Score!

Have you checked out http://www.swaptree.com/? Yesterday I received "The Best of Cooking Light," a 416 page, 9x11", hardback, full-color book in exchange!

Also, at my local Goodwill, I found an American Girl Addie (naked with semi-bad hair) for $3! I'll be working on her hair and I'll make a dress for her. I did a little research and if I can't get her hair to my satisfaction, I can send her to the American Girl Hospital for $24 and still come out way ahead of the $100 that the doll costs new. I'm very excited about Addie since my little Kiki D. loves African-American dolls, little people & books!

Poor little Young Prince M. has a cold....his nose is runny and so, so red and his eyes are red & watery too. I feel so bad for him AND I'm keeping the makers of Airborne in business!

Hoping everyone at YOUR house is well,
Leslie

Friday Treasures

As I mentioned yesterday, Dr. Love has today off from work. We went together this morning to drop off Charlie at school and run some errands.

We started with breakfast at IHOP where I had the stuffed french toast with strawberry topping and I sneaked some of the Dr.'s hashbrowns to go with them. Yum!

Then we stopped to get the oil changed in the van, got the chemicals needed to close the pool for the winter, stopped at a few garage sales (bless his heart!), went by the library, stopped at Goodwill (isn't this a neat-o sewing/Christmas thingy?!), stopped at a few more garage sales (he has LOTS of gold stars today!), then finished by opening up a separate account for SmallPeoples House where I deposited my first paycheck. That was exciting!

The following goodies are from our stop at Goodwill:

an 8" Berenguer vinyl babydoll for 99 cents

2 vintage Playskool puzzles for $1.99.

Both of these items are for SmallPeoples House, of course!

Once again, enjoy Labor Day!

Leslie

Miss B had her last day of summer school today. It was actually a make-up day because she missed the theatre clean-up day on Sunday afternoon. So while she was spending 3 hours on the south side at McCutcheon, Charlie and I scoped out the Goodwill down there and a resale shop or two. He found two shirts, one is collared to wear for school in the fall and the other is a tshirt. Here's a Talbot's (still looks brand new, never worn!) skirt that I scored at GW.

When she was finished and we were on our way home, we noticed a small-ish garage sale. Normally I wouldn't stop but there's been a waste container in the driveway for a few days and from the road it looked as if the house was being cleaned out. It was! I got the following for $7.

The canisters are ceramic and are marked "Holiday Designs, USA." This could just be someone's own trademark. I'll do a search for it in a bit. I know the orange lids are atrocious! I'm not sure that I'll even keep them and if I do, I'll figure out how to paint them the right color red for my country french kitchen. Does anyone know what paint to use? The glass jar is marked on the bottom "Made in Italy Crownford China Co 1966." It's in perfect shape! The letters also had an N, obviously to be used for some directional thing. Someday I'll have a sewing room to call my own and when I do, the ones spelling SEW will go on the wall! Here's another picture of the cannisters without the horrible lids.
I really do have two cats but little Henry-girl is more skittish than her sister and it's harder to snap a photo of her. I've still got this pack & play up in my room for my nephew's return visit on Friday. Mudgie says "I is a baby Momma, I is!"

Does This Look Like a Diaper Bag?

I found this sweet homemade bag yesterday at Goo.dwill for $3. It looks like it's never been used! Some sweet sewer put lots of effort into it--it's stabilized with interfacing and even has a hard plastic insert (covered by a fabric sleeve, of course), to keep the bottom stable:


Here's a shot of the inside pockets, they are the same on each side. Also, the stripey fabric on the outside is divided into pockets as well.


Miss B says that it looks like a diaper bag, complete with bottle slots on the ends. It measures approximately 10"x15". So should I fill it with baby things for a gift? Or can I get away with using it for a handbag without people wondering if that poor old lady has misplaced her baby?

One week down...

three more to go. Miss B is taking two summer school classes, PE & Theatre. So I'm spending quite a bit of time in my car these days and our daily schedule changes from day to day (and if you know me, you know I abhor change!) I've been able to hang out with Charlie one-on-one and that's been pretty cool. And watching Miss B mature a bit is fun too.

Here's the quilt I'm working on. It's not coming together as quickly as I'd like....having to run Miss B here & there twice a day on top of overseeing Charlie along with keeping up with the house doesn't leave me much quilting time. Plus I've done two other projects and have a dress in the works.

This is the fabric for Miss B's dress. I wish I'd seen it first because I love it too!

I ordered four swim components off the clearance page ($35.00 total) at Land's End.com and received free shipping. I had to mix & match tops & bottoms but I think they look alright for backyard swimming. I love the "swim mini" bottoms. I don't feel exposed if I walk around to the front of the house or out to the mailbox.

Miss B needs 3 costumes for her summer theatre class so we scouted our 3 local Goodw.ill stores on Saturday. We may have found the dress she needs for the prom scene; she took it to class with her this afternoon see if it gets approval. I found these sweet little silver pieces and they look great nestled in among the silver candlesticks on my table.


We noticed on Saturday that Charlie continues to get taller. Miss B thought it would be fun to be the Veri.zon bars. Hence this picture.

This bag is probably my best sewing accomplishment this year. Miss B couldn't find an E.lmo backpack for her baby brother's 1st birthday and so we set out to make one from scratch. She purchased the canvas fabric and the zipper and we downloaded the photo from a free internet site and printed it onto heat transfer paper. Miss B added baby bro's name and then I found the red webbing for the back straps. We even sewed pieces of plastic canvas into the large sides & bottom to give it stability. And the whole thing can be thrown in the wash machine!

Best Thrifting Purchase

Yesterday I had a wonderful day up in Northwest Indiana.

Along with pampering myself with a visit to House of Bianco for a haircut by Katrina (thank you Dr. Love for agreeing to that!), I also visited with my friends at Pruzin Brothers, had a great lunch at Panera with B & T and then joined C & J to go thrifting.

The hat pictured was at the Salvation Army. I hesitated to pay $3 for it but then decided that since I will wear it and also use it to decorate--although not on this lamp shade, that's just to position it for the pic--I'd get it. I think I'll wear it tonight for "date night."

After we found all the bargains the van could hold, we headed back to C's where she had a crock pot with stuffed pepper soup and the most awesome corn bread I've ever tasted!

A huge Thank You to all of my friends for your time & fellowship yesterday!

My Thrifting Buddies

From our outing last week. Thanks for coming down my friends!