Follow Up on Some Follow Through!

Last week I showed you this cute little $1 egg basket. I had an idea for it that involved some of my fabric stash.

I'm quite please with myself that I dove right in and made it happen!

Cute little wire basket is now a drawstring purse, with plenty of room inside for everything I need. Even my Kindle Fire fits in.

The outer fabric was part of the curtain pieces from the same sale as the basket

and the lining came from that $1 box of bits and pieces I picked up early in July.

I'm pleased with the way it turned out, and now that I've worked out how to do it, it will be easy to make more bags and just change them out when I get the urge. This egg basket may end up with a bigger wardrobe than mine!

I Might Have Resisted...

...if it hadn't been priced at a quarter, AND had a whirling tail!

Available…Now!

My new book was published this week and is ready and waiting for you!

Sounds faded into silence as Louisa gazed into a mirror, a mirror in time.  She stared at the photograph of a young woman and baby, every detail of their clothing and hair and jewelry period-perfect. Who are these strangers—and why does the woman look exactly like her?

Secrets from an unknown past collide with Louisa’s dilemma over her own future as she unravels the story behind the vintage portrait. But can she stay one step ahead of the enemy dogging her footsteps?

Bay in the Dark is available on Amazon both in paperback ($15.95) and ebook ($2.99) formats. If you’re a member of Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free. (Such a deal!) And if you don’t own a Kindle, no problem: you can put the free Kindle app on any computer, tablet or phone.

The grateful author thanks you for your support!

Textile Mania

I swear to you, I do not go out looking for cloth. My watch-for list includes things like plant-support grids (found some once, keep hoping for more), specific sizes of picture frames, unvarnished wooden beads, padded envelopes. In fact, I even put on my list in shouting capital letters NO CLOTHES OR FABRIC!!!

Hmmm. Guess I should actually read my list more often, and then pay attention to it. But really, how could I not bring these things home? I swear, a bundle forced its way into my hands at an estate sale, with a vintage fruity tablecloth, 

an appliqued & embroidered guest towel, 

a parrot embroidery, 

a vintage laundry bag,

and the cutest dish towel ever.

How could I resist three large pieces of this amazing, vibrant floral fabric 

or a pack of four brand new cloth napkins at a dollar each? (That's a dollar for the three fabric pieces, and a dollar for the four napkins.)

Or a big coffee can full of thread for another buck? 

Especially since it held 3 dozen spools of thread, 

including vintage wooden spools with cool labels, 

plus needles (yes, I did find the first one the hard way, ouch!), 

hooks & eyes, 

beading wire, 

and a seam ripper.

Then there were the pieces of cloth from Japan priced at 25¢.

Millie likes them.

She also likes the wire basket I found at our first stop. 

I'm happy to say I have an upcycling idea for it that involves some of the cloth I keep bringing home.

Lest you be tempted to paint me with the “hoarder” brush, I hasten to add I'm actively using up some of the fabric stash. This week’s project was a little art quilt.

As with my mending project from last week, everything to make it was thrifted. Oh, the freedom of thrifted supplies! Fabric scraps from free boxes, gold and silver metallic thread from the Baptist rummage sale, 

batting and fusible web from driveways a few months ago. Bunny was cut from a little scrap of cashmere.

I think the world needs more dancing bunnies, don’t you?

The Week That Was

As it says below, I really do love the comments folks leave here. And I thought this one from Betty was especially good – the coincidence of the week:

We went to a sweet little estate sale Friday where my third-grade teacher daughter found great things for school – two chambered nautili (one whole, one sliced half), and a 72-bar percussion chime (think sound effect for magic wand). But when I went out into the charming backyard, there, hanging on the post of the pergola, was your bell! I was so excited, dashed over to ring it (and it was just like you described it), but ... "not for sale." But at least I got to hear it. 

Don’t you love that? Of course now I really want a 72-bar percussion chime as well. Maybe that will magically appear next week - though it would only be poetic justice if it did show up and then was not for sale!

The loot of the week fell back within normal spending parameters after last week’s splurge (ten bucks for everything…I think a morning’s fun is worth ten bucks). Most of it came from my neighbor up the street, who revealed they are selling their MCM house and moving to Florida. (Anyone want to become my neighbor??) This large, heavy, shallow glass bowl says “put me in the yard somewhere to become a little reflecting pond” to me. 

To Millie it evidently says something along the lines of “Come on up here and writhe around!”

I love this little rug in my kitchen.

These hooked wool pillows were way too cute to pass up at a dollar each. 

Please, everyone, keep your fingers crossed – they have been in the house, on the sofa, for two days now and neither dog has taken a nibble. I hardly dare hope that I might become someone who can put sofa pillows on her sofa without a repeat of this sad event. 

Zoë thinks they are hers.

I don't think she is planning to share with her sister.

I must have been deprived of wind-up toys as a child, because no matter how ridiculous they are I must wind them up.

 And if they cost ten cents, I must buy them.

The rest of the tenner went for a pair of owl socks, 

and this vintage planter. The puppy section of my Museum de Me is getting crowded but hey, dogs are pack animals, right?

The project of the week (a very little project) was all about yard sale finds. To wit: one lavender linen napkin (from a driveway) had developed a hole (there may well have been canine intervention involved). 

I could have tossed it, or used it with the hole, but I was in the mood to mend. So out came a piece of fabric from the bag of free stuff of a couple of weeks ago, and the Stitch Witchery from an estate sale to anchor the patch, and variegated metallic thread from another estate sale, and voila. 

I have a feeling this is my new favorite napkin!