Holiday Weekend Junking...

In between grad parties, 40th birthday parties, bbq's and more grad parties we managed to sneak in some junking...We hit Elko/New Market's flea on Saturday morning (but of course were on a strict schedule so as not to be late to one of the parties.) I didn't take pictures of everything I got but the dealers must have been good moods (or my flirting skills were working overtime) because I got some of the greatest deals. I was browsing through an old blue truck full of linens, textiles and trims when the dealer came running over to tell me I can have the whole darn thing for $10 (even the trunk!)...who could pass that up? When I got home and could take everything out I was so thrilled to find all this stuff...

Spools of bead trim, spools of delicate flower trim, old velvet leaves, skeins of old embroidery floss, oodles of crocheted trim and this fancy fancy beaded trim that looks like it came off an old 20's flapper gown...if anyone needs some fancy beaded trim just let me know!

Here's the rest of the contents of the trunk...old baby clothes, an old underskirt that looks like something Laura Ingall's might have worn, felted wool baby blankets, pillowcases, yards of lace and yards of fabulous wheat colored linen.

Here's what Sebastian did while we were junking...

Then...to top it all off, Goodwill had 50% everything in the store except for red ticketed items (today only)...I think I bought every vintage book they had! Happy Hollister's anyone?

Here's more of the Goodwill haul...Jewelry boxes, mirrored trays, framed embroidery, china, wooden sewing boxes...

and my favorite little lamb planter from 1961

...and we even grabbed this chair for a mere $2.50!

The only thing I missed out on was an absolutely fabulous vintage vanity with folding mirrors and two drawers...it sold just before we arrived...sniffle, sniffle. Oh well, you can't win them all! Hope you all found treasures of your own this weekend!

Trash to Treasure #1

If you're a regular reader of my blog you know that I love finding little treasures at Goodwill that can be altered in some way, shape or form. And, if you're a fellow collector (eh-hem...hoarder) then you probably are always on the lookout for nifty little storage containters such as I am for all your bits and baubles. I saw this little wooden drawer container at Goodwill for $4.99...on sale for 1/2 price...I wasn't too thrilled with the paint job but figured I could do something to it to make it a little cuter.

I knew I wanted to cover it with pretty paper so the first thing I did was paint it white so the dark blue background wouldn't show through the paper.

Then I picked out some of my favorite Melissa Frances papers, cut them to size, cut a hole for the knob (that was the really tricky part!) and mod podged them to the drawer fronts.

After the mod podge was completely dried I sanded...and sanded...and sanded to give it a "lived-in" look. I Printed out some "No.___" labels on vintage ledger paper and glued them under the knobs.




Then I stamped random shapes and numbers on the labels and...viola! A totally transformed treasure!

You never know what you might find at Goodwill! Happy Hunting!

Weekend Projects

I had an amazingly productive weekend. We had subzero temps all week but finally on Friday we made it to 6 above; however, I still wanted to stay indoors snuggled in my slippers and 7 sweaters (I have a medical condition that makes me cold...all the time). So, with that said, I was busy working in my "studio" all weekend long. As if the cold weren't enough, we've gotten more snow this winter than I ever remember us getting...I work at the local ABC affiliated TV Station so I'll have to ask one of the meteorologists tomorrow how much snow we've gotten so far, especially since our heaviest snowfall seems to come in March.

Anyway, here is a quote book I'm working on, there aren't many quotes in there yet but I've got a bunch written in my journal so I'll be transferring those this week. I've got a great quote by Martin Luther King Jr. so tomorrow would be a fitting day to transfer that to the book.




I can't decide if I'm going to put this birdhouse in my Etsy shop or not...Shelby wants me to keep it but if I kept everything I made we'd be buried in goodies. I took pics of all the steps from beginning to end so if you want to make your own you have a little guide to follow. Incidentally, Tom and I went "Goodwill hunting" again and this was one of the treasures I found. Who would have ever thought that your local thrift store would be a treasure hunters haven?

Naked birdhouse

I painted the entire thing with ivory colored acrylic paint

Then I covered it with patterned scrapbook paper. This was the fun part, it was very challenging getting the paper to fit all the odd nooks and crannys.

After all the surfaces I wanted to cover were covered I sanded it to give it a somewhat distressed look.

After the sanding was done, I inked it with Tim Holtz's distressing ink in Walnut.

Get ready to decorate...

I used blue vintage seam binding for the bow, adorable vintage red velvet millinery here and there, aged vintage lace around the rooftops and a cute little vintage yellow bird perched on the post.

Here are pics of the other Goodwill treasures I picked up and pics of how I used them around the house. The book is for Sebastian, I can never resist a cute book...my house is busting at the seams with books. I want to mention (for my sister's sake) that I had to disinfect it due to his severe germ phobia...wonder where he gets that?

I filled the cute cherub planter with a yellow flower I got at the grocery store yesterday...I, for the life of me, can't remember the name...help Lisa, is it a persimmon? or a mmmmmmm, I can't think of anything.

And here it is nestled in among my other plants.

And this little junk holder, I almost didn't get this but Tom called me a cheapskate and sort of coerced me into buying it...and I'm SO glad that I did.

I have a very extensive collection of vintage valentines, I'm very very proud of my collection but never have enough room to display them all, this little treasure helps out with that problem.

Arn't they pretty...I love Valentines!

And finally...I've had these vintage bottles lying around for years along with the vintage victorian scrap...so I put the two together and this is what I got.

Some these bottles will definitley end up in my etsy store...aliceandelsie.etsy.com.

I started my "Week in the life of Me" mini album today in addition to all the other stuff I've been doing. I sold a few of these in the store but kept one for myself. I thought this would be the perfect week to record events since our new president gets sworn in on Tuesday. I haven't been this excited about a president ever, this is really big for our country and for history and I'm so hopeful for what Obama can do for our struggling country. God bless the USA!