Snippets

One of the best things that happens at busy neighborhood sales like the one Judy and I went to on Saturday is the overheard-snippet-of-conversation. You’re walking along to the next sale, and the two people walking in the other direction are in earnest conversation, and you get just one sentence as you pass by. My favorite: “And so that’s how we ended up at the fish camp.”

Struck me as funny, so I repeated it to Judy as we got to her car. She was puzzled about what fish camp could be. “I can just see all the fishes around the campfire in the evening, singing Kumbaya,” she said. “Or making little fishy lanyards in the craft hut.” By now I was laughing so hard I couldn’t climb into her Subaru. People gave us sidelong glances as they hurried by. Judy kept going with the fish camp description, then ended, “But I guess they’ll be leaving their fishing poles at home, don’t you think?”

It was a big weekend, two full days of garaging. With KK on Friday, Judy on Saturday. Found fun stuff. The first thrill was picking up this cool raincoat to try on, and it fit.

The thrill wasn’t so much that it fit, or even that it was one dollar. (Okay, yes, I was thrilled at that.) But the real kicker was that this evidently dates from the oversized-clothing Eighties, because it's a size 8. Trust me when I tell you there is nothing else that is a size 8 in my closet, including my shoes.

Nice socks from a free box are always welcome,

as were these other free box items – a wonderful fabric panel that may become a cross-back apron,

(here, let Millie give you a sense of its size)

and an adorable drawstring bag of Japanese fabrics. 

Why they were banished to the free box I'll never know, nor why no one had taken them before we arrived. Supposed to be mine!

I've been having fun playing around making fabric necklaces, and possibly even more fun picking up bits and pieces to embellish them with. Earrings and beads, for pennies. I'm sure these will spark some designs.

This necklace was so tangled that I think the lady sold it for 50¢ just so she wouldn’t have to deal with the snarl.

It's so oddly designed that it's not much better after teasing out the chain knots, but I plan to take it apart so no matter.

Possibly my favorite piece to play with was this little bead coin purse.

Handmade in China to sell in Canada.

It wasn’t too hard to take apart into two sections and then wash it.

Stay tuned for their transformation in some future post!