Thriftacular Thursday!

Last time I went thrifting I found a bunch of crafty stuff.  That's always exciting!

Here it is:

Both sets of napkins were in excellent condition, they looked like they had never been used.  I'm so in love with the green ones,  maybe it's the lace, maybe it's the color.  The second I saw them I knew they had to be mine, so I was relieved that they were nice.  Having to put them back for being in crappy condition would have killed me.  I have big plans for the yellow ones!  I can't wait to finish them.  I'll give you a clue- quote.

Four zippers- in case I can ever figure out how to sew in a zipper.  It's a big goal for me... I want to make pillows for my embroidery pieces but I want them washable.  Now I just need to coax ol' Bessie into helping me out.

And last but not least, 2 packages of Aida cross-stitch fabric.  I'm venturing out people.  I'm finally going to learn.  It should be interesting with the whole counted thing... I'm easily distracted.  But I'm going to try.  I've gathered up some patterns, I already have more than enough floss to get me started and now I've got Aida.  Wish me luck!

Have you thrifted anything good lately?

Mail Fix.

The other day I mentioned my mail obsession.  Well, to keep this good thing going requires I have a healthy intake of stamps on a regular basis.  When I was out and about last week I picked up a little Christmas present for myself.  The man working the counter the day I purchased these became visibly upset when I asked for 10 cent stamps.  He said, "Don't have 'em!"  To which I replied, "Oh ok, like your particular drawer/ mail center is out of them or the post office in general doesn't make 10 cent stamps?"  He just repeated himself, which didn't really clear anything up for me.  However, it was Monday during the week of Christmas so rather than experience a total meltdown from the guy and possibly "line rage" from my fellow customers I admitted defeat and walked out with 5 cent stamps.

Little lovelies about to settle into their new home in my address book.

The mention of little lovelies brings to mind some ATCs that I've received but not yet shared with you guys.

The first, Diamonds, comes from brendagrace in Australia.

Hardly as pretty as in real life.  I used this photo to capture the shimmer in the corner, can you see it?  Since Dillon picked this card I'm going to frame it for his desk, as a friend for another vintage lady that already lives there.

Lady at the Opera comes from mrsb007 in Illinois.

mmmm, texture.

Thank you ladies for your gorgeous cards.

P.S.- Ol' Bessie update!
I took her into the doctor and she's going to be ok.  Jim at Parkside Sewing (is the best!) had her purring within seconds.  He took one look and said "Oh!  No biggie, it's just threaded wrong."  Now I feel a little less guilty about the cheap thread I had in there.  I spent 15 minutes and learned a wealth of information.  I'm going to schedule a lesson with him and pretty soon I'll be a sewing guru (according to Jim.)  Maybe I'll be able to snag a few photos of my new hero and his shop, it's very quaint.  It has the most awesome wall of old school aviation photos and memorabilia (his mother in law was a airplane pilot in the 1930s!  Yes, I only spent 15 minutes in there and know this.)

Much better, no?

A big thumbs up to Jim at Parkside Sewing!

My Crafty Man.

I spent at least an hour of Christmas Eve watching Dillon torture poor ol' Bessie.  I'll be honest, I was terrified the whole time.

It all started when I set up the sewing machine to stitch a little something up.  It was meant to be a really quick project, 10 minutes max.  The kind of thing that takes you longer to set up then it does to actually stitch.  Upon hearing that I had not yet taken advantage of some of then fancy stitches I have, Dillon insisted upon showing me.  Not that he knew how to do it really, but he'd been shown by the man he purchased it from.  Gotta love him for trying!  Admittedly, my hubby is a genius and a whiz with machinery so I trusted him.  For some reason, after hearing about how crafty his Mom is, I just figured maybe he'd played around with one as a kid.  It wasn't until after he'd started that he casually mentioned he'd never used a sewing machine before.  Great.

 

This happened.  A lot.

Yes, the manual was consulted.  Several times.

The end result.  Lovely isn't it? 

 Needless to say, I never got around to stitching up that one little thing.  Such is life.  And I heard some noises that I don't think are good to be coming from a sewing machine.  I'm hoping that it was just the thread that I had loaded in there in a pinch.  I know, shame on me, cheap thread is the worst for ol' Bessie.  I went to the craft store to get some nice, high quality thread and I'm hoping that makes her all better.  I've been too frightened to fire her back up since then, but that's on my list for the beginning of this week.  After all that Bessie has been through this holiday, I'm going to do something nice for her, I'm getting her some ink.  I can't wait to pick up some paint pens and give her a tattoo!