In a Name...

Saturday:
~I went yard saling and WOW! I hit some great yards! Some of course were duds, but you have to expect that every once in awhile. I limited myself just to Manchester and actually ended up limiting myself to the southern portion of the city just because of logistics. I found a lot of things on my wishlist as well as fulfilling another of my weekend dreams: I found a black velvet sheath dress for tonight's wedding and already have the perfect shawl for it!
I ended up at a friend's yard sale and got to visit for awhile...what a pleasure! I bought her rocking chair, (my feet reach the ground! WoooHooo!) and learned that she'd found it at a yard sale as well! And the cycle continues....
I also repaired my duct tape dress form and now she's wearing my new dress! My hubby approves (I tried it on too,) and I realize I need a name for my duct tape helper!

Unfortunately, I cannot take any more pictures of her because my camera is taking a dream weekend too. I finally got a repair part and figured out how to switch it out but, ooops...tore one of the electronic ribbons. (I have no idea what they're called, just bear with me!)

But I did have this one unadorned clip of her from when we made her last weekend...

So, what do you think I should name her?!

Quandry

I struck it rich this weekend!


130 skeins of embroidery floss for $1!!
My embroidery floss "stash" is in two different types of storage and neither works for me, so I'm throwing out this question to any cross stitchers out there watching...

How do you store your floss and does it work for you?
Let me explain what doesn't work for me...
I started out with the "floss-a-way" plastic baggie/O-ring system. What I liked about that system was that I could put cut floss back in the baggie and know that it was marked correctly. What I didn't like was that it was very difficult to add floss to your stash in sequential order (I store them by floss # but it seems to me that it would be the same if you sorted by color.) The O-rings were just so frustrating to work with!
I then tried the bobbin system. I liked that they were easy to move around and you could leave extra space for expansion of your stash, but I wasn't comfortable with winding the cuttings around the bobbin too. Also I used the plastic notebook-style sheets and I couldn't turn the "page" without all the bobbins falling out of their pockets. I know there is a box-style holder for them, and I'm kind of considering that, depending on the cost.
I then tried the newer stitchbow system system. The big bonus with this is the ease of use with not having to wind the bobbin, but it still doesn't solve the problem of scraps.
Maybe I just need to let go of the scraps, but that just seems wastefull!
The other drawback is the cost of the stitchbow bows and storage sleeves. I probably have all of the DMC colors, but I have over 500 skeins and therefore I want to store all of the skeins the same way.
What I really want is the display drawers that they have in the stores! Lacking that, I'm open to suggestion on storage alternatives...

Floss as far as the eye can see....ahhhhhhh.

Note to Self:

22 random lessons I've learned this week.


1: Sometimes a $5 jewelry-and-beads-grab-bag is worth it.



And sometimes it isn't. I used to be a Nurses Aid and I can handle just about any human waste and/or fluid that comes my way except for phlegm, snot, drool, etc... And I don't abide sharing lip balm or public pens. This just creeps me out! I couldn't even touch it when I found out why it was so greasy. Ewww. And sometimes the treasures come from unexpected places.

I could ditch the rest of the strand, but I love these blue striped beads!

2. Read the fine print.


(They get away with it by calling it honey SAUCE)

3. Size does matter.


When I hand sewed everything (like, a month ago) it didn't matter how short my simple little pins were. When I bought the Grabbit, it came with a few of these longer pins and now I won't go back, I hate it when I run out of the longer ones and have to use the short stubby ones!


4. Caffeine Free Pepsi really does taste better in a wineglass at the end of a hard day.





5. Just because it's a farm stand doesn't mean it's locally grown. Or ripe.

This peach was so hard, I had to cut it in four before I could leverage one of the sections off the pit! I still ate it. See Blue Yonder's boy's comment about unripe peaches. I wholeheartedly agree! Turns out, this peach came all the way to New Hampshire from South Carolina! What, South Carolina didn't want it?



6. People care. They really do.


7. The remnant bin is still a good substitute for ice cream.



8. Don't try to get fabric cut on lunch break. I have no picture of this because I didn't have the fabric I wanted cut because I ran out of time because there was THAT lady in front of me with seriously two stacks, STACKS, of fabric bolts about two feet high EACH that she wanted 1/2 yard increments of. Two!!! If I'm ever THAT lady, I pray it's at the least busy time of day! Sorry, those of you who are that lady, I'm sure you had fantastic excuses and really really tried not to go at the BUSIEST time of day. Thank you for letting me vent. Not that you had a choice...


9. No handles = more effective clutter control.



(Note the box, not the pretty stuff inside it.) I used to use a basket for the purpose of corralling all the little things that end up in the car. I'd bring it inside, unload half of it, load it back up the next day, (with 1/2 the basket still full of things I'd brought in the night before) and bring it out the the car, and so on...but a shallow box with no handles = harder to tote back and forth = makes me think twice about bringing things in and out and in and out...


10. Darning socks isn't just something Gramma used to do in the olden days.

It's a really great idea.


11. Crying is good. It's really really good. No picture for this one either. You'll just have to take my word for it.


12. One woman's loose change is another woman's foreign coin. I found this among my shell collection. I have no idea when I stumbled upon it, but it reminds me that I'm now a part of a global network of friends and acquaintances. (Of which I'm incredibly grateful!)




13. Small and thin really is beautiful.


(Although it's not the ONLY beautiful thing on the face of the earth)



14. Men like to get together and look down holes. And when the storm drains fill up, sometimes it finds the path-of-least-resistance right into your next-door-neighbor's house via the bathtub. Oi.





15. You don't always get what you pay for. Sometimes you get more. I found this at a yard sale for 50 cents a few weeks ago and just got around to tracing the symbols stamped on the bottom. It comes from the Lawrence B. Smith Company out of Boston, Massachusetts which was in business from 1887 to 1958.






16. I don't always get what I ask for, but I really don't think it's because I offended God by calling Him "Honey."


17. I really really need to cut down on some of the things on my sidebar. (You know what I'm talking about.)


18. I not only enjoy cross stitch, I miss it too. A lot.

I love the texture of the Irish linen that I prefer to use, I love the softness of the floss, I love the feel of the finished stitches, I love completing the project, I love giving of my time and talent to show people that I love them, that I'm thinking of them, and that they are treasured.



19. And I miss my little Korean sister. I've mentioned her once before, I'll tell her story here since I miss her so much. Hyung is living with my parents during the school year (which runs from the end of August to June here) for three years until she graduates High School. When she comes back next month, she will be in her Senior year! When we first met, we hit it off right away. She says and does so many things that remind me of how I was at her age. This past school year we spent even more time together than the first year. I got a text message from her yesterday while I was on my lunch break. It was so good to hear from her!
She makes me feel good about myself. Not by telling me I'm great and encouraging me, although she does that too, but she laughs when I'm trying to be funny and she asks me hard questions and I manage to answer them and she's so grateful. She tells me she can be herself when she's around me, she is fiercely loyal to me, and so proud to call me her sister.

I miss her a lot, and hopefully the next month will go a little faster than the last one did!


21. A princess never hurries. I don't remember the exact line, but it comes from the movie The Princess Diaries with Anne Hathaway. I was moving small furniture items Tuesday night and was told to take it slow or I'd get hurt. I just didn't want to seem like I was working half-heartedly (especially since I couldn't really pitch in like I wanted to) but it reminded me that life is not a sprint.


22. I really REALLY don't like it when people pat me on the head. Right after the older guy (but not much older) told me not to hurry, he patted me on the head. Now I know why my mom never liked that. Since I'm short, I get it more often than I'd like to admit. And when I'm not wearing makeup or dressed professionally, I look about 18-23. Seriously. The head patting thing gets old quick when you're 30+!




So far that's all I've learned this week. I was shooting for 10. I guess I exceeded expectations!

Getting organized...

Last night my hubby and I went out to eat for our Eighth Anniversary even though today is the actual anniversary day. We used to go out to dinner all the time until we plunged ourselves into debt and wondered what we'd spent all our money on!
Now the rule is that we only go out to eat when we have a gift certificate to the place. Personally, I'd never previously heard of giving a gift of dining out, but apparently it's a big thing in his family because that seems to be the gift of choice among them. So we took one of our gift certificate and went to a favorite Italian place on main street and ate WAY too much! One of my hubby's favorite deserts is a plain canoli and he gets it every time we go to this particular restaurant. I chose the molten lava cake ... mmmmm! (But with whipped cream, not ice cream!)
Another highlight of our dining experience was the table side Caesar salad for two! They bring this cart out and the server makes the dressing in the wooden bowl with fresh anchovies, "egg product," worcestershire sauce and everything else that goes into it, then adds the lettuce and serves it up! It's a fantastic experience! The first time we did this was on our honeymoon at Peppe's Ristorante in East Stroudsberg, PA. Now, it's a special thing we splurge on from time to time...like on our anniversary!
I promised pictures of my newly reorganized craft space, so here they are! This reminds me...the large rose painting in the middle of the wall was a total find! I was driving home one weeknight and it was just sitting on the side of the road...not 10 houses away! I grabbed it up, dusted it off and hung it on my wall! I also scored two stools for my breakfastnook in the kitchen. They are perfectly well constructed, not falling apart or needing touch up paint at all! Just cast offs for no obvious reason! Very cool scores...but back to my space...
The ironing board is usually folded up against the wall, but my hubby had taken it out to iron his shirt for our dinner out. (yes, I'm so blessed...he knows how to use the iron!)





Part of my reorganization project was to find a place for all our NASCAR themed hats. I think there's a Red Sox one in there too, but for the most part, it's all NASCAR! We already had a couple nails holding a hat or two on this beam, so I just added a few more in uniformly spaced intervals and voila...a place for the hats out of the way and it also is another element delineating mantown from craft corner! (Note the two rolls of duct tape on the top of one of my shelves...still waiting for a time that we can make my duct tape dress form!)



I also used clear packing tape to hold down an extension cord leading under the bureau and straight to an outlet. The sewing machine power cord is taped under the table top to reach the power cord. I still haven't decided if I'll keep the iron on the table all the time. I think the next project I do will be a cover for the bureau top so I can use that surface without being paranoid about ruining my hubby's family heirloom any more than I already have!



My next organizational project will be getting my shell collection...





into my new shelf unit. I think I mentioned this in a previous post but didn't have a picture of it yet. I found it this weekend for $1! I'm a little concerned about dust control in this type of novelty shelf unit, but I'd picked up a can of air (lol...for real!!) for my desk at work awhile back and I think it'll be usefull for this too.




And lastly, I'm so excited about my gas savings efforts! I thought I'd have lower gas mileage than last fill-up because I found myself frequently going over 70 mph on the highway, but in fact I made better gas mileage! Last fill-up I was at 31.2 something and this morning I calculated it at 31.9!!


Plus, we have it so good...the gas station right by our house is typically a few cents lower in price than the other stations in the area. I got gas this morning for only $3.93/gallon!

Wardrobe Wednesdays and other assorted projects and comments

Yes, I know it's Thursday, but I never seem to have the energy to boot up the laptop when I'm done sewing. Here's what I accomplished last night on my wardrobe....
Nada, Zilch, Zero. *sigh*

I got home with all kinds of energy and expectations ... and fizzled! At least where the wardrobe is concerned. I think I'm a bit discouraged with my previous refashioning attempts, but I did work on sewing projects, for which I'm greatful.

I used to keep the projects which were small enough in a large ziplock bag in a bin under the table, but to me, out of sight really is out of mind, so I've been hanging them on a rack in plain view. The only problem with that is where to put the little extras like the perfect thread, etc...

Which is how I came up with these Project bags, or Notion bags. This way, when I haven't completed the project, I can hang it back on the rack and keep all the appropriate notions with it so I don't go back later and say - now where did that zipper go? or What size buttons was I going to use?

I started out with quarters I can't imagine using on anything else and which are so old, I think they may have been handed down to me through the generations... ; )



I was so pleased to find thread and ribbon from my stash that actually coordinated with both fabrics which I'd chosen!



I decided on a small loop to go over the neck of the hanger. But then I was thinking that the rest of the bag would gape open, so I considered a button hole, but didn't want to get into that, so I simply attached a smaller loop on the other side of the bag to thread the original loop through.





I made the bags approximately 5" deep by 7" wide, but I'd make them a bit narrower next time, maybe 6" wide by 6" deep.


I also keep one hanger that I just attach clothes pins to, so I hung the extra notion bags over the neck of that hanger, and now it's pulling double duty!


I then told myself I couldn't play any longer, it was time to do something from my to-do list, so I *yawn,* cut up an old t-shirt to make my kitchen rags (in lieu of paper towels). I got 10 good size rags out of a men's large tee. At zero cost, since it was one of my hubby's work shirts, provided by the company! Woo Hoo.




Then I picked the fabrics for the baby blanket which needs to be completed by August 7th, and cut it out. It doesn't need to be heavy, because it's going to Baton Rouge, Louisianna which has rather mild winters. I decided on the measurements and cut out the two fabrics, then decided I really do need to go back to the craft store to make sure the "short hair poodle" is washable.




By that time, it was rather late, but I wanted to take some long-overdue pics of some of my favorite yard-sale finds from this past weekend, so here are my unexpected treasures!

4 vintage buttons and a cuff link on a vintage safety pin.


2 beautiful scarves, age unknown.



Vintage beaded trim. Wow!

This piece is circular, as if the lower half of a shirt was simply cut from the top. It has one tear and a few stains, but is otherwise Gorgeous! It has a scalloped trim. the fabric is so thin, I hesitate to touch it! I'll probably carefully fix it up, tighten some of the loose beads here & there and frame it. The second picture is more representative of the acutal coloring.




And it was with this piece of lace. I didn't think to get the dimentions, but it could be made into a cape of sorts. It's not long enough to be a wrap. I almost didn't take it, but I'm so glad that I did!!


And of course, I finally found a scrap jar. Remember I'm sharing my craft space with my generous hubby's "Man Town" and it just works better in the flow of the basement to have the trash barrel about 5 steps away. Not a big deal, until you're snipping off thread ends and teeny pits of fabric. Then that 5 steps becomes an irritation. Then the table stacks up with all these threads and scraps. Then it's not nice and neat anymore. I don't work well with clutter...enter the scrap jar. I had etched it years ago and it landed in the craft trunk to while away it's years. I've rescued it from boredom and a life of unfulfilment!



And lastly...

This morning I had to stop for gas. But since the last fill-up I've really been conscious of my aggressive driving style and have tried to implement some hypermiling techniques. I drive a standard transmission and one of the neat things about my car is that it gives you a signal when you should shift. In the past I've always ignored it because it tells you to shift way before I used to and you'd loose torque that way. Well, I gave it an honest 345 miles (for the most part...sometimes I slipped before I remembered my intent,) and guess what...


31.229 miles to the gallon!

It's rated to get 26 city/ 33 highway but the most I've gotten is just squeeking into the 30 range. On this tank, I've done a LOT of city driving and I have to say - I'm impressed! What a difference driving style makes!