Thrifting, antiquing and garage sale weekend...

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Originally uploaded by wayfarer

I did it all. My thrifty neighbor gave me the heads up about two community garage sales nearby and an antique store's moving sale. Oh boy, oh boy oh boy did I shop.

What I can't believe is how much I got for how little. I am posting one of my favorite finds. I love love love this and it's in perfect condition. I can't believe none of the spool holders were broken off nor is there any marks on it. I don't think it was ever used. I love the shape of it, I love the "A stitch in time saves 9" - something i definately need reminding of. I love the little hooks on the back and I love that I got it for $3. Everything (most everything in the antique store was 75% off). Here it is full -

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Originally uploaded by wayfarer

I have so much more to share and will. But this is one of my favorite things. I got a lovely old desk too. Handpainted and a spa green which matches my sewing room perfect. My husband didn't like it nor my neighbor, but i loved it. The sale price was $95 and my husband said no way. The store owner said "make the dealer an offer". My husband said to do $25. Yeah right! I said. This lovely desk for $25??? Are you crazy? I said "please, let's go higher" and so we went to a whopping $30. Guess what I got it for? Yup! $30. I can't wait till my hubby picks it up so i can show you! We didn't have room in the car because ironically we were going to the "i sold it at ebay" store with a car full of stuff. We didn't make it before closing. Husband was irritable sitting in an antique store all day (and even more so later for not making it to the ebay store and still having a car full of stuff which will have to be unloaded to pick up the desk and reloaded to go to the store - oops), LD was irritable for being around such frilliness but I had a heck of a day!

Some other things I got at the antique store:

Fabric galore - $1 per piece, sometimes this was a yard, sometimes less, sometimes more.

60's hippie bedspread - $9. I loved it, what can i say.

A 50's laundry bag with lovely fabric that i really had to work on getting the price down on. Well worth the battle. I now also have an in with the vintage clothing store lady who is going to work me a deal on box lots. She said I had a good eye for things too which made me feel good because I've been getting a little nervous about that.

3 chenille bedspreads which i will be promptly cutting up and crafting with.

This doesn't include the garage sales i hit in the morning. One thing I will mention now is the brand new in the box print gocco. $20 - story about that one...

Crochet hook holder

I think this is one of my favorite things made so far. I plan on making some of these for my store. I plan on opening it insh'Allah next month. I just love the way this turned out and i love having all my hooks, a guage and scissors (a needle is in there now too) all in once place and easy to carry around and tuck away when the tornado comes ripping through. It all fits nicely in there.

Here it is opened completely:


and here it is with the flap down (so the hooks don't fall out):

Bread!

I must be a glutton for punishment because mid afternoon I made homemade bread. Now I've never made homemade bread except of the zucchini, carrot, pumpkin, apple, banana variety but I found a recipe that swore to be easy. Whoa Nelly! It was and it smells so good. The whole house smells like one big homemade bread Yankee Candle (if they had one). I wish i could bottle it and sell it. I usually like cooking when I'm fasting because well it makes the time go by and cooking doesn't usually make me hungry. But everytime I walk past this golden brown tasty looking fluffiness and smell the fresh baked bread smell I about die. Nafs takes over and I'm ready to dive in.

3 hours and 15 minutes until fast breaking time. I'll be breaking mine on bread and water and it never sounded so good.

Seperation Anxiety isn't just for babies....

I was crying before i even dropped Little Dude off for his first morning of school. I stayed up late the night before ironing and rotary cutting quilt squares trying to get my mind off it. The school breaks you in - i didn't think i needed that - i knew the LD wouldn't need it. One day you go with your kid for an hour then it's drop off for an hour by himself and then it slowly moves to 3 hours on his own 2 days a week. When i dropped him off for his first day without me i was bawling before we even left the house and then the whole way home i cried out loud...the initial crying i tried to conceal as to not upset him but when he was gone i let it out. I barely made it through the drop off.

When i picked him up he was happily playing but we he spotted the car he made a run for it. That's my little dude. I didn't want him to be unhappy and crying like one boy in there but i wanted him to miss me. He brought home a great painting too. I honestly thought i wouldn't have any crying issues about him being gone a few mornings a week but any second without him is strange. I've never left him and he's always been at my side, through doctor appointments, cooking, everything. He's my little anchor. Where he is I am. Now he's moved off into a small part of the big world where I'm not and that totally freaks me out. I keep saying to myself "he needs this, i need this" and we do. He had a lot of fun playing with the kids and he has already started learning to put things away. I was able to complete an entire sewing project. After, we hit an awesome garage sale and found some wonderful things for him. I love Melissa and Doug wooden toys and it's nice they aren't laced with toxic paint. I need to update some of my recent thrifting finds because i've been finding some awesome things.

313

I haven't been excited for a movie to come out in a long time but I'm really looking forward to 313. It's about Imam Mahdi. Looks awesome!

Yahoo

Is anyone else having a problem with yahoo? For the past two days i can't reply to emails, the body of the email is blanked out. I got two messages out by going to the new version of yahoo but now don't see where that option is available either. If you are expecting an email or reply...don't know when it will get fixed.

Perfect weekend

This was what i would basically call a perfect weekend.

Saturday - Low key barbeque and birthday party for my little dude. Great company, good food and lots of fun. It was a great day. Us girls even headed up to the sewing room to sew some pajamas at the end. I met a dear friend who i've known virtually for a long time although neither of us remembers exactly how. Strangely, we have friends in common and her husband is related to my husband distantly - i forget just how. Anyhooo, it was lovely meeting her and i can't wait till the next visit. It's not often i meet people i have a lot in common with so when i do i keep em forever. You have to. An arsenal of a few good friends is so much better than tons of mediocre ones. Gotta love the web for linking people up like this.

Then, after the fun and the party ended i got out the bag of quilt squares i got on Ebay. Vintage quilt squares from an estate farm sale in Iowa or something. I knew there would be treasures in there even though the picture just showed six stacks of squares. So i started going through them seperating them by color. What sheer joy - the old vintage prints, the not knowing what you had, the surprise feedsack squares, the knowledge that a woman many years my senior painstakingly cut and collected these and made quilts of her own.

But i didn't get to finish. After all there are 1,500 of them.



Sunday - LD slept in a little (what a joy to sleep until 8!) because he skipped his nap and stayed up way late. Maybe i'll try that more often lol. He was sort of a zombie at the party towards the end though.

Anyway, got up, ate desi style eggs and headed out to the farm which is down the street from us and went apple picking. Now my little dude loves apples and farms and tractors but he's never been up close before. You should have seen him running for the barn. I have never seen the kid run so fast and he's a fast little bugger. People are amazed at his speed but today was something to see. He ran through the whole row of apples down to where the barn was without stopping or looking back. Too funny. We picked a basket of apples, tasting some on the way - the farm lady told us to, and checked out the farm equipment.



Next we headed to the next farm a little bit more down the road but LD fell fast asleep half eaten apple in his hands. So cute. We still stopped and got fresh produce and fresh farm eggs. Wow, i don't think i'll be going to the grocery store much anymore. Why bother? My kid can enjoy the farm while i shop or if he's asleep i can shop without waking him because parking is right there in front of the barn. Man o man i love New Jersey. This is living i tell ya. After that we came home

and i finished going through the quilt squares while the boys slept. I found some great farm themed squares in there and am going to make him something farm themed to commemorate this big day and the rest of the fall weekends because this is something we are going to do often.



Next up today... leftover chicken tikka, salad and cake. Yummmmmmm! And my mom arrives tomorrow. Looking forward to some special days spent with her.

where oh where does the time go

oh where oh where could it be? Yes, that was sung to that pesky children's song that won't leave my head. Not good when you are writing a book review. .

Stress.

Here's my stress. Maybe sharing it will lessen it.

1. Birthday party. This isn't much of a stresser this year because i'm not going all out like last year. Last year i cooked enough food for the masses and made two cakes. This year, cake is getting bought and we're barbequing. I'm going to enjoy this one where the focus is on my little dude where it should be. It should be fun and small. Which is actually nice. I'm finally meeting a friend that i've known online before i even met my husband. So excited to meet her. It's funny because we have so much in common and are only a few hours apart.

We must be crazy inviting people into our house though because the house still isn't unpacked. I don't think it ever will be to tell you the truth. May as well let the cat out of the bag. I'm not the perfect housewife i pretend to be.

2. Gotta select a school for LD. We keep going back and forth. Gotta choose before they are all booked. There's an opening in the elitest montessori school (there's several but this is THE ONE to get into which sort of makes me not want him to go there). It's next to a farm and in the evenings people practice playing polo there. It's funny to see NJ life. Polo on the farms. Sometimes i feel like i'm walking through a Ralph Lauren catalog.

3. Mom is coming. This will be her last visit as she is very very ill now. I feel bad even making her fly. It's so sad that we all know this just may be the last time we see her. I feel like my family is going. She's the only one that calls me consistently. I have tons of regrets right now. I wish i had lived with her when i was a teenager but i didn't and for good reasons but right now i'm kicking myself for it. I'm going to make this trip as good as i can for her.

4. Time. Need some.

5. I have 4 new books to review in one month. That completely ties up every second of free time i have. This last one about sucked the life out of me. And it was an excellent book. It's just so draining when i don't get time to myself. I find myself staying up late...2 am late just to have some time but then i pay the next day when i can't keep up with my kid and i'm not my chipper self.

Now the good stuff.

I've been shopping. Ebay is a wonderful tool for building a sewing stash. I have a ton of sewing notions and vintage fabrics to play with when time frees up. I'm sure i'm going to make time somehow someway. With LD in school 2 mornings a week, that'll surely be reading/writing time and then naps can still be mine? Yeah right. It won't work like that but i can dream can't i?

Okay, must clean house and hide all the junk in the closets including the beautiful vintage fabric that just arrived on my doorstep and the lovely box of vintage notions. I must post pictures of all this lovliness. OH OH OH. My most current obsession/project is a costume contest. I'm entering. You have to make everything by hand and get this - - - - - - - - - i'm making my lovely little dude into the sweet little prince! I found the fabric on a remnant table the other day for a whopping 99 cents a yard! And it's the perfect fabric. I was looking for affordable satin but this is so much better. I have no idea what it is but it's shiny and soft. I just need to figure out what to do about the hair. Any ideas?



The little prince is very blond and my guy is very brunette. Help please. I'll post pictures soon of all my fabric hoarding. The good thing is i purged a lot of the books i was hoarding. I try to do that every Ramadan.

still need 1 more to pay it forward

Robyn and Baji - please send me your addy's. I won't be sending real soon but want to have on hand so i can surprise you when you least expect it. :-)

Busy bee!

We are having a serious clothing crisis over here and it's gotten to the point that i have to make clothes to keep us covered. Our washing machine broke about 3 weeks ago and people keep coming (and going) without fixing it. Sucks bigtime. 3 weeks is a long time to go without clean clothes and we'd go to the laundry mat which i actually liked doing back in my apartment days but alas, sans kiddo. I have a picture that i almost posted but remembered i'm not supposed to air dirty laundry on my blog i didn't. It's about 8 loads. We have no essentials if you know what i mean, and towels are getting scarce. Little Dude will have lots of pajamas when clothes get done. I guess that's what i'll be doing when he goes off to school here soon. I enrolled him in preschool (very happy with the choice...it's exactly what i was looking for) and am very glad he's going because he needs social time and i also need a break. They are also great teachers as with all schools of this type are. But when i read on the paper work the lines "please make it a quick goodbye" i teared up in a room full of people eating ice cream. I can't believe i'm going to leave my little boy in someone else's care. It's only 6 hours a week but that is 6 hours i have never had alone. Breathe mamma breathe...

Okay, i came here to post some of what i've been doing and get a little advice too. Better get to that before my kids wake up from their nap. Yeah, the 38 year old one is napping too. ;-) Good thing he's firewalled from my blog and won't read this te he he. Gotta love the corporate office nose to the grindstone...

Ready set pictures...
(sorry, you have to click em yourself.
a few baby presents i've made:

A complete baby set. Changing pad or blanket, burp cloth, bib and shoes.
A soft hospital hat. (not a gift, prob for a babe of mine in the future)
Bibs for all including my little dude. I made an embroidered one too. I've made more...they are just in that huge pile of laundry. You really should see the size of it. It's quite impressive. And by the end of today, this will be a cutesy baby blanket.

a few things for the little dude:

A crayon roll and here it is opened.

King Kong pajamas (one of my husband's favorites because these so suit his personality - i have enough left over for another pair if anyone else likes the print) and another pair made out of one of my husband's old shirts. He took it back from me so i couldn't cut it but then i pointed out the stains and he said "you can get those out" because really i can usually get out most stains. But i couldn't (i didn't try thaaaat hard) and instead we have this lovely pair of pajamas which are by far my favorites yet. I love several things about them. I love the big stripes, i love the comfy looseness of them, i love that they have the little slit on the sides and i love the numbers i appliqued on there. I totally didn't know what i was doing and the numbers were a hindsite. I saw the need for them after i stitched the pants and God knows i don't restitch unless absolutely necessary or on my quilt (which is soon to be seen too). I freehand cut numbers from felt and stitch the best i could onto the pants. I didn't use a zigzag stitch as i could hardly even get them under the needle and i didn't do interfacing. I've never done applique but lemme tell you, i love em just the way they are. These pants are perfect to me. I'm in the process of cutting big numbers out of the sleeves of the shirt and putting them on a white t-shirt. Soon and that's gonna be so cute.

The tote that took forever.

BTW, see what i mean about him and chickens?

a thrifted curtain that i had complete intentions of turning into a few cute aprons complete with ruffles that i wouldn't have had to sew. Ugh. I bought this just for that. It's a nice waverly curtain - pictures don't do it justice. It's the same color as our office nook walls (green tea) and has touches of brown. I think i got it for two bucks or something. I was about to cut it and then saw how perfect it matched the walls and lo and behold, it fits perfectly in the window. We were going to just put bamboo blinds up but this would accent the room perfect and it fits perfectly. I was so sad. My aprons were gone i knew it. What would you do...cut it into aprons or leave as a beautiful curtain (the picture really doesn't do it justice. It's so soft. And look at those polka dots! How cute do they accent an apron??? Arghhhhhhhh, decisions. Make this one for me please!

Okay, another thrifted item i need advice for. This is a beautiful brand new pillow case. I see two things here. I see a vintag-y apron (pattern i just attained through ebay) and i also see the cutest little girls dress (think tank top with the ruffle at the bottom. Which one do you see?

That's what i've been up to!

BTW, still need a few more for the Pay it Forward. If we can come up with a way for keeping it up people without blogs can participate...i just don't know how to do it because it would stop there and i think it's best to keep it going...right? Ideas? I need two more participants. You can make something as simple as cookies or a bookmark. It's the thought that counts.