Vintage Sheets
This morning I’ve been a thrifting. I mean, this is hardly different than a lot of mornings. But I found some really great things today. Things to add to current collections of great things. No typewriters or Pyrex, but some more vintage goodness.
After a few new additions, this is my current vintage sheet collection. All of them have been purchased at one of the few thrift store’s on my route. I have a few other sets, and they were cute fabric, so they came home with me, but they aren’t vintage. I think I might have obsessive compulsive disorder. I see something I like, and then I must have it in every single color. Sigh, it’s wonderful, isn’t it?
And now that I have a large rubbermaid tote full of sheets, it’s about time I figure out what I am going to do with them all. I mean, you know, before they start taking over my house.
The pinks are of course my favorites. The one in the bottom center was my first ever vintage sheet purchase, and it is still one of my favorites.
I’m considering cutting them up and selling them as fat quarters in an etsy shop. But that’s still a few months from being a reality. Creamie has officially stopped napping all together. (Except she is asleep right now. Horray!) And I need some time to adjust to our new normal before I start any more big projects.
The strawberries on the left I found on etsy, it was just too cute to let get away from me. My mom has a set of strawberry dishes and these two strawberry sheets remind me so much of her.
I clearly need more greens and blues. I found both of these stripes today, but now I’m on the lookout for more cool colored sheets. Of course, let’s be honest, I’m going to buy pretty much any color I find in good condition. See, I’m obsessive like that.
This was also a great find from today. It’s a queen sized flat sheet in excellent condition. For $3. When I got it home and laid it out on the floor I realized that it would be the perfect backing for a quilt.
Now I just need to get up the courage to cut into these babies to make the front. It’s going to take a while for that to happen. And I think I’ll need to find some solids to break up all those patterns. But vintage sheet quilt is now added to me 2011 To Sew list. You know, along with a gillion other projects.
A Typewriter for Creamie
Creamie is going to turn two in less than two weeks. She is getting so grown up. Last night she insisted on taking a shower by herself. She stood in there for 25 minutes, singing to herself and playing. She used her little washcloth to make a bed for the baby Jesus (she still plays with her Christmas nativity everyday). She’d poke her head out every few minutes and say “Almost done. One more minute.” She is so funny it kills me.
I’ll let you in on a secret if you promise not to tell. This cute toy typewriter is one of her birthday presents. I bought it from this shop and it got here last week. She always wants to play with my typewriters and I think she is going to LOVE having her very own. This one isn’t my first choice in children’s typewriters, but it will do for now. But I am still on the lookout for a red Sears Holiday typewriter or a turquoise/blue Petite International in good working order. Or in good enough working order that Stan can get them into good working order.
For now my pink Beauty is taking care of little Tomy, keeping him out of trouble until he moves into Creamie’s room. Right now they are hanging out in my craft room, because it is the only room in our house that Creamie doesn’t go into. (Yes, she is well trained… and I maybe lock the door.) I have three more typewriters, but they are all in different corners under various piles of stuff. I’m hoping to get a new bookcase in a few weeks to help me organize all the piles in my room. The stuff is threatening to take over. If I don’t do something about it soon I won’t be able to open the door.
But of all the stuff in there, I think this Beauty is my favorite. I never get tired of looking at her, and I’m so glad she’s mine. Happy Wednesday.
Shoe Crush
I have a shoe crush. Only, it’s not just one pair, it’s every pair in every color from designer Chie Mihara. I’ll spare you every picture, but if you go here you can see them all. You might ask, how did you stumble upon a designer that sells shoes for upwards of $300 a pair? Was it from your sister, the resident shoeologist in your life? Nope. I found them all by onesie. And by that I mean I was tipped off by the vintagey fashion blog of Emily Martin (of Black Apple fame.) And now I’m ovsessed and have a million tabs open trying to find these pretties on ebay and endless and wherever else. These shoes are all made in Spain, and their website is all in Spanish. Anyway, here’s a few favorites to brighten up your Thursday.
You can get those gray one’s online at Amazon or at endless.com…. I wants them so bad!
You can get the cute bow shoes on the left here.
I think those T-straps on the right are the most perfectly shaped shoe on the planet. Pretty sure.
Love those little be-feathered T-straps so much. So so much. All of their shoes are the perfect shape. I love that rounded not quite almond shaped toe. You can see why I fell in love with these… right? Right?
*All images from Chie Mihara’s website.
Tomorrow, I’ll think about it tomorrow
Tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow my life is going to change. Nope, Creamie isn’t going to magically go back to a nice long nap and a normal bedtime. Tomorrow we aren’t moving into the house of our dreams, or buying a second car, or being ambushed by What Not To Wear and miraculously be swept away to NYC to meet Stacy and Clinton (we are totally on a first name basis) and receive a magic credit card with $5,000 to spend on any clothes I can find. (Though I would kill for that tomorrow). (Not really).
[ image from cfisherphotography ]
Tomorrow my new phone is coming. And I’m so excited I can hardly wait. Tomorrow is going to be awesome.
Oh Monday
Why do you have to creep up on me like that?
[ image via weheartit ]
It is kind of ruining my day. Don’t worry, Tuesday and I are great friends.
Skookie Love
Tonight we are making very good use of a fantastic Christmas present from Scott’s brother. It’s the most brilliant invention ever. Seriously.
[ I of course didn’t take a pic of mine. This one belongs to maria erin photography. Yum. ]
The Skookie. One giant cookie cooked in a small cast iron skillet. Top with vanilla ice cream and consume immediately. I’m in heaven.
Gray and Cream
There is just something about gray and cream that makes me feel like starting fresh. And since last week felt like a whole lot of crazy, I’m hoping that this week I’ll get that new-year-clean-start-all-around-organized-and-calm feeling. Here’s hoping.
[ Pretty creamy hair piece from CancerKicker’s etsy shop ]
[ Gray linen pillow cover from whitenest ]
[ super cute camera bag from Jo Totes ]
[ Screenprinted tights from MapleAshAndOak ]
[ Vintage milk glass pedestal from littlebyrdvintage ]
[ Handmade crocheted baby boots from TresBelleKnits ]
[ Felt flower bib necklace from Little Fluff Stuff ]
[ And of course a typewriter. What post of mine would be complete without one. ]
A New Notebook
There is nothing quite like the feeling of a fresh clean start. I made a few goals for myself this year, and one of them is to write everyday.
This is my stack of notebooks that I use each week. Each one is for a different project or purpose, and no two of them overlap. And this stack right here is why it will be impossible for me to move to a digital organization. Besides, I can’t doodle in a digital notebook. Last year I started a blog notebook, which is just what it sounds like. It’s a place for me to keep all of my ideas of things I want to blog about, or reminders of posts I want to write. I have a few pages for each month, plus a lot of blank pages to fill up. This year I WILL post about my very favorite Valentines tradition! I’ve been doing it for four years and I still haven’t ever blogged about it because I never think to take pictures and write about it before V-day. This notebook is probably the one thing that has helped me to be able to write new posts each day for the past six months or so without it feeling like an absolute chore. It really has helped make blogging easy for me. Something about all those lists makes me OCD heart very happy.
I bought my 2011 blog notebook back in October on a post back to school sale. It was less than a buck. And it looked nothing like this at the time. It was garish and terrible on the outside, but inside it was nothing but clean new pages. And I’m a total sucker for clean new pages. I knew I wanted to do something to improve on the covers, but I couldn’t decide what. Until last night. First I removed the covers (carefully slipped them out of the wire binding) and lightly sanded down the shiny ugly surface. Then I sprayed them with two coats of primer and painted them with acrylic paints. It was a really fun project. This morning I finished them off with two coats of spray on polyurethane to help protect my paint job, and give them a new shiny finish.
There are already dozens of pages full in this book, and I can’t wait to fill up the rest of them. As for the rest of that stack? Well, one of my goals this year is to write everyday, in at least one of those journals. I love having an online journal in the form of this blog, but there are somethings that I like to keep a secret between me and my pen. (Like in one of these little books I have a list of gifts to make for birthdays/mothers/fathers days this year. And I’ve already finished my Christmas 2011 gift list and have already started creating those little and not so little surprises!) We are one week into the New Year and so far I’ve managed to write each day. They say it takes 21 days to make a habit, and I’m 2/3 down.
Pretty Pretty Pyrex
It’s not a secret that I am a total sucker for pretty dishes. I come by it honestly. My grandma had something like 12 different sets of dishes, and my mom probably has ten. I have three different sets at my house (and I’ve donated two other sets in the past five years because I fell out of love with them). And then I have my Pyrex collection.
This stack of mismatched patterns is probably one of my very favorite things ever. I just can’t get over how pretty they are all mixed up together. At the beginning of last year I didn’t have a single piece of Pyrex. And look at how it’s grown! I recently added a few pieces, but they come with a story. You might remember back sometime in October when I happened across 22 of these saucers at the thrift store. I brought them home, all 22 of them, with absolutely no idea what I would do with them. But I just couldn’t leave them there. It seemed wrong. Well, the internet came to the rescue and provided pretty much the most perfect solution there ever could have been. And this is where the story comes in.
When I posted these pictures of my newly acquired Pyrex saucers on flickr, they caught the eye of a man named Jeff. Turns out Jeff is a collector of this particular pattern. We got to chatting in the comments of one of my photos and come to find out he is more than just a collector. He is a SERIOUS collector. Like, he has service for 75 in this pattern kind of serious collector. (I know, it blows my mind too.) But he just so happened to be short on saucers. And it just so happened that I had 22 of them in perfect condition that I had no idea what to do with. You see why the internet is awesome, right? We arranged a trade, and I boxed up my 22 saucers with lots of newspaper and bubblewrap and shipped them more than 2,300 miles across the country.
And in return, Jeff sent me a few pieces from his collection. And we are both happy. And I can hardly even believe our good fortune. My saucers went to the one person on this planet who happens to have service for 75 in this particular pattern, EXCEPT for saucers. And not only did I get four new pieces for my collection, now I feel totally justified in buying those 22 little plates for no reason other than to make sure they didn’t fall into the wrong hands. I’m still in shock that everything worked out so well.
After Jeff looked through his stash to find something to trade and he told me about those blue bowls on the top, which were nice, but when he mentioned he had a pink pie pan that he could send I freaked out. Pink, Pyrex and Pie, all in the same vintage dish? It was too good to be true. I don’t know why I’m STILL so in awe of this whole series of events. We did this trade clear back in November, and I am just getting around to posting about it (read, too busy to take pictures of my new presents until last night. Sometimes being busy is totally lame!) and it is still just amazing to me.
This little bowl from Jeff is another of my very favorites. I’ve loved these little hot air balloons since I found out they existed, and I am so happy he was willing to send them so I could add them to my growing collection. Seriously, they are just so cute! Actually, most Pyrex is just plain pretty.
Anyway, I’ll stop gushing. I think I’m dangerously close to looking like a crazy person blabbering on about the amazingness of the internet, and it’s power to bring like minded people together and blah blah blah. Cough…Ahem. The moral of this story is when you go the thrift store and see something amazing and totally useless, like a stack of 22 bluegrass saucers, you should buy them. Immediately. Because you never know who needs them. And when you find that one person in the world who does need them, it just might give you warm fuzzies for months. Also, Pyrex is totally awesome. The End.
Make it Matter
One of my goals for this year is to really make all those little things matter. I want to get over the hustle and bustle of the holidays and really simplify my life down to those few things that really are the most important. Right now I feel like my life is a mess. I’m still recovering from being on vacation, and we are trying to get back to our normal schedules. Today I feel like everything in my life is half done. My house is half clean, my Christmas decorations are half up, half my dishes are dirty. My life is only half back on schedule, and it’s killing me. Particularly Creamie’s sleeping schedule. She’ll take a nap just fine, but bedtime? Bedtime is a completely different story. I put her in bed at 8:30 last night and at 11:30 pm she was still awake. Happy, thankfully, and totally awake. This is day four of this late night being awake thing, and it is driving me absolutely crazy.
[ I woke up in this red sled on Christmas morning when I was four or five. Best Christmas ever. ]
While she is awake, I really want her to be the center of my life. I only get each day with her once, and I don’t want to waste time on something meaningless. There are so many things I want to teach her, and so many things she can learn. She’s only going to be little once, and I want to make the most of it. Because these days aren’t going to come back, and I don’t want to look back on them and regret how I spent this very small and precious amount of time.
I’m not going to stop blogging, or stop sewing, or making things. I’ve always done all of my projects while she was asleep anyway. And I need that time for myself so I can wake up each day and teach Creamie how to sweep and mop or clean bathrooms. But I am going to reorganize some other aspects of my life so that while she is awake I really do focus on teaching her how to learn, teaching her how to be curious about something, teaching her how to contribute to our family, teaching her how to play. Because those are the things that really matter.
We took her sledding a little while ago and she was in absolute heaven. It was a LOT of work, just getting her dressed to be outside was a lot of work. But that little squeal coming from the small person in front of me as we flew down the hill is what makes it all worth it. And clearly I’ve got to make her play hard enough that she’ll fall asleep before me at night. Maybe if I make her pull me up the hill on the sled she’ll be tired enough to go to sleep? I’m trying it. Seriously.
pinksuedeshoe 
