Buy It When You See It Cause It Won't Be There Tomorrow . . .

Bob and I both like our thrift shop finds. While he is hunting for treasures, I look for fabrics to add to my fabric collection.  Last Sunday I made some great finds at the Goodwill (see the photo above). When I find fabric at a thrift store,  I feel I can relax and not worry that I am ruining expensive material.  I also find myself coming up with creative ideas much easier with thrift store fabrics, because I can just do it and see what happens.  Do you find that is true for you too?  --Diana

These Tiles Screamed at Me to Buy Them . . .

If you are like me, you probably go to Goodwill and other Thrift Shops looking for things you can use to make sellable or usable stuff.   I ran across a stack of these ceramic tiles the other day at Goodwill and could hardly pass them up they were so cheap.  They originally wanted 50 cents each, but they were on sale for half price.  On top of that I got a 10% Senior Citizen discount making the total purchase price about 22-1/2 Cents apiece. Too cheap to pass up.  I don't know for sure yet what I am going to use them for, but thought maybe I'd put some on the top of a small table or maybe make one big table to accommodate all 8 of them.  They measure 7-3/4" by 7-3/4" square and are a nice neutral color. Which reminds me . . . last Fall my son-in-law and I went to an auction and I bought a whole box of the 4" tiles for a Doller. There must have been 100 tiles in the box.  My son-in-law said to put a saying on each one, attach a ribbon to hang it up, and sell them for $1 each at craft fairs.  I tried doing that, but honestly, couldn't think of that many sayings and kind of got bored with it.  I ended up giving them away to a family member and lord knows where they are now.  I hope I don't end up doing something like that with these. --Bob

It Took Me Awhile to Value Scrap Pine Wood . . .

When I was younger I used to throw scraps of wood like this away.  Of course that almost gave my Dad a heart attack on more than one occasion.  He was the type who would sort through the garbage to make sure no one was throwing anything useable away. Not long ago I sold 20 boxes of wood scraps like this to a guy who wanted to burn them in his wood stove.  Yikes!!!   What was I thinking?  Today I am not so wasteful.  You can make all kinds of useful and sellable things from scraps like these. I read on my daughter's blog how she has a "scrappy" collection of fabric pieces and uses them to make scrappy quilts.  Well, these wood remnants are my "scrappy" wood collection. A few months ago I cut out a bunch of little butterflies out of some scraps, painted them up, and attached a loop of fishing wire to each with hot glue so you could hang them up.  I took them to a Center we belong to and sold them all out at $3.00 each.  I guess I'm a slow learner.  I shudder when I think of all the good scrappy I threw away over the years. I've had other little ideas and I'll post them when I think of them.--Bob

What kind of pants would have Scotty Dogs on them?

You would think I spend all my time sewing crafts to sell.  Not so. My Mother-in-Law asked me to hem the legs of a pair of pajamas my daughter bought her for Christmas.  I know it has been five months since Christmas and I should have done this a long time ago, but I guess late is better than never.  If you sew then you recognize in the photo the hemming of a pair of pants.  It probably doesn't get you excited, but it shows I do other things besides crafts. lol --Diana

Another Thrift Store find I plan to fix up . . .

I know that the focus of our blog is supposed to be on crafts and stuff we make, but I just had to post a picture of these two wonderful bamboo? wicker? cabinets I found today at Salvation Army Thrift Store. They have doors at the bottom that open up storage areas.  I think they are really neat, and they were priced real cheap.  I plan to spray paint them, because they need some sprucing up a bit, I think.  We were going to do them white, but decided that was a little boring. Diana wanted to paint them Flamingo Pink and fortunately changed her mind.  We are now thinking about spraying them a honey color.  That may be a difficult color to find in a spray paint can though -- I may have to buy a quart of acrylic latex and use the spray gun.  I don't know when I will get around to working on them, as I have quite a few other projects going, but I will post a pic of the finished pieces when I get them done. --Bob

Introducing Diana's Pillow Boxes . . .

Many years ago I created small pillow boxes kind of as a lark.  I was working as Creative Director for a Nursing Home at the time and took a few into work to sell.  To my surprise, the ladies I worked with really liked them and I sold them out.  They are made of small pillows that I sew and stuff, then fasten together into a cute little box with a lid.  It looks sweet and very feminine on a dresser or nightstand or vanity and can be used to hold tissues, cotton balls, or potpourri.  I used it in my sewing room as a pretty organizer for buttons, small sewing notions, and as a stash for small knitting supplies. I even used it as a pincusion at times.  I am thinking about putting a couple in our Etsy Shop and thought I would show one here to see if anyone had any comments on it. --Diana

Here's an Easy to Make Artist Brush Holder . . . .

I was always having difficulty storing my artist brushes until I thought up this idea.  I took a bunch of food cans that were all similar in size and shape and hot glued them together to form this brush holder.  It works pretty well.  The hot glue may not be strong enough to hold the unit together if you drop it, but if you don't knock it around, it stays together quite well.  -- Bob