!

I love Le Sport Sac bags and my latest set, found for super bargains at Marshall's, is in this super fun pattern:



I have the duffle, the tote bag and today I found the make up bag. Le Sport Sac discontinues their patterns pretty quickly and since I never buy them at full price it's pure luck to find any that match on the clearance racks!

And a crafty love? These sweet paper mache eggs from the latest issue of MSL:



Wouldn't they also make the cutest orange pumpkins in the fall?

So what are you loving these days? Write a blog post (or a Facebook note) and leave the link in the comments section!

cheers
~RR

Let the Games Begin!

The judging is going on over at Plush You for the Winter Olympics Plushie contest. I've never been featured on another blog before! Now I know she is putting up everyone in the category BUT STILL. Go take a look! Featured HERE! (hee hee) Wish Hippolita Hoppington luck!

And you know I'm still plugging away over here filling up my very own ark, right? I realized that I didn't share one of my favorites:



I call him Percy. He is knit from cotton blend Yarn Gang yarn and his pattern can be found in Vogue Knitting on the Go: Quick Gifts. The Vogue to Go books are full of fun quick projects and can be found for a pretty good price in the Amazon marketplace. Percy needs to have his scarf ironed! I really like how he turned out but I think it's sooo much easier to make crocheted toys. I have three half made animals that I hope to share soon.

hugs
~RR

Always Last to the Party

I'm so behind in the times. I'm not exaggerating. I JUST started watching Grey's Anatomy. Um, yeah. You can't make that up. So the places and things I'm about to share with you are probably old news but they are brand spankin' to me.

Have you visited Pimp Stitch? They have collected some of the most fabulous sewing, needlework and all around crafty tutorials out there. Some of my favorites:


photo courtesy of Pimp Stitch
Printable Sticky Note Cozy. Who doesn't want to pimp their Post Its??


photo courtesy of Pimp Stitch
Doll House Potholders. Hey, if I'm cooking, I'd better be surrounded in cuteness.

Another new favorite blog is Happy Loves Rosie. I want my blog to look like that. I discovered it over at Lollishops which is also quite cute.

And have you started your Easter crafting yet? Hmm? Well how about those super cute polymer bun-buns?


photo courtesy of Swirly Designs
From, ahem, 2009. So last year? I think not.

So yes, I'm behind the times, but I'm having a great time being inspired. Now if only I were home in my craft room (and it was miraculously clean and tidy) and I wasn't exhausted all the time. A girl can dream . . . look out May, I'll be back and rarin' to go!

Anything new to share with me? And I don't really care how new it is. :)

xoxoxoxo
~RR

Time keeps on slipping . . .

Sigh . . . I'm so tired of sitting around. I'm tired of the pain. I'm being very impatient with this, I know, and the urge to be uber whiny is hard to repress.

I've been doing some designing:



Including actually writing down the pattern for my frog and a set of really cute jungle themed bowling pins and balls. I'm very excited about that project and will share it once I get the kinks worked out.

Today I am home alone well Mom gets some much deserved fun on an outing with my aunt. I am catching up on my TV (watching reruns of Grey's and the last season of Heroes) and working on a crochet project that I don't have to think too much about:



I've decided that since I'm sitting here I might as well make some things to be used for gifts next year because as soon as I can walk I'm going to be non-stop. All I can think about is cleaning. I can't wait to get home and organize my craft room, switch out the winter clothes for summer (please let them still fit! I know I'm growing doughy in my convalescence) and basically reacquainting myself with my possessions. (I have a major urge to purge! Spring cleaning mania? Maybe.)

Over at SGS we are thinking about having a late spring swap. If you don't know, there are 5 wonderful ladies "on staff" and we take turns handling the issues depending on who has what going on. I wasn't much help with the last swap due to my back surgery and Heidi and Shara were left to deal with what was definitely our most drama filled swap to date. They both spoke of quitting (and I don't blame them) but I may have convinced them to stick around a bit more. I hate that we had so many problems with flakers, nasty emails and just down right craziness. So we are working on ways to better screen participants. In all honestly, MOST people are great. But it's the small amount who are not that ruin it for everyone. So if anyone has any suggestions on how we can conduct a better swap please leave a comment here or over at SGS. Oh and we are always looking for swap ideas, too!

Stay well . . .
~RR

A Little Nookie

My sweet husband just sent me a wonderful gift, the new Barnes & Noble eReader, the nook.



I had mentioned to him last year that I was curious about it but was still on the fence. I love books. I love the feel of them, the look of them stacked up next to the bed, the smell of the paper, you name it. I couldn't imagine giving that up. Of course now I realize that I will still be buying books at the thrift and yard sales, etc, but that the nook is a great way to purchase new titles and carry your library with you. I have already downloaded "Shutter Island," which was a $4 special this month, and plan to start it tonight. There are lots of free books, including classics and cheesy romances a like, and many books under $5 and $10.

The nook itself is neat and compact. You can download photos, music and pdfs from your computer. I'm thinking to have a collection of knitting and crochet patterns on hand at all times!

Can you tell I'm excited? Since I've met Luis I'm always on top of the new technological trends, lol. His first ever Christmas gift to me was a DVD player. He couldn't STAND watching video tapes on my scratch old TV and when my roommate's father bought her a new TV he jumped right in with the DVD player. He actually carried it on the train all the way to Baltimore. This year, in addition to the nook, he also just sent me a fancy new phone:



I love that's it's red and has flowers on it. Hello, ladies phone! Louie has always treated me to fancy gadgets. I think he "understands" them more so then jewelry and flowers, lol. However he has also given me Lenox crystal candle sticks and a pretty china ring holder when I was upset for breaking mine. So over all, he's a pretty good egg and I'm lucky to have him.

Thanks for the gifts, dear! That nook will get plenty of use while my leg heals.

~RR

Family Ties

Hello! I'm hard at work on my eggs for Shara's swap so I haven't been doing as much crocheting and have no new projects to share. I do have a few finished animals that I am really happy with that I still need to photograph and I'm also in the middle of another animal for an original design contest put on by Red Heart Yarn. That's it for me for crafting news.

Soooo in the mean time I thought I'd share some favorite old family photos. Some of my cousins and I have been sharing photos on Facebook and having a blast! In fact we have plans to put together a "Pasta Sunday" where everyone will bring their old photos and we'll watch my parents old slides as well. So what is Pasta Sunday? When my mother was young she spent Sunday's eating pasta at her Aunt Gloria's with all of her cousins. They still try to get together these days for a modern day Pasta Sunday. So now on with the show!



This is my mother as a young girl. I love her sassy pose and stripey dress!



My parents not long after they were married. My Mom says that hair cut is called a Sassoon and was quite popular! The little dog is Tiffy and she used to bite people. She was my mother's first daughter lol.



My mother's parents, Helen and Wes, on a vacation in Atlantic City. Everyone thinks I look like my grandma when she was a young woman. She was really happy when I dyed my hair red in college because she always wanted a red handed grand daughter lol. Both are passed away and greatly missed.



This is my Great Great Aunt Sissy. She was my grandmother's aunt and her name was Lucia. She went by Lucy but I guess I couldn't say that as a child and called her Sissy instead. It stuck. (Sorry Aunt Luce!) She was quite the fashionable lady and gave me my love of vintage clothing. She gave me jewelry, gloves, coats and handbags to die for. I still harbor a dream of opening a second hand store called Aunt Sissy's Attic someday.

I hope you've enjoyed this walk down my mother's side of the family. This is my Italian side and we have a lot of photos. I don't have as many of my Polish/Irish side of the family but hope to find some and scan them in. Here is the current generation:



Myself and my sweet hubby Louie who has added a touch of South America, Colombia specifically, to our family tree.

cheer
~Rebecca