The [new] Thrift Shop

Hi guys! Despite the sub-zero wind chills, my good friend B came to visit the other day. It was cold but actually a bright sunny day, so we were ...enthused. Happy to plan an outing that didn't include stocking up on storm supplies or shovelling snow. Our mission was to find the relocated thrift shop, and also the winter indoor location of the Sunday flea.

The thrift shop in its new space was interesting. It was in a nice strip mall and the inside looked more like an abandoned Rainbow shop than a thrift.

New /old white undershirts were many. Treasures were few.

But it's rare I don't find anything, so after much debate...''Is this Mason jar lamp tacky? It is? Oh. Too bad..." I dug out a few treasures.

This heart is made from what probably is not but looks like old beach fence slats. It will be a lot cuter when I get rid of the ugly leather lettering.
I was planning to paint it soft blue but---maybe because it was Val-Day?---I kinda love the pink.

The main item on my Look For list was old candlesticks or other bases for  my make do pincushions. I found just this one brass candle holder.

I have a base for the current project, but it's a miniature kerosene lantern base [right]. I have the entire lamp, chimney and mantle and all, and I really don't want to give it up. It's perfectly scaled for my  antique large china doll, and it's a wonderful scale mini, even if it is unashamedly marked Made in Taiwan.

I think I'll set this project aside til the right base---white hobnail glass? appears.

I also found fabrics:
Linen homespun stripe. It can be a table runner or cut up for lavender hearts. Or---Lori at Humble Quilts was mentioning using linen like this for a primitive applique design background. I love that idea! Then I guess it would return to being a table runner, but embellished?

This bubblegum pink toile got eye rolls from B! She talked me out of the Mason jar lamp but I held out for this fabric. It's 3 yards of 100% cotton quilting weight/ quality sateen.

A trip through the tea bath or a visit with some Clorox will tone it down and it could be such a cute small quilt backing. I love unexpected surprising quilt backs. With cotton running 10-12.oo  a yard, I couldn't pass it up at 2.99 total.

Here it is on the corner cabinet, so you can see the big awful pinkness of it.

I especially love that the flowers are zinnias, how cute is that?

The new store is in a very congested area of many strip malls and shopping centers. Across the road I spied this:

Yes! A Dollar Tree, we don't have dollar stores where I live. I insisted we stop in even though it was fast approaching Mo's dinner time.

At first I was thrilled! Look at these adorable hearts! So happy and fun.

And great Mo stuff...

BUT the service was just awful, so rude. (I've decided 'less said, the better'. I 'm sure you can picture the scene.) No one smiled, no one apologized.

B: "What did you expect for a dollar? This isn't Saks." We left. I had a migraine.

Back home we had girls' night in as it was too cold to venture back out. Not a girly meal but I felt we deserved a hearty dinner: Beef goulash with sour cream, spaetzle, roasted broccolini, pinot noir red wine, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

We had fun, looking over our treasures, and dissecting the new thrift shop:
What a miserable drive. Six lanes of high speed bumper to bumper traffic, over a highway cratered with potholes and lined with dirty icebergs of old snow. Too hard a drive, too far. 
Sadly we won't go back. We didn't even bother to look for the flea which is even further. I'll have to save my pennies for outdoor flea opening day, in late March. [soon!]
And we planned our next shopping challenge.

PS What do you guys think? Does being an inexpensive bargain store exempt that store's employees from showing common courtesy? And what about the stores with no cashiers at all, is surly better than none? I quit shopping at CVS because they only have self-checkout.

love 

lizzy 

gone to the beach.....



''What's that!?''

''Can I eat it? Yum.''

Miniature Hearts Quilt - Happy Valentine's Day

Hello from the frozen beach!

Happy Valentine's Day! 

This little cutie has been in my collection for many years.

It's dated 1985. Fun to see the calicos that were available at that time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

Mo the Pug Goes to the Beach

Hello, everyone! Guess what! Yes, we are having another winter weather ''event''. It's gloomy and icy. No surprises, it's February, after all.

Mo tries hard to be a good puppy [11 months old on the 20th!] but no matter what the weather he wants to get out and run. And run and run.

his dog show pose

This is what greeted us today when we went to check out the beach.

Glaciers! Drifts from last week's snowfall.

And a lot of flooding and ice. This is frozen salt water! Oh yeah, it's cold this year.

A few weeks ago, before the weather got so dismal, a friend came by to help me take Mo to the beach. Mo goes wacko when he hits the sand and he is small but very strong. I can't control him or run fast enough to exercises him properly. And after he escaped from his harness one day we wanted to be sure that if he did run off he'd know where ''home'' is.

Off we went to the beach. Mo and my friend ran ahead...yay! They were so happy, having so much fun! Mo had never seen the ocean close up before.

And THEN!--- wouldn't you know, the cops came!
So fast!
And it was the Bay Constable, how scary!
We don't usually see the BC on the beach, more often I wave to the county police, or the Public Safety police. Occasionally the DEC police, whose Jeep always draws a mean snicker, as we read that as The Decorating Police. What they give out tickets for tacky umbrellas and mismatched beach towels? [Dept. of Ecology and Conservation, I think in real life. They're the Plover Police.]

Meanwhile the Bay Constable came right away and stopped to chat. Uh oh. The officer was nice but he made us leave the beach. Dogs are forbidden on the beach but there's sort of an unspoken custom that in midwinter, when there's no people or rare birds , it's okay or at least tolerated.

(If you think it's mean that dogs are forbidden, just picture a going out on a beautiful day with your picnic and beach stuff and family and sitting in a mess of dog poop! Not to mention I've had a few close encounters with unleashed very large possibly scary dogs when I've been walking on the beach. I love dogs but I'm wary of  strange dogs. One was even a Great Dane! Best the dogs stay home, in a general way.)

Back home Mo keeps me company while I sew.

He is so smart! Look at this, he has brought his little old baby bed, that came with him from California, I keep it in the kitchen so he doesn't have sit on icy tiles. And he has carried into my work area, and set it in the only patch of winter sun. He sets it on a weewee pad for extra warmth.

As the sun moves, every so often, he tugs his little bed further east, back into the warmth.

This week my grocery had Dollar Days sales, and I got Mo a pack of kitty fish poles games, 2 for a dollar. [plastic pole with elastic cord, ball and feathers]
Pugs are oddly catlike---they like to sit on your shoulder, pull the elastic out of your ponytail, stare at you blankly when you call their name, stuff like that--- and Mo thought the kitty toys were awesome.

So...he destroyed them. But it gave him a lot of fun for a buck.

Hope you all are warm and cozy! How I envy those of you who have had a few warm days.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach