Hello, hello, another week has raced by. I missed our Monday post, busy with spring cleaning. During quiet winter months I often do as my mother taught me, I clean a bit every day, keeping things nice. But I like to do an in depth cleaning twice a year, in the Fall before the holidays begin and in the spring to make the house very fresh and appealing for my seemingly endless summer guests.
I wash all the white slipcovers, for example---and Mo's beds. Screens, windows, ceiling fans, light fixtures. I even dust the walls, do you? My current project is to clean a few kitchen shelves ''everyday''. Man, it's all exhausting, but I love a sparkling clean house.
And I finally removed the flannel sheets from the beds, crisp cotton percales instead.
Of cousrse that night the temps were in the 40s.
My friend Bea came to visit Wednesday. The clean house was wasted on her, as we spent maybe five minutes here at home before heading out for our shopping adventure. You may recall B is my comrade in thrifting. This was a banner day at the thrift, she found great clothes--tags on! Ann Taylor and Loft; I found my usual mix, I don't usually buy clothes for me.
Lots of other treasures though:
This is fun, not to wear but for the fabric.
My quilter friends may enjoy this GAP shirt, made of, well, shirting print. Quilters call fabric with a white ground and tiny motifs "shirting" from a mid 1800s fad for men's flowered or patterned shirts. here
It appears to be white densely woven cotton with a black sprig, but the label says it is indigo, which makes it that much more authentic. Now, next time Lori does a sewalong calling for shirting, I am all set.
I will deconstruct it and file the pieces with my meager stash of similar fabrics.
Good finds for my etsy shop and other projects:
Dear little lighthouse souvenir dish, a ring dish maybe? I'll add a magnet under the bottom to capture needles and small scissors. Etsy if I can bear to part with it. Not sure if the lighthouse is Hatteras, or Sandy Hook, NJ?
Darling Swedish-style wooden box with hearts. To be stained blue. Scissors or other sewing things, spools of thread?
Tiny candlestick for a pinkeep base.
And a bit off topic, I recently got these cute vintage-ish tiny tomato pincushions at the church flea.
I can't read the label, maybe Taiwan?
New collection [I have another, somewhere, to make the required three.] Sewing tomatoes...
...inspired by my slow creation of a new velvet pincushion, for etsy.
Aren't these the tiniest, most dear and adorable strawberry emeries you ever saw!
And for my new collection[s], I found great jars at the thrift shop.
This one is a semi-vintage candy jar.
It's the kind with two bases, can set sideways for scooping out gummy bears or Mary Janes or Tootsie Rolls. Childhood memories. I liked Sour Patch fruits and candy corn. M and Ms.
And could not pass up this new heavy jar, below right. Good for seaglass or thread spools, maybe? I save the spools from my sewing when empty, because for some reason DMC still sells embroidery thread in skeins and I roll it onto used spools instead. Also good for scraps of lace and ribbon, etc. They'll go in here, I expect.
An interestingly tall paper box for my box stack. I'll paint it blue for now. At some point I'd like to cover the sides with fabric, like a bandbox and maybe add a lid cover with wool applique. Antique bandboxes, here
It's especially nice for such a project because the interior is also printed with a nice winter scene. I find finishing the interiors to be the hardest part to do well.
Here are some of my boxes, only the blues in the summer. Some are real Shaker, some are good antique pantry boxes, and a couple are not anything at all. I'm not a purist! I like the colors and the look. The new box will be perfect for the grouping. [The box on the left, second from the top, is an example of a bandbox, this one a wonderful heart shaped box].
And last---now this is either tacky or so cool.????? I saw it from afar, in the thrift shop's grubby glass case and fell in love.
It was expensive, $7.99. I put it back. But in the end I bought it. It can be the first item for our maybe-shop, Gone to the Beach Vintage Jewelry Shop [name needs work, lol.] or it will stay in my jewelry bowl for the summer.
A necklace like this is, I think, best if both played down yet used as a trademark piece. So I wouldn't wear it with a dress, not even a sundress, assuming I wore a dress, which hasn't happened since I went to a religious Jewish wedding maybe 20 years ago! I'm seeing it with white capris here and a black tank top, sandals, straw hat for summer brunch; or with khaki shorts and a plain tee, maybe white, for dinner at an outdoor seafood place.
Maybe, yeah, maybe, just all around and everywhere? Reminds me of my favorite gold seashells bracelet, though I suppose it's a one-or -the-other sort of deal.
It too has an illegible label. Not vintage though.
Good stuff, huh!? Everything including the tomatoes cost under 30.oo. My kinda shopping spree.
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Tomorrow, June 8 is Mo's adoption day.
Mo flew alone, all the way from California, 4 years ago. Such brave little man. He was ten weeks old.
Have a good weekend!
love
lizzy
gone to the beach...
No, Mel, they have no scent.
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